battle of kursk soldier praying battle of kursk tanks

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.

Battle of kursk soldier praying battle of kursk tanks