Grossdeutschland at Kursk:
Scenario Preview, Part Two
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
October 2023

It’s my fervent wish to turn Kursk: Burning Tigers into a centerpiece game for Panzer Grenadier much the way Jutland has been for Great War at Sea. To lavish it with attention through Daily Content and expand it with books, Campaign Studies, and Golden Journals.

Burning Tigers isn’t a true “toybox game” like Jutland; its mix of pieces is set to match the 40 scenarios in the game with very few extras (if any). So, it at times needs a little help from another game to provide enough pieces for all of the scenarios. But the Battle of Kursk is a scenario-rich environment, with the Germans and Soviets at the tipping point of operational momentum.

Grossdeutschland at Kursk is focused on just one division, but it’s a very large division that did a great deal of fighting, so it wasn’t hard to build 11 scenarios from just four days of action. It’s a Campaign Study, what we call our small books of scenarios and history. Let’s have a look at the scenarios from the second (and final) chapter:

Chapter Two
Citadel’s Last Days
While the SS militia faltered in front of Prokhorovka, 48th Panzer Corps labored to get their divisions re-oriented onto the same axis and join the push to the north-east. Yet the Soviets continued to interfere, with 1st Tank Army now opening its own offensive that ground forward despite horrific losses.

Seeing their own goals now out of reach, both German commanders flew to East Prussia on 13 July to report to Germany’s Supreme Leader. The offensive would end the next day, he declared, though the German armies could continue attacks to secure their own defensive positions and eliminate Soviet reserves. Within days, German divisions would begin withdrawing for deployment to other theaters.

Scenario Forty-Seven
An Immediate, Energetic Attack
13 July 1943
Even as the German offensive ran out of steam, the Soviet First Tank Army opened its own assault. They took Hill 258.5 back from the Germans, and built up their forces both on the hill and in the nearby Tolstoye Woods. Corps commander Knobelsdorff sent Grossdeutschland’s panzers, now commanded by 10th Panzer Brigade’s Col. Karl Decker, to eject them. “I demand an immediate, energetic attack on Hill 258.5,” Knobelsdorff told one of Decker’s staff officers. “Otherwise, I will relieve him.”

Conclusion
Decker held onto his job (and would be promoted to command of 5th Panzer Division in September), but the Soviets held onto Hill 258.5 and the Tolstoye Woods. Grossdeutschland’s panzers started their attack hours late, and pressed forward without much determination. As soon as they had retreated, Knobelsdorff sent them off on another mission.

Notes
The Germans are on the attack, but are not especially energetic even though they have good tank support. By leaving the Soviets in possession of the hill rather than attacking right away as ordered, the Germans have given the defenders time to dig in and thus the defense is pretty stout.

Scenario Forty-Eight
Repeated Failure
13 July 1943
As soon as the Grossdeutschland Panzer Regiment recoiled from Hill 258.5, Knobelsdorff dispatched it on a new assignment. The regiment’s tanks would help the 332nd Infantry Division hold off Soviet attacks on the town of Berezovka. By the time they arrived, the German infantrymen had fended off attacks on the town itself, but 48th Panzer Corps ordered the Grossdeutschland armor to help them restore their original positions.

Conclusion
Decker could not assemble his regiment in time to attack, blaming a rain squall and traffic jams for keeping his tanks from reaching their assembly areas. The corps chief of staff, Friedrich von Mellenthin, eventually cancelled the operation and ordered Decker to attack at first light.

Notes
German infantry are on the attack, with the hope of armored reinforcements from Grossdeutschland. It’s going to be pretty tough on the Germans if the tanks don’t arrive.

Scenario Forty-Nine
Infantry Defends
13 July 1943
While the Grossdeutschland’s armored regiment blundered about to the south-west, its two motorized infantry regiments manned the line facing 1st Tank Army. The front remained quiet through the morning hours, but after lunch the Soviets once again attacked, following up a heavy artillery bombardment with tank-supported infantry.

Conclusion
The Soviet attack pushed the Grossdeutschland battalions back all along the line, though it did not achieve a breakthrough. The Red Army troops could not muster the strength for a renewed assault in the late afternoon, only managing small-scale attacks that the Germans repelled with heavy artillery fire of their own.

Notes
We have a very big scenario, with a set-piece Soviet combined-arms attack striking German infantry defenses, though well-supported with anti-tank guns and artillery of their own. Those grenadiers in armored halftracks are pretty useful, too.

Scenario Fifty
With Field-Drill Precision
14 July 1943
Having failed in both attempted attacks on the previous day, the Grossdeutschland panzer regiment jumped off promptly when given a chance to redeem itself. With infantry and support elements from the 332nd Infantry Division and strong support from Air Force Stuka dive bombers, the German attack seemed very promising.

Conclusion
Advancing with what Mellenthin would call “field-drill precision,” the Germans struck the boundary between the Soviet 184th and 219th Rifle Divisions, pushing the defenders back and apart to open a breach in the Soviet lines. The Soviets responded with heavy artillery fire that drove off the panzers’ supporting infantry, and followed up with a counter-attack by a tank brigade that devolved into a hard-fought close-range shootout. The German advance ground to a halt, but the lines had, for the moment, been restored.

Notes
And now we get a tank battle, as the Grossdeutschland armor finally gets its act together and performs as advertised. And we also get to see why tanks need infantry, which the Soviets have and the Germans have not enough.

Scenario Fifty-One
The Deadly Woods
14 July 1943
Back at the Tolstoye Woods, the Grossdeutschland Division and the rest of 48th Panzer Corps had almost encircled the defenders. The panzer regiment, fresh off its success fighting alongside 332nd Infantry Division, was to move northward along with troops from the infantry division and help complete the maneuver. But once again Decker proved less than urgent in moving his regiment, and the Grossdeutschland Division’s assault gun and recon battalions had to operate on their own.

Conclusion
The Soviet 112th Tank Brigade – a Russian unit armed and financed by the government of Mongolia – had just drawn brand-new tanks to replenish their losses in days of heavy fighting. The brigade reported fighting a German tank battalion on the oft-contested Hill 258.5, but as Decker was still wandering about behind German lines this appears to refer to the Grossdeutschland assault guns. Soviet infantry advanced through the woods, but the assault guns and recon troops held the hill and kept alive the attempt to surround the woods.

Notes
This is a small scenario, once again taking place on the fateful Hill 258.5. The German player gets to play with some of those odd armored car and halftrack pieces again, plus StuGIIIG assault guns. On its tenth day of heavy combat the Grossdeutschland Division is starting to show some wear, while the Soviets are fairly fresh.

At that’s all for Grossdeutschland at Kursk.

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children, and new puppy. He misses his lizard-hunting Iron Dog, Leopold.

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