Here it is! The long-awaited Battle of Prokhorovka video is finally out, and a few hours earlier than per usual! It took me longer than expected to make the video because a lot of the sources were contradicting. Several sources mentioned different dates, different unit positions or actual units. But, after figuring out the most plausible option I have come up with this video! So I hope you’ll enjoy! - The AceDestroyer

What I like most about "Ace' videos is that it effectively uses video footage and Map diagrams to explain what's going on.

A spot on analysis here. Again, an excellent viewpoint of this key battle in the Kursk Zitadelle Operation young man! Manstein's thought analysis was also hindered by a lack of good field intelligence. Had he gotten the 24th PZ Corps' aide, he would have had another 3 defensive belts to get thru (Soviet defense was six belts deep, some 300km back from the front). With Model's northern pincer halted, even with the best of intentions, Manstein couldn't have completed the encirclement, thus even on such wistful thinking by 20/20 hindsight generals today, Zitadelle was a failure, and remains a failed gambit of the OKW-Heere. Bravo!

'Die Hölle von Kursk: SS-Grenadiere 1943 im Kampf', by Kurt Pfötsch provides a very good look at the Battle of Prokhorovka from the perspective of an SS Mann serving in the LAH. The scope of his experience during the Kursk action is limited to what his SS Schar lives through on the ground- the only outside information they gain of the wider battle is gleaned from their Kradmelder, so the reader can truly experience a bottom-up view of the fighting. He breaks down the battle day by day, so there is a detailed account of what his squad experiences on July 12th. I highly recommend this book to you and all others who are interested in the Battle of Prokhorovka. Thank you for the video- great work as usual. Your footage, maps and recounting of this battle are all excellent. Weiter so! :)

Hi Ace, as always, excellent job detailing this tank battle-very hard to imagine watching this from a hill😜Thanks for giving some life to these lesser covered but important battles👍👍Great job!

Out of all the Documentaries and books I've watched and read about Kursk and Prokhorovka in particular, yours has by far laid out the events and statistics in the best understandable format. Thank you so much for this. Subscribed, liked, and hungry for more! 👍

BEST description of this famous battle that I've ever seen! The first time that I ever read about Kursk was in 1975....👍🏼

Your channel deserves way more subcribes you should try and cross promote with some other well established channels. As always keep up the great work

This actually made me wish I had one of those big tables with the battle-field all laid out with miniatures to move around in sequence for first-hand observance. What a scene man.

Love the detail here. We all know the battle, but never seen a documentary with such detail. Thank you!

Wow 14 soviet tanks with a Panzer 4 in a single engagement, I would have to say he was one hell of a tank commander!

If you look up the term “ Telegraphing your Punch” it refers to the Kursk battle as the best example

As a combat vet who has now had some decades to study history, I will say with much enthusiasm that any commander who launches an attack which the enemy is known to be aware of is a fool, and his troops will always suffer needlessly. While planning is never a bad idea, the longer you wait to actually launch the advance will see more losses than if an attack had been initiated as soon as possible to the initial contact with the enemy. Too, the luxury of "time" is relative to the size of the enemy force. Five minutes to attack for an enemy squad size, perhaps fifteen for a company size unit, etc.

That cheeky little "cheers" at the end made me smile. Great breakdown of the action of this famous battle!

I think your research and work doing these videos are outstanding !! Your maps really put the battles into perspective, great job !! Thanks for sharing.

I LOVE THE ACE DESTROYER !!!! THE ATTN. TO INTRICATE DETAIL IN OUTLINING THE SCOPE OF PARTICULAR BATTLES IS SECOND TO NONE !!!! BRAVO !!!! GREAT WORK 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Incredibly well detailed report which I thoroughly enjoyed

some have said that the armored clash at 73 Easting in the 1991 Gulf War was the most intense tank battle in history. no idea where that information came from because that was a very one sided battle, where as the Kursk Salient was a meat grinder of highly attritional warfare.

I apricate your videos I am a history student and absolutely love studying German armor tactics from the eastern front

Very nice job on the animated maps. Not too many videos out there give such a good presentation and timeline of what happened during those days in July 1943. 👍

Awesome commentary and graphics as usual Ace Destroyer. I now understand EXACTLY how this crucial battle played out. Very well done.

General Rokosovssky about German army: German army was a well oiled machine, but we found a way to put a stake in their wheel. The rest is a history. Lesson learned! Don't try it again.😁😁😁

This should be part of the Battlefield video series. Thank you.

This was very interesting ,as thank you. My great uncle fought in this battle He was Hauptmann Rudolf Suhr of Panzerjaager Abt 150 attached to 50th Inf Reg 9th Army. He was sadly KAI in East Prussia 20/01/45 He has a grave stone with his wife in Germany , but I certainly do not think his body would have been returned from the hell of the ost front.

The name Prokhorovka keeps coming up in the battles around Kursk but everyone seems to have a different take on the conduct of the battle. This video seems to have distilled a number of reports into a coherent storyline, congratulations.

"There are 200 Soviet T-34s attacking!" "Ja wohl. Send Wittman with *four* Tigers to stop them." (190 soviet tanks destroyed. 1 Tiger damaged and abandoned) If this were War Thunder, 200 Tigers couldn't stop the 200 T-34s. You finally upgrade to the Tiger and you now mover slower at 28 mph, but your thicker armor and larger gun make no difference.

In this battle, Soviet lost 500 tanks out of 800 (60%). The Germans lost 300 tanks out of 400 (75%). For them it was a disaster. Now the most powerful strike force of the Germans was drained of blood. General G. Guderian, at that time the inspector general of the tank forces of the Wehrmacht, wrote: “The armored forces, replenished with such great difficulty, were out of order for a long time due to heavy losses in people and equipment ... and already more in the East there were no quiet days at the front"

Excellent job Sir!! You should've a Patreon account, so we can support your work... Cheers!!! :-)

Excellent video mate. I already knew a lot about this battle, but I still learned a lot from this video!

I know it's a minor point, but contrary to people on some other history channels, you clearly have put a lot of work in your pronunciations, which needs to be acknowledged. Words like "Obersturmführer" or "Sturmbannführer" don't exactly roll off the tongue for non-native speakers. 👏

Imagine riding into battle on one of those four Whitman tigers

No mention of the German artillery losses, wipe out of the anti tank regiment, and the grenadier HQ's being overrun?

Great video, Ace. I've been waiting for this one as well - so thank you for taking the time to make it informative, in depth, and without bias. Have a good one and keep up the fantastic work.

I've never heard of it called Prokhorovka before. Thank you

I wonder how many Panther tanks could be made with the metal on the Ocean Floor from the Bismark - sunk on it's maiden voyage ...

Maybe a video about the Division Wiking and their part in the battle of Tscherkassy especially Schandarovka? Good video btw

BRING BK YOUR REGULAR INTRO. OR THE EARLY INTRO W THE PIPE ORGAN. THAT WAS PRICELESS !!!

Thank you for posting......most interesting. I will be studying and paying more closer attention to your careful attention to detail. EXCELLENT.

Accurate, first time I see a youtube video debunkeing this accurately the myth of Prokhorovka as soviet victory (lies from Vatutin and Rotmistrov), you even mentionned the soviet tanks blocked by their own anti-tank ditch, nice !

I'm reading THE BATTLE OF TANKS by Lloyd Clark. It's about Kursk. Excellent book filled with first hand accounts of the true hell experienced by the soldiers that fought at Kursk

Very good video, thanks for posting. You did an excellent job of mixing small details with an overall view of the battle. I also noted the "sources were contradicting" point in the pinned comment. Anyone who has done much research, even using actual AARs, OOBs and TOEs will find this is true, especially when dealing with the chaos of the Eastern Front. In some cases, we'll never know certain details for sure, and it's up to the historian to make the call at times...hopefully using logic (and not personal bias) to make a conclusion. I think you've been doing a good job at this so far. Keep up the good work!

The Luftwaffe was the bigger story. It burned through its avgas reserves at a shocking clip. The Soviets simply 'out gassed' the Germans. So even though the Luftwaffe shot down scads of Red aircraft, eventually it was grounded for lack of fuel -- the intensity was that great. This grand battle was also the site of the first use of cluster bombs -- by the Luftwaffe. The Red Army took horrific casualties from them as no-one realized that their blast pattern would cover such a wide area. The Ost Heer lost the gasoline war, before they lost the combat war. BTW, Hitler pulled out the equivalent of one panzer army and one infantry army, from Russia, so as to hang on to Italy. Had he not done so, the Anglo-Allies would've been marching up the Alps in short order. This strategic shift is why the Anglo-Allies had a profound impact on the Eastern Campaign. Hitler permanently lost any initiative in the East.

Excellent video, thanks. Some serious research you've done there, and the maps are outstanding. Great stuff. Cheers.

Great going man! You really sorted out your sources and the presentation turned out beautifully. The SS Panzer Corps Das Reich ,Liebstandarte,and Totenkopf gave the Red Hordes a difficult run.According to your narrative and historical records,Vatutin had cause to despair on many occasions. Great going Ace!

Are the maps custom made by yourself?

Thank you

What a battle! Have you seen the kreigsberichter archive ace there's a collection in there of ss troops at kursk, I, m sure you have its an excellent archive for ss in ww2, another great video ace👍👌

Wow, somehow I missed this one until now. Excellent presentation. 👍

These are great as always

Michael Whitman and his crew were at their best on that historic day.

Perhaps the clearest video on youtube explaining Prokhorovka. Absolutely fascinating. I am curreently using it along w books and other sources to design an epic and playable battlefield including PROKHOROVKA, KURSK, PONIRY. Epic research. Chuckled when I heard the "bite him in the ass" comment. TWO THUMBS UP!

Brilliant breakdown and explanation along with the pictures of commanders and videos!

"Michael WIttmann, who had become famous for his actions at VIllers-Bocage"...which did not happen until a year later, in 1944!!!

Very well done

Fabulous once again, keep up the magnificent uploads. I'm hoping Italy is on the menu for sometime in the future?

Another excellent video. You cover topics that alot of WW2 videos do not.

often overlooked is the fact that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union split the invasion and divided Poland at the start of the war. later the added distance from that division slowed The Nazi armies from encircling Moscow giving the Soviets time to bring in the Siberian troops for their winter defense.

You should do one On Pz Jgr Abt 653 and their actions at Kursk. While the Ferdinand had their problems they were very effective at destroying Soviet armour

I understand that as one looks back on history it's easy to point out mistakes. But the whole attack by the Germans at Kursk really seems like a huge mistake at the time. Russians knew and the Germans knew they knew. Absolutely nothing was going the Germans way before they attacked...Yet they went anyway. After talking it up and building it up..It must be the hardest thing in war to say "We ain't doing it". Operation Market Garden is another example

Thanks a lot for the video....and information....

Guderian: With the failure of Zitadelle we have suffered a decisive defeat. The armoured formations, reformed and re-equipped with so much effort, had lost heavily in both men and equipment and would now be unemployable for a long time to come. It was problematical whether they could be rehabilitated in time to defend the Eastern Front ... Needless to say the [Soviets] exploited their victory to the full. There were to be no more periods of quiet on the Eastern Front. From now on, the enemy was in undisputed possession of the initiative. Cheers

Nice job, some excellent details.

Magnífico trabajo...enhorabuena desde españa

muy bueno

The Germans lost 760 damaged tanks at the railheads, when they were overrun by the Russians, after the battle of Kursk. 156 of them were to new Panthers. These losses were never added to German losses during the battle, only a few months later to total losses on the front [1300 for July/Aug 1943] so we get a false casualty figures by the Germans. Also the Germans stated the thousands HIWIS ran off! when they were actually drafted into the combat units during the battle. So these men took up the ration strength to skew the figures. Oh and look how many German anti-tank guns were knocked out during the Russian Tank attack.... one SS DIV lost all of them.

Another great job! Great detail and research. I very much look forward to every video! Thanks for your excellent work and Cheers from Vancouver BC 🍺🍺🍺

This is some awesome content, thanks for the great video

You do a very fine job in these presentations. Excellent work!

Excellent job. Better than History channel. You are REAL Historian Sir. Thank you

If you look up the phrase “Telegraphing your Punch” it shows the battle of Kursk !

I LOVE YOUR NARRATION SKILLS !!!! YOU ARE THE VERY BEST OF THE BEST !!!!! I LOVE ACE DESTROYER !!!!! THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU BRING TO US !!!! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Amazing report on a battle not usually covered in detail. The Germans did very well in a battle one would have thought to be a 50/50 outcome.

Great work Ace.

Very nice, thank you for upload.

This is very well done. Big thx!

Another excellent video man!

Been Binge Watching your Videos I think You Put a lot of work into every video,Love your Content

Man this Video is so good. Thank you

Tanks for sharing 👍💣👌

Another great video. Thanks.

Great video thank you!😊 maybe a new video about the konrad 1-2-3 and the spring awakening operations?. I think these are not a very well known parts of the war...but there were brutal fightings...

Good and interresting info.

According to Alan Clark (author of "Barbarossa") the Soviets were in possession of the battle field by 17th of July. the germans having retreated westward.

Awesome as usual! 👍

Thank you for such a well researched, objective narrative! Another great video! :-)))

As ever this is an excellent documentary. However, I think language describing Rotmistrov as being "bitten in the arse" diminishes it somewhat. Quite rightly you receive a lot of favourable comments for your videos and some subscribers may think me a prig for making this comment, especially as no one else has commented on this, as far as I can see. Nonetheless, I think important to raise this, as such language diminishes the historical accuracy and gravitas of your othwise excellent videos.

Sehr gutes Video in der Tat. Sehr gute Informationen in dieser Dokumentation, insbesondere über die 3. SS Totenkopf Division.

Great video on this pivotal battle!

211+72+43+The author of the video did not mention the anti tank field artillery 8.8 cm Flak in the German Panzer division in The Battle of Prokhorovka

Great quality of documentary.

Thanks a lot, good job.

Manstein was probably correct in wanting the offense continued as a means of destroying Soviet tank reserves, which were being thrown in piecemeal....he still had at least two panzer divisions in reserve when ordered to suspend all operations...it seems the Soviets were losing at a margin of 8-1.....not even the Soviet Union could afford to keep that up...

BRILLIANT !!!

Thank you again for an outstanding video and detailed commentary, you are by far the best in this field. The German Army in WWII was the best fighting force this world has ever seen as is clearly demonstrated in this video.

great work!

Awsome work !

Always keep in mind that, on a scale of 1 to 10, I feel that your videos consistently rank 15 or better!

Great great stuff thank you so much 👍

thanks

Why not call a spade a spade: the brave and determined Germans lost the battle, and subsequently lost the war ))