Pakfront

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The Pakfront was a defensive military tactic developed by the German forces on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. The Soviets soon copied the tactic, and used it to great effect at the Battle of Kursk in July 1943.

During the large Soviet armoured attacks on the Eastern front in late 1941–1942, the Germans quickly realised that their anti-tank guns, operating individually or in small groups, and with no central commander, were quickly overwhelmed by the numerical superiority of the Soviets.

The pakfront was developed to counter this superiority. A group of up to ten guns were placed under the command of one officer. He was responsible to designate targets and direct the fire of his guns. This allowed the guns to spring effective anti-tank ambushes, with all guns being assigned separate targets and then firing at once, rather than engaging the enemy piecemeal.

The tactic was found to be extremely effective, and soon the Soviets had copied it, often using multiple pakfronts in co-operation with minefields, anti-tank ditches, and other obstacles to channel the enemy armour into their fields of fire. To counter the effectiveness of the Soviet pakfront, the Germans developed the panzerkeil, armoured wedge, but had limited effectiveness.

At the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, Soviet pakfronts slowed the German attack in the south and completely halted the northern German force. The panzerkeil was shown to be an inadequate countermeasure.