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Russian Defense Ministry publishes documents on the largest tank battles
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.You can see the archive collection here (in Russian). [REGNUM] New multimedia section "Heroes of tank battles. To the 75th anniversary of the Tankman's Day" was opened on its website by the Ministry of Defense of Russia. It published declassified documents about Soviet heroes-tankers, the battle at Prokhorovka and the victory of the Red Army in the Battle of Kursk. The section contains award lists, war logs, reports, maps, albums with detailed characteristics of armored vehicles. In July 1943, the Hitlerite command concentrated eleven tank and one motorized divisions against the Voronezh Front. The fascist invaders planned to carry out their blow on July 5 in the region of the Kursk salient. In an operation called Citadel, they hoped to encircle and defeat Soviet troops, and then strike at the rear of the Southwestern Front and defeat it. However, these plans were not destined to come true. The published documents say that for several days the Red Army held back the powerful onslaught of the enemy, and on July 12 launched a counteroffensive. "In the report of the Voronezh Front on the day when the largest oncoming tank battle took place in the Prokhorovka area, it was reported about stubborn battles with the advancing forces of enemy tank units, infantry, artillery and aviation. We had to fight off several enemy attacks a day with the support of a large number of tanks," the section reads. The result of the counter-offensive in the Battle of Kursk was the liberation of Orel and Belgorod on August 5, as well as the defeat of the enemy grouping in the Oryol and Belgorod-Kharkov directions. Over the entire period of the fighting during the Battle of Kursk, the enemy lost about 500,000 people, 1,500 tanks, over 3,700 aircraft, 3,000 guns. Tanker's Day was established 75 years ago by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 1, 1946 to commemorate the merits of armored and mechanized troops in defeating the Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War, as well as the merits of tank builders in equipping the Red Army with armored vehicles. It is celebrated on the second Sunday of September, in 2021 - September 12. Posted by: badanov 2021-09-11 |
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