The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front battle between the forces of Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in southwestern Russia during the summer of 1943, resulting in a Soviet victory. The Battle of Kursk was the single largest battle in the history of warfare. It, along with the Battle of Stalingrad several months earlier, are the two most oft-cited turning points in the European theatre of the war. It was one of the costliest and fiercest battles of the entire Second World War, with it being the single deadliest armoured battle in history and the opening day of the battle, 5 July, being the single costliest day in the history of aerial warfare. The battle was also marked by fierce house-to-house fighting and hand-to-hand combat.
Guderian being transported to the Eastern Front, 1943
A Raupenschlepper Ost, designed in response to the poor roads of Russia, moves materiel up shortly before the Kursk offensive.
Zhukov with Ivan Konev, commander of the Steppe Front, during the Battle of Kursk
A Soviet machine gun crew during the Battle of Kursk.
Günther Adolf Ferdinand von Kluge was a German Generalfeldmarschall during World War II who held commands on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. He commanded the 4th Army of the Wehrmacht during the invasion of Poland in 1939 and the Battle of France in 1940, earning a promotion to Generalfeldmarschall. Kluge went on to command the 4th Army in Operation Barbarossa and the Battle for Moscow in 1941.
Kluge in 1939
Kluge with Hitler during a troop visit in France, 1940
Kluge reviews Légion des Volontaires Français, a French collaborationist formation, November 1941.
Kluge meets with generals of Army Group Centre, August 1942