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15-03-2015, 16:20

KURSK: greatest land battle

Operation "Zitadelle" was launched on July 5 against the Kursk salient and constituted the final attempt by the German Army to recover the operational initiative on the Eastern Front. But before turning our attention to this, it is desirable to examine briefly the events that occurred during the first three months of 1943 along the somewhat circuitous front line running from north of Kursk to Lake Ladoga. These were deliberately omitted from Chapter 83 so as to give full effect to the account of the Battle of Stalingrad and its consequences.

On this front Army Groups "Centre” and "North”, still commanded by Field-Marshals von Kluge and von Kiichler respectively, were composed of seven armies (23 corps of 117 divisions or their equivalent on January 1, nine of them Panzer and eight motorised). The extremely winding course of the line on which the Germans had stabilised their positions at the end of March 1942 meant that it could not be held in any depth. To make matters worse, the lakes, rivers, and marshy tracts, so characteristic of the region, freeze hard and allow not only infantry and cavalry to pass over them but also lorries, artillery, and even tanks.

On January 4, the 3rd Panzerai'mee on Kluge’s left flank was broken through by troops of the 3rd Shock Army (Kalinin Front) on either side of Velikiye-Luki. A fortnight later, after every attempt to relieve the citadel of the town had failed, its defenders, reduced to 102 in number, managed to find their way back to the German lines, leaving 200 wounded behind them.

Of graver consequence was the defeat inflicted on the German 18th Army (Colonel-General G. Lindemann) to the south of Lake Ladoga. At O. K.H. this sector was known as the "bottleneck” on account of the pronounced salient formed by the front between Mga and the southern shore of the lake. But to evacuate it would have meant abandoning the siege of Leningrad; and for this reason Hitler had always opposed any suggestion that it should be done. XVI Corps (General Wodrig) held the salient and was hence liable to be cut off as soon as the Neva, which covered its left flank, no longer constituted an obstacle to the enemy.

V A corporal moves up through a communications trench. He

Is carrying two Teller 43 antitank mines, po. s.sihly one of the most efficient mines of World War 11.

V  V /t German 8.1-cm mortar troop in action. They arc loading the standard H. E. bomb. Note the stack of ammunition boxes, which were made from the same stamped steel pattern as jerricans.






A A A German machine-gunner in the frozen shell-torn soil of the Lake Ladoga sector. With winter the German lines came under greater pressure as the Russians were able to cross the frozen lakes and marshes.

A A Russian officer mans a scissor binocular in an observation post in a ruined village. The assault in January 1943 was preceded by a 90-minute bombardment.

> A Soviet soldier carries a wounded comrade to the rear. Medical facilities were severely strained during the siege of Leningrad.



 

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