Shrouded and myth and legend, not all of it true, the Battle of Kursk, the largest armored battle in history. . . so far. . . began when the Germans launched an attack on the city with 20 infantry divisions and 3,000 tanks. The attack was part of the German summer offensive, Operation Citadel.
The battle would go on for nearly two months. Seemingly like a lot of big battles in the middle of World War Two which the Axis lost, it is considered by some a turning point in the war.
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In real terms, it is not impossible, although it is unlikely, that those alive today shall see a yet greater armored battle.
The battle is important for numerous reasons, not the least of which was that it is stunning to think that at this stage of the war the Germans would be capable of launching such a massive effort on the Eastern Font, and yet they were. Indeed, that was part of the point, as the Germans hoped that a successful operation would bolster the wavering attitudes of Germany's allies, which were known to be considering pulling out of the war.
Operation Citadel itself, in spite of its massive scale, had surprisingly limited objectives, and perhaps is reflective of a growing sense of realism, somewhat, in some German quarters. The Germans did not hope for a breakthrough, but mostly to disrupt the Red Army's plans for the summer and to take large numbers of Soviet POWs, which in turn it would have employed as slave labor.
While this battle shall of course feature in the next month or so, in reality the turning point of the war had already come. The Germans had already lost the Battle of Stalingrad, North Africa, and the Battle of the Atlantic, all within the prior several months. This battle was an enormous effort, but the Germans were not capable of reversing the tide of the war at this point.
The Battle of Kula Gulf off Kolombangara in the Solomon Islands. between the U.S. and Japanese navies, commenced as the US Navy deployed to disrupt the landing of Japanese reinforcements. The battle was a nighttime battle, and the Japanese succeeded in landing 1600 troops at Vila and 90 tons of supplies, to the loss of four ships. The US lost a light cruiser.
A B-17 dropped four inert bombs on Boise, Idaho, which it mistook for its practice target. The event is memorialized by a park in Boise today.
Betty Grable married bandleader Harry James.
