The Biggest Tank Battles of World War II

World War II was fought on a scale unlike anything before or since in human history, and the unfathomable casualty counts are attributable in large measure to the carnage inflicted between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during Hitler’s invasion of Russia and Stalin’s desperate defense.

"A wide-ranging and detailed account of the design and development of what was arguably the best tank of World War II." —Miniature Armoured Fighting Vehicles Association

Fifty years after the end of World War II, historians now are coming to the consensus that Russia played the decisive role in the defeat of Hitler. At least 25 million Soviet soldiers and civilians perished at home and on the battlefield in the bloodiest struggle of our century.

n the pre-dawn hours on June 6, 1944, 160,000 troops prepared to land on the French coast of Normandy. This would become the decisive turning point in World War II in Europe. Although the war would not end for another year, D-Day was the beginning of the end.

Mauled at Stalingrad, the German army looked to regain the initiative on the Eastern Front with a huge offensive launched near the city of Kursk, 280 miles south-west of Moscow. Armed with the new Panther tank, Hitler and Field Marshal von Manstein were confident that they could inflict another crushing defeat on the Soviet Union. What they did not know is that the Soviets knew about the coming attack, and they were ready.