Interesting facts about the Kursk Bulge. Interesting facts about the Battle of Kursk . “The victory at Kursk,” he said, will capture the imagination of the whole world.”

Battle in the air

A huge contribution to the victory at Kursk was made by Soviet military aviation, which was able to gain air supremacy and did not lose it until the end of the Great Patriotic War.

“Fightings in the air in the Kursk-Oryol direction from the very beginning took very sharp forms and reached large proportions. These battles developed into a real air battle.

In the Kursk-Oryol direction, the Germans tasked their aviation with the closest cooperation with tank units. In fact, German aviation acted as a kind of air artillery, which was supposed to strengthen the artillery impact on the battlefield and pave the way for its tanks.

In solving this problem, the Germans used slightly different tactics than in the neighboring Belgorod direction. The offensive began with strong artillery preparation, after which tanks went on the attack, and only then, when the tanks were stopped by our anti-tank defenses, German aircraft appeared in the air. Enemy bombers were flying in groups of 100 - 150 aircraft. They were accompanied at all times by large patrols of fighters, mainly Focke-Wulf 190s; the aircraft were located in three tiers: at an altitude of 1500, 3000 and 5000 meters.

Fierce air battles raged throughout the day, during which the Germans suffered heavy losses. However, the next day their aviation had not yet slowed down the pace of its work over the battlefield. The number of sorties has not decreased. To replace the damaged Focke-Wulf 190s, a large number of Messerschmitts appeared in the air.

... Senior Lieutenant Mezhunov, on a Yakovlev-1 plane, fought with four Focke-Wulf-190s, defending his bombers. He did not allow the Germans to approach the bombers, tying up the enemy fighters in battle. Having used up his entire combat reserve, Mezhunov went to ram and shot down an enemy fighter.

Today, the air battle of Captain Solyanikov is widely known at the front. He had to fight four Focke-Wulf 190s. The captain shot down one German fighter. At this time, two others tried to take him in a pincer fire. Solyanikov successfully maneuvered out of the attack and put the Germans in such a position that they collided in the air and, catching fire, fell down. The fourth plane, put down by Solyanikov in the subsequent attack, blazing, went to its territory.

A group of fighters, led by the Hero of the Soviet Union Guard Captain Makarov, entered into battle with a group of German bombers, numbering up to 70 aircraft. Having attacked the Germans from several sides at once, the fighters disrupted their battle formation, shot down the leader and forced the bombers to turn back. Pursuing the enemy, this group destroyed several more German vehicles. Captain Makarov himself shot down two enemy aircraft in this battle and knocked out a third..."

Lieutenant Colonel N. Denisov

Oryol-Kursk direction (by telegraph).

July 1943

During the Great Patriotic War, such famous writers and publicists as Alexei Tolstoy, Mikhail Sholokhov, Andrei Platonov, Vsevolod Vishnevsky, Konstantin Simonov, Ilya Erenburg collaborated with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper. Here is one of the published articles about the Battle of Kursk by writer Vasily Grossman.

“I had to visit the units that took the main blow from the enemy: a rifle regiment commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Shevernozhuk, a regiment that met the blow of the German armada near a railway station between Orel and Kursk, a station well known in peacetime for its apples - Ponyri, and in the Belgorod direction - in a fighter artillery regiment, part of the brigade of Lieutenant Colonel Chevol.

These two lieutenant colonels, hardly aware of each other’s existence, on the same day and at the same hour met German tanks and self-propelled artillery, rapidly rushing from the north and south with the task of meeting in Kursk. That’s what the German soldiers were told before the start of the offensive: “Now you are receiving food for 5 days, the next distribution will be in Kursk.”

Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny Shevernozhuk is a heavyset man of enormous height, with slow, calm movements, a slow, calm voice. He moves slowly, smiles slowly, frowns slowly. But sometimes his huge body turns easily and quickly, and his voice sounds abrupt, imperious, stern. The division, which includes Shevernozhuk's regiment, withstood 32 fierce tank attacks in five days. About 800 German tanks took part in these attacks, and together with the tanks, German infantry went on the attack - the assault division, the "Fire and Sword" division. The Germans lost 10,700 people and 221 tanks during these attacks.

...The composition of the regiment seems to reflect the multinational composition of our state. Most of the Red Army soldiers are Russian workers and peasants - residents of the Kursk, Oryol and Moscow regions, some of the fighters are Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Tatars... Nearby are the names of Purgin, Abdukhairov, Andryushchenko, Stukachev, the famous Kazakh Sati Baldeev in the regiment, who fought with his tame with a machine gun against a hundred fascists and the winner in this unequal battle. This friendship grew and strengthened in the regiment.

And so, watching the actions, movements of the Red Army soldiers, the expressions on their faces, I suddenly understood what the secret of our success was and why the armored fist raised by Hitler in the Kursk direction fell powerlessly without breaking through our defenses. This handful of people, who were probably going to get dinner, suddenly caught by a swift and angry German raid, with magnificent calm, with the slowness of craftsmen and craftsmen, with the precise calculation of smart and experienced military workers, took up positions within two or three seconds and opened fire from rifles, machine guns, light machine guns..."

Fire bag near the village of Goreloye

On the morning of July 8, when repelling another German attack, 24 tanks were destroyed, including 7 Tigers. And on July 9, the Germans put together an operational strike group from the most powerful equipment, followed by medium tanks and motorized infantry in armored personnel carriers.

Two hours after the start of the battle, the group broke through the state farm named after May 1 to the village of Goreloye. In these battles, German troops used a new tactical formation, when in the first ranks of the strike group a line of Ferdinand assault guns moved in two echelons, followed by Tigers covering the assault guns and medium tanks. But near the village of Goreloye, our artillerymen and infantrymen allowed German tanks and self-propelled guns into a pre-prepared fire bag, supported by long-range artillery fire and rocket mortars. Finding themselves under cross-artillery fire, also falling into a powerful minefield and being attacked by Petlyakov dive bombers, the German tanks stopped.

On the night of July 11, the bloodless enemy made a last attempt to push back our troops, but this time it was not possible to break through to the Ponyri station. A major role in repelling the offensive was played by the PZO supplied by the special purpose artillery division. By midday the Germans had withdrawn, leaving seven tanks and two assault guns on the battlefield. This was the last day when German troops came close to the outskirts of Ponyri station. In just 5 days of fighting, the enemy was able to advance only 12 kilometers.

On July 12, when there was a fierce battle near Prokhorovka on the Southern Front, where the enemy advanced 35 kilometers, on the Northern Front the front line returned to its original positions, and already on July 15, Rokossovsky’s army launched an offensive on Oryol. One of the German generals later said that the key to their victory remained forever buried under Ponyri.

Hospital incident

During the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943, a grandiose battle was planned in Ponyri. Residents, saving them from imminent death, were evacuated by Red Army soldiers to the village of Lipinovo, Zolotukhinsky district. Livestock was driven by teenagers under the supervision of adult women. Some people thought that the cows understood what was happening. The dives were covered in black smoke and from the outside looked like an alien planet.

Lipinovo temporarily housed not only evacuated citizens, but also a hospital. The wounded were housed in houses, barns, and tents. Hospital officials called on the public to help care for the wounded. Nobody sat idle. Women, elderly people, teenagers and children voluntarily performed their civic duty. Gorbacheva Efrosinya Yakovlevna was appointed as a nurse in the ward for the care of seriously wounded officers.

Most of the wounds were in the stomach. She washed them, bathed them, and fed them. They couldn't do much on their own, and she helped them turn around and get up carefully so as not to cause pain. The officers were fed well, they were given semolina porridge with butter, but they ate little and the porridge remained. Efrosinya Yakovlevna began to take the porridge to the wounded soldiers. The doctor saw this - a young woman. She demanded in an orderly tone that they throw the porridge into the garbage pit. But the nurse continued to bring porridge to the soldiers. Then the doctor took up the matter herself. After each lunch, she began to watch Efrosinya Yakovlevna, then she led her to the pit, and the food was thrown out. Why did the doctor do this? 75 years have passed and there is still no answer.

Recorded by Ekaterina Yakovlevna Gorbacheva from the words of Efrosinya Yakovlevna Gorbacheva in the 1980s.

The battle on the Kursk Bulge lasted 50 days. As a result of this operation, the strategic initiative finally passed to the side of the Red Army and until the end of the war it was carried out mainly in the form of offensive actions on its part. On the day of the 75th anniversary of the start of the legendary battle, the website of the Zvezda TV channel collected ten little-known facts about the Battle of Kursk. 1. Initially the battle was not planned as offensive When planning the spring-summer military campaign of 1943, the Soviet command was faced with a difficult choice: which method of action to prefer - to attack or defend. In their reports on the situation in the Kursk Bulge area, Zhukov and Vasilevsky proposed to bleed the enemy in a defensive battle and then launch a counteroffensive. A number of military leaders opposed it - Vatutin, Malinovsky, Timoshenko, Voroshilov - but Stalin supported the decision to defend, fearing that as a result of our offensive the Nazis would be able to break through the front line. The final decision was made in late May - early June, when.

“The actual course of events showed that the decision on deliberate defense was the most rational type of strategic action,” emphasizes military historian, candidate of historical sciences Yuri Popov.

2. The number of troops in the battle exceeded the scale of the Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Kursk is still considered one of the largest battles of World War II. More than four million people were involved in it on both sides (for comparison: during the Battle of Stalingrad, just over 2.1 million people participated at various stages of the fighting). According to the General Staff of the Red Army, during the offensive alone from July 12 to August 23, 35 German divisions were defeated, including 22 infantry, 11 tank and two motorized. The remaining 42 divisions suffered heavy losses and largely lost their combat effectiveness. In the Battle of Kursk, the German command used 20 tank and motorized divisions out of a total of 26 divisions available at that time on the Soviet-German front. After Kursk, 13 of them were completely destroyed. 3. Information about the enemy’s plans was promptly received from intelligence officers from abroad Soviet military intelligence managed to timely reveal the preparations of the German army for a major offensive on the Kursk Bulge. Foreign residencies obtained information in advance about Germany’s preparations for the spring-summer campaign of 1943. Thus, on March 22, GRU resident in Switzerland Sandor Rado reported that “...an attack on Kursk may involve using the SS tank corps (an organization banned in the Russian Federation - approx. edit.), which is currently receiving replenishment." And intelligence officers in England (GRU resident Major General I. A. Sklyarov) obtained an analytical report prepared for Churchill, “Assessment of possible German intentions and actions in the Russian campaign of 1943.”

“The Germans will concentrate forces to eliminate the Kursk salient,” the document said.

Thus, the information obtained by the scouts in early April revealed in advance the plan of the enemy’s summer campaign and made it possible to forestall the enemy’s attack. 4. The Kursk Bulge became a large-scale baptism of fire for Smersh The counterintelligence agencies "Smersh" were formed in April 1943 - three months before the start of the historic battle. "Death to Spies!" - Stalin so succinctly and at the same time succinctly defined the main task of this special service. But the Smershevites not only reliably protected units and formations of the Red Army from enemy agents and saboteurs, but also, which was used by the Soviet command, conducted radio games with the enemy, carried out combinations to bring German agents to our side. The book “Fire Arc”: The Battle of Kursk through the eyes of Lubyanka,” published based on materials from the Central Archives of the FSB of Russia, talks about a whole series of operations by security officers during that period.

Thus, in order to misinform the German command, the Smersh department of the Central Front and the Smersh department of the Oryol Military District conducted a successful radio game “Experience”. It lasted from May 1943 to August 1944. The work of the radio station was legendary on behalf of the reconnaissance group of Abwehr agents and misled the German command about the plans of the Red Army, including in the Kursk region. In total, 92 radiograms were transmitted to the enemy, 51 were received. Several German agents were called to our side and neutralized, and cargo dropped from the plane was received (weapons, money, fictitious documents, uniforms). . 5. On the Prokhorovsky field, the number of tanks fought against their quality What is considered to be the largest battle of armored vehicles of the entire Second World War began near this settlement. On both sides, up to 1,200 tanks and self-propelled guns took part in it. The Wehrmacht had superiority over the Red Army due to the greater efficiency of its equipment. Let's say the T-34 had only a 76-mm cannon, and the T-70 had a 45-mm gun. The Churchill III tanks, received by the USSR from England, had a 57-millimeter gun, but this vehicle was characterized by low speed and poor maneuverability. In turn, the German heavy tank T-VIH "Tiger" had an 88-mm cannon, with a shot from which it penetrated the armor of the thirty-four at a distance of up to two kilometers.

Our tank could penetrate armor 61 millimeters thick at a distance of a kilometer. By the way, the frontal armor of the same T-IVH reached a thickness of 80 millimeters. It was possible to fight with hope of success in such conditions only in close combat, which was used, however, at the cost of heavy losses. Nevertheless, at Prokhorovka, the Wehrmacht lost 75% of its tank resources. For Germany, such losses were a disaster and proved difficult to recover almost until the very end of the war. 6. General Katukov’s cognac did not reach the Reichstag During the Battle of Kursk, for the first time during the war, the Soviet command used large tank formations in echelon to hold a defensive line on a wide front. One of the armies was commanded by Lieutenant General Mikhail Katukov, the future twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Marshal of the Armored Forces. Subsequently, in his book “At the Edge of the Main Strike,” he, in addition to the difficult moments of his front-line epic, also recalled one funny incident related to the events of the Battle of Kursk.

“In June 1941, after leaving the hospital, on the way to the front I dropped into a store and bought a bottle of cognac, deciding that I would drink it with my comrades as soon as I achieved my first victory over the Nazis,” the front-line soldier wrote. - Since then, this treasured bottle has traveled with me on all fronts. And finally the long-awaited day has arrived. We arrived at the checkpoint. The waitress quickly fried the eggs, and I took a bottle out of my suitcase. We sat down with our comrades at a simple wooden table. They poured cognac, which brought back pleasant memories of peaceful pre-war life. And the main toast - “For victory! To Berlin!”

7. Kozhedub and Maresyev crushed the enemy in the sky above Kursk During the Battle of Kursk, many Soviet soldiers showed heroism.

“Every day of fighting gave many examples of courage, bravery, and perseverance of our soldiers, sergeants and officers,” notes retired Colonel General Alexey Kirillovich Mironov, a participant in the Great Patriotic War. “They consciously sacrificed themselves, trying to prevent the enemy from passing through their defense sector.”

Over 100 thousand participants in those battles were awarded orders and medals, 231 became Hero of the Soviet Union. 132 formations and units received the guards rank, and 26 were awarded the honorary titles of Oryol, Belgorod, Kharkov and Karachev. Future three times Hero of the Soviet Union. Alexey Maresyev also took part in the battles. On July 20, 1943, during an air battle with superior enemy forces, he saved the lives of two Soviet pilots by destroying two enemy FW-190 fighters at once. On August 24, 1943, the deputy squadron commander of the 63rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, Senior Lieutenant A.P. Maresyev, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. 8. Defeat at the Battle of Kursk came as a shock to Hitler After the failure at the Kursk Bulge, the Fuhrer was furious: he lost his best formations, not yet knowing that in the fall he would have to leave the entire Left Bank Ukraine. Without betraying his character, Hitler immediately laid the blame for the Kursk failure on the field marshals and generals who exercised direct command of the troops. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, who developed and carried out Operation Citadel, subsequently wrote:

“This was the last attempt to maintain our initiative in the East. With its failure, the initiative finally passed to the Soviet side. Therefore, Operation Citadel is a decisive, turning point in the war on the Eastern Front."

A German historian from the military-historical department of the Bundeswehr, Manfred Pay, wrote:

“The irony of history is that Soviet generals began to assimilate and develop the art of operational leadership of troops, which was highly appreciated by the German side, and the Germans themselves, under pressure from Hitler, switched to Soviet positions of tough defense - according to the principle “at all costs.”

By the way, the fate of the elite SS tank divisions that took part in the battles on the Kursk Bulge - “Leibstandarte”, “Totenkopf” and “Reich” - later turned out even more sad. All three units took part in battles with the Red Army in Hungary, were defeated, and the remnants made their way into the American zone of occupation. However, the SS tank crews were handed over to the Soviet side, and they were punished as war criminals. 9. The victory at Kursk brought the opening of the Second Front closer As a result of the defeat of significant Wehrmacht forces on the Soviet-German front, more favorable conditions were created for the deployment of American-British troops in Italy, the disintegration of the fascist bloc began - the Mussolini regime collapsed, Italy came out of the war on the side of Germany. Under the influence of the victories of the Red Army, the scale of the resistance movement in the countries occupied by German troops increased, and the authority of the USSR as the leading force in the anti-Hitler coalition strengthened. In August 1943, the US Committee of Chiefs of Staff prepared an analytical document in which it assessed the role of the USSR in the war.

“Russia occupies a dominant position,” the report noted, “and is a decisive factor in the impending defeat of the Axis countries in Europe.”

It is no coincidence that President Roosevelt realized the danger of further delaying the opening of the Second Front. On the eve of the Tehran Conference he told his son:

“If things in Russia continue to go as they are now, then perhaps next spring the Second Front will not be needed.”

It is interesting that a month after the end of the Battle of Kursk, Roosevelt already had his own plan for the dismemberment of Germany. He presented it just at the conference in Tehran. 10. For the fireworks in honor of the liberation of Orel and Belgorod, the entire supply of blank shells in Moscow was used up During the Battle of Kursk, two key cities of the country were liberated - Orel and Belgorod. Joseph Stalin ordered an artillery salute to be held on this occasion in Moscow - the first in the entire war. It was estimated that in order for the fireworks to be heard throughout the city, about 100 anti-aircraft guns would need to be deployed. There were such fire weapons, but the organizers of the ceremonial event had at their disposal only 1,200 blank shells (during the war they were not kept in reserve at the Moscow Air Defense Garrison). Therefore, out of 100 guns, only 12 salvos could be fired. True, the Kremlin mountain cannon division (24 guns) was also involved in the salute, blank shells for which were available. However, the effect of the action may not have been as expected. The solution was to increase the interval between salvos: at midnight on August 5, all 124 guns were fired every 30 seconds. And so that the fireworks could be heard everywhere in Moscow, groups of guns were placed in stadiums and vacant lots in different areas of the capital.

74 years ago, one of the turning point battles in the history of the Great Patriotic War began - the Battle of Kursk.

On July 5, 1943, one of the largest battles of the Great Patriotic War began - the Battle of Kursk. According to domestic historiography, the Battle of Kursk, along with the Battle of Stalingrad, constitutes the so-called period of a radical turning point in the war.

Thousands of books have been written about this battle, but many facts are still little known to a wide audience. AiF.ru collected 5 of them.

Stalin's "Werther"

By the summer of 1943, the Soviet Union had caught up and surpassed Nazi Germany not only in terms of weapons production, but also in virtually all areas of military activity.

Soviet agents also worked brilliantly behind enemy lines. Already from the beginning of 1943, Stalin and the Soviet General Staff were aware of the preparation by the German command of a plan for a summer offensive, codenamed “Citadel”.

On April 12, 1943, the exact text of Directive No. 6 “On the plan for 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 Hitler’s own visa. He staged it three days after the Soviet leader got acquainted with it. The Fuhrer, of course, did not know about this.

Nothing is known about the person who obtained this document for the Soviet command except his code name - “Werther”. Various researchers have put forward different versions of who "Werther" really was - some believe that Hitler's personal photographer was a Soviet agent.

Rokossovsky turned out to be more perspicacious than Vatutin

There was no consensus among Soviet military leaders on how to proceed in the summer of 1943. The commander of the Central Front, Konstantin Rokossovsky, proposed a transition to a deliberate defense in order to exhaust and bleed the advancing enemy, followed by a counteroffensive for his final defeat. But the commander of the Voronezh Front, Nikolai Vatutin, insisted on our troops going on 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 showed amazing passivity in early July, which made Stalin doubt the correctness of the decision.

- Comrade Stalin! The Germans have launched an offensive!

-What are you happy about? - asked the surprised leader.

– Now victory will be ours, Comrade Stalin! - answered the commander.

Rokossovsky was not mistaken.

The mysterious battle of Prokhorovka

The key moment of the Battle of Kursk is considered to be the tank battle near the village of Prokhorovka.

Surprisingly, this large-scale clash of armored vehicles of the opposing sides still causes fierce debate among historians.

Classic Soviet historiography reported 800 tanks for the Red Army and 700 for the Wehrmacht. Modern historians tend to increase the number of Soviet ones and decrease the number of German ones.

Soviets in the Kursk Bulge area, July 1943. Photo: RIA Novosti

According to Evans, the Battle of Kursk did not end in a Soviet victory, but on “Hitler’s orders.” The same Evans, who is supported by many young Russian historians, states that by the end of the battle the Red Army had lost 10,000 tanks.

This version has one extremely weak point - it is not clear why, with such successes, the Nazis suddenly began to rapidly roll back to the West?

The losses of the Red Army in the Battle of Prokhorovka were greater than those of the Nazis. The backbone of the Soviet tank corps and armies at that time was the T-34, which was significantly inferior to the newest German Tigers and Panthers - this explains the high number of Soviet losses.

Nevertheless, Nazi tanks were stopped on the field at Prokhorovka, which actually meant the disruption of plans for the German summer offensive.

"Kutuzov" and "Rumyantsev"

When people talk about the Battle of Kursk, they often mention Operation Citadel, the German offensive plan. Meanwhile, after the Wehrmacht onslaught was repulsed, the Soviet troops carried out two of their offensive operations, which ended in brilliant successes. The names of these operations are much less known than “Citadel”.

On July 12, 1943, the troops of the Western and Bryansk fronts went on the offensive in the Oryol direction. Three days later, the Central Front began its offensive. This operation was codenamed “Kutuzov”. During it, a major defeat was inflicted on the German Army Group Center, whose retreat stopped only on August 18 at the Hagen defensive line east of Bryansk. Thanks to “Kutuzov”, the cities of Karachev, Zhizdra, Mtsensk, Bolkhov were liberated, and on the morning of August 5, 1943, Soviet troops entered Orel.

August 1943. Photo: RIA Novosti

On August 3, 1943, troops of the Voronezh and Steppe fronts began the offensive operation "Rumyantsev", named after another Russian commander. On August 5, Soviet troops captured Belgorod and then began to liberate the territory of Left Bank Ukraine. During the 20-day operation, they defeated the opposing Nazi forces and reached Kharkov. On August 23, 1943, at 2 a.m., troops of the Steppe Front launched a night assault on the city, which ended in success by dawn.

“Kutuzov” and “Rumyantsev” became the reason for the first victorious salute during the war years - on August 5, 1943, it was held in Moscow to commemorate the liberation of Orel and Belgorod.

Maresyev's feat

The book of the writer Boris Polevoy “The Tale of a Real Man,” which was based on the life of a real military pilot Alexei Maresyev, was known to almost everyone in the Soviet Union.

But not everyone knows that the fame of Maresyev, who returned to combat aviation after the amputation of both legs, arose precisely during the Battle of Kursk.

Senior Lieutenant Maresyev, who arrived in the 63rd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment on the eve of the Battle of Kursk, was faced with distrust. The pilots did not want to fly with him, fearing that a pilot with prosthetics would not be able to cope in difficult times. The regiment commander did not let him into battle either.

Squadron commander Chislov took him as his partner. Maresyev coped with the task, and at the height of the battles on the Kursk Bulge he carried out combat missions along with everyone else.

On July 20, 1943, during a battle with superior enemy forces, Alexey Maresyev saved the lives of two of his comrades and personally destroyed two enemy Focke-Wulf 190 fighters.

This story immediately became known throughout the front, after which the writer Boris Polevoy appeared in the regiment, immortalizing the name of the hero in his book. On August 24, 1943, Maresyev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

It is interesting that during his participation in battles, fighter pilot Alexei Maresyev personally shot down 11 enemy aircraft: four before being wounded and seven after returning to duty after amputation of both legs.

August 23 is the Day of Military Glory of Russia - the Day of the defeat of the Wehrmacht forces by Soviet troops on the Kursk Bulge. The Red Army was led to this important victory by almost two months of intense and bloody battles, the outcome of which was by no means a foregone conclusion. The Battle of Kursk is one of the largest battles in world history. Let's remember about it in a little more detail.

Fact 1

The salient in the center of the Soviet-German front to the west of Kursk was formed during the stubborn battles of February–March 1943 for Kharkov. The Kursk Bulge was up to 150 km deep and 200 km wide. This ledge is called the Kursk Bulge.

Battle of Kursk

Fact 2

The Battle of Kursk is one of the key battles of the Second World War, not only because of the scale of the fighting that took place on the fields between Orel and Belgorod in the summer of 1943. Victory in this battle meant the final turning point in the war in favor of the Soviet troops, which began after the Battle of Stalingrad. With this victory, the Red Army, having exhausted the enemy, finally seized the strategic initiative. This means that from now on we are advancing. The defense was over.

Another consequence - political - was the final confidence of the Allies in victory over Germany. At a conference held in November–December 1943 in Tehran on the initiative of F. Roosevelt, the post-war plan for the dismemberment of Germany was already discussed.

Scheme of the Battle of Kursk

Fact 3

1943 was a year of difficult choices for the command of both sides. Defend or attack? And if we attack, how large-scale tasks should we set ourselves? Both the Germans and the Russians had to answer these questions one way or another.

Back in April, G.K. Zhukov sent his report to Headquarters on possible military actions in the coming months. According to Zhukov, the best solution for the Soviet troops in the current situation would be to wear down the enemy on their defense by destroying as many tanks as possible, and then bring in reserves and go on a general offensive. Zhukov's considerations formed the basis of the campaign plan for the summer of 1943, after it was discovered that Hitler's army was preparing for a major offensive on the Kursk Bulge.

As a result, the decision of the Soviet command was to create a deeply echeloned (8 lines) defense on the most likely areas of the German offensive - on the northern and southern fronts of the Kursk ledge.

In a situation with a similar choice, the German command decided to attack in order to maintain the initiative in their hands. Nevertheless, even then, Hitler outlined the objectives of the offensive on the Kursk Bulge not to seize territory, but to exhaust the Soviet troops and improve the balance of forces. Thus, the advancing German army was preparing for a strategic defense, while the defending Soviet troops intended to attack decisively.

Construction of defensive lines

Fact 4

Although the Soviet command correctly identified the main directions of German attacks, mistakes were inevitable with such a scale of planning.

Thus, the Headquarters believed that a stronger group would attack in the Orel area against the Central Front. In reality, the southern group operating against the Voronezh Front turned out to be stronger.

In addition, the direction of the main German attack on the southern front of the Kursk Bulge was not accurately determined.

Fact 5

Operation Citadel was the name of the German command’s plan to encircle and destroy the Soviet armies in the Kursk salient. It was planned to deliver converging attacks from the north from the Orel area and from the south from the Belgorod area. The impact wedges were supposed to connect near Kursk. The maneuver with the turn of Hoth's tank corps towards Prokhorovka, where the steppe terrain favors the action of large tank formations, was planned in advance by the German command. It was here that the Germans, reinforced with new tanks, hoped to crush the Soviet tank forces.

Soviet tank crews inspect a damaged Tiger

Fact 6

The battle of Prokhorovka is often called the largest tank battle in history, but this is not so. It is believed that the multi-day battle that took place in the first week of the war (June 23–30) 1941 was larger in terms of the number of tanks participating. It occurred in Western Ukraine between the cities of Brody, Lutsk and Dubno. While about 1,500 tanks from both sides fought at Prokhorovka, more than 3,200 tanks took part in the battle of 1941.

Fact 7

In the Battle of Kursk, and in particular in the battle of Prokhorovka, the Germans especially relied on the strength of their new armored vehicles - Tiger and Panther tanks, Ferdinand self-propelled guns. But perhaps the most unusual new product was the “Goliath” wedges. This tracked self-propelled mine without a crew was controlled remotely via wire. It was intended to destroy tanks, infantry and buildings. However, these wedges were expensive, slow-moving and vulnerable, and therefore did not provide much help to the Germans.

Memorial in honor of the heroes of the Battle of Kursk

Battle in the air

Lieutenant Colonel N. Denisov

July 1943

...The composition of the regiment seems to reflect the multinational composition of our state. Most of the Red Army soldiers are Russian workers and peasants - residents of the Kursk, Oryol and Moscow regions, some of the fighters are Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Tatars... Nearby are the names of Purgin, Abdukhairov, Andryushchenko, Stukachev, the famous Kazakh Sati Baldeev in the regiment, who fought with his light machine gun against hundred fascists and the winner in this unequal battle. This friendship grew and strengthened in the regiment.

Fire bag near the village of Goreloye

Hospital incident

Recorded by Ekaterina Yakovlevna Gorbacheva from the words of Efrosinya Yakovlevna Gorbacheva in the 1980s.