After a crushing loss at Stalingrad, the German war machine regrouped in early 1943 to stave off total defeat, but it could not stem the rising Allied tide. In the Mediterranean, Rommel’s early successes in Africa were erased by the surrender of Tunisia, and German forces barely escaped Sicily before the Allies seized the island. On the Eastern Front, Soviet T-34s beat German armour in the massive tank battle at Kursk. At sea, the Allies countered the U-boat threat, and in the air, Allied forces dominated the Luftwaffe and took the war to the German home front.