The Battle of Kursk ends: after six weeks of the largest, fiercest tank battle of the Great Patriotic War (World War II), dictator Adolf Hitler, of Germany calls off “Operation Citadel.” Field Marshall Erich von Manstein, of the Army of Germany, had amassed a force of 900,000 men, 2,500 aircraft, 10,000 artillery pieces and 2,400 tanks.  Field Marshall Georgi Konstantinovich Zhukov, of the Soviet Red Army, had at his disposal nearly twice that of the Germans.  Hitler felt confident of defeating the Red Army, after his victory at Kharkov, three months previous.  But with the allied (United Kingdom and United states) invasion of Sicily, and his lack of confidence in his Italian ally, Benito Mussolini, there was little choice but to call off the offensive to shore up the second front.  Some historians see the battle of Kursk, and not the battle of Stalingrad, as the turning point in the Great Patriotic War, as Hitler was never able to mount a serious offensive again in the east, and never won another battle there.

       [added 5/9/2025]