Tanks in the Battle of Kursk

The summer of 1943 was hot in more ways than one. Near Kursk, one of the largest battles of the Second World War was about to begin. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers, along with thousands of armored vehicles and aircraft, were concentrated on both sides of the front. The Wehrmacht was preparing Operation Citadel, hoping to regain the strategic initiative after its defeat at Stalingrad. The fields of the Belgorod and Oryol regions became a vast staging ground, where thousands of fighting vehicles started their engines in the early morning haze.