It was certainly one of the greatest tank battles of the war, but the claim that it was the greatest has been challenged by American historian David Glantz and Russian historian Valeriy Zamulin. Although specific numbers are still debated amongst historians, it’s estimated the Battle of Kursk caused around 800,000 Soviet casualties and 200,000 German casualties.Īfter Kursk, Hitler’s forces were on the defensive, constantly reacting to events and slowly being pushed back to Berlin.A rare aerial colour photo of German armour moving into action on the first morning of the Battle of Kursk. The Red Army defences had held firm but a great cost of life. The Soviets had seized the strategic initiative and would hold onto it for the remainder of the war.

It wasn’t long before German forces had been pushed back beyond their original starting point before Operation Citadel had begun.Ī few weeks later, the Soviets launched Operation Rumyantsev on the southern side of the salient and by 23 August the Battle of Kursk was over. Operation Kutuzov was launched on 12 July towards the north of the Kursk salient. With the Germans now withdrawing forces from the East, the Soviets went on the attack. Throughout the Battle of Kursk, the Soviets had held back a large reserve force to deploy the moment the German offensive came to a halt. Operation Roland launched on 14 July and after three days had failed to produce the decisive breakthrough that Manstein had hoped for. The offensive was short-lived military fatigue coupled with the spring rains reduced mobility and ground both armies to a halt by mid-March. The Germans re-organised and launched a counteroffensive under the command of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein.

In early 1943, the Soviets looked to capitalise on their morale-boosting win at Stalingrad and began an offensive against the Germans in the south, retaking territory including the city of Kursk. However, the mechanised Battle of Kursk witnessed the world’s largest armoured confrontation, as two sides equipped with a combined 8,000 tanks squared off. When it came to bloodshed, nothing on the Eastern Front could quite top the meat grinder that was Stalingrad, a bloody urban conflict that caused 2 million casualties and included the total annihilation of the German 6th Army. Many of which occurred on the Eastern Front, as Hitler’s Wehrmacht clashed with Stalin’s Red Army during Operation Barbarossa. WWII, the greatest conflict in human history, had more than its fair share of significant battles.

Tank battle ww2