On 12 July 1943, a week into the German offensive at Kursk, two things happened at once. In the south, near Prokhorovka, the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army threw itself against the II SS Panzer Corps; in the north, the Red Army opened Operation Kutuzov against the Orel salient. Each has its own full story below.
Prokhorovka, 1943
A week into the German offensive at Kursk, the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army counterattacked the II SS Panzer Corps near the village of Prokhorovka. The Soviets lost far more tanks, but the German advance was stopped, and later Soviet claims made it the legend of the largest tank battle in history.1
Read the full story of Prokhorovka, 1943 ›Operation Kutuzov, 1943
The same morning the Bryansk Front and the West Front attacked the German-held salient around Orel, north of Kursk. Hitler called off the Kursk offensive the next day, and by mid-August the Germans had given up Orel and fallen back to the Hagen line.2
Read the full story of Operation Kutuzov, 1943 ›Also on this day
- Battles of Negba, 1948. Kibbutz Negba, guarding a key road in the south, was attacked a second time by Egyptian forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, now surrounded on all sides. The defenders again held, and Negba later served as a forward base for Israeli operations in the Negev.
