Prokhorovka Battlefield and Memorial

Prokhorovka, about 80 kilometres north of Kursk near Belgorod, is the site of the decisive tank engagement of the 1943 battle and arguably the turning point of the Eastern Front. The memorial complex here is one of the most powerful WWII sites in Russia: a white stone rotunda inscribed with the names of units that fought there, a museum of actual tanks and vehicles recovered from the battlefield, and the Church of Saints Peter and Paul built as a memorial to those who died.

The drive from Kursk passes through rolling agricultural steppe that looks much as it did in 1943 — flat, open, and featureless in a way that makes you understand both why the armies fought here and how exposed the men in those tanks must have felt. The complex is open daily and takes half a day to visit properly. Combine it with a stop in Belgorod if you have time.

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A story
On 12 July 1943, around 600 Soviet and 300 German tanks met at Prokhorovka in what became the largest single-day tank engagement of the war. The Soviet T-34s drove straight into the German Tigers at close range to negate the Germans' superior guns — a desperate tactic that meant high losses on both sides but denied the Germans the breakthrough they needed. By nightfall, the steppe south of the village was covered with burning hulks and the German offensive had shot its bolt.

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