Captain_Gars

There were only 200 Panthers at Kursk. Apart from the mechanical problems with the Panthers the main problem was the inexperience of the crews and commanders of the 39th Panzer regiment (Von Lauchert)/10th Panzer brigade (Decker). During the first two days of Zitadelle Colonel Decker was in command of the 10th Panzer brigade but his staff had not yet arrived so command of the brigade was taken over by Von Strachwitz and a command team from Grossdeutschland on july 7th. When Von Strachwitz was wounded on the 10th Col. Decker's staff had arrived and he assumed command of the brigade again. It should be noted that of the 200 panthers only 40 were combat ready at nightfall on july 6th. The vast majority lost due to leaking fuel systems, overheated engines and other mechanical problems. Most of these tanks could be repaired and would reenater combat later. So it is quite unfair to blame Von Strachwitz for these losses as was not even in command at the time(!). He was however partly responsible for the way the brigade got stuck in minefield near Dubrova on july 7th. The minefield was covered by well dug-in and camouflaged T-34 and AT-guns and most of the 20-30 Panthers that got stuck in the minefield was knocked out. However the rest of the brigade regrouped and taking full advantage of their superior armour and firepower they simpley blew apart the soviet defences destroying some 30 tanks and a large number of at-guns. After this pyrrhic victory the performance of the Panther units improved steadily throught remaineder of the battle and the Panthers proved highly effective in combat.

The main reason that Glantz makes only a limited use of any kind of german language sources is quite simple. He doesn't know the language. He brought in his daugther to do the translation of the german sources used in "Zhukov's greatest defeat" which meant that that book IMHO has a much better view from the German side of things.