Battle of Kursk Battle of Stalingrad slowly ground to its conclusion, the Red Army moved to a general offensive in the south, pressuring the exhausted German forces who had survived the winter. By January 1943, a wide gap had opened between Army Group B and Army Group Don, and the advancing Soviet armies threatened to cut off all German forces south of the Don River, including Army Group A operating in the Caucasus. Army Group Center came under significant pressure as well. Kursk fell to the Soviets on 8 February 1943, and Rostov fell on 14 February. The Soviet Bryansk, Western, and newly
Battle of Kursk a small area in the immediate environs of Kursk. The combined depth of the three main defensive zones was about . The six defensive belts on either side of Kursk were deep. If the Germans managed to break through these defences they would still be confronted by additional defensive belts to the east, manned by the Steppe Front. These brought the total depth of the defences to nearly . The Voronezh and Central Fronts dug and of trenches respectively, laid out in criss-cross pattern for ease of movement. The Soviets built more than 686 bridges and about of roads in