“Tank meat grinder” – 80 years ago there was a grandiose battle near Prokhorovka

July 12, 1943 became one of the most iconic, famous dates of the Great Patriotic War. On this day 80 years ago, during the Battle of Kursk, fierce oncoming tank battles took place, which are most often called the battle of Prokhorovka. But, despite such a celebrity, this “tank meat grinder” still keeps some secrets and omissions.

“… There was such a roar that the membranes pressed, blood flowed from the ears. The continuous roar of engines, the clanging of metal, the explosions of shells, the wild rattle of torn iron … From point-blank shots, towers turned off, armor burst, tanks exploded … Hatches opened, and tank crews tried to get out … We lost the sense of time, not felt no thirst, no heat, not even blows in the cramped cockpit of the tank. One thought, one desire – while alive, beat the enemy. Our tankers, getting out of their broken vehicles, searched the field for enemy crews, also left without equipment, and beat with pistols, grabbed hand-to-hand … ”- this is how one of its participants, Senior Lieutenant Grigory Penezhko, recalled this unique tank battle. His “opponent” Wehrmacht Untersturmführer Gurs turned out to be much more concise: “It was hell.”

In the days of the USSR, the events unfolding in the area of ​​the Prokhorovka railway station were described exclusively in “fanfare”. On July 12, one and a half thousand tanks met in frontal attacks on the fields near this settlement: 800 Soviet tanks opposed 700 German ones. And ours won unconditionally!

However, even in modern times, such a “black-and-white” approach to assessing this grandiose battle, including quantitative ones, turned out to be by no means flawless.

However, even some details of the events of 80 years ago that are now popping up in the studies of specialists do not change their main assessment. In the battle near Prokhorovka, Soviet soldiers showed real heroism, managing to withstand the strongest blows of the enemy and ultimately ensuring the overall success of the Red Army in the Battle of Kursk with their valiant actions.

Historian Grigory Ivanishin told MK about some of the moments associated with the battle of Prokhorov, which had been kept “under wraps” for decades.

– Until now, there are heated debates about how many tanks and self-propelled guns from both sides participated in that battle, how many armored vehicles were destroyed and knocked out. And here the quantitative estimates “walk” in a very wide range. However, any modern calculations still give not as impressive statistics as in Soviet reference books.

Most often, such quantitative indicators are now called: near Prokhorovka, about 760 Soviet tanks fought against 400-415 German tanks.

At the same time, a very important point cannot be ignored. Parts of the 5th Guards Tank Army of General Pavel Rotmistrov, in a hurry to secure this sector of the front from the emerging enemy breakthrough, were forced to make a long forced march. And if the exhausted crews nevertheless went on the attack “through I can’t”, then the equipment is not capable of working “for the moral and strong-willed”. A lot of tracked vehicles fell behind due to breakdowns and malfunctions and could not arrive at the starting lines on time. Researchers name a very impressive number of them: almost a third of all Rotmistrov’s tanks failed on the march, and only a part of these vehicles still managed to take part in the battle – at least at its final stage.

The losses of the belligerents are also estimated very differently. For example, not so long ago, one of the German researchers reported that by the evening of July 12, Pavel Rotmistrov’s army had lost 235 vehicles, and the German tank group that opposed it – Paul Hausser’s 2nd SS Panzer Corps – only 5 (!). This is obvious nonsense. According to many domestic historians – specialists in the Battle of Kursk, for the whole day of July 12, our losses near Prokhorovka amounted to about 360 tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts, the losses of the Germans – 100-110 tanks and self-propelled guns.

The ratio, of course, also looks very sad. But here a number of clarifications should be made, which immediately make us take a different look at such an unpleasant proportion for us.

The fact is that in Rotmistrov’s army more than a third of the military equipment is T-70 light tanks. And this vehicle was designed to escort the attacking infantry, but by no means for a frontal attack on the enemy’s tank formations. “Seventies” in everyday life, our fighters called “tractors”. The lightly armored T-70s weighed only 9 tons, were armed with a 45 mm gun, and they were launched into the attack, including against the “monsters” clad in thick armor – the T-VI “Tiger” tanks, each of which weighed 57 tons and was equipped with a gun twice the caliber! Of course, such Soviet “boxes” became a convenient target for the enemy.

It is possible to evaluate the quantitative results of the battle from a different, but quite objective point of view. According to available data (including the report of Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky, representative of the Stavka, prepared by him for Stalin), the losses of Rotmistrov’s army amounted to about 60% of the initial number of tanks and self-propelled guns in it. But the Germans had irretrievably destroyed and damaged armored vehicles at first, there were about 25%, but by the end of the battle near Prokhorovka – by July 16, it had reached 75% of the original list. It was on this day that the troops of the Red Army, having withstood the blows of the German “steel fist”, launched an offensive that led to the final victory. In the course of it, events took place that are directly related to the statistics discussed here. Attacking and forcing the enemy to retreat, our units captured, among other things, the German rear repair bases, to which the Tigers, T-III and T-IV lined up there were taken from the battlefield near Prokhorovka … All these tanks were captured by us and no longer could return to the ranks of the enemy mechanized corps.

The famous Nazi tank commander, General Guderian, summing up the battle, wrote: “The armored forces, replenished with such great difficulty, were out of order for a long time due to heavy losses in people and equipment, and there were no more quiet days on the Eastern Front “…

Speaking about the secrets of the Prokhorov battle, one cannot fail to recall one of the most striking stories in this series. It is associated with the participation in the battles on July 12 of the German tanks T-V “Panther”.

The fact that his crews had to fight with such the latest enemy equipment was even mentioned by the commander of the 5th tank army, General Rotmistrov. However, when it became possible to get acquainted with the archives of the Wehrmacht, it turned out that the Nazis did not have a Panther near Prokhorovka. But there were other tanks somewhat similar in silhouette to them – the T-34. Yes, our “thirty-fours”, previously captured by the enemy somewhere as trophies and later used by him in some tank units. This fact was carefully hushed up during the Soviet era.

This phenomenon was not very common in the mechanized units of the army of the Third Reich. However, it is known that the punctual Germans not only painted white crosses on the turrets of such tanks, but even gave them a special designation – Pz.Kpfw.747 T-34(r).

According to the documents, the 2nd SS Reich Motorized Division, which participated in the battle of Prokhorovka, had 8 captured T-34s before the start of this grandiose “armor battle”. At least three of them were destroyed by Rotmistrov’s tankers that day. Here is the solution to the rebus about the “Panthers” on the Prokhorovsky field.