0705_03: South Sector Campaign - "Welcome to the Fascists"_Alt - PzC 07 Kursk '43

South of Kursk, July 5th 1943: Operation Citadel was the old, well-proven German recipe of a pincer operation. Hitler's plan was simple enough, basically to encircle the Soviet forces in the Kursk area by means of a well-coordinated, rapid thrust of two attacking armies from the north and south, then to annihilate the Soviets by concentric attacks. The southern jaw of the pincers was to be the Fourth Panzer Army, from Field Marshall Manstein's Army Group South, under command of Gen Herman Hoth. It was to strike from the area north of Kharkov towards Kursk, with its eastern flank protected by Army Detachment Kempf. Its armada of tanks was to smash through the defensive lines of the Voronezh Front, mainly from the Sixth Guards Army then, after linking up with Ninth Army from the northern thrust, they were to smash the encircled Soviet forces. The Soviet armies had been preparing themselves for several weeks, they knew the German plan of attack, and they knew when the blow would fall. Their plan was to bleed the Germans white before launching massive counter attacks all along the Eastern Front. Commissar Kruschev concluded a briefing the day before with the phrase, "And now to work! Prepare to welcome the fascists!" The scene was set for the start of a titanic struggle in the east. [Size, large]