NEW: Prokhorovka 5: The Historical Battle

[Cole]

Here's a quick comment from Alan regarding Death's Head and their area of responsibility (and what were they thinking to begin with):

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We wargamers have one advantage that the leaders back in 1943 didn't have, hindsight. Its easy to sit in chair and comment how bad Totenkopf's attack plan was. But we must look at the decisions made by the leaders from their point of view, based on what they knew at the time:

While the German were unaware of the presence of the Russian 5th Guards Tank Army, they certainly knew about the 5th Guards Army as they saw the units they had been fighting being relieved by fresh troops from that force, plus LAH was fighting a regiment from the 9th Guards Airborne Division  for possession of Hill 252.2, both on the  11th of July.

The plan for the 12th of July was reasonable based on what they knew though it could not have been fully completed by the end of the 12th. This was why the Germans planned on capturing Prokhorovka on the 13th, pending completion of the attack plans for the 12th.

The Germans were being methodical in their plans. Nor were they completely surprised by the Russian attack on the 12th as they had expected the new Russian forces to be supported by armor, usually one or two brigades or regiments worth. It was the size of the armored assault that surprised them. Still they acquitted themselves well in the battle.

My curiosity was not that the Germans missed the 5th Guards Tank Army but they decided to advance in a direction where the attackers would be isolated.  At first I wondered if Alan had overdone the rivers and cliffs along the river but even a Google map view shows limited means to cross the river.  Seems there is now a bridge midway that wasn't there.  Either the Germans were overconfident that they could join up at the objective or the river was/is more easily crossed in places that the scenario map.  That's where my "what were they thinking?" came from.