Battle of Kursk or AFVs. The most capable Soviet tank at Kursk was the T-34, the original version was armed with a 76.2mm gun, the gun struggled against uparmoured Panzer IVs, and the frontal armour of Tigers and Panthers was essentially impenetrable. Only the SU-122 and SU-152 self-propelled guns had the power to destroy the Tiger at short range, but they were not equal to the Tiger's 88mm gun at long range, and there were very few SU-122 and the SU-152 at Kursk. Fighting started on the southern face of the salient on the evening of 4 July 1943, when German infantry launched
Battle of Kursk the launch of Operation Kutuzov () against the rear of the German forces in the northern side. On the southern side, the Soviets also launched powerful counterattacks the same day, one of which led to a large armoured clash, the Battle of Prokhorovka. On 3 August, the Soviets began the second phase of the Kursk Strategic Offensive Operation with the launch of Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev () against the German forces in the southern side of the Kursk salient. The battle was the final strategic offensive that the Germans were able to launch on the Eastern Front. Because the Allied invasion