Battle of Prokhorovka Battle of Prokhorovka The Battle of Prokhorovka was fought on 12 July 1943 near Prokhorovka, southeast of Kursk in the Soviet Union, during the Second World War. Taking place on the Eastern Front, the engagement was part of the wider Battle of Kursk, and occurred when the 5th Guards Tank Army of the Soviet Red Army attacked the II SS-Panzer Corps of the German Wehrmacht in one of the largest tank battles in military history. In April 1943, the German leadership began preparing for Operation Citadel, with the objective of enveloping and destroying the Soviet forces in the Kursk salient,
Vatican City in World War II for their part doubted any such intentions and wanted nothing to do with Ciano. The Vatican maintained a small force of troops known as the Swiss Guard, During World War II the Vatican's Swiss guards obtained additional submachine guns and gas masks to supplement the existing Vatican arsenal in the event of an attack. With the German occupation of Rome in 1943, after the fall of Mussolini, came rumors of a plot to kidnap the Pope; modern scholars are still at odds over the authenticity of such allegations. The Vatican City itself was never occupied; in fact, the chief concern