In 1943 the battle of Kursk would go down as the biggest tank battle in human history, a record still held today. The Nazi push to sever the pocked of Soviet troops and armour known as the 'Kursk salient' would involve some 6,000 tanks, 2,000,000 troops, and 4,000 aircraft. As was the pattern with Hitler's invasion of the USSR, the battle didn't go to plan.