AIR BATTLE FOR KURSK

On the eve of Operation Citadel, the Red Air Force sought to pre-empt the attack by smashing the Luftwaffe. The risky spoiling operation failed spectacularly

- ANTHONY TUCKER-JONES

On the night of 4 July 1943 there was no rest for the Luftwaffe. Operation Citadel, the offensive against the Soviet salient at Kursk, was scheduled to commence at 03:30 the following day. The Luftwaffe was to put 1,700 aircraft into the air to bomb and strafe the Red Army’s defences. In the north, General Walter Model was supported by the 1st Air Division with 730 aircraft based around Orel under Major General Paul Deichmann. He was responsible for the 6th Air Fleet’s combat operations. In the south under General Hans Seidemann, 1,100 bombers, ground-attack and fighter aircraft, drawn from the 4th Air Fleet, were to fly from airfields around Kharkov and Belgorod in support of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein.

Luftwaffe tipped off

The Luftwaffe’s bases were scenes of organised chaos as row upon row of aircraft stood at cockpit readiness. The plan was that the slower bombers would take off first and circle around while they waited for their fighter escorts to get airborne. However, the Red Air Force had other ideas. Its intelligence showed that Seidemann’s 8th Air Corps, with its extensive experience of flying close air support, had redeployed from the Crimea to the Kharkov-Belgorod sector.