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. Their numerical superiority, nevertheless, didn’t prevent them to lose three times more men than the German.WWII, the greatest conflict in human history, had more than its fair share of significant battles. In the peak of the battle of Kursk, Soviet forces ascended to nearly two million and a half. 300–400 tanks were lost by the Soviets, while only around 60 were lost by the Nazis. This made impulse the Germans to cancel Operation Citadel and began redeploying its forces to deal with new pressing developments elsewhere, wiith the Soviets regaining territory along a 2,000 km wide front after the battle. The 5th Guards Tank Army suffered significant losses in the attack, but succeeded in preventing the Wehrmacht from capturing Prokhorovka and breaking through the third defensive belt. The battle started when the 5th Guards Tank Army of the Soviet Red Army attacked the II SS-Panzer Corps of the German Wehrmacht in one of the largest tank battles in military history. The Battle of Prokhorovka formed part of the Kursk offensive, and was fought on 12 July 1943 near Prokhorovka, a location really close to Kursk. Panzer V “Panther” tank after the Battle of Prokhorovka, July 1943. Description Panther tank after the Battle of Kursk (36843574951).png
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