It would not be an exaggeration to say thattank battles of the Second World War are one of its main images. How are the trenches the image of the First World War or nuclear missiles of post-war confrontation between the socialist and capitalist camps. Actually, this is not surprising, since tank battles of the Second World War largely determined its character and course.
Not the last merit in this belongs to one ofchief ideologists and theorists of motorized warfare, German General Heinz Guderian. He largely owned the initiatives of the most powerful blows with a single fist of troops, thanks to which the Nazi forces achieved such dizzying successes on the European and African continents for more than two years. Tank battles of the Second World War especially gave a brilliant result at its first stage, defeating outdated morally Polish equipment in record time. It was Guderian’s divisions that ensured the breakthrough of the German armies under Sedan and the successful occupation of the French and Belgian territories. Only the so-called "Dunkir miracle" saved the remnants of the armies of the French and British from total defeat, allowing them to reorganize in the future and protect England at first in the sky and prevent the Nazis from concentrating absolutely all their military power in the east. Let us look a little more closely at the three largest tank battles of this entire massacre.
Prokhorovka, tank battle
In the mass consciousness of our compatriotsrooted the idea that this particular battle was the largest tank battle of the war. And indeed, the amount of force here was involved a lot! About 1500 tanks on both sides, approximately in equal proportion. This won battle in July 1943 was one of the greatest pages of our victory and an important component of the attack on the Kursk Bulge. At the same time, in spite of military glory and wide popularity, not the biggest battle took place on Prokhorovsky field. Larger battles took place on the Eastern Front two years earlier, in the most difficult period of the war, when the Red Army retreated on all fronts. And, unfortunately, these battles were devastatingly lost, which is why our official history was forgotten. Yes, and there was no need to darken the joy of the victorious people, and so survived many hard days. After the end of the war, this fact was of serious importance only for specialized historians, which is why Prokhorovka remained the most important place for the collision of combat vehicles. However, we will highlight the tragic moments of national history.
The tank battles of World War II: the battle of Senno
This episode occurred at the very beginning of the Germaninvasion of the USSR and became part of the battle of Vitebsk. After the capture of Minsk, the German units advanced to the confluence of the Dnieper and the Dvina, intending from there to launch an offensive against Moscow. On the part of the Soviet state, two tank divisions participated in the battle, numbering more than 900 combat vehicles. At the disposal of the Wehrmacht there were three divisions and about a thousand serviceable tanks, supported by aircraft. As a result of the battle of July 6-10, 1941, Soviet forces lost more than eight hundred of their combat units, which opened up the possibility for the enemy to continue their advancement without changing plans and launch an offensive in the direction of Moscow.
The largest tank battle in history
In fact, the biggest battlehappened even earlier! Already in the first days of the Nazi invasion (June 23-30, 1941) between the towns of Brody-Lutsk-Dubno, in Western Ukraine, there was a clash involving more than 3,200 tanks. In addition, the number of combat vehicles here was three times greater than that under Prokhorovka, and the duration of the battle was not a single day, but a whole week! As a result of the battle, the Soviet corps were literally crushed, the armies of the South-Western Front suffered a quick and crushing defeat, which opened the way for the enemy to Kiev, Kharkov and the further occupation of Ukraine.
