Tank battles. Major battles of World War II

Traditionally, the battle near Prokhorovka in the summer of 1943 is considered to be the largest tank battle. But, in fact, the world's largest tank battle took place two years earlier: in June 1941 in the Brody-Dubno-Lutsk region. If we compare the numbers, then Prokhorovka is clearly inferior to the Western Ukrainian tank battle.

The Battle of Prokhorovka took place on July 12, 1943. According to official Soviet data, 1,500 tanks and self-propelled guns converged on both sides: 800 Soviet against 700 Nazi. The Germans lost 350 units of armored vehicles, ours - 300. Allegedly, after this, a turning point occurred in the Battle of Kursk.

However, even many Soviet researchers questioned this officialdom. After all, such a calculation contains a clear distortion. Indeed, in the 5th Guards Tank Army, General Pavel Rotmistrov, who counterattacked the advancing German troops that day, there were about 950 tanks. But as for the Germans, there were approximately 700 tanks and self-propelled guns in the entire German grouping on the southern flank of the Kursk salient. And near Prokhorovka there was only the 2nd SS Panzer Corps of Waffen-SS General Paul Hausser - about 310 combat vehicles.

Therefore, according to updated Soviet data, 1200 tanks and self-propelled guns converged near Prokhorovka: a little less than 800 Soviet against a little more than 400 German (losses were not specified). At the same time, neither side achieved its goal, but the German offensive objectively lost momentum.

According to completely revised data, 311 German tanks and self-propelled guns against 597 Soviet ones participated in the tank battle on July 12 near Prokhorovka (some of the vehicles of the 5th GvTA went out of order after a 300-kilometer march). The SS on this day lost about 70 (22%), and the guards - 343 (57%) armored vehicles. At the same time, their irretrievable losses in 2 TC SS were estimated at only 5 cars! The Germans, which even the Soviet military leaders recognized, had better evacuation and repair of equipment. Of the Soviet vehicles destroyed near Prokhorovka, 146 were to be restored.

According to Russian historian Valery Zamulin ( Deputy Director for Science of the State Military Historical Museum-Reserve “Prokhorovskoe Pole”), by decision of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, a commission was created to investigate the causes of the heavy losses suffered by the 5th Guards Army near Prokhorovka. In the report of the commission, the military operations of the Soviet troops on July 12 near Prokhorovka were called "a model of an unsuccessful operation." General Rotmistrov was going to be handed over to the tribunal, but by that time the general situation at the front had changed - and everything worked out. By the way, the landing of the Anglo-American troops in Sicily had a great influence on the outcome of the Battle of Kursk, after which the headquarters of the 2nd SS TC and the Leibshatnadrt division were sent to Italy.

Now let's go back two years to Western Ukraine and compare

If the battle near Prokhorovka lasted only one day, then the Western Ukrainian tank battle (it is difficult to determine it in any one region - Volhynia or Galicia - not to mention one settlement) lasted a week: from June 23 to June 30, 1941. Five mechanized corps of the Red Army (2803 tanks) of the Southwestern Front took part in it against four German tank divisions (585 tanks) of the Wehrmacht of the Army Group South, united in the First Tank Group. Subsequently, another tank division of the Red Army (325) and one tank division of the Wehrmacht (143) entered the battle. Thus, 3128 Soviet and 728 German tanks (+ 71 German assault guns) met in a gigantic oncoming tank battle. Thus, the total number of tanks and self-propelled guns that participated in the Western Ukrainian battle is almost four thousand!

On the evening of June 22, the troops of the Southwestern Front (the most powerful grouping of Soviet troops on the western border of the USSR) received an order "with powerful concentric strikes of mechanized corps, all aviation of the Southwestern Front and other troops of the 5th and 6th armies to surround and destroy the enemy grouping advancing in the direction Vladimir-Volynsky, Dubno. By the end of June 24, capture the Lublin region.

Given the balance of forces (primarily in tanks, but also in artillery and aviation), the counteroffensive had very high chances of success. The Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, General of the Army Georgy Zhukov, personally arrived to coordinate the actions of the Southwestern Front.

To accomplish the task, the command of the Southwestern Front decided to create two strike groups: each with three mechanized and one rifle corps. However, the breakthrough of the German tank group forced the front commander, General Mikhail Kirponos, to abandon this plan and give the order to launch a counteroffensive without waiting for the concentration of all forces. Tank formations entered the battle separately and without mutual coordination. In the future, the orders changed several times, because of which some units made multi-kilometer forced marches under enemy air strikes.

Some units did not take part in the counterattack. Part of the forces was ordered to cover Kovel from the Brest direction, from where German tanks allegedly also advanced. But, as it later became clear, the intelligence report was completely inaccurate.

On June 27, the shock group of the 8th mechanized corps under the command of Brigadier Commissar Nikolai Popel successfully counterattacked the Germans in the Dubno region, inflicting serious losses on the enemy. However, here the Soviet tankers stopped and, waiting for reinforcements, stood for two days! During this time, the group did not wait for support and, as a result, was surrounded.

Interestingly, the German tank and motorized divisions, despite the Soviet tank counterattacks, continued the offensive, as if "running forward." In many ways, the burden of fighting the tanks of the Red Army fell on the infantry of the Wehrmacht. However, oncoming tank battles were also enough.

On July 29, the retreat of the mechanized corps was authorized, and on June 30, a general retreat. The front headquarters left Ternopil and moved to Proskurov. By this time, the mechanized corps of the South-Western Front were practically destroyed. About 10% of tanks remained in the 22nd, about 15% in the 8th and 15th, about 30% in the 9th and 19th.

A member of the military council of the South-Western Front, Corps Commissar Nikolai Vashugin, who at first actively organized counterattacks, shot himself on June 28. The remaining members of the Military Council proposed to retreat beyond the line of the old Soviet-Polish border (which existed until September 1939). However, German tanks broke through the line of fortified areas on the old border and went to the rear of the Soviet troops. Already on July 10, German troops took Zhytomyr ...

It cannot be said that in those battles the Soviet troops showed complete failure in those battles. It was then that the Germans first started talking about the superiority of the T-34 and KV, against which the German anti-tank guns were powerless (they were taken only by 88-mm anti-aircraft guns) ...

However, in the end, the defeat was complete. By June 30, the troops of the South-Western Front participating in the counteroffensive had lost 2648 tanks - about 85%. As for the Germans, the First Panzer Group lost about 260 vehicles during this period (for the most part these were not irretrievable losses).

In total, the Southwestern and Southern Fronts lost 4381 tanks in the first 15 days of the war (according to the collection “Russia and the USSR in the Wars of the 20th Century: Losses of the Armed Forces”) out of the available 5826.

The losses of the First Tank Group by September 4 amounted to 408 vehicles (of which 186 were irretrievable). Slightly more than half. However, with the remaining 391 tanks and assault guns, Kleist managed to connect with Guderian by September 15 and close the encirclement around the Southwestern Front.

One of the main reasons for the defeat lies in the unprecedentedly large non-combat losses of the Red Army. For example, non-combat losses in tanks (abandoned due to a lack of fuel and lubricants, breakdowns that fell from a bridge, got stuck in a swamp, etc.) in different divisions amounted to about 40-80%. Moreover, this cannot be attributed solely to the poor condition of supposedly obsolete Soviet tanks. After all, the latest KV and T-34s failed in the same way as the relatively old BTs and T-26s. Neither before nor after the summer of 1941 did the Soviet tank troops know such non-combat losses.

Considering that the number of missing and lagging behind on the march fighters also significantly exceeded the number of wounded killed, we can say that the Red Army soldiers sometimes simply ran away, abandoning their equipment.

It is worth looking at the reasons for the defeat from the angle of the Stalinist postulate "cadres decide everything." In particular, to compare the biographies of Field Marshal Gerd von Runstedt, commander of Army Group South, and Colonel General Mikhail Kirponos, commander of the Southwestern Front.

66-year-old Rundstedt graduated from the Military Academy in 1907 and became an officer of the General Staff. In World War I, he was chief of staff of the corps, in 1939 he commanded an army group during the war against Poland, in 1940 - an army group in the war against France. For successful actions in 1940 (his troops broke through the front and surrounded the allies at Dunkirk), he received the rank of field marshal.

49-year-old Mikhail Kirponos started out as a forester. In World War I he was a paramedic, in civilian life he commanded a regiment for some time, then held various positions (from commissar to head of the economic command) at the Kyiv school of red foremen. In 1920 he graduated from the Military Academy. Frunze, then for three years he was the chief of staff of the division and for four years he was the head of the Kazan Infantry School. During the Finnish War he was a division commander and distinguished himself in the battles for Vyborg. As a result, having jumped several steps on the career ladder, in February 1941 he headed the Kyiv Special Military District (the largest in the USSR), which was transformed into the South-Western Front.

Soviet tank troops were inferior to the Panzerwaffe in training. Soviet tankers had the practice of driving 2-5 hours, while the Germans - about 50 hours.

As for the training of commanders, the Germans noted the extremely inept conduct of Soviet tank attacks. Here is how he wrote about the battles of 1941-1942. German General Friedrich von Mellenthin, author of the study "Tank Battles 1939-1945: Combat Use of Tanks in World War II":

“Dense masses of tanks were concentrated in front of the front of the German defense, in their movement one felt uncertainty and the absence of any plan. They interfered with each other, ran into our anti-tank guns, and in the event of a breakthrough of our positions, they stopped moving and stopped, instead of developing success. These days, individual German anti-tank guns and 88-mm guns were most effective: sometimes one gun took out more than 30 tanks in an hour. It seemed to us that the Russians had created an instrument that they would never learn to use.”

In general, the very structure of the mechanized corps of the Red Army turned out to be unsuccessful, which already in mid-July 1941 were disbanded into less cumbersome formations.

It is also worth noting the factors that cannot be attributed to defeat. First of all, it cannot be explained by the superiority of German tanks over Soviet ones. Quite a lot has already been written about the fact that at the beginning of the war Soviet supposedly obsolete tanks, in general, were not inferior to German ones, and the new KV and T-34 tanks were superior to enemy tanks. Nor can the Soviet defeat be explained by the fact that "backward" cavalry commanders were at the head of the Red Army. After all, the German First Panzer Group was commanded by General of the Cavalry Ewald von Kleist.

Finally, a few words about why Brody-Dubno-Lutsk gave way to Prokhorovka.

In fact, the West Ukrainian tank battle was also talked about in the Soviet period. Some of its participants even wrote memoirs (of particular note are the memoirs of Nikolai Popel - “In a difficult time”). However, in general, they mentioned it in passing, in a few lines: they say, there were counterattacks that were not successful. Nothing was said about the number of Soviet tanks, but it was emphasized that they were outdated.

This interpretation can be explained by two main reasons. First of all, according to the Soviet myth about the reasons for the defeat in the initial period of the war, the Germans had superiority in technology. To be convincing, in the Soviet history of the initial period of the Second World War, the number of all German tanks (and their allies) was compared with the number of only medium and heavy Soviet ones. It was generally accepted that the Red Army stopped the German tank hordes only with bundles of grenades, or even bottles of combustible mixture. Therefore, there was simply no place for the largest tank battle in 1941 in the official Soviet history of the Second World War.

Another reason for the silence of the greatest tank battle is that it was organized by the future Marshal of Victory, and at that time the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, Georgy Zhukov. After all, the marshal of victory had no defeats! In the same connection, the Soviet history of the Second World War hushed up Operation Mars, a large-scale offensive that ended in failure at the end of 1942 against the Rzhevsky ledge held by the Germans. The actions of the two fronts here were led by Zhukov. So that his authority would not suffer, this battle was reduced to a local Rzhev-Sychev operation, and they knew about heavy losses from Alexander Tvardovsky’s poem “I was killed near Rzhev”.

Apologists for the marshal of victory even from the catastrophe of the Southwestern Front "sculpted candy." Say, already in the first days of the enemy invasion, Zhukov organized a counterattack on the South-Western Front with the forces of several mechanized corps. As a result of the operation, the plan of the Nazi command to break through to Kyiv on the move and reach the left bank of the Dnieper was thwarted. Then the enemy suffered considerable losses in military equipment, which significantly reduced its offensive, maneuvering capabilities.

At the same time, they said about the initial goal of the offensive (to capture the Lublin region) that the order was given unrealistic, based on an overestimation of their troops and an underestimation of the enemy. And they preferred not to talk about the ruined tank armada, only casually mentioning that the tanks were outdated.

In general, it is not surprising that the tank championship was given to Prokhorovka.

Dmytro Shurkhalo, for ORD

On July 12, 1943, a grandiose tank battle took place near Prokhorovka as part of the Battle of Kursk. According to official Soviet data, 800 Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns and 700 German ones participated in it from both sides.

Since the First World War, tanks have been one of the most effective weapons of war. Their first use by the British at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 ushered in a new era, with tank wedges and lightning-fast blitzkriegs.

Battle of Cambrai (1917)

After failures with the use of small tank formations, the British command decided to launch an offensive using a large number of tanks. Since the tanks had not lived up to expectations before, many considered them useless. One British officer noted: "The infantry thinks that the tanks have not justified themselves. Even the tank crews are discouraged."

According to the plan of the British command, the upcoming offensive was supposed to begin without traditional artillery preparation. For the first time in history, tanks themselves had to break through the enemy defenses.
The offensive at Cambrai was supposed to take the German command by surprise. The operation was prepared in strict secrecy. Tanks were brought to the front in the evening. The British were constantly firing machine guns and mortars to drown out the roar of tank engines.

In total, 476 tanks participated in the offensive. The German divisions were defeated and suffered heavy losses. The well-fortified "Hindenburg Line" was broken through to a great depth. However, during the German counter-offensive, the British troops were forced to retreat. Using the remaining 73 tanks, the British managed to prevent a more serious defeat.

Battle for Dubno-Lutsk-Brody (1941)

In the first days of the war, a large-scale tank battle took place in Western Ukraine. The most powerful grouping of the Wehrmacht - "Center" - advanced to the north, to Minsk and further to Moscow. Not so strong army group "South" was advancing on Kyiv. But in this direction there was the most powerful grouping of the Red Army - the South-Western Front.

Already in the evening of June 22, the troops of this front received orders to encircle and destroy the advancing enemy grouping with powerful concentric strikes by mechanized corps, and by the end of June 24 to capture the Lublin region (Poland). It sounds fantastic, but this is if you do not know the strength of the parties: in a giant oncoming tank battle, 3128 Soviet and 728 German tanks met.

The battle lasted a week: from 23 to 30 June. The actions of the mechanized corps were reduced to isolated counterattacks in different directions. The German command, through competent leadership, managed to repel a counterattack and defeat the armies of the Southwestern Front. The rout was complete: the Soviet troops lost 2648 tanks (85%), the Germans - about 260 vehicles.

Battle of El Alamein (1942)

The Battle of El Alamein is a key episode in the Anglo-German confrontation in North Africa. The Germans sought to cut the most important strategic highway of the Allies - the Suez Canal, and rushed to the Middle Eastern oil, which the Axis needed. The pitched battle of the entire campaign took place at El Alamein. As part of this battle, one of the largest tank battles in World War II took place.

The Italo-German forces numbered about 500 tanks, half of which were rather weak Italian tanks. The British armored units had over 1000 tanks, among which were powerful American tanks - 170 "Grants" and 250 "Shermans".

The qualitative and quantitative superiority of the British was partly offset by the military genius of the commander of the Italo-German troops - the famous "desert fox" Rommel.

Despite the British numerical superiority in manpower, tanks and aircraft, the British were never able to break through Rommel's defenses. The Germans even managed to counterattack, but the superiority of the British in numbers was so impressive that the German shock group of 90 tanks was simply destroyed in the oncoming battle.

Rommel, inferior to the enemy in armored vehicles, made extensive use of anti-tank artillery, among which were captured Soviet 76-mm guns, which proved to be excellent. Only under the pressure of the huge numerical superiority of the enemy, having lost almost all the equipment, the German army began an organized retreat.

The Germans had just over 30 tanks left after El Alamein. The total losses of the Italo-German troops in equipment amounted to 320 tanks. The losses of the British armored forces amounted to approximately 500 vehicles, many of which were repaired and returned to service, since the battlefield was eventually left to them.

Battle of Prokhorovka (1943)

The tank battle near Prokhorovka took place on July 12, 1943 as part of the Battle of Kursk. According to official Soviet data, 800 Soviet tanks and self-propelled guns and 700 German ones participated in it from both sides.

The Germans lost 350 armored vehicles, ours - 300. But the trick is that the Soviet tanks that participated in the battle were counted, and the German ones were those that were generally in the entire German group on the southern flank of the Kursk salient.

According to new, updated data, 311 German tanks and self-propelled guns of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps took part in the tank battle near Prokhorovka against 597 Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army (Commander Rotmistrov). The SS men lost about 70 (22%), and the guards - 343 (57%) units of armored vehicles.

None of the parties managed to achieve their goals: the Germans failed to break through the Soviet defenses and enter the operational space, and the Soviet troops failed to surround the enemy grouping.

A government commission was set up to investigate the causes of the heavy losses of Soviet tanks. In the report of the commission, the military operations of the Soviet troops near Prokhorovka are called "a model of an unsuccessfully conducted operation." General Rotmistrov was going to be handed over to the tribunal, but by that time the general situation had developed favorably, and everything worked out.

Battle of the Golan Heights (1973)

The major tank battle after 1945 took place during the so-called Yom Kippur War. The war got its name because it began with a surprise attack by the Arabs during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur (Judgment Day).

Egypt and Syria sought to regain the territories lost after the crushing defeat in the Six Day War (1967). Egypt and Syria were helped (financially and sometimes with impressive troops) by many Islamic countries - from Morocco to Pakistan. And not only Islamic ones: distant Cuba sent 3,000 soldiers to Syria, including tank crews.

On the Golan Heights, 180 Israeli tanks opposed approximately 1,300 Syrian ones. The heights were the most important strategic position for Israel: if the Israeli defenses in the Golan had been broken through, the Syrian troops would have been in the very center of the country in a few hours.

For several days, two Israeli tank brigades, suffering heavy losses, defended the Golan Heights from superior enemy forces. The most fierce fighting took place in the Valley of Tears, the Israeli brigade lost from 73 to 98 tanks out of 105. The Syrians lost about 350 tanks and 200 armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles.

The situation began to change radically after the reservists began to arrive. Syrian troops were stopped and then driven back to their original positions. Israeli troops launched an offensive against Damascus.

Since the 1920s, France has been at the forefront of world tank building: it was the first to start building tanks with anti-shell armor, the first to reduce them to tank divisions. In May 1940, the time came to test the combat effectiveness of the French armored forces in practice. Such a case presented itself already in the course of the battles for Belgium.

Cavalry without horses

When planning the advance of troops to Belgium according to the Diehl plan, the allied command decided that the area between the cities of Wavre and Namur was the most vulnerable area. Here, between the rivers Dil and Meuse, the Gembloux plateau stretches - flat, dry, convenient for tank operations. To cover this gap, the French command sent the 1st Cavalry Corps of the 1st Army under the command of Lieutenant General Rene Priou here. The general recently turned 61, he studied at the Saint-Cyr military academy, and graduated from World War I as commander of the 5th Dragoon Regiment. From February 1939, Priou was Inspector General of the Cavalry.

Commander of the 1st Cavalry Corps, Lieutenant General Rene-Jacques-Adolf Prioux.
alamy.com

The Priou Corps was called the cavalry only by tradition and consisted of two light mechanized divisions. Initially, they were cavalry, but in the early 30s, at the initiative of the cavalry inspector General Flavigny, part of the cavalry divisions began to be reorganized into light mechanized divisions - DLM (Division Legere Mecanisee). They were reinforced by tanks and armored vehicles, horses were replaced by Renault UE and Lorraine cars and armored personnel carriers.

The first such formation was the 4th Cavalry Division. Back in the early 1930s, it became an experimental training ground for testing the interaction of cavalry with tanks, and in July 1935 it was renamed the 1st Light Mechanized Division. Such a division of the 1935 model of the year was to include:

reconnaissance regiment of two motorcycle squadrons and two armored car squadrons (AMD - Automitrailleuse de Découverte);
a combat brigade consisting of two regiments, each with two squadrons of cavalry tanks - cannon AMC (Auto-mitrailleuse de Combat) or machine-gun AMR (Automitrailleuse de Reconnaissance);
a motorized brigade, consisting of two motorized dragoon regiments of two battalions each (one regiment was to be transported on caterpillar transporters, the other on ordinary trucks);
motorized artillery regiment.

The re-equipment of the 4th Cavalry Division proceeded slowly: the cavalry wanted to equip its combat brigade only with medium tanks "Somua" S35, but due to their shortage, light "Hotchkiss" H35 had to be used. As a result, there were fewer tanks in the unit than planned, but the equipment of vehicles increased.

Medium tank "Somua" S35 from the museum in Aberdeen (USA).
sfw.so

The motorized brigade was reduced to one motorized dragoon regiment of three battalions, equipped with Lorraine and Laffley tracked tractors. Squadrons of AMR machine-gun tanks were transferred to a motorized dragoon regiment, and combat regiments, in addition to S35, were equipped with H35 light vehicles. Over time, they were replaced by medium tanks, but this replacement was not completed before the start of the war. The reconnaissance regiment was armed with powerful Panar-178 armored vehicles with a 25-mm anti-tank gun.

German soldiers inspect the Panar-178 (AMD-35) cannon armored car, abandoned near Le Pannet (Dunkirk area).
waralbum.ru

In 1936, General Flavigny took command of his creation, the 1st Light Mechanized Division. In 1937, the creation of a second such division under the command of General Altmayer began on the basis of the 5th Cavalry Division. The 3rd Light Mechanized Division began to form already during the "Strange War" in February 1940 - this unit was another step in the mechanization of the cavalry, since the AMR machine gun tanks in it were replaced by the latest Hotchkiss H39 vehicles.

It should be noted that until the end of the 1930s, “real” cavalry divisions (DC - Divisions de Cavalerie) remained in the French army. In the summer of 1939, at the initiative of the cavalry inspector, supported by General Gamelin, they began to reorganize according to the new state. It was decided that in open country the cavalry was powerless against modern infantry weapons and too vulnerable to air attacks. The new light cavalry divisions (DLC - Division Legere de Cavalerie) were to be used in mountainous or wooded areas, where horses provided them with the best maneuverability. First of all, such areas were the Ardennes and the Swiss border, where new formations were deployed.

The light cavalry division consisted of two brigades - light motorized and cavalry; the first included a dragoon (tank) regiment and an armored car regiment, the second was partially motorized, but still had about 1200 horses. Initially, the dragoon regiment was also planned to be equipped with Somua S35 medium tanks, but due to their slow production, the light Hotchkiss H35 began to enter service - well armored, but relatively slow and with a weak 37-mm cannon 18 calibers long.

The H35 Hotchkiss light tank is the main vehicle of the Prieux Cavalry Corps.
waralbum.ru

Composition of the Priu hull

The Priou Cavalry Corps was formed in September 1939 from the 1st and 2nd Light Mechanized Divisions. But in March 1940, the 1st Division was transferred as a motorized reinforcement to the left-flank 7th Army, and Prioux received the newly formed 3rd DLM instead. The 4th DLM was never formed, at the end of May part of it was transferred to the 4th armored (cuirassier) division of the reserve, and the other part was sent to the 7th army as the "Group de Langle".

The light mechanized division turned out to be a very successful combat unit - more mobile than the heavy tank division (DCr - Division Cuirassée), and at the same time more balanced. It is believed that the first two divisions were the best prepared, although the actions of the 1st DLM in Holland as part of the 7th Army showed that this was not the case. At the same time, the 3rd DLM, which replaced it, began to form only during the war, the personnel of this unit was recruited mainly from reservists, and the officers were allocated from other mechanized divisions.

Light French tank AMR-35.
militaryimages.net

By May 1940, each light mechanized division consisted of three motorized infantry battalions, about 10,400 men and 3,400 vehicles. The amount of technology in them varied greatly:

2ndDLM:

light tanks "Hotchkiss" H35 - 84;
light machine gun tanks AMR33 and AMR35 ZT1 - 67;
105 mm field guns - 12;

3rdDLM:

medium tanks "Somua" S35 - 88;
light tanks "Hotchkiss" H39 - 129 (of which 60 - with a 37-mm long-barreled gun in 38 calibers);
light tanks "Hotchkiss" H35 - 22;
cannon armored vehicles "Panar-178" - 40;
105 mm field guns - 12;
75-mm field guns (model 1897) - 24;
47-mm anti-tank guns SA37 L / 53 - 8;
25-mm anti-tank guns SA34 / 37 L / 72 - 12;
25-mm anti-aircraft guns "Hotchkiss" - 6.

In total, the Priou cavalry corps had 478 tanks (including 411 cannon) and 80 cannon armored vehicles. Half of the tanks (236 units) had 47-mm or long-barreled 37-mm guns, capable of fighting almost any armored vehicle of that time.

Hotchkiss H39 with 38-caliber gun is the best French light tank. Photo of the exposition of the tank museum in Saumur, France.

Enemy: 16th motorized corps of the Wehrmacht

While the Priu divisions advanced to the planned line of defense, they were met by the vanguard of the 6th German army - the 3rd and 4th tank divisions, united under the command of Lieutenant General Erich Goepner in the 16th motorized corps. To the left, the 20th Motorized Division was moving far behind, the task of which was to cover Göpner's flank from possible counterattacks from Namur.

General course of hostilities in northeastern Belgium from 10 to 17 May 1940.
D. M. Projector. War in Europe. 1939–1941

On May 11, both panzer divisions crossed the Albert Canal and overturned parts of the 2nd and 3rd Belgian army corps near Tirlemont. On the night of May 11-12, the Belgians withdrew to the line of the Dil River, where the allied troops were planned to leave - the 1st French Army of General Georges Blanchard and the British Expeditionary Force of General John Gort.

AT 3rd Panzer Division General Horst Stumpf included two tank regiments (5th and 6th), united in the 3rd tank brigade under the command of Colonel Kühn. In addition, the division included the 3rd motorized infantry brigade (3rd motorized infantry regiment and 3rd motorcycle battalion), 75th artillery regiment, 39th anti-tank battalion, 3rd reconnaissance battalion, 39th engineer battalion, 39th communications battalion and 83rd supply detachment.

The German light tank Pz.I is the most massive vehicle in the 16th motorized corps.
tank2.ru

In total, the 3rd Panzer Division had:

command tanks - 27;
light machine-gun tanks Pz.I - 117;
light tanks Pz.II - 129;
medium tanks Pz.III - 42;
medium support tanks Pz.IV - 26;
armored vehicles - 56 (including 23 vehicles with a 20-mm gun).

The German light tank Pz.II is the main cannon tank of the 16th Motorized Corps.
Osprey Publishing

4th Panzer Division Major General Johann Stever had two tank regiments (35th and 36th), combined into the 5th tank brigade. In addition, the division included the 4th motorized infantry brigade (12th and 33rd motorized infantry regiments, as well as the 34th motorcycle battalion, 103rd artillery regiment, 49th anti-tank battalion, 7th reconnaissance battalion , 79th engineer battalion, 79th communications battalion and 84th supply detachment.In the 4th tank division, there were:

command tanks - 10;
light machine-gun tanks Pz.I - 135;
light tanks Pz.II - 105;
medium tanks Pz.III - 40;
medium support tanks Pz.IV - 24.

Each German Panzer Division had a significant artillery component:

150-mm howitzers - 12;
105-mm howitzers - 14;
75 mm infantry guns - 24;
88-mm anti-aircraft guns - 9;
37 mm anti-tank guns - 51;
20-mm anti-aircraft guns - 24.

In addition, the divisions were assigned two anti-tank battalions (12 anti-tank 37-mm guns each).

So, both divisions of the 16th Panzer Corps included 655 vehicles, including 50 "fours", 82 "triples", 234 "twos", 252 machine-gun "ones" and 37 command tanks, which also had only machine-gun armament (some historians put the figure at 632 tanks). Of these vehicles, only 366 were cannon, and only medium German vehicles could fight the bulk of enemy tanks, and even then not all of them - the S35, with its sloping 36 mm hull armor and 56 mm turret, was too tough for a German 37 mm cannon only from short distances. At the same time, the 47-mm French gun pierced the armor of medium German tanks at a distance of over 2 km.

Some researchers, describing the battle on the Gembloux plateau, declare the superiority of the 16th tank corps of Göpner over the cavalry corps of Priou in terms of the number and quality of tanks. Outwardly, this was indeed the case (the Germans had 655 tanks against 478 French ones), but 40% of them were machine-gun Pz.I, capable of fighting only infantry. For 366 German cannon tanks, there were 411 French cannon vehicles, and the 20-mm cannons of the German "twos" could only cause damage to the French AMR machine-gun tanks.

The Germans had 132 units of equipment capable of effectively fighting enemy tanks (“troikas” and “fours”), while the French had almost twice as many - 236 vehicles, even if you do not count Renault and Hotchkiss with short-barreled 37-mm guns.

Commander of the 16th Panzer Corps, Lieutenant General Erich Hoepner.
Bundesarchiv, Bild 146–1971–068–10 / CC-BY-SA 3.0

True, the German tank division had noticeably more anti-tank weapons: up to one and a half hundred 37-mm cannons, and most importantly, 18 heavy 88-mm anti-aircraft guns on mechanical traction, capable of destroying any tank in its visibility zone. And this is against 40 anti-tank guns in the entire Prio corps! However, due to the rapid advance of the Germans, most of their artillery lagged behind and did not take part in the first stage of the battle. In fact, on May 12-13, 1940, near the town of Anna, northeast of the city of Gembloux, a real battle of machines unfolded: tanks against tanks.

May 12: head-on

The 3rd Light Mechanized Division was the first to come into contact with the enemy. Its section east of Gembloux was divided into two sectors: in the north there were 44 tanks and 40 armored vehicles; in the south - 196 medium and light tanks, as well as the main part of the artillery. The first line of defense was in the area of Annu and the village of Creen. The 2nd division was supposed to take up positions on the right flank of the 3rd from Creen and to the banks of the Meuse, but by this time it was only advancing to the intended line with its forward detachments - three infantry battalions and 67 AMR light tanks. The natural dividing line between the divisions was the undulating ridge that ran from Anna through Creen and Merdorp. Thus, the direction of the German strike was quite obvious: along the water barriers through the “corridor” formed by the rivers Meen and Grand Gette and leading directly to Gembloux.

Early on the morning of May 12, the "panzer group Eberbach" (the vanguard of the 4th German Panzer Division) reached the town of Anna in the very center of the line, which was to be occupied by the troops of Priou. Here the Germans encountered the reconnaissance patrols of the 3rd Light Mechanized Division. A little north of Anna, French tanks, machine gunners and motorcyclists occupied Creen.

From 9 a.m. to noon, tank and anti-tank artillery of both sides waged a fierce gunfight. The French tried to counterattack with the forward detachments of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, however, light German tanks Pz.II passed to the very center of Anna. 21 light Hotchkiss H35 took part in the new counterattack, but they were not lucky - they came under fire from the German Pz.III and Pz.IV. Thick armor did not help the French: in close street battles at a distance of a hundred meters, it was easily penetrated by 37-mm German guns, while short-barreled French guns were powerless against medium German tanks. As a result, the French lost 11 Hotchkisses, the Germans - 5 cars. The remaining French tanks left the city. After a short battle, the French withdrew to the west - to the Wavre-Gembloux line (part of the pre-planned "Position of Diehl"). It was here that the main battle broke out on May 13–14.

The tanks of the 1st Battalion of the 35th German Tank Regiment tried to pursue the enemy and reached the town of Tin, where they destroyed four Hotchkisses, but were forced to return because they were left without motorized infantry escort. By nightfall the positions were quiet. As a result of the battle, each side considered that the losses of the enemy were much higher than its own.

Battle of Anna May 12–14, 1940.
Ernest R. May. Strange Victory: Hitler's Conquest of France

13 May: difficult German success

The morning of that day was quiet, only closer to 9 o'clock a German reconnaissance aircraft appeared in the sky. After that, as stated in the memoirs of the Priou himself, "the battle began with renewed vigor along the entire front from Tirlemont to Gui". By this time, the main forces of the German 16th tank and French cavalry corps had come here; south of Anna, the stragglers of the German 3rd Panzer Division were unfolding. Both sides mustered all their armored forces for battle. A large-scale tank battle flared up - it was oncoming, as both sides sought to attack.

The actions of Goepner's tank divisions were supported by almost two hundred dive bombers of the 8th Air Corps of the 2nd Air Fleet. French air support was weaker and consisted mainly of fighter cover. On the other hand, Priou had superiority in artillery: he managed to pull up his 75- and 105-mm guns, which opened effective fire on German positions and advancing tanks. As one of the German tankmen, Captain Ernst von Jungenfeld, wrote a year and a half later, the French artillery gave the Germans literally "volcano of fire", the density and efficiency of which resembled the worst times of the First World War. At the same time, the artillery of the German tank divisions lagged behind, the main part of it had not yet managed to catch up to the battlefield.

The French were the first to launch the offensive that day - six S35s from the 2nd Light Mechanized Division, which had not previously participated in the battle, attacked the southern flank of the 4th Panzer Division. Alas, the Germans managed to deploy 88-mm guns here and met the enemy with fire. At 9 o'clock in the morning, after an attack by dive bombers, German tanks attacked the village of Gendrenouille in the center of the French position (in the zone of the 3rd light mechanized division), concentrating a large number of tanks on a narrow five-kilometer front.

French tankers suffered significant losses from the attack of dive bombers, but did not flinch. Moreover, they decided to counterattack the enemy - but not in the forehead, but from the flank. Turning north of Gendrenouille, two squadrons of Somois tanks of the fresh 1st Cavalry Regiment of the 3rd Light Mechanized Division (42 combat vehicles) launched a flank attack on the unfolding battle formations of the 4th Panzer Division.

This blow thwarted the German plans and turned the battle into an oncoming one. According to French data, about 50 German tanks were destroyed. True, only 16 combat-ready vehicles remained from the two French squadrons by the evening - the rest either died or required lengthy repairs. The tank of the commander of one of the platoons left the battle, having used up all the shells and having traces of 29 hits, but did not receive serious damage.

Particularly successful was the squadron of medium tanks S35 of the 2nd light mechanized division on the right flank - in Creen, through which the Germans tried to bypass the French positions from the south. Here, Lieutenant Lotsiska's platoon was able to destroy 4 German tanks, a battery of anti-tank guns and several trucks. It turned out that the German tanks were powerless against medium French tanks - their 37 mm guns could penetrate the armor of the Somois only from a very short distance, while the French 47 mm guns hit German vehicles at any distance.

Pz.III from the 4th Panzer Division overcomes a stone fence blown up by sappers. The photo was taken on May 13, 1940 in the Annu area.
Thomas L. Jentz. Panzertruppen

In the town of Tin, a couple of kilometers west of Anna, the French again managed to stop the German advance. The tank of the commander of the 35th Panzer Regiment, Colonel Eberbach (who later became the commander of the 4th Panzer Division) was also destroyed here. Before the end of the day, S35s destroyed several more German tanks, but by evening the French were forced to leave Tin and Creen under the pressure of the approaching German infantry. The French tanks and infantry withdrew 5 km to the west, to the second line of defense (Merdorp, Gendrenui and Gendren), covered by the Or-Josh river.

Already at 8 pm the Germans tried to attack in the direction of Merdorp, but their artillery preparation was very weak and only warned the enemy. A firefight between tanks at a long distance (about a kilometer) had no effect, although the Germans noted hits from the short-barreled 75-mm guns of their Pz.IVs. German tanks passed north of Merdorp, the French first met them with tank and anti-tank guns, and then counterattacked in the flank with the Somua squadron. The report of the 35th German Panzer Regiment stated:

“... 11 enemy tanks came out of Merdorp and attacked the motorized infantry. The 1st battalion immediately turned around and opened fire on enemy tanks from a distance of 400 to 600 meters. Eight enemy tanks remained motionless, three more managed to escape.

On the contrary, French sources write about the success of this attack and that the French medium tanks turned out to be completely invulnerable to German vehicles: they left the battle having from two to four dozen direct hits from 20- and 37-mm shells, but without breaking through the armor.

However, the Germans learned quickly. Immediately after the battle, an instruction appeared that forbade light German Pz.IIs from engaging in battle with enemy medium tanks. S35s were to be destroyed primarily by 88mm anti-aircraft guns and 105mm direct-fire howitzers, as well as medium tanks and anti-tank guns.

Late in the evening the Germans went on the offensive again. On the southern flank of the 3rd Light Mechanized Division, the 2nd Cuirassier Regiment, already battered the day before, was forced to defend against units of the 3rd Panzer Division with its last forces - ten surviving Somuas and the same number of Hotchkisses. As a result, by midnight, the 3rd division had to retreat another 2-3 km, taking up defensive positions at the Josh-Ramiyi line. The 2nd Light Mechanized Division retreated much further, on the night of May 13-14, moving south from Pervais behind the Belgian anti-tank ditch prepared for the Diehl line. Only here the Germans suspended their advance in anticipation of the approach of the rear with ammunition and fuel. There was still 15 km to Gembloux from here.

To be continued

Literature:

D. M. Projector. War in Europe. 1939–1941 M.: Military Publishing, 1963
Ernest R. May. Strange Victory: Hitler's Conquest of France. New York, Hill & Wang, 2000
Thomas L. Jentz. Panzertruppen. The Complete Guide to the Creation & Combat Employment of Germany's Tank Force. 1933–1942 Schiffer Military History, Atglen PA, 1996
Jonathan F. Keiler. The 1940 Battle of Gembloux (http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/the-1940-battle-of-gembloux/)

Since the first armored vehicles began their march across the twisted battlefields during the First World War, tanks have been an integral part of the land war. Many tank battles have taken place over the years, and some of them have been of great importance for history. Here are 10 battles you need to know about.

Battles in chronological order.

1. Battle of Cambrai (1917)

Taking place at the end of 1917, this battle on the Western Front was the first major tank battle in military history and it was there that for the first time combined arms forces were seriously involved on a large scale, which was a real turning point in military history. As historian Hugh Strachan notes, "the biggest intellectual shift in the war between 1914 and 1918 was that combined arms combat was centered around the capabilities of the guns rather than the strength of the infantry." And by "combined arms," Strachan means the coordinated use of various types of artillery, infantry, aviation, and, of course, tanks.

On November 20, 1917, the British attacked Cambrai with 476 tanks, 378 of which were battle tanks. The frightened Germans were taken by surprise, as the offensive instantly advanced several kilometers inland along the entire front. It was an unprecedented breakthrough in the defense of the enemy. The Germans eventually redeemed themselves by launching a counterattack, but this tank offensive demonstrated the incredible potential of mobile, armored warfare, a technique that only came into active use a year later, during the final push against Germany.

2. Battle on the Khalkhin Gol River (1939)

This is the first major tank battle during World War II, where the Soviet Red Army clashed with the Japanese Imperial Army at its border. During the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945, Japan claimed that Khalkhin Gol was the border between Mongolia and Manchukuo (the Japanese name for occupied Manchuria), while the USSR insisted on the border lying to the east near Nomon Khan (namely hence this conflict is sometimes referred to as the Nomon Khan Incident). Hostilities began in May 1939, when Soviet troops occupied the disputed territory.

After the initial success of the Japanese, the USSR gathered an army of 58,000 people, almost 500 tanks and about 250 aircraft. On the morning of August 20, General Georgy Zhukov launched a surprise attack after feigning preparation for a defensive position. During this harsh day, the heat became unbearable, reaching 40 degrees Celsius, causing machine guns and cannons to melt. The Soviet T-26 tanks (predecessors of the T-34) were superior to the obsolete Japanese tanks, whose guns lacked armor-piercing capability. But the Japanese fought desperately, for example, there was a very dramatic moment when Lieutenant Sadakayi attacked the tank with his samurai sword until he was killed.

The subsequent Russian advance made it possible to completely destroy the forces of General Komatsubara. Japan lost 61,000 men, in contrast to the Red Army, where 7,974 were killed and 15,251 wounded. This battle was the beginning of Zhukov's glorious military career, and also demonstrated the importance of deception, technical and numerical superiority in tank warfare.

3. Battle of Arras (1940)

This battle should not be confused with the Battle of Arras in 1917, this battle was during the Second World War, where the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) fought against the German Blitzkrieg, and gradually the fighting moved along the coast of France.

On May 20, 1940, Viscount Gort, commander of the BEF, launched a counterattack against the Germans, codenamed "Frankforce". It was attended by two infantry battalions of 2,000 people - and a total of 74 tanks. The BBC describes what happened next:

“The infantry battalions were divided into two columns for the attack, which took place on May 21st. The right column initially advanced successfully, taking a number of German soldiers prisoner, but they soon ran into German infantry and the SS, supported by the air force, and suffered heavy casualties.

The left column also advanced successfully until a collision with the infantry unit of the 7th Panzer Division of General Erwin Rommel.
French cover that night allowed the British forces to withdraw to their original positions. Operation Frankforce was over, and the next day the Germans regrouped and continued their offensive.

During the Frankforce, about 400 Germans were taken prisoner, both sides suffered approximately the same losses, and a number of tanks were also destroyed. The operation outdid itself - the attack was so brutal that the 7th Panzer Division believed it had been attacked by five infantry divisions.

Interestingly, some historians believe that this ferocious counter-attack convinced the German generals to call for a breather on May 24, a short break in Blitzkrieg, which gave the BEF some extra time to evacuate its troops during the "Miracle at Dunkirk".

4. Battle for Brody (1941)

Until the Battle of Kursk in 1943, it was the largest tank battle of World War II and the greatest in history up to that point. It happened in the early days of Operation Barbarossa, when German troops advanced rapidly (and relatively easily) along the Eastern Front. But in the triangle formed by the cities of Dubno, Lutsk and Brody, a clash arose in which 800 German tanks opposed 3500 Russian tanks.

The battle lasted four exhausting days, and ended on June 30, 1941 with a resounding victory for Germany and a heavy retreat for the Red Army. It was during the battle for Brody that the Germans first seriously clashed with the Russian T-34 tanks, which were practically immune to German weapons. But thanks to a series of Luftwaffe air attacks (which knocked out 201 Soviet tanks) and tactical maneuvering, the Germans won. Moreover, it is believed that 50% of Soviet armor losses (~2600 tanks) were due to lack of logistics, lack of ammunition, and technical problems. In total, the Red Army lost 800 tanks in that battle, and this is a large figure compared to 200 tanks from the Germans.

5. Second Battle of El Alamein (1942)

This battle marked a turning point in the North African campaign and was the only major armored battle to be won by the British Armed Forces without direct American involvement. But the American presence was certainly felt in the form of 300 Sherman tanks (the British had a total of 547 tanks) rushed to Egypt from the US.

In the battle, which began on October 23 and ended in November 1942, there was a confrontation between the pedantic and patient General Bernard Montgomery and Erwin Rommel, the cunning Desert Fox. Unfortunately for the Germans, however, Rommel was very ill, and was forced to leave for a German hospital before the battle could begin to unfold. In addition, his temporary second-in-command, General Georg von Stumme, died of a heart attack during the battle. The Germans also suffered from supply problems, especially fuel shortages. Which eventually led to disaster.

Montgomery's restructured 8th Army launched a double attack. The first phase, Operation Lightfoot, consisted of a heavy artillery bombardment followed by an infantry attack. During the second phase, the infantry cleared the way for the panzer divisions. Rommel, who returned to duty, was in despair, he realized that everything was lost, and telegraphed Hitler about this. Both the British and German armies lost about 500 tanks, but the Allied troops were unable to take the lead after the victory, which gave the Germans enough time to retreat.

But the victory was clear, which prompted Winston Churchill to declare: "This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end, but it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

6. Battle of Kursk (1943)

After the defeat at Stalingrad, and the planned counteroffensive of the Red Army on all fronts, the Germans decided to make a bold, if not reckless, offensive near Kursk, in the hope of regaining their positions. As a result, the Battle of Kursk is today considered the largest and longest battle involving heavy armored vehicles in the war, and one of the largest single armored engagements.

Although no one can say the exact numbers, Soviet tanks initially outnumbered German tanks by two times. According to some estimates, initially about 3,000 Soviet tanks and 2,000 German tanks clashed on the Kursk Bulge. In the event of a negative development of events, the Red Army was ready to throw another 5,000 tanks into battle. And although the Germans caught up with the Red Army in terms of the number of tanks, this could not ensure their victory.

One German tank commander managed to destroy 22 Soviet tanks within an hour, but besides the tanks there were Russian soldiers who approached enemy tanks with "suicidal courage", getting close enough to throw a mine under the tracks. A German tanker later wrote:

"Soviet soldiers were around us, above us and between us. They pulled us out of the tanks, knocked us out. It was scary."

All German superiority in communications, maneuverability, and artillery was lost in chaos, noise, and smoke.

From the memoirs of tankers:
"The atmosphere was suffocating. I was out of breath, and sweat was running down my face in streams."
"We expected every second to be killed."
"Tanks rammed each other"
"The metal was on fire."

The entire area on the battlefield was filled with burned-out armored vehicles, exuding pillars of black, oily smoke.

It is important to note that at that time there was not only a tank battle, but also an air battle. While the battle was unfolding below, the planes in the sky tried to knock out the tanks.

Eight days later, the attack was stopped. Although the Red Army won, it lost five armored vehicles for every German tank. In terms of actual numbers, the Germans lost about 760 tanks and the USSR about 3,800 (a total of 6,000 tanks and assault guns were destroyed or seriously damaged). In terms of casualties, the Germans lost 54,182 people, ours - 177,847. Despite such a gap, the Red Army is considered the winner of the battle, and, as historians note, "Hitler's long-awaited dream of the oil fields of the Caucasus was destroyed forever."

7. Battle of Arrakour (1944)

Fought during the Lorraine Campaign led by General George Patton's 3rd Army from September to October 1944, the lesser known Battle of Arracour was the largest tank battle for the US Army up to that point. Although the Battle of the Bulge would later turn out to be larger, this battle took place over a much wider geographic area.

The battle is significant in that the entire German tank force was hit by American troops, mostly equipped with 75 mm guns. tank "Sherman". Through careful coordination of tanks, artillery, infantry, and air force, the German forces were defeated.

As a result, American troops successfully defeated two tank brigades and parts of two tank divisions. Of the 262 German tanks, over 86 were destroyed and 114 seriously damaged. The Americans, by contrast, lost only 25 tanks.

The Battle of Arracour prevented a German counterattack and the Wehrmacht was unable to recover. Moreover, this area became the launching pad from which Patton's army would launch its winter offensive.

8. Battle of Chavinda (1965)

The Battle of Chavinda became one of the largest tank battles after World War II. It occurred during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965, where about 132 Pakistani tanks (as well as 150 reinforcements) collided against 225 Indian armored vehicles. The Indians had Centurion tanks while the Pakistanis had Pattons; both sides also used Sherman tanks.

The battle, which lasted from 6 to 22 September, took place on the Ravi-Chinab sector connecting Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian mainland. The Indian Army hoped to cut off Pakistan from the supply line by cutting them off from the Sialkot district of the Lahore region. Events reached their peak on 8 September when the Indian forces advanced towards Chavinda. The Pakistani Air Force joined in the fight and then a fierce tank battle ensued. A major tank battle took place on 11 September in the Fillora region. After several bursts of activity and a lull, the battle finally ended on 21 September when the Indian forces finally withdrew. The Pakistanis lost 40 tanks while the Indians lost over 120.

9. Battle in the Valley of Tears (1973)

During the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War, Israeli forces fought a coalition that included Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq. The goal of the coalition was to push out the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai. At one key point in the Golan Heights, the Israeli brigade was left with 7 tanks out of 150 - and in the remaining tanks, on average, no more than 4 shells remained. But just as the Syrians were about to make another attack, the brigade was rescued by randomly assembled reinforcements, consisting of 13 of the least damaged tanks driven by wounded soldiers who had been discharged from the hospital.

As for the Doomsday War itself, the 19-day battle was the largest tank battle since World War II. In fact, it was one of the largest tank battles, involving 1,700 Israeli tanks (of which 63% were destroyed) and approximately 3,430 coalition tanks (of which approximately 2,250 to 2,300 were destroyed). In the end, Israel won; The ceasefire agreement brokered by the United Nations entered into force on 25 October.

10. Battle of Easting 73 (1991)

July, 12 -memorable date of the military history of the Fatherland. On this day in 1943, the largest tank battle in World War II between the Soviet and German armies took place near Prokhorovka.

The direct command of tank formations during the battle was carried out by Lieutenant General Pavel Rotmistrov from the Soviet side and SS Gruppenführer Paul Hausser from the German side. None of the parties managed to achieve the goals set for July 12: the Germans failed to capture Prokhorovka, break through the defenses of the Soviet troops and enter the operational space, and the Soviet troops failed to surround the enemy grouping.

“Of course, we won near Prokhorovka, not allowing the enemy to break into the operational space, forced him to abandon his far-reaching plans and forced him to retreat to his original position. Our troops withstood the four-day fierce battle, and the enemy lost his offensive capabilities. But the Voronezh Front also exhausted its forces, which did not allow it to immediately go on the counteroffensive. A stalemate has developed, figuratively speaking, when the command of both sides is still wanted, but the troops can no longer!”

PROGRESS OF THE BATTLE

If in the zone of the Soviet Central Front, after the start of their offensive on July 5, 1943, the Germans were not able to penetrate deeply into the defense of our troops, then a critical situation developed on the southern face of the Kursk salient. Here, on the first day, the enemy brought into battle up to 700 tanks and assault guns, supported by aircraft. Having met a rebuff in the Oboyan direction, the enemy shifted his main efforts to the Prokhorov direction, trying to capture Kursk with a blow from the southeast. The Soviet command decided to launch a counterattack on the enemy grouping that had penetrated. The Voronezh Front was reinforced by the Headquarters reserves (5th Guards Tank and 45th Guards Armies and two tank corps). On July 12, the largest tank battle of World War II took place in the Prokhorovka area, in which up to 1,200 tanks and self-propelled guns participated on both sides. Soviet tank units strove to engage in close combat ("armor to armor"), since the distance of destruction of the 76 mm T-34 guns was no more than 800 m, and the rest of the tanks had even less, while the 88 mm guns of the "Tigers" and "Ferdinands" hit our armored vehicles from a distance of 2000 m. When approaching, our tankers suffered heavy losses.

Both sides suffered huge losses near Prokhorovka. In this battle, Soviet troops lost 500 tanks out of 800 (60%). The Germans lost 300 tanks out of 400 (75%). For them it was a disaster. Now the most powerful strike force of the Germans was drained of blood. General G. Guderian, at that time the inspector general of the tank forces of the Wehrmacht, wrote: “The armored forces, replenished with such great difficulty, were out of order for a long time due to heavy losses in people and equipment ... and already more in the East there were no quiet days at the front. On this day there was a turning point in the development of the defensive battle on the southern face of the Kursk salient. The main enemy forces went on the defensive. On July 13-15, German troops continued their attacks only against units of the 5th Guards Tank and 69th Armies south of Prokhorovka. The maximum advance of German troops on the southern face reached 35 km. On July 16, they began to withdraw to their original positions.

ROTMISTROV: AMAZING COURAGE

I would like to emphasize that in all sectors of the grandiose battle that unfolded on July 12, the soldiers of the 5th Guards Tank Army showed amazing courage, unshakable stamina, high combat skills and mass heroism, up to self-sacrifice.

A large group of fascist "tigers" attacked the 2nd battalion of the 181st brigade of the 18th tank corps. The battalion commander, Captain P. A. Skripkin, boldly accepted the blow of the enemy. He personally knocked out two enemy vehicles one after another. Having caught the third tank in the crosshairs of the sight, the officer pulled the trigger ... But at the same moment his combat vehicle shook violently, the turret filled with smoke, the tank caught fire. The driver foreman A. Nikolaev and the radio operator A. Zyryanov, saving a seriously wounded battalion commander, pulled him out of the tank and then saw that a "tiger" was moving right at them. Zyryanov hid the captain in a shell crater, while Nikolaev and the charging Chernov jumped into their flaming tank and went to ram, crashing into a steel fascist hulk on the move. They died while fulfilling their duty to the end.

The tankers of the 29th Panzer Corps fought bravely. The battalion of the 25th brigade, led by the communist major G.A. Myasnikov, destroyed 3 "tigers", 8 medium tanks, 6 self-propelled guns, 15 anti-tank guns and more than 300 fascist machine gunners.

An example for the soldiers was the decisive actions of the battalion commander, company commanders, senior lieutenants A. E. Palchikov and N. A. Mishchenko. In a heavy battle for the village of Storozhevoye, the car in which A.E. Palchikov was located was hit - a caterpillar was torn off by a shell burst. The crew members jumped out of the car, trying to repair the damage, but they were immediately fired upon from the bushes by enemy submachine gunners. The soldiers took up defense and repulsed several attacks of the Nazis. In this unequal battle, Aleksey Egorovich Palchikov died a hero's death, his comrades were seriously injured. Only the driver, candidate member of the CPSU (b), foreman I. E. Safronov, although he was also wounded, could still fire. Hiding under a tank, overcoming pain, he fought off the onslaught of the Nazis until help arrived.

REPORT OF THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE STAFF OF THE VGK MARSHAL A. VASILEVSKY TO THE SUPREME COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF ON THE FIGHTING IN THE PROKHOROVKA AREA, July 14, 1943

According to your personal instructions, since the evening of July 9, 1943, I have been continuously in the troops of Rotmistrov and Zhadov in the Prokhorovka and southern directions. Until today, inclusive, the enemy continues mass tank attacks and counterattacks against our advancing tank units on the front of Zhadov and Rotmistrov ... Based on observations of the ongoing battles and according to the testimony of prisoners, I conclude that the enemy, despite huge losses, as in human forces , and especially in tanks and aircraft, still does not give up the idea of breaking through to Oboyan and further to Kursk, achieving this at any cost. Yesterday I myself personally observed a tank battle of our 18th and 29th corps with more than two hundred enemy tanks in a counterattack southwest of Prokhorovka. At the same time, hundreds of guns and all the RSs we have took part in the battle. As a result, the entire battlefield was littered with burning German and our tanks for an hour.

Over the course of two days of fighting, Rotmistrov's 29th Tank Corps lost 60% of its tanks irrevocably and temporarily out of order, and up to 30% of its tanks in the 18th Corps. Losses in the 5th Guards. mechanized corps are insignificant. The next day, the threat of a breakthrough of enemy tanks from the south to the area of Shakhovo, Avdeevka, Aleksandrovka continues to be real. During the night I take all measures to bring the entire 5th Guards here. a mechanized corps, the 32nd motorized brigade and four iptap regiments... The possibility of an oncoming tank battle is not ruled out here and tomorrow. In total, at least eleven tank divisions continue to operate against the Voronezh Front, systematically replenished with tanks. The prisoners interviewed today showed that the 19th Panzer Division today has about 70 tanks in service, the Reich division - up to 100 tanks, although the latter has already been replenished twice since July 5, 1943. The report was delayed due to the late arrival from the front.

The Great Patriotic War. Military-historical essays. Book 2. Fracture. M., 1998.

THE COLLAPSE OF THE CITADEL

On July 12, 1943, a new stage of the Battle of Kursk began. On this day, part of the forces of the Soviet Western Front and the Bryansk Fronts went on the offensive, and on July 15 the troops of the right wing of the Central Front attacked the enemy. On August 5, the troops of the Bryansk Front liberated Orel. On the same day, the troops of the Steppe Front liberated Belgorod. On the evening of August 5, in Moscow, in honor of the troops who liberated these cities, an artillery salute was fired for the first time. During fierce battles, the troops of the Steppe Front, with the assistance of the Voronezh and Southwestern Fronts, liberated Kharkov on August 23.

The Battle of Kursk was cruel and merciless. The victory in it went to the Soviet troops at a great cost. In this battle, they lost 863303 people, including 254470 irrevocably. Losses in equipment amounted to: tanks and self-propelled guns 6064, guns and mortars 5244, combat aircraft 1626. As for the losses of the Wehrmacht, information about them is fragmentary and incomplete. In Soviet works, calculated data were presented, according to which, during the Battle of Kursk, German troops lost 500 thousand people, 1.5 thousand tanks, 3 thousand guns and mortars. Regarding losses in aircraft, there is evidence that only during the defensive stage of the Battle of Kursk, the German side irrevocably lost about 400 combat vehicles, while the Soviet side lost about 1000. However, many experienced German aces, who had been fighting for more than one year in the East front, among them 9 holders of the "Knight's Crosses".

It is undeniable that the collapse of the German operation "Citadel" had far-reaching consequences, had a decisive influence on the entire subsequent course of the war. The armed forces of Germany after Kursk were forced to switch to strategic defense not only on the Soviet-German front, but also in all theaters of military operations of the Second World War. Their attempt to regain the strategic initiative lost during the Battle of Stalingrad suffered a crushing failure.

OREL AFTER THE LIBERATION FROM THE GERMAN OCCUPATION

(from A. Werth's book "Russia in the War"), August 1943

(...) The liberation of the ancient Russian city of Orel and the complete elimination of the Oryol wedge, which had threatened Moscow for two years, was a direct result of the defeat of the Nazi troops near Kursk.

In the second week of August, I was able to travel by car from Moscow to Tula, and then to Orel ...

In these thickets, through which the dusty road from Tula now ran, at every step, death lies in wait for a person. "Minen" (in German), "mines" (in Russian) - I read on old and new boards stuck in the ground. In the distance, on a hill, under a blue summer sky, one could see the ruins of churches, the remains of houses and lonely chimneys. These weeds, stretching for miles, were no man's land for almost two years. The ruins on the hill were the ruins of Mtsensk. Two old women and four cats are all living creatures that Soviet soldiers found there when the Germans withdrew on July 20. Before leaving, the fascists blew up or burned everything—churches and buildings, peasant huts and everything else. In the middle of the last century, “Lady Macbeth” by Leskov and Shostakovich lived in this city ... The “desert zone” created by the Germans now stretches from Rzhev and Vyazma to Orel.

How did Orel live during almost two years of German occupation?

Of the 114 thousand people in the city, only 30 thousand now remain. The invaders killed many residents. Many were hanged in the city square - on the same one where the crew of the Soviet tank, which was the first to break into Orel, is now buried, as well as General Gurtiev, a famous participant in the Battle of Stalingrad, who was killed on the morning when Soviet troops took the city in battle. It was said that the Germans killed 12 thousand people and sent twice as many to Germany. Many thousands of Orlovites went to the partisans Orlovsky and Bryansk forests, because here (especially in the Bryansk region) there was an area of active partisan operations (...)

Werth A. Russia in the war 1941-1945. M., 1967.

*Rotmistrov P.A. (1901-1982), Ch. Marshal of the armored forces (1962). During the war, from February 1943 - commander of the 5th Guards. tank army. From Aug. 1944 - Commander of the armored and mechanized troops of the Red Army.

**Zhadov A.S. (1901-1977). General of the Army (1955). From October 1942 to May 1945, commander of the 66th (from April 1943 - 5th Guards) Army.