July 12-13
Eastern Front, Ukraine
At Kursk, the Soviets launch a counter-offensive around Prokhorovka and an enormous tank battle develops. Field Marshal von Manstein's Fourth Panzer Army advances 25 miles (40 km) but loses 10,000 men and 350 tanks. Farther north, the Soviet Bryansk and West Fronts begin an offensive around Orel. Adolf Hitler calls off Operation Citadel on the 13th. The last major German offensive on the Eastern Front has been a costly failure with the loss of over 550 tanks and 500,000 men killed, wounded, or missing. It is a major disaster for Germany, not least because the carefully-gathered strategic armored reserves have been wiped out in the fighting.

Sea War, Pacific
At the Battle of Kolombangara, off New Georgia, a Japanese squadron led by Admiral Izaki engages three US light cruisers and 10 destroyers. One US destroyer is sunk and one New Zealand and two US cruisers are damaged. The Japanese lose a cruiser.

Troops of the British Eight Army in Catania, Sicily,
in July 1943. Palermo, the capital, fell at the
end of the month

July 15-23
Mediterranean, Sicily
The US Seventh Army advances westward aiming to seize the capital Palermo with an armored thrust.

July 17
Eastern Front, Ukraine
The Soviet Voronezh Front, just to the south of Kursk, and the Steppe Front, to the west of Kharkov, begin pursuing the German forces, which are now retreating in some confusion.

July 17-18
Mediterranean, Sicily
The British Eighth Army strikes northward toward the Axis stronghold at Catania but meets determined resistance from the Hermann Goering Division on the plain beneath Mount Etna. The British therefore decide to go around Catania toward Mount Etna, while the US Seventh Army moves along the north coast toward Messina.

July 19
Politics, Axis
Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler meet at Fletre in northern Italy. The Italian dictator fails to tell Hitler that his country is to cease fighting and instead endorses the proposal for Germany to assume military control in Italy. The first major Allied air raid is made on the Italian capital, Rome, by US bombers on the same day.

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