The Battle of Kursk lasted from the 5th of July till the 23d of August 1943 and becam one of the key events of the Great Patriotic War. Russian and Soviet historiography divides the battle into three parts: Kursk Defensive Operation (from the 5th of July till the 23d of July), Orel Offensive Operation (from the 12th of July till 18th of August) and Belgorod-Kharkov Offensive Operation (from the 3d of August till the 23d of August).
In April 1943 German officership developed and approved a military operation under the codename Citadel. Supreme High Command General Headquarters learned the Nazi’s plans for the assault and used a temporary defensive strategy at Kursk salient. They wanted to exhaust the opponent during the defensive battle and create favourable conditions for the Soviet Army counter-attack turning into strategic advancement.
For Citadel purposes German officership gathered 50 divisions including 16 tank and motorized units. Soviet reconnaissance service reported the opponent to have 900 thousand people, 10 thousand arm units and mortars, about 2,7 thousand tanks and over 2 thousand aircrafts. The German army was supported by 4th and 6th Air Fleets.
By the beginning of the battle of Kursk Supreme High Command General Headquarters had formed a group by joining Central and Voronezh fronts. This group included 1,3 million people, up to 20 thousand arm pieces and mortars, over 3300 tanks and self-propelled guns, 2172 aircrafts. Two fronts were managed by Georgiy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevskiy, representatives of Supreme High Command General Headquarters.
Finally, on the 12th of July the largest tank battle of the Second World War took place near Prokhorovka railway station 56 kilometres away from Belgorod. The battle burst out between Nazi’s advancing Army Detachment Kempf tank formation and Soviet counter-attacking troops. In total the battle involved up to 1200 tanks and self-propelled units. The violent combat lasted the whole day, in the evening tank crews and infantry were fighting hand-to-hand.
Soviet historians claim the Wehrmacht to have lost 30 selected divisions including 7 tank ones, over 500 thousand soldiers and officers, 1,5 thousand tanks, over 3,7 thousand aircrafts and 3 thousand arm units. But the Soviet Army lost even more; 863 thousand people died that day. The Red Army lost about 6 thousand tanks in Kursk.
However, the balance of forces now turned in favour of the Red Army, the battle of Kursk created favourable conditions for general strategic advancement.
