![]() The Red Army was in constant retreat, trying to buy time for the country to mobilize for war. The simultaneous drives toward Moscow and Leningrad were intended to deliver such a blow, and were off to a good start. Operation Barbarossa, Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, relied on knocking Stalin’s regime out of the fight quickly, before the country’s massive manpower and industrial capacity could be brought to bear against the smaller German army. ![]() Today’s article is about the battle, which began 80 years ago, on July 5, 1943. The battle of Kursk, while recognized as the largest tank battle in military history, is often considered as something of secondary importance. Most people in the West see the Eastern Front through the optics of the bloody Battle of Stalingrad and the dreadful two-and-a-half-years-long siege of Leningrad. After advancing a mere eight miles, the German attack ground to a halt.Soviet troops counterattacking behind T-34 tanks at Prokhorovka on July 12 To make matters worse, the Germans were now coming under fire from ground-attack aircraft. He had survived arrest, torture and imprisonment during Stalin’s purge of army officers in 1937. ![]() Soviet Commander of the northern sector of the Kursk salient. He was mortally wounded in an attack by Ukrainian nationalists in February 1944. Soviet Commander of the southern sector of the Kursk salient. He committed suicide at the end of the war. ![]() Nicknamed the Führer’s Fireman, Hitler considered Model one of his best generals. He had been key in the defeat of France in 1940 and, earlier in 1943, had stabilised the front after German failure at Stalingrad.Ĭommander of the northern German pincer. ![]() Between them, these four men commanded around 2.8 million men, 8,000 tanks and 4,200 aircraft…Ĭommander of the southern German pincer. ![]()
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