This shows that time and strength are two opposing factors. This attack, which concentrated a large number of troops, was relatively reduced because it was too late. As for the result of the battle, it was better to launch an attack in time, because it could receive the effect of a sudden attack.

Therefore, if the German army only focused on the outskirts of the Vukursk region and launched a limited-purpose rapid attack in early May, then it is still very likely to achieve favorable results.

In fact, by mid-April, Marshal Li Mo and many other senior commanders had seen that Britain and the United States were likely to suddenly send troops to attack Germany while the German and Soviet troops were in a stalemate. However, the German army now had to fight the Kursk Battle, otherwise the German army would all be trapped in the vast territory of the Soviet Union. The only thing everyone could hope was that Li Mo, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, could quickly win the overall victory of the Kursk Battle as before. Therefore, the date for the German army to launch an attack was set on May 4.

After the end of April, the German Command realized that this was a battle that could not be defeated, because they had already put into the final reserve team to take such a desperate adventure.

After three months of military preparation, the German army had a stronger military force. In the south, Limo's offensive forces, namely Hort's 4th and 5th Armored Army, were under the jurisdiction of: Ultra's 52nd Army, deployed on the left wing, with 6 infantry divisions; Knobel Stewart's 48th Armored Army was deployed in the center, with an infantry division, two armored divisions and the Great German Armored Guard Division; Haussel's SS 2nd Armored Army. There was an infantry division and three SS armored guard divisions.

The Great German Armored Guard Division has a special structure, and its tanks are more organized than those of the armored division. The right neighbor of the 4th Armored Army, south of Bergorod, is the Kempf Cluster, which has three armies, namely: Bright's 3rd Armored Army, which has one infantry division and three armored divisions; Rous's army, which has two infantry divisions; Matenklot's 42nd Army, which has three infantry divisions. The 24th Armored Army of Neilin is the reserve force of the army group, which has the 15th Armored Division and the SS Norman Armored Guard Division.

In total, the Southern Army Group has thirty-two divisions. Twelve of them are armored divisions. Five are armored guard divisions. All the remaining fourteen infantry divisions participated in this operation. The Southern Attack Group has more than 1,500 tanks suitable for combat and 1,500 artillery attacks.

In the north, the 9th and 10th armies of the Model 9th ​​and 10th armies deployed in Orol's outcrop are organized into the 23rd Army on the left and the 41st, 45th, 46th Third Armored Army and 20th Army on the right. The Ezebek cluster has an armored guard division and two armored divisions. It is a reserve force of the group army. Model has a total of 31 divisions. Twelve of them are armored divisions and one is armored guard division, with a total of more than 1,900 tanks. The other fourteen infantry divisions all participated in the battle.

To provide air support to the "fortress" attack, the 6th Air Force in the north and the 8th Air Force in the south (3500 aircraft in total). The 2nd German Army, with seven infantry divisions under its jurisdiction, occupied the area west of the Kursk protrusion. The rear of Model, north of Orel, was covered by the infantry division of the 2nd Armored Army. Historically, it was unprecedented that the German army gathered such a strong assault force in a region.

At this time, the Soviet army also carried out careful defensive preparations throughout the Kursk prominence. They mobilized the forces of five fronts: the Western Front, the Bryansk Front, the Central Front, the Voronezh Front, the Grassland Front and the Southwest Front.

Among them, the Central Front that directly entered the Kursk defense war were the Central Front that defended the northern part of the Kursk protrusion, the Voronezh Front that defended the southern part of the protrusion and the Grassland Front that served as the reserve. The rest of the Soviet army would enter the Soviet counterattack after the German offensive was abrupt.

Among them, the grassland front commanded by Konev is composed of five armies (including a tank army), a tank army, a mechanized army and three cavalry corpses. The Central Front consists of six armies (one of which is a tank army) and two independent tank army. Four armies of the Voronezh Front are deployed in the front, an infantry army and a tank army are reserved as reserves, and there are two tank army and an infantry corps.

The Soviet army had a total of more than 7,000 tanks, more than 30,000 artillery pieces, more than 2,000 aircraft, and more than 3.8 million troops. This was almost all the elite forces of the Soviet army. Although the total Soviet army had 10.2 million troops at this time, this battle wiped out all these elite forces, and Stalin, the tail of the rabbit, could not grow.

Malenkov, a member of the National Defense Committee, and Wasseylevsky and Zhukov, who were then Soviet marshals, were sent to various fronts as representatives of the Supreme Command. The adjacent Bryansk Front and Western Front surrounded the 9th German Army stationed on the Orel protruding headquarters in some areas. These two fronts were ordered to prepare to attack Model's rear. The rear of Model was covered by infantry units in the 2nd Armored Army.

The Soviet army's defense system in the Kursk protrusion was based on several parallel trenches and was composed of civil fortifications unique to the Soviet army. This reminds people of the fortifications used on the Western Front during World War I. The main defense zone ahead has a depth of three miles, with five trenches, and in some places there are more than five. All trenches are connected by traffic trenches, as well as foxgloves and shelter fortifications. These trenches were built with the help of migrant workers.

The second defensive zone is about seven miles away from the first defensive zone, and its engineering structure is similar to the first defensive zone. The third defensive zone is twenty miles away from the second defensive zone. The frontier reserves are arranged at the rear, about forty miles away from the frontline of the defense, and also construct line-type trenches in miles. Therefore, the trenches are hundreds of miles long, passing through farmlands, villages and gentle slopes of grasslands.

There are a large number of anti-tank methods in each defense zone, and a large number of mines were laid in the entire area and many anti-tank support points were built. It is said that the Central Front alone laid about 500,000 mines, with a density of 2,400 anti-tank mines and 2,700 anti-infantry mines per mile. Most of the supporting artillery units assigned to the Central Front and Voronezh Front were the artillery units of the Supreme Command.

The 13th Army alone received support from the 4th Breakthrough Artillery Army's 700 artillery and mortars. The two main fronts, the Central Front and the Voronezh Front, had about 13,000 artillery, 6,000 anti-tank artillery and 1,000 rocket artillery, far more than the artillery possessed by the three fronts when they attacked the Don and Volga Rivers, and more than the Germans used to support the rushing troops.

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