August 23 Russia celebrates the Day military glory. Exactly 74 years ago, in 1943, the victory of the Red Army ended the long and terrible Battle of Kursk, which lasted over a month and a half - from July 5 to August 23, 1943. In this battle, forever included in the domestic and world military, the Nazi army suffered another crushing defeat from the Soviet troops. Kursk and Stalingrad are the two most important turning point battles of the Great Patriotic War. The world has not yet known such a grandiose and intense battle of tank armies, which took place in 1943 on Kursk Bulge.
Until now, there are quite serious differences in the assessment of the manpower and weapons of the parties in the Battle of Kursk. So, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation calls such a number personnel: The Red Army - 1 million 336 thousand military personnel, Nazi Germany - over 900 thousand military personnel. German historians usually talk about a different balance of power - about 1.9 million Red Army soldiers and 700 thousand soldiers and officers of the German army. This is understandable - the German authors would like such an impressive victory to be explained by the very significant numerical superiority of the Soviet troops over the Nazis.
In fact, the victory at Kursk was the result of the superiority of Soviet military leaders over the aces of Hitler's strategic planning. The history of the attempted offensive of the Wehrmacht in the Kursk direction began with the fact that Colonel-General Kurt Zeitzler, who occupied in 1942-1944. post of chief of the general staff ground forces Germany, made a proposal to organize an offensive against the "ledge" of the Red Army, which went into the positions of German troops near Kursk. And so the plan of attack was born. Initially, Adolf Hitler did not agree with Zeitzler's opinion, since a number of military generals, including Walter Model, told the Fuhrer about all the difficulties that the German troops would face if the project was implemented. But in the end, Hitler accepted Zeitzler's offer. After the plan was approved by the Fuhrer, the offensive of the German troops on the Kursk Bulge became a matter of the near future.
The operation plan received the symbolic name "Citadel" - and this is not accidental, since Hitler wanted to emphasize with this name that the Wehrmacht was defending the heart of Europe at the Kursk line. In Operation Citadel, Hitler saw a chance to seize the initiative and launch a new offensive to the east, "winning back" for Stalingrad and pushing back the Soviet troops. The Nazi command approached the organization of the operation very seriously, including in terms of information support. Appropriate instructions were given to the propaganda department, since the idea of an offensive was becoming less and less popular in the army. Goebbels' propagandists were tasked with explaining to the personnel the need for a new offensive. On the other hand, on a more global scale, the propaganda support of the operation was supposed to create the appearance of the former might of the Nazi troops, which, in the opinion of the Nazi staff officers, would have made it possible to delay the opening of a second front in Europe by the Anglo-American troops. 
The Nazi troops that took part in the Battle of Kursk were commanded by the commanders of the Third Reich, glorified in battles. In the southern (Prokhorovsky) section of the Kursk Bulge, the German troops were commanded by the commander of Army Group South, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein. A talented commander, he had a reputation as the best Wehrmacht strategist and enjoyed great confidence in the Fuhrer. Army Group Center was commanded by Field Marshal Hans Günther von Kluge, also an experienced military leader. However, Kluge showed himself to be an opponent of the Citadel operation plan, which earned the displeasure of the command. The Citadel plan was also criticized by Colonel-General Walter Model, who commanded the 9th Army. Model insisted that the command supply him with more armored vehicles, since he was well aware that the balance of power was not in favor of the Wehrmacht. Model demanded from the command and replenishment of infantry divisions subordinate to him.
Against Manstein, Kluge and Model, the Red Army went into battle under the command of famous Soviet military leaders - Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, General of the Army Nikolai Fedorovich Vatutin, General of the Army Ivan Stepanovich Konev, General of the Army Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky. The Battle of Kursk became a clear example of the ultimate superiority of the Russian army and Russian military art. Many prominent German military leaders were forced to admit this as well. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, who led the development of Operation Citadel, later described it as the last German attempt to maintain positions on Eastern Front. He also acknowledged that the Battle of Kursk played a decisive role in the German war against Soviet Union. Colonel General Heinz Wilhelm Guderian, who during the operation held the post of inspector general of the armored forces, also emphasized that after the failure of the Citadel, the initiative on the Eastern Front completely passed to the Red Army.
The well-known military historian Karl-Heinz Friser, who devoted a lot of time to a detailed study of the Citadel operation, also agrees with the opinion of the German generals regarding the events on the Kursk salient. According to the historian, the battle can be considered the line after which the defeat of the German troops in the war on the Eastern Front began to be perceived by both the generals and ordinary officers and soldiers in a completely different light.
Of course, the failure of the entire campaign against the Soviet Union by the time of the Battle of Kursk was already well known to everyone, but before the Battle of Kursk there was still some hope. Kursk has become frank evidence of the approaching end of the Third Reich. After the complete defeat of the German troops on the Kursk Bulge, Adolf Hitler was furious. But, without changing his character, the Fuhrer immediately laid all the blame for the failure of the operation he personally approved on the field marshals and generals who were in direct command of the troops.
The consequences of the Battle of Kursk were very large-scale. In fact, it completed a cardinal turning point in the course of the Great Patriotic War, the starting point of which was the great Battle of Stalingrad. As you know, Stalingrad meant the final transition of the Red Army from defense to a strategic offensive against the enemy. At the beginning of 1943, the blockade of Leningrad was broken, an offensive was launched in the North Caucasus (including the liberation of the strategically important Rostov-on-Don), the liberation of the Donbass began, and then the Left-Bank Ukraine.
The significance of the Battle of Kursk is also colossal for the overall results of the Second World War. Thanks to the victory of the Red Army, there was a further and very serious deterioration in the positions of Germany and her allies in all theaters of military operations. Almost immediately after the start of the fighting on the Kursk Bulge, the Allied troops landed in Sicily. The position of fascist Italy became catastrophic. It was the actions of the Soviet troops on the Kursk salient that contributed to the success of the allies in Italy. The Red Army drew off the huge forces of the Nazi troops, preventing the German command from transferring divisions from the Eastern Front to Italy. As a result, in the south of Europe, the Nazi forces were insufficient to successfully resist the impending landing of the Anglo-American troops.
However, despite the obvious victory of the Red Army in the Battle of Kursk and the consequences that it led not only to the war on the Eastern Front, but to the entire Second World War as a whole, today there are a large number of falsifiers of history who set as their goal downplay and distort the contribution of the Soviet Union and the Red Army to the victory over Nazi Germany. The first line of falsification came from those German generals, officers and military historians who explained the defeat at the Kursk Bulge as a pure accident. In fact, the falsifiers did not go far from Adolf Hitler, who was sure that if other generals had commanded the armies, the Wehrmacht would have won.
The defeat of the Nazis in the Battle of Kursk was determined not only and not so much by the human factor, the miscalculations of the command, but by the whole set of circumstances that had developed by this period of the war. An important role was played by the heroism of Soviet soldiers and officers, with whom the Wehrmacht military personnel, with all their military professionalism and a developed sense of duty, could not win. Our people fought on their land, for their people and their homeland - and this was the main explanation for the fact that they were ready to fight the enemy to the last. Especially after the atrocities that the Nazis committed in the occupied territories during the two years of the ongoing war.
The second line of falsification, very common in recent times, is to attribute the victory of the Red Army on the Kursk Bulge to the success of the Anglo-American troops that landed in Sicily. Like, the allies, having organized the landing of their divisions in Italy, diverted the attention of the Nazi command and the Wehrmacht forces from the Eastern Front. One of the fairly common statements of falsifiers of history is the myth that it was precisely those Nazi divisions that fought in Italy that were not enough to win the Battle of Kursk.
In fact, despite Hitler's initial plans to send three SS divisions to Italy from the Eastern Front, in the end only the SS Leibstandarte division went to the Apennines. Moreover, the armored vehicles of the division remained on the Eastern Front - at the disposal of the Das Reich division. It is unlikely that the presence of only foot personnel of the SS division could have caused a radical turning point in the Battle of Kursk and the Nazis would have emerged victorious from it.
Compared to the intensity of the situation on the Eastern Front, including the Battle of Kursk, the fighting in Sicily looks very modest. 13 divisions, 3 tank brigades, as well as allied special forces landed there. The total number of allied troops that landed was no more than 470 thousand people. They were opposed by 40 thousand German soldiers and about 300 thousand Italian troops, who were very unreliable and ineffective. Thus, the Allied troops were almost 10 times the number of the Nazi troops and the relatively combat-ready Italian units. A completely different situation developed on the Kursk Bulge, where, according to the Russian military department, 1.3 million Soviet soldiers fought against 900 thousand German soldiers.
This myth is beneficial to those who are interested in "expropriating" the victory in World War II from the Soviet Union. The arguments about the Battle of Kursk, in which "if only" the Nazis could have won, fit perfectly into the rest storyline falsification of the history of the Second World War. The attempt to move the Soviet Union and the Red Army from the position of a real winner in World War II plays into the hands of the United States and Great Britain, which in the writings of falsifiers of history appear as the main fighters against Nazism, without whom there would have been no victory over Nazi Germany. Of course, both the US and Britain also made a huge contribution to the victory over Germany and its allies. It is especially large-scale in the Asia-Pacific region, where the Anglo-American troops opposed the entire power of the Japanese Empire, as well as in Africa, where the allies waged war against Germany and Italy. But why take someone else's victory for yourself?
Of course, the victory in the Battle of Kursk was also very hard for the Soviet Union. Both sides suffered colossal human losses, on the number of which there are also numerous differences. The losses of the Red Army in the Battle of Kursk amounted to 254,470 people killed, missing and captured by the Germans. Another 608,833 people were wounded and sick. Recall that, according to the Ministry of Defense, 1.3 million people participated in the battle, of which more than 860 thousand people account for the dead, prisoners, missing, sick and wounded. "In the ranks" remained a minority of participants in the Battle of Kursk. But at the cost of such colossal losses, the Red Army still managed to stop the advance of the Nazis. Approximately the same ratio among the Nazis. Of the 900 thousand soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht and the SS, the total losses, according to Soviet side, amounted to approximately 500 thousand people.
On March 13, 1995, in accordance with the federal law "On the days of military glory (victory days) of Russia", the Day of Military Glory of Russia was established - the Day of the defeat of the Nazi troops by the Soviet troops in the Battle of Kursk in 1943. Remember this memorable date of all Soviet soldiers is one of the few modest things we can do today, 74 years after those dramatic events. People born back in 1943 have long retired, but the memory of those dramatic events is still alive.
“On the Trosna-Maloarkhangelsk sector, where the enemy assumes the main blow, defensive measures have been completed. Here the enemy has a particularly heavily fortified system of positions, a strong, carefully dispersed tank defense, as well as an unprecedentedly strong artillery and a large number of Katyushas. In the depths of the enemy area, especially near Kursk and Maloarkhangelsk, numerous units of the ground forces are assembled, whose striking force consists mostly of tank formations. The number of enemy aircraft corresponds to the number of its ground troops.
(Order of the General Model, June 14, 1943; E. E. Shchekotikhin, Battle on the Soborovsky field: south of Orel, pp. 44-45).
In the book of the candidate of historical sciences Yegor Yegorovich Shchekotikhin, based on a large number of documentary sources: both Soviet and German, the defensive operation of the troops of the Central Front in the Oryol-Kursk direction (from July 5 to July 12, 1943) is outlined.
One of the German sources describes the battles of the first two days of the Battle of Kursk in the area of the city of Maloarkhangelsk. For the combat chronicler officer of the 216th Infantry Division, on the eve of July 7, it is clear: "Operation Citadel failed."
Shchekotikhin, E. E. Battle on the Soborovsky field: south of the Eagle / Egor Shchekotikhin. - Eagle: Publisher Alexander Vorobyov, 2003. - 456 p.
Near Maloarkhangelsk
The Russians settled down in deep echeloned. a well-built and mined high ground trench system that gave them a good view of our defensive positions.
On the right flank of the 348th Infantry Regiment there is a densely sown field stretching almost to our very positions and a wooded area with large settlements (Maloarkhangelsk). Assault groups can't get to the top. The results of our aerial reconnaissance were insufficient, aerial photography was of poor quality.
The section of the 348th regiment was 3 km. Task for July 5: take heights 253.2 and 254.1, maintain contact with the 14th regiment of the 78th division advancing from the right. At first, the attack developed quite smoothly. The 1st battalion approached the field in front of Hill 253.3, but fell under enemy barrage fire and, having suffered heavy losses, lay down in front of the minefield. There were no open passages. The first losses in parts engineering troops- mines with a wooden case cannot be detected with a mine detector. At 7 o'clock the 1st Battalion was hit by heavy machine-gun and rifle fire, which the Russians fired from the trenches and from positions in front of Hill 253.2. The battalion retreats 300 meters to reorganize the units. Already by 9.45 ten officers were killed and wounded. All advanced NPs were lost.
The 3rd battalion approached the front row of enemy trenches at 150 meters. 16 prisoners were taken. At 6.30 45 soldiers of the battalion were already in the enemy trenches, but the battalion could not take the height of 254.1.
The prisoners reported that the 8th division had been put into action on the Russian position and that there were minefields only in front of the first defensive line.
The 2nd Battalion was ordered to advance to Hill 254, 1. And this attack was stopped by enemy mortar fire right in front of the trenches. All officers were killed and advanced NPs were destroyed. At 18.20 the order was given for a third attack. The 1st battalion, with assault guns and with a corps sapper battalion, should take the height of 253.2. The Russians repulsed this attack as well. By order of the senior commander, the attacks on the site were suspended. The division appreciated the readiness of the soldiers of the regiment for self-sacrifice, 70 percent of the combat strength was lost by the 348th regiment.
July 6th A little later than 3 o'clock, predawn twilight set in, fog descended. In some places it densely covers the ground. It's strangely quiet. At night, all units, having stocked up with everything necessary for the attack, silently took up their positions. The sappers made a passage in the minefield in the direction of the main attack and marked it with white shreds. Next to each other in a trench stretching 200 meters to the rear from the front line of defense, lie the soldiers of the combined reinforced battalion of the 396th regiment. The battalion commander climbs to the edge of the trench. In the distance, the grunt of a dive bomber can be heard.
3.20. 10 minutes before the start of the offensive. The detachment moves from its place special purpose 10th company and after a few minutes disappears in a light haze of fog in the direction of the Russian stronghold. It is followed by branches of the 11th company. On the left, assault squads of the 9th company make their way through the wire and minefields. Not a single shot has yet been fired. The hitch of the 9th company at the long barrier: after all, mine clearing was not done well enough at night. Shots are heard, short bursts of automatic weapons and explosions. Meanwhile, a dive bomber is making a circle above us. 3.30. Hell has begun! The fire of light and heavy artillery, heavy mortars, dive bombers drop their cargo one by one. The most terrible thing seems to be the cutting sound of easel machine guns.
The forward detachments of the battalion are already 1000 meters from the front line of defense. Assault guns move with them. The order to advance one after another along the road either does not reach everyone, or people think that they know better what to do and how to do it. They attack in a chain, are blown up by mines, and soon half of the 10 assault guns are lost.
Without stopping, the companies move forward along the grassy road. During the attack, they do not pay attention to how prolonged throws exhaust the soldiers, how dry lips and how sweat-soaked clothes stick to the bodies. Artillery now fires to blind and suppress the enemy. The shots of his powerful guns are no longer heard. The dive bombers are back.
The smoke of battle spreads over the earth. Shouts of "Hurray!" are heard, the Russians repel the attack. Soon their artillery drowns out ours. The fire strike reaches the battalion headquarters. Heavy losses have been suffered. The further the battle continues, the further the enemy's actions are transferred to the rear. The 1000 meters captured at the beginning of the offensive came at a high price.
Already after 6.00 the front columns of the attackers reached artillery heights. In a fierce battle, with the constant introduction of melee weapons into battle, the entire system of trenches located at a height to the northeast of the road was captured. The junctions of the communication passages were cut off and held by constant local counterattacks. The fact that we were still drinking hot tea from flasks, as well as the fact that almost all the trenches and NPs were intact, many of the stereo tubes were still standing on their tripods, shows how dumbfounded the Russians were by our breakthrough to the artillery height. The positions of the Russians, as has been known since the First World War, are well equipped, well-camouflaged NPs are located above the deep bunkers.
But we were really surprised when we found a Russian map with the correct location of our own command and observation post.
In the afternoon, the reinforced 3rd Battalion was in complete control of the situation and awaited further orders. Later, the loss figure was clarified and reported to the regiment - about 35 percent of the strength. A significant number of commanders were killed.
Gradually it became clear that neighboring connections would not work; far to the right, the 78th Division moved slowly forward. More and more we were convinced that we were alone in the enemy position and the attacks of our troops to the right and left of us were choked. At night, the reinforced battalion was ordered to break away from the enemy and retreat to the former front line.
Every soldier, every officer who was there will never forget that offensive plan, will never forget the successes achieved then.
But how many victims! When, a few days later, the battalion commander handed out insignia for courage, it turned out that most of the soldiers presented for the award were either seriously wounded and were in hospitals, or already dead.
On the morning of the same day, after a fire attack, the battalions of the 533rd regiment approached the front Russian trenches. They were empty. On the approach to the main trench, the units came under heavy flank machine-gun fire and suffered significant losses. So, the enemy knew about the planned attack in this area.
At 0800, a powerful Russian counterattack. The infantry went ahead. But this attack was suppressed by artillery fire. A request for help was received from the left flank of the 87th Infantry Regiment: there the Russians broke into the trench. The 533rd infantry regiment out of 570 lost 450! The entire division suffered significant losses, on that day 1062 people were killed and wounded, among them officers.
Operation Citadel failed.
On the night of July 7, the batteries of the 3rd Artillery Regiment passed through the village of Yasnaya Polyana, where Tolstoy's grave is located. And no matter what the Russians say, not one German soldier did not desecrate the graves of the count!*
Already on July 11, the enemy launched a counteroffensive, bringing heavy artillery, tanks and the Air Force into battle. Operation Citadel brought losses from which it was hard to recover. The 9th Army held its positions with difficulty.
Paul Karel "Eastern Front". In two books. Moscow: Izographus, EKSMO, 2003.
BACK IN THE YEARS of the Great Patriotic War, as our front-line soldiers later admitted, each of them (of course, not out loud, but to himself) recognized the Germans as an evil, cunning, skillful and staunch enemy. Even then, Soviet soldiers were asking questions: "Who are they, the Germans? In the name of what are they fighting so desperately and bravely?"
A comprehensive detailed answer, perhaps, is still difficult to find, especially in one source. The full picture is formed on the basis of many memoirs, historical research, literary works and movies. Among them is the book by Paul Karel. It was published in 1963 in Germany, was immediately translated into all European languages, and in the first ten years it went through 8 editions only in German (400,000 copies in total). However, in the USSR, this work was immediately placed in special stores, making it available only to a narrow circle of scientists. And now it was released in Russia, although, frankly, not in a mass circulation of five thousand (the price - 430 rubles - is also not the most affordable).
Of course, the demanding Russian reader will find many shortcomings in Karel's book - in particular, 40 years ago, many archival materials were closed to the author. However, one cannot but admit that we have before us a surprisingly harmonious combination of a scientific monograph and personal memoirs of direct participants in the events of 1941-1944. on the Eastern Front (and Karel cites the stories of several hundred former Wehrmacht servicemen - from a colonel general, army commander to an ordinary infantryman, from the chief of the general staff to a simple signalman), resulting in a vivid impressive picture of the struggle between German and Soviet troops. Undoubtedly, with all the existing flaws, this work will show us the Great Patriotic War from the other side - through the eyes of German soldiers and officers. And this is its main value.
It is impossible, of course, to acquaint the readers of NVO even briefly with all the main parts of the book. But on the days of the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk, we will try to convey the self-awareness of the enemy, who then attacked both the northern and southern faces of the famous arc.
SOUTHERN FAS: "PRELUDE" JULY 4
About the main events initial stage The Battle of Kursk on the southern flank of the "fiery arc" has already been described twice in the pages of NVO (## 16 and 20, 2003). But Paul Karel's book allows you to highlight some little-known facts and details of the bloody drama unfolding here. For example, the vast majority of Russians are unaware that the July 5 offensive was preceded by fierce fighting: Gotha's 4th Panzer Army sought to capture the ridge of hills in front of the German positions, which effectively hid the Soviet defense system in depth.
And this is what happened on July 4, 1943 in the area of the 3rd battalion of Captain Leik of the Grenadier Regiment of the SS motorized division "Grossdeutschland".
"14.50. An hour ago, the soldiers had lunch. A thunderstorm had just died down with a torrential downpour. At that moment, squadrons of Ju-87 dive bombers roared over the German trenches towards the Soviet positions. More than 2,500 bombs hit a strip of land 3 km long and 500 m wide.
At 15.00, when the bombed "Junkers" flew away, German guns began to speak. A flurry of explosions again rose where the trenches of the Soviet riflemen, the observation posts of the Soviet artillery were located. A little later there was a piercing cry from Leik: "Forward!"
The captain jumped out of the trench first and ran across the open area. Everyone knew that this area, in which there is absolutely nowhere to hide, is well shot by the Russians. That is why Leik himself rushed forward from the command post to lead the battalion behind him. He was followed by the commander of the 15th company, Lieutenant Metzner. Under the cover of artillery fire, platoons of SS men ran along the passages in the minefields, assault guns moved on their heels, behind the assault guns - guns on self-propelled gun carriages. Along with the artillerymen were groups of sappers, ready to remove any obstacle.
The attack, no doubt, was prepared perfectly and at first developed like clockwork. Soon, however, Soviet fighters from the surviving strongholds opened fire on the advancing from all types of weapons. Soviet artillery also intervened. Volley after volley covered the battle formations of the Germans. But the 3rd battalion was still lucky: it managed to take advantage of the confusion of the Russians in its area and capture the crest of the hill west of the village of Butovo. But then progress stalled. Leic's companies recaptured about seven hundred meters. Then the SS men came under heavy mortar fire. Captain Leik died, Lieutenant Metzner was seriously wounded, a third of the personnel of the 15th company was out of action. Fewer and fewer people got up for the next throw. Many other company and platoon commanders fell. The new battalion commander, Captain Bolk, had his leg blown off by a mine.
By nightfall, the Germans managed to recapture the dominant heights. However, this "prelude" before the offensive on July 5 seemed to determine the whole character of subsequent battles - tense, dynamic, with heavy losses for both sides.
In the chapters of Karel's book devoted to the events on the southern face of the Kursk Bulge, one significant point attracts attention, which explains why the Germans achieved quite noticeable success here on July 5-12. Along with other factors, the German attack aircraft Hs-129 and Stukas, equipped with 37-mm guns, played a significant role in this. “They,” writes Karel, “were used as a kind of flying anti-tank artillery: they swooped down from the sky on tanks, like hawks on a poultry yard. Tank counterattacks were thus choked due to the sudden intervention of these machines. Hetman’s Soviet tank formation suffered the most. Twelve of his T-34s were disabled in a very short time by just one of these flying anti-tank aircraft ... "
Further, in Karel's book, with reference to the report of a Soviet artillery observer, it is said: "... An attacking aircraft dives from a height of approximately 800 meters onto an unsuspecting tank column. Approximately fifteen meters from the latter, it comes out of a dive. A cannon shot, a flash, a roar, and through a column of smoke from a stricken T-34, the German pilot soars up. A moment later, he dives again. Always behind ... invariably choosing the most vulnerable place - the engine compartment, each hit in which causes an immediate explosion. "
COMING MODEL
July 5, 1943, 1 hour 10 minutes. Quite unexpectedly, Soviet artillery and mortar fire fell on the formations and units of the 9th German Army under the command of Walter Model, who were preparing for the offensive. A sudden terrible suspicion, writes Paul Karel, arose in the minds of the German staff officers: the Russians were ahead of them and now they themselves will go on the attack. The shelling continued for more than an hour, "caused serious damage," but the enemy did not appear. "The German commanders breathed a sigh of relief."
Exactly according to plan, at 3.30, the German artillery itself began fire training. "Nothing like this has ever happened on the Eastern Front."
Chief corporal of the 3rd battalion of the 478th grenadier regiment of the 258th infantry division Karl Rudenberg, cavalier Knight's Cross(note that this Reich award for the entire Second world war were awarded only 7300 people), the first to reach Soviet positions with his machine gun. After hand-to-hand combat, Rudenberg's platoon captured the fortifications of the first defensive line. Non-commissioned officer of the medical service Pingel hurried here. “Killed and wounded everywhere,” Karel narrates. “The trenches were deep. Karl's side is an open wound... Suddenly Karl pointed his head at the Russian... and said: "He jumped with a grenade right at me". Karl's voice sounded admiration..."
10 minutes later, Chief Corporal Rudenberg died.
Toward evening, according to Karel, the 1st battalion of the 478th Grenadier Regiment, with powerful fire support, including the new Bumblebee and Hornet guns mounted on armored chassis, overcame the remaining 500 m and now lay in front of the first line of defense of the Soviet 280th Infantry Division. Assault detachments managed to break into the Soviet trenches. But all attempts to wedge into a deep defensive system ended in nothing in the face of violent Russian resistance.
The 479th Grenadier Regiment was in the same difficult situation. All 258th infantry division, which, as the right-flank strike group of the 46th Panzer Corps, was supposed to quickly overcome the Soviet barriers along the Trosna-Kursk road, froze after a bloody attack ...
On the left wing of General Zorn's 46th Panzer Corps, the 7th and 31st Infantry and 20th Panzer Divisions advanced through fields of rye and thick clover. The Bavarians from the 7th division were soon stopped by intense fire from the defenders. In the rye, where the soldiers hoped to hide, they were blown up by mines. The 31st Infantry also did not go smoothly: the engineer-sapper battalion, which moved forward under the cover of fire of "Tigers" with 102-mm frontal armor, which fired volley after volley from their powerful long-barreled 88-mm cannons, cleared wide passages in the minefields . But...
Karel writes: "... and under these conditions, the task of the sappers remained hellish. The Russians fired at them from heavy mortars installed in deep trenches, not vulnerable to low-trajectory tank guns. It was an unequal duel. And it was the sappers who paid the bills. Commander 2 th company and two platoon commanders died in the first few minutes ... "
Only two hours later the passages were ready, and the Tigers moved forward. Behind the tanks, next to them, ran the assault detachments of the 17th Grenadier Regiment. Despite the mines, heavy fire, the grenadiers reached the first trench and ... It was empty: at the beginning of the German artillery preparation, the Soviet units retreated, leaving only observers and grenade launchers.
Assault guns and half a dozen Ferdinands of Major Steiner's 653rd Battalion, says Paul Karel, operated on the front of the 292nd Infantry Division. Here the Germans were immediately able to advance 5 km deep into the Soviet defenses, to Aleksandrovka. "The firing positions of the Russians were crushed. The assault detachments connected with the battle formations of the 6th Infantry Division, which captured Butyrki." However...
The Soviet riflemen did not panic. They let enemy armored vehicles through their trenches and then engaged the German infantry. German tanks and assault guns had to return to help their infantry. Then they went forward again and ... returned again.
Karel: "By evening, the infantry was left without strength, and the tanks and assault guns - without fuel." And yet from the German battalions and regiments to the higher headquarters they reported: "We are advancing! With difficulty, at a high price. But we are advancing!"
UNFORGETTABLE DAYS
The next day, Model sent three panzer divisions to the sector, where he seemed to be succeeding. They clashed in a fierce battle with Soviet armored units. “Between Ponyri and Soborovka,” says Karel, “on a front of fourteen kilometers, a tank battle began, unprecedented in scale in the history of military operations. It lasted four days.
At the climax of the battle, from 1000 to 1200 tanks and assault guns participated in it on each side. Numerous units of the air force and 3000 guns of all calibers complemented this terrible duel. The reward was a hill near Olkhovatka with its key position - a height of 274".
The 505th Tiger Division, under the command of Major Sovant, was at the forefront of the German attack. Tankers, without exaggeration, met a forest of Soviet anti-tank guns, a whole labyrinth of anti-tank traps. The German infantrymen were met by a wall of fire. The first wave of attackers choked. The second wave swept several hundred meters and also stopped. About nine dozen T-IVs of the 2nd battalion of the 3rd tank regiment of the 2nd TD of Major von Boxberg went in a third wave, but their throw was also stopped. 9th tank division couldn't do more either.
“The infantrymen of the 20th Panzer Division,” we read in Karel’s book, “fought furiously under the burning sun on July 8 near the village of Samodurovka. Within an hour, all the officers of the 5th company of the 112th motorized infantry regiment were killed and wounded. Nevertheless, the infantry crawled over the fields, seizing trenches and running into new ones. Battalions melted away. Companies became platoons.
Lieutenant Hensch gathered the few survivors: "Forward, fighters, one more trench!"... They succeeded. Only the lieutenant lay dead twenty paces from the target, and around him half the company, killed and wounded.
The 33rd German motorized infantry regiment fought for three days for a bridgehead near the village of Teploe. Positions changed hands. Captain Diziner, the last surviving officer, gathered the remnants of the 2nd Battalion and again led them into the attack. He took a long-disputed height from the Russians. And again he was forced to retreat. The neighboring 6th Infantry Division captured only the slope of the fiercely defended Hill 274 near Olkhovatka.
Karel: "In the left sector of the breakthrough, the main point of the battle was the village of Ponyri. "We will never forget this village," even now the soldiers of the 292nd Pomeranian division who fought near Ponyri say.
* * *
No, neither new planes, nor new tanks, nor the courage and combat skill of soldiers, officers, generals helped the Wehrmacht: the last major German offensive on the Eastern Front ended in failure, the offensive power of the Germans was irreversibly broken.
What does Paul Karel see as the reasons for the defeat?
"The Soviet army withstood the disasters of 1941-1942; it overcame the crisis, seized the initiative and now dictated the course of events ... most importantly, the quality of strategic and tactical leadership, especially mobile formations, has noticeably improved. This was evidenced not only by the flexibility in controlling the battle , but also the speed with which reserves were transferred to threatened areas ... "The Red Army was also "inspired by a new fighting spirit. The call to fight for the Fatherland was more convincing for Russian soldiers than the old hackneyed slogan to defend the world revolution."
Not the Battle of Stalingrad, but the Battle of Kursk, Karel is convinced, became "in all respects a fateful battle that determined the outcome of the war in the East."
70 years ago, on July 5, 1943, one of the largest battles of the Great Patriotic War began - the Battle of Kursk
On April 12, 1943, the exact text of Directive No. 6 "On the Plan of Operation Citadel" of the German High Command, translated from German, appeared on Stalin's desk, endorsed by all services of the Wehrmacht. The only thing that was not on the document was the visas of Hitler himself. He put it in three days after the Soviet leader got acquainted with it. The Fuhrer, of course, did not know about this.
Among the Soviet military leaders there was no single point of view on how to act in the summer of 1943. The commander of the Central Front, Konstantin Rokossovsky, proposed a transition to a deliberate defense in order to wear down and bleed the advancing enemy, followed by a transition to a counteroffensive for his final defeat. But the commander of the Voronezh Front, Nikolai Vatutin, insisted on the transition of our troops to the offensive without any defensive actions.
Stalin, who was more impressed by Vatutin's point of view, nevertheless, having listened to the opinion of the majority of the military and, first of all, Zhukov, supported Rokossovsky's position.
However, the Germans in early July showed amazing passivity, which made Stalin doubt the correctness of the decision. On the night of July 5, 1943, Rokossovsky called Stalin.
Comrade Stalin! The Germans are on the offensive!
What are you happy about?
Now victory will be ours, Comrade Stalin!
Rokossovsky was not mistaken.
meeting German officers Colonel General Hermann Goth and Field Marshal Erich von Manstein about the Citadel plan
The key moment of the Battle of Kursk is considered to be the tank battle near the village of Prokhorovka on July 12, 1943.
Surprisingly, this is a large-scale collision of armored vehicles opposing sides and to this day causes fierce disputes among historians.
Classical Soviet historiography reported 800 tanks for the Red Army and 700 for the Wehrmacht. Modern historians tend to increase the number of Soviet tanks and decrease the number of German ones. They also say that the backbone of the Soviet tank corps and armies at that time was made up of obsolete T-34s, which were significantly inferior to the latest German "Tigers" and "Panthers" - this is precisely what explains the high number of Soviet losses. One way or another, but on the field near Prokhorovka, the Nazi tanks were stopped. After that, the Nazis began to rapidly roll back to the West.
In honor of the anniversary of the Battle of Kursk historical truth"publishes the memoirs of the participants in the battle of Prokhorovka, collected on the website of the project" I remember ".
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Kovalenko Vasily Ivanovich tankman:
Our crew consisted of 4 people - the commander of the vehicle, the driver, the loader and the gunner-radio operator. Our first commander of the car was a lieutenant by the name of either Karpov, or Shchukin - I remember, the surname is fish. The loader was Kolya Kuznetsov, the gunner-radio operator was Guryev from Kostroma, and I was the driver. All were normal guys, friendly with each other. We had a lucky tank number - 12 with a big Guards badge on the turret.
The numbers of the cars changed if the car disappeared - it was hit or burned down in battle. They received a new one in return, and the crew basically remained the same, with the exception of the wounded who failed. The backbone of the crew kept everywhere. A lot of the line-up changed when we burned out badly near Vilnius. Then three people immediately failed. I learned this a little later, as I was pulled out of the hatch almost unconscious after a shell shock. The right leg, back and head were badly burned. Then we wrote off through our military unit and found addresses.
Even here, in Simferopol, I received telegrams from former crew members on Victory Day: "Congratulations to the commander on the holiday and his birthday." I was just at that time again appointed commander of the machine. One of the guys - Vorobyov, lived in the Kemerovo region, the other - Misha Ovechkin somewhere from the Volga. He sent several letters, we saw each other when I went to Moscow to meet fellow soldiers on the Day of the tanker. I received the rank of guard foreman at the end of the tank school, immediately after the exam in driving and combat management. Misha Ovechkin was a foreman all the time, even though he was an intelligent guy, and the rest did not really strive to increase the rank - it was somehow not for everyone then.
Although there were such officers at the headquarters who bought awards and copied other people's names from the lists of those awarded to their own. We almost never saw them in battle, they were cowardly, and after the war they turned out to have full tunics of high awards. But it is on their conscience.
It was already 1942, the most difficult and militarily difficult year for our country. The Germans were preparing major operation on the ledge of the Kursk-Belgorod direction. On this arc, such fortifications were built on both sides that there were no similar ones in history. Here, from March until the beginning of the offensive in June, there was an accumulation of military force at both sides. And at the beginning of June at the appointed moment - the offensive. Everything was quiet - there was an eerie silence. And so the fighting began. The Germans did not spare technology, perli brazenly, so they left a lot of wrecked tanks on the battlefield. Sometimes it was impossible to drive in the right direction, tanks were smoking everywhere, both ours and German. Already after two days of fighting, at an altitude of about a kilometer, nothing was visible in the sky due to the rising dust. Planes bombed blindly. There was such a roar from explosions and the hum of tanks, powerful cannon shots that it was impossible to talk to each other. The cries of commands, the cries of the wounded - everything was mixed into one sound. Some pull out the wounded and burned from the hatches of tanks, others carry the seriously wounded on stretchers to the shelters of first-aid posts, look for some kind of transport to evacuate from the battlefield, and at this time part begins to retreat, as German tanks - "tigers" crowd our battle formations and crush whatever is ahead of them. Everything around is on fire, ammunition is exploding. In a panic, burning tankers jump out - both ours and the Germans, rolling on the ground, knocking over burning uniforms. And if somewhere nearby there is a puddle of water, then both ours and the German tankers run there to escape, not being afraid of each other, they serve in the water just to extinguish the flame. And so on until the night, until the battle subsides. But our corps is not yet brought into battle, we are waiting for a signal. Our corps commander, General Rotmistrov, was one of the most intelligent commanders. On the eve of the battle, training was organized - where to find the most vulnerable places in the "tiger" so that the T-34 could hit it. On the Kursk Bulge, "tigers" were used for the first time. The "Tiger" is a strong and powerful machine, it pierced our tank through and through for 1 km and jokes with it were not pleasant. Therefore, we were taught to dodge the "tiger", not to expose him to his side or butt. This study helped us a lot in the battles.
And when the Germans began to weaken, our corps and other units went on the offensive. Bypassing the wrecked tanks, we rushed forward. Our crew had a hard time near Prokhorovka. Heavy high-explosive shells tore off all the wings and headlights from the car, and everything that lay badly - it’s good that we removed the landing force in time. The worst thing is that as soon as we rushed into battle, our caterpillar was torn off and we had to put on shoes during the battle, but a well-trained crew coped with this problem without much difficulty. The first time I was very afraid, I thought that the next shell would hit right in my hatch. He accelerated and overtook the car over rough terrain. When the tank goes over potholes, it wobbles so much that it's hard to hit it. I took advantage of this and flew right into the grove, immediately a shot and we knocked out a self-propelled gun. We see the Germans jump out of the hatches, and our machine gun pours fire on them. The rest of the German tanks also crawled out, I turn my car around and shout to Misha Ovechkin: “Come to the side of the“ tiger ”! I didn’t have time to figure out how the caterpillar flew off the“ tiger ”and it began to smoke. So our first battle was both terrible and successful After the battle, we received gratitude.Then, already in battles, we became less afraid and nervous.
Chistyakov Nikolai Alexandrovich, mortar:
The division was on the right flank, on the northern shoulder. The Kursk Bulge is, of course, an outstanding battle. Although I was wounded by my 152mm guns. But it was really organized. The Kursk Bulge is characteristic in that strategic defense was organized there. The Germans were exhausted so that they were forced to stop. They stopped, and ours made a counteroffensive. It began with the strongest artillery counter-preparation. A very large number of artillery, tanks, mortars, and aircraft were concentrated there. I remember when ours had already broken through. By the way, not our division, but the previous one. We were in the second tier.
- Did you participate in the counterstrike?
Yes. We started with a pursuit, almost without turning around. The enemy retreated, all our forces hit him on the heels. The actions of attack aircraft are especially characteristic. The IL-2 attack aircraft were armed with rockets (small Katyushas). The assault was carried out in waves. The first wave passed, half a minute - the second wave, the third! It was nice to watch! And it was easy to get on. There was such enthusiasm! The Germans fled, leaving everything. We have loaded our mortars onto German bicycles and are following. The Germans left the running cars without even turning off the engines. Now anyone would sit down and go. And then there were not so many drivers. We see - they lead captured Germans. I remember several columns, small, though. At one of the sites, I found out through the commander that we received an order to occupy a hollow in front. An enemy up to a battalion settled in it. Gotta kick him out.
We receive a command, we approach this hollow. A small ravine, we stopped at the very ravine. I already have battalion 82-mm mortars, I was transferred as a commander. We begin to install a mortar. Before me stands my deputy, a senior sergeant from Smolensk, a healthy, strong man. Highly good man. And the shell explodes behind him. I watch my sergeant fall. And a fragment hit me in the temple, the second in the neck and jumped out into my mouth, I spat it out. And he sits like a memory. This senior sergeant saved me. Strong fragments flew, he held them with his body. In the heat, everything seemed fine. It turned out that the regiment commander gave the command to the supporting division of 152-mm guns to organize fire on the enemy battalion. And the enemy had already left for our approach. We took up positions where the enemy battalion used to be. And the division shied away at us! So I received a third wound from my gunners. To say that it was intentional is definitely not the case. They simply did not calculate that the enemy could leave by this time. How the offensive proceeded, I do not know.
Ivanov Anatoly Spiridonovich, infantryman:
In June 1943, after graduating from this sniper school, I was enrolled in the 29th Unech motorized rifle brigade. For some time we stood in the famous Bryansk forests for reorganization, and then we were urgently taken by echelon to the Oryol-Kursk Bulge. There was already the final stage of the fighting. We were in the second line of defense there. And then we started fighting again. Terrible, I must tell you, those were the fights. I especially remember the battle in the town of Fridrichovka, which was located 60 kilometers from the city of Lvov, in the Khmelnytsky region. In the morning we took this small town: it is three or four times smaller than, say, our Narva.
But although the town was taken, the station remained in the hands of the Germans. And then we were given the following order: "By all means take the station!" And so our brigade, which came here, as they say, full-fledged, full-blooded, the number of which was something about 3200 people, was thrown at this station. On the right, another regiment approached us and, like us, was also thrown there with its mass. Meanwhile, the positions of the Germans were very strongly fortified. In particular, on one side of the station there were three Tiger tanks and on the other side two of the same tanks, and the entire station, basement and windows were in loopholes. And this sea of fire met us, as they say. And it was so "good" that when I had to run to the station, probably thirty meters, for some reason I looked around and saw this picture: almost no one was left alive and only some units were running back. Then I turned around and crawled back through the mud. I remember flopping into a rut where, apparently, a tank had passed recently. And he started to really squirm. I didn’t give myself any account of my actions! We, miraculously surviving fighters of the brigade, managed to run to the building of some school. Probably no more than 800 people from our entire brigade gathered there. These were the ones who survived, the rest all died. But we did not know what to do, since not a single officer remained alive, which means that there was no one to give us an order. In short, we got together all day and physically recovered, and the next day the order suddenly came again: "Take the station!" We were saved by the fact that when we arrived at the place, the Germans left and the station was liberated. If they had not left, it is not known how it would have ended. However, this departure was to be expected, since in essence this group of Germans was in our rear.
Volkova-Muzyleva Marina Vasilievna, scout:
When we were on the defensive near Belgorod, we, scouts, were sent behind enemy lines to clarify the enemy's forces and certainly take the "language". The line of defense passed unnoticed. By morning we carefully approached the Chapaev farm. We entered the garden and then we met a frightened grandfather. "Boys, where are you going? There are Germans here, and there are tons of tanks." We lay down behind the garden, then crawled to the edge of the oak forest, and there was a large column of tanks. We were told what we saw on the radio.
We were ordered to return. When they returned, the company was already on the defensive in the Krugloye-Urochische area. They dug trenches, tied grenades in bundles. I handed out individual packages to everyone and, after checking the machine, settled down in the trench with Vlasov.
At 09:00 something terrible began... Aircraft swooped in, German tanks screeched straight at us from the forest, and submachine gunners ran after the tanks. We began to cut off the infantry from the tanks. Behind us, our anti-tank division fired. The tanks were getting closer and closer and were firing at direct fire. Vlasov was waiting for the Nazi tanks to come closer ... And he told me: "Do not drift, Marina! Now we will show them!" The company commander stood up with a cry: "Grenades for battle!" And threw a bunch of grenades under the tank. The tank stopped. Another appeared. Vlasov again throws a bunch of grenades, and I scribble from a machine gun at the infantry. "Tank hit"! - shouts Vlasov. And suddenly a cry: "The commander is wounded!" I crawled up to him, and he was already killed. And the fascist tanks went one after another and ironed our trenches. We called fire upon ourselves. Our artillery hit the trenches where we were. Nazi tanks burned like candles.
This fight lasted from 9:00 to 16:00. More than 30 fascist tanks burned whiter on the battlefield. The stench covered the ground and rose upwards. The battle was called the Oryol-Kursk Bulge. We fought off enemy attacks for several days. And when we went forward, our division was removed for formation.
Mamutov Amza Amzaevich, infantryman:
Our army Chistyakov, stood south of Prokhorovka, it was attacked by the army group "Kampf", during these battles the Germans threw ten divisions, as we were informed. You know, there were tanks, of course, but still I think that ten divisions were not there. The tanks even went to ram each other, the iron burned. The Germans were dressed in different uniforms, including camouflage, these fought quite well. The main line of the German offensive consisted of tanks. In terms of combat readiness, our tanks were better than the German ones, although the enemy’s gun was more powerful, including thermite ingots. There was a Soviet tank at the forefront, a German tank was coming towards it, it stops, and knocked out ours from the fly, a shell flew around me, the blank burns, almost touches. So this "Tiger" knocked out seven of our tanks. And we sat in the trenches and saw it.
Litvinov Evgeny Mitrofanovich, infantryman:
School ends - you have to go to the troops. SMERSH calls at night, there is such an organization, this is our army counterintelligence. A dugout, he is sitting, I come, I report that such and such has arrived. He starts a survey - they were in the occupation, and this was a problem then.
He asks: "Where was the occupation?" - "Right there" - "What did you do?" - "Didn't do anything" - "Worked?" I say like this and like this, when the question arose about sending me to Germany, I was assigned to work. I told him everything. At that time I could not lie at all, I was not capable, and at that time it was impossible. - "You can go now".
The next day we are called, built, and announced - 2 months of a penal company. They send the 77th (in my opinion) reserve regiment near Kursk, to the Burnt Forest. They form this company there. Her number was 220 and some other number. When we were formed (we were 370 people) we were sent to the front line. For two months in the penal company, I went on the attack three times, was wounded.
And just before the Kursk events, we were ordered to break through and capture the height of Farygino. It was already warm, May, probably. Farygino is a dominant height, and the Germans could see everything. Our task was to capture this height. A whole division was to support us and expand the offensive from the flanks, that is, to consolidate our success. So they said. And I think, in my opinion, this is the same 193rd division, which I later got into, but I cannot confirm. I immediately warn that the soldier did not know anything, so I may be mistaken or say what I heard from someone. The soldier is just following orders. Someone is in command, but you do not know where to go. Our task is to carry out orders intelligently, reasonably.
This was my first fight. There were 370 of us. They gave a command. We yelled, we screamed. The Germans fled, we beat some of them. We went to this position and captured the height. We dug in.
The platoon commanders were with us, but the company commander was not. Before he had time to get to the height, they opened such fire from all sides that the division did not expand our flanks, and the commander fell behind. And his last name was, as they said, Borsch.
The night is coming. Everything is quiet, whether there is a connection or not - I do not know. The Germans cut us off, again seized those trenches through which we broke through. Platoon commanders decide what to do next, and say: we will fight our way back. In the morning we lined up and went on the attack in the back of the Germans. We made our way through them again, relatively easily. But when we broke through and began to move along the neutral zone, then disaster struck. The Germans opened such artillery fire on this place!
The Germans knew how to shoot, they concentrated fire from all directions: they shoot from there, and from there, and directly, and they definitely fall into these zones. This is their method of firing. Even during the offensive, they did not hit the squares like ours, they hit the zones. All artillery hits one section, then the second, then the third. And only then do they come. This is their technique.
So they opened such a powerful fire, but they had everything shot before. We crawled out. We were assembled, lined up in a ravine, and it turned out that there were only 70 of us left.
Osinovsky Dmitry Filippovich, civil engineer:
When we arrived in the Kursk region, a positional war was going on at the front. Neither side advanced. Our troops were just getting ready to attack and the troops were moving towards combat positions in many streams. During the movement of combat units, the command "air" was often heard, and then everyone scattered and lay down on the ground. It was not easy to hide from the planes, because the Kursk region is a steppe, and only in some places trees grew on the hills, then it was called the forest-steppe. Sometimes our planes appeared in the sky, and we watched air battles Soviet pilots with the German ones.
The movement of troops was a continuous stream. One day we infantrymen were waiting in line to cross the bridge. There were such crushes, such traffic jams! The cars were mostly lorries - GAZ AA. One lorry got stuck on this bridge, a traffic jam formed and then the stuck car was simply pushed into the river.
We walked, at night, on a terrible impassability. Our feet and the wheels of the cannon got stuck in the greasy black soil. Finally, we took up positions on the high-rise. At a distance of about a kilometer - entirely German trenches. Behind the forest, where the Katyushas drove up and began to turn around. Everyone shouts: "Let's run away from here," because after the Katyusha volley, the Germans began to furiously fire at the place where the Katyushas were.
So it was. Then, on this high-rise, each dug out an individual trench for himself. I remember this day well, because 22 German Henkel bombers appeared in the sky at once. They were big, twin-engine, and hummed like bugs. When they flew over the German trenches, 20-30 pieces of luminous rockets took off at the same time. So the Germans marked their front line.
The bombers, flying over the German positions, immediately began to descend and bombs rained down on us. Explosions rumble all around, clods of earth fly. I pressed myself into my trench as much as I could. And suddenly I got hit in the back. I thought everything! It's been a few seconds, but I'm alive. I carefully look out of my trench, and from the next one, the dirty muzzle of my neighbor bares his teeth. It turns out that he was joking and threw a clod of earth at me. It was funny afterwards. On the same day, a few hours (or minutes) later, I saw Soviet aviation in action for the first time, when it delivered a massive strike.
At first, the red-star attack aircraft IL-2 appeared (there were many of them - fifteen or twenty) and they began to work on the front line of the Germans, who half an hour ago had so accurately marked their front line with missiles.
We all got out of the trenches, stood at full height and shouted "Hurrah!". Then our attack began. We were in the second line of advance. There I saw the famous German Junkers-88 dive bomber. The plane dived on the tank, and its bomb hit the tank directly, after which the tank cracked like a nut. A large piece of tank armor, about two meters by one and a half meters in size, stuck into the ground with an edge and remained hanging there. At the same time, he cut in half a soldier lying on the ground, apparently from a new replenishment, since he was in a brand new tunic and tarpaulin boots (we were in boots with windings). Then we had night marches, one of which ended with a wound for me.
Popov Alexander Ilyich, artilleryman:
We were transferred to the area of the Kursk Bulge. First, we entered the command reserve, and then in the summer we were transferred to the Steppe Front, which since July 1943 was under the command of Ivan Stepanovich Konev.
On July 5, 1943, when the German offensive began, they began to move us from Maloarkhangelsk along the front line to the south, to the Voronezh Front, because the Germans began their offensive in our sector in the Malaoarkhangelsk-Ponyri-Olkhovatka strip. We were bombed along the roads, we came into contact with the enemy and moved south with him. And from the 8th to the 9th we entered Romanin Log, located near Ponyri, where the command post of our 9th Guards Airborne Regiment began to be deployed. There was also a mobile reserve. Artillery was deployed along the ravines, we stood in Zeleny Log literally two kilometers from railway station Ponyri.
In our area, the Germans inflicted their main blow to this station. By that time Ponyri had been taken, and our regiment was the first from the 4th Guards Airborne Division to enter the battle. The area of the station, the water tower and the school were the main targets of the battle. Our 1st battalion, Captain Alexander Petrovich Zhukov, was the first to enter the village of Ponyri, and there they were cut into two parts, the commander died and the battalion suffered heavy losses, and the station was surrendered. Later, Captain Zhukov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
So the western part of Ponyry was captured by the enemy, but on the left side, which remained behind us, there were only separate huts, and it was almost not inhabited.
On the evening of July 9, a messenger came to our position from the chief of artillery of the regiment. Brought an order - the battery commander to the command post of the regiment. And the battalion commander needs to take someone with him, because, most likely, he will need to choose several firing points where to direct the guns. The first gun in infantry combat formations is our 45-mm cannon, which has always been placed only on direct fire. We did not shoot from closed positions. And then the commander of the firing platoon says to me: "Popov, you go!" We went with the battery commander. And near the station there were northern and southern railway crossings, and at that moment the Germans fought fiercely for them in order to transfer them to the other side railway tracks, that is, in open space, its military equipment and tanks. And the embankments on the tracks were steep, neither armored personnel carriers nor tanks could overcome them on their own.
So we went with the battalion commander, crossed the southern crossing, walked about 50 meters, clinging to the fences and huts, and we already hear German machine guns. Then the battalion commander says: "You know what, I'll go ahead, and you cover me!" Well, I lay down near the fence with a machine gun, and he went. Maybe a minute and a half passed, but it seems to you that an eternity passes, machine guns fired from there, and I look - bullets are hitting, literally a few meters away from me.
Then from the other side of the street they call out: "What regiment are you from?" I answer that from the ninth, I myself ask where my neighbor is from. It turned out that from the 15th, and they begin to ask what I'm doing here. I had to explain that I was lying and covering the battery commander, who went on reconnaissance. And at that time the German heard voices, there was a short burst, the bullets flew literally near me, I clung to the fence, and my interlocutor lay down in the trench, it was easier for him. I didn’t have a trench, nothing, and I fired a short burst from a machine gun with my left hand, after which the German machine gunner fell silent. We talked again with a neighbor, it turned out that this was a junior lieutenant, commander of a rifle platoon. He praised me for my accuracy, said that I took off the Fritz, and then mortar fire began right at us, the enemy hit the crossing and these huts. Soon there was an explosion nearby, and a fragment hit me in the right shoulder.
Only in April 2011 it was removed to me.
At this time, the battalion commander returned from reconnaissance, and I was lying near the fence and bandaging my shoulder. He asks: "What is it?" I answer: "Yes, it hurt." Again the question: "Hard?" I say: "No, I'm winding up for now." Well, I bandaged myself, and we went to the checkpoint, made our way through the yards between the buildings, reached the crossing, it was not far, probably a hundred meters from our position to the railway. They came to the regimental command post, the battalion commander went to report, and he said to me: "Go to your platoon." Well, I went to Zeleny Log, where our battery was standing, ready to move to firing positions, where ordered. Suddenly, the battalion commander called out to me and said: "You go to the sanrote, let them bandage you there, otherwise you bandaged yourself somehow." Well, in the regimental rank, so in the rank, she stood in the same ravine where the command post was. We met at the sanitary post, they asked what was the matter. They saw a bandaged wound, they immediately dragged me into the tent, here they bandaged my shoulder again, after which I said that I would go back to the unit, but the commander of the medical unit said: “Where are you going? take a group with you and lead everyone to that birch grove about ten kilometers from Ponyri, which we passed on the march. Our medical battalion is stationed there." We went there, got there only at night, in the morning the doctor examined the shoulder, points to the side, while saying that there are lightly wounded people there. The seriously wounded were immediately loaded onto trucks, but we were given assistance on the spot. I stayed there until the end of the day, a driver from our regiment met me and said: "Oh, there is such a thing in Ponyry, we attacked unsuccessfully, horror, great losses!" I asked where he was going, it turned out that he was returning to the regiment, he was carrying shells. I got in touch with him, only then I asked him to tell the combat unit of the division that I was not a deserter and returned to the front line.
The next day, early in the morning, the battery commander and I went to the firing points, we had six guns in the battery. Our artillery fired all night, especially Katyushas and Andryushas - installations of heavy M-31 high-explosive rockets, which were wooden frames with "tadpole" projectiles inside. They were intended for the elimination of pillboxes and bunkers, heavy engineering reinforced concrete structures. For the first time I saw the effect of rockets here, I saw how the Andryushas were stationary, sometimes the shells flew along with wooden frames, and when it burns in flight, at night it is a very, very impressive sight. I remember, we come to one gun, the commander of which was Kostyunin, he says: "Sasha, you come to me!" But I'm with one hand, what will I do. He replies: "I will charge, and you will direct!" He was left alone from the calculation, in the other two there were two or three people, in the rest of the calculations - almost the full composition, although somewhere one or two were missing. Well, the battery commander distributed who went from one calculation to another, who suffered losses, for example, to the firing point of Kirpichev, who to Gusev. As a result, I also got into the calculation of one of the guns, remained in the firing position. And on July 12, 1943, our counterattack was delivered, the Ponyri station was taken. I was no longer at the southern crossing, but not at the northern one. By the way, on July 10, 1943, my good comrade, the commander of a platoon of submachine gunners, Lieutenant Vasya Bolshakov, died there on July 10, 1943. At this place of fierce fighting near the northern crossing, there is now a memorial monument, where there is also his surname. He closed the machine-gun embrasure with his body, for which he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War. I degree. Lieutenant Nikolai Ilyich Misugin, commander of a communications platoon, my age, from the Kalinin region, also died there on July 9, we knew him well. It happened in the following way. The connection has stopped. And he personally went along the line, taking the wire in his hand, he wanted to urgently find a gap. I myself during the war several times went like this. You take the wire in your hand, find a gap, then wrap it around a bush or tree growing nearby, and start looking for the other end. When you find it, put them together and move on. Signalers called such work "track". So, Misugin had to urgently provide communication, he found a line break either by a shell, or the Germans cut it, I don’t know. The connection was restored, but after the battle we found the dead Misugin, he clutched the wires with his teeth and died like that, but he provided the connection.
On July 12, the counteroffensive began. When we looked from the trenches at the water tower and the railway station, it seemed that they were very far apart, it was impossible to raise our heads. But when in peacetime I got there and looked, it turned out that everything was nearby. On the same day, all the surroundings were burned, grass burned in the fields, cars, tanks, crashed planes everywhere. It made a deep impression. And in the morning before the offensive, the processing of the advanced enemy began - a real doomsday. Terrible bombing, and even artillery is working, including long-range RGK, corps, army, divisional, regimental. And everyone is hitting, there is a pillar of dust at 500-600 meters in height, and we, the forty-five, can’t even see the targets behind this cover. By evening, having taken the Ponyri station, our entire division went on the offensive, the 9th Guards Airborne Regiment attacked just between two crossings. Positions to the north, towards Orel, were occupied by the 12th regiment, and towards Olkhovatka, on our left, the 15th regiment was located. In the evening before the offensive, I kept looking for my neighbor, a junior lieutenant, but I never found him. When they took the station, they began to move towards Ponyri-1, this village is quite large. And in front of him a small river flows, but you can’t cross it just anywhere. Of course, you can wade, but you won’t be able to drag a gun, or a car. So our infantry began to prepare for the offensive, reserves were pulled up. The Germans retreated for the first time, but then they entrenched themselves in front of the river, there was a strong barrier, both machine-gun and gun emplacements were located. And, needless to say, enemy arrows in between. And then the unexpected happened. Apparently, before the battle, our regimental commanders asked the aircraft to bomb the enemy's front line. Then our tanks began to approach, moved to the infantry line of occurrence, and at that time a whole squadron of Il-2 attack aircraft appeared. The very first plane dropped all its bombs on our positions, fortunately, they came to their senses in time. Probably, the first application of our command was carried out by aviation late, they believed that the Germans were still sitting in positions in front of the river, and we were already there. When the first planes, one or two, dropped their cargo, they saw our tanks and stopped bombing, the squadron turned around and flew to the rear. Apparently, they were disoriented and did not know where the enemy was. The pilots were not yet ready for the second coordinates, which were transmitted from the headquarters of the regiment. After the bombing, we all lay down, no one was visible. And just at that moment a figure rises, flies into the tank from behind and shouts: "Follow me! Attack!" It was our political officer of the 9th Guards Airborne Regiment, Armenian, Major Vaparshak Khachaturovich Unanyan. And you know, the infantry rose together, we followed the battle formations, there was a bridge in front, which was not blown up, the Germans did not have time, and our arrows immediately slipped through it. This bridge helped us a lot, with our tools we got to the oak grove, located outside the village. And at the dominant height they settled down, the Germans appeared before us at a glance. They began to conduct aimed fire. My right hand was in a sling, and suddenly a small fragment fell under the nail of the middle finger of my left hand, my hand hung down, they wrapped it around me, and both hands were no longer working. They ordered me to go to the sanrote again. I went there, they bandaged everything for me. They told me to go to the medical battalion, but I flatly refused. For several days it looked like this and again entered service. For the battles near the Ponyri station, I was awarded the medal "For Courage".
Then what happened? The Germans, having not achieved success in our area, were forced to retreat. We went on the offensive. In August, the town of Dmitrovsk-Orlovsky was liberated. We ended up on the border of the Kursk and Oryol regions. So when we moved forward, we passed through the territory of one or another region. The Germans resisted very, very seriously, because they hoped that the Kursk salient would be their final victorious operation in the war.
By the way, back in 1941, trains with red granite arrived, they wanted to remove the paving stones on Red Square, cover everything with granite and celebrate the victory in Moscow. An interesting episode, they didn’t send them back to Germany, because when they retreated from Moscow, they didn’t care about granite, they had to carry their feet. We captured a train with German red granite in the town of Dmitrovsk-Orlovsky. Now it lies on the right side of the Government House of Moscow on the street. Tverskaya, and along this street all the plinths of houses after the war were lined with this granite.
In preparing the text, we used
materials of the project "I remember"
The Kursk salient through the eyes of a German tankman When the German troops launched an offensive against Kursk (Operation Citadel). The 2nd Panzer Division, in which Joachim Scholl served, operated on the southern face of the arc. Scholl was in command of the newly received Tiger tank; on July 10, he and his crew first tested new tank in business. Usha and Gert, mentioned in the text of the diary, are fellow soldiers of Scholl, also commanders of the Tigers. Scholl had a bet with them: who by the end of the war would have a greater combat score. Each staked 100 marks. Bet with Gert and Usha July 10, 1943 Nothing special happened in my first battle on the Tiger. We were fired upon for several minutes, but the fire was somehow unorganized. Several shells hit the armor of my "Tiger" - I did not like it ... We advanced about 8 km, the movement was greatly slowed down due to minefields and vexing enemy aircraft. I did not see a single enemy tank during the day. Usha chalked up two enemy tanks (...). July 11-12, 1943 Today we hit our first target - a truck. (...) Usha chalked up three more victories. Pig, he's already well ahead of me! He probably got a much better gunner. I heard that we lost four Tigers in the minefields today. I became more careful while driving. Prokhorovka: myth or feat? Here the publication of the diary will have to be interrupted. July 12 - the day of the famous battle near Prokhorovka - one of key events in the battles on the Kursk Bulge. According to Big Soviet encyclopedia, On July 12, 1943, 800 Soviet tanks took part in the battle of Prokhorovka against 700 German ones. The Germans lost up to 400 vehicles, Soviet losses - about 300 vehicles. Pavel Rotmistrov, commander of the 5th Guards Tank Army, writes in his memoirs that about 1,200 tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts fought on both sides, while “the Nazis outnumbered us in the number of combat vehicles, especially heavy ones.” Headquarters representative Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky, who was also near Prokhorovka at that moment, estimated the number of German tanks taking part in the battle at ... two hundred. The confusion is aggravated by the fact that the words "Prokhorovka battle" are sometimes understood to mean the battles that began in this area earlier. On the 7-8th day of the operation, in the offensive zone on the southern face of the Kursk Bulge, German troops wedged into the Soviet defenses with a kind of trident, while there was a threat of encirclement of several Soviet rifle divisions south of Prokhorovka. The “Steel Hammer” of Rotmistrov’s 5th Guards Tank Army was supposed to break one of these teeth. The calculation was made, apparently, on superiority in forces and technology. According to Soviet documents studied by V. Zamulin, deputy director of the Prokhorovskoye Field State Military Historical Museum-Reserve for Science, the 5th Guards Tank Army lost 341 tanks and self-propelled guns that day, which is almost two-thirds of the Soviet armored vehicles that participated in this battle. Losses on our side exceeded 10 thousand people killed, missing and wounded. The Germans, having stopped the Soviet offensive, launched a counterattack on July 12 in the afternoon. Our and their losses near Prokhorovka differ, according to researchers, by an order of magnitude. Reasons - in a series of tactical mistakes Soviet command. The offensive began without artillery preparation and air support - German aircraft dominated the sky over the battlefield. Soviet troops met the organized defense of the enemy with tanks and assault guns dug in in advance. But back to the diary of Joachim Scholl. It also reflects the intensity of events. "The loader vomited twice" July 15, 1943 What a day! I think we knocked out 5 tanks today, but I'm not sure about it, since there was so much dust everywhere and so many tanks! It was difficult even just to find the target. I almost ordered to open fire on our assault gun, thinking it was Russian. I know for sure that I destroyed the Russian self-propelled guns, since it was only 50 meters in front of me. Pieces of it even reached my Tiger. It's kind of crazy! During training, we were told that we should destroy targets at long distances, but it never occurred to me that they meant such a (!) distance. I think we also destroyed some of the enemy's anti-tank guns, as I, and Gert, and Karl fired high-explosive shells at their positions. July 16, 1943 Another day in hell. We literally shot down an enemy infantry column that was trying to flank our grenadiers. Even inside the "Tiger" we heard our soldiers shouting with joy every time another shell landed right in the middle of the Russians. We felt great. Although, to be honest, watching the pieces of bodies flying everywhere did not give me pleasure. Bertie, our loader, vomited twice into empty ammo storage slots. He will clean up himself. Another night, trying to sleep. I don't think it will work. I haven't been able to sleep properly for three days now. "Tigers" and "Mickey Mouse" In the diary of Joachim Scholl there is an entry about another phenomenon, about which, for obvious reasons, Soviet sources did not really want to mention. But this is also a detail of time ... Scholl, as you remember, commanded the "Tiger". “It seems to me that the Russians are afraid of the Tigers,” Scholl writes, “everyone scatters when we just show up. Scholl, alas, does not exaggerate. It was the appearance and, on the whole, the successful use of new heavy German tanks at the front that largely determined the specifics of the battles. The "Tigers" effectively hit our tanks from a two-kilometer distance, while the T-34 guns could not penetrate the German armor even from 300 meters. "Thirty-fours" (the Germans called them "Mickey Mouse" for their resemblance to this funny Disney character with open tower hatches) were more maneuverable, but if the conditions of the battle did not allow this advantage to be realized, then they were more vulnerable. “Tiger fear” became a natural psychological reaction. In order not to be unfounded, I will quote the recently deceased Vasil Bykov (“The Price of Past Fights”). Knowing the war firsthand, the writer recalled that the attackers Soviet tankmen , realizing that they would not have time to get close to the Tigers at a direct shot, they often left their T-34s and returned to their starting line under fire. “By the time they reached it, their cars were already on fire,” writes Bykov. - In the end, having unraveled the seditious trick of the tankers, the command gave the order to bring the crews that came out of the fire in full strength to the court of military tribunals. Then the tankers resorted to a new trick: they began to drive closer to the enemy and leave the vehicles already under machine-gun fire from tanks. Some of them died or were wounded in the open field, but some managed to get through to their own. There were incomparably fewer chances to get out of a wrecked, set on fire car. The "Tigers" spoiled a lot of blood for our tankers, but the fact that several times more Soviet tanks were destroyed during those battles than German ones cannot be explained only by the superiority of enemy armored vehicles. Tanks do not fight on their own and only among themselves. Our troops fought without sparing themselves. Turning point After the start of the Soviet offensive, the Germans stopped Operation Citadel and on July 16 began the withdrawal of troops to their original positions. 19 July 1943 This battle is not going well for us. Apparently, there are much more Russians here than expected. I heard that the tank battalions of the Tigers, operating far ahead, are suffering heavy losses. This is starting to scare me. Our positions were literally overwhelmed by the communist troops. We have requested artillery and air support as our stocks of HE rounds are running low. With crossfire, we managed to drive about 2000 Russians into the ditch (Apparently, Scholl does not mean an anti-tank ditch, but a ravine. - M.P.). We have already reloaded our machine gun belts three times and replenished our high-explosive shells. I have never seen so much blood before. I was feeling bad. Bert laughed at me until he realized what happened to me. I will never forget this day. July 20, 1943 Today we received an anti-tank shell hit on the side armor. He tore the protective visor over the truck. We thought this was the end, but Robert, our driver, said that the Tiger was still running and handling well. We are still not in Prokhorovka... Destroying Russian assault guns in large numbers. Usha said they would not count towards our wager. This upset me, because in this case I'm already behind him by ... 10 wins. July 21, 1943 You can believe it - our terrible tank broke down! Robert thinks the transmission is the problem. We are being towed to the location of the repair shops. There are about 8 "Tigers" from different divisions in the queue for repairs. Some of them have a lot of shell marks on their armor, so I guess we're still lucky. (...) The technicians said that we would have to wait three days. We reported to headquarters and asked for a little rest. I must rest, I still have those crippled bodies in the ravine before my eyes. "Things are going really bad" July 25, 1943 Finally, our "Tiger" is repaired. The mechanics worked all night - a special order was received "Urgently return all tanks to the front." In general, things are going really badly. On the way back, we received an order to tow another damaged Tiger for repair. Great, because it turned out to be "Tiger" Ushi! Now I have a great opportunity to catch up with him. Usha was indignant about the mess that was going on at the front. He said that no one knows who is where, and the Russian troops are coming in a continuous wave. According to him, the Russians are completely oblivious to the number of their dead. We also suffer losses. Usha said that only three tanks remained in the second company. July 27, 1943 Didn't hit anything today. We fired all day, but because of the dust and smoke, I don't know what we hit there. I feel very tired, as does the entire crew. Robert practically fell asleep twice on the go - and it was in such a noise! Karl said that we destroyed a couple of guns, one T-34 and a lot of infantry. I can’t confirm any of this, but I’ll still declare these victories, since I haven’t left this race for 200 marks yet. July 28, 1943 Today we were ordered to retreat and regroup. This is the first time since Operation Citadel that I have seen the entire company assembled. We lost several tanks, mostly due to breakdowns, but some were blown up by mines. Young Gert is seriously wounded and sent to Berlin. Usha said Gert would lose right hand and the wager now remains only between the two of us. I said that Usha won this bet and we will make a new one when Gert returns. Actually, I didn't really need those 100 marks. We are returning back to Belgorod. On our way we met a group of foot soldiers. They looked very tired. I felt guilty and suggested that they climb onto the armor. They settled behind the tower. Robert chatted the whole way until Carl and I got impatient and told him to shut up. As an officer, I shouldn't have done that. I have not lost control of myself, but after this month of fighting, I do not think that I will ever be the same as before ... The fate of Joachim Scholl Just a month later, a new entry appeared in Joachim Scholl's diary: It seems that the Russians have an infinite the number of soldiers and tanks that roll on us in endless waves. Several hundred T-34s and KVs took part in the battle. I was very scared. It was the first time I felt like I was going to die. I don't want to be buried in Russia. Scholl was not buried in Russia. On November 11, 1943, he was seriously wounded near Kyiv. Scholl ended up in a hospital for several months, in the summer of 1944 he was sent to France to fight against the Anglo-American troops. During the bombing, Scholl was again wounded and taken prisoner. For several years, as an SS man, he was held in the Comrie Nazi POW camp in Scotland. Scholl's war diary was seized, translated and published in England without his knowledge. Scholl died in 2001. "We must go this kilometer" Joachim Scholl's diary is read by a Russian tanker. On June 22, 1941, tank driver Viktor Kryat was going to a football match. The service was coming to an end, he dreamed of returning to the Odessa Maritime Institute, from the first year of which he was drafted into the army. By the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, he was already the deputy commander of a tank company for the technical part. From the first days of the war, Victor kept a diary: he dreamed of being a writer. The notebook was carried in a bag with tools, in a duffel bag. The diary burned down in a tank near Budapest. But records from the Prokhorovsky field would still not be found there: on the Kursk Bulge, techies did not have time to write. Olga TIMOFEEVA Pre-battle rally Today, when a retired engineer colonel, leading researcher at the Moscow Research Institute of Civil Defense and Emergency Situations, Viktor Mikhailovich Kryat, Ph.D. - indignation. A photocopy of the diary is crossed out, in the margins there are brief notes: “Lie!”. German tanks near Prokhorovka burned down a little less than ours. And for the first time, the Germans began to retreat not on the 27th, but on July 17th. He was a direct eyewitness to those events, his 170th tank brigade fought on the front line, covering the 181st, which was following them and, as it seems to him, the more heroic. - On the evening of July 11, we had a rally. They spoke briefly, concisely, explained clearly and truthfully: “Keep in mind, the Germans have new tanks - the Tiger, the Panther and the Ferdinand self-propelled gun, on which the anti-aircraft guns of 88, 75 and 88 millimeters are installed!” With initial speed projectile over 1000 meters per second, they could pierce our T-34 from one and a half kilometers. And the 76-mm cannon of our tanks could penetrate a German tank only in the side, only with a sub-caliber projectile and no further than half a kilometer. We were told: “Comrades, we must build battle formations in such a way as to get to the German tanks and go this kilometer until we can break through them!” This is amazing, a tank corps is never built in two echelons, but here in three: the 170th, 110th and 181st tank brigades. Our 170th went in the first echelon, and our task was to fly as fast as possible and shoot aimlessly towards the Germans, covering the brigades behind us. And so the 181st tank brigade burst into the battle formations of the Germans and began to shoot these tanks ... Battle In the 170th brigade, all the tanks were knocked out. The commander of the gun at the driver Kryat was the Belarusian Gavrusenok, the tank commander was the Ukrainian Prokopchuk. Both of them did not live to see the Victory. When asked why there were few awarded heroes of this battle, the veterans will answer: there was no one to represent and there was no one to reward ... - Sasha Nikolaev was a tank driver of the 181st tank brigade, - says Viktor Mikhailovich. - His tank was knocked out, the company commander was wounded. They pulled him out of the tank and into the hole. Tank is on fire. And then there are two Tigers. What to do? Sasha jumped into the burning tank and rushed towards them. From the impact of the "Tiger" ammunition detonated and exploded. And a German tank nearby too. The tank of Sasha Nikolaev also exploded. His bust now stands on the Prokhorovsky field. This is the question of whether our tankers were afraid of the Tigers. Many such cases are remembered. Fascist planes flew to bomb Soviet tanks. The tanks hid in the landings, and in the middle of the field there was one left - standing! He angered the enemy so much that they decided to finish him off. And he spins on the field: forward, backward, stop - bombs fall past. The Germans threw everything away and flew away. And he plowed the whole field, but did not let himself be knocked out and saved the rest from the planes. Rotmistrov pulled out the Order of the Red Banner of War and handed it to the crew there. - The battle went on from morning until late in the evening, - Viktor Mikhailovich recalls. - I have never seen before or since that planes flew in five or six layers! Air battles are somewhere above, ours are flying, first Ilys, then Petlyakovs, bombers, then German Yu-87, Yu-88, Messers. I had a fear of aviation since 1941, and here I was absolutely indifferent, because this was happening on earth! A continuous roar: cannon shots, anti-tank artillery, ordinary artillery, it is impossible to understand who is hitting whom. Results - It was a graveyard of tanks. The Churchills especially got it - hated cars, English rubbish. They stood for five days, from the 12th to the 17th, facing each other, not moving forward. We assembled one out of two or three tanks. It got to the point that with the blanks that the Germans fired, they clogged holes in the armor, scalded with electric welding ... During the war, Viktor Mikhailovich went through with his own hands not only all Soviet tanks from T-26 and BT-7 to T-34 and KV, but also allied "Valentines" and "Matilda", M4A2. The victory was achieved by the deputy commander of the battalion commander of the captured Panthers: - The advantage of our tanks was that they had high speed and, breaking in, maneuvered among the battle formations, and the German vehicles were clumsy, heavy and slow. Only we had armor-piercing shells, which, having pierced the tank's armor, exploded inside. Not a single army had sub-caliber shells: during the time it passed through the armor, the core heated up and ignited the fuel. By the way, the Germans, surprisingly, had tanks with gasoline engines until the very end of the war. They couldn't make the fast diesel we had. Gasoline ignites instantly. “This Scholl is just a chatterer,” Viktor Mikhailovich took the diary with him and the next day wrote an answer on the back of the leaves. Apologizing for his handwriting - deteriorated after a stroke, he read aloud, making additions as he went. “In general, these notes and the diary do not correspond to the actual state and position of the troops. They are erroneous, even in terms of dates and times they do not coincide with the position of the troops and the battles. After all, there were no winners on the Prokhorovsky field in tactical and operational terms after the clash of the two armies. But five days later the Germans began to withdraw. They no longer had the strength to repel our attacks: during this time we managed to restore combat capability, but they did not. He breaks away from the written sheet and peers into the distance: - On the 13th there was still an echo of the fighting, and then everything stopped, they stood against each other until the 17th. The Germans could not repair their complex vehicles in the field, and our technicians had already restored about 200 tanks. Realizing this, the Germans began to retreat to the starting line, but they could not stop: we grabbed their tail. The retreat only seems planned at first, and then turns into a flight. And so they fled to the Dnieper. “The German “Tigers” and “Panthers” were good only from ambushes, in defense, but they were unsuitable for fulfilling the main purpose of tanks - swift actions in the operational depth of the enemy. They have low speed and maneuverability, so the maneuverability of tank units is extremely insufficient for fleeting tank battles. With the correct use of tanks, the victory was always on our side. - In 1943, we acted like the Germans in 1941, not paying attention to anything. This tanker is just a talker. They arranged competitions for a hundred marks - as if they were invulnerable. But at the same time, the horror and fear that he showed in battles slip through. “And where our tanks hit in the forehead, naturally, we suffered losses. However, the same is true of the German side. When they tried to hit in the forehead, using higher armor protection, they also suffered heavy losses and did not achieve success. Fighting is not only a technique, but also a fighting spirit, faith in a just cause, faith in your commanders and comrades, faith in the weapon that you own, you know its advantages and disadvantages. Then you go into battle with confidence. And most importantly, faith in yourself, in your strengths, skills, abilities. Faith in your victory: the enemy will die, not me. And the last. The discipline of each soldier and officer, the ability to follow the order of the elder, no matter how difficult and dangerous. Each fighter is worried before the fight, but as soon as he enters the fight, all feelings go away - only the thirst for victory and success in battle remains. Viktor Mikhailovich tosses his head and searches for words for a long time. “Here is my answer to this… fascist,” he finally says.