Prokhorovka....a draw ?

As part of operation Citadel ,on the southern side of the pincer
a strong assembly of german armor composed mostly of the II SS corps
got counterattacked by rotmistrov 5th tank army .
for one day on a battlefield barely 10 Km sqare it was the most
concentrated engagement of armor to this day ,
for the three follwing days , both side fought , but with none of the
ferocity of the 12th , then mr hitler called the whole thing off .

Erickson in "the road to Berlin" said that it was a draw with
"300 german taks destroyed , including 70 tigers "
rodmistrov admitting more than half of his tank army destroyed

Ripley in steel storm insist than the SS losses were light "70 to 80 tanks"
obergruppenfuhrer hausser , commading the SS corps and distrustful
of tall claims by "liebstandarte" is alledged to have visited the battlefield
and toted the wrecks with chalk to make sure .
rodmistrov 5th tank army would have lost 650 to 700 tanks out of 850
wich is indeed "more than half "

I respect both writers ,one a great historian the other a great journalist

what is one to think ??

 

The Russian claims are rediculous. The claims during Unternehmen Zitadelle are higher than the number of tanks actually engaged. The number of claimed Tigers is extremely inflated as well - the actual number of destroyed Tigers was 13, out of 147.

German claims, if we are to follow the trend from the Western Front, inflated by 'only' 100 %.

 

I suspect the stats on principle ,
rotmistrov tank army licked it's wounds for a long time after that ,
by russian standards ,no unit were pulled out for refit at less than 70% minimum
while II SS corps when on to fight in other fronts ,only totenkopf and das
reich actually liebstandarte being send to italy , absolutely ordered by
hitler to leave their tanks to the other two sisters divisions .
it would suggest losses of one third ~~about
if the german losses were " slight " why did they stopped their
progression for three days ,the SS were not known for arse farting around
and a broken enemy would have been a magnet .

 

A broken enemy maybe, probably, however, if you do not have the fuel to maintain the offensive not the reserves to continue supporting the attrition loses then no general oficer worth their salt would advance. Right?

 

yep , that was a hard battle all right and there is no question than the
german infantry had its ears rigging , that was why the panzer were
commited , to punch a hole in the defensive russian lines , and why
the 5thTA jumped on their bones , to stop them . So what give ?
the russian got blasted , but the german do not take the town wich was
their objective .
there still should have been enough petrol , the whole show was a set
piece ,prepared for months.
if anyone can suggest a good strategic history from the german point of
view ( in english ) I'd be much obliged .