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This Forgotten Battle Was The Largest Tank Battle In History
And no, it wasn’t at Kursk
Many people have been erroneously told that the Battle of Kursk, and specifically the Battle of Prokhorovka, were the largest tank battles in history. Prokhorovka featured 978 tanks engaged in total, which is an awful lot. But it wasn’t even close to the largest number of tanks engaged at one time on the Eastern Front. Another battle takes that distinction, and unlike Kursk, it is not a household name. However, like Kursk, it did take place on the Eastern Front and pitted German tanks against Soviet ones.
The Battle of Brody, which took place in 1941, actually takes the crown for the largest number of tanks engaged in a single battle and the largest number destroyed. The Battle of Brody has largely been forgotten because it took place in the chaotic opening days of Operation Barbarossa. It was fought over a week between June 23rd and June 30th, 1941. Operation Barbarossa launched on June 22nd, 1941. That makes Brody one of the first large scale engagements fought on the Eastern Front and it was swept up in the grand umbrella of the “opening phase” in which the Germans completely dominated the Soviets.
During this period, the Germans had complete air superiority and the benefit of surprise and were much better supplied (despite being the invaders.)…
