Some 19 German divisions now occupied northern and central Italy. In his book Russia’s War, the formidable historian Richard Overy writes the Kursk battle “ended any realistic prospect of a German victory in the east.”Īllied control of Sicily, achieved by August 17, was followed by landings on the mainland in September, and, despite Italy’s formal surrender announced on September 8, by the continuation of fascist rule under Mussolini’s military agent Marshal Badoglio in allied-controlled territory.

On July 25, coincidentally, the press reported Soviet leader and dictator Josef Stalin’s announcement that the German summer offensive had been “completely frustrated.” In early August both Orel and Belgorod were recaptured, and further pushes soon forced a wide-front retreat westwards of German forces towards the Dnieper and beyond. On the Eastern front, the Nazi endeavour collapsed within a week and was succeeded by a relentless counter-attack by Soviet forces.

The rapid progress of the Sicily operation was to end the personal rule of Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini through a vote of the Fascist Grand Council in Rome on July 25.

Far more attention was given by Britain’s primary press commentators to the Italian developments (which, after all, involved many British troops) than to the largest set-piece battle in history for the Kursk salient. The next days and hours are an anxious period in which big issues will be decided.” Two days later the paper announced: “From both the news is good.”Ĭlose to half a million US soldiers (roughly half and half British and American) had been landed in Sicily, and well over a million Soviet defending troops in the Kursk salient faced 900,000 attackers relying on 2,700 tanks. On July 13 the Daily Worker commented: “The two battles, in Sicily and at Kursk, grow in intensity. Information received in Britain about progress in both places was inevitably limited. On July 5, south-west of Moscow, a massive tank-centred attack by Nazi Germany commenced against the westward-leaning Kursk “bulge,” located between Nazi-occupied Orel and Belgorod, more than 150 miles further south.įive days later, substantial landings of Western Allied forces took place in Sicily. IN July 1943, 80 years ago, WWII, inherently horrific, as is all war, became still more so.

Battle of kursk buried tanks