The largest battles of the Great Patriotic War (tank and others). Battle of Dubno: a forgotten feat
Since the first armored vehicles began their march across the mangled battlefields during the First World War, tanks have become an integral part of land war. There have been many tank battles over the years, and some of them were great importance for history. Here are 10 battles you need to know about.
Battles in chronological order.
1. Battle of Cambrai (1917)
Occurring in late 1917, this battle on the Western Front was the first major tank battle in military history and it was there that combined arms forces were first seriously engaged on a large scale, marking a true turning point in military history. As historian Hugh Strachan notes, "The biggest intellectual shift in the war between 1914 and 1918 was that combined arms battles were centered around the capabilities of guns rather than infantry forces." And by "combined arms", Strachan means coordinated use various types artillery, infantry, aviation, and, of course, tanks.
On November 20, 1917, the British attacked Cambrai with 476 tanks, 378 of which were battle tanks. The frightened Germans were taken by surprise, as the offensive instantly advanced several kilometers in depth along the entire front. This was an unprecedented breakthrough of the enemy's defense. The Germans eventually recovered with a counterattack, but this tank offensive demonstrated the incredible potential of mobile, armored warfare- a method that began to be actively used only a year later, during the final blow to Germany.
2. Battle of the Khalkhin Gol River (1939)
This was the first major tank battle of World War II, pitting the Soviet Red Army against the Imperial Japanese Army on its border. During the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945, Japan claimed Khalkhin Gol as the border between Mongolia and Manchukuo ( Japanese name occupied Manchuria), while the USSR insisted on the border lying to the east at Nomon Khan (which is why this conflict is sometimes called the Nomon Khan incident). Hostilities began in May 1939, when Soviet troops occupied the disputed territory.
After the initial success of the Japanese, the USSR assembled an army of 58,000 thousand people, almost 500 tanks and about 250 aircraft. On the morning of August 20, General Georgy Zhukov launched a surprise attack after simulating preparations for a defensive position. During this harsh day, the heat became unbearable, reaching 40 degrees Celsius, causing machine guns and cannons to melt. Soviet T-26 tanks (predecessors of the T-34) were superior to outdated ones Japanese tanks, whose guns lacked armor-piercing ability. But the Japanese fought desperately, for example, there was a very dramatic moment when Lieutenant Sadakai attacked the tank with his samurai sword until he was killed.
The subsequent Russian offensive completely destroyed General Komatsubara's forces. Japan suffered 61,000 casualties, in contrast to the Red Army's 7,974 killed and 15,251 wounded. This battle marked the beginning of Zhukov's glorious military career, and also demonstrated the importance of deception, technical and numerical superiority in tank warfare.
3. Battle of Arras (1940)
This battle should not be confused with the Battle of Arras in 1917, this battle was during the Second World War where the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) fought against the German Blitzkrieg, and gradually the fighting moved up the coast of France.
On 20 May 1940, Viscount Gort, commander of the BEF, launched a counter-attack against the Germans, codenamed Frankforce. It was attended by two infantry battalions numbering 2,000 people - and a total of 74 tanks. The BBC describes what happened next:
“The infantry battalions were divided into two columns for the attack, which took place on May 21. The right column initially advanced successfully, capturing a number of German soldiers, but they soon encountered German infantry and the SS, supported by air forces, and suffered heavy losses.
The left column also successfully advanced before colliding with infantry unit 7th Panzer Division under General Erwin Rommel.
French cover that night allowed the British troops to withdraw to their previous positions. Operation Frankforce was completed, and the next day the Germans regrouped and continued their advance.
During Frankforce, about 400 Germans were captured, both sides suffered approximately equal losses, and a number of tanks were also destroyed. The operation outdid itself - the attack was so brutal that the 7th Panzer Division believed it had been attacked by five infantry divisions."
Interestingly, some historians believe that this ferocious counterattack convinced the German generals to call a respite on May 24 - a short break from the Blitzkrieg that bought the BEF some extra time to evacuate its troops during the "Miracle of Dunkirk".
4. Battle of Brody (1941)
To Battle of Kursk in 1943, it was the largest tank battle of World War II and the greatest in history up to that point. It happened in the early days of Operation Barbarossa, when German troops moved rapidly (and relatively easily) along Eastern Front. But in the triangle formed by the cities of Dubno, Lutsk and Brody, a clash arose in which 800 non-military tanks opposed 3,500 Russian tanks.
The battle lasted four grueling days, and ended on June 30, 1941 with a resounding German victory and a difficult retreat of the Red Army. It was during the Battle of Brody that the Germans first seriously clashed with Russian T-34 tanks, which were practically immune to German weapons. But thanks to a series of Luftwaffe air attacks (which knocked out 201 Soviet tanks) and tactical maneuvering, the Germans won. Moreover, it is estimated that 50% of Soviet armor losses (~2,600 tanks) were due to logistical deficiencies, ammunition shortages, and technical problems. In total, the Red Army lost 800 tanks in that battle, and this big number compared to 200 tanks on the German side.
5. Second Battle of El Alamein (1942)
This has become a battle turning point during the North African campaign, and it was the only major tank battle that was won by British forces without direct American participation. But the American presence was certainly felt in the form of 300 Sherman tanks (the British had a total of 547 tanks) rushed to Egypt from the United States.
The battle, which began on October 23 and ended in November 1942, pitted the meticulous and patient General Bernard Montgomery against Erwin Rommel. sly fox deserts. Unfortunately for the Germans, however, Rommel was very ill, and was forced to leave for a German hospital before the battle began to unfold. In addition, his temporary deputy, General Georg von Stumme, died of heart attack during the battle. The Germans also suffered from supply problems, especially fuel shortages. Which ultimately led to disaster.
Montgomery's restructured Eighth Army launched a double attack. The first stage, Operation Lightfoot, consisted of a heavy artillery bombardment followed by an infantry attack. During the second stage, the infantry cleared the way for the armored divisions. Rommel, who returned to duty, was in despair, he realized that everything was lost, and telegraphed Hitler about this. Both the British and German armies lost around 500 tanks, but the Allied forces were unable to take the initiative after the victory, giving the Germans enough time to retreat.
But victory was obvious, prompting Winston Churchill to declare: “This is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning.”
6. Battle of Kursk (1943)
After the defeat at Stalingrad, and the emerging counter-offensive of the Red Army on all fronts, the Germans decided to make a bold, if not reckless, offensive at Kursk, in the hope of regaining their positions. As a result, the Battle of Kursk is today considered the largest and longest battle involving heavy armored vehicles in the war, and one of the largest single armored engagements.
Although no one can say exact numbers, Soviet tanks initially outnumbered German ones by two to one. According to some estimates, initially about 3,000 Soviet tanks and 2,000 German tanks clashed on the Kursk Bulge. In the event of negative developments, the Red Army was ready to throw another 5,000 tanks into battle. And although the Germans caught up with the Red Army in the number of tanks, this could not ensure their victory.
One German tank commander managed to destroy 22 Soviet tanks within an hour, but besides the tanks were Russian soldiers who approached enemy tanks with “suicidal courage,” getting close enough to throw a mine under the tracks. German tankman later wrote:
"Soviet soldiers were around us, above us and between us. They pulled us out of the tanks and knocked us out. It was scary."
All German superiority in terms of communications, maneuverability, and artillery was lost in the chaos, noise and smoke.
From the memories of tankers:
"The atmosphere was suffocating. I was gasping for breath and sweat was running down my face in streams."
"Every second we expected to be killed."
"Tanks rammed each other"
"The metal was burning."
The entire area of the battlefield was filled with burnt-out armored vehicles, emitting columns of black, oily smoke.
It is important to note that at this time there was not only a tank battle taking place there, but also an air battle. While the battle unfolded below, planes in the sky tried to shoot down the tanks.
Eight days later, the attack was stopped. Although the Red Army won, it lost five armored vehicles for every German tank. In terms of actual numbers, the Germans lost about 760 tanks and the USSR about 3,800 (for a total of 6,000 tanks and assault guns destroyed or seriously damaged). In terms of casualties, the Germans lost 54,182 people, we lost 177,847. Despite such a gap, the Red Army is considered the winner of the battle, and, as historians note, “Hitler’s long-awaited dream of oil fields The Caucasus was destroyed forever."
7. Battle of Arracourt (1944)
Occurring during the Lorraine Campaign led by General George Patton's 3rd Army from September to October 1944, less famous battle Arracourt was the largest tank battle for the US Army up to that point. Although the Battle of the Bulge would later prove to be larger, this battle took place over a much larger geographical area.
The battle is important because all German tank forces were hit by American troops, mostly equipped with 75 mm cannons. Sherman tank. Through careful coordination of tanks, artillery, infantry, and air force, German troops were defeated.
In the end American troops successfully defeated two tank brigades and parts of two tank divisions. Of the 262 German tanks, more than 86 were destroyed and 114 were seriously damaged. The Americans, on the contrary, lost only 25 tanks.
The Battle of Arracourt prevented a German counterattack and the Wehrmacht was unable to recover. Moreover, this area has become launching pad, with which Patton's army would begin its winter offensive.
8. Battle of Chawinda (1965)
The Battle of Chawinda was one of the largest tank battles after World War II. It took place during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, which pitted some 132 Pakistani tanks (as well as 150 reinforcements) against 225 Indian armored vehicles. The Indians had Centurion tanks while the Pakistanis had Pattons; both sides also used Sherman tanks.
The battle, which lasted from September 6 to 22, took place in the Ravi Chenab sector connecting Jammu and Kashmir with mainland India. The Indian Army hoped to cut off Pakistan's supply line by cutting them off from Sialkot district of Lahore region. Events reached their peak on 8 September when Indian forces advanced towards Chawinda. Pakistani air force joined the battle, and then there was a brutal tank battle. A major tank battle took place on September 11 in the Fillora region. After several bursts of activity and lulls, the battle finally ended on 21 September when the Indian forces finally withdrew. The Pakistanis lost 40 tanks, while the Indians lost over 120.
9. Battle of the Valley of Tears (1973)
During the Arab-Israeli war " doomsday", Israeli forces were fighting a coalition that included Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq. The goal of the coalition was to dislodge the Israeli forces occupying the Sinai. At one key point in the Golan Heights, the Israeli brigade had 7 tanks out of 150 left - and the remaining tanks had on average no more than 4 shells left. But just as the Syrians were about to launch another attack, the brigade was rescued by randomly assembled reinforcements, consisting of 13 of the least damaged tanks, driven by wounded soldiers who had been released from the hospital.
As for the Yom Kippur War itself, the 19-day battle was the largest tank battle since World War II. In fact, it was one of the largest tank battles, involving 1,700 Israeli tanks (of which 63% were destroyed) and approximately 3,430 coalition tanks (of which approximately 2,250 to 2,300 were destroyed). In the end, Israel won; A United Nations-brokered ceasefire agreement came into force on 25 October.
10. Battle of Easting 73 (1991)
When and where did the largest tank battle of the Great Patriotic War actually take place?
both as a science and as a social instrument, alas, it is subject to too much political influence. And it often happens that for some reason - most often ideological - some events are extolled, while others are forgotten or remain underestimated. Thus, the overwhelming majority of our compatriots, both those who grew up during the USSR and in post-Soviet Russia, sincerely consider the battle of Prokhorovka to be the largest tank battle in history - component battle on the Kursk Bulge. But in fairness, it is worth noting that the largest tank battle of the Great Patriotic War actually took place two years earlier and half a thousand kilometers to the west. Within a week, two tank armadas met in the triangle between the cities of Dubno, Lutsk and Brody total number about 4,500 armored vehicles.
Counterattack on the second day of the war
The actual beginning of the Battle of Dubno, which is also called the Battle of Brody or the Battle of Dubno-Lutsk-Brody, was June 23, 1941. It was on this day that the tank corps - at that time they were usually called mechanized - corps of the Red Army, stationed in the Kiev Military District, launched the first serious counterattacks against the advancing German troops. Georgy Zhukov, a representative of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, insisted on counterattacking the Germans. Initially, the attack on the flanks of Army Group South was carried out by the 4th, 15th and 22nd mechanized corps, which were in the first echelon. And after them, the 8th, 9th and 19th mechanized corps, which advanced from the second echelon, joined the operation.
Strategically, the plan of the Soviet command was correct: to strike the flanks of the 1st Panzer Group of the Wehrmacht, which was part of Army Group South and was rushing towards Kyiv in order to encircle and destroy it. In addition, the battles of the first day, when some Soviet divisions - such as the 87th division of Major General Philip Alyabushev - managed to stop the superior forces of the Germans, gave hope that this plan could be realized.
In addition, the Soviet troops in this sector had a significant superiority in tanks. On the eve of the war, the Kiev Special Military District was considered the strongest of the Soviet districts, and in the event of an attack, it was assigned the role of executing the main retaliatory strike. Accordingly, the equipment came here first and foremost large quantities, and training personnel was the highest. So, on the eve of the counterattack, the troops of the district, which by that time had already become the Southwestern Front, had no less than 3,695 tanks. And on the German side, only about 800 tanks and self-propelled guns went on the offensive - that is, more than four times less.
In practice, an unprepared, hasty decision on an offensive operation resulted in the largest tank battle in which Soviet troops were defeated.
Tanks fight tanks for the first time
When the tank units of the 8th, 9th and 19th mechanized corps reached the front line and entered the battle from the march, this resulted in an oncoming tank battle - the first in the history of the Great Patriotic War. Although the concept of wars of the mid-twentieth century did not allow such battles. It was believed that tanks were a tool for breaking through enemy defenses or creating chaos on his communications. “Tanks do not fight tanks” - this is how this principle was formulated, common to all armies of that time. Anti-tank artillery, as well as carefully dug-in infantry, had to fight the tanks. And the battle of Dubno completely broke all the theoretical constructions of the military. Here, Soviet tank companies and battalions went literally head-on into German tanks. And they lost.
There were two reasons for this. Firstly, the German troops were much more active and smarter than the Soviet ones, using all types of communications, and the coordination of the efforts of various types and branches of troops in the Wehrmacht at that moment was, unfortunately, head and shoulders above that in the Red Army. In the battle of Dubno-Lutsk-Brody, these factors led to the fact that Soviet tanks often acted without any support and at random. The infantry simply did not have time to support the tanks, to help them in the fight against anti-tank artillery: rifle units They moved on their own two feet and simply did not catch up with the tanks that had gone ahead. And the tank units themselves, at the level above the battalion, acted without general coordination, on their own. It often happened that one mechanized corps was already rushing to the west, deep into the German defense, and the other, which could support it, began to regroup or retreat from occupied positions…
Burning T-34 in a field near Dubno. Source: Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F016221-0015 / CC-BY-SA
Contrary to concepts and instructions
Second reason mass death Soviet tanks in the Battle of Dubno, which needs to be mentioned separately, was their unpreparedness for tank combat - a consequence of those very pre-war concepts “tanks do not fight tanks.” Among the tanks of the Soviet mechanized corps that entered the battle of Dubno, light tanks accompanying infantry and raid warfare, created in the early to mid-1930s, were the majority.
More precisely - almost everything. As of June 22, there were 2,803 tanks in five Soviet mechanized corps - the 8th, 9th, 15th, 19th and 22nd. Of these, there are 171 medium tanks (all T-34), 217 heavy tanks (of which 33 KV-2 and 136 KV-1 and 48 T-35), and 2415 light tanks such as T-26, T- 27, T-37, T-38, BT-5 and BT-7, which can be considered the most modern. And the 4th Mechanized Corps, which fought just west of Brody, had another 892 tanks, but exactly half of them were modern - 89 KV-1 and 327 T-34.
U Soviet lungs tanks, due to the specifics of the tasks assigned to them, had bulletproof or anti-fragmentation armor. Light tanks are an excellent tool for deep raids behind enemy lines and operations on his communications, but light tanks are completely unsuited for breaking through defenses. The German command took into account the strong and weaknesses armored vehicles and used their tanks, which were inferior to ours in both quality and weapons, in defense, negating all the advantages of Soviet technology.
German field artillery also had its say in this battle. And if, as a rule, it was not dangerous for the T-34 and KV, then light tanks it wasn't easy. And even the armor of the new “thirty-fours” was powerless against the 88-mm Wehrmacht anti-aircraft guns deployed for direct fire. Only the heavy KVs and T-35s resisted them with dignity. The light T-26 and BT, as stated in the reports, “were partially destroyed as a result of being hit by anti-aircraft shells,” and did not simply stop. But the Germans in this direction in anti-tank defense Not only anti-aircraft guns were used.
The defeat that brought victory closer
And yet, Soviet tankers, even with such “inappropriate” vehicles, went into battle - and often won it. Yes, without air cover, which is why on the march German aviation knocked out almost half of the columns. Yes, with weak armor, which was sometimes even penetrated heavy machine guns. Yes, without radio communication and at your own peril and risk. But they walked.
They went and got their way. In the first two days of the counteroffensive, the scales fluctuated: first one side, then the other, achieved success. On the fourth day, Soviet tankers, despite all the complicating factors, managed to achieve success, in some areas throwing the enemy back 25-35 kilometers. In the evening of June 26, Soviet tank crews even took the city of Dubno in battle, from which the Germans were forced to retreat... to the east!
Destroyed German tank PzKpfw II. Photo: waralbum.ru
And yet, the Wehrmacht’s advantage in infantry units, without which in that war tankers could only operate fully in rear raids, soon began to take their toll. By the end of the fifth day of the battle, almost all the vanguard units of the Soviet mechanized corps were simply destroyed. Many units were surrounded and were forced to go on the defensive on all fronts. And with each passing hour, the tankers increasingly lacked serviceable vehicles, shells, spare parts and fuel. It got to the point that they had to retreat, leaving the enemy with almost undamaged tanks: there was no time or opportunity to put them on the move and take them with them.
Today you can come across the opinion that if the leadership of the front, contrary to the order of Georgy Zhukov, had not given the command to move from offensive to defensive, the Red Army, they say, would have turned back the Germans at Dubno. I wouldn't turn back. Alas, that summer german army fought much better, and its tank units had much more experience in active interaction with other branches of the military. But the Battle of Dubno played its role in thwarting Hitler’s Barbarossa plan. The Soviet tank counterattack forced the Wehrmacht command to bring into battle reserves that were intended for an offensive in the direction of Moscow as part of Army Group Center. And after this battle the direction to Kyiv itself began to be considered a priority.
And this did not fit into the long-agreed German plans, broke them - and broke them so much that the tempo of the offensive was catastrophically lost. And although the difficult autumn and winter of 1941 lay ahead, the largest tank battle had already spoken its word in the history of the Great Patriotic War. This, the battle of Dubno, echoed two years later on the fields near Kursk and Orel - and was echoed in the first volleys of victorious fireworks...
Historians still argue about where the largest tank battle of the Great Patriotic War took place. It is no secret that history in many countries of the world is subject to excessive political influence. Therefore, it is not uncommon that some events are praised, while others remain underestimated or are completely forgotten. So, according to the history of the USSR, the largest tank battle took place near Prokhorovka. It was part decisive battle, held at But some historians believe that the most ambitious confrontation between the armored vehicles of the two warring parties happened two years earlier between three cities - Brody, Lutsk and Dubno. Two enemy tank armadas, numbering a total of 4.5 thousand vehicles, converged in this area.
Counterattack of the second day
This largest tank battle of the Great Patriotic War took place on June 23 - two days after the invasion of Nazi-German invaders on Soviet soil. It was then that the mechanized corps of the Red Army, which were part of the Kyiv Military District, were able to deliver the first powerful counterattack against the rapidly advancing enemy. By the way, G.K. insisted on carrying out this operation. Zhukov.
The plan of the Soviet command, first of all, was to deliver a significant blow from the flanks to the 1st tank group of the Germans, rushing towards Kyiv, in order to first encircle and then destroy it. Hope for victory over the enemy was given by the fact that in this sector the Red Army had a solid superiority in tanks. In addition, the Kiev Military District before the war was considered one of the strongest, and therefore it was entrusted with main role retaliator in case of attack fascist Germany. This is where everyone went in the first place. military equipment, and in large numbers, and the level of training of the personnel was the highest.
Before the war, there were 3,695 tanks here, while the German side advanced with only eight hundred armored vehicles and self-propelled guns. artillery installations. But in practice, what seemed like an excellent plan failed miserably. A rash, hasty and unprepared decision resulted in the largest tank battle of the Great Patriotic War, where the Red Army suffered its first and so serious defeat.
Confrontation of armored vehicles
When the mechanized Soviet units finally reached the front line, they immediately went into battle. It must be said that the theory of wars until the middle of the last century did not allow such battles, since armored vehicles were considered the main tool for breaking through enemy defenses.
“Tanks don’t fight tanks” - this was the formulation of this principle, common to both the Soviet and all other armies of the world. Anti-tank artillery or well-entrenched infantrymen were called upon to fight the armored vehicles. Therefore, the events in the Brody-Lutsk-Dubno area completely broke all theoretical ideas about military formations. It was here that the first largest oncoming tank battle of the Great Patriotic War took place, during which Soviet and German mechanized units faced each other in a frontal attack.
The first reason for the defeat
The Red Army lost this battle, and there were two reasons for this. The first of them is lack of communication. The Germans used it very wisely and actively. With the help of communications, they coordinated the efforts of all branches of the military. Unlike the enemy, the Soviet command controlled the actions of its own tank units very bad. Therefore, those who entered the battle had to act at their own peril and risk, moreover, without any support.
The infantrymen were supposed to help them in the fight against anti-tank artillery, but instead the rifle units, forced to run after the armored vehicles, simply could not keep up with the vehicles that had gone ahead. The lack of overall coordination led to the fact that one corps began an offensive, while the other retreated from already occupied positions or began to regroup at this time.
Second reason for failure
The next factor in the defeat of the Soviet mechanized corps near Dubno is their unpreparedness for the tank battle itself. This was a consequence of the same pre-war principle “tanks don’t fight tanks.” In addition, the mechanized corps were equipped for the most part with infantry escort armored vehicles produced back in the early 1930s.
The largest tank battle of the Great Patriotic War was lost by the Soviet side due to the specifics of Soviet combat vehicles. The fact is that the light tanks in service with the Red Army had either bulletproof or anti-fragmentation armor. They were perfect for deep raids behind enemy lines, but were completely unsuited for breaking through defenses. Hitler's command took into account all the strengths and weaknesses of its equipment, drew the appropriate conclusions and was able to conduct the battle in such a way as to reduce all the advantages of Soviet tanks to zero.
It is worth noting that German field artillery also worked well in this battle. As a rule, it was not dangerous for medium T-34s and heavy KVs, but for light tanks it represented a mortal threat. To destroy Soviet equipment, the Germans used 88-mm guns in this battle. anti-aircraft guns, which sometimes penetrated the armor of even new T-34 models. As for light tanks, when shells hit them, they not only stopped, but were “partially destroyed.”
The armored vehicles of the Red Army went into battle near Dubno completely unprotected from the air, so german planes While still on the march, up to half of the mechanized columns were destroyed. Most of the tanks had weak armor; it was pierced even by bursts fired from. In addition, there was no radio communication, and the Red Army tankers were forced to act according to the situation and at their own discretion. But, despite all the difficulties, they went into battle and at times even won.
In the first two days it was impossible to predict in advance who would win this largest tank battle of the Great Patriotic War. At first, the scales fluctuated all the time: success was now on one side, then on the other. On the 4th day, Soviet tankers still managed to achieve significant success, and the enemy in some areas was driven back 25 and even 35 km. But by the end of the day on June 27, the shortage of infantry units began to take its toll, without which armored vehicles could not operate fully in the field, and, as a result, the advanced units of the Soviet mechanized corps were practically destroyed. In addition, many units were surrounded and forced to defend themselves. They lacked fuel, shells and spare parts. Often tankers, when retreating, left behind almost undamaged equipment due to the fact that they did not have enough time or opportunity to repair it and take it with them.
The defeat that brought victory closer
Today there is an opinion that if the Soviet side had gone on the defensive, it would have been able to delay the German offensive and even turn the enemy back. By and large, this is just a fantasy. It must be taken into account that the Wehrmacht soldiers fought much better at that time, and they also actively interacted with other branches of the military. But this largest tank battle during the Great Patriotic War still played a positive role. It disrupted the rapid advance fascist troops and forced the Wehrmacht command to introduce its reserve units intended for the attack on Moscow, which thwarted Hitler’s grandiose Barbarossa plan. Despite the fact that many difficult and bloody battles still lay ahead, the battle of Dubno still brought the country much closer to victory.
Battle of Smolensk
According to historical facts, the largest battles of the Great Patriotic War took place in the first months after the attack by the Nazi invaders. It must be said that the Battle of Smolensk is not an isolated battle, but a truly large-scale defensive-offensive operation of the Red Army against the fascist conquerors, which lasted 2 months and took place from July 10 to September 10. Its main goals were to stop at least for some time the breakthrough of enemy troops in the direction of the capital, to enable Headquarters to develop and more thoroughly organize the defense of Moscow, and thereby prevent the capture of the city.
Despite the fact that the Germans had both numerical and technical superiority, Soviet soldiers still managed to delay them near Smolensk. At the cost of huge losses, the Red Army stopped the enemy's rapid advance deep into the country.
Battle for Kyiv
The largest battles of the Great Patriotic War, which included the battles for the Ukrainian capital, were long-term. Thus, the siege took place from July to September 1941. Hitler, holding his positions near Smolensk and believing in a favorable outcome of this operation, transferred part of his troops in the Kiev direction in order to capture Ukraine as soon as possible, and then Leningrad and Moscow.
The surrender of Kyiv was a severe blow for the country, since not only the city was taken, but also the entire republic, which had strategic reserves of coal and food. In addition, the Red Army suffered considerable losses. According to estimates, about 700 thousand people were killed or captured. As you can see, the largest battles of the Great Patriotic War, which took place in 1941, ended with the loud failure of the plans of the high Soviet command and the loss huge territories. The mistakes of the leaders were too costly for a country that had been so short time lost hundreds of thousands of its citizens.
Defense of Moscow
Such biggest battles The Great Patriotic War, like the Battle of Smolensk, was just a warm-up for the occupying forces who sought to capture the capital Soviet Union and thereby force the Red Army to capitulate. And, it should be noted that they were very close to their goal. Hitler's troops managed to get almost close to the capital - they were already 20-30 km from the city.
I.V. Stalin perfectly understood the gravity of the situation, so he appointed G.K. Zhukov as Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front. At the end of November, the Nazis captured the city of Klin, and that was where their successes ended. The leading German tank brigades were far ahead, and their rear were significantly behind. For this reason, the front turned out to be greatly extended, which contributed to the loss penetration ability enemy. In addition, they came severe frosts, which became a frequent cause of failure of German armored vehicles.
Myth dispelled
As we can see, the first major battles of the Great Patriotic War showed the extreme unpreparedness of the Red Army for military action against such a strong and experienced enemy. But, despite the gross miscalculations, this time the Soviet command was able to organize a powerful counter-offensive, which began on the night of December 5-6, 1941. The German leadership did not expect such a rebuff. During this offensive, the Nazis were driven back from the capital to a distance of 150 km.
Before all the previous ones did not provoke such significant losses from the enemy. During the battles for the capital, the Germans immediately lost more than 120 thousand of their troops. It was near Moscow that the myth of the invincibility of Nazi Germany was first refuted.
Plans of the warring parties
The second largest tank battle of the Great Patriotic War is an operation that was part of the defensive phase of the Battle of Kursk. It was clear to both the Soviet and fascist commands that during this confrontation a radical turning point would occur and, in essence, the outcome of the entire war would be decided. The Germans planned a major offensive for the summer of 1943, the goal of which was to gain the strategic initiative to turn the outcome of this campaign in their favor. Therefore, Hitler’s headquarters developed and approved in advance military operation"Citadel".
Stalin's Headquarters knew about the enemy offensive and drew up their own countermeasures plan, which consisted of the temporary defense of the Kursk ledge and the maximum bleeding and exhaustion of enemy groups. After this, it was hoped that the Red Army would be able to launch a counteroffensive, and later a strategic offensive.
The second largest tank battle
July 12 near railway station Prokhorovka, which was located 56 km from Belgorod, the advancing German tank group was suddenly stopped by a counterattack launched by Soviet troops. When the battle began, the Red Army tankers had some advantage in that rising sun blinded the advancing German troops.
In addition, the extreme density of the battle deprived fascist technology of its main advantage - long-range powerful guns, which were practically useless at such short distances. And the Soviet troops, in turn, had the opportunity to fire accurately and hit the most vulnerable points German armored vehicles.
Consequences
On both sides, no less than 1.5 thousand units of military equipment took part, not counting aviation. In just one day of battle, the enemy lost 350 tanks and 10 thousand of its troops. By the end of the next day, we managed to break through the enemy’s defenses and advance 25 km. After this, the advance of the Red Army only intensified, and the Germans had to retreat. For a long time it was believed that this particular episode of the Battle of Kursk represented the largest tank battle.
The years of the Great Patriotic War were full of battles, which turned out to be very difficult for the entire country. But, despite this, the army and people overcame all the trials with dignity. The battles described in this article, no matter how successful or failed they were, still inexorably brought us closer to winning such a desired and long-awaited Great Victory by all.
We spent the entire windy November searching for the mass grave of the soldiers of the 6th Tank Brigade. They searched in a grove and in vacant lots not far from the village of Chkalova. They asked local residents, possible witnesses to that November battle, hoped to meet those who saw where the tankers who died in the fall of 1941 were buried.
This is how we, members of the MIUS-FRONT Search Association, met Uncle Lesha and Uncle Seryozha.
“Serega and I were 10 years old at the time and we remembered that November day very well. How can you forget this? - Alexey Alekseevich, “Uncle Lesha,” began his story.
“Our families lived nearby in factory barracks, and when the Germans started shelling and bombing us, they dug dugouts near the grove and hid there.”
Well, we kids climbed everywhere, saw everything, although they scolded us for it. We weren’t scared, it was the adults who were scared, but us children were curious and interested in everything. It became scary later when we saw the bodies of our tankers lying in the white snow.”
“They lay in the snow next to their broken and mangled tanks. They were lying there, somehow hunched over, with burnt overalls stuck to their charred skin,” Uncle Seryozha took part in the conversation, having listened silently to his friend’s recollections until then. “They took short guys as tank crews, and death in the fire made their bodies somehow very small, almost child-like. The worst thing was to look at the faces of the tankers, although they had no faces left - only eyes. In place of the nose, mouth, ears - only coals! And the smell... the smell of a burnt man - the sweetish, cloying smell of meat thrown to burn on the coals. Even the acrid smoke from smoldering equipment with the smell of wiring, gunpowder, burning oil, and kerosene could not drown it out. It was the smell of suffering, the smell of death - even we children understood this. We saw that the death of these guys was painful. I saw them burning in their cars, heard them screaming in pain, desperately trying to get out of the burning tanks.
Burnt Soviet light tank crews tank BT-2 (machine gun version). Village of Romanishchi, Belarus
And we, the boys, felt annoyance, resentment and terrible anger from what we saw and experienced. Before the war, every boy dreamed of becoming a pilot or tank driver. These were our heroes, our idols. We saw battles, battles as a beautiful attack of tanks and planes, smashing short, cartoonish enemy soldiers, somewhere far beyond the borders of our country. And suddenly the war came straight to our house, and our idols and heroes lay burnt in the snow. And the enemy - the enemy here he is - healthy Germans in black jackets with skulls on their buttonholes walked among the corpses of our tankers and photographed them. The Nazis did not pay any attention to us children. Everyone, children, adults, had only one thought - what will happen? What will happen to all of us now? - Uncle Seryozha sighed heavily, taking out a cigarette without a filter from a red pack.
“The battle itself, in which our tank crews died, was short-lived,” Alexey Alekseevich continued his memories. “Our tanks arrived in the morning, and burned them after lunch. Ours had five large T-34s and several more small T-26s... At that time I knew the models of all the tanks and aircraft. Seryoga said it correctly - every boy dreamed of becoming a tank driver and pilot, so we knew all the equipment very well. “T-26, there were four cars,” Uncle Seryozha corrected his friend, puffing on a cigarette. “Yes, yes, four,” continued Alexey Alekseevich, “they drove up to the grove in the morning. They were in a hurry, immediately starting to choose their positions. Thirty fours hid near sheds and barracks, and light tanks were camouflaged with felled trees. Here, not far away, the old road went to Rostov, so our tankers were supposed to guard it. One T-26 stood very close to this road to let us know when the Germans would appear.
“It seems he was the first to be burned right away. There was no radio communication in those tanks; commands were transmitted using flags. A tanker leans out of the hatch and waves red pennants. And this is in the middle of a battle, bullets are flying all around, fragments, smoke, nothing is visible - and he is waving flags. I personally saw how they gave signals to each other,” Uncle Lesha was noticeably worried. And this one small tank, on certain death They sent us to the road,” he continued, “in general, they all understood well that they would not return from the battle alive, even when they equipped their positions, they gave all their supplies to us, the children. Well, what did they have in the cabins - bread, stewed meat, biscuits. I even got a chocolate bar, given to me by a lieutenant whose legs were later blown off in battle. And when they gave us everything, they began to drive us away from their positions: “Get out guys, you can’t be here anymore! Let's get out of here!!!" Reluctantly, but what can we do, we scattered to our homes, although some of our peers were still watching the actions of our tankers from behind the bushes,” Alexey Alekseevich, squinting slightly, looked at his friend.
“I didn’t go home for dinner then,” continued Uncle Seryozha, “my mother was on shift, and my sister had gone to the market in the morning, so there was no one at home.” So I stayed in the bushes to watch the tankers. I gnawed on the biscuits that our soldiers gave me. Suddenly everything started to move. One day, a small T-26, which was standing in the distance, next to the road, suddenly fired. Then another volley, another and another. Birds sitting on the treetops in the grove, crows, jackdaws, disturbed by the noise of gunfire, circled, cawing loudly in the white winter sky. The tank along the road fired its gun several more times. The tank commander appeared from the hatch and waved a red flag somewhere forward. At that moment our T-26 exploded. The explosion was so strong that the car was literally blown to pieces. The turret flew off in one direction, the barrel and pieces of armor flew off in the other. The head and body of the lieutenant from this tank was thrown 50 steps towards the trees.
Traditionally, the largest tank battle is considered to be the battle near Prokhorovka in the summer of 1943. But, in fact, the world's largest tank battle took place two years earlier: in June 1941 in the Brody-Dubno-Lutsk area. If we compare the numbers, Prokhorovka is clearly inferior to the Western Ukrainian Tank Battle.
The Battle of Prokhorovka took place on July 12, 1943. According to official Soviet data, 1.5 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns converged on both sides: 800 Soviet against 700 Nazi Germans. The Germans lost 350 units of armored vehicles, ours - 300. Allegedly, after this, the turning point in the Battle of Kursk came.
However, this officialdom was questioned even by many Soviet researchers. After all, such a calculation contains obvious distortion. Indeed, in the 5th Guards tank army General Pavel Rotmistrov, who on that day counterattacked the advancing German troops, had about 950 tanks. But as for the Germans, there were approximately 700 tanks and self-propelled guns in the entire German group on the southern flank of the Kursk Bulge. And near Prokhorovka there was only the 2nd tank corps SS General Waffen-SS Paul Hausser - about 310 combat vehicles.
Therefore, according to updated Soviet data, 1,200 tanks and self-propelled guns converged near Prokhorovka: just under 800 Soviet versus just over 400 German (losses were not specified). At the same time, neither side achieved its goal, but the German offensive was objectively losing momentum.
According to very precise data, in the tank battle on July 12 near Prokhorovka, 311 German tanks and self-propelled guns took part against 597 Soviet ones (some of the vehicles of the 5th GvTA failed after a 300-kilometer march). The SS men lost about 70 (22%), and guardsmen - 343 (57%) armored vehicles. At the same time, their irrecoverable losses in 2 TC SS they estimated only 5 cars! The Germans, which even Soviet military leaders admitted, had better evacuation and repair of equipment. Of those shot down near Prokhorovka Soviet cars subject to restoration 146.
According to Russian historian Valery Zamulin ( Deputy for Science, Director of the State Military Historical Museum-Reserve “Prokhorovskoe Field”), by decision of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, a commission was created to investigate the causes of the large losses suffered by the 5th GvTA near Prokhorovka. The commission's report called the military actions of Soviet troops on July 12 near Prokhorovka "an example of an unsuccessful operation." General Rotmistrov was going to be court-martialed, but by that time the general situation at the front had changed - and everything turned out okay. By the way, on the outcome of the Battle of Kursk great influence There was a landing of Anglo-American troops in Sicily, after which the headquarters of the 2nd SS TC and the Leibshatnadrt division were sent to Italy.
Now let’s go back two years to Western Ukraine and compare
If the battle of Prokhorovka lasted only one day, then the Western Ukrainian tank battle (to define it by one region - Volyn or Galicia - not to mention one locality, difficult), lasted a week: from June 23 to June 30, 1941. It was attended by five mechanized corps of the Red Army (2803 tanks) of the Southwestern Front against four German tank divisions (585 tanks) of the Wehrmacht Army Group South, united in the First Tank Group. Subsequently, another tank division of the Red Army (325) and one tank division of the Wehrmacht (143) entered the battle. Thus, 3,128 Soviet and 728 German tanks (+ 71 German assault guns) fought in a gigantic oncoming tank battle. Thus, total quantity tanks and self-propelled guns that took part in the Western Ukrainian battle - almost four thousand!
On the evening of June 22, the troops of the Southwestern Front (the most powerful grouping of Soviet troops on the western border of the USSR) received the order “to encircle and destroy the enemy group advancing in the direction of Vladimir-Volynsky, Dubno. By the end of June 24, take possession of the Lublin region.”
Considering the balance of forces (primarily in tanks, but also in artillery and aviation), the counteroffensive had a very high chance of success. The Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, Army General Georgy Zhukov, personally arrived to coordinate the actions of the Southwestern Front.
To implement the task, the command of the Southwestern Front decided to create two shock groups: each has three mechanized and one rifle corps. However, the breakthrough of the German tank group forced the front commander, General Mikhail Kirponos, to abandon this plan and give the order to launch a counteroffensive without waiting for the concentration of all forces. Tank formations entered the battle separately and without mutual coordination. Subsequently, orders changed several times, which is why some units made multi-kilometer marches under enemy air attacks.
Some units did not take part in the counterattack. Part of the forces was sent to cover Kovel from the Brest direction, from where German tanks were allegedly also advancing. But, as it later became clear, the intelligence report was completely inaccurate.
On June 27, the strike group of the 8th mechanized corps under the command of brigade commissar Nikolai Popel successfully counterattacked the Germans in the Dubno area, inflicting serious losses on the enemy. However, here the Soviet tankers stopped and, waiting for reinforcements, stood for two days! During this time, the group did not receive support and, as a result, was surrounded.
It is interesting that the German tank and motorized divisions, despite the Soviet tank counterattacks, continued the offensive, as if “running forward.” In many ways, the burden of the fight against Red Army tanks fell on the Wehrmacht infantry. However, there were also plenty of oncoming tank battles.
On July 29, the withdrawal of the mechanized corps was authorized, and on June 30, a general retreat. The front headquarters left Ternopil and moved to Proskurov. By this time, the mechanized corps of the Southwestern Front were practically destroyed. About 10% of the tanks remained in the 22nd, about 15% in the 8th and 15th, about 30% in the 9th and 19th.
Member of the military council of the Southwestern Front, corps commissar Nikolai Vashugin, who at first actively organized counterattacks, shot himself on June 28. The remaining members of the Military Council proposed to retreat beyond the line of the old Soviet-Polish border (which existed until September 1939). However, German tanks broke through the line of fortified areas on the old border and reached the rear of the Soviet troops. Already on July 10, German troops took Zhitomir...
It cannot be said that the Soviet troops showed complete failure in those battles. It was then that the Germans first started talking about the superiority of the T-34 and KV, against which the Germans were powerless anti-tank guns(only 88-mm anti-aircraft guns took them)…
However, in the end, the defeat was complete. By June 30, the Southwestern Front troops participating in the counteroffensive had lost 2,648 tanks—about 85%. As for the Germans, the First Panzer Group lost about 260 vehicles during this period (for the most part these were not irretrievable losses).
In total, the Southwestern and Southern Fronts lost 4,381 tanks in the first 15 days of the war (according to the collection “Russia and the USSR in the Wars of the 20th Century: Losses of the Armed Forces”) out of 5,826 available.
The losses of the First Tank Group by September 4 amounted to 408 vehicles (of which 186 were irrecoverable). A little more than half. However, with the remaining 391 tanks and assault weapon By September 15, Kleist managed to connect with Guderian and close the encirclement ring around the Southwestern Front.
One of the main reasons for the defeat lies in the unprecedentedly large non-combat losses of the Red Army. For example, non-combat losses in tanks (abandoned due to a lack of fuel and lubricants, breakdowns, falling from a bridge, getting stuck in a swamp, etc.) in different divisions amounted to about 40-80%. Moreover, this cannot be attributed solely to the poor condition of supposedly outdated Soviet tanks. After all, the newest KV and T-34 failed in the same way as the relatively old BT and T-26. Neither before nor after the summer of 1941 did Soviet tank forces experience such non-combat losses.
Considering that the number of missing soldiers and those lagging behind on the march also noticeably exceeded the number of killed and wounded, we can say that the Red Army soldiers sometimes simply ran away, abandoning their equipment.
It is worth looking at the reasons for the defeat from the angle of Stalin’s postulate “personnel decide everything.” In particular, compare the biographies of the commander of Army Group South, Field Marshal Gerd von Runstedt, and the commander of the Southwestern Front, Colonel General Mikhail Kirponos.
66-year-old Runstedt graduated in 1907 Military Academy and became an officer of the General Staff. During World War I he was chief of staff of the corps, in 1939 he commanded an army group during the war against Poland, and in 1940 - an army group in the war against France. For successful actions in 1940 (it was his troops who broke through the front and surrounded the allies at Dunkirk) he received the rank of field marshal.
49-year-old Mikhail Kirponos started out as a forester. During the First World War he was a paramedic; during the Civil War he commanded a regiment for some time, then held various positions (from commissar to head of the economic command) at the Kyiv School of Red Petty Officers. In the 1920s he graduated from the Military Academy. Frunze, then was chief of staff of the division for three years and head of the Kazan Infantry School for four years. During Finnish war was a division commander and distinguished himself in the battles for Vyborg. As a result, after jumping over several steps career ladder, in February 1941 he headed the Kiev Special Military District (the largest in the USSR), which was transformed into the Southwestern Front.
Soviet tank forces were inferior to the Panzerwaffe in training. Soviet tank crews had driving practice for 2-5 hours, while the Germans had about 50 hours.
As for the training of commanders, the Germans noted the extremely inept conduct of the Soviet tank attacks. This is how he wrote about the battles of 1941-1942. German General Friedrich von Mellenthin, author of the study “Tank battles 1939-1945: Combat use tanks in the Second World War":
“Tanks were concentrated in dense masses in front of the German defense front; uncertainty and the absence of any plan were felt in their movement. They interfered with each other, collided with our anti-tank guns, and if our positions were broken through, they stopped moving and stopped, instead of building on their success. During these days, individual German anti-tank guns and 88-mm guns were most effective: sometimes one gun disabled over 30 tanks in an hour. It seemed to us that the Russians had created an instrument that they would never learn to use.”
In general, the very structure of the mechanized corps of the Red Army turned out to be unsuccessful, which already in mid-July 1941 were disbanded into less cumbersome formations.
It is also worth noting factors that cannot be attributed to defeat. First of all, it cannot be explained by the superiority of German tanks over Soviet ones. Quite a lot has already been written about the fact that at the beginning of the war, Soviet supposedly outdated tanks, in general, were not inferior to German ones, and the new KV and T-34 were superior to enemy tanks. There is no way to explain the Soviet defeat by the fact that the Red Army was led by “backward” cavalry commanders. After all, the German First tank group was commanded by General of the Cavalry Ewald von Kleist.
Finally, a few words about why Brody-Dubno-Lutsk lost the championship to Prokhorovka.
Actually, they talked about the Western Ukrainian tank battle in Soviet period. Some of its participants even wrote memoirs (especially the memoirs of Nikolai Popel - “In a difficult time”). However, in general, they mentioned it in passing, in a few lines: they say there were counterattacks that were not successful. Nothing was said about the number of Soviet ones, but the emphasis was placed on the fact that they were outdated.
This interpretation can be explained by two main reasons. First of all, according to the Soviet myth about the reasons for the defeat in the initial period of the war, the Germans had superiority in technology. To be convincing, in Soviet history about initial period WWII compared the number of all German tanks (and their allies) with the number of only medium and heavy Soviet tanks. It was generally accepted that the Red Army soldiers stopped the German tank hordes only with bunches of grenades, or even bottles with a combustible mixture. Therefore, room for the largest tank battle in 1941, the Second World War simply did not exist in the official Soviet history.
Another reason for the silence of the greatest tank battle the fact that it was organized by the future Marshal of Victory, and at that time the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, Georgy Zhukov. After all, the marshal of victory had no defeats! In the same connection soviet history The Second World War hid Operation Mars, the failed large-scale offensive at the end of 1942 against the German-held Rzhev salient. The actions of two fronts here were led by Zhukov. To avoid damage to his authority, this battle was reduced to a local one. Rzhev-Sychevsky operation, and about big losses knew from Alexander Tvardovsky’s poem “I was killed near Rzhev.”
Apologists for the Marshal of Victory even made candy out of the catastrophe of the Southwestern Front. Allegedly, already in the first days of the enemy invasion, Zhukov organized a counterattack on the Southwestern Front with the forces of several mechanized corps. As a result of the operation, the plan of the Nazi command to immediately break through to Kyiv and reach the left bank of the Dnieper was thwarted. Then the enemy suffered considerable losses in military equipment, which noticeably reduced its offensive and maneuver capabilities.
At the same time, about the initial goal of the offensive (to capture the Lublin region), they said that the order given was unrealistic, based on an overestimation of one’s troops and an underestimation of the enemy. And they preferred not to talk about the ruined tank armada, only casually mentioning that the tanks were outdated.
In general, it is not surprising that the tank championship was given to Prokhorovka.
Dmitro Shurkhalo, for ORD