Tiger vs T-34
Germany’s Operation Citadel aimed to squeeze off the salient around Kursk, but standing before their formidable armoured divisions stood a Soviet defence bristling with its own powerful tanks. The two had met briefly, earlier in the year, during the fighting around Rostov-on-Don and Kharkov, but Kursk was the first occasion in which they fought in significant numbers. In July 1943 Army Group Centre (AGC), faced Central Front, and Army Group South (AGS) prepared to do battle with Voronezh Front and then Steppe Front for the Kursk salient.
Tigers were organised into heavy panzer battalions of three or four companies. Four Tigers formed a zug (platoon) and three or four zugs formed a kompanie (company). Tanks in a zug often moved and worked in pairs.
By the summer of 1943 the various models of T-34/76 were very familiar to the Wehrmacht. The German evaluation of the T-34 during the winter of 1941-42 in effect advised, ‘copy it’. The result was the Panther.
“WHEN THE GERMANS FIRST ENCOUNTERED THE T-34 THEY WERE HORRIFIED AS THEY HAD VIRTUALLY NO ANTI-TANK GUN CAPABLE OF DESTROYING IT”
The Tiger was less known and understood by the Red Army, but an intact Tiger had been captured near Leningrad in January 1943 and thoroughly analysed at the testing ground at Kubinka. Among the conclusions reached was that the T-34 would have to be up-gunned from the 76mm weapon that was its main armament. The result, the T-34/85, was not available in time for Kursk, so the Red Army would be reliant on the T-34/76.
The Soviet armoured fist
When the Germansmany of the main problems that earlier experience had highlighted.
