WWII Battlefields today (in photographs)

Koryssa_RUS · Dec 22, 2012

I am very happy to share. Thank you so much for your wonderful comments! ))) I have decided now to post second battlefield of Kursk and Prokhorovka, from the Battle of Kursk, 1943. My friend, Nasta lives in Kursk. This was my second visit, this time I had my camera. I will post small introduction of history, taken from Wikipedia as the first post. I have posted some photographs to forum before, but I wish to include in this collection also. I hope you enjoy this!

Please do correct my source information, if there is mistakes. I am not a expert of history. ))

The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. The Battle of Prokhorovka (12 July 1943) was fought on the Eastern Front as part of the Battle of Kursk in the Soviet Union. Principally, the German Wehrmacht's Fourth Panzer Army clashed with the Soviet Red Army's 5th Guards Tank Army. It is the largest tank battle in military history. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka, and the costliest single day of aerial warfare in history. It was the final strategic offensive the Germans were able to mount in the east. The resulting decisive Soviet victory gave the Red Army the strategic initiative for the rest of the war.

The Germans hoped to shorten their lines by eliminating the Kursk salient (also known as the Kursk bulge), created in the aftermath of their defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad. They envisioned pincers breaking through its northern and southern flanks to achieve a great encirclement of Red Army forces. Advised months in advance that the attack would fall on the neck of the Kursk salient, the Soviets designed a plan to slow, redirect, exhaust, and progressively wear down the powerful German panzer spearheads by forcing them to attack through a vast interconnected web of minefields, pre-sighted artillery fire zones, and concealed anti-tank strong points comprising eight progressively spaced defense lines 250 km deep—more than 10 times as deep as the Maginot Line—and featuring a greater than 1:1 ratio of anti-tank guns to attacking vehicles.

By far the most extensive defensive works ever constructed, it proved to be more than three times the depth necessary to contain the furthest extent of the German attack. When the German forces had exhausted themselves against the defences, the Soviets responded with counter-offensives, which allowed the Red Army to retake Orel and Belgorod on 5 August and Kharkov on 23 August, and push the Germans back across a broad front.
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Here you can see modern city of Kursk. It is the main city street.

Tank monuments at Prokhorovka village.

Koryssa_RUS · Dec 22, 2012

Next, you can see military cemetery in North-Kursk. There is thousands of people buried here, all from this battle.

Koryssa_RUS · Feb 2, 2013

Today is 70th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad! ))) There is photographs below.

http://www.stalingrad70.ru/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21293597

RooRshack · Feb 2, 2013

Awesome thread.

As far as remains being left there, well I'd leave them.... originally the USSR was in shambles and not being able to comb things like that is understandable, and then after that there's a point where it's sort of those people's grave, and there's little sense disturbing them or their fragments.

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WWII Battlefields today (in photographs)

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