A people forgetting their past has no future. This is what the ancient Greek philosopher Plato once said. In the middle of the last century, the "fifteen sister republics" united by "Great Russia" inflicted a crushing defeat on the plague of mankind - fascism. The fierce battle was marked by a number of victories of the Red Army, which can be called key. The topic of this article is one of the decisive battles of the Second World War - the Kursk Bulge, one of the fateful battles that marked the final mastery of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers of the strategic initiative. From that time on, the German invaders began to smash at all lines. The purposeful movement of the fronts to the West began. Since that time, the Nazis have forgotten what it means "forward to the East."

Historical parallels

The Kursk confrontation took place on 07/05/1943 - 08/23/1943 on the primordial Russian land, over which the great noble Prince Alexander Nevsky once held his shield. His prophetic warning to the Western conquerors (who came to us with a sword) about imminent death from the onslaught of the Russian sword that once again gained strength. It is characteristic that the Kursk Bulge was somewhat similar to the battle given by Prince Alexander to the Teutonic knights on 04/05/1242. Of course, the armament of the armies, the scale and time of these two battles are incommensurable. But the scenario of both battles is somewhat similar: the Germans, with their main forces, tried to break through the Russian battle formation in the center, but were crushed by the offensive actions of the flanks.

If, however, pragmatically try to say what is unique about the Kursk Bulge, summary will be as follows: unprecedented in history (before and after) operational-tactical density per 1 km of the front.

Battle disposition

The offensive of the Red Army after the Battle of Stalingrad from November 1942 to March 1943 was marked by the defeat of about 100 enemy divisions, thrown back from North Caucasus, Don, Volga. But due to the losses suffered by our side, by the beginning of the spring of 1943 the front had stabilized. On the map of hostilities in the center of the front line with the Germans, towards the Nazi army, a ledge stood out, which the military gave the name Kursk Duga. The 1943 spring brought a lull to the front: no one advanced, both sides forcibly accumulated strength in order to again seize the strategic initiative.

Preparing Nazi Germany

After the Stalingrad defeat, Hitler announced mobilization, as a result of which the Wehrmacht grew, more than covering the losses incurred. There were 9.5 million people “under the arms” (including 2.3 million reservists). 75% of the most combat-ready active troops (5.3 million people) were on the Soviet-German front.

The Fuhrer was eager to seize the strategic initiative in the war. The turning point, in his opinion, should have occurred precisely on that section of the front where the Kursk Bulge was located. To implement the plan, the Wehrmacht headquarters developed a strategic operation "Citadel". The plan involved strikes converging towards Kursk (from the north - from the region of Orel; from the south - from the region of Belgorod). In this way, the troops of the Voronezh and Central fronts fell into the "cauldron".

For this operation, 50 divisions were concentrated in this sector of the front, incl. 16 armored and motorized troops, with a total of 0.9 million selected, fully equipped troops; 2.7 thousand tanks; 2.5 thousand aircraft; 10 thousand mortars and guns.

In this group, the transition to new weapons was mainly carried out: the Panther and Tiger tanks, the Ferdinand assault guns.

When preparing Soviet troops for battle, one should pay tribute to the commander's talent of the deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief G.K. Zhukova. Together with the Chief of the General Staff A.M. Vasilevsky, he reported to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I. V. Stalin the assumption that the Kursk Bulge would become the main upcoming battlefield, and also predicted the approximate forces of the advancing enemy grouping.

On the front line, the Nazis were opposed by Voronezh (commander - General Vatutin N.F.) and Central Fronts (commander - General Rokossovsky K.K.) with a total number of 1.34 million people. They were armed with 19 thousand mortars and guns; 3.4 thousand tanks; 2.5 thousand aircraft. (As you can see, the advantage was on their side). The reserve Steppe Front (commander I.S.Konev) was located behind the aforementioned fronts secretly from the enemy. It consisted of a tank, an aviation and five combined arms armies, supplemented by separate corps.

Control and coordination of the actions of this group was carried out personally by G.K. Zhukov and A.M. Vasilevsky.

Tactical battle plan

Marshal Zhukov's plan assumed that the battle on the Kursk Bulge would have two phases. The first is defensive, the second is offensive.

A deeply echeloned bridgehead (300 km deep) was set up. The total length of its trenches was approximately equal to the "Moscow - Vladivostok" distance. It provided for 8 powerful lines of defense. The purpose of such a defense was to weaken the enemy as much as possible, to deprive him of the initiative, making the task of the attackers as easy as possible. In the second, offensive phase of the battle, two offensive operations were planned. First: Operation Kutuzov with the aim of eliminating the fascist group and liberating the city of Oryol. Second: "Commander Rumyantsev" for the destruction of the Belgorod-Kharkov group of invaders.

Thus, with the actual advantage of the Red Army, the battle on the Kursk Bulge took place from the Soviet side “on the defensive”. For offensive operations, as tactics teaches, two or three times the number of troops was required.

Shelling

It so happened that the time of the offensive of the fascist troops became known in advance. On the eve of the German sappers began to make passages in the minefields. Soviet front-line reconnaissance began a battle with them and took prisoners. The time of the offensive became known from the "tongues": 03/05/1943

The reaction was prompt and adequate: In 2-20 July 5, 1943, Marshal K.K.Rokossovsky (commander of the Central Front), with the approval of the Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief G.K. Zhukov, carried out a preventive powerful shelling by the forces of the frontline artillery. It was an innovation in combat tactics. Hundreds of "Katyushas", 600 guns, 460 mortars were fired at the invaders. For the Nazis, this was a complete surprise, they suffered losses.

Only at 4-30, regrouping, they were able to conduct their artillery preparation, and at 5-30 go on the offensive. The Battle of the Kursk Bulge began.

The beginning of the battle

Of course, not everyone could have predicted our generals. In particular, both the General Staff and the Headquarters expected the main blow from the Nazis in the southern direction, to the city of Orel (which was defended by the Central Front, commanded by General Vatutin N.F.). In reality, the battle on the Kursk Bulge by the German troops was focused on the Voronezh front, from the north. Two battalions moved to the troops of Nikolai Fedorovich heavy tanks, eight armored divisions, a division of assault guns, one motorized division. In the first phase of the battle, the first hot spot became the village of Cherkasskoe (actually wiped off the face of the earth), where two Soviet rifle divisions during the day they held back the offensive of five enemy divisions.

German offensive tactics

This martial art is glorious Great War... The Kursk Bulge fully demonstrated the confrontation between the two strategies. How did it look German offensive? Heavy equipment was moving ahead along the front of the attack: 15-20 Tiger tanks and self-propelled Ferdinand guns. They were followed by from fifty to one hundred medium tanks "Panther", accompanied by infantry. Thrown back, they regrouped and repeated the attack. The attacks were like the ebb and flow of the sea, following each other.

Let's follow the advice of renowned military historian, Marshal Soviet Union, Professor Matvey Vasilyevich Zakharov, we will not idealize our defense of the 1943 model, we will present it objectively.

We have to talk about German tank battle tactics. The Kursk Bulge (this should be admitted) demonstrated the skill of Colonel-General Hermann Goth, he “jewelry”, if I may say so about tanks, brought his 4th Army into battle. At the same time, our 40th Army with 237 tanks, the most equipped with artillery (35.4 units per 1 km), under the command of General Kirill Semenovich Moskalenko was much to the left, i.e. out of work. The opposing 6th Guards Army (commander I. M. Chistyakov) had a density of guns per 1 km - 24.4 with 135 tanks. Mainly the 6th Army, which was far from the most powerful, was hit by Army Group South, commanded by the most gifted strategist of the Wehrmacht, Erich von Manstein. (By the way, this man was one of the few who constantly argued about strategy and tactics with Adolf Hitler, for which in 1944, in fact, he was dismissed).

Tank battle at Prokhorovka

In the current difficult situation, in order to eliminate the breakthrough, the Red Army introduced strategic reserves into battle: the 5th Guards Tank Army (commander P.A. Rotmistrov) and the 5th Guards Army (commander A.S. Zhadov)

The possibility of a flank attack by the Soviet tank army in the area of ​​the village of Prokhorovka was previously considered by the German General Staff. Therefore, the divisions "Death's Head" and "Leibstandart" the direction of the strike was changed to 90 0 - for a head-on collision with the army of General Rotmistrov Pavel Alekseevich.

Tanks on the Kursk Bulge: 700 combat vehicles went into battle from the German side, and 850 from ours. An impressive and terrible picture. As eyewitnesses recall, the roar was such that blood flowed from the ears. They had to shoot at close range, which caused the towers to collapse. Coming to the enemy from the rear, they tried to fire on the tanks, from which the tanks burst into flames. The tankers were, as it were, in prostration - while they were alive, they had to fight. It was impossible to retreat, hide.

Of course, it was unreasonable to attack the enemy in the first phase of the operation (if during the defense we suffered one to five losses, what would they have been in the offensive ?!). At the same time, Soviet soldiers displayed real heroism on this battlefield. 100,000 people were awarded orders and medals, and 180 of them were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In our time, the day of its end - August 23 - is annually met by the inhabitants of a country like Russia.

On August 23, Russia celebrates the Day of Military Glory. Exactly 74 years ago, in 1943, the victory of the Red Army ended a long and terrible Battle of Kursk, which lasted over one and a half months - from July 5 to August 23, 1943. In this battle, which forever entered the domestic and world military, the Hitlerite army suffered another crushing defeat from the Soviet troops. Kursk and Stalingrad are the two most important watershed battles of the Great Patriotic War. The world has not yet known such a grand and intense battle of tank armies, which took place in 1943 at the Kursk Bulge.

There are still quite serious discrepancies in the assessment of the manpower and armament of the sides in the Battle of Kursk. So, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation calls the following number of personnel: the Red Army - 1 million 336 thousand servicemen, Hitler's Germany - over 900 thousand servicemen. German historians usually talk about a different balance of forces - about 1.9 million soldiers of the Red Army and 700 thousand soldiers and officers of the German army. This is understandable - the German authors want 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 the Kursk Bulge was the result of the superiority of the Soviet military leaders over the aces of Hitler's strategic planning. The history of the attempt of the Wehrmacht offensive in the Kursk direction began with the fact that Colonel-General Kurt Zeitzler, who occupied in 1942-1944. the post of chief of the general staff of the ground forces of Germany, made a proposal to organize an offensive on the "ledge" of the Red Army, which went into the position of the German troops near Kursk. So the offensive plan was born. Initially, Adolf Hitler did not agree with Zeitzler's opinion, since a number of military generals, including Walter Model, told the Fuehrer about all the difficulties that German troops would face if the project was implemented. But in the end, Hitler accepted Zeitzler's offer. After the approval of the plan by the Fuhrer, the offensive of the German troops on the Kursk Bulge became a matter of the near future.

The plan of the operation received the symbolic name "Citadel" - and this is no coincidence, since Hitler wanted to emphasize with this name that the Wehrmacht was defending the heart of Europe at the Kursk border. In Operation Citadel, Hitler saw a chance to seize the initiative and launch a new offensive to the east, “recouping” 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. Corresponding instructions were given to the propaganda department, since the idea of ​​an offensive was becoming less and less popular in the active 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 Hitler's troops, which, in the opinion of Hitler’s staff officers, would postpone the opening of a second front by Anglo-American troops in Europe.

Hitler's troops that took part in the Battle of Kursk were commanded by the military leaders of the Third Reich, famous in battles. In the southern (Prokhorovsky) sector of the Kursk Bulge, 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 strategist in the Wehrmacht and enjoyed great confidence in the Fuhrer. Army Group Center was commanded by Field Marshal Hans Gunther von Kluge, also an experienced military leader. However, Kluge proved to be an enemy of the Citadel operation plan, which earned the discontent of the command. The Citadel plan was also criticized by Colonel General Walter Model, who commanded the 9th Army. The model insisted that the command supply him with more armored vehicles, because he perfectly understood that the balance of power was not in favor of the Wehrmacht. The model demanded from the command and replenishment of the 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, Army General Nikolai Fedorovich Vatutin, Army General Ivan Stepanovich Konev, Army General Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky. The Battle of Kursk became a clear example of the ultimate superiority of the Russian army and Russian military art. Many outstanding German military leaders were forced to admit this. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, who led the development of Operation Citadel, later described it as Germany's last attempt to maintain positions on the Eastern Front. He also acknowledged that the Battle of Kursk played a decisive role in Germany's war against the Soviet Union. Colonel General Heinz Wilhelm Guderian, who served as inspector general of the armor during the operation tank troops, also emphasized that after the failure of the Citadel, the initiative on the Eastern Front completely passed to the Red Army.

The famous military historian Karl-Heinz Frizer, who devoted a lot of time to a detailed study of Operation Citadel, also agrees with the opinion of the German generals regarding the events on the Kursk Bulge. 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 both by 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 became a frank testimony to the approaching end of the Third Reich. After the complete defeat of the German troops at the Kursk Bulge, Adolf Hitler was enraged. But, without changing his character, the Fuhrer immediately laid all the blame for the failure of the operation he personally approved of 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 liberated strategically important Rostov-on-Don), the liberation of Donbass and then the Left-Bank Ukraine began.

The Battle of Kursk is of colossal significance 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 its allies in all theaters of military operations. Almost immediately after the beginning of the fighting on the Kursk Bulge, the Allied troops landed in Sicily. The position of fascist Italy has become disastrous. It was the actions of the Soviet troops on the Kursk Bulge that contributed to the success of the Allies in Italy. The Red Army pulled back huge forces of Hitler's troops, preventing the German command from transferring divisions from the Eastern Front to Italy. As a result, in southern Europe, the forces of the Nazis were insufficient to successfully resist the impending landing of Anglo-American troops.

However, despite the obvious victory of the Red Army in the Battle of Kursk and the consequences to which it led not only for the war on the Eastern Front, but for the entire Second World War as a whole, today it is a large number of falsifiers of history, aiming to understate 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 by pure chance. In fact, the falsifiers were not far from Adolf Hitler, who was sure that if the armies were commanded by other generals, the Wehrmacht would have won.

The defeat of the Nazis in the Battle of Kursk was conditioned not only and not so much by the human factor, by the miscalculations of the command, but by the whole set of circumstances that had developed by this period of the war. Heroism also played an important role. Soviet soldiers and officers, comparison with whom the Wehrmacht servicemen, 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. Moreover, after the atrocities that the Nazis committed in the occupied territories for two years of the ongoing war.

The second line of counterfeiting, very common in Lately- to attribute the victory of the Red Army at the Kursk Bulge to the successes of the Anglo-American troops who landed in Sicily. They say that the allies, having organized the landing of their divisions in Italy, diverted the attention of the Hitlerite command and the forces of the Wehrmacht from the Eastern Front. One of the fairly widespread statements of falsifiers of history is the myth that it was precisely those Nazi divisions that were not enough to win the Battle of Kursk that fought in Italy.

In fact, despite Hitler's initial plans to send three SS divisions to Italy from the Eastern Front, only the Leibstandarte SS division ended up in 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 one foot personnel of the SS division could have brought about a cardinal turning point in the Battle of Kursk and the Nazis would have emerged victorious from it.

Compared to the tense situation on the Eastern Front, including in comparison with the Battle of Kursk, the battles in Sicily look very modest. 13 divisions, 3 tank brigades, as well as allied special forces landed there. The total number of the allied troops landed was no more than 470 thousand people. They were opposed by 40 thousand. German soldiers and about 300 thousand Italian soldiers, who were very unreliable and ineffective. Thus, the Allied troops were almost 10 times larger than the number of Hitler's troops and 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 the "expropriation" of the victory in World War II from the Soviet Union. Discussions about the Battle of Kursk, in which the Nazis could have won, “if only”, fit perfectly into the rest of the storyline of the falsification of the history of World War II. An attempt to push the Soviet Union and the Red Army away 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 the falsifiers of history appear as the main fighters against Nazism, without whom there would be no victory over Nazi Germany. Of course, both the United States and Great Britain also made a huge contribution to the victory over Germany and her allies. It is especially large-scale in the Asia-Pacific region, where the Anglo-American forces opposed the entire might of the Japanese Empire, as well as in Africa, where the allies were waging war against Germany and Italy. But why take someone else's victory?

Of course, for the Soviet Union, the victory in the Battle of Kursk was very difficult. Both sides suffered colossal loss of life, the number of which also disagrees. The losses of the Red Army in the Battle of Kursk amounted to 254,470 people killed, missing and taken into German captivity. Another 608 833 people were wounded and sick. Recall that, according to the Ministry of Defense, 1.3 million people took part in the battle, of which more than 860 thousand people were killed, prisoners, missing, sick and wounded. A minority of the participants in the Battle of Kursk remained in the ranks. But at the cost of such colossal losses, the Red Army still managed to stop the advance of the Nazis. The Nazis had about the same ratio. Of the 900 thousand soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht and the SS, the total losses, according to the 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 Nazi troops by Soviet troops in the Battle of Kursk in 1943. Remembering all Soviet soldiers on this memorable date is one of the few humble deeds that we can do today, after 74 years have passed since those dramatic events. People who were born back in 1943 have long been retired, but the memory of those dramatic events is still alive.

The Battle of Kursk (the Battle of the Kursk Bulge), which lasted from July 5 to August 23, 1943, is one of the key battles of the Great Patriotic War. In Soviet and Russian historiography, it is customary to divide the battle into three parts: Kursk defensive operation(July 5-23); Oryol (July 12 - August 18) and Belgorod-Kharkov (August 3-23) offensive.

During the winter offensive of the Red Army and the ensuing counter-offensive of the Wehrmacht in Eastern Ukraine, a ledge up to 150 kilometers deep and up to 200 kilometers wide was formed in the center of the Soviet-German front, facing the west (the so-called "Kursk Bulge"). The German command decided to conduct a strategic operation on the Kursk salient. For this, a military operation codenamed "Citadel" was developed and approved in April 1943. Having information about the preparation of the German-fascist troops for the offensive, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command decided to temporarily go over to the defensive on the Kursk Bulge and, during a defensive battle, bleed the enemy's shock groups and thereby create favorable conditions for the transition of Soviet troops to a counteroffensive, and then to a general strategic offensive. ...

To carry out Operation Citadel, the German command concentrated 50 divisions in the sector, including 18 tank and motorized divisions. The enemy grouping numbered, according to Soviet sources, about 900 thousand people, up to 10 thousand guns and mortars, about 2.7 thousand tanks and more than 2 thousand aircraft. Air support German troops provided by the forces of the 4th and 6th air fleets.

By the beginning of the Battle of Kursk, the headquarters of the Supreme Command created a grouping (Central and Voronezh fronts), which had more than 1.3 million people, up to 20 thousand guns and mortars, more than 3300 tanks and self-propelled guns, 2650 aircraft. The troops of the Central Front (commanded by General of the Army Konstantin Rokossovsky) defended the northern face of the Kursk salient, and the troops of the Voronezh Front (commanded by General of the Army Nikolai Vatutin) defended the southern face. The troops that occupied the ledge relied on the Steppe Front as part of a rifle, 3 tank, 3 motorized and 3 cavalry corps (commanded by Colonel General Ivan Konev). The coordination of the actions of the fronts was carried out by representatives of the Headquarters Marshals of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevsky.

On July 5, 1943, according to the plan of Operation Citadel, German strike groups launched an offensive against Kursk from the regions of Orel and Belgorod. From the direction of Orel, a grouping under the command of Field Marshal Gunter Hans von Kluge (Army Group Center) was advancing, from the side of Belgorod - a grouping under the command of General Field Marshal Erich von Manstein (Task Force Kempf of Army Group South).

The task of repelling the offensive from the direction of Orel was assigned to the troops of the Central Front, from the side of Belgorod - the Voronezh Front.

On July 12, in the vicinity of the Prokhorovka railway station, 56 kilometers north of Belgorod, the largest oncoming tank battle World War II - a battle between the advancing enemy tank grouping (Operational Group Kempf) and the Soviet troops, which were delivering a counterstrike. Up to 1200 tanks and self-propelled guns took part in the battle on both sides. The fierce battle lasted all day, by evening the tank crews, along with the infantry, fought hand-to-hand. In one day, the enemy lost about 10 thousand people and 400 tanks and was forced to go over to the defensive.

On the same day, the troops of the Bryansk, Central and left wing Western fronts began Operation Kutuzov, which had the goal of crushing the enemy's Oryol grouping. On July 13, the troops of the Western and Bryansk fronts broke through the enemy's defenses on the Bolkhov, Khotynets and Oryol axes and advanced to a depth of 8 to 25 km. On July 16, the troops of the Bryansk Front reached the line of the Oleshnya River, after which the German command began to withdraw its main forces to their original positions. By July 18, the troops of the right wing of the Central Front had completely eliminated the enemy wedge in the Kursk direction. On the same day, the troops of the Steppe Front were brought into battle, which began to pursue the retreating enemy.

Developing the offensive, the Soviet ground forces, supported from the air by strikes from the forces of the 2nd and 17th air armies, as well as by long-range aviation, by 23 August 1943 threw the enemy back to the west by 140-150 km, liberated Oryol, Belgorod and Kharkov. According to Soviet sources, the Wehrmacht lost 30 elite divisions in the Battle of Kursk, including 7 tank divisions, over 500 thousand soldiers and officers, 1.5 thousand tanks, more than 3.7 thousand aircraft, 3 thousand guns. The losses of the Soviet troops surpassed the German ones; they amounted to 863 thousand people. At Kursk, the Red Army lost about 6 thousand tanks.

The beginning of the combat path of the Ural Volunteer Tank Corps

The defeat of the German fascist army at Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-1943 shook the fascist bloc to its foundations. For the first time since the beginning of World War II, Hitlerite Germany, in all its inevitability, faced a formidable specter of inevitable defeat. Its military power, the morale of the army and the population were severely undermined, and its prestige in the eyes of the allies was seriously shaken. In order to improve the internal political situation in Germany and prevent the collapse of the fascist coalition, the Hitlerite command decided in the summer of 1943 to conduct a major offensive operation in the central sector of the Soviet-German front. With this offensive, it hoped to defeat the group of Soviet troops located on the Kursk salient, again seize the strategic initiative and turn the course of the war in its favor. By the summer of 1943, the situation on the Soviet-German front had already changed in favor of the Soviet Union. By the beginning of the Battle of Kursk, the overall superiority in manpower and equipment was on the side of the Red Army: in men by 1.1 times, in artillery - by 1.7 times, in tanks - by 1.4 times, and in combat aircraft - by 2 times.

The Battle of Kursk takes place in the Great Patriotic War special place. It lasted 50 days and nights, from July 5 to August 23, 1943. In its ferocity and tenacity of the struggle, this battle is unmatched.

The goal of the Wehrmacht: The general plan of the German command was to encircle and destroy the troops of the Central and Voronezh fronts defending in the Kursk region. If successful, it was planned to expand the front of the offensive and return the strategic initiative. To implement their plans, the enemy concentrated powerful strike groups, which numbered over 900 thousand people, about 10 thousand guns and mortars, up to 2,700 tanks and assault guns, about 2,050 aircraft. High hopes were pinned on latest tanks"Tiger" and "Panther", assault guns "Ferdinand", fighter planes "Focke-Wulf-190-A" and attack aircraft "Heinkel-129".

The goal of the Red Army: the Soviet command decided to first bleed the enemy's strike forces in defensive battles, and then go over to the counteroffensive.

The battle that began immediately took on a grand scale and was extremely tense. Our troops did not flinch. They met the avalanches of enemy tanks and infantry with unprecedented fortitude and courage. The offensive of the enemy strike groups was suspended. Only at the cost of huge losses did he manage to break into our defenses in some areas. On the Central Front - by 10-12 kilometers, on the Voronezh - up to 35 kilometers. Finally, Hitler's operation "Citadel" was buried, the largest in the entire Second world war oncoming tank battle near Prokhorovka. It happened on July 12th. 1200 tanks and self-propelled guns participated in it from both sides at the same time. This battle was won by the Soviet soldiers. The Nazis, having lost up to 400 tanks in a day of battle, were forced to abandon the offensive.

On July 12, the second stage of the Battle of Kursk began - the Soviet counteroffensive. On August 5, Soviet troops liberated the cities of Orel and Belgorod. On the evening of August 5, in honor of this major success, a victorious salute was given in Moscow for the first time in two years of war. Since that time, artillery salutes have constantly announced the glorious victories of Soviet weapons. On August 23, Kharkov was liberated.

So the battle on the Kursk fire arc ended. During it, 30 elite enemy divisions were defeated. The Nazi troops lost about 500 thousand people, 1500 tanks, 3 thousand guns and 3700 aircraft. For courage and heroism, over 100 thousand Soviet soldiers, participants in the Battle of the Arc of Fire, were awarded orders and medals. The Battle of Kursk ended with a radical change in the Great Patriotic War in favor of the Red Army.

Losses in the Battle of the Kursk Bulge.

Loss type	Red Army	Wehrmacht	Ratio
Personnel
Guns and mortars
Tanks and self-propelled guns
Aircraft

UDTK at the Kursk Bulge. Orlovskaya offensive

The 30th Ural Volunteer Tank Corps, which is part of the 4th Panzer Army, received the baptism of fire in the battle on the Kursk Bulge.

T-34 tanks - 202 units, T-70 - 7, BA-64 armored vehicles - 68,

self-propelled 122 mm guns - 16, 85 mm guns - 12,

M-13 installations - 8, 76-mm guns - 24, 45-mm guns - 32,

guns 37 mm - 16, mortars 120 mm - 42, mortars 82 mm - 52.

The army, commanded by Lieutenant General of Tank Forces Vasily Mikhailovich Badanov, arrived at the Bryansk Front on the eve of the battles that began on July 5, 1943, and was brought into battle in the Oryol direction during the Soviet counteroffensive. The Ural Volunteer Tank Corps under the command of Lieutenant General Georgy Semyonovich Rodina had the task of advancing from the Seredichi region to the south, cutting off enemy communications on the Bolkhov-Khotynets line, reaching the area of ​​the Zlyn village, and then saddling the Orel-Bryansk railway and highway and cutting off the escape routes of the Oryol grouping of the Nazis to the west. And the Uralians complied with the order.

On July 29, Lieutenant General Rodin set the task of the 197th Sverdlovsk and 243rd Molotovskaya tank brigades: to force the Nugr River in cooperation with the 30th motorized rifle brigade (MSBR), capture the village of Borilovo and then advance in the direction of the village of Vishnevsky. The village of Borilovo was located on a high bank and dominated the surrounding area, and from the bell tower of the church it could be seen for several kilometers in a circle. All this made it easier for the enemy to conduct defense and made it difficult for the attacking corps subunits to act. At 20:00 on July 29, after a 30-minute artillery barrage and a salvo of guards mortars, two tank motorized rifle brigades began to cross the Nugr River. Under the cover of tank fire, the first, as on the Ors River, crossed the Nugr River by a company of Senior Lieutenant A.P. Nikolaev, capturing the southern outskirts of the village of Borilovo. By the morning of July 30, a battalion of the 30th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, with the support of tanks, despite stubborn enemy resistance, captured the village of Borilovo. All units of the Sverdlovsk brigade of the 30th UDTK were concentrated here. By order of the corps commander at 10:30, the brigade launched an offensive in the direction of Hill 212.2. The assault was difficult. It was completed by the 244th Chelyabinsk Tank Brigade, which was previously in the reserve of the 4th Army, which was brought into battle.

Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Petrovich Nikolaev, company commander of the motorized rifle battalion of the 197th Guards Sverdlovsk Tank Brigade. From personal archiveON THE.Kirillova.

On July 31, in the liberated Borilov, heroically killed tankers and machine gunners were buried, including the commanders of tank battalions: Major Chazov and Captain Ivanov. The massive heroism of the corps soldiers, shown in battles from July 27 to 29, was highly appreciated. In the Sverdlovsk brigade alone, 55 soldiers, sergeants and officers were awarded government awards for these battles. In the battle for Borilovo, the Sverdlovsk resident medical instructor Anna Alekseevna Kvanskova performed a feat. She rescued the wounded and, replacing the artillerymen who were out of action, brought shells to the firing positions. AA Kvanskova was awarded the Order of the Red Star, and later for her heroism she was awarded the Orders of Glory III and II degrees.

Guard sergeant Anna Alekseevna Kvanskova assists the lieutenantA. A.Bald, 1944.

Photo of M. Insarov, 1944. TsDOOSO. Form 221. OP.3.D.1672

The exceptional bravery of the Ural warriors, their readiness to carry out a combat mission without sparing their lives, aroused admiration. But mingled with it was the pain of the loss. It seemed that they were too great compared to the results achieved.

Column of German prisoners of war captured in battles in the Oryol direction, USSR, 1943.

Destroyed German equipment during the battles on the Kursk Bulge, USSR, 1943.

On August 23, Russia celebrates the Day of the defeat of the Nazi troops in the Battle of Kursk

In world history, there are no analogues of the Battle of Kursk, which lasted 50 days and nights - from July 5 to August 23, 1943. The victory in the Battle of Kursk was a decisive turning point in the course of the Great Patriotic War. The defenders of our Motherland managed to stop the enemy and inflict a deafening blow from which he could not recover. After the victory in the Battle of Kursk, the advantage in the Great Patriotic War was already on the side Soviet army... But such a radical change cost our country dearly: military historians still cannot accurately assess the loss of people and equipment at the Kursk Bulge, agreeing only on one assessment - the losses of both sides were colossal.

According to the plan of the German command, the Soviet troops of the Central and Voronezh fronts, which were defending in the Kursk region, were to be destroyed as a result of a series of massive attacks. The victory in the Battle of Kursk gave the Germans the opportunity to expand the plan of attack on our country and the strategic initiative. In short, winning this battle meant winning the war. In the Battle of Kursk, the Germans had high hopes for their new technique: Tiger and Panther tanks, Ferdinand assault guns, Focke-Wulf-190-A fighters and Heinkel-129 attack aircraft. Our attack aircraft used new anti-tank bombs PTAB-2.5-1.5, which pierced the armor of the fascist "Tigers" and "Panthers".

The Kursk Bulge was a protrusion about 150 kilometers deep and up to 200 kilometers wide, facing west. This arc was formed during the winter offensive of the Red Army and the subsequent counter-offensive of the Wehrmacht in Eastern Ukraine. The battle on the Kursk Bulge is usually divided into three parts: the Kursk defensive operation, which lasted from July 5 to 23, Orel (July 12 - August 18) and Belgorod-Kharkov (August 3 - 23).

The German military operation to seize control over the strategically important Kursk Bulge was codenamed "Citadel". Avalanche attacks on Soviet positions began on the morning of July 5, 1943, with artillery fire and air strikes. The Nazis advanced on a wide front, attacking from heaven and earth. As soon as it began, the battle took on a grand scale and was extremely tense. According to Soviet sources, the defenders of our Motherland were opposed by about 900 thousand people, up to 10 thousand guns and mortars, about 2.7 thousand tanks and more than 2 thousand aircraft. In addition, the aces of the 4th and 6th air fleets fought in the air from the German side. The command of the Soviet troops managed to collect more than 1.9 million people, more than 26.5 thousand guns and mortars, over 4.9 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery installations and about 2.9 thousand aircraft. Our soldiers repulsed the attacks of the enemy strike groups with unprecedented stamina and courage.

On July 12, Soviet troops on the Kursk Bulge went on the offensive. On this day, in the area of ​​the Prokhorovka railway station, 56 km north of Belgorod, the largest oncoming tank battle of the Second World War took place. It was attended by about 1200 tanks and self-propelled guns. The battle of Prokhorovka lasted all day, the Germans lost about 10 thousand people, over 360 tanks and were forced to retreat. On the same day, Operation Kutuzov began, during which the enemy's defenses were broken through on the Bolkhov, Khotynets and Oryol axes. Our troops were advancing inside the German positions, and the command of the enemy gave the order to retreat. By August 23, the enemy was thrown back 150 kilometers to the west, the cities of Orel, Belgorod and Kharkov were liberated.

Aviation played a significant role in the Battle of Kursk. Air strikes destroyed a significant amount of enemy equipment. The advantage of the USSR in the air, achieved in the course of fierce battles, became a guarantee of the overall superiority of our troops. In the memoirs of the German military, one can feel admiration for the enemy and a recognition of his strength. The German General Forst wrote after the war: “Our offensive began, and a few hours later a large number of Russian aircraft appeared. Erupted over our heads air battles... During the entire war, none of us saw such a spectacle. " A German fighter pilot from the Udet squadron, shot down on July 5 near Belgorod, recalls: “The Russian pilots began to fight much harder. Apparently, you still have old footage. I never thought that I would be knocked down so soon ... "

And about how fierce the battles were on the Kursk Bulge and about what inhuman efforts this victory was achieved, the recollections of the battery commander of the 239th mortar regiment of the 17th artillery division M.I.Kobzev will best tell:

– I was especially engrossed in the memory of the fierce battles on the Oryol-Kursk Bulge in August 1943, - wrote Kobzev. - It was in the Akhtyrka area. My battery was ordered to cover the withdrawal of our troops with mortar fire, blocking the path of enemy infantry advancing behind the tanks. The calculations of my battery had a hard time when the Tigers began to shower it with a shower of shrapnel. They disabled two mortars and almost half of the servants. A direct hit from a shell killed the loader, an enemy bullet hit the gunner's head, the third number was torn off the chin by a shrapnel. Miraculously, only one battery mortar remained intact, disguised in a thicket of corn, which, together with a scout and a radio operator, for two days the three of us dragged 17 kilometers until we found our regiment retreating to the assigned positions.

On August 5, 1943, when the Soviet army clearly had an advantage in the Battle of Kursk in Moscow, for the first time in 2 years since the beginning of the war, an artillery salute thundered in honor of the liberation of Orel and Belgorod. Subsequently, Muscovites often watched the fireworks in the days of significant victories in the battles of the Great Patriotic War.

Vasily Klochkov