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Prokhorovka


kevinkin

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Does not look like you can view the full article for free. But it might be worth it for those very interested:

https://defenceindepth.co/2020/01/10/in-pursuit-of-prokhorovka/

" ... this article explores Luftwaffe reconnaissance photographs taken in the days and weeks immediately following the battle of Prokhorovka."

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  • 1 month later...

kevinkin,

Most interesting and appreciated. The curse? Inow  want to go through that pile of pics at NARA! Am doubly curious because I have Zamulin's Demolishing The Myth, but have yet to read it. Maybe the article will goad me to do so. I was one of millions of westerners who uncritically bought  the Prokhorovka story via Caidin's The Tigers Are Burning, and though a far better book, Jukes's Kursk reinforced the idea of the death ride of the panzers. Oh, was I surprised by what the article said, but I also wonder how many dead (but not burned or blew up) Russian tanks were removed, by when, for repair and return to battle. Depending on how timely those recon pics were after the battle could alter the perceived Russian losses. They did have ARVs, one type a turretless T-34 with the turret ring plated cover and a cupola smack in the center. There's a pic of one hauling another tank off the battlefield under close by artillery fire, so the possibility exist that the Russians may have been able to remove dead own tanks. Of course, that would make the Panzers even more deadly than the new study shows.

Regards,

John Kettler

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  • 4 weeks later...

Here's that T-34T ARV (Armored Recovery Vehicle ) pic I mentioned previously. The caption says this is at Kursk, but the VIew File comes back with Forbidden. Even so, if we take this image at face value, it shows the Soviets were evacuating tanks under fire. As I noted, this, depending on time and dates of Luftwaffe recon imagery, scope and scale of Soviet recovery efforts and other factors, at worst suggests the real possibility I named: that evacuations of damaged tanks by the Soviets would've had the effect of reducing effective Panzer lethality figures.

vehicle_t34_5.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Here's a later model T-34T, now fitted with a cupola.

t34arv.jpg?w=500%26h=216&f=1&nofb=1

Regards,

John Kettler

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This was found in my YT sidebar and  started out looking like OPERATION BAGRATION, but is in fact about Prokhorovka. Content, even absent English, is enormous, with loads of pictures, clips, maps, tables and such, as well as what appears to be a literature survey. Looks like it goes into the events leading to Kursk and finishes with the Russian recapture of Orel. Would hugely appareciate it if Haiduk, IMHO or one of our other people who speaks Russian could provide even a brief summary of the POV of the piece. New info, or is Prokhorovka still being presented as the biggest tank battle ever, etc.?
 


Regards,

John Kettler

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