Kursk, and the Fall of Fascist Italy

CHAPTER 10 · JUL–DEC 1943 · The War Room — WW2, 1936–1945

After Stalingrad the front line bulges around the city of Kursk — an obvious target, and that is the problem. Germany masses its new Panther and Tiger tanks for one more decisive encirclement; the Soviets, warned by spies and their own eyes, spend four months building eight belts of minefields and guns, then simply let the blow land. History’s greatest armored battle — some 8,000 tanks — lasts barely a week before the pincers stall. The exhausted attacker is instantly counterattacked; by autumn the Red Army stands on the Dnieper. Germany will never mount a strategic offensive in the East again

The turn: Prokhorovka and the halt order, 12–13 July.

This chapter is one scene of an interactive atlas: the map repaints as the dates advance, campaigns draw themselves, and every chapter argues its causes and consequences — then a field exam asks you to prove it on the map.