12 World War II Moments (That Hardly Anybody Ever Talks About)

The Battle of Kursk is quite well-known in comparison to the other entries on this list, but despite its impact it gets very little recognition in comparison to the likes of D-Day and El Alamein, the latter of which is often regarded as the definitive WW2 tank battle.

The reason? From an Allied standpoint it was a wholly Russian affair. Given that the Soviet Union were the ‘enemy’ for the next 45 years after the war finished, their accomplishments and the losses Stalin was willing to take to achieve them (approximately 24 million Russians lost their lives in the conflict, combined to fewer than 1 million Brits and Americans combined) were often glossed over in favour of publicising Western heroics.

In Kursk, the post-Stalingrad pushback by the Russians had created a significant bulge in their lines, which the Germans hoped to entrap with simultaneous attacks from territory they still held to the north and the south. The bloody battle waged back and forth before coming to a final showdown in the village of Prokhorovka, where one of the largest tank battles in history (involving 294 German and 614 inferior Soviet tanks) was waged over the course of 12 July 1943.

Ultimately neither side fully completed their objective. The Russian counteroffensive was stalled by the Germans, who were then redeployed to deal with the new threat caused by Allied landings in southern Italy. Never again was an offensive launched against the Red Army, however, who began their press towards Berlin.