Summer '43

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• With information provided by the Lucy spy ring in Switzerland and by Bletchley Park, Marshal Zhukov predicts that the main German summer offensive will be at Kursk. His written recommendation will include:

 

“According to the situation of the Soviet-German front, the enemy will attempt to cut off the Kursk salient, encircle and destroy the Soviet forces of Central Front and Voronezh Front deployed here. At the moment, both fronts total only 15 tank divisions, meanwhile the German forces at Belgorod – Kharkov direction alone have already gathered 17 tank divisions, most of them include the new types of tanks such as Tiger I, improvised Panther, Jagdpanzer IV and some kinds of tank destroyers such as Marder… I consider it inadvisable for our forces to go over to the offensive in the very first days of the campaign in order to forestall the enemy. It would be better to make the enemy exhaust himself against our defenses, and knock out his tanks and then, bringing up fresh reserves, to go over to the general offensive which would finally finish off his main force.”

 

- STAVKA studies and debates for a week and agrees. Zhukov orders a thorough preparation of the battlefield by Red Army engineers. They will have more than two months to prepare as the Germans will delay until the new Panther tanks are operational."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• After extensive preparation by Reichsminister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, Berlin Radio broadcasts to the world that German military forces in the Katyn forest near Smolensk have uncovered “a ditch ... 28 metres long and 16 metres wide, in which the bodies of 3,000 Polish officers were piled up in 12 layers.” The broadcast goes on to (correctly) charge the Soviets with carrying out the massacre in 1940. 

 

- The Germans will provide free access and assist with excavation and identification by forensics experts from neutral countries and the Red Cross and allow observation by Allied officer POWs.

 

- They will subsequently hold solemn memorial services with official attendance by Axis nations and Vichy French representatives. The revelation will strain relations between the Allies, particularly the USSR and the Polish government-in-exile. Despite certainty that the USSR is to blame, Britain and the US will officially blame the Germans until the Cold War.

 

- Following the fall of the USSR, the Russian Federation will admit to Katyn and allow memorials to be placed. Several of these will be removed in 2021 by the Putin regime, though the Polish maintained state cemetery on the site remains."

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Soviet aces Lydia Litvyak and Ykaterina Budanova are celebrated on the cover of the youth magazine Ogonek.

 

Budanova and Litvyak in 1942

 

• Soviet submarine S-33 torpedoes and sinks the Romanian 6,900 ton transport Suceava in the Black Sea.

 

• German or Romanian aircraft sink Soviet torpedo cutter TKA-84 in the Black Sea.

 

• German forces are preparing a counterattack at Kursk"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• After a powerful artillery barrage, and with aviation support, six Soviet divisions and three tank brigades begin an offensive in the Kuban against the German 17. Armee (which includes six Romanian divisions).

 

Romanian 50mm PaK 38 in the Kuban, summer 1943.

 

- They manage to penetrate the lines of the German 101. Jäger Division and create a five kilometer breach, taking the villages of Samsonovskiy, Tambulovskiy, and Palmenskiy.

 

- Oberschütze (Senior Private) Willi Heinrich, author of "The Willing Flesh" which will later become the 1977 film "Cross of Iron" is serving in the 101. during this period and bases the novel on his experiences during this campaign.

 

- German and Romanian counterattacks will stabilize the line, pushing the Soviets back two kilometers. The Soviet offensive will make only slight additional gains, capturing one important height by the time it ends on June 4th.

Elements of the 2nd Guards Rifle Division in the Kuban 1943"

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Large formations of Soviet bombers are making frequent night raids on railway junctions - especially Smolensk, Orsha, Bryanska and Orel throughout June.

 

Yermolayev-2 long range medium bomber

 

• The German 1,000 ton hospital ship Birka hits a mine laid on 26 May by Soviet submarine L-22 off the Burfjord extreme northern Norway, and sinks with 115 lost. The newspaper Stockholms-Tidningen will report that Birka was carrying troops and munitions in violation of hospital ship status.

 

• Soviet submarine D-4 attacks a convoy in the Black Sea, missing Romanian destroyer Mărășești and Italian 3,700 ton tanker Celeno.

 

• Soviet submarine ShCh-406 is sunk with all hands in the Baltic by depth charges from an Arado 196.

 

Spoiler

Arado Ar-196"

Edited August 14, 2023 by LukeFF
swastikas

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The Soviet 1st, 2nd, and 15th Air Armies begin a sustained offensive against Axis airfields around the Kursk salient. Within two weeks, an estimated 200 aircraft are destroyed on the ground.

 

[From the Northern Fleet in 1942]

Hawker Hurricanes will remain front line fighters and attack aircraft with the VVS thru 1943 and with Naval Aviation through the end of the war."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Seven hundred Soviet bombers conduct night raids on airfields west of Kursk. Nineteen are lost. With Soviet production focused on fighters and ground attack aircraft, the VVS is even pressing license built DC-3s into service as bombers.

 

Lisunov Li-2 [in the role of] night bomber"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Both the Germans and Soviets are feeding matériel into the Kursk area. There will be no element of surprise for next month’s battle.

 

Towing a broken down PzKpfw VI Ausf E near Kursk

 

• This newsreel comes out around this time. It includes good footage of the Red Army, partisans, and Australians in New Guinea, most taken in 1942:

 

 

• “Kill” by Soviet writer and member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg is widely distributed in the USSR and among the Red Army. It and other Soviet propaganda encourage a harsh and vengeful attitude towards Germany." [Warning particularly brutal excerpt below.]

 

Spoiler

"Here are excerpts from three letters found on dead Germans.

 

Inspector Reinhardt wrote to Lieutenant Otto Schirach: "[...] I have found six Russians in the area. They last far longer than Frenchmen. Only one of them has died. [...] Their upkeep costs nothing and we must not tolerate that these animals, whose children are possibly killing our children right now, get to eat German bread. Yesterday I whipped lightly two Russian beasts who secretly drunk up skim milk meant for pigs [...]"

 

A certain Otto Essmann wrote to Lieutenant Helmut Wiegand: "We now have some Russian prisoners of war. These fellows feed on worms by the airstrip and throw themselves at buckets of dirty water. I have seen them eating weeds. It is hard to believe that these are human beings..."

 

Slavers - they would like to enslave our people.

 

They take some Russians home, mistreat them, make them lose their wits by hunger, to the point that they eat grass and worms, and then a repulsive German with a stinking cigar can philosophise: "Are these perhaps human beings?"

 

We know everything.

 

We remember everything.

 

We have understood: Germans are not human beings.

 

Henceforth the word German means to us the most terrible curse.

 

From now on the word German will trigger your rifle.

 

We shall not speak any more.

 

We shall not get excited.

 

We shall kill.

 

If you have not killed at least one German a day, you have wasted that day.

 

If you think that instead of you, the man next to you will kill him, you have not understood the threat.

 

If you do not kill the German, he will kill you.

 

If you cannot kill your German with a bullet, kill him with your bayonet.

 

If there is calm on your part of the front, if you are waiting for the fighting, kill a German before combat.

 

If you leave a German alive, the German will hang a Russian and rape a Russian woman.

 

If you kill one German, kill another - there is nothing more amusing for us than a heap of German corpses.

 

Do not count days; do not count miles.

 

Count only the number of Germans you have killed.

 

Kill the German - this is your old mother's prayer.

 

Kill the German - this is what your children beseech you to do.

 

Kill the German - this is the cry of your Russian earth.

 

Do not waver.

 

Do not let up.

 

Kill."

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The founding meeting of Finnish-American Society is held. Its chairman is Progressive Party member Eljas Erkko, a former minister of foreign affairs and the owner of Finland’s largest daily newspaper. Among the membership are MPs from all the political parties except for the right-wing Patriotic People’s League. Unsurprisingly, the Germans demand that the Finnish government block the Society’s registration process. Foreign Affairs Minister Erik Ramsay rejects the German demand by stating that the Society is formed by private persons and there are no legal grounds why its registration can’t be accepted.

 

• With the Kursk offensive approaching, pressure is stepped up in other sectors to discourage shifting of Soviet reserves.

 

• Hitler meets with the generals who will command Operation Zitadelle, setting the launch date as July 5th. There have been repeated delays largely due to problems with the new armored vehicles. The orders go out over the Heer and Luftwaffe enigma nets and Bletchly Park decrypts them, forwarding the information to the Kremlin. Tomorrow, Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky will warn the Front commanders, Vatutin, Rokossovsky and Konev, that the anticipated German offensive would begin no later than 6 July.

 

• At the same meeting, the general situation is outlined. According to the OKW briefing notes:

 

“The blame for our misfortunes must be laid squarely on our allies. The Italians let us down completely. If, as the Führer repeatedly demanded, they had made timely use of their fleet to escort and transport their troops to Africa, Africa would not have been lost. Now their ships are being smashed in their harbors. Comparison with World War I, where we too conserved our fleet too long until it was too late. Italians failed on the eastern front, in Greece, etc. Hungary likewise: … Romania unreliable. Finland at the end of her tether; internal troubles with Social-Democrats…”

 

• Romanian Conducător Ion Antonescu arrives in Rome. He meets with Mussolini suggesting the Italy, Hungary and Romania leave the war together. While Il Duce feels it is a sensible action at this time, he is afraid to take the lead with Hitler."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Preliminary fighting begins around the Kursk salient with a German reconnaissance-in-force seizing the village of Butovo. Nikolai Vatutin orders airstrikes on the German staging areas and for six hundred guns, mortars, and katyushas of the Voronezh Front to bombard the forward German positions.

 

Ilyushin Il-2s attacking a German motorized column in Kursk area 04 July, 1943"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The Soviet Second and Sixteenth Air Armies launch a large pre-dawn raid against German airfields, hoping to catch the Luftwaffe on the ground, but the Germans are aware of this, probably from communications decryption. The German bombers are already in the air and massed fighters are waiting. The Red Air Force loses 176 aircraft, while the Luftwaffe loses 26.

 

Downed Pe-2. The Germans are disappointed that Soviet losses aren’t higher, an indication that while they had surprise in this instance, they no longer have technological superiority over Soviet fighters.

 

• The Germans launch artillery bombardments lasting 80 minutes in the northern sector and an hour in the south. After the barrage the ground forces advance, supported by close air support from the Luftwaffe. In the north the 653. Schweres Panzerjägerbataillon spearheads the attack with new Ferdinand tank destroyers. By the afternoon 33 of them have been immobilized in unmarked German and Soviet minefields.

 

• In the first full day of the Kursk offensive, Model’s 9. Armee strikes southwards while Hoth’s 4. Panzerarmee strikes northwards. Under intense artillery fire the Germans only penetrate six to eight miles. The 2. SS Panzerkorps is supposed to be guarding Hoth’s flank but it has been stalled by elements of the Soviet III Corps. Vatutin plans a counter-attack on that flank with the First Tank Army in a few days while Rokossovsky plans an immediate spoiling attack tomorrow on the German XLVI Panzerkorps with the XIX Tank Corps.

 

KV-1S tanks of the 6th Guards Tank Regiment before Kursk"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The Central Front under Rokossovsky launches a counterattack against the German 9. Armee, directed against the XLVI Panzerkorps. Soviet KV-1s and T-34s sustain heavy losses in combat with the Tiger tanks of the 505. Schweres Panzerbataillon. The 107th and 164th Tank Brigades lose 69 tanks and the Soviet counterattack is stopped. The Germans advance another six miles, but are taking heavy losses from aircraft and artillery.

 

Panzer-VIE scores a direct hit on a T-34 at Kursk.

 

- Rokossovsky will order his tanks to be dug-in for extra protection when on the defensive.

 

Diary Entry from Kursk By Soviet artillery officer Nikolai Litvin

 

The morning of 6 July dawned cloudy, with a low overcast sky that hindered the operations of our air force. Around 6:00 A.M., our position was attacked head-on by a group of approximately 200 sub-machine gunners and four German tanks, most likely PzKw-IVs. The tanks led the way, followed closely by the infantry. The Germans were attempting to find a weak spot in our lines.

 

The Germans advanced across the uncut rye field directly toward our firing positions, but they didn’t seem to see us. We felt a gnawing fear in the pit of our bellies as the German tanks rumbled toward us, stopping every fifty to seventy meters to scan our lines and fire a round. In the general din of battle, we practically could not hear the German shells exploding, but we could see the shells streaking through the air in the direction of our positions. The shells flew harmlessly over our heads, as the Germans hadn’t yet spotted us and were targeting likely positions behind us. My knees and legs began to tremble wildly, until we received the command to swing into action and prepared to fire.

 

The shaking stopped, and we became possessed by the overriding desire not to miss our targets. When the Germans had reached within approximately 300 meters of us, we opened fire at the tanks. Our Number One gun set a tank ablaze with its first shot, and then managed to knock out a second tank. The combined fire of our Number Three and Number Four guns knocked out a third German tank. The fourth tank managed to escape.

 

Since my gun had no tanks in its zone of fire, we opened up on the advancing infantry with fragmentation shells. The German submachine gunners stubbornly continued to push forward. As they drew closer, we switched to shrapnel shells and resumed fire on them. Not less than half the Germans fell to the ground, and the remaining drew back to their line of departure. As we watched the Germans fall back and the one German tank continued to burn, we wanted to leap for joy and shout “Urrah!” at the top of our lungs; such was our happiness at our success.

 

After we had repulsed this German probe, the sergeant major brought us breakfast, and 100 grams of vodka each to celebrate our victory. We began to eat “American soup” — a puree of peas and chicken meat. As we ate, we didn’t particularly notice that the sky was clearing, and that both air forces were beginning to operate.

 

About 10:00 A.M., a flight of ten Ju-87 “Stukas” suddenly appeared overhead. We called them “Musicians,” because of the sound of their air sirens as they dove. These Stukas seemed to have no identied targets but dove upon our lines, and each one released four 50kg bombs. We took cover, but not a single bomb struck one of our gun pits or bunkers, and there were no losses in our battery.

 

Within thirty minutes, another flight of “Musicians” appeared and began a new bombing run. This time, they seemed to have located our battery’s position, and the first bombs exploded fifty to seventy meters ahead of our guns. The last plane dove directly upon our battery and released its bomb load. One of the bombs flew directly at my dugout.

 

I saw my own unavoidable death approaching, but I could do nothing to save myself: there was not enough time. It would take me five to six seconds to reach a different shelter, but the bomb had been released close to the ground, and needed only one or two seconds to reach the earth – and me. During these brief seconds as I watched the bomb fall, my entire conscious life flashed through my mind. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. I badly didn’t want to die at the age of twenty.

 

I had a fleeting thought to ask God to spare my life, but then I remembered that I was a Komsomol member, and therefore I couldn’t make such a request. Just before the bomb struck, I rolled over face-down in my little trench and covered my face with the palms of my hands. As I was turning my face away, I caught a glimpse of a narrow dust storm, about twelve meters high, moving in my direction. Just as I completed the turn, I heard the bomb explode. There was a repulsive smell of TNT, and I felt two strong blows to my head. It seemed to me that my head must have been torn off. The thought flickered, “How painless it is to die!”.

 

The bomb had exploded very close to my trench, and I was buried in loose dirt. Battery commander Bondarev and some of my comrades frantically dug me out of the earth once the bombing ended. They dragged me out up to my waist and thought that I was dead. They gently raised my head, let it go, and my head dropped back down. I was unconscious. They tried to rouse me three or four times. Then someone gave me a good shake, and I regained consciousness. When I woke up, I remembered the sensation that my head had been torn off and I thought: “Enough. I’m alive.”

 

medic-tends-to-wounded-soldier-on-field

 

Great Patriotic War veteran at a Soviet memorial"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• After an enthusiastic briefing by Wernher von Braun, Hitler gives top priority to the A4 (V-2 rocket) program. For secrecy, workers will be disposable German concentration camp inmates.

 

• Around Kursk, the Germans are making extremely slow progress due to mines, airstrikes, and artillery bombardment.

 

• At the Milkhailovka bridgehead just south of Belgorod, eight infantry battalions of the 6. Panzer Division are assembled to cross the river when they are subjected to heavy artillery fire. Eventually most of the infantry gets across to the eastern banks, but when a company of the 503. Schwere Panzerbataillon begins crossing, Soviet rockets destroy the bridge with some tanks falling into the water. Although a few of the tanks had gotten across, the rest of the Panzer Division has to redeploy southward to another crossing. One battalion commander describes it:

 

“Suddenly, a red sunrise arose on the far side as hundreds of Stalin's organs hurled their rockets exactly onto the crossing site. The bridge was totally demolished and the engineers, unfortunately, suffered heavy losses. Never have I hugged the dirt so tightly as when these terrible shells sprayed their thin fragments just above the ground.”

 

• Soviet Il-2M aircraft, attacking in large numbers with fighter support, destroy some seventy tanks of the German 9. Panzer Division in just twenty minutes. [A large over-claim I think]

 

• Soviet submarine ShCh-201 attacks a Romanian convoy in the Black Sea but misses. Destroyer Mărăşeşti claims to have sunk the attacking submarine but is mistaken."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago] "• At Kursk, the southern German pincer only advances three miles as 4. Panzerarmee inflicts heavy losses on Sixth Guards Army but is slowed by stubborn resistance.

 

- In the north, Model's armour makes three thrusts into the centre of the Soviet defences along the Central Front, the villages of Teploye, Olkhovatka and Ponyri. At Teploye, the main objective is Hill 272. Time and again the Germans assault it after attacks by swarms of dive bombers drop 250 kg bombs on the anti-tank positions. The Soviets are well dug in and camouflaged. They prefer to fight the Germans at close range, where their anti-tank rifles and dug in tanks take a heavy toll. The Germans take the hill three times, and each time the Soviets recapture it. The Soviet defences are doing their job of bleeding the German assault forces.

 

Panzer-VIEs of 9 Armee July 1943

 

M3 tanks of Sixth Guards Army at Kursk"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Operation Citadel is grinding to a halt despite the Germans having a six to one local advantage in tanks. Soviet armor, cunningly constructed defences, heavy artillery, and swarms of Sturmoviks blunt the pincer attacks of General Hoth from the south and General Model from the north.

 

- The new Panzer V “Panther” tanks with their overly complicated design are breaking down at high rates, and the huge Ferdinand tank destroyers, without a single machine gun, are picked off by Soviet infantry. The majority of armored fighting is being done with the Pz-III, Pz-IV, and StuG-III.

 

- In a meeting with his Corps Commanders, Model admits that a breakthrough by 9. Armee is unlikely, and that the mission has changed to maintaining pressure on the Soviet Central Front to prevent Rokossovsky from reinforcing Vatutin’s Voronezh Front. The success of Citadel now depends on Hoth’s 4. Panzerarmee.

 

- In the south, the III. Panzerkorps and the II. SS Panzerkorps are ordered to attack Prokhorovka, to which the XXXIII Guards Rifle Corps is being redeployed.

 

German armor at Kursk

 

Knocked out Panzerjäger Tiger (P) Ferdinand of 653 Schwere Panzerjägerbataillon at Kursk"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The Germans make no progress at Kursk except on the east flank of the southern pincer, where Army Detachment “Kempf”, the reserve intended to exploit a breakthrough in the southern pincer of Kursk, makes a breakthrough at heavy cost, and its III Panzerkorps advances.

 

Soviet MG crew at Kursk.

 

- Stalin grants Zhukov and Vasilevssky authority to act immediately on the central front rather than consult with Stavka."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years and two days ago] "• Germans in a Soviet PoW camp form the “National Committee for a Free Germany”.

 

• In the Kursk salient, the German II SS Panzerkorps fight a prolonged battle with the Soviet Fifth Guards Tank Army at Prokhorovka that sees the loss of more than a hundred tanks each day for four days. Soviet losses are higher but this is the high water mark of the limited German gains of Operation Zitadelle.

 

Grenadiers mounted on a StuG-IIIG during Kursk

 

Soviet-advance-at-kursk

 

Operation Kutuzov

 

• With the Germans fully extended at Kursk, the Soviets launch a major offensive with a massive artillery barrage from the West and Bryansk Fronts north of the Kursk salient. With more than two thousand tanks and assault guns, the Soviet aim is to eliminate the “Orel Bulge” and if possible, cut off Model’s 9. Armee. The operation is well timed, coming after German reserves have been committed to the unsuccessful offensive toward Kursk. Leading elements penetrate 23 kilometers in the first day, and units of the 5. Panzer Division which counterattack to fill the breach are smashed.

 

Su-152s crossing a river in the Orel sector

 

Ops Zitadelle and Kutusov"

 

Operation Kutuzov

 

• With the Germans fully extended at Kursk, the Soviets launch a major offensive with a massive artillery barrage from the West and Bryansk Fronts north of the Kursk salient. With more than two thousand tanks and assault guns, the Soviet aim is to eliminate the “Orel Bulge” and if possible, cut off Model’s 9. Armee. The operation is well timed, coming after German reserves have been committed to the unsuccessful offensive toward Kursk. Leading elements penetrate 23 kilometers in the first day, and units of the 5. Panzer Division which counterattack to fill the breach are smashed.

 

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• As Soviet breakthroughs develop, Generaloberst Model has sent nearly all of 9. Armee’s armored units to aid the 2. Panzer Armee, whose northern front is about to collapse, while to the north the 4. Armee sends down the 253. Infanterie Division.

 

• The Soviets launch the second phase of Operation Kutuzov with attacks on the German 9. Armee. The XX Tank Corps attacks towards Bolkov while the Third Guards Tank Army drives straight for Orel. In doing so they threaten to trap the German forces defending the east face of the Orel salient. Meanwhile, German defensive efforts are being hampered by partisan attacks to their communications and rail supply lines.

 

Lend-lease M3 medium tanks during Kursk

 

• With a major effort in the southern pincer at Kursk, the Luftwaffe achieves complete air superiority over Prokhorovka, allowing large numbers of Hs-129s and Ju-87s to inflict heavy losses on the Fifth Guards Tank Army. The II SS Panzerkorps is able to link up with the III Panzer Corps, but Operation Roland has failed to encircle the Soviet forces, which have successfully pulled back. SS Panzergrenadier Division Totenkopf is forced to retreat in the face of a local Soviet counterattack.

 

• The Emilia Plater Independent Women’s Battalion is formed in the USSR from female Polish exiles. It is attached to the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division, and named for a 19th Century female Polish-Lithuanian leader. Originally intended as a frontline combat unit, it will be used mostly for security and military police duties."

[ShampooX]

awesome Kursk thread, dude!!

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The Soviets launch an offensive in the Crimea. It will make limited progress against the Romanian Mountain Corps.

 

• The Battle of Kursk ends from the German perspective, though the Soviets consider it continuing to the end of the month. German forces go on the defensive. In the north, 9. Armee begins withdrawing so as to not be cut off by Operation Kutusov. In the south, 4. Panzer Armee and the III Panzerkorps from Army Detachment Kempf begin withdrawing to the 06 July starting positions.

 

- Exact losses during Kursk and the associated Kutuzov and Prokhorovka are unknown but estimates are the Germans had 203,000 killed, wounded and captured, mostly during their offensive towards Kursk. 760 armored vehicles and 681 aircraft were lost. The Soviets took up to 860,000 killed, wounded, and captured, mostly during their own Kutuzov offensive. 6,064 armored vehicles and 1,600 aircraft were lost. Despite the disparate losses, the engagement is considered a Soviet victory as the Germans are weakened with depleted reserves. The USSR seizes the strategic initiative and holds on to it for the rest of the war.

 

Prokhorovka Memorial

 

Kursk Monument"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Twelve Polish prisoners of Auschwitz I camp are executed by hanging in front of the kitchen during roll call for helping three fellow prisoners escape.

 

• The Third Guards Tank Army joins the Soviet thrust towards Orel while the Third and Sixty-third Armies continue towards Bryansk.

 

• Soviet ace Yekaterina Budanova is escorting Soviet bombers when she engages three Bf-109s with her Yak-1. She downs one of them (her 11th victory) but is forced to crash land with damage, burning to death before she can get out of the aircraft. Although proposed for the award Hero of the Soviet Union, she will not receive it.

 

 

- In the same action, Soviet ace Lydia Litvyak shoots down a Bf-109G."

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• A series of engagements develop in the Orel salient between arriving German reserves and advancing Soviet formations. The Soviets gradually gain ground.

 

Soviet forces assaulting the “Orel Bulge”

 

• The partisan “rail war” against the German supply system is in full swing. From now on every effort is being made to prevent supplies and reinforcements reaching the front. The Germans have already been forced to use armored trains to fight off partisan attacks and many units have suffered casualties on the way to the front.

 

Soviet partisans sabotaging track

 

 

Derailed train on Eastern Front due to sabotaged track"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• German aircraft bomb Leningrad, killing 210 people.

 

• The Red Army has recovered positions in Belgorod area.

 

• The Red Army is conducting another offensive in the Kuban. In the Neberdshayevskaya – Dolgaye Mountain sector, the Romanian Divisia 1 Munte (1st Mountain Division) repulses numerous attacks over the next six days despite its battalions being stretched to cover stretches of line up to 4.8 kilometers long. The commander of the adjacent German 213. Infanterie Regiment will consider himself to be exposed and the Germans order one of the Romanian battalions to fall back and cover the 213., leaving a gap in the coverage of the Romanian division. Elements of the Soviet 9th and 83rd Mountain Divisions will locate and exploit this gap, backed by fifteen batteries of mountain artillery.

 

- The Regimentul 5 Calarasi from the Divizia 6 Cavalerie will attempt to seal the gap but will lose 50% of its officers and NCOs and 24% of the soldiers in desperate fighting. Another counter-attack, this time by Germans, will have the same result.

 

- The Germans will blame the loss on the “poor morale and determination” of the Romanian troops. General-maior Constantin Vasiliu Rășcanu of the Divisia 1 Munte will respond with a detailed critique of high level German mistakes that is cheered by the Romanian officer corps. The exchanges worsen relations between the Germans and their ally.

 

Romanian LMG crew on the Taman peninsula summer 1943"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The Red Army launches Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev (named for 18th Century Field Marshal Pyotr Rumyantsev) against the 4. Panzerarmee and Army Group Kempf by the Voronezh and Steppe Fronts in the Belgorod (southern) sector of the Kursk Bulge. The Germans refer to this operation as the "Fourth Battle of Kharkov". [It will be the first successful Soviet summer offensive of the war, and, frankly I believe it is woefully under reported in the English speaking world.]

 

- The Soviets advance on a wide front between Sumy and Volchansk, cross the Vorskla river and quickly penetrate the defenses of the German 332. and 167. Infanterie Divisions to a depth of 60 kilometers by tomorrow. They throw back a spoiling attack by the 19. Panzer Division.

 

- This battle will see the first large scale commitment to combat of Hitler Youth, who until now have provided support functions. They will suffer heavy losses.

 

Soviet Infantry advance"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• As part of the almost continuous strings of Soviet offensives, the Kalinin and West fronts launch the Second Battle of Smolensk just north of the Orel “bulge”.

 

- The Fifth, Tenth Guards, and the Thirty-third Armies will only advance four kilometers the first day, then make a breakthrough towards Roslavl. The Germans will commit reserves and counterattack, inflicting heavy losses on the V Mechanized Corps, which is equipped with Valentine tanks. By the middle of the month the front will be stabilized again. Smolensk will not be liberated until October.

 

• Along the Black Sea front, the Red Army renews its offensive between Werch Adagaum and the Krimskaya-Moldovanskoe highway, with four infantry divisions, a tank regiment and air support. Over a five day period the Soviets are held to a one kilometer gain by the Romanian Divizia 1 Munte, Divizia 10 Infanterie, and the German 97. Infanterie Division, supported by the Romanian Grupul 3 bombardament / picaj (dive) with Ju-87Ds.

These aircraft are referred to as Luftwaffe in most histories.

 

• The Ilyushin-6 makes its first flight. Based on the Il-4 medium bomber, it is an attempt to field very long-range bomber with fuel conserving diesel engines.

 

Il-6. Flight testing will show controllability issues and the engines will be hard to start at low temperatures and are slow to respond to throttle movements. It will not be put into production."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "

• The Red Army liberates Bolshaya and Danilovka in its advance on Kharkov. Other Soviet formations driving on Smolensk take Spas Demensk.

 

• Following extensive testing of the prototypes and analysis of the Battle of Kursk, the Soviet Main Directorate of Armored Forces cancels production of the T-43 tank. The T-43 has heavier armor than the T-34, an improved suspension system, and a three man turret with all-round vision for the commander. These benefits are found to be not worth the loss of mobility and the decrease in tank production by retooling for the new vehicle, especially as the armor can still be penetrated by the 8.8cm gun.

 

- The Directorate determined that the most important improvement to make is to upgrade tanks to the 85mm gun. Prototypes are already in the works for the T-34/85 medium (with a modified T-43 turret), and the IS-1 (Iosef Stalin) heavy tank. The stopgap KV-85 is already in production.

 

- Once the T-34/85 appears, German reports will refer to it as the T-43 due to intelligence they had previously gained on development of the now canceled type.

 

T-34 at left next to a T-43

 

Tiger tanks nar Belgorod 13 Aug 1943"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The I. G. Farben factory in Oppau, Germany increases the minimum requirement of work for forced laborers to 67 hours per week.

 

• Von Manstein gives his consent to withdraw from Kharkov. 

 

 

- The Soviets hear thunderous explosions as ammo dumps are blown and reconnaissance aircraft report that the German 8. Armee is leaving the city. The Soviets intensify artillery fire and push forward while the Germans fight to hold open a corridor through which a withdrawal could be made.

 

- After dark, the 89th Guards Rifle and 107th Rifle Divisions break into the city, driving the last German rearguard detachments before them. Enormous fires are set by the Germans in hope of delaying the Soviet advance.

 

- Von Manstein reports that Heersgruppe Süd units are nearly all below 50% strength.

 

Panther knocked out by Senior Sergeant Parfenov outside Kharkov August 1943"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• A Soviet Il-4 torpedoes and damages the Swedish 5,100 ton Hercules in the Baltic Sea.

 

 

- Soviet Naval Aviation is becoming increasingly active in the Baltic, and will sink six merchant ships for 8,000 tons plus a German minesweeper and damage several more ships in the second half of 1943.

 

• Finnish minelayer Riilahti is on anti-submarine patrol off Hogland when she is torpedoed and sunk by Soviet torpedo cutter TK-94 with the loss of 23 crewmen.

Riilahti

 

• Hard fighting is developing south of Izyum as Soviet forces attempt to breach German/Romanian defenses.

 

• Fifth Shock Army cuts the Taganrog-Stalino rail line and encircles XXIX Armeekorps.

 

• Stalin announces the liberation of Kharkov from the German occupiers and a serious strategic defeat for the Nazi forces. Great crowds in Moscow celebrate until the early morning with all church bells ringing, fireworks displays, and more than two hundred guns firing twenty “victory salvoes”.

 

Kursk to Kharkov"

 

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Soviet naval aircraft drop mines into the Danube River.

 

• The Red Army launches the Yelnya-Dorogobuzh offensive operation as part of the drive on Smolensk with the Tenth Guards Army, Twenty-first Army and the Thirty-third Army, supported by the First Air Army. Soviet troops move forward after an intense 90-minute shelling. The artillery bombardment as well as ground attack aircraft significantly damage the Wehrmacht lines, allowing the Red Army to execute a breakthrough on a 25 kilometer front and advance 7 km by the end of the day.

 

Pe-2s preparing to sortie. The Soviets are forward basing their aircraft as much as possible to allow rapid turnaround between missions. By tomorrow, the rifle divisions will have created a salient 30 km wide and 14 km deep.

 

- In order to exploit the breakthrough, the II Guards Tank Corps will advance thirty kilometers and reach the outskirts of Yelnya by the 30th. By this time, the Germans will be abandoning the town and retreating in disarray. In less than a week, Soviet forces reach the eastern shore of the Dniepr.

 

• In the advance to the Dniepr, Soviet Second Tank Army, depleted by continuous combat since Kursk, has its leading elements decimated by hidden and entrenched anti-tank guns. It will be pulled into the Stavka VGK Reserve to rebuild.

 

• U-302 attacks a Soviet convoy off the Siberian coast 1,200 miles east-north-east of Arkhangelsk. Minesweeper T-906 spots and evades the torpedoes but 2,400 ton steamer Dikson is hit by one. She later founders with no casualties.

 

• U-639 is torpedoed and sunk with all hands in the Kara Sea by Soviet submarine S-101."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Soviet submarine ShCh-215 torpedoes and sinks the German 1,800 ton Thiesbe off the Turkish Bosphorus.

 

• On the Black Sea coast, the Red Army liberates the port of Taganrog, aided by the Black Sea Fleet landing naval infantry teams from armored river gunboats in the German rear and providing gunfire support.

 

Soviet armored gunboat and patrol boat of the Azov Flotilla under Contre-admirál Sergey Gorshkov in 1943.

 

- Later in the year the flotilla will head up the Dniepr and other rivers to support and supply the Red Army, and enter the Danube towards the end of the war.

 

• On the Central Front, the Soviet Tenth Guards and Fifth Armies take Yelnya, forcing the German 4. Armee westwards.

 

• Excerpt from Naval Aviation Hurricane pilot Igor Kaberov’s “Swastika in the Gunsight”:

 

 “Next our home was the Oranienbaum bridgehead (Leningrad sector). The Germans were not far from there, but in that sector of the front it still remained quiet. On 30 August, Col Dzyuba’s little UT-1 aircraft flew in. Five Stormoviks followed him and, a little later, seven Kittyhawks landed on the airfield.

 

Soviet Kittyhawks over the Leningrad Front

 

Cheerful young lads, with Guards’ badges on their uniforms, climbed from their cockpits. ‘Where are you guards heading?’ we enquired. ‘We want to set somebody alight,’ a tall blond sergeant answered cheerfully. ‘Are you taking us, or will you go by yourselves?’ ‘We’ve flown in to help you,’ he said, neither in jest nor seriously.

 

We exchanged glances. So army pilots had arrived to help us. And Col Dzyuba was there. That meant there was to be some kind of interesting operation.

 

Soon, all of us (the army pilots, too) were ordered to assemble in one place. ‘Ahead of us,’ Dzyuba waved a pointer at the map, then at a large photo, ‘is Gorodyets aireld. It is situated 25 kilometres south of Luga. As you see, there are Ju-88s on the airfield. They are refuelling. The photo was taken two hours ago. Evidently, the bombers recently flew in from somewhere. Your task is to destroy them on the airfield. At its northern end, twenty-five Me-109 fighters can be counted. Follow my orders — then they won’t take off. From our airfield, make for Samro Lake, then to Gorodyets. In the area shaded red,’ Col Dzyuba again raised his pointer, ‘are partisans. In the event of a forced landing, come down here. . . .’

 

Having defined the duties of the leading group, Dzyuba gave the command, ‘Go to it!’ Eight Il-2 Stormoviks, our eighteen Hurricanes, seven Kittyhawks and one Pe-2 aircraft taking photographs rose into the air. Fifteen of the Hurricanes were armed with rockets. Cameras had been fitted in two of the fighters (Maj Myasnikov’s and mine), in order to take pictures.

 

We crossed the front line. The railway was beneath us. To the left was Volosovo. Beneath my wings lay Bolshaya Vruda where, on 10 August 1941, I had to land. I remembered that good Russian woman, Zinaida Mikhailovna Petrova, and said to myself, as if addressing her: ‘Are you still with us, you who gave me shelter when I needed it? Dear Zinaida Mikhailovna, when Victory Day comes, put on the samovar. We’ll meet again, sit down to tea and remember the past.’

 

While I was talking to myself with Zinaida Mikhailovna, we had passed over the Samro Lake and were approaching Gorodyets: there was the Fascist airfield. Everything as we had seen in the photograph; Junkers aircraft stood in three rows, and next to them petrol tankers.

 

The Stormoviks immediately went into the attack, followed by the Hurricanes. Bombs and rockets exploded. The dispersal area was enveloped in flames. Again and again, our aircraft passed over it. One after another, the enemy machines burst into flames. ‘Take that for Nizino! That for Bolshaya Vruda! That for Leningrad!’ I shouted. Four Messerschmitts tried to taxi out for take-off. Two Hurricanes brought down a squall of fire on them. Pilots leaped from their cockpits, ran across the aireld, fell and lay motionless.

 

The sparse anti-aircraft fire did not trouble us. Once they had completed the task they had begun, the Stormoviks, Hurricanes, the Pe-2 aircraft (which had been taking photographs) and the Kittyhawks flew off.

 

Aleksandr Fyodorovich and I also photographed the burning aireld. As the cameras clicked, I heard Myasnikov’s voice: ‘Shall we give it to them?’ The CO questioningly glanced at me from his cockpit. I nodded.

 

He turned his fighter and went into a dive. We passed over the northern perimeter of the airfield and fired at the fighters in dispersal with all our machine-guns and cannons. Another two enemy aircraft burst into flames. A large group of Germans, who had gathered together, fled in panic. Yet again we placed them under fire, then, at full speed, chased after our comrades.

 

Back home, we learned that, at the same time as the attack on Gorodyets airfield, there had been an attack on Siverskaya, where enemy fighters had been assembled. That was why we had not been intercepted. Without losing a single aircraft, we destroyed seventeen Ju-88 bombers and two Messerschmitts. That number includes only those that were burned or broken to pieces by bombs and rockets. But there were also damaged aircraft, possibly even rendered permanently unserviceable.

 

Soviet Hurricane optimized for ground attack"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The Red Army makes substantial gains, taking Novgorod Severski and Romni near Kiev and Lozovaya south of Kharkov. Berlin Radio announces the evacuation of Bryansk.

 

• The port of Novorossisk is liberated by the Soviet Eighteenth Army."

 

 

[As an aside, in English language history available to me, the second half of 1943 is the least documented. I think this is due to the German military who survived the way blaming Hitler for defeats. During this period, Hitler's directives could not be tied as easily to German defeats as 1944-5. So, this period of Soviet advances and German defeats was ignored where possible. JMO.]

Edited September 16, 2023 by cardboard_killer

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• 47 Polish prisoners of war escape from the Oflag IV-B camp at Dössel-Warburg, Germany; 9 will make it but the remaining 38 will be recaptured and sent to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp for execution.

 

• The Soviets launch Operation Concert, directed by Ukrainian partisan Generál-leytenánt Panteleimon Pomarenko. Consisting of two-hundred thousand men and women in 193 partisan detachments, it is a systemic effort to disrupt Nazi rail communications and transport in support of the offensives in Byelorussia and Ukraine.

 

Derailed train on the eastern front

 

• Soviet troops on the Smolensk Front overrun Yartsevo and Dukhovshchina. Further south, the Germans are forced to retire toward the Dnieper as Priluki, Piryatin, Lubni, Khorol, and Krasnograd east and southeast of Kiev fall to the Red Army.

 

• As the advance continues, more and more Soviets encounter what has been happening in the occupied territories. Vasily Grossman writes:

 

“On a windy and overcast morning, we met a boy on the edge of the village of Tarasevichi, by the Dnepr. He looked about thirteen to fourteen years old. The boy was extremely thin, his sallow skin was tight on his cheekbones, large bumps protruded on his skull. His lips were dirty, pale, like a dead man’s who had fallen face flat on the ground. His eyes were looking in a tired way, there was neither joy nor sadness in them.

 

They are so frightening, these old, tired, lifeless eyes of children. ‘Where is your father?’ ‘Killed,’ he answered. ‘And mother?’ ‘She died.’ ‘Have you got brothers or sisters?’ ‘A sister. They took her to Germany.’ ‘Have you got any relatives?’ ‘No, they were all burned in a partisan village.’

 

Every soldier, every officer and every general of the Red Army who had seen the Ukraine in blood and fire, who had heard the true story of what had been happening in the Ukraine during the two years of German rule, understands to the bottom of their souls that there are only two sacred words left to us. One of them is ‘love’ the other one is ‘revenge’.”

Ukrainian villager by his house which has been burned by the retreating Germans

 

Soviet soldiers advancing on Poltava past a knocked out German Marder III Ausf H Sept 43"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The Red Army liberates Chernigov, northeast of Kiev.

 

• Soviet ace Aleksander Pokryshkin, commander of the 16th Guards Air Regiment, shoots down five German aircraft in one day with his P-39N. Three of them are downed in view of journalists and senior officers observing the front lines near Tokmak, Ukraine. He will receive his third Hero of the Soviet Union award and command of the 9th Guards Air Division. His official tally will be 65 combat victories though he claims 88. 

 

- After the war he will initially fall into disfavor for criticizing Soviet aircraft design, but reach the rank of Marshal of Aviation. The below P-39N has been restored and painted in the colors of Pokryshkin’s “White 100”.

 

P-39N being restored"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• Heavy fighting is in progress in the vicinity of Smolensk and Roslavl. The Red Army liberates Borispol, east of Kiev.

 

• Stavka had tasked the Third Tank Army to race the weakening Germans to the Dniepr in order to save the wheat crop in the Bukrin area from the German scorched earth policy, and to achieve strategic or operational river bridgeheads before a German defense could stabilize there. Third Tank reached the river but German airstrikes and lack of bridging equipment prevent heavy equipment from crossing, and elements of six German divisions are massing for a counterattack to seal the breach. Sensing a critical juncture, Stavka orders a hasty airborne assault to increase the size of the bridgehead. Three airborne brigades are only given one day’s notice.

 

- Units are rushed to airfields piecemeal by overextended rail, without spades, anti-tank mines, or ponchos for the autumn frosts. A lack of aircraft results in less than three quarters of the paratroopers being sent. Most of the 45mm anti-tank guns are left behind. Urgency and the fuel shortage prevents aerial assembly aloft. Most aircraft, as soon as loaded and fueled, fly single file to drop points. Assault waves become intermingled. Drop zones and assembly areas are only poorly understood by platoon and company commanders who are still studying their orders in the air.

 

Soviet airborne troops on parade with SMGs and LMGs. An estimated half of the paratroopers have only jumped from training towers. This is their first from an airplane.

 

- Due to bad weather and lack of photo-reconnaissance, one of the drop zones is occupied by the 73. Panzergrenadier Regiment of 19. Panzer Division, which takes the aircraft and parachutes under fire including quadruple 20mm mounts. Some of the Soviets are firing back and throwing grenades before hitting the ground.

 

- The intent was to make a 10 by 14 km drop over largely undefended terrain. Instead, the Soviets make a 30 by 90 km drop over the fastest mobile elements of two German corps. The Germans use white parachutes as beacons to hunt down and kill disorganized groups and to gather and/or destroy airdropped supplies. Captured documents give the Germans enough knowledge of Soviet objectives to arrive at most of them before the disorganized paratroops.

 

Soviet troops along the Dniepr.

 

- Of the 4,575 paratroopers dropped, some 2,300 will assemble into 43 ad-hoc groups. Objectives are abandoned as hopeless and they spend most of their time seeking supplies and trying to stay alive. Others link up with partisans operating in the area.

 

- By mid-October, Colonel P. Sidorchuk, commander of the 5th Guards Airborne Brigade, has amassed a brigade sized force mixed from all three brigades plus partisans. He obtains air supply and assists the 2nd Ukrainian Front across the Dniepr. Towards the end of November the survivors will be evacuated. Sixty percent of those who dropped have been killed or captured.

 

- Stavka will not order any further large scale airborne operations for the rest of the war.

 

Soviet partisans in September 1943"

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years ago today] "• The underground Résistance newspaper Defence de la France publishes the first photographs of Nazi death camps.

 

• Camp Syrets had been established by the SS in 1942 for the purpose of killing Jews and partisans, but also for slave labor to dig up and burn evidence of the slaughter of Kiev’s Jewish population which occurred shortly after its capture in 1941, especially the early murders done nearby at Babi Yar. The inmates who have been doing the work know that they will be executed once the work is complete. Many of them have concealed keys or other pieces of scrap metal taken from the corpses they have dug up. In the early morning, the 227 remaining workers and about a hundred Jews pick the locks of their shackles and rush the guards, armed with simple tools such as hammers and screwdrivers. Most of them are mowed down with machine gun and rifle fire, and are set upon by dogs. A number break out into the countryside but most are captured and executed. A total of fifteen escape.

 

- The Soviets will capture Syrets in November, and convert it into a POW camp.

 

• Soviet troops occupy Kremenchug and the east bank of the Dniepr in that area; continue to close in on Kiev.

 

• Future President Lech Wałęsa is launched in Poland."

[cardboard_killer]

[80 years and two days ago] "• This newsreel is released around this time. The Sword of Stalingrad will be presented in late November at the Tehran Conference.

 

• Soviet troops liberate Nevel, which is on the boundary shared by German Heersgruppe Nord and Heersgruppe Mitte.

 

• Soviet commando frogmen (Morskoy spetsnaz) infiltrate a German small craft base at Strelna near Leningrad and destroy at least two motor craft.

 

• German 4. Panzerarmee fails to destroy Soviet Thirty-eighth Army’s bridgehead at Lyutezh despite repeated attacks over several days.

 

• During the night of 5–6 October, flotilla leader Kharkov and the destroyers Besposhchadny and Sposobny bombard Yalta, Alushta and Feodosiya. They are attacked by German S-boats but the Germans are driven off with S-45 damaged. At daylight the force is attacked by German and Romanian aircraft. Kharkov is damaged by the first attack and has to be towed by Sposobny. The second attack damages all three ships and Sposobny takes Besposhchadny under tow as well. The next attack sinks both Kharkov and Besposhchadny. Sposobny is then sunk by a fourth wave while trying to rescue survivors.

 

- This incident prompts Stalin to issue an order forbidding the use of ships destroyer-sized and larger without his express permission.

 

Ха́рьков

 

Ссобранный

 

Беспощадный"