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The Reason For Hitler's War

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The reason for Hitler’s delay in attacking earlier in the year was for the 200 new Panther tanks which would take part of the operation as part of Army Group South. Also in Army Group South would be the crack SS Panzer Divisions which consisted of the majority of heavy armor vehicles and majority of Tiger tanks which would be the strongest tank on the battlefield. The Russians on the other hand were able to field an army that dwarfed the Germans forces. With the delay in the German plans to attack earlier in the year the Russians had plenty of time to build up a force that could easily defend against the German attack. The Soviets mustered almost 2 million men to fight the German advance, over 5,000 tanks (mostly all T-34s), and over …show more content…

The Russians lost a lot of their aircraft in the raids and this would be sorely missed later in the battle. The air battle would rage on for the entire campaign with the Germans clearly gaining air superiority on the southern side but the northern side would be a back in forth battle. The morning of July 5 the Germans opened up along the entire salient with an artillery barrage that lasted for over 80 mins. This barrage was followed closely by the German bombers how as soon as the barrage stopped they were making their runs to drop bombs on known Russian defensive positions. This allowed the German ground forces to attempt to move under the cover of the artillery and air power that was hitting the Russians. The northern force led by Model pushed forward with his infantry forces leading the way followed and supported by his panzers and assault guns. His thought be hide this was to preserve his heavier panzers and tanks by letting the infantry take the brunt of the Russians defense so that way when the time came to break through his armor corps was strong. With his forces facing a heavily mined terrain it took time for the Germans to break through this area. All the while the Russians were launching their own counter-attacks to delay the Germans from pushing too far into the salient. Models force now fully engaged was in

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