The Battle of Prokhorovka

<P>The Battle of Kursk was one of the defining moments of World War II. In July 1943 German forces under Erich von Manstein—one of Germany’s best generals—launched a massive attack in an offensive code-named Citadel. A week later the Soviets counterattacked sparking a huge clash of tanks at Prokhorovka the largest armor battle in history pitting more than six hundred Soviet tanks against some three hundred German panzers. Though the Germans gained a tactical victory destroying huge numbers of Soviet tanks they failed to achieve their objectives and in the end the battle marked a turning point on the Eastern Front. The Red Army gained the strategic initiative and would not lose it.</P>