II.ϟϟ-Panzerkorps the day before the Prokhorovka Clash

SS-Sturmbannführer Joachim Peiper the day before Prokhorovka

II.SS-Panzerkorps during Operation Zitadelle

Exhausted SS-Panzergrenadier somewhere in the Kursk salient

During the evening of July 11 1943, SS-Obergruppenführer Paul Hausser readied his divisions for an assault on Prokhorovka. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Totenkopf, commanded by SS-Oberführer Hermann Prieß, anchored the left flank of the II.SS-Panzerkorps, while SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Leibstandarte, commanded by SS-Oberführer Theodor Wisch, was in the center. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Das Reich, commanded by SS-Gruppenführer Walter Krüger, moved into its attack zone on the corps' right flank. Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein had prepared orders for his southern forces, with the SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Wiking in lead, to start moving towards Belgorod. While Hausser's Waffen-SS divisions prepared for battle, there was feverish activity on the Soviet side as well, the Red Army consisted of the 18th and 24th Tank Corps and the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army who were reinforced by the 2nd Tank Corps, increasing its strength to about 850 tanks. On the morning of July 12 1943, a climactic engagement of the Battle of Kursk was about to take place. The last fortified elevation on the road leading to the key town of Prokhorovka had been taken by the Leibstandarte SS after ferocious fighting on the previous day. The Battle of Prokhorovka would become known as the greatest clash of armoured forces ever fought in history. Top image: SS-Sturmbannführer Joachim Peiper decorating a young soldier of the Leibstandarte SS with the Iron Cross Second Class on July 11 1943, the day before the Battle of Prokhorovka. Peiper is wearing a SS M40 Palmenmuster camouflage smock. The Waffen-SS was the first military organization in the world to use mottled camouflage clothing and made wide use of a perplexing variety of season patterns and colors. Clips: rhe soldiers endured the stress of battle around the clock during the offensive, attacking again and again in the face of overwhelming odds. Behind the frontline footage of the II.SS-Panzerkorps at Kursk in the summer of 1943. Die Deutsche Wochenschau.