Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army

The 5th Guards Tank Army was the Soviet armoured reserve on the southern face of the Kursk salient in 1943, redesignated from the 5th Tank Army in February of that year and commanded by Colonel-General Pavel Rotmistrov, with its headquarters at Prokhorovka. It was held back by the Soviet high command during the German attack and released to meet the southern offensive. On 12 July it met the SS-Panzer Corps II near Prokhorovka in one of the most intense armoured engagements of the war, committing several hundred tanks and self-propelled guns at very close range. The engagement checked the German thrust toward Kursk and is generally treated as one of the turning points of the battle, although the course of the fighting during that day remains disputed between accounts and the scale of tank losses is uncertain. The army was afterwards used to develop the counter-offensive in the Belgorod direction and the liberation of Kharkov. This entry records schematic order-of-battle data: unit locations are approximate headquarters-area positions rather than tactical positions. Rotmistrov had prepared an elaborate anti-tank obstacle belt in advance of the battle, and the density of that belt, together with the deliberate withholding of the army until the German armour had committed itself, is generally credited with blunting the assault. The army went on to take part in the liberation of Belgorod and Kharkov.