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Episode 7 – Beaten back

OKW’s War Diary on 10th July 1943 recorded that “Ninth Army’s attacks were unable to penetrate the enemy’s line of resistance”. Over the ensuing weeks Model’s exhausted forces had to be reinforced from the equally depleted southern side of the Kursk salient, while the Red Army launched a series of massive counter-attacks on both fronts which only halted nearly two years later in front of Hitler’s Chancellery. Mark Healy (“Zitadelle” 2008) summarised the approximate cost of the abortive campaign in its first two weeks (north & south salients including Prokhorovka on 12th July) as follows; Written-off tanks/SPGs (i.e. destroyed beyond repair or recovery) – German 280, Russian 1,800. Casualties – German 57,000 (of which 12,000 dead), Russian 178,000 (of which 36,000 dead). Aircraft – German 200, Russian figure unavailable. Signing off on this series about the lesser-known Kursk northern salient battles with this batch of monochromes, depicting the last German attempts to break through near Ponyri and the overwhelming Russian response. Thanks for looking in again, judging by the encouraging comments over the past year’s episodes it seems there is a place for this kind of diorama/photography, so watch this space.