![]() ![]() With the flank of the First Army exposed, the Germans could thrust to the English Channel which would encircle and destroy the Allied forces. When the Allied armies advanced into Belgium according to the Dyle Plan, they would be tied down by German offensive operations in eastern Belgium at Hannut and Gembloux. The delay was to entice the Allies into believing the main thrust would, like the Schlieffen Plan in World War I, come through Belgium and then down into France. The German breakout of the Ardennes was scheduled for 15 May, five days after the German attacks on the Netherlands and Belgium. ![]() The primary purpose of the Germans was to tie down the strongest elements of the French First Army and keep it away from the main German attack by Army Group A through the Ardennes, as laid down in the German operational plan Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), by General Erich von Manstein. It was also the largest clash of tanks in armoured warfare history at the time. It was the largest tank battle in the campaign. In the beginning of August, the Soviets began a major offensive around the Kursk salient, and within a few weeks the Germans were in retreat all along the eastern front.The Battle of Hannut was a Second World War battle fought during the Battle of Belgium which took place between 12 and at Hannut in Belgium. After six days of warfare concentrated near Prokhorovka, south of Kursk, the German Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge called off the offensive, and by July 23 the Soviets had forced the Germans back to their original positions. However, the Soviets had better tanks and air support than in previous battles, and in bitter fighting Soviet antitank artillery destroyed as much as 40 percent of the German armor, which included their new Mark VI Tiger tanks. The German attack began on July 5, and 38 divisions, nearly half of which were armored, began moving from the south and the north. ![]() In early July, Germany and the USSR concentrated their forces near the city of Kursk in western Russia, site of a 150-mile-wide Soviet pocket that jutted 100 miles into the German lines. The Battle of Kursk, involving some 6,000 tanks, two million men, and 5,000 aircraft, ends with the German offensive repulsed by the Soviets at heavy cost. ![]()
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