Surviving Prokhorovka: German armoured longevity on the Eastern Front in 1943–1944

ABSTRACT This article attempts to chart the ultimate fate of each German tank, assault gun and tank destroyer of the SS Panzergrenadier Divisions Leibstandarte and Das Reich that participated in the battle of Prokhorovka on 12.7.43 against the Soviet Union’s 5th Guards Tank Army. The central question of the article being; If large numbers of German Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV) did not meet disaster on the ‘tank fields’ southwest of Prokhorovka (as was claimed for many decades by both Soviet and Western historiography), then when exactly did those participating German AFV of the Leibstandarte and Das Reich finally succumb to the Red Army? How long did they survive on the Eastern Front against an ever more sophisticated and skilled opponent? By determining the ultimate fate of these German AFVs in the autumn and winter of 1943/44, it is possible to get a fuller understanding of the battle of Prokhorovka itself.