Gela 11 July 1943
The Hermann Goering Division, weathering a storm of Allied naval gunfire and bitter resistence by US 1st Division smashed its way through the American bridgehead on Sicily leaving Montgomery's 8h Army in its' Eastern Sicillian bridgehead as the olly viable Allied lodgement on the island. Over the coming weeks the Allies were faced with a slow, bitterly contested and costly advance over the Cantania Plan.
The impact of the Hermann Goering Division's victory wuld have a critical impact far away in Russia around the Kursk salient.
Prokhorovka Kursk Salient 12July 1943
Throughout the day Romistrv's 5th Guard Tank Army had counter attacked 2nd SS Panzer Corp's positions near the town Russian tank losses had been huge. Hundreds of destroyed T-34s, later counted by the Germans and estimated at 400 tanks littered the battlefield. Rotmistrov's army had immolated itself in a desperate attempt to halt the German advance. Thwe question now was whether the Wehrmacht would continue the Operration Citadel in the southern sector despite the failure of the northern thrust at Ponyri and whether the Red Army could get the reserves it was moving up into postion with decisive effect.
The next few days wuld be crucial. both in terms of the outcome of the battle for he Kursk Salient and for the outcome of the war in Europe as a whole.
The Hermann Goering Division, weathering a storm of Allied naval gunfire and bitter resistence by US 1st Division smashed its way through the American bridgehead on Sicily leaving Montgomery's 8h Army in its' Eastern Sicillian bridgehead as the olly viable Allied lodgement on the island. Over the coming weeks the Allies were faced with a slow, bitterly contested and costly advance over the Cantania Plan.
The impact of the Hermann Goering Division's victory wuld have a critical impact far away in Russia around the Kursk salient.
Prokhorovka Kursk Salient 12July 1943
Throughout the day Romistrv's 5th Guard Tank Army had counter attacked 2nd SS Panzer Corp's positions near the town Russian tank losses had been huge. Hundreds of destroyed T-34s, later counted by the Germans and estimated at 400 tanks littered the battlefield. Rotmistrov's army had immolated itself in a desperate attempt to halt the German advance. Thwe question now was whether the Wehrmacht would continue the Operration Citadel in the southern sector despite the failure of the northern thrust at Ponyri and whether the Red Army could get the reserves it was moving up into postion with decisive effect.
The next few days wuld be crucial. both in terms of the outcome of the battle for he Kursk Salient and for the outcome of the war in Europe as a whole.
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