The Panzers of Prokhorovka: The Myth of Hitler’s Greatest Armoured Defeat

A ground-breaking new study that transforms our understanding of one of the most famous battles of the Second World War, widely mythologized as the largest tank battle in history.

Today in Russia there are three official sacred battlefields: Kulikovo, where the Mongols were defeated in 1380; Borodino, where Russian troops slowed Napoleon’s Grande Armée before Moscow in 1812; the third is Prokhorovka, where the Soviet annihilation of Hitler’s elite SS Panzer force on 12 July 1943 in the largest armoured clash in history has traditionally been described as a key turning point in the war.

The Panzers of Prokhorovka challenges this narrative. The battle was indeed an important Soviet victory, but a very different one to that described above. Based on ground-breaking archival research and supported by previously unpublished images of the battlefield, Ben Wheatley argues that German armoured losses were in fact negligible and a fresh approach is required to understand Prokhorovka. This book tackles the many myths that have built up over the years, and presents a new analysis of this famous engagement.

Dr Ben Wheatley studied Modern European History at the University of East Anglia (doctorate in 2014) and has been an Honorary Research Fellow at the university since 2016. He is a former Teaching Fellow of the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London, teaching at the Joint Services Command and Staff College. Publications include British Intelligence and Hitler’s Empire in the Soviet Union, 1941-1945 (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017).