"7th Guards Tank Division The 7th Guards Tank Division was a tank division of the Soviet Army during the Cold War. The division traced its heritage back to the 7th Guards Tank Corps, formed during World War II in July 1943 from the 15th Tank Corps for its performance in Operation Kutuzov, the Soviet counteroffensive after the Battle of Kursk. It was part of the 3rd Guards Tank Army during the war, and was converted into a tank division like the rest of the tank corps in 1945. Stationed in Czechoslovakia postwar, it was briefly downsized into a regiment in"
"Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) was the largest confrontation of World War II, in which Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Southern Russia. Marked by fierce close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians in air raids, it was the largest (nearly 2.2 million personnel) and bloodiest (1.8–2 million killed, wounded or captured) battle in the history of warfare. After their defeat at Stalingrad, the German High Command had to withdraw vast military forces from the Western Front to"
"the Second World War and for the loss of life associated with the battle. The term Stalingrad has become almost synonymous with large-scale urban battles with high casualties on both sides. Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) was the largest confrontation of World War II, in which Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Southern Russia. Marked by fierce close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians in air raids, it was the largest (nearly 2.2 million personnel) and bloodiest (1.8–2"
"February 8, 1943. In July 1943, the Germans launched Operation Citadel in an attempt to recapture Kursk. During the resulting Battle of Kursk, the village of Prokhorovka near Kursk became the center of a major armoured engagement – the Battle of Prokhorovka – between Soviet and German forces, which is widely considered to have been one of the largest tank battles in history. Operation Citadel was the last major German offensive against the Soviet Union. Rebuilding efforts in the city began in February 1944. The cultural life recovered as well: on 19 February the cinema reopened and on February 27"
"Battle of Radzymin (1944) The Battle of Radzymin was one of a series of engagements between the Red Army's 1st Byelorussian Front and the German Army's XXXIXth Panzer Corps that occurred as part of the Lublin-Brest Offensive between 1 and 10 August 1944 at the conclusion of the Belorussian strategic offensive operation near the town of Radzymin in the vicinity of Warsaw, part of which entailed a large tank battle at Wołomin. It was the largest tank battle on the territories of Poland during World War II. Approach of the Red Army forces into the proximity of Warsaw served to"
"Kursk Kursk () is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym Rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German struggle during World War II and the site of the largest tank battle in history. Population: Archaeology indicates that the site of Kursk was settled in the 5th or 4th century BCE. The settlement was fortified and included Slavs at least as early as the 8th century CE. The first written record of Kursk is dated 1032. It was mentioned as"
"The site is known to everyone in the city. Soviet Times During the Great Patriotic War (World War II), Okhtyrka was occupied by the German Army from 15 October 1941 to 23 February 1943 and again from 11 March to 25 August 1943. Okhtyrka was near the southern flank of the Kursk Bulge, and fighting for the possession of the city in the summer of 1943 got extremely fierce. That is why the city and its surroundings have so many monuments of the last war: the eternal flame of remembrance in the city park, Valley of Heroes, T-34 tank on"
"of the Great Patriotic War in 1941, as industries evacuated from the western parts of the Soviet Union to the Urals, and to Chelyabinsk Oblast in particular. During the war, Magnitogorsk alone produced one third of all Soviet steel, while the city of Chelyabinsk became the main center of Soviet tank production, earning the nickname ""Tankograd"" (Tank City). Chelyabinsk Oblast has been associated with top-secret nuclear research since the 1940s. While there are no nuclear power stations in Chelyabinsk, a number of production reactors were located there starting with the early Cold War. A serious nuclear accident occurred in 1957"
"forces recaptured the city in the Battle of Voronezh of 1943. Battle of Voronezh (1942) The Battle of Voronezh, or First Battle of Voronezh, was a battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, fought in and around the strategically important city of Voronezh on the Don river, south of Moscow, from 28 June-24 July 1942, as opening move of the German summer offensive in 1942. The German attack had two objectives. One was to seed confusion about the ultimate goals of the overall campaign. There was widespread feeling by almost all observers, especially Soviet high command, that the"
"Uralvagonzavod UralVagonZavod () is a Russian machine building company located in Nizhny Tagil, Russia. It is one of the largest scientific and industrial complexes in Russia and the largest main battle tank manufacturer in the world. The name ""Уралвагонзавод"" means ""Ural Railroad Car Factory"". The plant was built during 1931-1936 (mostly during the second five-year plan), launched on October 11, 1936, and named after Felix Dzerzhinsky. Initially it manufactured freight cars. After the German invasion of 1941, Stalin ordered hundreds of factories in Ukraine and western Russia to be evacuated east. The KhPZ Factory No. 183 in Kharkiv was moved"
"again failed to break through his front line. The failure spelled doom for the German panzers. Unable to defeat Krivoshein, on 1943 July 9 Hoth redirected his attack against the 6th Tank Corps in Prokhorovka, leaving his right flank open. On July 12, the powerful 5th Guards Tank Army of Pavel Rotmistrov slammed into Hoth's flank and delivered a mortal blow to the German panzers. The 1st Tank Army also went on counterattack. By the end of the day, Hoth, suffering from terrible losses, retreated. The Wehrmacht lost the greatest tank battle in history, and the Red Army in effect"
"Battle of Voronezh (1942) The Battle of Voronezh, or First Battle of Voronezh, was a battle on the Eastern Front of World War II, fought in and around the strategically important city of Voronezh on the Don river, south of Moscow, from 28 June-24 July 1942, as opening move of the German summer offensive in 1942. The German attack had two objectives. One was to seed confusion about the ultimate goals of the overall campaign. There was widespread feeling by almost all observers, especially Soviet high command, that the Germans would reopen their attack on Moscow that summer. By strongly"
"Mamayev Kurgan Mamayev Kurgan () is a dominant height overlooking the city of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) in Southern Russia. The name in Russian means ""tumulus of Mamai"". The formation is dominated by a memorial complex commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942 to February 1943). The battle, a hard-fought Soviet victory over Axis forces on the Eastern Front of World War II, turned into one of the bloodiest battles in human history. At the time of its installation in 1967 the statue named ""The Motherland Calls"" on Mamayev Kurgan formed the largest free-standing sculpture in the world; When forces of"
"Stiff resistance caused a change of direction from east to west of the front, but the tanks got before encountering the reserves of the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army outside Prokhorovka. Battle was joined on 12 July, with about one thousand tanks being engaged. After the war, the battle near Prochorovka was idealized by Soviet historians as the largest tank battle of all time. The meeting engagement at Prochorovka was a Soviet defensive success, albeit at heavy cost. The Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army, with about 800 light and medium tanks, attacked elements of the II SS Panzer Corps. Tank"
"the two. The significant Jewish population of Kharkiv (Kharkiv's Jewish community prided itself with the second largest synagogue in Europe) suffered greatly during the war. Between December 1941 and January 1942, an estimated 30,000 people (slightly more than half Jewish) were killed and buried in a mass grave by the Germans in a ravine outside of town named Drobytsky Yar. During World War II, four battles took place for control of the city: Before the occupation, Kharkiv's tank industries were evacuated to the Urals with all their equipment, and became the heart of Red Army's tank programs (particularly, producing the"
"Battle of Kursk The Battle of Kursk was a Second World War engagement between German and Soviet forces on the Eastern Front near Kursk ( south-west of Moscow) in the Soviet Union, during July and August 1943. The battle began with the launch of the German offensive, Operation Citadel (), on 5 July, which had the objective of pinching off the Kursk salient with attacks on the base of the salient from north and south simultaneously. After the German offensive stalled on the northern side of the salient, on 12 July the Soviets commenced their Kursk Strategic Offensive Operation with"
"west, and the Grossdeutschland Division began its retreat from the city on the next day. In the battle for Liubotyn between 21 and 22 February, the corps reported killing 400 German soldiers and destroying 12 tanks, while suffering losses of 360 killed and wounded and six tanks. On 23 February 1943, German troops from the 4th Panzer Army counterattacked the Southwestern Front troops exploiting the breakthrough to the south of Kharkov, encircling many and forcing the remainder to retreat towards the Donets, beginning the Third Battle of Kharkov. The 3rd Tank Army was ordered to relieve the encircled troops, and"
"plant almost completely; they demolished the big railway bridge again, and demolished the turbine building and damaged 32 of the 49 bays of the Dnieper hydro-electric dam. The city has a street between Voznesenskyi and Oleksandrivskyi Districts and a memorial in Oleksandrivskyi District dedicated to Red Army Lieutenant Yatsenko who commanded the tank, which first entered the city; he and his crew were killed in the battle for the city. The Red Army did not recapture the parts of the city on the right bank until 1944. The rebuilding of the Dnieper hydro-electric dam commenced on 7 July 1944; the"
"Battle of Lenino The Battle of Lenino was a tactical World War II engagement that took place between October 12 and October 13, 1943, north of the village of Lenino in the Mogilev region of Byelorussia. The battle itself was a part of a larger Soviet Spas-Demensk offensive operation with the aims of clearing the eastern bank of the Dnieper River of German forces and piercing the Panther-Wotan line of defences. While the Polish and Soviet forces managed to break through the German defences and inflict heavy casualties on the Germans, they were unable to keep the advance. There was"
"the German invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. The 17th Tank Corps commenced its combat history on 26 June 1942, when it was deployed to the west of Voronezh, just prior to the Battle of Voronezh (1942). For distinction in combat during the Operation Little Saturn between 17 December to 30 December 1942, the 17th Tank Corps was renumbered as the 4th Guards Tank Corps in January 1943. The Corps received the honorific ""Kantemirovsky"" after the village of Kantemirovka in Kantemirovsky District, Voronezh Oblast, when it had liberated it from German troops by tank sub-units as their"
"in July at Krasnoye Sormovo Factory N.112 in Gorky. After Germany's surprise invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa), the Wehrmacht's rapid advances forced the evacuation and relocation of Soviet tank factories eastwards of the Ural Mountains, an undertaking of immense scale and haste that presented enormous logistic difficulties and was extremely punishing to the workers involved. Alexander Morozov personally supervised the evacuation of all skilled engineers and laborers, machinery and stock from KhPZ to re-establish the factory at the site of the Dzerzhinsky Ural Railcar Factory in Nizhny Tagil, renamed Stalin Ural Tank Factory N.183."
"of the Long Lake (Ozero Dolgoye). Muzhestva Square Ploschad Muzhestva (], ) is an open public square, shaped as a roundabout, in the north-east of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Its name and decoration commemorate the fortitude city dwellers demonstrated during the nearly 900-day-long 1941–44 Nazi Germany Siege of Leningrad as the square opens the way to the biggest burial place of the siege victims Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery. The underground station of the same name opened next to the square on 31 December 1975. The square joins five streets, two of which form northeastern roughly latitudinal part of the city's Central Arc"
"V tanks in Berlin. Photographic evidence indicates that these were survivors of the Russian Civil War and had previously been displayed as a monument in Smolensk, Russia, before being brought to Berlin after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Accounts of their active involvement in the Battle of Berlin have not been verified. A number of tanks survive, although several are just shells that have had all internal components removed. The largest collection is at The Tank Museum at Bovington in the United Kingdom, which holds eight tanks. Two of these are maintained in running condition, the"
"German offensive in the Soviet Union turned into a continual fallback. The Battle of Kursk, which involved the largest tank battle in history, was the last major German offensive on the Eastern Front. In June 1944, British and American forces invaded France in the D-Day landings, opening a new front against Germany. Berlin finally fell in 1945, ending World War II in Europe. The war was the largest and most destructive in human history, with 60 million dead across the world. More than 40 million people in Europe had died as a result of World War II, including between 11"
"bears the name of nemesis, Joseph Stalin, in his sights, Hitler sent Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus to crush the city of Stalingrad. What he did not expect was the ferocious resistance offered by Lieutenant General Vasily Chuikov. What was supposed to be a battle lasting only a few weeks dragged to become one of the bloodiest battles in history. Original Airdate: 3/09/2009 Germany and Russia clashed in 1943 near the Soviet city of Kursk, as control of the Eastern Front lay open. The Germans were led by Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, an aristocratic master tactician. Across the battlefield was"
"Over 6,000 armored vehicles fought in close range over the open territory near Kursk in 1943. This battle stopped the German advance into the Kursk Salient, and was a turning point of World War II on the Eastern Front. Kursk played a role in the Cold War as host to Khalino air base. Nearby is Tsentralno-Chernozemny Zapovednik, a large section of steppe soil that has never been plowed. It is used for a variety of research purposes. Since 1868 there has been a railway connection between Kursk and Moscow. Kursk is located on a major railway line between Moscow and"
"May 1942 in the Stalingrad Military District as the 13th Tank Corps, under the command of Major General Pyotr Shurov. It included the 65th, 85th, and 88th Tank Brigades as well as the 20th Motor Rifle Brigade and support units. The corps saw its first combat on 10 June in the area of Prikolotnoye southwest of Kupiansk as part of the Southwestern Front. During June and July the corps was part of the 28th Army, then transferred to the 21st Army to participate in the Battle of Voronezh (the Voronezh–Voroshilovgrad Operation). Shruov was mortally wounded in July and replaced by"
"supports social programs in the city. Battle of Nikolayevka The Battle of Nikolayevka was the breakout of Italian forces in January 1943, as a small part of the larger Battle of Stalingrad. The breakout involved a corps of the Italian 8th Army's near the village of Nikolayevka (now Livenka, Belgorod Oblast in Russia). The Italian 8th Army's Alpini (Mountain) Corps, consisting of the 3rd Julia, 2nd Tridentina and 4th Cuneense divisions and the 156th Vicenza Infantry Division to their rear, were at this point largely unaffected by the Soviet offensive on their right flank. On January 13, 1943, the Red"
"or AFVs. The most capable Soviet tank at Kursk was the T-34, the original version was armed with a 76.2mm gun, the gun struggled against uparmoured Panzer IVs, and the frontal armour of Tigers and Panthers was essentially impenetrable. Only the SU-122 and SU-152 self-propelled guns had the power to destroy the Tiger at short range, but they were not equal to the Tiger's 88mm gun at long range, and there were very few SU-122 and the SU-152 at Kursk. Fighting started on the southern face of the salient on the evening of 4 July 1943, when German infantry launched"
"the district was transferred to Kalinin Oblast, and on February 5 of the same year, Velikiye Luki became the center of Velikiye Luki Okrug of Kalinin Oblast, one of the okrugs abutting the state boundaries of the Soviet Union. On May 4, 1938, the okrug was abolished again. From 19 to 21 July 1941 and again from 25 August 1941 to 17 January 1943, Velikiye Luki was occupied by German troops. During World War II, in 1941 and 1942, intensive fighting took place in the vicinity between German and Soviet forces. During the Battle for Velikiye Luki (in late 1942),"
"Volgograd Volgograd (), formerly Tsaritsyn (), 1589–1925, and Stalingrad (), 1925–1961, is an important industrial city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. It lies on the western bank of the Volga River. The Battle of Stalingrad in World War II was one of the largest and bloodiest battles in the history of warfare. Known as the hero city locally, it is home to The Motherland Calls, an 85 meter statue dedicated to the heroes of the battle. The city also has many tourist attractions, such as museums, sandy beaches, and a self-propelled floating church. Population: Although the city"
"the debut of the German Panther tank, although the numbers employed at Kursk were small and the brunt of the burden was carried by the Panzer III, StuG III, and Panzer IV. The campaign featured the largest tank battles in history. The high-water mark of the battle was the massive armour engagement at Prokhorovka, which began on 12 July, though the vast majority of armour losses on both sides were caused by artillery and mines, rather than tanks. Over 6,000 fully tracked armoured vehicles, 4,000 combat aircraft, and 2 million men are believed to have participated in these battles. The"
"in the area of Arseniyevsky, Trubitsyn, and Sergeevskie. On 7 May 1943 the corps was reinforced by the 133rd Guards Mortar Battalion (eight BM-13) and the 730th Antitank Battalion (12 85mm towed AT guns). It was sent to the front line on 7 July 1943 reinforced with the 1454th (SU-122) and 1455th (SU-76) Assault Gun Regiments. On the afternoon of 8 July, the corps entered combat. On 15 July, the leading elements fought their way into Buzuluk, not far from Maloarkhangelsk. On the same day, the corps broke into Maloarhangelsk. On 1 August, the corps led the offensive 14 kilometers"