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By July at the front the waiting had turned from anxious to agonizing. Vatutin suggested not to wait, but to attack ourselves. He literally persuaded Vasilevsky:
"We'll oversleep, we'll miss the moment. The enemy is not advancing, soon the fall and all our plans will be thwarted. Let's abandon the entrenchment and start first".
But in response he was invariably refused.
Tension was growing. In an accidentally shot down German reconnaissance plane found a map with accurately drawn positions of Soviet defenses. Dislocation had to be urgently changed, and then from the plane to check the thoroughness of camouflage. The Stavka for the third time warned the troops about the imminent German offensive.
In the headquarters and on the front line was growing tension. When will the Germans begin? Was not mistaken intelligence? Lev Malikin, a scout of the 222nd Guards Rifle Regiment:
"That the German offensive was about to begin - clearly felt. All parts of the division were on high alert. There were officers at all observation posts around the clock, artillery was pulled up to the front line. We, and the divisional scouts, were given the order - "Take the "tongue" at all costs!"
In another night fight, the "tongue" turned out to be a German sapper Bruno Formel, who was removing mines on the front line. At the interrogation he told extremely frankly:
German troops are brought to full combat readiness and on July 5 at 2 o'clock European time will go on the offensive in the general direction of Kursk. At the same time will begin an offensive in the Kursk direction from the area of Belgorod.
Before the specified hour there were already minutes left. For the Germans had prepared a surprise - artillery counterpreparation. Instead of silently waiting for the enemy's strike, the Soviet artillery was to hit the supposed accumulations of German troops ready to attack. Having received information from sapper Formel, immediately made a decision.
The July night erupted with volleys of gunfire. Not everywhere it was possible to anticipate the places of concentration of the Germans. But the hail of shells inevitably found targets. In the report of one of the German divisions recorded:
"The enemy has sown with fire all ravines that can be used as ways of rapprochement. Continued bridge guidance for the Tigers was out of the question."
Il-4 bomber navigator Lieutenant V.F. Roschenko recalled:
"Even from afar we saw that something unimaginable had begun on the front line. On both sides there was heavy firing, in some places fires were burning".
No sooner had the Soviet guns fallen silent than the air was filled with the whistle of German shells. The powerful artillery preparation of the enemy was to crack the Soviet defense, which had been under construction for several months. Scout Lev Malikin:
"The rumble of bursts tore us from our bunks in the dugout, made us grab our automatic rifles and rush for the exit to the dug-out slits. Between the trenches and the headquarters dugouts fire, smoke and earth were rushing. The enemy's artillery preparation continued for over an hour. Then the cannonade began to subside, and under cover of a smoke screen Hitlerites went on an assault".
Tank divisions, air armies, infantry units - all military power, which had been accumulating near Kursk for several months, came into motion. The battle began, which German General von Mellenthin called the greatest tank battle in the history of wars. All the most modern weapons of the time were thrown into the battle.
The Germans used radio-controlled tankettes to make passages in minefields. They pulled a hitch of several heavy toothed wheels, which, running over mines, provoked their explosion, or unloaded on them powerful charges of explosives, destroying mines at once on a large area. This cleared the way for the "Ferdinand" self-propelled vehicles to follow. However, on the field torn up by explosions, no safe road was visible. "Ferdinands" were going astray and were blown up one by one.
Anti-tank mines tore the tracks, and Soviet guns smashed the undercarriage of heavy vehicles. By the evening of the first day of the offensive, half of the Ferdinands were already out of action.
On the southern phase on the German "Tigers" and "Panthers" also fell on the German "Tigers" and "Panthers", a barrage of artillery fire, making it difficult to clear. "Tigers" were blown up on mines and went out of action even if the armor was not pierced. In the offensive zone of the Germans met 500 km of anti-tank ditches. For tanks to overcome them, it was necessary to undermine the walls of these ditches with accurate strikes of bombs from dive bombers.
The former ease of "blitzkrieg" was no longer there. German tank and infantry divisions were literally bogged down in the labyrinth of Soviet fortification strips. In the reports of German units sounded phrases "stopped", "entrenched".
German General von Mellenthin:
"The most skillful camouflage of the Russians should be emphasized. Not a single minefield, not a single anti-tank area could not be detected until the first tank exploded on a mine or the first Russian anti-tank gun opened fire".
However, the combat experience of the Germans and their new equipment still did their job. They began to concentrate their forces in narrow areas. Having broken through even a small gap in the Soviet defense, the Germans were expanding it with all their might. On the first day of the battle Manstein's grouping was supported by almost 400 airplanes. A hail of aerial bombs knocked out one anti-tank stronghold after another.
With the help of aircraft the Germans broke through corridors and in minefields. The dropped bombs made the mines detonate, and German tanks rushed along the cleared corridors. All this required a huge mass of equipment and ammunition. But the Germans spared neither, rightly expecting that further minefields will be less. The first strip of Soviet defenses the SS tank corps passed through in only 17 hours.

Description

By July at the front the waiting had turned from anxious to agonizing. Vatutin suggested not to wait, but to attack ourselves. He literally persuaded Vasilevsky:
"We'll oversleep, we'll miss the moment. The enemy is not advancing, soon the fall and all our plans will be thwarted. Let's abandon the entrenchment and start first".
But in response he was invariably refused.
Tension was growing. In an accidentally shot down German reconnaissance plane found a map with accurately drawn positions of Soviet defenses. Dislocation had to be urgently changed, and then from the plane to check the thoroughness of camouflage. The Stavka for the third time warned the troops about the imminent German offensive.
In the headquarters and on the front line was growing tension. When will the Germans begin? Was not mistaken intelligence? Lev Malikin, a scout of the 222nd Guards Rifle Regiment:
"That the German offensive was about to begin - clearly felt. All parts of the division were on high alert. There were officers at all observation posts around the clock, artillery was pulled up to the front line. We, and the divisional scouts, were given the order - "Take the "tongue" at all costs!"
In another night fight, the "tongue" turned out to be a German sapper Bruno Formel, who was removing mines on the front line. At the interrogation he told extremely frankly:
German troops are brought to full combat readiness and on July 5 at 2 o'clock European time will go on the offensive in the general direction of Kursk. At the same time will begin an offensive in the Kursk direction from the area of Belgorod.
Before the specified hour there were already minutes left. For the Germans had prepared a surprise - artillery counterpreparation. Instead of silently waiting for the enemy's strike, the Soviet artillery was to hit the supposed accumulations of German troops ready to attack. Having received information from sapper Formel, immediately made a decision.
The July night erupted with volleys of gunfire. Not everywhere it was possible to anticipate the places of concentration of the Germans. But the hail of shells inevitably found targets. In the report of one of the German divisions recorded:
"The enemy has sown with fire all ravines that can be used as ways of rapprochement. Continued bridge guidance for the Tigers was out of the question."
Il-4 bomber navigator Lieutenant V.F. Roschenko recalled:
"Even from afar we saw that something unimaginable had begun on the front line. On both sides there was heavy firing, in some places fires were burning".
No sooner had the Soviet guns fallen silent than the air was filled with the whistle of German shells. The powerful artillery preparation of the enemy was to crack the Soviet defense, which had been under construction for several months. Scout Lev Malikin:
"The rumble of bursts tore us from our bunks in the dugout, made us grab our automatic rifles and rush for the exit to the dug-out slits. Between the trenches and the headquarters dugouts fire, smoke and earth were rushing. The enemy's artillery preparation continued for over an hour. Then the cannonade began to subside, and under cover of a smoke screen Hitlerites went on an assault".
Tank divisions, air armies, infantry units - all military power, which had been accumulating near Kursk for several months, came into motion. The battle began, which German General von Mellenthin called the greatest tank battle in the history of wars. All the most modern weapons of the time were thrown into the battle.
The Germans used radio-controlled tankettes to make passages in minefields. They pulled a hitch of several heavy toothed wheels, which, running over mines, provoked their explosion, or unloaded on them powerful charges of explosives, destroying mines at once on a large area. This cleared the way for the "Ferdinand" self-propelled vehicles to follow. However, on the field torn up by explosions, no safe road was visible. "Ferdinands" were going astray and were blown up one by one.
Anti-tank mines tore the tracks, and Soviet guns smashed the undercarriage of heavy vehicles. By the evening of the first day of the offensive, half of the Ferdinands were already out of action.
On the southern phase on the German "Tigers" and "Panthers" also fell on the German "Tigers" and "Panthers", a barrage of artillery fire, making it difficult to clear. "Tigers" were blown up on mines and went out of action even if the armor was not pierced. In the offensive zone of the Germans met 500 km of anti-tank ditches. For tanks to overcome them, it was necessary to undermine the walls of these ditches with accurate strikes of bombs from dive bombers.
The former ease of "blitzkrieg" was no longer there. German tank and infantry divisions were literally bogged down in the labyrinth of Soviet fortification strips. In the reports of German units sounded phrases "stopped", "entrenched".
German General von Mellenthin:
"The most skillful camouflage of the Russians should be emphasized. Not a single minefield, not a single anti-tank area could not be detected until the first tank exploded on a mine or the first Russian anti-tank gun opened fire".
However, the combat experience of the Germans and their new equipment still did their job. They began to concentrate their forces in narrow areas. Having broken through even a small gap in the Soviet defense, the Germans were expanding it with all their might. On the first day of the battle Manstein's grouping was supported by almost 400 airplanes. A hail of aerial bombs knocked out one anti-tank stronghold after another.
With the help of aircraft the Germans broke through corridors and in minefields. The dropped bombs made the mines detonate, and German tanks rushed along the cleared corridors. All this required a huge mass of equipment and ammunition. But the Germans spared neither, rightly expecting that further minefields will be less. The first strip of Soviet defenses the SS tank corps passed through in only 17 hours.