Battle of Prokhorovka
프로호롭카 전투
The large armoured clash of 12 July 1943 near Prokhorovka, south-east of Kursk, when the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army attacked the German II SS Panzer Corps. Part of the Battle of Kursk, it cost the Soviets heavy losses and they fell back, but they prevented the Germans from getting past Prokhorovka and breaking the last fortified belt. Postwar accounts of "the largest tank battle in history" have been revised by comparison of the records.
In depth
At 08:30 Pavel Rotmistrov radioed "Steel, Steel, Steel!" and the 18th and 29th Tank Corps, carrying airborne infantry, ran into the 1st SS Panzer Division. A 5th Guards Tank Army document recorded 334 tanks and self-propelled guns irrecoverably lost and 7,607 casualties for 12 to 16 July, while the Germans, who held the field, recovered most of their damaged vehicles. Against the traditional account of 1,200 to 2,000 tanks, comparison of the two sides' archives gives about 910 armoured vehicles engaged. Whether Hoth's turn of the SS panzer corps from Oboyan towards Prokhorovka on 9 July was improvised or planned is also disputed.