battle of kursk battle of kursk tanks used

It is considered by some to be the turning point of the European theatre of war instead of the Battle of Stalingrad several months earlier. This article first appeared on July 5, 2007.The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front large-scale battle between the forces of Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in southwestern Russia during the late summer of 1943 it ultimately became the largest tank battle in history and resulted in a Soviet victory. Photo: Soldiers with a Tiger I of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Das Reich advance through the southern Voronezh front at the Battle of Kursk. No longer able to dictate the course of the war to an enemy that was only growing in strength, and with its own dwindling forces being siphoned off to meet threats in other theaters, Germany's fate was sealed. Kursk was where the operational initiative on the Eastern Front passed to the Red Army. With the Allied invasion of Sicily on July 11 and a new Soviet offensive beginning in the north, Hitler called off Zitadelle on July 13. Although the Soviets suffered considerably heavier losses, overall German strength was ebbing fast. The decisive engagement was fought at Prokhorovka on July 12, with German and Soviet tanks blasting away at each other from point-blank range. The heavy Tiger I also fought at Kursk, although the bulk of the German armor was composed of up-gunned Panzer IIIs and IVs. The Germans also possessed some excellent tanks ( Panzer in German) – on paper at least – particularly the Panther, which had been designed specifically to take on the T-34. The Soviets were equipped with probably the war's most consistently efficient tank, the T-34, which had given the Germans a nasty shock early in the eastern campaign. The battle that unfolded around Kursk was the apogee of tank warfare.

Battle of kursk battle of kursk tanks used