On July 5, 1943, the Battle of Kursk began, also known as Battle of Kursk. This is one of the key battles of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War, which finally consolidated the radical change in the course of the Great Patriotic War, which began near Stalingrad. The offensive was launched by both sides: both Soviet and German. The summer strategic offensive of the Wehrmacht on the northern and southern faces of the Kursk bridgehead was called Operation Citadel.

According to Soviet and Russian historiography, the battle lasted 49 days, it includes: the Kursk strategic defensive operation (July 5 - 23), Oryol (July 12 - August 18) and Belgorod-Kharkov (August 3 - 23) strategic offensive operations.

How about the Oryol-Kursk salient? Is it also more correct?

In various sources, one can find references to the events of July 5 - August 23, 1943 as the "Oryol-Kursk Battle" and the "Oryol-Kursk Bulge". For example, in his report at a solemn meeting in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War on May 8, 1965, L. I. Brezhnev says:

"Giant Battle on the Oryol-Kursk Bulge in the summer of 1943 she broke her back ... ".

How common is this spelling? We'll find out a little later.

The arc was located between the Oryol and Kursk regions, which means that this is how it should be called - Oryol-Kursk

An arc is a section of a curve between two of its points. The southern point of the ledge, which had developed on the front by July 5, 1943, is Belgorod, now the Belgorod Region, the northern one is the Maloarkhangelsk station, now the Oryol Region. by name extreme points let's give the name: Belgorod-Oryol arc. So?

• June 13, 1934 Belgorod was included in the newly formed Kursk region.
• On June 13, 1934, after the liquidation of the Central Black Earth Region, the Maloarkhangelsky District became part of the newly formed Kursk Region.

For a contemporary of the Battle of Kursk, it would be quite natural to call the arc the Kursk-Kursk Bulge. That is ... just the Kursk Bulge. That's what they called her.

Where was it called that?

See titles of some materials different years:

• Markin I.I. On the Kursk Bulge. - M.: Military Publishing, 1961. - 124 p.
• Antipenko, N. A. On the Main Direction (Memoirs of the Deputy Front Commander). - M .: Nauka, 1967. Chapter " On the Kursk Bulge»
• O. A. Losik - Head of the Military Academy of Armor tank troops, Professor, Colonel General. From a speech on July 20, 1973 at the IVI MO of the USSR at a scientific session dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi troops on the Kursk Bulge
• Even Brezhnev, in his speech at the solemn meeting dedicated to the awarding of the Order of Lenin to Georgia, at the Sports Palace in Tbilisi on November 1, 1966, noted as if he had not said anything about Orel in 1965:
  

  ... stood to death at the walls of the legendary Stalingrad and on Kursk Bulge…

• Etc.

Below are some interesting statistics.

In 1944, the Maloarkhangelsky district returned to the Orel region, and Belgorod became the administrative center of the newly formed Belgorod region only in 1954. The Belgorod Bulge never became, and the Oryol part was sometimes added - without any visible system.

Okay with the bow. Well, is it really the battle of Oryol-Kursk? Okay, Kursk-Orlovskaya?

I. V. Stalin, who read a report on November 6, 1943 at a solemn meeting of the Moscow Soviet of Working People's Deputies with party and public organizations Moscow city says:

From a purely military point of view, the defeat of the German troops on our front by the end of this year was predetermined by two major events: the battle of Stalingrad and the battle of Kursk.

Textbooks of different years also do not lag behind:

History of the USSR. Part 3. Grade 10. (A. M. Penkratova. 1952), p. 378.

The Germans expected to strike from two sides - from the Oryol bridgehead in the north and from the Belgorod region in the south - to surround and destroy Soviet troops, concentrated in the bend Kursk Bulge, and then lead the attack on Moscow.

§10. Battle of Kursk. Completion of a radical turning point in the war

Methodological guide to recent history. Bogolyubov, Izrailovich, Popov, Rakhmanova. - 1978, p. 165. 2nd question for the lesson:

What was historical meaning the largest battles of the Second World War - Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk?

Whatever you take, everything they have is Kursk.

Maybe there was no Oryol battle?

According to Soviet and Russian historiography, there was the Oryol strategic offensive as part of the Battle of Kursk.

It's still right - the Battle of Oryol-Kursk

If we compare the frequency of mention on the Internet, the difference is striking:

• "Oryol-Kursk battle"- 2 thousand results;
• "Battle of Kursk" - Orlovsko- 461 thousand results;

• "Oryol-Kursk Bulge"- 6 thousand results;
• "Kursk Bulge" - Orlovsko- 379 thousand results;

• "Oryol arc"- 946 results. Indeed, why not.

So not all documents are uploaded to the Internet

There are no "underloaded" documents in quantities that can compensate for the two hundredfold difference.

So, the Battle of Kursk and the Kursk Bulge?

Yes, the Battle of Kursk and the Kursk Bulge. But if for some reason you want to name the events, adding the Oryol component, no one is against it. Formally, a small piece of the Orel region, even in 1943, was part of the ledge.

The Battle of Kursk is a statement that from now on the German troops will only give up their positions. Historians agree that the Battle of Kursk gave the final predestination to the outcome of the Great Patriotic War and World War II, became their turning point.

In 1943, the war entered a new phase, the initiative was taken over by the Soviet army. And although it was obvious even to the German leadership, the offensive still went into development. Allies land in Italian cities, German positions are lost in North Africa, Eastern front inspires concern.

Background of the battle

A new victory, so necessary to strengthen the military spirit of the soldiers, was planned along the Kursk direction. The offensive was called Operation Citadel - as part of the operation, Kursk was to receive two strikes from Kharkov and Orel, then it was planned to encircle and destroy Soviet military units in order to further capture the southern direction.

Almost a million soldiers, two thousand tanks and the same number of aircraft, ten thousand guns were gathered for the offensive. However, the situation was unfavorable - the Wehrmacht had neither a technical nor a numerical advantage. Strategically, the plan also lost.

On the Soviet side, more than a million soldiers, almost twenty thousand guns, two thousand tanks and the same number of aircraft were ready to participate in the Battle of Kursk. The most important thing is the high spirits in the army and the strategic superiority of the Soviet troops.

Opposition to the offensive was outlined in a simple plan. Initially, the number of attackers was planned to be reduced in a defensive battle, and then go on a counteroffensive. And as the results of the Battle of Kursk show, the plan really worked.

Beginning of the battle

On July 5, 1943, a few hours before the enemy attack, the German positions had already been defeated by artillery strikes along the entire front line. In this way, the attackers were demoralized, and the original plan failed.

For the whole day, the enemy army was able to advance only five kilometers with heavy losses. The German troops received the greatest blow in the direction of Maloarkhangelsk-Olkhovatka.

The Germans abandoned about five hundred tanks, including the latest Tiger tanks. However, it was not possible to bypass the thirteenth Soviet army in this. The retreat was planned in advance, the mistakes made earlier were taken into account, but the German tactics could not offer anything unexpected in offensive tactics.

At the end of the first day of the Battle of Kursk, it was obvious that the Wehrmacht had lost the initiative. The General Staff demanded the introduction of second echelons and reserves, although it was only the end of the first day.

Confrontation

The German staff officers received a worthy response from the Russian commanders. On the German side, Operation Citadel was led by Field Marshal von Kluge and General Erich von Manstein. Soviet troops were supervised by marshals G. Zhukov and A. Vasilevsky. Front management: Rokossovsky, Vatutin, Konev.

On July 12, on the Kursk Bulge, the troops of the Western and Bryansk fronts launched an offensive against the enemy. From that moment, according to historians, a liberation, offensive war began. Soviet army.

During the offensive, Belgorod, Orel, and Kharkov were liberated. Enemy counterattacks were not successful. In total, the Battle of Kursk lasted 49 days.

The battle of tanks during the Battle of Kursk is considered one of the greatest in history. More than 1,500 tanks fought a fierce battle all day on July 12 on a small piece of land near the village of Prokhorovka. Despite the fact that the quality of the tanks of the Soviet army was inferior to the equipment of the enemy, the battle ended in victory. A victory with colossal losses - the armor could not withstand the shells, the tanks were blown up by mines and the crews were burning right inside the tanks.

The results and causes of the defeat of the Wehrmacht

The Battle of Kursk showed that Germany was weakened and could no longer wage an aggressive war. This is a turning point in the history of the war, which is difficult to overestimate. The German army was finally broken and discouraged, more and more fantastic orders came from the General Staff, given by the leadership in their own agony.

Experts believe that the outcome was determined not only by the psychological anguish of the enemy army. Hitler's personal physician regularly injected him with narcotic drugs, the forerunners of modern LSD. The same drugs in large batches came to the officers and were positioned as general strengthening and fortified supplements - a help in asserting the superiority of the Aryan race and the invincible soldier.

At the time of planning Operation Citadel, the German army was defeated in a pocket near Stalingrad, lost positions in Africa and Italy. Factories that previously supplied "super-soldier drugs" were losing capacity. Gradually, both production and stocks dried up.

The fact that the German army, led by Hitler, used drugs was discovered by American intelligence during World War II. Heroin, methamphetamine, LSD - not yet a complete list of what was served under the guise of vitamins and glucose. Rooted dependence led to more and more aggression, hysteria, and, finally, to the complete defeat of the Nazi army.

Start combat way Ural Volunteer Tank Corps

The defeat of the fascist German army near Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-1943 shook the fascist bloc to its foundations. For the first time since the beginning of the Second World War, Nazi Germany, in all its inevitability, faced the formidable specter of inevitable defeat. Its military power, the morale of the army and the population were thoroughly undermined, and the prestige in the eyes of the allies was seriously shaken. In order to improve Germany's internal political situation and prevent the disintegration of the fascist coalition, the Nazi command decided in the summer of 1943 to conduct a major offensive operation on the central sector of the Soviet-German front. With this offensive, it hoped to defeat the grouping of Soviet troops located on the Kursk salient, seize the strategic initiative again 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 forces and means was on the side of the Red Army: in people by 1.1 times, in artillery - by 1.7, in tanks - by 1.4 and in combat aircraft - by 2 times.

The Battle of Kursk occupies a special place in the Great Patriotic War. It lasted 50 days and nights, from July 5 to August 23, 1943. This battle has no equal in its bitterness and stubbornness of the struggle.

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 supposed to expand the front of the offensive and return the strategic initiative. To implement his plans, the enemy concentrated powerful strike groups, which numbered over 900 thousand people, about 10 thousand guns and mortars, up to 2700 tanks and assault guns, about 2050 aircraft. Great hopes were placed on the latest Tiger and Panther tanks, Ferdinand assault guns, Focke-Wulf-190-A fighter aircraft and Heinkel-129 attack aircraft.

The purpose of the Red Army: the Soviet command decided to first bleed the enemy strike groups in defensive battles, and then go on the counteroffensive.

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

On July 12, the second stage of the Battle of Kursk began - the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops. 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 the war. Since that time, artillery salutes have constantly announced the glorious victories of Soviet weapons. On August 23, Kharkov was liberated.

Thus ended the Battle of the Kursk Fiery Bulge. During it, 30 selected enemy divisions were defeated. The Nazi troops lost about 500,000 men, 1,500 tanks, 3,000 guns and 3,700 aircraft. For courage and heroism over 100 thousand Soviet soldiers, participants in the Battle of the Fiery Arc, were awarded orders and medals. The Battle of Kursk ended with a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War in favor of the Red Army.

Losses in the Battle of Kursk.

Type of losses	Red Army	Wehrmacht	Ratio
Personnel
Guns and mortars
Tanks and self-propelled guns
Aircraft

UDTK on the Kursk Bulge. Oryol offensive operation

Baptism of fire in the Battle of Kursk was received by the 30th Ural Volunteer Tank Corps, which is part of the 4th Tank Army.

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

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

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

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

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

On July 29, Lieutenant General Rodin set the task of the 197th Sverdlovsk and 243rd Molotov tank brigades: to cross the Nugr River in cooperation with the 30th motorized rifle brigade (MSBR), to capture the village of Borilovo and then advance in the direction of the settlement 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 was visible for several kilometers in a circle. All this made it easier for the enemy to conduct a defense and hampered the actions of the advancing corps units. At 20:00 on July 29, after a 30-minute artillery preparation and a volley of guards mortars, two tank motorized rifle brigades started forcing the river Nugr. Under the cover of tank fire, the company of Senior Lieutenant A.P. Nikolaev was the first to cross the Nugr River, capturing the southern outskirts of the village of Borilovo. By the morning of July 30, the battalion of the 30th Motorized Rifle Brigade, supported by tanks, captured the village of Borilovo despite the stubborn resistance of the enemy. 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 - height 212.2. The assault was heavy. The 244th Chelyabinsk Tank Brigade, which was previously in the reserve of the 4th Army, graduated from it.

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

On July 31, in the liberated Borilovo, the heroically dead tankers and submachine gunners were buried, including commanders of tank battalions: Major Chazov and Captain Ivanov. The mass heroism of the corps soldiers, shown in the battles from July 27 to 29, was highly appreciated. Only in the Sverdlovsk brigade, 55 soldiers, sergeants and officers were awarded government awards for these fights. In the battle for Borilovo, the Sverdlovsk sanitary instructor Anna Alekseevna Kvanskova accomplished a feat. She rescued the wounded and, replacing the artillerymen who were out of action, brought shells to firing positions. A. A. 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.

Guards sergeant Anna Alekseevna Kvanskova assists the lieutenantA. A.Lysin, 1944.

Photo by M. Insarov, 1944. TsDOOSO. F.221. OP.3.D.1672

The exceptional courage of the Urals warriors, their readiness to carry out a combat mission without sparing their lives, aroused admiration. But the pain from the losses suffered was mixed with him. It seemed that they were too great in comparison with the achieved results.

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

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

The Battle of Kursk, according to historians, was a turning point in the Great Patriotic War. More than six thousand tanks took part in the battles on the Kursk Bulge. There has never been such a thing in world history, and probably never will be again.

The actions of the Soviet fronts on the Kursk Bulge were led by Marshals Georgy Zhukov and Vasilevsky. The number of the Soviet army amounted to more than 1 million people. The soldiers were supported by more than 19,000 guns and mortars, and 2,000 aircraft provided air support to Soviet infantrymen. The Germans countered the USSR on the Kursk Bulge with 900,000 soldiers, 10,000 guns and more than 2,000 aircraft.

The German plan was as follows. They were going to capture the Kursk ledge with a lightning strike and launch a full-scale offensive. Soviet intelligence did not eat its bread in vain, and reported the German plans to the Soviet command. Having learned the exact time of the offensive and the purpose of the main attack, our leaders ordered to strengthen the defenses in these places.

The Germans launched an offensive on the Kursk Bulge. On the Germans gathered in front of the front line, a heavy fire of Soviet artillery fell, causing them great damage. The offensive of the enemy stalled, and went with a delay of a couple of hours. During the day of fighting, the enemy advanced only 5 kilometers, and in 6 days of the offensive on the Kursk Bulge, 12 km. This state of affairs hardly suited the German command.

During the battles on the Kursk Bulge, the largest tank battle in history took place near the village of Prokhorovka. 800 tanks from each side met in battle. It was an impressive and terrible sight. On the battlefield were the best tank models of the Second World War. Soviet T-34 clashed with the German Tiger. St. John's wort was also tested in that battle. 57 mm cannon that pierced the armor of the "Tiger".

Another innovation was the use of anti-tank bombs, the weight of which was small, and the damage caused took the tank out of combat. The German offensive bogged down, the tired enemy began to retreat to their previous positions.

Soon our counteroffensive began. Soviet soldiers took the fortifications and, with the support of aviation, made a breakthrough in the German defenses. The battle on the Kursk Bulge lasted about 50 days. During this time, the Russian army destroyed 30 German divisions, including 7 tank, 1.5 thousand aircraft, 3 thousand guns, 15 thousand tanks. The casualties of the Wehrmacht on the Kursk Bulge amounted to 500 thousand people.

The victory in the Battle of Kursk showed Germany the strength of the Red Army. The specter of defeat in the war hung over the Wehrmacht. More than 100 thousand participants in the battles on the Kursk Bulge were awarded orders and medals. The chronology of the Battle of Kursk is measured by the following time frames: July 5 - August 23, 1943.

The situation and forces of the parties

In the early spring of 1943, after the end of the winter-spring battles, a huge ledge was formed on the line of the Soviet-German front between the cities of Orel and Belgorod, directed to the west. This bend was informally called the Kursk Bulge. At the bend of the arc, the troops of the Soviet Central and Voronezh fronts and the German army groups "Center" and "South" were located.

Individual representatives of the highest German command circles suggested that the Wehrmacht go on the defensive, exhausting the Soviet troops, restoring their own strength and strengthening the occupied territories. However, Hitler was categorically against it: he believed that the German army was still strong enough to inflict Soviet Union a major defeat and again seize the elusive strategic initiative. An objective analysis of the situation showed that the German army was no longer capable of attacking on all fronts at once. Therefore, it was decided to limit offensive operations to only one segment of the front. Quite logically, the German command chose the Kursk salient for striking. According to the plan, the German troops were to strike in converging directions from Orel and Belgorod in the direction of Kursk. With a successful outcome, this ensured the encirclement and defeat of the troops of the Central and Voronezh Fronts of the Red Army. The final plans for the operation, which received the code name "Citadel", were approved on May 10-11, 1943.

Unravel the plans of the German command regarding exactly where the Wehrmacht will advance in summer period 1943 was no big deal. The Kursk salient, extending many kilometers deep into the territory controlled by the Nazis, was a tempting and obvious target. Already on April 12, 1943, at a meeting at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the USSR, it was decided to move on to a deliberate, planned and powerful defense in the Kursk region. The troops of the Red Army were supposed to hold back the onslaught of the Nazi troops, wear down the enemy, and then go on the counteroffensive and defeat the enemy. After that, it was supposed to launch a general offensive in the western and southwestern directions.

In the event that the Germans decided not to advance in the area of ​​the Kursk Bulge, a plan was also created for offensive operations by forces concentrated on this sector of the front. However, the defensive plan remained a priority, and the Red Army began its implementation in April 1943.

The defense on the Kursk Bulge was built solid. In total, 8 defensive lines were created with a total depth of about 300 kilometers. Great attention was paid to mining the approaches to the defense line: according to various sources, the density of minefields was up to 1500-1700 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines per kilometer of the front. Anti-tank artillery was not distributed evenly along the front, but was collected in the so-called "anti-tank areas" - localized accumulations of anti-tank guns that covered several directions at once and partially overlapped each other's sectors of fire. Thus, the maximum concentration of fire was achieved and the shelling of one advancing enemy unit from several sides at once was ensured.

Before the start of the operation, the troops of the Central and Voronezh fronts totaled about 1.2 million people, about 3.5 thousand tanks, 20,000 guns and mortars, and 2,800 aircraft. The Steppe Front, numbering about 580,000 people, 1.5 thousand tanks, 7.4 thousand guns and mortars, and about 700 aircraft, acted as a reserve.

From the German side, 50 divisions took part in the battle, numbering, according to various sources, from 780 to 900 thousand people, about 2,700 tanks and self-propelled guns, about 10,000 guns and approximately 2.5 thousand aircraft.

Thus, by the beginning of the Battle of Kursk, the Red Army had a numerical advantage. However, one should not forget that these troops were located on the defensive, and, consequently, the German command was able to effectively concentrate forces and achieve the desired concentration of troops in the breakthrough areas. In addition, in 1943, the German army received a fairly large number of new heavy tanks "Tiger" and medium "Panther", as well as heavy self-propelled guns "Ferdinand", of which there were only 89 in the troops (out of 90 built) and which, however, , in themselves posed a considerable threat, provided they were competently used in the right place.

The first stage of the battle. Defense

Both commands of the Voronezh and Central Fronts predicted the date of the transition of the German troops to the offensive quite accurately: according to their data, the attacks were to be expected in the period from 3 to 6 July. The day before the battle Soviet intelligence officers managed to capture the "language", which reported that on July 5 the Germans would begin the assault.

The northern face of the Kursk Bulge was held by the Central Front of General of the Army K. Rokossovsky. Knowing the time of the beginning of the German offensive, at 2:30 am the front commander gave the order to conduct a half-hour artillery counter-training. Then, at 4:30, the artillery strike was repeated. The effectiveness of this measure has been rather controversial. According to the reports of Soviet gunners, the Germans suffered significant damage. However, apparently, this is still not true. It is precisely known about small losses in manpower and equipment, as well as about the violation of the enemy's wire communication lines. In addition, now the Germans knew for sure that a sudden offensive would not work - the Red Army was ready for defense.

At 5:00 a.m., German artillery preparation began. It had not yet ended when the first echelons of the Nazi troops went on the offensive after the barrage of fire. The German infantry, supported by tanks, launched an offensive along the entire defense zone of the 13th Soviet Army. The main blow fell on the village of Olkhovatka. The most powerful onslaught was experienced by the right flank of the army near the village of Maloarkhangelskoye.

The battle lasted approximately two and a half hours, the attack was repulsed. After that, the Germans moved the pressure on the left flank of the army. How strong their onslaught was is evidenced by the fact that by the end of July 5, the troops of the 15th and 81st Soviet divisions were partially surrounded. However, the Nazis have not yet succeeded in breaking through the front. In total, on the first day of the battle, German troops advanced 6-8 kilometers.

On July 6, Soviet troops attempted a counterattack with the forces of two tank, three rifle divisions and a rifle corps, supported by two regiments of guards mortars and two regiments of self-propelled guns. The impact front was 34 kilometers. At first, the Red Army managed to push the Germans back 1-2 kilometers, but then the Soviet tanks came under heavy fire German tanks and self-propelled guns and, after 40 vehicles were lost, were forced to stop. By the end of the day, the corps went on the defensive. An attempt at a counterattack, undertaken on July 6, had no serious success. The front was "pushed back" by only 1-2 kilometers.

After the failure of the attack on Olkhovatka, the Germans shifted their efforts in the direction of the Ponyri station. This station was of great strategic importance, covering railway Eagle - Kursk. Ponyri were well protected by minefields, artillery and tanks dug into the ground.

On July 6, Ponyri was attacked by about 170 German tanks and self-propelled guns, including 40 "Tigers" of the 505th heavy tank battalion. The Germans managed to break through the first line of defense and advance to the second. Three attacks that followed before the end of the day were repulsed by the second line. The next day, after stubborn attacks, the German troops managed to get even closer to the station. By 15 o'clock on July 7, the enemy captured the May 1 state farm and came close to the station. The day of July 7, 1943 became a crisis for the defense of Ponyri, although the Nazis still could not capture the station.

At the Ponyri station, German troops used the Ferdinand self-propelled guns, which turned out to be a serious problem for the Soviet troops. Soviet guns were practically incapable of penetrating the 200 mm frontal armor of these vehicles. Therefore, the Ferdinanda suffered the greatest losses from mines and air raids. The last day when the Germans stormed the Ponyri station was July 12.

From July 5 to July 12, heavy fighting took place in the zone of action of the 70th Army. Here the Nazis attacked with tanks and infantry under German air supremacy. On July 8, German troops managed to break through the defense, occupying several settlements. It was possible to localize the breakthrough only by introducing reserves. By July 11, Soviet troops received reinforcements, as well as air support. The strikes of dive bombers caused quite significant damage to the German units. On July 15, after the Germans had already been finally driven back, on the field between the villages of Samodurovka, Kutyrki and Tyoploye, war correspondents were filming lined German equipment. After the war, this chronicle was erroneously called "footage from under Prokhorovka", although there were not a single "Ferdinand" near Prokhorovka, and the Germans failed to evacuate two lined self-propelled guns of this type from under Teply.

In the zone of operations of the Voronezh Front (commander - General of the Army Vatutin) fighting began on the afternoon of July 4 with attacks by German units on the positions of the combat guards of the front and lasted until late at night.

On July 5, the main phase of the battle began. On the southern face of the Kursk salient, the fighting was much more intense and was accompanied by more serious losses of Soviet troops than on the northern one. The reason for this was the terrain, more suitable for the use of tanks, and a number of organizational miscalculations at the level of the Soviet front command.

The main blow of the German troops was delivered along the Belgorod-Oboyan highway. This section of the front was held by the 6th Guards Army. The first attack took place at 6 am on July 5 in the direction of the village of Cherkasskoye. Two attacks followed, supported by tanks and aircraft. Both were repulsed, after which the Germans shifted the direction of the strike towards the settlement of Butovo. In the battles near Cherkassky, the enemy practically managed to make a breakthrough, but at the cost of heavy losses, the Soviet troops prevented it, often losing up to 50-70% of the personnel of the units.

During July 7-8, the Germans managed, incurring losses, to advance another 6-8 kilometers, but then the offensive on Oboyan stopped. The enemy was looking for a weak point in the Soviet defense and seemed to have found it. This place was a direction to the still unknown Prokhorovka station.

The Battle of Prokhorovka, considered one of the largest tank battles in history, began on July 11, 1943. On the German side, the 2nd SS Panzer Corps and the 3rd Wehrmacht Panzer Corps took part in it - a total of about 450 tanks and self-propelled guns. The 5th Guards Tank Army of Lieutenant General P. Rotmistrov and the 5th Guards Army of Lieutenant General A. Zhadov fought against them. Soviet tanks in the battle of Prokhorov, there were about 800.

The battle at Prokhorovka can be called the most discussed and controversial episode of the Battle of Kursk. The scope of this article does not make it possible to analyze it in detail, so we will limit ourselves only to reporting approximate loss figures. The Germans irretrievably lost about 80 tanks and self-propelled guns, the Soviet troops lost about 270 vehicles.

Second phase. Offensive

On July 12, 1943, on the northern face of the Kursk Bulge, with the participation of the troops of the Western and Bryansk Fronts, Operation Kutuzov, also known as the Orel Offensive Operation, began. On July 15, the troops of the Central Front joined it.

On the part of the Germans, a grouping of troops was involved in the battles, numbering 37 divisions. According to modern estimates, the number of German tanks and self-propelled guns that took part in the battles near Orel was about 560 vehicles. The Soviet troops had a serious numerical advantage over the enemy: in the main directions of the Red Army, the German troops were six times superior in the number of infantry, five times in the number of artillery, and 2.5-3 times in tanks.

The German infantry divisions defended themselves on well-fortified terrain, equipped with barbed wire, minefields, machine-gun nests and armored caps. Along the banks of the rivers, enemy sappers built anti-tank obstacles. It should be noted, however, that work on the German defensive lines had not yet been completed by the time the counteroffensive began.

On July 12, at 5:10 am, Soviet troops began artillery preparation and launched an air strike on the enemy. Half an hour later the assault began. By the evening of the first day, the Red Army, waging heavy battles, advanced to a distance of 7.5 to 15 kilometers, breaking through the main defensive line of German formations in three places. Offensive battles continued until 14 July. During this time, the advance of the Soviet troops was up to 25 kilometers. However, by July 14, the Germans managed to regroup the troops, as a result of which the offensive of the Red Army was stopped for some time. The offensive of the Central Front, which began on July 15, developed slowly from the very beginning.

Despite the stubborn resistance of the enemy, by July 25, the Red Army managed to force the Germans to begin withdrawing troops from the Orlovsky bridgehead. In early August, battles began for the city of Oryol. By August 6, the city was completely liberated from the Nazis. After that, the Oryol operation moved into the final phase. On August 12, battles began for the city of Karachev, which lasted until August 15 and ended with the defeat of the group of German troops defending this locality. By August 17-18, Soviet troops reached the Hagen defensive line built by the Germans east of Bryansk.

August 3 is considered the official date for the start of the offensive on the southern face of the Kursk salient. However, the Germans began a gradual withdrawal of troops from their positions as early as July 16, and from July 17, units of the Red Army began to pursue the enemy, which by July 22 turned into a general offensive, which stopped at approximately the same positions that the Soviet troops occupied at the time the Battle of Kursk began. . The command demanded the immediate continuation of hostilities, however, due to exhaustion and fatigue of the units, the date was postponed by 8 days.

By August 3, the troops of the Voronezh and Steppe Fronts had 50 rifle divisions, about 2,400 tanks and self-propelled guns, and more than 12,000 guns. At 8 o'clock in the morning, after artillery preparation, the Soviet troops launched an offensive. On the first day of the operation, the advance of units of the Voronezh Front ranged from 12 to 26 km. The troops of the Steppe Front advanced only 7-8 kilometers in a day.

On August 4-5, battles were fought to eliminate the Belgorod enemy grouping and liberate the city from German troops. By evening, Belgorod was taken by units of the 69th Army and the 1st Mechanized Corps.

By August 10, Soviet troops had cut the Kharkov-Poltava railroad. About 10 kilometers remained to the outskirts of Kharkov. On August 11, the Germans launched a strike in the Bogodukhov area, which significantly weakened the pace of the advance of both fronts of the Red Army. Fierce fighting continued until 14 August.

The Steppe Front reached the near approaches to Kharkov on August 11. On the first day, the advancing units had no success. Fighting on the outskirts of the city continued until 17 July. Both sides suffered heavy losses. Both in the Soviet and in the German units, companies numbering 40-50 people, or even less, were not uncommon.

The Germans delivered the last counterattack at Akhtyrka. Here they even managed to make a local breakthrough, but this did not change the situation globally. On August 23, a massive assault on Kharkov began; This very day is considered the date of the liberation of the city and the end of the Battle of Kursk. In fact, the fighting in the city completely stopped only by August 30, when the remnants of German resistance were suppressed.