Battle of Kursk or AFVs. The most capable Soviet tank at Kursk was the T-34, the original version was armed with a 76.2mm gun, the gun struggled against uparmoured Panzer IVs, and the frontal armour of Tigers and Panthers was essentially impenetrable. Only the SU-122 and SU-152 self-propelled guns had the power to destroy the Tiger at short range, but they were not equal to the Tiger's 88mm gun at long range, and there were very few SU-122 and the SU-152 at Kursk. Fighting started on the southern face of the salient on the evening of 4 July 1943, when German infantry launched
Battle of Kursk "the Red Army had lost five armoured vehicles for every German panzer destroyed." Frieser reports Luftwaffe losses at 524 planes, with 159 lost during the German offensive, 218 destroyed during Operation Kutuzov, and a further 147 lost during Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev. In reviewing the reports of the quartermaster of the Luftwaffe, Bergström presents different figures. Between 5 and 31 July, Bergström reports 681 aircraft lost or damaged (335 for "Fliegerkorps VIII" and 346 for "Luftflotte 6") with a total of 420 being written off (192 from "Fliegerkorps VIII" and 229 from "Luftflotte 6"). Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk