Valerii Zamulin in his book has the 230th Tank Regiment with 32 Stuarts and 7 Lees (one in repair) on 1 June 1943. We did not have detailed unit records for the other two regiments, but we assumed for the Kursk Data Base (KDB) that the 230th Tank Regiment was also armed with American built tanks. The 96th Tank Brigade had 5 T-70s and 46 T-34s. The 245th Tank Regiment was armed with 27 U.S. The armor units attached to the Sixth Guards Army were: 1) the 230th Tank Regiment, 2) the 245th Tank Regiment, 3) 1440th Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment, and 4) the 96th Tank Brigade. The attack of the LSSAH was in the area of Byikovka against the 52nd Guards Rifle Division, Sixth Guards Army. The German accounts state that they were facing dug-in T-34s in their attack on 5 July (see Agte, pages 93, 95, 96 and 97). The biggest problem with the claims of killing T-34s on 5 July was that there was not many (if any) T-34s in and around the SS Panzer Corps on that day. For example, on page 875 of my Kursk book I examine the German claims of tank kills compared to actual Soviet losses. It often becomes difficult to disprove any claims. For example: įirst of all, the unusually high German claims are the Eastern Front are often believable because of the unusually high losses by the Soviet Union.
The problem is that while there are very detailed narratives on their actions from 5-12 July 1943, there are unresolved issues with these narratives. I now find myself going back over their efforts.
I only briefly addressed them in my Kursk book. They were both in the heavy panzer company (armed with Tiger Is) of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Panzer Grenadier Division (LSSAH or LSSAH PzGrD). Two of the top panzer aces at the Battle of Kursk were Michael Wittmann (1914-1944) and Franz Staudegger (1923-1991).
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