Battle of Kursk

The Battle of Kursk was a Second World War engagement between German and Soviet forces on the Eastern Front near Kursk (450 kilometres [280 miles] south-west of Moscow) in the Soviet Union during July and August 1943. The German offensive was code-named Operation Citadel (Unternehmen Zitadelle) and led to one of the largest armoured clashes in history, the Battle of Prokhorovka. The German offensive was countered by two Soviet counter-offensives, Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev (Полководец Румянцев) and Operation Kutuzov (Кутузов). For the Germans, the battle represented the final strategic offensive they were able to mount in the Eastern Front. For the Soviets, the victory gave the Red Army the strategic initiative for the rest of the war.

The Battle of Kursk was the first time a Wehrmacht strategic offensive was halted before it could break through enemy defences and penetrate to its strategic depths.

Battle of Kursk in After the Downfall
King Zgomot of Bucovin opened a gap in his lines to make the enemy aim their horses in there, only to fall into a trap. Hasso Pemsel recognised this as a tactic used by Erich von Manstein just after the Battle of Stalingrad. The Russians used this same strategy on the Germans at the Battle of Kursk, letting the Wehrmacht bleed itself white trying to bang through defences tens of kilometers deep. Hasso Pemsel wondered if the Germans could have achieved a draw on the Eastern Front had they not lost so many panzers in that one campaign.