Despite concerns expressed by commanders such as General Heinz Guderian in May 1943, Adolf Hitler remained committed to an offensive on the eastern front after the tremendous German loss at Stalingrad concluded in February. It is significant as the last major offensive that Nazi Germany was able to launch on the eastern front.

The battle was fought over a vast front, stretching out from the city of Kursk in a salient that was 160 miles long on a north-south axis and approximately 100 miles wide from east to west. It is a battle that many Americans and others know little or nothing about, yet is significant as the largest tank battle in history. It is against this backdrop that we should understand the Battle of Kursk. Estimates vary, but approximately 23 million to 27 million Soviet citizens died before the war was over. As examples, more than 3.5 million German and German-allied troops were involved in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, that launched the war on the eastern front. However, what is beyond dispute is that the massive numbers involved in the Nazi-Soviet conflict simply tower over comparable theaters in World War II, or any other conflict for that matter.

Scholars and historians seek precise statistics to understand what happened, and the descriptive term “fog of war” is a convenient but good concept to understand why precision is often elusive.

The war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in World War II is noted for the enormity of the conflict.

Kursk tank battle