Battle of Kursk

In the summer of 1943 Nazi Germany launched its last major offensive on the Eastern Front, an attempt to cut off a great bulge in the Soviet lines around the city of Kursk, in south-western Russia. The Red Army, forewarned, absorbed the blow in deep prepared defences and then counter-attacked. Fought from 5 July to 23 August 1943, the battle involved millions of men and thousands of tanks and is often counted, after Stalingrad, as the major turning point of the war in Europe.

After the German disaster at the Battle of Stalingrad, Soviet armies surged west and retook Kursk on 8 February 1943. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein then struck back, recapturing Kharkov in March. When the spring thaw halted operations, the front was left with a large Soviet salient centred on Kursk, projecting into the German lines. Adolf Hitler approved a plan, Operation Citadel, to pinch it off with simultaneous attacks from north and south, destroying the Soviet forces inside and restoring German prestige among wavering allies.

The offensive was repeatedly postponed while the Germans waited for new tanks such as the Panther. Meanwhile the Soviet leadership, warned of the plan months in advance, including by the Lucy spy ring, chose to let the Germans attack first. The Red Army built several deep belts of minefields, anti-tank guns and trenches and gathered strong reserves. According to figures widely cited, the Germans committed about 780,000 men and 2,900 tanks to Citadel, against roughly 1.9 million Soviet troops and 5,100 tanks.

The attack began on 5 July. In the north, the 9th Army under Walter Model made only limited progress against the Central Front of Konstantin Rokossovsky and stalled within days. In the south, Manstein's Army Group South, including the II SS Panzer Corps, pushed deeper into the defences of Nikolai Vatutin's Voronezh Front. On 12 July the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army counter-attacked near Prokhorovka in a huge armoured clash. The Soviets suffered heavy losses but stopped the German breakthrough.

On 10 July the Western Allies landed in Sicily. Two days later, as the Soviets opened their own offensive in the north, Hitler summoned his commanders and decided to wind down Citadel so that forces could be moved to Italy. Manstein, believing he was close to success, was allowed to continue briefly, but on 17 July the SS panzer corps was ordered to withdraw. Historians doubt his later claim that victory had been within reach, given the size of the Soviet reserves.

Operation Kutuzov, launched on 12 July against the Orel salient north of Kursk, forced the Germans onto the defensive and opened the way towards Smolensk. On 3 August a second offensive, Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev, struck in the south. Belgorod was liberated on 5 August and Kharkov on 23 August, ending the battle.

Losses are disputed. The German historian Karl-Heinz Frieser calculated about 54,000 German casualties during Citadel and roughly 170,000 for the whole battle, though other historians put German losses far higher. Soviet official figures give some 863,000 casualties, and some historians estimate considerably more. Soviet tank losses were several times German ones, but Soviet industry could replace them. The battle was the first time a major German summer offensive was stopped before it broke through, and from then on the Red Army held the initiative on the Eastern Front for the rest of World War II, and the Soviet Union began the long advance that ended in Germany's defeat.

Our 1938 map shows the Soviet Union before the war, and the 1945 map shows Europe after the German defeat that Kursk helped to bring about.