Battle of Kursk (Kursk Bulge 05 July - 23 August). Completion of a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War. The strategic initiative finally passes into the hands of the Soviet army. In honor of the liberation of Orel and Belgorod, the first fireworks thundered in Moscow.

The victory of the Red Army at Stalingrad and its subsequent general offensive in the winter of 1942/43 in the vast area from the Baltic to the Black Sea undermined the military power of Germany. To prevent the decline in the morale of the army and the population and the growth of centrifugal tendencies within the bloc of aggressors, Hitler and his generals decided to prepare and conduct a major offensive operation on the Soviet-German front. With its success, they pinned their hopes for the return of the lost strategic initiative and a turn in the course of the war in their favor.

August 23 - Day of the defeat of Nazi troops in the Battle of Kursk August 23 in accordance with Federal Law No. 32-FZ of 13.03 95 "On the days of military glory (victory days) of Russia" - Day of military glory of Russia, Day of the defeat of Nazi German troops by Soviet troops troops in the Battle of Kursk (1943).

Battle of Kursk (July 5, 1943 - August 23, 1943, also known as the Battle of the Kursk Bulge, Operation "Citadel" German Unternehmen Zitadelle) in terms of its scope, forces and means involved, tension, results and military-political consequences, is one of the key battles of the Great Patriotic War.
The Battle of Kursk lasted forty-nine days - from July 5 to August 23, 1943. In Soviet and Russian historiography, it is customary to divide the battle into three parts: the Kursk defensive operation (July 5-23); Orel (July 12 - August 18) and Belgorod-Kharkov (August 3-23) offensive.
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 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. Great hopes were pinned on the latest Tiger and Panther tanks, Ferdinand assault guns, Focke-Wulf-190-A fighter planes and Heinkel-129 attack aircraft. The Soviet command decided to first bleed the enemy 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 penetrate our defenses in some areas. On the Central Front - by 10-12 km, on the Voronezh Front - up to 35 km. Finally, Hitler's Operation Citadel was buried, the largest tank battle at Prokhorovka in the entire Second World War. 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 fiery arc ended victoriously. During it, 30 elite enemy divisions were defeated. The German fascist 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.

Annually on August 23, Russia celebrates one of the Days of Military Glory of Russia - the Day of the victory of the Russian army over the Nazi troops in the battle of Kursk.

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. In its ferocity and tenacity, this battle is unmatched. More than 4 million people, 69 thousand guns and mortars, more than 13 thousand tanks, about 12 thousand combat aircraft took part in it on both sides. The crushing defeat of Hitler's troops at the Kursk Bulge and the subsequent exit of Soviet troops to the Dnieper completed a radical change in the course of the Great Patriotic War.

According to Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov's battle on the Kursk Bulge “in its scale, ferocity, transience and changeability of the combat situation, swiftness and persistence of the struggle, in the number of people, has no equal in world history throughout the history of wars. The Battle of Kursk is undoubtedly the largest battle. "

Battle of Kursk - a radical turning point in the course of the war

In the summer of 1943, the attention of all mankind was riveted on the Soviet-German front. In hot July days one of the largest battles of the Great Patriotic War began near Kursk. The Battle of Kursk, like the battles of Moscow and Stalingrad, was distinguished by its great scope and intensity.

On July 5, 1943, the Nazi troops launched an offensive. At the positions of our soldiers, the enemy brought down tens of thousands of shells and aerial bombs, threw a large number of tanks and infantry into the attack, trying to break through into the depths of our defenses, to Kursk in narrow areas. A fierce struggle unfolded on the ground and in the air.

The major defeats that the enemy troops suffered in two days of fighting, and the slow pace of the offensive forced the Nazi command to shift the direction of the main attack to Ponyri. Heavy battles unfolded for the second line of defense. Courage and mass heroism have become an unshakable law for our soldiers.

On July 8, the Nazi offensive in the Ponyri region was stopped. The enemy suffered heavy losses. On July 9, a tank column of the enemy moved to the village of Goreloy. She walked to the line where Sapunov's gun was stationed. HELL. Sapunov was drafted into the army in 1941, graduated from an artillery school and immediately went to the front. He commanded the gun crew of the 540th light artillery regiment of the 5th division of the 13th army. July 9, 1943 was the last day in his life.

After the apparent collapse of the "Citadel" (that was the name of the offensive operation on Kursk), the Hitlerite command decided to go over to the defensive on the entire Soviet-German front, ordering the troops to hold on to all occupied lines at any cost, and in the event of the transition of the Red Army formations to the offensive, to exhaust and bleed them.

On the Oryol bridgehead, the enemy had a powerful grouping - 37 divisions, of which 8 were tank and 2 were motorized. It numbered up to 600 thousand soldiers and officers, 6 thousand guns and mortars, about a thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, as well as over a thousand combat aircraft. Attaching great importance to the Oryol bridgehead, the Nazis, long before their attack on Kursk, created a defense here with a developed system of field fortifications, firmly covering them with engineering barriers. The enemy prepared most of the settlements in the front line and in depth for a perimeter defense.

On August 5, the city of Oryol was liberated, and by the end of August there was not a single settlement left in the region occupied by the Nazis. The Red Army launched an offensive. And on May 9, 1945, the long-awaited Victory Day over Nazi Germany came.

The counteroffensive of the Red Army near Kursk ended with an outstanding victory for us. Irreplaceable losses were inflicted on the enemy, all his attempts to hold strategic bridgeheads in the regions of Orel and Kharkov were thwarted.

The Battle of Kursk was the main event of the summer-autumn campaign of the second period of the Great Patriotic War. Of the 70 enemy divisions that participated in this battle, the Red Army defeated 30 divisions, including 7 tank divisions, and destroyed over 3,500 aircraft. Conditions were created for the transition of our troops to a general offensive on most of the Soviet-German front. The crushing defeat of the Nazi troops at the Kursk Bulge completed a radical turning point in the course of the war. The Red Army launched an offensive. And on May 9, 1945, the long-awaited Victory Day over Nazi Germany came.

As a result of the battle, Soviet troops broke the backbone of the German fascist army, thwarted its attempts to take revenge for the defeat at Stalingrad and forced them to finally go over to strategic defense. The Soviet Armed Forces have firmly seized the strategic initiative.

The Battle of Kursk forced the fascist German command to remove large formations of troops and aviation from the Mediterranean theater of operations, which allowed the American-British troops to conduct an operation in Italy and ultimately predetermined the country's withdrawal from the war. The defeat at Kursk undermined the morale of the German fascist army, exacerbated the crisis within the Hitlerite aggressive bloc.

In the countries conquered by the fascist troops, the national liberation movement began to develop even more.

For their courage and heroism in the Battle of the Kursk Bulge, more than 100 thousand soldiers, officers and generals of the Red Army were awarded orders and medals, 180 especially distinguished soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

We sincerely congratulate everyone on the holiday, on Victory Day in the Battle of Kursk.

There are only two of them. Those who saw how 75 years ago Komarin was freed from the Nazis.

In the Bragin Historical Museum there is a painting by Vasily Shevchenko "Forcing the Dnieper". Photo: Sergey Emelyanov

Witnesses

Ekaterina Ivanovna Petrusevich was 13 years old at that time. Children's memory keeps the worst:

A policeman came and said: "Prepare sandals, a bag, tomorrow the whole family will go to bury a ditch." Grandfather took a barrel of honey, bacon, moonshine - and negotiate with the policemen. Agreed, and we all family - in the forest. And those who went to bury were themselves buried alive.

Olga Iosifovna Kopytko is five years older:

I just finished school, I wanted to enter a medical school, as the war began. The Germans committed atrocities: just about that, they immediately gather people for a meeting, and then they shoot them. Therefore, we mostly holed in forests and swamps. Once I crawled away from such a meeting for two hours across a rye field. I hugged the earth tightly so that they would not notice. And when our people came, we all came out of the woods, rejoiced, kissed, as if the war was over. It was already possible to exist in this world, not to be afraid of anyone.

- And you are 18 years old ...

I was immediately called to the medical battalion. And I, together with our liberators - the 181st Infantry Division of the First Ukrainian Front - went on to liberate Belarus further. Then there was Poland, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and was surrounded by a medical battalion. She served until the Victory. I have several thanks from Stalin.

Bloody crossing

The battle for the Dnieper is one of the bloodiest in the Great Patriotic War. Retreating on all fronts from Velikiye Luki to the Black Sea, the Nazis was in a hurry to roll back behind the "inaccessible Eastern Wall" - as they called the well-fortified, deeply echeloned water lines on the western bank of the Dnieper.

On September 22, 1943, the troops of the 13th Army under the command of Lieutenant General N.P. Pukhov were the first to enter the water, pursuing the enemy. They were supported by the formations of the 60th and 61st armies. The liberation of Belarus from the fascist invaders began.

It is difficult for us today to imagine what was happening on the Dnieper in those days. Apocalypse! The writer Viktor Astafyev, who also crossed the river, testified: "When 25 thousand soldiers entered the Dnieper from one side, then no more than 5-6 thousand went out on the opposite side."

You read the memories of the front-line soldiers, and the blood runs cold. Ivan Vasilievich Kovalev was then a sergeant, the commander of the mortar crew of the 81st Infantry Division:

“As soon as we lowered the boats into the water, a massive artillery shelling began, then German planes appeared in the sky. Of the six boats, only three crossed. Two were almost immediately completely destroyed by a direct hit, the third boat did not reach the shore 15-20 meters, the shell hit The bank and the Dnieper waters were red with blood. The worst thing was that there was nowhere to hide from the incessant explosions. Complete helplessness: you look to the right - the boat sank, to the left - the raft was smashed, fear literally fetters you.

At the moment of crossing, we clearly realized: our life is only in the hands of fortune. To be honest, I don't understand how I survived. Those who crossed the river desperately jumped to the bank and tried to bury themselves as deeply as possible in the ground. "

But there were not enough boats for everyone, so they crossed on rafts made of logs and boards, on ferries built from empty iron barrels, on raincoats filled with hay and straw.

The crossing of the Dnieper proceeded simultaneously in many areas from Loev to Zaporozhye. Local historian Ruslan Gerasimov from the Bragin regional center says:

After the crossing, hell continued. In our area, the village of Galki, for example, changed hands 12 times in one night. And Komarin was the first to be freed from the Germans.

Six stars

Despite her 93 years old, Olga Iosifovna Kopytko is surprisingly mobile. She, together with a friend, tends the orchard, cherishes the grapes hanging from the trellises by the porch. She herself volunteered to show us the military monuments of Komarin.

We drive through a clean well-groomed village. Lenin Street, Sovetskaya Street, Karl Marx Street, Proletarskaya Street ... As if we are returning to life from childhood - a restless, sunny ...

Now Komarin is like a resort town, and after the liberation there was a real horror, - recalls the front-line soldier. - All houses are destroyed, equipment is on fire, there are corpses all around and this unforgettable hum. The front, having crossed the Dnieper, advanced far beyond Komarin, but the hum remained.

We stop at a brotherly burial in the center of the village. Endless slabs with the names of the buried. 799 of our soldiers were killed during the liberation of Komarin and nearby villages. There are also six Heroes of the Soviet Union.

The youngest - 19-year-old junior sergeant Nikolai Yakovlev from the Vologda region - died covering the infantry with machine gun fire near the very village of Galki. He destroyed about a hundred Nazis.

Orenburg lieutenant Dmitry Grechushkin commanded a platoon of anti-tank rifles. After the tank attack, the entire platoon was killed, and the commander hid, waited until the "Tiger" substituted a weak point and knocked him out. He himself was immediately attacked by a self-propelled gun and died.

The lieutenant's compatriot, senior sergeant Vasily Boyarkin with his machine-gun crew distinguished himself when crossing the Dnieper, covering his comrades, in a battle near the village of Vyalye, where his crew put 60 Nazis, but an accidental bullet cut short the hero's life.

Lieutenant from Ukraine Fyodor Pavlovsky - Komsomol organizer of the rifle battalion. Killed during the battle, killing 65 fascists.

Senior Sergeant Sakhalin Nikolai Grishchenko was the commander of a mortar company. When the danger of encirclement arose, the already wounded man raised the soldiers in a counterattack, threw grenades at the enemy armored vehicle. He had no chance to stay alive.

Thirty-year-old foreman Oraz Anaev from Turkmenistan also blew up an armored vehicle with seven Nazis and two heavy machine guns. A street in Minsk is named after him ...

In the Bragin Historical Museum on the stand are the names of 396 soldiers who received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for their exploits during the liberation of Bragin. And this is only one region of Belarus, where the fighting went on for just over a month!

Mirny Komarin

Every year the number of soldiers killed in our mass grave grows, - says the head of the Komarinsky village administration Viktor Svislovsky. - We are gradually moving the graves here from the nearest villages, which were empty after the Chernobyl accident. We often find remains during excavation work or the natural collapse of the banks of the Dnieper. In May we have very touching memorial events. Last year, a grandson from Uzbekistan found his grandfather here.

- How does Komarin live today?

There are 2428 inhabitants in the village, 310 students in the school. State farm "Komarinsky", forestry, forestry, land reclamation service ... There are about twenty streets alone. Two of them are named after the heroes Pavlovsky and Grechushkin. Now, within the framework of the "Small Homeland" program, we have been allocated serious money for improvement. It is a pity that you did not come in July - there is such a swim on the Dnieper on Ivan Kupala! This year there were five thousand people from everywhere, including Russia. Songs, bonfires, fireworks! Thank God - the world is now.

- Probably you have a lot of mosquitoes?

Are you hinting at the name of the village? Before, everything around was in swamps, then there were a lot. And then the swamps were drained. But whether the name came from mosquitoes, I do not know. The village is 633 years old!

The editors would like to thank S.A. Dovguliavets - the head of the department of ideological work, culture and youth affairs and NI Meleshko - the director of the State Institution of Culture "Bragin Historical Museum with Picture Gallery".

"I have no means of crossing ..."

From the memoirs of the former commander of the 360th rifle regiment of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General N. Stashek, honorary citizen of Komarin:

On a dark night, I was summoned to the auxiliary command post of the army and personally from the commander of the army, General Pukhov N.P. received the task: "For one and a half to two hours to cross the Desna and, without getting involved in a battle with the enemy, by a swift rush by dawn to reach the Dnieper, force it in the Komarin area and hold the captured bridgehead until the main forces approach." "The task is clear - I answered, - there is only one question: where to get the ferry means?"

The commander darkened. Apparently, he was expecting such a question and therefore answered without hesitation: "Look for the means of crossing by the river, I do not have them."

<...> Unfortunately, we could not overcome the distance of over 50 km before dawn. By this time, only the vanguard battalion under the command of the deputy regiment commander Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Mikhailovich Novikov had reached the Dnieper. The enemy met the battalion with artillery-mortar and machine-gun fire. But despite this, the battalion began building rafts from improvised means and fishing boats.

The exit of the main forces of the regiment to the river was absolutely unexpected for the enemy. Confusion was felt in his ranks. Taking advantage of this, the main forces of the regiment crossed the river with improvised means three to four kilometers south of the vanguard battalion. A friendly surprise attack destroyed the main forces of the enemy, and by nightfall, the regional center Komarin was captured.

<...> Soon the enemy came to his senses and began to launch a counterattack. But the regiment did not just defend itself, but attacked several times every day, although the stocks of ammunition were decreasing every hour ...

When making another counterattack, the enemy managed to get into the rear of the second battalion in the area where the medical center was located. The Nazis rushed into a fierce attack, anticipating an easy victory. Noticing the approach of the Nazis, the commander of the medical platoon ml. Lieutenant of the medical service Ivan Danilovich Fionov gave the command "to fire." The wounded, even those who could not move, but could at least hold a weapon with one hand, took up a perimeter defense and met the enemy with organized rifle and machine-gun fire ... When the ammunition was running out, Comrade Fionov raised the fighters to attack. It was so unexpected for the enemy that he was taken aback, the Nazis were confused and began to retreat. The wounded cut their way and retreated to the rear. Comrade Fionov himself was seriously wounded in the stomach, but until the last minute he controlled the battle.

August 23 - Day of the defeat of the Nazi troops by Soviet troops in the Battle of Kursk (1943)

August 23 marks one of the days of Russia's military glory. It is dedicated to the victory of the Soviet troops in the Battle of Kursk in 1943. The Battle of the Kursk Bulge was one of the key battles of both the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War.The Battle of Kursk lasted from July 5 to August 23, 1943. It is the largest tank battle in history: about 2 million people, 6 thousand tanks and 4 thousand aircraft took part in it.

Soviet and Russian historians conditionally divide the battle on the Kursk Bulge into three parts:

In total, the battle lasted 49 days.After the Soviet troops defeated the Germans in the Battle of Kursk, the strategic initiative in the Great Patriotic War finally went over to the side of the Red Army: until the very end of the war, the Soviet army mainly conducted offensive operations, and the Wehrmacht only had to defend itself.

Victory Day in the Battle of Kursk is one of the days of military glory, since this battle played a decisive role not only in the Great Patriotic War, but in Russian history as a whole.

The Battle of Kursk was a radical turning point in the course of the war.
Summer 1943 years the attention of all mankind was riveted to the Soviet-German front. On hot July days one of the largest battles of the Great Patriotic War began near Kursk. The Battle of Kursk, like the battles of Moscow and Stalingrad, was distinguished by its great scope and intensity.
July 5, 1943 German fascist troops launched an offensive. At the positions of our soldiers, the enemy brought down tens of thousands of shells and aerial bombs, threw a large number of tanks and infantry into the attack, trying to break through into the depths of our defenses, to Kursk in narrow areas. A fierce struggle unfolded on the ground and in the air.

Major lesions, which suffered the enemy troops in two days of fighting, and the low rate of the offensive forced the Nazi command to shift the direction of the main attack to Ponyri. Heavy battles unfolded for the second line of defense. Courage and mass heroism have become an unshakable law for our soldiers.

July 8the offensive of the fascists in the Ponyri region was stopped. The enemy suffered heavy losses. On July 9, a tank column of the enemy moved to the village of Goreloy. She walked to the line where Sapunov's gun was stationed. HELL. Sapunov was drafted into the army in 1941, graduated from an artillery school and immediately went to the front. He commanded the gun crew of the 540th light artillery regiment of the 5th division of the 13th army. July 9, 1943 was the last day in his life.

After the apparent collapse of the "Citadel" (that was the name of the offensive operation on Kursk), the Hitlerite command decided to go over to the defensive on the entire Soviet-German front, ordering the troops to hold on to all occupied lines at any cost, and in the event of the transition of the Red Army formations to the offensive, to exhaust and bleed them.

On the Oryol bridgehead, the enemy had a powerful group - 37 divisions, including 8 tank and 2 motorized. It numbered up to 600 thousand soldiers and officers, 6 thousand guns and mortars, about a thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, as well as over a thousand combat aircraft. Attaching great importance to the Oryol bridgehead, the Nazis, long before their attack on Kursk, created a defense here with a developed system of field fortifications, firmly covering them with engineering barriers. The enemy prepared most of the settlements in the front line and in depth for a perimeter defense.

On July 12, 1943, Soviet troops began their counteroffensive by eliminating this bridgehead.
On August 5, the city of Oryol was liberated, and by the end of August there was not a single settlement left in the region occupied by the Nazis. The Red Army launched an offensive. And on May 9, 1945, the long-awaited Victory Day over Nazi Germany came.

The counteroffensive of the Red Army near Kursk ended with an outstanding victory for us. Irreplaceable losses were inflicted on the enemy, all his attempts to hold strategic bridgeheads in the regions of Orel and Kharkov were thwarted.

Battle of Kursk was the main event of the summer-autumn campaign of the second period of the Great Patriotic War. Of the 70 enemy divisions that took part in this battle, the Red Army defeated 30 divisions, including 7 tank divisions, and destroyed over 3,500 aircraft. Conditions were created for the transition of our troops to a general offensive on most of the Soviet-German front. The crushing defeat of Hitler's troops at the Kursk Bulge completed a radical turning point in the course of the war. The Red Army launched an offensive. And on May 9, 1945, came the long-awaited Victory Day over Nazi Germany.

Losses in the Battle of Kursk.
Wehrmacht lost in the Battle of Kursk 30 selected divisions, including seven tank divisions, over 500 thousand soldiers and officers, 1.5 thousand tanks, more than 3.7 thousand aircraft, 3 thousand guns.

Losses of Soviet troops surpassed the German - they amounted to 863 thousand people, including 254 thousand irrevocable. At Kursk, the Red Army lost about six thousand tanks.

Results of the Battle of Kursk.
After the Battle of Kursk, the balance of forces on the front changed sharply in favor of the Red Army, which provided it with favorable conditions for the deployment of a general strategic offensive.

As a result of the Battle of Kursk Soviet troops broke the backbone of the German fascist army, thwarted its attempts to take revenge for the defeat at Stalingrad and forced them to finally go over to strategic defense. The Soviet Armed Forces have firmly seized the strategic initiative.

The Battle of Kursk forced the fascist German command to remove large formations of troops and aviation from the Mediterranean theater of operations, which allowed the American-British troops to conduct an operation in Italy and ultimately predetermined the country's withdrawal from the war. The defeat at Kursk undermined the morale of the German fascist army, exacerbated the crisis within the Hitlerite aggressive bloc.
In the countries conquered by the fascist troops, the national liberation movement began to develop even more.

For courage and heroism shown In the Battle of the Kursk Bulge, more than 100 thousand soldiers, officers and generals of the Red Army were awarded orders and medals, 180 especially distinguished soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.