![]() The Red Army began strategic counter-offensives towards Oryol (July 12-August 18) and Belgorod-Kharkov (August 3-23). On July 12, the second phase of the Battle of Kursk began. In the fierce clash the Wehrmacht lost up to 400 tanks and self-propelled guns and went on the defensive. On July 12, when the defensive phase of the Battle of Kursk was still in progress (the Kursk Strategic Defensive Operation of July 5-23) a vast field near the village of Prokhorovka saw what would go down in history as the largest-ever tank battle, with up to 1,200 tanks and self-propelled artillery pieces taking part simultaneously on both sides. On Jthe Nazis’ assault forces launched a pincer-like offensive towards Kursk from the areas of Oryol and Belgorod. The Central Front’ forces under General Konstantin Rokossovsky held the northern flank of the Kursk Buldge and the Voronezh Front under General Vatutin, the southern flank. ![]() Nazi forces in the area numbered 900,000 men, about 10,000 guns and mortars, 2,245 tanks and self-propelled gun mounts, and 1,781 planes.īy the moment the Battle of Kursk began the Red Army’s forces in the area (Central, Voronezh and Stepnoi fronts) numbered 1.9 million men, more than 26,000 guns and mortars, more than 4,900 tanks and self-propelled gun mounts and about 2,900 planes. ![]() The best combat-ready forces were selected for the strategic offensive. The operation that was planned and approved in April 1943 was codenamed Citadel. Nazi Germany’s military command selected it as the scene for the main strategic operation during the 1943 summer campaign. In the course of the Red Army’s winter offensive and the Nazi forces’ counter-strikes in eastern Ukraine there emerged a westward bulge 150 kilometers deep and 200 kilometers wide - commonly referred to as the Kursk Bulge.
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