Operation Citadel
성채 작전
The codename of the German offensive of July 1943 that aimed to cut off the base of the Kursk salient from north and south at once and encircle the Soviet forces inside. The first phase of the Battle of Kursk, it began on 5 July after Hitler had postponed it repeatedly to await new tanks, was stopped by the Soviet defence in depth and suspended on 13 July, with Operation Roland in the south ending on the 17th. It was the last German strategic offensive on the Eastern Front.
In depth
Operational Order No. 6 (15 April 1943) was drafted by Kurt Zeitzler, the Army Chief of Staff. Walter Model's 9th Army was to attack from the north and Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army and Army Detachment Kempf from the south, meeting east of Kursk. Model and Guderian opposed the plan, and Hitler postponed the start from 3 May to 5 July while waiting for Panthers, Tigers and Ferdinands. Meanwhile the Soviets, forewarned by intelligence, built defensive belts nearly 300 kilometres deep. The northern attack got only 8 to 12 kilometres and the southern 35 kilometres, and when the Soviet Operation Kutuzov opened on 12 July, two days after the Allied landing in Sicily, Hitler halted the offensive.