Despite what the old documentaries, websites, and tweets might conclude, even in 2017, it’s
now been stated that Prokhorovka at Kursk was not the Biggest Tank Battle of all time.
David Glantz has said…
This, in fact, is the biggest tank battle of World War 2
And scarcely a word has been written on it.
5,000 Soviet tanks. 3,000 of which make it to the battlefield.
Most of which are destroyed.
Roughly 300 to 350 German tanks in this fight in the Dubno and Brody area.
Unfortunately, Glantz is right when he says "scarcely a word has been written about it".
So, in hopes of finding more information, I’ve purchased this book on the battle of
Dubno, or Dubno-Brody, or Lutsk-Brody-Dubno.
Yes, this battle is so unpopular, historians haven’t come up with a definitive name for
the battle yet.
This book only came out in June of this year (2017) and is the only book in English that
focuses on this battle.
I mean, look how thin it is!
Compare this to all the extensive literature on the Battle of Kursk, and you can see how
little attention this battle has gotten over the years.
I’d love to give you all the detailed information required to go away and know everything about
this battle.
But sadly, this book isn’t very good and actually misses the mark.
It just doesn’t give enough information about the actual battle.
Not only that, but I have my suspicions about this book, and it’s motives, and I’ll
talk about them in a moment.
First though, let’s look at the numbers.
At Kursk, there were at maximum of 2,654 German tanks and assault guns.
The Soviets had a maximum of 3,489 tanks and assault guns, according to the highest numbers
in the sources I have.
Assuming these are the real figures, the total number of tanks for Kursk was 6,143, but could
be less, again depending on the source.
However, Kursk is really split into two battles, the north and the south, and even then, these
were split up into several battles over several days.
If Glantz and others are saying that Brody was bigger than Kursk as a whole, then the
numbers don’t quite
But if they mean it was bigger than Prokhorovka, then yes, yes it was.
At Prokhorovka, which was the main tank battle of Kursk, the Germans had 294 to maybe 306 tanks,
and the Soviets 672 to 850 tanks, depending which source you use.
Taking the maximum numbers for both, this amounts to a maximum total of 1,156 tanks
at Prokhorovka.
Now onto Brody.
There was a total of 4,600 tanks at Brody - 3,800 Soviet vs 800 German tanks, roughly.
But Glantz says that "the counterstroke north and south of Dubno [that] began on 26 June,
[produced] a tank battle of unprecedented proportions (over 2,000 tanks fought along
a 70km (42-mile) front)." (Glantz Operation Barbarossa, kindle location 659)
So yes, if these numbers are correct, the clash at Dubno with over 2,000 tanks, is bigger
than Prokhorovka at 1,156 tanks.
But, for anyone interested, it gets more complicated.
The numbers are all over the place.
While Glantz says there’s 3,800 Soviet tanks vs 800 Germans at Brody in his When Titan’s
Clashed, Isaev says there could be as few as 2,800 Soviet tanks vs 800 German tanks.
In Glantz’s Myths and Realities video, he mentions that there were 5,000 Soviet tanks,
3,000 of which make it to the battlefield.
Assuming he meant 3,800 made it to the battlefield, which is the number he lists in When Titan’s
Clashed, that’s 1,000 more tanks than Isaev says in his book.
And Isaev implies that a portion of the 2,800 tanks he mentions don’t make it to the battlefield.
So, not only is Isaev’s number for the whole battle smaller than Glantz’s anyway, but he’s
also saying that even more didn’t make it to the actual battlefield.
So how can there be such a big discrepancy as this?
5,000 tanks, or 2,800 tanks. Which is it?
Glantz is saying there were 5,000 Soviet tanks, 3,800 make it to the battlefield, and in total
for both sides 2,000 engage on the 26th of June.
Isaev is implying that this number was a lot less.
And this is why I’m a bit reluctant to trust this source.
I think it’s biased.
Not only is the author Russian, so he has an incentive to downplay the number of Soviet
tanks taken into this battle, but his reluctance to say how many tanks there actually were
on any given day, and the fact that he doesn’t say, or even take a stab at, how many tanks
broke down before they reached the battlefield - it just doesn’t add up.
The author of this book could be lowering the numbers on purpose, which is why they differ from
Glantz’s numbers.
He doesn’t mention the 2,000 tanks fighting on the 26th - and he actually downplays the
fighting.
He doesn’t give the numbers on the days, and also implies that there weren’t many
tanks engaged.
In fact, from reading this book, it’s implied that the biggest battles happened on the 23rd,
which is incorrect.
By not giving the numbers, the author is either, biased, or he’s deliberately masking them,
to prove this battle wasn’t as big as Prokhorovka.
But why?
The reason is probably simple - the traditional Soviet narrative of the war says that they were caught
unprepared at the beginning of the war, then they built themselves up over time until they
were finally able to defeat the Germans at Kursk, where they had the most tanks ever.
But if they actually had more tanks at Brody/Dubno, then this doesn’t go in line with Soviet
propaganda, and also is a bit of an embarrassment for any Russian or Soviet national - because
it implies that they lost the biggest tank engagement of all time.
This is also shown in one of the concluding paragraphs of the book -
"It is also worth noting that a detailed study of the Dubno battles reveals that the title
of ‘the greatest tank battle in the history of war’ is discoloured somewhat." (Isaev, Dubno P198)
Well, if it’s not the greatest tank battle in the history of war, why did you write that
it was on the cover of your book?
That doesn’t make sense - but let’s continue.
"Despite what were nominally high figures in terms of the strength of the mechanized
corps on the South-Western Front, a comparatively small number of combat vehicles were successfully
introduced simultaneously into the juxtaposition of enemy tanks." (Isaev, Dubno P198)
Really?
So how many tanks actually engaged?
Are you actually going to tell us?
Nope.
"All too often the tank formations ended up split between different echelons and were
introduced into combat piecemeal. The 75 tanks from the 12th Tank Division, 8th Mechanized
Corps, which reached their starting positions for the counterattack on 26 June, out of the
almost 300 that were listed, could be considered the apotheosis of this." (Isaev, Dubno P198)
You’re giving the worst case scenario here.
You’re also not telling us how many tanks actually reached the battlefield.
You’re not telling us how many were engaged.
You’re not telling us anything.
You have the numbers, but you’re not willing to give them to the reader.
The fact remains that Glantz says the Soviets have 5,000 tanks, with 2,000 not reaching
the battlefield - so either 2,800 or 3,800 tanks that do make it to the battlefield - and, with
German tanks, over 2,000 tanks engage each other on the 26th.
Whereas you say 2,800 Soviet tanks were there originally, and imply that a big portion of
those 2,800 also broke down on the way to the battlefield.
You mask what happened on the 26th of June, and you conclude by saying the numbers were
small.
But how do we know if you don’t give them to the reader?
And then, in your conclusion you downplay the fact that this was the greatest tank battle
of WW2, even though you say it is on the front cover.
Therefore, I’m not willing to trust this book.
It’s a shame that the only English book dedicated to the battle, is not very worthy
as a source. And I know it's translated from Russian, but that's not the point.
It’s proof that we need more books on this battle.
More work needs to be done.
And this is the problem with history. Books like that.
There's too many biases, too many agendas to push.
And too much emphasis is placed on the big popular battles, and not enough on the rest.
So, is Dubno-Brody the biggest tank clash of all time?
Yes - but more work needs to be done, and the only source of information in English
dedicated to this battle is dubious at best.
This video wouldn't have been possible without my Patreons.
You guys have given me the support I need to buy books like this.
And make videos like this possible. So thank you very much. You guys - as always - are awesome!
For anyone interested in seeing how the Battle of Brody actually progressed, I
recommend this video by Jack of War, who gives a nice overview of the battle.
Go ahead, click it, now.
For everyone else.
Thanks for watching, bye for now.