As the Battle of Kursk escalates in the East, the Western Allies launch their invasion of Sicily. As the Anglo-American forces sweep across the island, the ensuing political crisis spells the doom of Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism, as the King orders the Duce arrested and is left with a weak government and shattered army, all while their erstwhile German ally prepares to respond.

Part Three: The War

The German and Soviet armies clash at Kursk in the largest tank battle of all time, with the fate of the war in the East hanging in the balance. Despite initial German gains their offensive was blunted, and when the dust settled the Germans had decisively lose the initiative on the Eastern Front.

Part Three: The War

The most pivotal battle of the Eastern Front is fought on the banks of the Volga, with the German 6th Army being cut off and annihilated in a titanic battle that would see the Germans forced to abandon the Caucasus and the strategic initiative decisively shifted to the Soviets.

Part Three: The War

The war witnesses its most dramatic escalation to date as the Axis launch the largest invasion in history, with over three million men and thousands of tanks and aircraft invading the Soviet Union along a front stretching almost 2,000 miles. In addition, this was to be a war of annihilation, with the Germans in particular focused on the extermination of both communism and the peoples of the USSR.