German Army Detachment Kempf (ARMEE-ABTEILUNG "KEMPF") was a Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

 formation on the Eastern Front

Eastern Front (World War II)

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...

 during World War II. Part of Army Group South

Army Group South

Army Group South was the name of a number of German Army Groups during World War II.- Poland campaign :Germany used two army groups to invade Poland in 1939: Army Group North and Army Group South...

, Detachment Kempf saw action during Operation Citadel (Zitadelle), the German attempt to cut off the Kursk

Kursk

Kursk is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym Rivers. The area around Kursk was site of a turning point in the Russian-German struggle during World War II and the site of the largest tank battle in history...

 salient and crush the large part of the Russian army. Otherwise known as the Battle of Kursk

Battle of Kursk

The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...

 (5 July - 23 July 1943), this action amounted to the largest set-piece battle in World War IIhttp://web.archive.org/web/20091026215617/http://geocities.com/armysappersforward/kursk.htm. Kempf

Werner Kempf

General Werner Kempf was a Panzer General in the German army during World War II who was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves ....

 Army was involved on the southern flank of the gigantic salient around Kursk, where its units formed the eastern half of a two-pronged armored attack. Beginning on the night of 4/5 July 1943, III Panzerkorps, Kempf Army's primary attack formation, spearheaded the thrust east of Belgorod, with XI. Armeekorps

XI Army Corps (Germany)

-Commanders:* Artillery General Emil Leeb, 1 September 1939 – 1 March 1940* Infantry General Joachim von Kortzfleisch, 1 March 1940 – 6 October 1941...

 and XLII Armeekorps guarding its flanks. Originally, Kempf Army had orders to push east and block Soviet reinforcements from reaching vital areas of the German attack at the south end of the Kursk salient, but late on 8 July Field Marshal von Manstein redirected Detachment Kempf northward in order to assist another unithttp://web.archive.org/web/20091026215617/http://geocities.com/armysappersforward/kursk.htm. By the middle of July it had become clear to German military commanders on the Eastern Front that Operation Citadel would not succeed. Although Army Detachment Kempf's central armored corps, III Panzerkorps, was experiencing comparative successes, the overall situation on both the southern and northern faces of the salient was one of stalemate. For a force such as the Wehrmacht, which excelled in Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg

For other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...

-style attacks that relied on speed rather than numerical superiority, this was not a tenable situation. However, to the Soviets, who enjoyed numerical and material superiority, this was ideal. Days after the German armored thrusts into the southern flank of the Kursk salient ground to a halt before fierce resistance, the Red Army launched a massive counteroffensive. Reinforced Soviet forces succeeded in pushing the Germans back to and beyond their starting points for Operation Citadel. Army Detachment Kempf retreated with the rest of Army Group South.

Army Detachment Kempf Order of Battle for Operation Citadelhttp://web.archive.org/web/20091026215617/http://geocities.com/armysappersforward/kursk.htm

~ III Panzer Corps
~ 6th, 7th, & 19th Panzer Divisions, 168th Infantry Division

~ XI Army Corps
~ 106th, 198th, 320th Infantry Divisions

~ XLII Army Corps
~ 39th, 161st, 282nd Infantry Divisions