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Both sides at the Battle for Kursk suffered terrible casualties. The Germans are estimated to have lost some 200,000 men killed or missing in action. They lost some 2000 tanks and thousands of pieces of artillery. They also lost some 700 planes. The Soviet lost some 250,000 men, killed or missing in action. Some 6000 tanks <ref> Dunn, p. 217</ref>, 3000 guns and one thousand planes are lost during the battle. The Soviet’s had the capacity to replace the men and equipment, but the Germans could not replace the losses. This weakened their position on the Eastern Front. The Battle of Kursk was the last major offensive they launched in Russia. The material damage done to the German Army was massive. The campaign was a strategic Soviet success, despite the fact that the suffered more casualties. For the first time, a major German offensive had been stopped before achieving a breakthrough<ref>Zhukov, p. 117</ref>. The defeat at Kursk was to prove in many ways more decisive than Stalingrad. Winston Churchill, argued that the defeat at Kursk ‘heralded the downfall of the German army on the Eastern Front’<ref> The Times of London, 4 August, 1943, p 4</ref>
==Conclusion==
The Battle of Kursk was a turning point in the war on the Eastern Front. The Germans had failed to reach their objectives and they had suffered huge losses. The German air force after the battle, began to lose the control of the skies. After Kursk the Germans in the East were on the defensive. They had lost the battle for several reasons, overoptimistic planning, a failure to appreciate that the Soviet air force had improved and they underestimated the Soviet defenses around Kursk. Significantly, they also believed that their new weapons would earn them a victory and this overreliance over reliance on new and untested military technologies, such as the Tiger Tanks, played a critical role in their defeat in the most famous tank battle in history.==References==<references/>[[Category:Wikis]][[Category:Russian History]] [[Category:Military History]][[Category:World War Two History]][[Category:European History]] [[Category:20th Century History]] [[Category:German History]]{{Contributors}}==Related DailyHistory.org Articles==*[[Causes of World War II Top Ten Booklist]]*[[How did Joseph Stalin react to the German invasion during WWII?]]*[[How Did the German Military Develop Blitzkrieg?]]*[[Why was France defeated in 1940?]]*[[Why did Germany lose the Battle of Stalingrad?]]</div>{{Mediawiki:WWII}}
