Novo'\ I.1 Pre<S A aencv Pu bl .' shine Hause Boris SOLOVYOV (The Crush'rng of 0 peration C't'a d el) PNovo . s'f' Press A ublishing Housgency Moscow, 1979 e CONTENTS FOREWORD 5 INTRODUCTION 8 Chapter One EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT rn Chapter Two ON THE EVE OF FRESH BATTLES 16 Chapter Three TWO PLANS, TWO STRATEGIES 26 Chapter Four A STORM GATHERS OVER OPERA- TION CITADEL 33 Chapter Five DEEDS ARE STRONGER THAN WORDS 45 Chapter Six EMPHASISING THE POINT 57 CONCLUSION 62 6opuc rpuropbeauq Co~OBbCB KYPCKA5l BHTBA Ha aHrnUllCKOM Jl31o1Ke Ueua 30 KOO. 10604 © Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, 19 0505030202 Editing completed on August 8, 1979 FOREWORD More than thirty years have passed since the Second World War. Honest eye-witness accounts of the events of those days are of the greatest value. The interest such accounts arouse in the West is even capable of suspending a strike. That is what happened in 1974 when several thousand French TV staff decided to resume work only in order to transmit a discussion of the Battle of Kursk with the participation of Soviet and other competent experts. Thirty-five years have passed since the Battle of Kursk. The scars of the war have long been healed. The old Russian and Ukrainian cities of Kursk, Oryol, Belgorod and Kharkov· which suffered se­ verely from the Nazi invasion have been rebuilt. The fields that were the scene of great battles are growing. wheat. But memorials to the Soviet soldiers who fought for victory remind people of those past days. Many of the firing and communication tren­ ches and dugouts · have been preserved as unique monuments. The truth about the heroism of the Soviet officers and men who fought a hard war for 1,418 days to win victory over the Nazi invaders is still alive in people's memories. The Battle of Kursk which lasted for a total of 50 days, from July 5 to August 23, 1943, and which crushed the ambitious Nazi plans for a sweeping strategic offensive under the code name of Opera­ tion Citadel, was one of the most gigantic military clashes in the history of mankind. Each side sent into action armies more than a million strong. In fj no other battle of the Second World War were so there. More than one-third of all the Nazi divisions many tanks, guns, mortars and aircraft engaged. on the Soviet-German front were committed to After the defeats the Wehrmacht had suffered at action in Operation Citadel. Moscow and Stalingrad the Hitler clique decided But the situation in the summer of 1943 greatly to give battle that summer in a general engagement differed from that in 1941 and 1942. In the summer in the region of Kursk which, it hoped, would turn of 1943, after the defeats the Wehrmacht had suf­ the tide of the war on the Soviet-German front in fered at the hands of the Red Army at Moscow, at favour of Nazi Germany and would lead to the de­ Stalingrad and in the Caucasus, the Hitlerites were feat of the USSR in the war. no longer in a position to conduct an offensive Hitler's General Headquarters based their plans along the entire front. They now wished to launch for Operation Citadel on the particular situation a main attack in one direction. that had arisen at Kursk as a result of the battles The Soviet Supreme Command clearly realised fought in the Oryol-Kursk-Belgorod-Kharkov region that the main military developments in the summer in the winter of 1942-1943. The frontline there fol­ of 1943 would be in the area of the Kursk Salient. lowed a curve which became known in history as So it countered the intentions of the enemy with the Kursk Bulge or the Kursk Salient, a huge area a plan of its own. of 65,000 square kilometres that was being held The book describes the course of the battle on by Soviet troops. Both to the North and to the the Kursk Salient, which historians have called "the South of it there were two wedges-the Oryol-Kursk -waterloo of German fascism", and the outcome of and Belgorod-Kharkov wedges-held by the Nazi the battle and its impact on the entire course of the forces. The W ehrmacht generals were eager to take Second World War. advantage of this situation and to launch two pincer attacks at the base of the salient, exploiting the element of surprise to the full. In their plans they already saw the Soviet armies surrounded and destroyed and the Wehrmacht, breaking through into open country, victoriously advancing on Mos­ cow and Leningrad. Such was the general intention of Operation Citadel. The Nazi command made careful preparations for the operation. The entire industrial potential of Nazi Germany and its allies was geared to equip­ ping the Wehrmacht and preparing for the forth­ coming Battle of Kursk, which Hitler called the decisive campaign of the year. Not only the best equipment but also the most efficient panzer, motor­ ised and infantry divisions were concentrated 6 INTRODUCTION force capable of stemming the tide of the brown plague. It was claiming one victim after another. On June 22, 1940, France surrendered. A year later the Nazis began to execute Opera­ tion Barbarossa. According to this plan the Soviet Armed Forces were to be routed in a period of The annals of the Second World War were written from six; to ·eight weeks and the USSR was to be in blood and fire. The aggressors-Nazi Germany destroyed. By that time, in addition to Austria, and its allies-lost the war. A war is lost through Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, the lost battles. Big and little battles were fought in Netherlands, Belgium and France, the peoples of the war. The fate of a big war-and the Second Yugoslavia, Greece and Cyprus had fallen victim World War lasted not one, two or three but six to Nazi aggression. The vast resources of the long years-could be decided only in big battles. enslaved countries were placed at the service of There have been many instances in history when the Nazi war machine which had now been "broken one big battle or, to use the military term, opera­ in" and tested in the course of two years of success­ tion sealed the fate of a whole country. At the ful campaigns in Europe. beginning of the Second World War Hitler's Wehr­ Counting on a rapid and decisive victory in their macht overran whole countries without waging big war against the Soviet Union, the Hitlerites hoped battles. Let us recall only a few landmarks in the to proceed to take over Egypt, the Suez Canal, Iran, victorious march of the Nazi hordes across Western Iraq and India as early as in the autumn of 1941. Europe. They planned to seize the Strait of Gibraltar, to September 1, 1939, was the official date of the cut Great Britain off from its sources of raw mate­ outbreak of the Second World War, when the ar­ rials and then to invade the British Isles. mies of Hitler's Third Reich invaded Poland. A 1:hus a matter of worldwide gravity was being month later the Nazis_ were celebrating victory. A decided through war. If the Soviet Union held out, period of "the phoney war" set in on the Western the f?rces of progress in the world would triumph. Front. Though Great Britain and France had been But i~ the Nazis managed to gain the upper hand, formally at war with Germany since September 3, mankmd would be hurled into the abyss of bar­ they did not help Poland, the first victim of aggres­ arism. sion. They remained passive and refrained from At dawn on June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany treach­ combat operations. At the same time they spared erously launched a surprise attack on the USSR. no pains to set Hitler against the Soviet Union, his marked the beginning of the Great Patriotic the world's first workers' and peasants' state. ar o~ the Soviet people against Nazi Germany, In April 1940 Hitler seized Denmark and Nor­ or their freedom and for the freedom and happi­ way. In May he invaded France, Belgium and the ess of other peoples too. When the Nazis began Netherlands. This marked the end of "the phoney he war, they counted on the weakness of the Soviet war". In Western Europe there was no longer any car and of the Red Army. Basing their calculations 8 9 on the anti-Soviet stand of Great Britain, France rear with Soviet administrative bodies, commonly and the USA, they hoped the Soviet Union would known as "forest republics". be completely isolated in international relations. The crucial event of the first year of the war They assumed that once the Soviet forces stationed was the historic Battle of Moscow. It was a mighty along the Western frontier were destroyed the USSR battle fought over a vast area for a period of many would be torn by class strife and conflicts between months. Its outcome affected the course of the nations and nationalities which would hasten the entire war. In it the main bodies of the Soviet and abolition of the Soviet system and the collapse of Nazi German armies came to grips with one an­ the Soviet state. other. In the winter of 1941-1942 the enemy was Hitler mustered an army nearly five million routed in bitter, bloody and relentless fighting. He strong on the Eastern Front.