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.
Soviet troops counterattacking behind T-34 tanks at Prokhorovka on July 12
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