Kursk Bulge, northern front. Northern face

The Battle of Kursk was a turning point in World War II. Soviet troops defeated the Nazi army and went on the offensive. The Nazis planned to strike at Kursk from Kharkov and Orel, defeat the Soviet troops and rush to the south. But, fortunately for all of us, the plans did not come true. From July 5 to July 12, 1943, the struggle for every piece of Soviet land continued. After the victory at Kursk, the Soviet troops went on the offensive, and this continued until the end of the war.

In gratitude to the Soviet soldiers for the victory, on May 7, 2015, the Teplovskie Heights monument was opened in the Kursk region.

Description

The monument is made in the form of a monument is a three-level observation deck. The upper level is located at a bird's-eye height (17 meters). From here you have a view of the arena of hostilities. The Teplovsky heights were the key to Kursk for the Nazis, but the Nazis failed to get this key.

The flag of the USSR flies over the monument, and the dates of each day of the Battle of Kursk are placed on the railing of the observation deck. Soldiers and officers fought to the death, but did not let the enemy into the city.

The Teplovskie Heights monument is installed on the northern face of the arc. Until recently, this area was not immortalized, although it was of great importance in determining the outcome of the war.

Celebration of the opening of the monument

Representatives of United Russia, Governor of the Kursk Region Alexander Mikhailov, Senator of the Federation Council Valery Ryazansky, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia Alexander Beglov, Head of the Ponyrovsky District Vladimir Torubarov, war veterans, members of public organizations, caring citizens attended the opening ceremony of the monument.

Speaking to the audience, A. Beglov noted that the erection of the Teplovskie Heights monument is a tribute to the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland who fell on the battlefield. The plenipotentiary also emphasized the importance of the northern front during the hostilities and praised the officials of the region for worthy preparations for the Victory Day.

After the speech of the plenipotentiary, the veterans went up to the observation deck. A resident of the village of Olkhovatka, Ponyrsky district, I. G. Bogdanov, thanked the leadership of the region for preserving the historical memory and wished that young people follow the traditions of their ancestors. "Teplovskie Heights" - a memorial that was created taking into account the wishes of the defenders of the Fatherland.

The spectacular part of the event included skydiving and a gala concert. The best athletes of Russia and the Kursk region dressed in military uniforms of soldiers of the Great Patriotic War. The paratroopers landed on the northern front exactly at the moment when the veterans climbed onto the observation deck. Warriors heard words of gratitude for peace.

"Teplovskie Heights": memorial

The monument erected on the northern face is part of a single monument together with the monument "For Our Soviet Motherland", the Eternal Flame, a mass grave in which 2 thousand soldiers rest, a colonnade, name plates of the Heroes of the Soviet Union - the winners of the Battle of Kursk. The names of the military units that took part in the hostilities are also carved on the plates. Such is the memorial "Teplovskie Heights".

Ponyri

The regional center of Ponyri is known for the fact that the fate of the peoples of the Soviet Union, and perhaps of all mankind, was decided here. According to the German plan "Citadel", the enemies were going to close the Kursk Bulge in order to gain access to Moscow. Thanks to intelligence, it became known that the Nazis chose Ponyri as the point of attack. Here the battle began, during which German tanks were stopped by living Soviet people ... In memory of the exploits of the soldiers, a museum was opened in Ponyry.

The village is also famous for its memorial in honor of the defenders of the Motherland. Near the monument is on fire. The railway station was also of great strategic importance, where reinforcements arrived and tanks were delivered. Also in Ponyri erected monuments to the warrior-liberator, heroes-sappers, signalmen and heroes of artillery.

Teplovskie heights (Kursk region) - a place of historical memory of the people about the war.

Angel bringing peace

In Fatezhsky in the village of Molotynichi, on May 7, the sculpture "Angel of Peace" was opened. An 8-meter angel rises on a 27-meter pedestal. The total length of the monument is 35 meters. The celestial holds a wreath with a dove of peace in his hands.

The composition is equipped with lighting, so at dusk the illusion of an angel hovering above the earth is created. "Angel of Peace" commemorates the feat of Soviet soldiers who gave their lives for the Victory.

In honor of the seventieth anniversary of the Victory, an alley of memory was laid on Fatezh land and a geoglyph was created from pine seedlings. The tree also became the material for creating giant stars with the Kursk Antonovka in the center. The compositions are visible from a bird's eye view and on satellite images.

The results of the Battle of Kursk made it possible to debunk the myth of the superiority of the Aryan race. The Nazis broke down psychologically, and therefore could not continue the offensive further. And the invincible once again proved to the world that true strength is not in aggression, but in love. To the motherland, relatives and friends.

What is war? There are many definitions, but for those who have not seen it is difficult to understand. Especially the youth. Remember the movie "We are from the future!" Adult guys cynically talk about the Great Patriotic War and crave a bloody fee for wartime finds. As a result, the "black diggers" encountered mysticism and, in an incredible way, ended up in the past, where they more than drank the military hell. In fact, this does not happen, but each of us can feel the military reality. For example, dig a hole one and a half to two meters deep and try to just stand there in the rain or frost at night. Let's add fantasies: the whistle from the shells, the earth is crumbling all around, tanks are moving right at you. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. And who to hide behind, if everyone around is the same as you ...

We learned about this and not only when we went along the roads of front-line correspondents to the battlefields of the Battle of Kursk. And our first stop is the village of Ponyri. More precisely, the memorial "To the Heroes of the Northern Front of the Kursk Bulge" in its center, erected in 2013. V. A. Danilova, editor-in-chief of the local newspaper Znamya Pobedy, met us at the end of the rally dedicated to the Day of Memory and Sorrow. According to her and eyewitness accounts, a huge trench was dug in this place in the summer of 1943, in which, according to various sources, from 800 to 2000 Soviet soldiers and officers were buried. In modern times, commemorative signs were added to the Ingush, Ossetians, and Armenians who died in the battles on the northern face of the Kursk Bulge, which were installed by their fellow countrymen. A large arc frames the square with a memorial with portraits of thirty-three Heroes of the Soviet Union, who received this title in battles on the northern face of the Kursk Bulge.

The area has changed its appearance several times. The last time the reconstruction of the monument on the mass grave of Soviet soldiers and the square itself was carried out in 1993 for the 50th anniversary of the Victory in the Battle of Kursk. The need to build a memorial complex in Ponyri, which would worthily perpetuate the memory of the soldiers who fought heroically on the northern face of the Kursk Bulge, was discussed and written by veterans - participants in the battles, local historians, social activists, and residents of the area. After all, it was here, on this earth, as the poet and military commander E. Dolmatovsky wrote, “a blow from Orel to Kursk was shot down by a blow from Kursk to Orel.”

In 2013, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Battle of Kursk in Ponyri, this very memorial was erected, and two years later, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, its second stage was built - the Teplovskie Heights monument. This, as the governor of the Kursk region A.N. Mikhailov noted, was the restoration of historical justice: “I have great respect for the southern face of the Kursk Bulge, but the northern one was undeservedly forgotten. We eliminated this injustice, and the veterans supported me in this.”

The Ponyri railway station, a hundred meters from the square - another symbol of the Victory - is decorated with bas-reliefs and memorial plaques. One of its halls is a museum with portraits of military leaders and reproductions of paintings dating back to 1943.

According to Victoria Alexandrovna, a former employee of the Ponyrovsky Historical and Memorial Museum of the Battle of Kursk, the territory of the station was the scene of a fierce battle. Bloody battles unfolded for the school and the water tower. The latter was completely wiped off the face of the earth. As it was, the front-line soldiers later told. German snipers "worked" on the defenders of the village from the water tower. Ours answered. The enemy decided to use a psychological attack as well. From the loudspeaker came an appeal to the Soviet soldiers in Russian: they say, do not destroy the station and the tower, you will have to restore all this for a long time. According to the legend, says Viktoria Alexandrovna, our people answered this first with Russian obscene, and then with fire language - they deployed all the guns and demolished the tower to the foundation along with the Germans ...

The fighting in these places unfolded on July 6-7. Along the railroad went German tanks. According to the museum employee Oleg Budnikov, up to 250 cars! Ours, as best they could, held back the attack. On the afternoon of July 7, street fighting broke out. The railway school was defended by Lieutenant Ryabov's company. When the company was pushed back into the building, Ryabov, who at that time had no connection with the command, decided to take up all-round defense. He did not yet know that at school he and his fighters would have to defend themselves for two days. Without the supply of ammunition and the evacuation of the wounded and dead ... When the cartridges ran out and the Germans climbed to the first floor, the commander and the surviving soldiers went down to the basement, and Ryabov fired a flare to cause fire on himself. Our artillery hit the building. After this hellish shelling, six fighters, including the commander, came out of the school basement. The enemy was destroyed. For this feat, Ryabov was awarded an order. However, a grimace of fate: having come out alive from such a difficult battle, the lieutenant died a few months later during the liberation of the Bryansk region, where he was buried ...

The observation deck at the Teplovskie Heights - our next stop - was built with federal funds at an altitude of 274 meters above sea level. They say that in good night weather, the lights of Kursk are visible from it, and it is here that it becomes clear why the Germans were so eager to conquer it, advancing from the Simferopol highway ...

We pay attention to the cedar alley, unusual for our places. It turns out that three years ago, an employee of the Tomsk forestry, Sergey Nikolaevich Kuts, came here, to the Ponyrovsky district, in search of the place where his uncle died. His uncle Mikhail rests on a memorial near the village of Olkhovatka. And in their family there was a tradition: when someone left for a long time, he planted a tree. Going to the front from Alma-Ata, my uncle planted a cherry. It bloomed for two years of the war, and in 1943 it dried up. So the family understood that something had happened to the uncle, and after some time a funeral was received ... In memory of his uncle, Sergei Nikolaevich and participants in the school forestries of Tomsk planted 800 seedlings of Siberian cedar. The trees took root, and this year Tomsk residents planted another 500 cedars. Now it is a living memory that the 140th Siberian Rifle Division fought on the Teplovsky Heights. Most of its fighters were residents of the Far East and Siberia.

The memorial of federal importance on one of the Teplovsky Heights is called the "Monument to Soldiers-Artillerymen". It was erected in November 1943. A genuine gun from the battery of G. I. Igishev "ZIS-2242" is installed on a large pedestal.

“For a long time it was believed that the entire battery was dead,” Victoria Alexandrovna continues her story. - But then the museum staff found out that Andrei Vladimirovich Puzikov, the gunner of this gun, was alive. He lived in Tula, came here for the last time in the late 90s. When he saw his cannon, he recognized it and then said: “Lahfet is the same, but the wheelchair was replaced ...” A simple village peasant, he told about his last battle here: the sight was broken, he was left alone at the gun, everyone died. Andrei Vladimirovich knew where the German tanks were coming from, aimed through the barrel and fired. At some point in the battle, the fighter lost consciousness, and later, seriously wounded, he was found and sent to the hospital ...

Scorched earth

On the morning of July 5, 1943, three Soviet combined-arms armies were located in the enemy's offensive zone at once. On the left flank - the 48th Army under the command of Lieutenant General Romanenko and the 13th Army of Lieutenant General Pukhov, on the right - the 70th Army under the command of Lieutenant General Galanin. In total, at the beginning of the fighting, these armies had about 270 thousand soldiers and officers. They were opposed by the 9th field army of Walter Model with a total number of over 330 thousand soldiers and officers.
In the zone of the 13th Army on July 5, "control" prisoners were taken, who showed that at dawn on July 5 the Germans were planning to deliver a powerful blow in the direction of Kursk. In order to frustrate this plan, counter-barrage preparation was carried out in the 13th Army zone. In total, about 1000 barrels of guns and mortars participated in it. It lasted about half an hour, and about a quarter to a half of the available ammunition was used up. For comparison, this is 300 (!) Wagons loaded to the top with shells and mines.
After the Soviet artillery preparation, the Germans undertook their own. 3.5 thousand guns fired along the front line of the Soviet defense. Then followed the main blow of the enemy in the direction of Olkhovatka. In one day of battle, the Germans brought into battle more than 10 infantry and tank divisions, as well as a large number of reinforcement units. On the first day of the battle, the Germans wedged into the Soviet defense for 6 km. Then the commanders of the 13th and 70th armies brought reserves into battle, strengthening the front on both sides and preventing it from "crumbled" further. Here bloody battles began.
Both sides were throwing in reserves, hoping to turn the tide quickly. This calculation was not justified on either side, which led to huge losses. The first day of the battle is estimated as the bloodiest on the northern face of the Kursk Bulge.

One of the objects of the Fiery Frontier tourist route, opened in 1989, is a place called Kurgan. Here is a memorial to war correspondent Konstantin Simonov. It was installed on the site of the former command post of the commander of the 75th Guards Rifle Division Gorishny. From here, Simonov wrote his immortal reports about the battles on the northern face of the Kursk Bulge, which were included in the book Different Days of the War. The commemorative sign appeared here 18 years ago on the initiative and with the participation of volunteers from Zheleznogorsk - members of the children's television "Zerkaltse" and their leader Margarita Gavrilovna Vasilenko.

Why the Kursk Bulge?

The Ponyrovsky district, like the entire Kursk region, was occupied by the Germans in October-November 1941. After the victorious Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet troops, who had previously defended themselves, went on the offensive. It lasted almost five months and stopped after a large-scale enemy counterattack in the Kharkov region.
“Naturally, the rear fell behind, the troops on both sides suffered heavy losses,” Oleg Budnikov tells us in the Ponyrov Museum of the Battle of Kursk. “People are tired, you see, it’s very difficult to walk a thousand kilometers on foot in winter, and even without heating points and regular hot meals ...
And for the first time since the beginning of the war, from March to July 1943, a long respite formed on this front line near Kursk. Neither side was ready for a new big battle. This pause went down in history as 100 days of silence. The front stood along the line (if you look at the map - in the form of an arc) with virtually no changes until the start of the summer campaign of the 43rd year. There are three ledges here: "Orlovsky" with the center in the city of Orel, "Kursky" with the center in the city of Kursk and "Kharkovsky" with the center in the city of Kharkov.
“In the summer of 1943, the German command needed to rehabilitate itself for the defeat at Stalingrad,” our guide explains. - For this, it was supposed to inflict a major defeat on the Soviet troops during a quick offensive operation in the Kursk region. The Germans expected to cut off the Kursk ledge and defeat the Soviet troops stationed west of the city with a strike from the north from Orel and a strike from the south from Belgorod. If this plan had been implemented, then the enemy would have been able to defeat the troops of the Central Front under the command of Army General Rokossovsky and the Voronezh Front - Army General Vatutin. In total, at the time of the start of the fighting, these two fronts numbered about one million three hundred thousand soldiers and officers. Without exaggeration, the defeat of these fronts could be considered a real military catastrophe. And the Germans planned to do all this in record time, literally in one week to close the encirclement.
Such a plan of operation by the Soviet command was foreseen in advance. As early as April 8, Marshal Zhukov pointed out that the Germans would most likely launch a major offensive in the region of the Central and Voronezh fronts. It was proposed to strengthen the defenses in these areas and in parallel to prepare for an offensive operation in the area of ​​​​Kharkov and Orel, in order to actually cut off the "Oryol" and "Kharkov" ledges.
As a result, it was precisely this development of events that occurred in July 1943, when German troops tried to break through the Soviet defenses and close the ring in the Kursk region. As we know, the Nazis did not succeed and the Soviet counteroffensive began.

These days - 75 years ago - the offensive continued on the northern face of the Kursk Bulge. Ponyri were already coming to their senses, life was returning to the village, which was called "Kursk Stalingrad". But until now, the Battle of Kursk is associated with the battle of Prokhorovka ...

“Both from the point of view of history, and from my own personal point of view: it is wrong to belittle the Northern Front, to downplay its role!”

History teacher Leonid Gladkikh all 60 years of work in his native Ponyry said: the battles on the Northern Face were not given their due. The situation has not changed so far. The Battle of Kursk is associated with Prokhorovka, and 75 years later, all the federal media remember the tank battle on the Southern Front, all social networks are full of reposts. Meanwhile, the fate of the Kursk Bulge - up to 150 kilometers deep and up to 200 tons wide - was not decided in one battle: this battle had a different scale of forces and means. Scientists point to this, veterans participating in the battle spoke about this.

Leonid Gladkikh, labor veteran, resident of Ponyri village:“They spared neither themselves, nor each other, nor comrade - comrade. One single goal was set: to cause damage, damage and damage to the enemy as much as possible ... "

Margarita Vasilenko, journalist:“I directed 20 years of children's television in Zheleznogorsk. And when I made films about divers, about veterans, you know what they asked for? Remember Ponyri! What do they say about Prokhorovka? No I can not..."

Ponyri village - "Stalingrad of the Kursk Bulge": fighting went on for every house, the station passed from hand to hand. The Germans failed to break through to Kursk in three days - the station building became a mute witness to the "war of attrition". Vasily Pankratov remembers him in the summer of 1943.

Vasily Pankratov, labor veteran, resident of Ponyri village:"Walls! Mangled! Chopped! The bombs were falling. That is, the station was damaged inside and out. Outside - shell holes, and inside - as if torn open by an atomic explosion ... How bursting. Even the walls were tilted to the side, outward, you know? not inside, but outside! That's what struck me."

Fifth - dash - the twelfth of July, when the Red Army went on the offensive on the Northern Face and the active actions of the Nazis in the South were already meaningless - this week turned the tide of the war. It was so hard - remember the veterans - that at times I really wanted to die. Each of these days on the Northern Face is covered with legends. Each is inscribed in a GREAT HISTORY - both as an example of the brilliant intuition and decisions of strategists, and as an example of the personal courage and heroism of soldiers and junior officers. It is no coincidence that the first monuments in the history of the Second World War appeared here, on the Northern Face: to artillerymen and sappers. They were opened - and half a year has not passed - since those battles. Igishev battery cannon, real, installed as a monument. A rare photo from the opening: late autumn of the 43rd. Nearby - still uncleaned fascist equipment. It is not known for certain whether or not the brave anti-tankers went to hand-to-hand combat when the shells ran out. The surviving battery members by that time were already wounded and unconscious. In the 1980s, gunner Puzikov came to Ponyri.

Zoya Babich, an employee of the Museum of the Battle of Kursk in the village of Ponyri (in the 1970s - 2000s):“There, at the monument to the artillerymen, he walked around the cannon in a completely businesslike way, looked at it from all sides ... such a grandfather of small stature ... very simple ... he has awards ... He looked and said: “The wheel was crushed, and the lahvet is that mama ... "Why was the wheel changed? - it was repulsed during the battle, there were boxes from under the shells, he said. The sight is broken - it is difficult to aim ... "

But the fact that the soldiers and officers were ready to die in order to lure the enemy into a fire bag is for sure. They died, as did 15,000 Red Army soldiers who managed to withstand German tank attacks in an open field - an avalanche after an avalanche.

Svetlana Gerasimova, Vesti-Kursk

The Kursk Bulge (Battle of Kursk) is a strategic ledge near the city of Kursk. From July 5 to August 23, 1943, one of the most significant battles of the Great Patriotic War (06/22/1941 - 05/09/1945) took place here. After the defeat at Stalingrad, the German army wanted to take revenge and regain the offensive initiative. The General Staff of the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) developed Operation Citadel. Its goal was to encircle a huge grouping of Red Army troops in the area of ​​the city of Kursk. To do this, it was supposed to strike from the north (Army Group Center from Orel) and south (Army Group South from Belgorod) towards each other. Having united, the Germans formed a cauldron for two fronts of the Red Army (Central and Voronezh) at once. After that, the troops of the German army were to send their forces to Moscow.

Army Group Center was led by Field Marshal Hans Günther Adolf Ferdinand von Kluge (1882-1944) and Army Group South by Field Marshal Erich von Manstein (1887-1973). To implement Operation Citadel, the Germans concentrated huge forces. In the north, the organizational strike group was led by the commander of the 9th Army, Colonel-General Otto Moritz Walter Model (1891 - 1945), in the south, Colonel-General Herman Goth (1885 - 1971) coordinated and led the tank units.

Scheme of the Battle of Kursk

The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command (the body of the highest military command that carried out the strategic leadership of the Soviet Armed Forces during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945) decided to first conduct a defensive battle in the Battle of Kursk. Further, having withstood the blows of the enemy and exhausted his forces, at a critical moment, deliver crushing counterattacks on the enemy. Everyone understood that the most difficult thing in this operation would be to withstand the onslaught of the enemy. The Kursk Bulge was divided into two parts - the northern and southern faces. In addition, realizing the scale and significance of the upcoming operation, the reserve Steppe Front under the command of Colonel General Ivan Stepanovich Konev (1897 - 1973) was located behind the ledge.

Northern face of the Kursk Bulge

The northern face is also called the Oryol-Kursk Bulge. The length of the defense line was 308 km. The Central Front was located here under the command of General of the Army Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky (1896 - 1968). The front included five combined arms armies (60, 65, 70, 13 and 48). The reserve of the front was mobile. It included the 2nd Panzer Army, as well as the 9th and 19th Panzer Corps. The headquarters of the front commander was located in the village of Svoboda near Kursk. Currently, this place houses a museum dedicated to the Battle of Kursk. Here they recreated the dugout of Rokossovsky K.K., from where the commander led the battles. The interior is very modest, the most necessary. In the corner, on a bedside table, there is a high-frequency communication device, through which you can contact the General Staff and Headquarters at any time. Adjacent to the main room is a recreation room, where the commander could restore his strength by leaning his head on a camping metal bed. Naturally, there was no electric lighting; simple kerosene lamps burned. At the entrance to the dugout there was a small room for the officer on duty. This is how a man lived in combat conditions, in whose submission there were hundreds of thousands of people and a huge amount of various equipment.

Dugout Rokossovsky K.K.

Based on intelligence data and his combat experience, Rokossovsky K.K. with a high degree of certainty, he determined the direction of the main German attack on the Olkhovatka-Ponyri section. In this place, the 13th Army occupied positions. Its segment of the front was reduced to 32 kilometers and reinforced with additional forces. To its left, covering the Fatezh-Kursk direction, was the 70th Army. Positions on the right flank of the 13th Army, in the area of ​​Maloarkhangelsk, were occupied by the 48th Army.

A certain role at the beginning of the battle was played by the artillery preparation carried out by the troops of the Red Army on the positions of the Wehrmacht on the morning of July 5, 1943. The Germans were simply discouraged by surprise. In the evening, Hitler's parting address was read to them. Full of determination, in the early morning they were going to attack and crush the enemy to smithereens. And now, at the most inopportune moment, thousands of Russian shells fell on the Germans. Having suffered losses and lost its offensive fervor, the Wehrmacht launched an attack only 2 hours after the scheduled time. Despite the artillery preparation, the power of the Germans was very strong. The main blow was inflicted on Olkhovatka and Ponyri by three infantry and four tank divisions. At the junction between the 13th and 48th armies, to the left of Maloarkhangelsk, four more infantry divisions went on the offensive. On the right flank of the 70th Army, in the direction of the Teplovsky Heights, three infantry divisions piled up. There is a large field near the village of Soborovka, along which German tanks marched and marched towards Olkhovatka. Artillerymen played an important role in the battle. At the cost of incredible efforts, they resisted the advancing enemy. To strengthen the defense, the command of the Central Front ordered some of our tanks to be dug into the ground, thus increasing their invulnerability. To protect the Ponyri station, the surrounding area was covered with numerous minefields. In the midst of the battle, this was of great help to our troops.

In addition to the already known tanks, the Germans used their new self-propelled guns (self-propelled artillery) Ferdinand here. They were specially designed to destroy enemy tanks and fortifications. Ferdinand weighed 65 tons and had frontal armor twice that of a heavy Tiger tank. Our guns could not hit self-propelled guns, only if they were the most powerful and from very close range. Ferdinand's gun pierced more than 100 mm of armor. at a distance of 2 km. (armor of the Tiger heavy tank). The transmission of the self-propelled gun was electric. Two engines drove two generators. From them, electric current was transmitted to two electric motors, each rotating its own wheel. At the time, this was a very interesting decision. Self-propelled guns Ferdinand, made with the latest technology, were used only on the northern face of the Kursk Bulge (there were none on the southern face). The Germans formed two heavy anti-tank battalions (653 and 654) with 45 vehicles each. To see in the sight of a gun how this colossus crawls at you, but nothing can be done - the spectacle is not for the faint of heart.

The fighting was very fierce. The Wehrmacht rushed forward. It seemed that this German power could not be stopped by anything. Only thanks to the talent of Rokossovsky K.K., who created a defense in depth in the direction of the main attack and concentrated more than half of the personnel and artillery of the front in this sector, was it possible to withstand the onslaught of the enemy. In seven days, the Germans brought almost all their reserves into battle and advanced only 10-12 km. They never managed to break through the tactical defense zone. Soldiers and officers fought heroically for their land. About the defenders of the Oryol-Kursk Bulge, the poet Yevgeny Dolmatovsky wrote the poem "Ponyri". It contains these lines:

There were no mountains, no rocks,

There were no ditches or rivers.

Here the Russian man stood,

Soviet man.

By July 12, the German forces were exhausted, and they stopped the offensive. Rokossovsky K.K. tried to protect the soldiers. Of course, war is war and losses are inevitable. It’s just that Konstantin Konstantinovich always had many times less of these losses. He spared neither mines nor shells. Ammunition can still be made, but it takes a very long time to grow a person and make a good soldier out of him. People felt this and always treated him with respect. Rokossovsky K.K. and earlier he had great fame among the troops, but after the Battle of Kursk his fame soared very high. They talked about him as an outstanding commander. No wonder he commanded the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945, which was received by G.K. Zhukov. The leadership of the country also appreciated him. Even Stalin himself I.V. after the Great Patriotic War, he apologized to him for his arrest in 1937. He invited the marshal to a dacha in Kuntsevo. Passing with him past the flowerbed, Iosif Vissarionovich broke a bouquet of white roses with his bare hands. Handing them to Rokossovsky K.K., he said: “Before the war, we offended you very much. Forgive us…” Konstantin Konstantinovich drew attention to the fact that the thorns of roses had injured the hands of IV Stalin, leaving small drops of blood.

On November 26, 1943, the first monument to military glory during the Great Patriotic War was opened near the village of Teploye. This modest obelisk glorifies the feat of artillerymen. Then many more monuments will be erected along the defense line of the Central Front. Museums and memorials will be opened, but for veterans of the Battle of Kursk, this simple monument to artillerymen will be the most expensive, because it is the first.

Monument to artillerymen near the village. Warm

Southern face of the Kursk Bulge

On the southern front, the defense was held by the Voronezh Front under the command of General of the Army Nikolai Fedorovich Vatutin (1901 - 1944). The length of the defense line was 244 km. The front included five combined arms armies (38th, 40th, 6th Guards and 7th Guards - stood in the first echelon of defense, the 69th Army and the 35th Guards Rifle Corps - in the second echelon of defense). The reserve of the front was mobile. It included the 1st Tank Army, as well as the 2nd and 5th Guards Tank Corps. Before the start of the German offensive, artillery preparation was carried out, slightly weakening their first onslaught. Unfortunately, it was extremely difficult to determine the exact direction of the main attack on the Voronezh Front. It was inflicted by the Wehrmacht in the Oboyan area, along the positions of the 6th Guards Army. The Germans tried to develop success by advancing along the Belgorod-Kursk highway, but they did not succeed. Units of the 1st Panzer Army were sent to help the 6th Army. The Wehrmacht sent a distracting blow to the 7th Guards Army in the Korocha region. Given the current situation, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command ordered Colonel General Konev to transfer two armies from the Steppe Front to the Voronezh Front - the 5th combined arms and 5th tank. Not advancing a sufficient distance near Oboyan, the German command decided to move the main attack to the Prokhorovka area. This direction was covered by the 69th Army. In addition to the "Tigers" on the southern face of the Kursk Bulge, the Wehrmacht used its new tanks Pz. V "Panther" in the amount of 200 pcs.

Tank battle near Prokhorovka

On July 12, southwest of Prokhorovka, the Germans went on the offensive. A little earlier, the command of the Voronezh Front sent the 5th Guards Tank Army here with two attached tank corps and the 33rd Guards Rifle Corps. One of the largest tank battles in the history of World War II (09/01/1939 - 09/02/1945) took place here. To stop the offensive of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps (400 tanks), the corps of the 5th Guards Tank Army (800 tanks) were thrown into a frontal attack. Despite the seemingly large superiority in the number of tanks, the 5th Guards Tank Army was losing in their "quality". It consisted of: 501 T-34 tanks, 264 T-70 light tanks and 35 Churchill III heavy tanks with low speed and insufficient maneuverability. Our tanks could not match the enemy in the range of destructive fire. To knock out the German Pz. VI "Tiger" our T-34 tank had to approach at a distance of 500 meters. The very same "Tiger" with 88 mm. cannon effectively fought a duel at a distance of up to 2000 meters.

Fighting in such conditions was possible only in close combat. But it was necessary to reduce the distance in some incomprehensible way. Against all odds, our simple Soviet tankers held out and stopped the Germans. Honor and praise them for this. The price of such a feat was very high. Losses in the tank corps of the 5th Guards Army reached 70 percent. Currently, the Prokhorovka Field has the status of a museum of federal significance. All these tanks and guns are installed here in memory of the Soviet people who, at the cost of their lives, turned the tide of the war.

Part of the exposition of the memorial "Prokhorovka field"

End of the Battle of Kursk

Having withstood the onslaught of the Germans on the northern face of the Kursk Bulge, on July 12, the troops of the Bryansk Front and the left wing of the Western Front went on the offensive in the Oryol direction. A little later, on July 15, troops of the Central Front attacked in the direction of the village of Kromy. Thanks to the efforts of the attackers, on August 5, 1943, the city of Oryol was liberated. On July 16, the troops of the Voronezh Front and then on July 19, the troops of the Steppe Front also went on the offensive. Developing a counterattack, on August 5, 1943, they liberated the city of Belgorod. On the evening of the same day, salutes were fired in Moscow for the first time in honor of the liberation of Orel and Belgorod. Without losing the initiative, the troops of the Steppe Front (with the support of the Voronezh and Southwestern Fronts) liberated the city of Kharkov on August 23, 1943.

The Battle of Kursk (Kursk Bulge) is one of the largest battles of World War II. More than 4 million people from both sides took part in it. A huge number of tanks, aircraft, guns and other equipment were involved. Here, the initiative finally passed to the Red Army and the whole world realized that Germany had lost the war.

Battle of Kursk on the map

12.04.2018

There is between Kursk and Orel
Train station and one station.
In the distant past
There was silence here.

And finally July came
And the fifth at dawn
Shells thunder and squeals of bullets
And the tanks rushed at us.

But still no one ran
The orders of the mouth did not flinch.
And every dead person lay here
Facing the enemy, facing forward.

There were guns on the hills
Almost at the Ponyri.
Remain in their places
Lying battery calculations.

Evgeny Dolmatovsky.

In times of great wars, it often happens that some previously unremarkable place becomes a key point for the fate of the world and the course of history. This will be the small Ponyri railway station in the battles of the Battle of Kursk. Today this station has been forgotten, but in 1943 the whole world knew about it.

After successful battles near Moscow and Stalingrad, Soviet troops made a breakthrough in the Kursk direction. A giant ledge 550 km long was formed, which later became known as the Kursk Bulge.

The German army grouping "Center" was opposed by the central front under the command of Rokossovsky. On the way of the army "South" stood the Voronezh front under the command of Vatutin. The Germans, holding the occupied territories, were preparing the decisive operation "Citadel". Its essence was a simultaneous attack from the north and south, getting the opportunity to connect in Kursk, forming a giant cauldron, striving to break up our troops and move on Moscow. Our goal was to prevent a breakthrough at all costs and correctly calculate the probability of the main attack of the German armies.

Spring 1943. A strategic pause arose in the Kursk direction - 100 days of silence. Sovinformburo reports invariably contained the phrase: "Nothing significant happened at the front." Intelligence worked carefully, our troops were preparing, the Germans were preparing. The success of the future operation these days was decided by providing the front with ammunition, equipment and new reinforcements. The main burden in this difficult matter fell on the shoulders of the railroad. 100 days of silence for them were 100 days of fierce battle. On June 2, 1943, the most powerful Nazi air raid was carried out on the Kursk railway junction. It went on without interruption for exactly 22 hours. 453 aircraft dropped 2,600 bombs on the Kursk station, practically destroying it. Perhaps it was easier at the front than here in the rear. And people worked, restored steam locomotives, did not leave the depot for weeks in order to provide military cargo transportation.

On July 5, 1943, one of the most important battles of the Great Patriotic War, the Battle of Kursk, began on the northern face. Rokossovsky accurately calculated the direction of the main blow. He realized that the Germans would launch an offensive in the area of ​​the Ponyri station through the Teplovsky heights. It was the shortest route to Kursk. The commander of the central front took a big risk by removing artillery from other sectors of the front. 92 barrels per kilometer of defense - there was no such density of artillery in any defensive operation in the entire history of the Great Patriotic War. And if there was the greatest tank battle near Prokhorovka, where iron fought with iron, then here, in Ponyri, about the same number of tanks moved to Kursk, and these tanks were stopped by PEOPLE. The enemy was strong: 22 divisions, up to 1,200 tanks and assault guns, a total of 460,000 soldiers. It was a fierce battle. "Both sides seem to be aware of the meaning that history will give her in the future," writes Paul Carrel in Scorched Earth. Only purebred Germans took part in the Battle of Kursk, they did not trust anything to others. They didn't have 17 year olds. 20-22 years old - these were experienced and trained personnel officers. Fierce fighting continued near Ponyri on 6 and 7 July. On the night of July 11, the bloodless enemy made the last attempt to push our troops and was able to advance 12 kilometers in 5 days of fighting. But this time, the Nazi offensive bogged down. One of the German generals later said that the key to our victory was forever buried under Ponyri. On July 12, when a fierce battle was going on near Prokhorovka on the southern front, where the enemy advanced 35 kilometers, on the northern front the front line would return to its positions, and already on July 15 Rokossovsky's army would go on the offensive on Orel.

The whole world knows about the tank battle near Prokhorovka - the largest in the history of the war. But few people wondered how the Soviet troops managed to quickly transfer such a mass of tanks near Kursk. From March to August, only 1410 echelons with military equipment were delivered to the Kursk Bulge. This is seven times more than near Moscow in 1941. Tanks went straight from the platforms into battle.

The battle of Kursk ended with the complete defeat of the enemy, access to the Dnieper and the capture of Kharkov. The first train arrived there already on the 5th day after the liberation of the city. The main task now, having secured the offensive, is to keep up with the advancing units. After leaving, the Germans left a scorched desert behind them. Behind the locomotive, a heavy hook caught on one of the sleepers, it goes and tears all the sleepers in half. That's it, the path has become disconnected, you can't go along the path. There is a track destroyer, tearing sleepers. A joint, a link is undermined. The rails at that time were 12.5 meters high. At each junction and in the middle of the junction, after 6 meters, a stick of dynamite was placed, blown up and the rails all failed. So there are no sleepers and no rails. All this created a general background when it was almost impossible to work. But everything was done.

There was a victory. The commander of the central front, General of the Army Rokossovsky, wrote: “The railroad workers of the Kursk Knot showed exceptional heroism, restoring the destruction under the explosions of enemy bombs. Remember railroad! A Russian soldier will go everywhere if every 20 minutes we ensure the delivery of 30 wagons with troops, ammunition, weapons and food to the front. One hundred thousand soldiers of the Red Army will pass where the deer will not pass.” Our railroad workers did not leave a single locomotive, not a single wagon, not a single railroad switch to the invaders. Everything that could not be evacuated was blown up and destroyed. It was very scary to drive on this section of the train because of the constant air bombing. Railroad workers are very modest, simple toiling soldiers of the Great Patriotic War. Without them, there would have been no victory, not only at Stalingrad, not only on the Kursk Bulge, there would have been no victory at all.

Every old soldier has a secret dream to once again visit those places where the war threw him. What do they want to see, what else to remember, what to experience? They know that there are no frames in any newsreel of the world that their memory keeps. No one can ever measure their pain. No one but them will smell gunpowder, sweat, dry dust and warm blood. And so they come back.

Go ahead, fight, burn
Ever after the war
Come back to your native Ponyri,
Where did the victorious path begin?

Thundered in the valleys and forests
Fighting from dawn to dusk.
Eagle and Kursk, as on the scales,
And in the middle - Ponyri.

Evgeny Dolmatovsky.

Based on the films The Trains That Won the War (written and directed by Valery Shatin) and The Kursk Bulge. Iron Frontier (author and director Daria Romanova).