Battle of Kursk from the Aerial Perspective | Animated History

treads churn the dirt screams of a petrol electric engine the driver wrestles with the control levers the gunner braces himself for the coming impact a shout from their commanders the crew scrambles out climbing down and dropping into a pool of mud once the great panzers of germany rocketed across plains and fields driving all who would oppose the third reich before them today they are stuck in the literal quagmire of the soviet union the commander runs his fingers through his air taking a deep breath it's been so long since he's seen action and his crews itching for a fight it's an itch they'll have to wait a little longer to scratch a metallic shriek cuts through the air and the crew dives for cover as an explosion buffets them was it a shell a mine the crew rises slowly taking in the sight of a burning plane the commander looks skyward where the german and soviet pilots fight a desperate battle for the air that is where the action is although the battle has become famous for its massive tank clashes less attention has been paid to the equally fierce and no less important air battle fought in the skies above the battlefield in today's video we'll cover how these air engagements played out and why neither air force proved capable of claiming a decisive victory if you've used the internet for a long time then you've probably realized just how easy it is to waste hours of your time aimlessly browsing social media or scrolling randomly through cluttered news feeds searching for a single kernel of interesting content that's why i'm happy to announce that this video is sponsored by morningbrew a free daily newsletter designed to keep you up to date with the latest business tech and financial information morning brews articles are designed to be witty and engaging while giving you concise information on topics that are most relevant to you for example a lot of people have questions about the viability of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin these days and morning brew had provided me with interesting articles on the topic including a look at how celebrity influencers can move the market with a single tweet morningbrew is completely free and subscribing takes only 15 seconds so add this essential tool to your learning arsenal today by using the link in the description below the defeat at stalingrad in february of 1943 was a major blow to german morale shattering the myth of the vermont's invincibility with axis forces exhausted and overstretched the red army seized the initiative launching a counter-offensive known as operation little saturn the soviets succeeded in driving their foes into the danietz basin liberating kursk on the 8th of february and the major city of kharkiff on the 18th with the soviets on the march and the western allies set to land in italy the fuhrer realized that time was against him if the situation was to be salvaged a decisive victory was needed on the eastern front hitler gave field marshal eric von manstein the authority to counter-attack by the 15th of march manchester's army group south had retaken kharkiv and created a 250 kilometer or 155 mile wide salient in the soviet line centered on the city of kursk suddenly the wehrmacht had the opportunity to launch an attack onto the bulge destroying a significant portion of the soviet forces there and preventing further counter-attacks the finalized plan codenamed untenement zitidella or operation citadel was set to launch on july 5th it called for two simultaneous armored thrusts to break through the red army's defenses and envelop the salient at the city of kursk however soviet high command anticipated the german plans and had to raid a massive defense manned by the twelve armies of the central and varanesh fronts as well as the newly formed step front not only did german assault formations lack the element of surprise they were also greatly outnumbered and worse still the offensive lacked the desired fire support to break through the deeply entrenched soviet positions the vermost had suffered tremendous artillery losses at stalingrad as such german commanders decided to rely on the luftwaffe as flying artillery to supplement the offensive's firepower the first fleeger division and the eighth fleeger corps were responsible for this task the former had around 640 operational planes at its disposal to support the northern advance but the majority of these were ground attack aircraft as fighters were desperately needed to protect the german homeland from allied bombing raids in fact its two fighter wings consisted of only one hundred and forty five fakavolf 190s meanwhile the eighth flier core had a similar makeup of 730 planes with four fighter groups consisting of 120 messerschmitt bf-109s this brought their total operational strength to approximately 1 370 aircraft on the eve of operation citadel with this combined force the luftwaffe promised they would be able to achieve a breakthrough after just two days of fighting the soviets on their part could rely on double the amount of air support in the north the 16th air army would cover the central front with some 1030 operational planes backing it up was the neighboring 15th air army of the briansk front adding an additional 1000 planes to the fray and in the south the situation was identical here the second air army equal in size to the 16th would be supported by the adjacent 17th air army in support of the varanyash front finally both sectors could count on the supplementary support of the independent long-range aviation as well as from the local air defense of kursk if these overwhelming numbers did not already put the attackers at a serious disadvantage late on july 4 a captured german engineer broke under interrogation revealing the exact time and place the offensive was to start with this knowledge in hand soviet leadership was now in an unprecedented position to seriously bloody the german assault before it even had a chance to begin in the morning of july 5th around 100 il-2 stermovics and 200 fighter escorts launched a pre-emptive attack on five nearby german airstrips around kharkiv to stop the grounded luftwaffe from supporting the opening offensive unfortunately for the soviets the element of surprise was lost quickly as the soviet formations were picked up by german radar and numerous fighters were redirected to intercept the unsuspecting soviet formations what followed was nothing less than a massacre shortly before 3 30 am the fighters made first contact the less experienced soviet pilots proved no match for their german counterparts soviet pilots were shocked to see messerschmitts raining down on them like steely hale breaking through the fighter escort and picking off the vulnerable stermovics with impunity what planes managed to survive this onslaught were then greeted with heavy flak fire from the airfields a luftwaffe surgeon stationed on one of these airstrips noted that the soviet planes had tumbled from the sky like dead flies i doubt that a single machine made it back home according to german reports this bloody opening act cost the soviet air force 50 aircraft in return the attack group had failed to destroy even a single grounded plane the curtain fell on a crushing german victory as morning dragged on the luftwaffe concentrated its forces in support of the ground assault in the northern sector the first flieger division's efforts earned the germans initial air superiority observing friendly bomber squadrons and friendly escorts passing overhead the commander of the 10th panzer grenadier division reported that the soviet air forces seemed to be neutralized however during the afternoon the situation began to change as the 9th army headquarters noted that haphazard and fragmented soviet air attacks gradually gained in intensity and unity thanks to their overwhelming numbers some soviet planes managed to slip through the luftwaffe's defenses allowing them to strafe and bomb advancing elements of the armored spearheads in the south the situation followed a similar pattern despite encountering tenacious resistance the lieb standarta ss adolf hitler reported outstanding support from our stukas as their highly accurate airstrikes directed by air liaison officers managed to knock out numerous well-entrenched red army positions all was not sunshine and sauerkraut for the germans however while the eighth flier corps was fully engaged in support of the main advance the soviet 17th air army was able to mount concentrated attacks on the exposed and largely undefended german flank pilots and planes were at a premium forcing luftwaffe pilots to fly several sorties a day while their soviet foes struck where the germans were vulnerable for a typical pilot's schedule let's look at first lieutenant earhart jennert of the third group of stutz kampfkeshwada trai jainage had started his first sortie of the day at 2 50 am to support the initial thrust of the ninth army by the time he clocked out around 640 he had flown six missions with a total flight time of 7 hours in total german pilots flew 4 800 sorties after just a single day of fighting by comparison the combined soviet air armies had only flown about 3390 with more pilots flying fewer missions regardless the luftwaffe's efforts had failed to facilitate a considerable breakthrough as neither thrust had managed to advance much beyond their starting lines for this small consolation the soviet air force had paid the high price of 300 aircraft lost including captain vladimir zelevsky one of the soviet union's few surviving fighter aces and recipient of the title hero of the soviet union whose fighter was shot down during the morning's engagements by contrast the luftwaffe had only lost about 60 of its planes although its pilots were greatly outnumbered it was clear that the luftwaffe's experience still gave it a considerable edge however general konstantine rakosovsky felt that the germans would only be able to maintain this level of support for so long before fatigue and attrition took their toll the soviet's deep well of manpower and its titanic manufacturing infrastructure would allow them to grind the fascists down rakosovsky promised stalin that air superiority would be achieved the following day [Music] his optimism would not be immediately realized however july 6 started with more heavy losses for the soviet air force when the 16th air army lost 91 planes during a botched counter-attack after a few of its fighters alerted the intercepting germans to the direction of the attack the fighting was fierce in the other sectors as well as 23 year old soviet la-5 pilot yvonne kojodup could tell you although many of his unfortunate comrades were shot down that day kushidub survived and managed to score his first victory during an attack against a group of stuka dive bombers nevertheless soviet losses were so high that high command had to transfer fighters from other wings to ensure the 16th survival in the southern sector losses were somewhat less catastrophic with the soviet 2nd and 17th air armies having lost a total of 80 planes by the end of the day by comparison the luftwaffe counted only 22 aircraft lost most of which were due to anti-aircraft fire after two days of fighting it was clear that rokosovsky had failed to fulfill his promises to stalin meanwhile the front line on the ground had hardly moved at all on july 7th the fortunes of war seemed to finally shift in the soviet's favor a bombing raid took the second panzer division by surprise as it was assembling for its scheduled morning attack caught the open the unit suffered considerable losses later that day the division's assault was bogged down when strong stuka support failed to break the soviet defense and soviet bomber and stermovic raids continually harassed the advance the luftwaffe's efforts had come at the cost of pilot kurt albert papa a knight's crossholder with over 350 missions to his name whose stuka was shot down by yak-1 fighters but all was not sunshine and stroganoff for the soviets a counter-attack in the south utterly collapsed when german ground attack aircraft armed with anti-tank cannons wiped out the second guard tank core marking the first time in the history of warfare that an entire tank formation had been defeated by air power alone however as the battle raged it became increasingly clear that the luftwaffe's air support was proving insufficient to help the northern advance break through towards kursk the intensity of the battle cost the germans dearly with the luftwaffe losing three of its most experienced stuka pilots in one day the soviet air force on the other hand was starting to mold its own aces on july 8th the budding ivan kojodup added to his tally and managed to shoot down two bf-109 fighters he described his kills thusly i held the firing button squeeze and blasted away a long burst and it was sufficient the leader turned over from his steep dive and i saw him hit the ground we would like to think that kojodup later commented that it's always sunny in leningrad due to the lack of progress in the northern sector half of the first flieger division was transferred to support a possible breakthrough in the south there the bolstered air support helped the ss totenkopf division overrun the third soviet defensive belt besides its accuracy the shtuka's infamous siren terrified inexperienced red army soldiers the russians run from stukas reported the totenkopf division the neighboring coast deutschland division was similarly impressed with the luftwaffe's performance noting in its daily report while the enemy forces limited themselves to attack against targets in the rear our luftwaffe above all the stuka offered absolutely outstanding support to the panzer spearhead with notable success back in the north the remaining stuka formations took off to support a desperate final push by the ninth army to break through the soviet line however strong russian counter-attacks supported by its own larger air force managed to push the germans back by then it was becoming clear that the german offensive would not be able to reach kursk having only managed to advance a few miles into the heavily defended salient the northern advance was ordered to halt on july 12th a few days later the southern thrust would be ground to a halt as well operation citadel had failed after a week of near-constant fighting the soviet air force had suffered about 1200 losses by comparison the luftwaffe had only lost around 240 of its own aircraft by all accounts the latter had clearly outclassed its counterpart on the battlefield moreover the luftwaffe's flying artillery had proven its worth twofold against the deeply entrenched soviet defenders however this tactical superiority ultimately failed to bring the offensive to a successful conclusion although the luftwaffe had managed to keep the numerically superior soviet air force at bay it simply lacked the strength in numbers to make a difference to the course of the battle moreover with the added help of len least aircraft the soviet strategic reserve could afford to absorb the heavy toll it suffered at the hands of the luftwaffe the same could not be said of the germans even though their aircraft losses were relatively manageable the offensive had come at the considerable cost of several of its most experienced pilots in addition the strain of combat and the constant pressure from the soviet air force had totally exhausted the german forces by the end of the offensive the soviet air force would only grow stronger and more experienced as 1944 began by the end of the battle of kursk in august the luftwaffe had seated control over the skies the valkyries of hitler's germany would ride no longer [Music] you

Channel: The Armchair Historian

Views: 695,118

Rating: 4.9247589 out of 5

Keywords: Battle of Kursk, Battle of Stalingrad, Invasion of the Soviet Union, Operation Barbarossa, Operation Little Saturn, German Invasion of Russia, The Eastern Front, Largest air battle, largest fighter battle, air engagements, world war two, second world war, historical

Id: 7YRDx0JdTSg

Length: 18min 18sec (1098 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 19 2021