![]() ![]() Nothing that the Allies did in this period constituted a decisive contribution. This is primarily because the military weight of the western Allies was noticeable at the front at this time while it was effectively discounted by German planners earlier in the war. The war had already turned against the Axis in Europe by the time the battle of Kursk took place. However, the context in which Kursk took place should also be kept in mind. ![]() At Kursk the Red Army proved that it could defeat a German summer offensive - something that even the victory at Stalingrad had failed to show. During the battle the last hope of a Nazi victory over the Soviet Union faded into oblivion and it has since been considered to be a turning point in the war. This was the last major offensive launched by the Germans on the Eastern Front. It began on July 5th, 1943 and it ended ignominiously eight days later. In the beginning of August, the Soviets began a major offensive around the Kursk salient, and within a few weeks the Germans were in retreat all along the eastern front.The greatest tank battle in history occurred at Kursk. After six days of warfare concentrated near Prokhorovka, south of Kursk, the German Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge called off the offensive, and by July 23 the Soviets had forced the Germans back to their original positions. However, the Soviets had better tanks and air support than in previous battles, and in bitter fighting Soviet antitank artillery destroyed as much as 40 percent of the German armor, which included their new Mark VI Tiger tanks. The German attack began on July 5, and 38 divisions, nearly half of which were armored, began moving from the south and the north. In early July, Germany and the USSR concentrated their forces near the city of Kursk in western Russia, site of a 150-mile-wide Soviet pocket that jutted 100 miles into the German lines. The Battle of Kursk, involving some 6,000 tanks, two million men, and 5,000 aircraft, ends with the German offensive repulsed by the Soviets at heavy cost. ![]()
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