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Panzer Tactics: German Small-Unit Armor Tactics in World War II Paperback – November 30, 2005 by Wolfgang Schneider

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Kursk 1943: The Greatest Battle of the Second World War (Modern Military History) Hardcover – October 23, 2018 by Roman Toeppel (Author)

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Kursk: The Battle of Prokhorovka by Christopher A. Lawrence (Author)

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Kursk 1943: The Southern Front (Campaign) Paperback – March 14, 2017 by Robert Forczyk

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Panzerkeil (1943) - Panzer's unique tactical formation

A tactical formation is the arrangement or deployment of moving military forces such as infantry, tanks and AFVs.
Panzerkeil ("Armoured Wedge") was an offensive tactic created by German armoured battle groups (“Kampfgruppen”) during World War II.
Panzerkeil combined different armoured vehicles, supported by motorized infantry (“Panzergrenadier”).
The tanks would form into a wedge-shaped formation, with the strongest armoured vehicles (Tiger I heavy tanks) in the tip.

Medium battle tanks (Panzer III/IV) would form the wings of the wedge.
The advantage of the this formation was that enemy anti-tank gunners had to adjust ranges on their guns constantly which made aiming difficult.

The Panzerkeil was developed to break through the Soviet “Pakfront-type defense.”
“Pakfront” was a German defensive tactic used on the Eastern front in 1941-42.

Individual anti-tank guns were quickly destroyed by Soviet forces.
So a group of 5 to 10 guns were placed under 1 commander, who was responsible for setting targets for all the guns.
By this the German gunners could maximize and concentrate the fire power.
This German tactic was so effective that the Soviet Army copied it and created several pakfronts and protecting minefields during the Battle of Kursk.
The German use of the Panzerkeil formation achieved mixed success during Operation Citadel.

It made possible a panzer break through of the 4th Panzer Army in the south of the Kursk salient.

But the 9th Army did not achieved a real break through and was able to make only a 9 km penetration on the north of the salient.

Finally the Soviet Pakfront tactic halted the German attack formations.

The Wehrmacht could not encircle the Soviet forces using the Panzerkeil tactic

#militaryhistory, #specialforces, #weaponsandtactics, #easternfront

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