Operation Citadel
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| Our Other Military Sites |
| World War II |
| Operation Barbarossa 1941 German Invasion of Russia |
| Operation Citadel 1943 The Battle of Kursk |
| Operation Dragoon 1944 Invasion of southern France |
| Operation Varsity 1945 Crossing the Rhine |
| Invasions That Never Were |
| Operation Sealion 1940 German invasion of England |
| Operation Olympic 1945 US invasion of southern Japan |
| Operation Coronet 1946 US invasion of northern Japan |
| Special Forces |
| Operation Entebbe 1976 Entebbe Airport Rescue |
| Operation Nimrod 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege |
| British Cold War Operations |
| Operation Musketeer 1956 Suez Crisis |
| Operation Corporate 1982 Falklands War |
| Operation Black Buck 1982 Vulcan raids on Port Stanley |
| Operation Granby 1990-91 Persian Gulf |
| British Post Cold War |
| Operation Herrick 2002- Afghanistan |
| Operation Citadel > Background |
Background to Operation Citadel
|
- Operation Barbarossa, the
German invasion of Russia, had failed to defeat the Soviet Union in
1941,
and their Summer
1942 offensive
had ended with a disaster at
Stalingrad (Volgograd).
- The United States
had joined the war in December 1941,
and in conjunction with the British,
they had driven the Axis out of North Africa, and threatened an invasion of Europe: which
could arrive in Sicily or mainland Italy, Greece, Norwayor France.
- The British and Americans had also launched an increasingly effective strategic bombing campaign against German industry and cities.
Looking at maps of the front, the Germans identified a large Soviet salient around the city of Kursk as a potential target for one such limited limited offensive. A pincer attack from North and South could nip off the salient and trap a large amount of Soviet forces. This idea was the genesis of Operation Citadel (German: Unternehmen Zitadelle).
The Germans however spend a very long time building up forces for Operation Citadel, including awaiting for the arrival of new tank models which they believed would give them superiority.
While the Germans were building up, the Soviets were not idle. The Kursk salient was an obvious target for a German attack, and their spies and intelligence sources confirmed that one was coming in this region. The Soviets built up large defensive forces in a powerful multi-layered defense, with lots of minefields and fortifications. The Soviets planned to blunt their German attack against their fortifications, and only after it was stopped, they would launch their own counteroffensive.
