(orchestral fanfare music)
(weapons firing)
(explosions booming)
- [Narrator] Few people
other than students
of military history would
know of the Battle of Kursk,
and yet undoubtedly this
battle of epic proportions
between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union
deserves to be considered
as the most important battle
of the Second World War, if
not of all wars in history.
(weapons firing)
(flames crackling)
The sheer numbers of men, tanks, guns,
and aircraft involved were
on a scale without precedent.
Losses on both sides, both in terms of men
and machinery, were colossal.
More than 6,000 tanks
and over two million men
clashed there and the
Russians, for the first time,
put a halt to the German blitzkrieg.
(explosions booming)
The build-up for the attack on Kursk
had taken three months.
The battle lasted only two weeks.
By the end, Germany had
lost the initiative,
never to regain it.
(missiles firing)
Code named Citadel, the Battle of Kursk
was the largest clash in
the history of the world,
and possibly the most decisive
battle of World War II.
Vast armies on both sides were engaged.
Never before had there been
such a massive force assembled
of men and armor.
(tank rumbling)
And over the battlefields,
in the war in the skies,
one of history's most costly single days
of aerial combat ever recorded took place.
(plane engines roaring)
The battle of these titan forces unleashed
armored and aerial
clashes of unprecedented
scale and ferocity, as both the Russian
and German forces confronted each other
in this mammoth fight.
This was the last great German offensive
on the Eastern Front, and, in effect,
Hitler's last great gamble before the war
in the east was irrevocably lost.
Its aim was to claw back
the strategic initiative
from the Russians after the surrender
of the 6th Army at Stalingrad,
ultimately turning the course of the war
in favor of Germany.
Coupled with the British
victory at El Alamein
in North Africa, and the
Anglo-American landings
in French Northwest
Africa, which coincided
with the Stalingrad
disaster, the tide seemed
to have turned fully against
Germany and her allies.
The Wehrmacht had lost a great deal
of its aura of invincibility as a result
of the recent defeats.
Hitler desperately needed
a victory to win back
the respect and morale
of the German nation.
The location chosen by Hitler
for this titanic battle
was the Kursk salient in the
heartland of the Ukraine.
No effort was to be spared.
This was to be an all-out
attack on the Russian defenses.
(explosions booming)
The salient was 255 kilometers across,
jutting like a fist into
the Germany front line.
It extended from the
north of Kharkov to Orel,
near to the industrial city of Kursk.
This is the story of that battle.
Following the massive
defeat at Stalingrad,
within four hours of his
defiant message to Hitler,
Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus,
on the 31st of January, 1943,
surrendered his 6th Army to the Russians.
(men chattering)
Hitler had expected Paulus
to take either the option
of suicide, or a fight to
the death to the last man,
rather than capitulate.
Paulus refused.
No German field marshal
had ever surrendered,
and Paulus was now a bitter
and disillusioned man.
(explosions booming)
During the early months of 1943,
despite the many setbacks and disasters,
the German army didn't
lose its determination.
The soldiers continued
to fight on regardless.
(gun firing rapidly)
In fact, the German General von Manstein
and his army group had
halted the Russian advance
after Stalingrad, and had driven it back
at least part of the way.
(weapons firing)
By the end of March, the
situation had once again
stabilized, Kharkov and
Stalino falling back
into German hands.
(ocean roaring)
Unlike many of his
generals, Hitler, however,
believed that limited attacks would serve
as a morale boosting exercise
to the German people.
(water sloshing)
By the April of 1943 with the
arrival of the spring thaw,
the fighting began to die down
and the German army in the Eastern Front
now faced a bitter
choice between inaction,
which would surrender the
initiative to the Soviets,
or for further offensive operations,
with its strength badly weakened
by the Russian offensives
of the previous winter.
Kursk however, remained
in the Soviet grasp.
And around the city,
the great salient bulged
into the German line.
In the end, politics decided the issue.
Germany could not be seen to falter.
It must remain on the attack.
(men chattering)
Hitler could not bear the
humiliation of defeat.
In an operation codenamed Citadel,
Hitler and his generals chose
to attack the deep salient
in the region of Kursk that had been left
by Field Marshal Erik Von Manstein's
mobile defense of the previous winter.
Hitler promised his generals
the most up to date equipment
and vast numbers of men for Citadel.
And during the months
of April, May, and June,
the endless supply of troops and equipment
poured in towards the Kursk salient.
As the supply trains rumbled
across the Russian countryside,
factories in Germany were hard at work
producing new weapons.
Production was stepped up.
Double the number of tanks were coming
off the assembly line.
(machinery humming)
There were new models,
high power, heavier guns,
and more thickly armored,
the Panther Mark V and Tiger Mark IV,
the best that Germany could produce.
In the event, production
difficulties held up
deliveries of the new Panther, but still,
reinforcements of the
other types poured in.
Uncharacteristically,
Hitler had misgivings
about Citadel, admitting
that his stomach turned over
at the mere thought of it.
Indeed, the shortage of
armor made him postpone
the operation three times
in April, May, and June,
giving the Russians vital opportunity
to prepare their defenses.
By the end of June, the
two German army groups
in the north and south
had almost a million men
available for the operation.
In support, 10,000 artillery guns,
2,700 armored fighting vehicles,
and two Luftwaffe air fleets
with more than 1,800
operational combat aircraft.
The Germans planned to destroy the salient
with an overwhelming blitzkrieg
style pincer operation.
The 9th Army, under General Walter Model,
would attack from the north,
while General Hermann Hoth's
4th Panzer Army, would
strike the southern side
of the salient.
The two armies would meet east of Kursk,
cutting off all of Russian
forces to the west of them.
(engine rumbling)
Martin Lange was the driver of one
of those last tanks to arrive.
(speaking in foreign language)
I was trained in the Saarland
Tank Unit 15, and in 1942
I was lucky to be trained,
from January to March,
at the School for Motors at Wunsdorf.
(speaking in foreign language)
After my return to Saarland to my unit,
I got my marching orders.
Three or four days later we arrived,
the unit was supposed to be there.
(speaking in foreign language)
When we arrived, they were
already in Grafenwohr,
then we had to travel after them.
The first Panthers came
to us as equipment.
We knew that the vehicle
still had shortcomings.
(speaking in foreign language)
It was re-equipped in
a further two months,
the engines were changed
and the gears were changed
to an exhaust device to
press the powdered gasses
out of the pipe.
The pulverator couldn't manage that.
(speaking in foreign language)
Then came the training.
Each driver had to pass
the driving school,
and when that was finished,
that was in the last days
of June, then head over heels,
there was transportation to Russia.
(speaking in foreign language)
My company was leaving on the
4th of July in the evening.
Towards the afternoon we
were unloaded near the front.
In the evening we had
to line up in a wood.
The whole regiment had to line up
and we were told what to
expect and what we had to do.
(speaking in foreign language)
Each individual company got
its position for the attack.
The companies, the columns,
drove to their indicated
positions according to the maps.
That was quite close, perhaps
two and a half kilometers.
(speaking in foreign language)
I have to add, you're extremely
nervous before an attack.
You smoke, you constantly
need to go to the toilet,
not actually, but you feel like it.
But when the battle
starts, and it's the same
when it's all over, everything
falls by the wayside.
You have to do your duty
and you have to do this
and you have to do that.
(speaking in foreign language)
Hitler's soldiers were
not under any illusions.
One who survived the ordeal,
SS Lance Corporal Gunther Bottchers
of the Adolf Hitler division recorded
his thoughts in his diary.
"I am in a flame throwing team
"and we're to lead the company attack.
"This is a real suicide mission.
"We have to get within
30 meters of the Russians
"before we open fire.
"It's time to write out the
last will and testament."
(airplane rumbling)
The German plans,
meanwhile, were no secret
to Stavka, the Soviet
supreme high command.
Hitler's supreme command,
a group of senior Wehrmacht officers,
had for some time been
feeding military secrets
to Rudolf Roessler, a
member of the Lucy spy ring
operating from Switzerland, who in turn
passed them on through his
contacts to the Russians.
(telegraph machine clicking)
The Russians had been watching
the German movements of troops.
They counted over
900,000 men, 2,700 tanks,
10,000 guns, 2,000 aircraft
with more following behind.
In the Kremlin, Stavka,
the Soviet high command,
considered the options.
The choice was to either strike first
or let the Germans
attack and then respond.
Stalin decided to let the Germans
throw themselves on the Russian guns.
To meet the attack, Zhukov
proposed an aggressive defense.
He would force the Germans
to make the first move
against his carefully prepared positions.
Then, once they were worn down,
Soviet counteroffensives would follow.
Within three months, half
a million freight cars
rolled into Kursk.
Aware that the war on the Eastern Front
had reached a critical
stage and that the battle
in the Kursk salient must be won,
Zhukov committed 10 field armies,
40% of the Red Army's entire infantry
and armored divisions, to defend it.
They also committed two tank
armies and the Red Air Force.
Together the two fronts had
more than 1.3 million men,
20,000 field guns, and 3,500 tanks.
They were supported by
more than 2,650 aircraft.
In reserve was a newly formed step front
under General Ivan Konev
with over 500,000 men,
one more tank army,
and even more aircraft.
The countryside over which
the battle would be fought
was likely wooded and rolling,
crossed by several
rivers and deep ravines,
most of which ran east to west,
thus forming natural obstacles
against the planned German assaults.
Central Front Army Group
under General Konstantin Rokossovsky
would defend its northern side,
while Voronezh Front under
General Nikolai Vatutin
would defend the south.
Marshal Zhukov decided
that the natural defenses
were not enough.
Starting in April the Russians
built successive belts
of trenches protected by
barbed wire and minefields.
Von Manstein, commander of
the German Army Group South
had not been enthusiastic
about Hitler's plan.
He suspected that the Soviet strength
might be too great to overcome.
(men chattering)
Himmler arrived to inspect
the pride of the SS,
three divisions of them.
(men chattering)
The Leibstandarte.
Das Reich, the Fuhrer's own regiment.
And the SS Panzer Division,
Totenkopf, the Death's Head.
On the northern salient
stood the 4th Panzer Army,
the most powerful force ever
put under a single command
in the history of the German Army,
waiting for the moment,
waiting for orders.
More than half a million mines were laid
in the first trench system alone.
More artillery was masked
in the open country
between the trench systems.
The work was completed by late June.
On July the 2nd, Lucy warned Stavka
that the German attack was imminent.
In the early hours of July the 5th,
Stavka passed the message onto
the commanders in the field
and Zhukov let rip his long prepared
preemptive artillery barrage.
The pre-dawn skies of southwestern Russia
erupted in a fury of flame and thunder.
(explosions booming)
It was 2:20 in the morning
on Monday July the 5th, 1943
when the massed German armies
were taken by surprise.
(explosions booming)
For it was not a German barrage that first
thundered through the
rain of the summer night.
The Red Army, warned of
the imminent German attack,
had let loose their artillery first.
The sheet of light burned from one side
of the sky to the other.
Flashes from heavy artillery
sighted well behind the Russian frontline
created a distant flickering white light.
(mumbles) produced a yellowish flare,
while closest at hand,
multi-barreled Katyusha launchers
fired rockets, their flight marked
by a trail of red flame.
Tens of thousands of rockets
screaming nerve tearingly
as they flew, crashed down hour after hour
upon the German soldiers.
The barrage reached its crescendo at dawn.
The Germans, caught unawares,
did not take long to respond.
In the early hours they returned fire
with over a thousand of their guns.
(weapons firing)
(explosions booming)
In the north, rain soaked
soldiers of Model's 9th Army
began to climb out of
the shell battered holes
in which they'd crouched all night.
Citadel had opened.
Behind the infantry came tanks,
while covering them overhead
screamed Stuka dive bombers.
German artillery, having recovered
from the Soviet bombardment,
let loose its own massive barrage,
which consumed in a few hours more shells
than the Germans had
used in both the Polish
and French blitzkrieg
campaigns put together.
The German foot soldiers fought their way
across the minefields
through the barbed wire
to the first Russian trench lines.
Using hand grenades and machine pistols,
they advanced on each trench and dugout.
Already it was proving
an exceptionally bloody
and ferocious struggle.
(weapons firing)
(missile whistles)
(tanks rumbling)
(missiles whistling)
(artillery booming)
(explosions booming)
(weapons firing)
At two in the afternoon of July the 5th
the Germans launched their
first wave, some 2,000 tanks.
Their fire power and
mobility were even greater
than the earlier
blitzkriegs across Europe.
But greater still was the strength
of the Russians laying in wait.
It was carnage not seen since the battles
of the First World War.
Author Horst Scheibert
was a company commander
in the Reserve Tank Army at the time
of the Battle of Kursk.
(speaking in foreign language)
Basically we fought
in exactly the same
way in 1939 as in 1943,
like in the campaign in Poland.
That's the old education we'd
been given in peace time.
(speaking in foreign language)
The platoon consisted of
five tanks in two groups
and the leader vehicle.
(speaking in foreign language)
And these two groups consisted each
of two tanks which fought together,
observed each other and helped each other.
(speaking in foreign language)
They gave each other signals.
You stop, protect me with fire,
I'm proceeding as far as the
next undulation and so on.
(speaking in foreign language)
The platoon leader observed two groups
and gave his commands.
(speaking in foreign language)
The big advantage of the German tank corps
was that from the beginning in 1943
all the big tanks had radio,
and later radio and transmitters.
(speaking in foreign language)
On the battlefield we
could talk to each other
just as we're talking now.
The radio was so good
that I could understand
from the voice just who it was
without him mentioning his name,
just as in the family
you know who is talking
in the room nextdoor.
That was a great advantage.
(speaking in foreign language)
(artillery booming)
One German soldier recalled,
"It seemed as if we were
advancing into a ring of flame."
With less than only
half a kilometer covered
in the first advance,
many of the German tanks
were being picked off by
the Russian artillery.
Others floundered in the mine fields.
Those that escaped ran the gauntlet
of even heavier Russian batteries.
(explosions booming)
One German tank commander later stated,
"We'd been warned to expect resistance,
"but never had I seen before
such an overwhelming strength
"of Russian numbers as on that day."
(artillery booming)
A few Porsche Tigers broke
through the Russian defenses
in small groups, but the new Panther tanks
were less successful.
Everywhere they were hounded
by the Soviet infantry.
(commander shouts)
(artillery booming)
The Red Army's Chief of
Staff, Marshal Georgy Zhukov,
was known throughout the
army as being a tough man
and not one to show mercy in war.
But it transpired later that
even he, the hardened warrior,
felt sorry for those that had been
on the receiving end
of his army's barrage.
(weapons firing)
He wrote later, "We all felt and heard
"the hurricane of fire and imagined
"the frightening picture
on the enemy's side,
"pressed to the earth to
escape the furious hell
"of bombs and shells."
In those first few hours of the battle
the Russians had used up half
their total supply of shells.
(explosions booming)
(speaking in foreign language)
Everybody is afraid before an attack.
When the attack starts you
don't think about it anymore.
You lose that feeling of fear
and you get on with your job
and that's about all you think about.
(speaking in foreign language)
We knew approximately,
we didn't know exactly,
but we knew there were at
least a third more men.
And concerning tanks, we knew they had
at least 50% more than us.
(speaking in foreign language)
We were told what to expect,
how many there were going
to be, only we weren't told
what a terrible counterattack
would take place.
(speaking in foreign language)
(tanks rumbling)
The fury of Model's
assault shook the Russians,
though the bravery of the Russian infantry
succeeded in holding it at first.
Then two Red Army divisions crumbled
under German Panzer attacks.
Fearing a breakthrough,
Rokossovsky ordered
massive barrages of artillery fire.
These enabled his infantry,
backed by brigades
of anti-tank guns, to
block the German thrust.
During the first day Model's men,
for all their courage and determination,
advanced little more than
six and a half kilometers.
In the south meanwhile, Hoth's men
had faced similar conditions.
The defenses were equally
as strong and ferocious.
The infantry were faced with endless rows
of trenches and minefields.
The farthest advance made
by any of Hoth's troops
on the first day was 12 kilometers.
Moreover, some 65 kilometers of the 225
that still separated the
northern and southern prongs
of the German pincers were
covered with the same kind
of obstacles defended by
the same caliber of men
who fought so furiously during
the first day of the battle.
(explosion booms)
It was a fearful prospect.
(explosions booming)
Both German generals remarked on the skill
of the Red Army commanders.
Regimental officers reported
the improved abilities
of the Russian rank and file.
(explosion booms)
Intensive Russian training
in the preceding months
was paying off.
The Red Air Force was equally impressive.
The mighty Luftwaffe fought
to retain superiority
in the air over the battlefields.
The dive bombers pounded
the Russian defenses.
(airplane whistling)
Deadly new fragmentation bombs
scattered over the anti-tank positions,
causing the Russian
troops to dive for cover.
(bomb whistling)
But everywhere the Luftwaffe attacked,
their strength was not
allowed by the Russians
to become a decisive factor in the war.
(explosion booms)
Russian fighters of the Red Air Force
hit back hard, but their losses were high.
432 Russian planes were shot down.
The Luftwaffe also lost a
staggering 173 aircraft.
Despite superiority in the air,
German progress remained painfully slow.
By the end of the first ferocious day,
the Germans had lost 25,000
men and hundreds of tanks
and they were still bogged
down in the first line
of the Soviet defenses.
(explosions booming)
When they reached the second line,
they found it was stronger still.
On the southern flank of the salient
where the 48th Panzer Corps,
the three SS Panzer divisions,
were attacking, the
fighting was even fiercer.
(explosions booming)
(weapons firing)
(tanks rumbling)
(gun fires)
(missiles booming)
The spearhead managed to
dent the Russian defenses,
their first light of a possible success.
Under of a barrage of intense fire,
the SS divisions were forced to spend
the first night of the battle in swamps.
(explosions booming)
As the darkness came and night fell
over the field of battle,
the troops were not allowed to rest.
The battle raged on both sides,
just as fierce as it had
been during the daylight.
(explosions booming)
(weapons firing)
The sun rose at four
a.m. on the 6th of July,
the second day of the battle, and with it
came the Russian fighters.
They threw in every available bomber
and ground attack aircraft
to hit the German tanks.
(explosions booming)
All through the second day
the German forces attacked
the heavy Russian defenses,
wave after wave of tanks and infantry.
(explosions booming)
(weapons firing)
In the south, despite the Russian efforts,
the force and might of the German attack
tore a gap in General Chistiakov's army
and through this gap von
Manstein threw his reserves.
In the north, two of the SS divisions
clawed their way forward to
gain almost seven kilometers.
The reserve armies were
brought up to the front
to increase the effort
for a big breakthrough.
(tanks rumbling)
Model had originally planned to hold these
until the final drive into Kursk
after his infantry had broken through
Central Front's defenses, but seeing a gap
beginning to open, he changed tactics,
committed the major elements
of his armored forces.
(explosions booming)
But even with the additional strength
of the Reserve Army, they were still going
to have to slog their way through,
meter by bloody meter, through clumps
of dug-in Russian T-34 tanks,
vast batteries of anti-tank guns,
and hundreds of deadly minefields.
The hardship got worse, but
their time was running out.
(truck rumbling)
By the 9th of July, the
battle having been raging
for five days and nights,
the German advance
was gradually making progress.
In the south, they took
the town of (mumbles),
the damaged bridge across
the River Pina was seized.
The 4th Army Panzers were
by now within 16 kilometers
of Oboyan from where
they'd be able to join
the main road into Kursk.
(explosions booming)
It seemed briefly the Russian defenses
were by now weakening, that the situation
might be improving for the Germans.
But in the north it was a different story.
The army detachment, Kempf,
was held by the Russians'
indeed stronger defenses.
As a result it had not been able
to offer support to protect
the right flank of Hoth's forces.
(explosions booming)
Hoth, unable to make any way northwards,
had switched his thrust east
towards the village of Prokhorovka.
With the assistance of Stuka bombers
attacking the Russian ground
offenses from the air,
Hoth's crack SS, Das Reich,
and the Totenkopf divisions
captured their first objectives,
two hills on the road to Prokhorovka.
(machine gun firing)
(explosions booming)
(airplanes roaring)
(guns firing)
(disabled airplane whistling)
(explosion booms)
(artillery firing)
The history of Das Reich Division
recalls that the attack went smoothly,
almost as if on maneuvers and
there was a general feeling
that the Russian opposition
was beginning to weaken.
(artillery firing)
The road to Tupoy had been cleared
by 20th Panzer Division, but losses
were mounting heavily on both sides.
(artillery firing)
The defenses of Tupoy were
bombarded by German guns.
The Russians pulled
back out of the village
and regrouped in the surrounding hills.
(explosions booming)
Twice the advancing
Germans took the hills.
Twice they were thrown back
by Soviet counterattacks.
Then there was a third attempt.
The 33rd Panzer Grenadier Regiment,
with its last remaining
officer retook the ridge
before being driven back once again.
(artillery firing)
The 18th and 9th Panzer
Divisions clawed their way
into the village Ponyri, meeting the most
fearsome resistance, but Russian losses
were beginning to mount.
(engines rumbling)
By the night of the 11th of July
the German forces had driven a bulge
into the Russian front.
Despite the tremendous
efforts of the Russians,
both on the ground and in the air,
it looked as though they were once again
in appalling danger.
Citadel had reached the moment of decision
and the massive German breakthrough
might come at any moment.
That night, however, it was to change.
Zhukov released his reserves,
the 5th Guards Army and the
5th Guard Armored Force,
a confident and fresh new army
with full ammunition bays.
(tanks rumbling)
The next day was to bring about a battle
that would fly clean in the face
of German tactical doctrine,
that in a blitzkrieg offensive,
the purpose of Panzers was
to exploit an enemy weakness,
not to fight tank versus tank.
(tanks rumbling)
The Germans in the north
brought out every tank
that would run and began
their last final drive.
The Russians had drawn
on every reserve they had
regardless of the situation elsewhere.
The main Russian battle tank, the T-34,
faced heavier German equipment
with the Tigers and Panthers,
but whilst the German tanks
could outgun the Russians,
they were slower and their
half empty fuel tanks
could be set afire with ease.
The T-34s were faster, more
maneuverable, and more numerous.
(tank rumbling)
Both sides were ready and eager to inflict
the heaviest damage possible on the enemy.
(tank rumbling)
Through the hot morning of July the 12th,
the two mighty armies
closed in on each other
for what was to become
one of the most terrible
armored encounters of all time.
Horst Scheibert describes
how the Russian tanks
compared to the German tanks.
(tanks rumbling)
(speaking in foreign language)
Well, you can compare
the tanks with regard
to the strength of the armor plating,
to the weapon, to the weight,
and as a result the so-called
horsepower to weight ratio.
That means how much
horsepower you have per ton.
(speaking in foreign language)
There should be at least
15 horsepower for each ton.
Anything below that is just
a completely tired crow
on the battlefield.
Everything above that is a snappy tank.
(speaking in foreign language)
The tanks of today,
modern tanks in general,
have 27 horsepower per ton,
whereas the Tiger had only 10.
The Tiger was a very limp
bird on the battlefield,
which also had a lot of teething problems.
(speaking in foreign language)
In legend, because it
was the last big tank,
it had weak points.
(speaking in foreign language)
The T-34 had, like the
Panther, 15 horsepower per ton.
That means it was normal.
(speaking in foreign language)
Panzer 4 had 10 horsepower.
It was also weaker.
(speaking in foreign language)
Then there was still the ground pressure,
how many kilograms per square centimeter,
how much weight of the
chain is on the ground.
That is important.
(speaking in foreign language)
If the tank goes through wet terrain,
this determines whether
you get stuck somewhere
or whether you move well.
(speaking in foreign language)
(tanks rumbling)
(speaking in foreign language)
At first the Russians
had very wide chains.
Wider chains can bear more weight.
So, they had a very important
width, weight ratio.
The Germans had altogether
too narrow chains
which were completely
useless in swampy ground.
(speaking in foreign language)
We had much wider chains for the Tiger,
with the result that it
couldn't get through a tunnel
or go over a railway bridge,
or that the oncoming
traffic had to be stopped.
(speaking in foreign language)
When they couldn't be transported
they had devised so called loading chains
which had to be put on
before transport by train
so that the chains didn't
get caught somewhere
when they were transported by rail.
(speaking in foreign language)
The Tiger, in turn, was so
heavy that the horsepower
to weight ratio was unfavorable,
as was its pressure on the ground
in relation to kilograms
per square centimeter.
(speaking in foreign language)
And then of course the range.
The range was significantly
higher for the Russian
than for the German tanks.
The Tiger only had a
range of 100 kilometers,
then his fuel was used up.
The T-36 had a range of 600 kilometers.
It ran on diesel, whereas we used petrol.
(speaking in foreign language)
And on account of that
we always had weaknesses,
also with the German tanks as regards
the driving range at the time.
(speaking in foreign language)
(tank rumbling)
Near Prokhorovka all was
set for the largest clash
of tanks ever assembled.
But meanwhile the Russians
had another card to play,
a massive all out air attack
on the German forces below.
(airplanes rumbling)
As night came, the 17th Air
Army's 213th Night Bomber
Air Division, along with reinforcements
from the 313th Night Bomber Air Division
from the 15th Air Army,
attacked the northern sector.
The air was filled with a steady roar
as waves of Soviet bombers
and their fighter escorts
maintaining rigid formation
flew over the battlefield,
directing their bombs
onto where the German tank
and artillery placements
were concentrated.
(airplanes rumbling)
The raids continued all night.
They flew no less than 362
sorties against the Germans,
dropping 210 tons of bombs.
(explosions booming)
(airplanes rumbling)
On the ground, the Russian batteries
also continued throughout the night,
pounding away at the German forces.
(explosions booming)
As dawn broke, yet another
air strike was launched.
(airplanes rumbling)
The skies were filled with
Stukas and (mumbles) aircraft
battling it out in the dogfights
involving up to 150 aircraft at any time.
(airplanes rumbling)
(explosions booming)
One Luftwaffe pilot, in spite of having
to force land on five separate occasions,
managed to score an amazing 12 victories.
(airplane rumbling)
Another scored 11.
(airplanes rumbling)
(guns firing)
Air superiority was definitely
in favor of the Luftwaffe.
The Russian aircraft losses were enormous.
(airplanes rumbling)
(guns firing)
But no sooner had they lost a hundred,
then another hundred fresh
aircraft would be in the air,
hurling themselves relentlessly against
the battle weary German pilots.
A staggering 72 separate
air battles were recorded,
involving an amazing
total of 2,174 sorties
flown by pilots going
up as many as six times
throughout the morning.
(airplane rumbling)
In the south, a further
200 aircraft were sent up
to keep Hausser's Panzer
Spearheads at bay.
Up until this time throughout
the whole air campaign
for the Battle of Kursk, the Luftwaffe
had flown a staggering 37,421 sorties,
destroying 1,735 enemy aircraft.
20,000 tons of bombs had been dropped
and over 1,100 enemy
tanks and 1,300 vehicles
had been destroyed by the Luftwaffe.
Coupled with the concentrated fire
from the artillery, these attacks held
the tank battle below at bay.
(guns firing)
(tanks rumbling)
(explosions booming)
(tanks rumbling)
However, they were short-lived
as just before noon on the 12th of July
the two armies met head
on as the German tanks
try desperately for a big breakthrough.
(explosions booming)
This was the clash of the titans.
The largest tank battle in the
history of warfare had begun.
(explosions booming)
The future of Hitler's
war on the Eastern Front
now lay in the success or failure
of this mammoth armored brawl.
(airplanes rumbling)
(artillery firing)
(tanks rumbling)
(artillery firing)
(artillery firing)
(fire crackling)
(artillery firing)
(engines rumbling)
Martin Lange recalls that day.
(artillery firing)
(speaking in foreign language)
The Russians got stronger and stronger.
(speaking in foreign language)
I can only say that I have never seen
anything like the engagement
of masses of tanks,
artillery, and airplanes,
the condensed masses
that ran at each other.
(speaking in foreign language)
I'll never forget as long as I live
the Battle of Kursk Bogen.
Other episodes during the war,
well, there were hard days,
but something like that
never happened again.
(speaking in foreign language)
When I think of this battle,
I don't like to think of this
battle, it was murderous.
Quite frankly, there was no
mercy, not from either side.
(speaking in foreign language)
(explosion booms)
From the moment the leading
elements of Soviet armor
crashed through the SS
Panzer Corps first echelon,
the commanders of both
sides lost all control
of their formations and the battle
became a confused free for all
in which every tank and its
crew fought individually
against a packed mass
of armor like knights
on a 15th century battlefield.
(tank rumbling)
(artillery firing)
In this colossal drama,
fighting was almost
at point-blank range.
(engines rumbling)
The Tigers lost all advantage
of armor and armament,
which they enjoyed of
the T-34s at long range.
(artillery firing)
From the smoke and dust, which enveloped
the battlefields, spurted
huge flashes of flame
as ammunition exploded
aboard stricken tanks,
sending their turrets
wheeling through the air
as they separated from
the shattered hulls.
(tanks rumbling)
Tanks collided, rammed each other,
locked together in a
most fearsome struggle.
(artillery firing)
(missiles whistling)
The Russian 2nd Guards and 2nd Tank Corps
broke into the woods west of Belichenyo
and the farms east of
the village of Kalinin.
In the center of the Russian line,
18th and 29th Tank Corps
were slugging it out
with the Leibstandarte, the
spearhead of the German attack.
The impact of the Russian armor,
it's machines fresh,
unworn, and fully armed,
thudding into the Hausser's
battle weary divisions,
knocked the momentum out
of the German advance.
(tanks rumbling)
On the north flank,
Totenkopf fought a series
of close quarter tank
and infantry engagements
with the 31st Tank and
33rd Guards Rifle Corps.
No mercy was shown by
the Russians to the men
of the SS division that
fell into their hands.
Their Death's Head insignia
was a virtual death warrant.
Overhead the Red Air
Force continued to bomb
the artillery emplacements.
The big guns on both sides sent barrages
of flames and smoke through the air.
There was going to be no
reprise from either side.
This was a fight to the finish.
(explosions booming)
On their right flank,
Rotmistrov's 2nd Guards Tank Corps
slammed into Das Reich.
By mid afternoon a crisis
flared up for the Russians.
On Rotmistrov's right
flank the 18th Tank Corps
was coming under heavy pressure.
(explosions booming)
The 5th Guards Army, which had no tanks
and was by now weak in artillery,
was also threatening to give way
as German tanks broke through
two of its infantry divisions.
(explosions booming)
Rotmistrov now committed
the remainder of his army,
the remaining Reserves,
to secure the breech
and forcing the advancing
Germans to go on the defensive.
(explosions booming)
In fact, by late afternoon
after a series of attacks
and counterattacks, both sides were locked
in a stalemate of defensive action.
(explosions booming)
(artillery firing)
As the darkness fell over the battle,
the rocket barrage continued,
screaming through the skies
in huge ripples of flame.
(artillery firing)
Most of the German troops were in despair.
Their hard earned expertise
was proving near useless
in the chaos of close range battles.
(guns firing)
Their dismay was matched
at Hitler's headquarters
where news had come
through of Allied landings
in Sicily two days before.
(explosions booming)
Hitler decided he had no
choice but to withdraw
the three SS Panzer
divisions from the salient
to reinforce his armies in Italy.
But the Russians did not relent.
They now launched Operation Kutuzov,
the Soviet counteroffensive.
(weapons firing)
The Germans went on the retreat,
hampered continuously
by the Russian pursuit.
The Red Army rolled out of
the salient towards Aral
confident and victorious, but the victory
was not without cost.
(artillery firing)
Germany could derive some
comfort from the fact
that although defeated in this battle,
they had inflicted major
damage on the Russian Army
and its reserve force.
(weapons firing)
Although this was not felt by
some in Hitler's high command.
One wrote after the bloody
struggle for Stalingrad
that followed an equally
bloody struggle for Kursk,
"It was intended to exhaust
Russia's last forces
"at a strategically important point.
"Citadel, however, swallowed even more
"of our own divisions in this
"ever more horrifying whirlpool."
(explosions booming)
(artillery firing)
Although the German army
was badly battle beaten,
tired, and demoralized, they had no plans
to surrender to the Russians.
They fought on relentlessly.
(explosions booming)
(artillery firing)
German losses had been high,
although not as high as the Russians.
4th Panzer Army had lost some 330 tanks.
3rd Panzer division was
down to only 30 tanks.
In total during the battle,
Germany lost 645 tanks
and 207 assault guns.
Compared to Russia's
losses of 1,500 tanks,
almost half the force it
started the battle with,
the figures seem low in comparison.
But Russian production
was keeping well ahead
of its losses, enabling the Red Army
to remorselessly complete its complement
of armored vehicles and artillery.
In the immediate aftermath of Kursk,
the Soviet formations
which had borne the brunt
of the onslaught, had
been seriously weakened,
but the power of the Red
Army continued to grow,
growing on an almost limitless force
of six and a half million
men with a further
half a million still in reserve.
Supported by the Red Air Force,
the Red Army continued gathering momentum
in driving the Germans back.
(airplanes rumbling)
One German commander, Major
General von Mellenthin,
remarked, "We're now in the position
"of a man who has seized
a wolf by the ears
"and dare not let him go."
(explosions booming)
By now the Germans understood the nature
of the Russian soldier.
Von Mellenthin also remarked
that the Russian soldier is,
"immune to the most incredible hardships
"and does not even seem to notice them.
"He's equally indifferent
to bombs and shells.
"This was not the same Russian
soldier we faced a year ago."
(explosions booming)
(artillery firing)
(tank rumbling)
Withdrawing from the
relentless Soviet pressure,
the German forces destroyed
everything behind them,
leaving nothing that could
be turned against them
or used by the pursuing Russians.
(artillery firing)
They laid fields with mines,
blew up the railroads,
and destroyed the bridges, yet still
the Russians kept on coming.
(engines rumbling)
(guns firing)
On the 17th of July, the Soviets launched
a powerful attack in the
south along the Mius Line.
They fielded five fresh infantry armies,
two mechanized corps, three tank brigades,
and a cavalry corps.
There was yet another
fierce and bloody battle.
(artillery firing)
In the area around Orel,
Model's army was now facing
a second Stalingrad as the Russians raced
to cut off his escape.
With around 600,000 men,
he had to smash his way
through Kutuzov's army, only just managing
to avoid complete encirclement
and reach the comparative
safety of the Hagen line.
(weapons firing)
(fire crackling)
The battle was lost and
the fault was Hitler's
for it was his delays that
had allowed the Russians
to prepare their defenses
and train their men.
Conceived, planned, and
executed by the heirs
of the great general's staff,
Citadel had been a complete failure.
(explosions booming)
A war of machines had been sought at Kursk
in the full knowledge
that the attacking forces
were inferior in numbers to the enemy
and that there were insufficient reserves
to exploit any chance of success
when the opportunity had allowed.
The operation seemed to have been planned
on the assumption by
Hitler that the Russians
would collapse at the first impact.
Little thought had been
given to what might happen
if they did not, although Model had warned
of the consequences.
(explosions booming)
For when the enemy fails to disintegrate,
the dash and aura of
invincibility was no longer
going to be enough.
(explosions booming)
Poor German intelligence at every stage,
especially in the lack of knowledge
as to the strength of Russia's army
and their fortifications and defenses,
and the masterly placing and handling
of the Russian strategic reserve,
had ensured the failure of Citadel.
The collapse of Citadel
marked the turning point
of World War II.
The operation may not have
been, as Soviet writers
later claimed, "the swan song
of the German Panzer Army."
(tanks rumbling)
Nor did the Russian victory at Kursk
break completely the offensive power
of the German war
machine, but it did wrest
the strategic initiative from the Germans.
(explosion booms)
(speaking in foreign language)
The main basic mistake was, in my opinion,
in the setting of the starting point.
That is, the Russians
for a quarter of a year
had been able to see how the tanks
had been put into formation
on the German side.
(speaking in foreign language)
They also had reconnaissance.
It might've been German prisoners,
civilians who'd been infiltrated,
or the people who lived
in the villages there,
or by air reconnaissance.
(speaking in foreign language)
Behind that, counterattack
units had been placed.
They let us fight a bit and got us tired
in the position areas and also
sometimes in the minefields.
(speaking in foreign language)
The attack day had been
postponed again and again.
The secret of where the push
was going to take place,
the big push or where the
combined pincer pushes
were to take place, the
Russians had also know that
for a long time and had built relevant
deep trench systems on their side.
(speaking in foreign language)
You mustn't imagine that
there were minefields
kilometers long, but at
the most important passes.
Mines were laid between
the Balkas for instance.
(speaking in foreign language)
Sometimes you could not recognize them
because they were newly
laid, and of course
you couldn't see them in the night.
(speaking in foreign language)
We lost a lot of tanks and
men in those minefields.
(speaking in foreign language)
But to say exactly what
the main mistake was,
the German side should have, in retrospect
you're always wiser, but
the Germans should have
let the Russians accumulate.
There were strong units on the German side
to hold back, and when
the Russians broke through
they should have done with the Russians
what the Russians later did with us,
by cutting off the penetrating units.
That would've been more productive.
(speaking in foreign language)
We were told afterwards that the break up
of the battle was caused
by the landing in Sicily
and then they pulled out the SS divisions,
which had also carried out the
main burden of the attacks.
(speaking in foreign language)
When they'd gone, we were
left practically alone.
All that was left was a few tank divisions
of the army and an infantry division.
(speaking in foreign language)
With such a small force,
there's nothing you can do against tanks.
Then came the terrific
push by the Russians.
(speaking in foreign language)
Everybody was badly beaten,
badly battle beaten.
What touches you very
strongly was the death
of many comrades, and that is something
you can never forget in your lifetime.
(speaking in foreign language)
(dramatic orchestral music)
