What if hitler won kursk

Although a stretch, it could be argued that the fate of Stalingrad and the fate of Europe were one and the same. Following on from the previous scenario, Stalingrad has fallen with little loss of German life, the Caucasus oilfields have been taken intact and Russia has sued for peace freeing up a vast amount of German troops to head for other fronts, including North Africa.

Soon Egypt falls, cutting Britain off from its vital Mediterranean transport route. The Middle East follows suit, Britain has now lost its oil.

German resources are shifted to the Atlantic, putting even more pressure on British supply lines. Huge numbers of aircraft are released from the Soviet conflict meaning the Germans can undertake a second Battle of Britain and this time the Luftwaffe takes control of the skies. A land invasion comes next and Britain falls. Whilst America still prevails in the Pacific and the Manhattan Project is a success, the US has lost the ability to launch its bombers from the British airfields, meaning Germany remains out of reach of US atomic bombs.

Europe has now fallen. With the resources of Russia now at their disposal, Nazi Germany becomes a global superpower. The US and Germany reach a peace agreement, potentially heralding in an alternative Cold War but this time played out between the Americans and the Nazis. Whether or not Stalingrad could have won the war for Germany is up for interpretation, but one thing is for certain, losing it cost them the war.

What if Stalingrad had fallen? Hitler Russia. The war drags on a little longer but with the same result. So Stalingrad has fallen and the Germans have conquered the city. But at what cost? The Soviets surrender but the Western Allies hold firm. The Nazis conquer Europe and win the war. Read more about: Battles The man who didn't shoot Hitler.

Most Recent. The kingmaker Margaret Beaufort: Mother of the Tudor dynasty. Lesser known facts about The Battle of the Somme. The Battle of Britain. Perfect traitors: Robert Hanssen and Kim Philby. The fighting, characterized by massive losses of Soviet armor, continued throughout July 12 without a decisive success by either side—contrary to the accounts given in many well-known studies of the Eastern Front, which state that the fighting ended on July 12 with a decisive German defeat.

These authors describe the battlefield as littered with hundreds of destroyed German tanks and report that the Soviets overran the SS tank repair units. In fact, the fighting continued around Prochorovka for several more days. Das Reich continued to push slowly eastward in the area south of the town until July Those successes were not exploited, however, due to decisions made by Adolf Hitler.

After receiving the news of the Allied invasion of Sicily, as well as reports of impending Soviet attacks on the Mius River and at Izyum, Hitler decided to cancel Operation Citadel. Manstein argued that he should be allowed to finish off the two Soviet tank armies. He had unused reserves, consisting of three experienced panzer divisions of XXIV Panzer Corps, in position for quick commitment.

That corps could have been used to attack the Fifth Guards Tank Army in its flank, to break out from the Psel bridgehead or to cross the Psel east of Prochorovka. All of the available Soviet armor in the south was committed and could not be withdrawn without causing a collapse of the Soviet defenses. Manstein correctly realized that he had the opportunity to destroy the Soviet operational and strategic armor in the Prochorovka area.

Hitler could not be persuaded to continue the attack, however. On the night of July , the corps withdrew from its positions around Prochorovka. Thus, the battle for Prochorovka ended, not because of German tank losses Hausser had over operational tanks on July 17 but because Hitler lacked the will to continue the offensive.

The SS panzer divisions were still full of fight; in fact, two of them continued to fight effectively in southern Russia for the rest of the summer. Those two divisions and the 3rd Panzer Division, which replaced Leibstandarte , were transferred to the Sixth Army area, where they conducted a counterattack from July 31 to August 2 that eliminated a strong Soviet bridgehead at the Mius River. Without pause, the three divisions were then transferred to the Bogodukhov sector in early August During three weeks of constant combat, the four divisions played a major role in stopping the main Soviet post-Kursk counteroffensive, Operation Rumyantsev.

By the end of the month, Rotmistrov had less than tanks still running. Katukov had only tanks still in action by the last week of August. While at no time did any of the German divisions have more than 55 tanks in operation, they repeatedly blunted the thrusts of the two Soviet tank armies, which were also reinforced by several rifle corps. After Kharkov itself fell, however, the German front gradually collapsed.

The Soviets regrouped, committed additional strong reserves and renewed their attack toward the strategically important Dnepr River. Army Group South was subsequently forced to abandon much of southern Ukraine in a race for the safety of the Dnepr. It is apparent from their operations during the late summer that the SS panzer divisions were not destroyed at Prochorovka.

To what extent the course of events in Russia would have been changed is, of course, unknown, but it is interesting to speculate. It is doubtful, however, that this pause would have lasted long enough for the Germans to transfer enough forces to the West to defeat the June 6, , D-Day invasion. But one fact is beyond any question, regardless of the number of tanks possessed by the Germans or Soviets or what might have been possible.

It is interesting that the information regarding German tank losses at Prochorovka has not been made available before now. Due to the lack of crucial primary-source information—especially the records of the II SS Panzer Corps on the Eastern Front—there had been no evidence to correct the erroneous accounts and impressions given in previous studies of the Eastern Front.

By that time, many of the major works about the Eastern Front had already been published. Later authors accepted the accounts of the battle as given in the earlier books and failed to conduct additional research. As a result, one of the best known of all Eastern Front battles has never been understood properly. If by some twist of fortune the Germans had been able to capture or destroy most of the Soviet forces and equipment around Kursk it would have been an enormous blow to the Russians.

I would say that the Germans would probably at the very least have bought themselves at least three months breathing space, time enough to stabilise and reinforce the front, possibly for the rest of the year. I think this would have been quite possible. If they would have been able to follow the victory with a new large scale offensive then it's anybody's guess what could have happened in the short term. Long term, unless some form of political upheaval befell the Russians, the war would probably only be prolonged by an extra six months or so.

Germany would still loose in the end. Though they lost hundreds of thousands if not millions in the great incirclements of Barbarossa,they still had more then enough replacements. For example in the Russians had millions around Berlin, not exactly sure how many but according to Anthony Beevors "Fall of Berlin" they had 1,, men transfered from the Gulags alone.

Though untrained, a million men is a sledgehammer of an assault on a single city. This shows us just how big the Soviet juggernaut was. Now the Kursk offensive was originallyset to begin in the Spring of 43,April i believe. However Hitler postponed it until June because he wanted the new powerful Tiger tanks to take part in the battle.

The message was intercepted by the allies and given to the Soviets, giving them enought time to build the defences around Kursk. I think a better question is what if the Germans had atttacked in April without the Tigers, and gotten the Soviets by surprise? Post by Feldmarshall Erwin Rommel » 02 Jul The losses at Kurks even after a German victory could be easily replaced by the Russians, and very hard by the Germans.

The whole operation wasn't worth the casualties, because the Germans we're not capable of taking advantage of a victory. The best thing the Germans could have done was start less risky operations. Like the one Von Manstein suggested instead of Citadelle: The Germans would withdraw at the south of the front dragging the Sovjet's behind them to the point were their supply lines would be stretched too far. A powerful German panzer force would then outflank them and advance to the Black Sea and cut of the Russian forces.

This would open the front for the Germans. But that would just the best option for that moment, they would have to do a lot more to switch the balance to their side again.

Did someone find Aladdin's lamp and simply wish all those Soviet Armies away?