The battle of Kursk occurred in July 1943 around the city of Kursk in Western Russia. Hitler and the German army launched operation Citadel which was Germany's last chance to regain their dominance on the eastern front. Germany came in with tanks, artillery, air power and more but the Soviets had had enough time to prepare for this battle and in the end, Germany lost.
After a year of fighting a large salient (an outward protruding bugle of land on a battle line) and at the center was the Russian city of Kursk. Hitler wanted to control Kurk's railways and road because it would give him a tactical. In March of 1943, German Field Marshal Erich Von Manstein wanted to try and seize Kursk while the Soviet army was tired. Instead, the Wehrmacht (Germany's unified military forces) decided to prepare a latter attack along the Kurks bulge and so they lost their advantage. Over the next couple of months, the German began to prepare for battle. At the time, however, the Soviets had discovered that the Germans were planning something and so they began producing massive amounts of high-quality war machines. By the time operation Citadel was ready both sides were heavily armed, well manned and well prepared to defeat the other side.
Germany was known for its Blitzkrieg tactics- tactics in which they concentrated firepower in a narrow area and confused and took down the enemy- had planned to use this tactic in the north and south of the Kursk bulge and they wanted to meet at Kursk in the middle of the salient. Despite warnings from his generals to not proceed with Operation Citadel, Hilter continued to move forward with the plan although he did delay it. The Soviets took advantage of this delay and amped up their defense even more. For the blitzkrieg to be successful they needed the element of surprise but by the time they were ready to launch Operation Citadel, they had lost their element of surprise. Even worse, the British had cracked the German codes and had been sending German intelligence to the Soviets.
On the morning of July 5th, 1943 Operation Citadel was ready to launch. However, before the Germans could strike the Soviets unleashed a bombardment. It delayed the Germans but didn't give a major impact. Next, the Germans unleashed their attack in the northern and southern parts of the salient and had ground strikes. Later that morning the Soviets attempted a strike on German airfields but were unsuccessful. The Soviets ground defenses were strong and prevented the Germans from penetrating the armored salient. In the south, the Germans had more success. This attack occurred in the city of Prokhorovka. Here the Soviets suffered great losses but they still kept the Germans from capturing Prokhorovka and breaching the Soviet defensive belt. This effectively ended the German offensive. On July 10, Allied troops landed in Sicily, forcing Hitler to abandon Operation Citadel and move his division towards Italy to fight the allies. During this, the German attempted a small offensive attack in the south called Operation Roland but they ultimately failed. During all this, the Soviets launched a counteroffensive, Operation Kutuzov in the north on July 12th. The operation was very successful and ended up pushing the German army back behind the original start point of Operation Citadel.
In the end, the Soviets won the Battle of Kursk and stopped Hitler from conquering Russia. This win, however, came at a great cost. They suffered many casualties and loss of armament. Germany was never able to regain their strength on the Eastern Front. After this things started to go downhill for Hitler and Germany.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-kursk
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