INFOGRAPHICS
The Battle of Kursk in central Russia unfolded at almost the same time that the allied landing in Sicily, which largely eclipses it in the western popular memory. But it is impossible to compare these operations, whether in terms of scale, the forces and equipment involved, or outcome. While the Sicilian operation allowed for the landing of allied troops in continental Italy, the failure of German Operation Citadel resulted in the complete collapse of the Wehrmacht’s offensive strategy.
In June 2020, Washington and Moscow resumed talks on renewing the New START Treaty limiting long-range nuclear weapons. If the treaty, due to expire in February 2021, is not prolonged or replaced, there are fears of a new global arms race breaking out.
February 2, 2020 marked the 77th anniversary of the end of the greatest, longest, most bloody battle in human history: It was a struggle that destroyed the previously invincible spearhead of the Nazi war machine which had conquered all of Europe in only three years and seemed about to conquer the world.
Starting on June 22, 1944, the Soviet Union inflicted the biggest defeat in German military history. In the space of a month, Army Group Center, the hard strategic rock on which German domination of Russia’s heartland had rested for three years, was annihilated. It was a cataclysmic defeat on an even bigger scale than Stalingrad.
