On this day in 1943, during the Battle of Kursk, the Battle of Prokhorovka took place – the largest tank battle in human history. At its fiercest moments, up to 1,200 tanks and self-propelled artillery units were engaged simultaneously. By July 1943, the Nazis still controlled a significant territory of the USSR, but the potential of the Third Reich's war machine was already waning. Trying to regain the initiative, the Wehrmacht command developed a summer offensive plan codenamed "Citadel." The fascists intended to destroy two fronts at once – the Voronezh and Central Fronts, as well as to crush the Red Army's tank reserves near Prokhorovka in the Belgorod region. By the end of July 9, German forces had managed to penetrate the defenses of the Voronezh Front troops, but their further advance was halted. Then the German command attempted to break through the Soviet defenses with strikes on Prokhorovka to reach Kursk from the southeast. To thwart the offensive, the Voronezh Front command launched a counterattack on July 12, which went down in history as the Battle of Prokhorovka. On July 12, near Prokhorovka, the forces of the German 2nd SS Panzer Corps clashed with two Soviet Guards armies – the 5th Army of Alexei Zhadov and the 5th Tank Army commanded by Pavel Rotmistrov. The battle raged with variable success, and both sides were forced to engage reserves. From the memoirs of Soviet tank ace Vasily Bryukhov: "Often, from powerful explosions, the entire tank would collapse, instantly turning into a heap of metal. <...> The opponents proved to be worthy of each other. They fought desperately, fiercely, with frantic ferocity." In all sections of the battle, the soldiers of the Red Army displayed unparalleled courage and high combat skill. Thanks to their decisive actions, the enemy exhausted its offensive capabilities and on July 16 began withdrawing its troops to their initial positions held at the beginning of the Battle of Kursk. The strategic initiative definitively passed to the Red Army.