The Battle of Prokhorovka (12 July 1943), one of the largest tank battles in history, was fought between Waffen-SS units of Nazi Germany and Red Army units of the Soviet Union during the Second World War on the Eastern Front. The climax of the German offensive Operation Citadel, it resulted when the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army intercepted the II SS- Panzer Corps of the German Wehrmacht near Prokhorovka. The Soviet forces were decimated in the attack, but succeeded in preventing the Wehrmacht from capturing Prokhorovka and breaking through the last heavily fortified defensive belt. With the Germans unable to accomplish their objective for Operation Citadel, they cancelled it and began redeploying their forces to deal with new pressing developments elsewhere. The failure of the operation marked the first time in the war that a major German offensive was halted before it could break through enemy defences. The Soviet Union permanently gained the strategic initiative, and Germany permanently lost the capacity to launch offensives of this scale on the Eastern Front.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Prokhorovka
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1561:
Saint Basil's Cathedral, located at the geographic center of Moscow, was consecrated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Basil%27s_Cathedral
1801:
French Revolutionary Wars: A squadron of British Royal Navy ships of the line defeated a larger squadron of ships from the Spanish Navy and French Navy in the Gut of Gibraltar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Algeciras
1917:
Vigilantes forcibly deported about 1,300 striking mine workers, their supporters, and bystanders from Bisbee, Arizona, U.S., to New Mexico. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisbee_Deportation
1963:
In Gorton, England, 16-year-old Pauline Reade disappeared, the first victim of serial killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors_murders
2007:
Two U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopters conducted a series of air-to-ground attacks in Baghdad; classified cockpit gunsight footage was released to the Internet in 2010. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_12,_2007_Baghdad_airstrike
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
haptic: 1. Of or relating to the sense of touch; tactile. 2. (computing) Of or relating to haptics (“the study of user interfaces that use the sense of touch”). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/haptic
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Politicians are always realistically maneuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers. --Buckminster Fuller https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller
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