The Largest Tank Battle in History

Operation Citadel as a whole. The Battle of Prokharovka
was fought in the bulge seen in the lower third
 of the picture seen in red. Photo obtained through WikiCommons.

It was July 12, 1943. By this point, it was the beginning of the end for Germany's ambitions. The German Army had reached its farthest advance into the Soviet Union and was slowly being pushed back. At one spot, the Soviets had pushed a bulge into the German lines, which is usually bad military tactics. Hitler decided to strike back, hoping to defeat enough of the enemy to turn the tide. In this offensive, code name Operation Citadel, was the largest engagement by tanks the world had ever seen or will see.

It was known as the Battle of Prokhorovka. The Soviets had marshaled around 850 tanks and the Germans had about 450 tanks. Both sides fought at almost point-blank range, and in an amazing feat of armored combat tactics the Germans suffered relatively minor losses while the Soviets lost almost half of their tank forces. In the microcosm it was a major victory.

Unfortunately for Germany, in the grand scheme of things it did little good. Morale was at a rock bottom low, the Soviets could afford such losses and continue to go strong, and the Germans knew that the long slog  back to Germany would cost them many more casualties. Nevertheless, this is a battle for the record books and if you could have been there it would have been a sight to behold. Until next time take care, and thanks for reading.

(Facts and figures sourced from: "World War II" by H.P Willmott, Robin Cross, and Charles Messenger; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Prokhorovka)