The Battle of Kursk

After Germany’s defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad—a high-priced victory for the Soviets that showed the world that the Germans could be repelled—a humiliated Adolf Hitler planned a second offensive against the Soviets at an Eastern Front bulge or salient centered at the Russian city of Kursk. In preparation for Operation Citadel and in light of his badly weakened army, Hitler recruited World War One veterans up to the age of 50, while allowing previously exempt Hitler Youth to join in the fight.

Major Amassment

As the Germans began amassing men and war machines along the Kursk Bulge—some 500,000 men, 10,000 guns and mortars, 2,700 tanks and 2,500 warbirds of the German Luftwaffe—Russia responded by amassing some 1.4 million men, 20,000 guns and mortars, 5,128 tanks and 2,800 aircraft, setting the stage for the blood bath to come. Despite warnings from many of his generals to abandon the offensive, due to overwhelming fortifications built by the Soviets—including a network of trenches built by the citizens of Kursk that extended more than 2,500 miles—in May of 1943, Hitler delayed his attack due to bad weather, giving the Soviet’s invaluable time to further strengthen their defenses.

First Blood

Hostilities finally began on the morning of July the 5th, starting with a Soviet bombardment of German positions, thanks to a recent British Intelligence breakthrough that broke the German’s infamous Enigma cypher code. Thanks to the Soviet’s strong ground defenses, by July the 10th, the Soviets had halted the German’s northern advance—the same day Allied troops landed on the beaches of Sicily. To the south, however, the Germans made dogged progress at the July 12th Battle of Prokhorovka, a small village 50 miles southeast of Kursk. Now distinguished as the largest tank battle in world military history, the Soviets suffered egregious losses yet managed to repel the Germans from their goal of capturing Prokhorovka, effectively ending Germany’s offensive aspiration on the Eastern Front.

The Beginning of the End

Forced to move Panzer divisions to the defense of Italy, the Germans attempted one last breakthrough south of Prokhorovka, until they were pushed back by a Soviet counteroffensive known as Operation Kutuzov. Winning at great cost—some 850,000 Soviet casualties compared to 200,000 German losses, the Battle of Kursk marked an important shift in Germany’s war fortunes, placing them in an increasingly reactive posture rather than the aggressive Blitzkrieg tactics that saw them sweep across most of Europe at the onset of World War Two, making the Battle of Kursk, a turning point moment in the war against Nazi aggression.