Original subtitles

Western Russia, 1943.

Vast German and Soviet armies clash in

history's greatest and deadliest tank

battle.

2,500 German Panzers and assault guns

face more than 5,000 Soviet tanks. By

the time it's over, the casualties will

reach more than 200,000.

>> The gunners told me later that all they

saw were tanks.

The earth and sky were burning.

>> This is the bloody Battle of Kursk.

>> Tanks were on top of tanks.

Soldiers on soldiers.

Sheer terror.

>> July 5th, 1943.

Day one of Hitler's Operation Citadel.

More than 800 German tanks roll across

the Russian plain towards the town

[music] of Kursk. Waiting for them are

the Soviets defending their homeland

with the biggest tank army ever

assembled.

This is Hitler's final attempt at

turning the tide of war on the Eastern

Front.

A war that for the last [music] several

months has been going very badly for the

Germans.

Since their disastrous defeat at

Stalingrad in February of 1943,

Soviet forces have been relentlessly

[music] battering the Germans, forcing

them into a 180-mile fighting retreat

back towards Germany.

By the end of the winter, the German

army on the Eastern Front is shattered

and teeters on the brink of destruction.

But Hitler is determined to reclaim the

initiative in the East, and he makes

plans for a massive counteroffensive.

His plan is to launch a large-scale

pincer maneuver to cut off the

Soviet-held salient centered on the

industrial town of Kursk. The goal:

encircle and destroy the half-million

Soviet forces in the Kursk bulge.

But the battlefield is huge.

200 km long and 150 km deep, most of it

rolling farmland.

In the wide-open spaces of the fabled

Russian steppes, it's ideal [music]

for tank warfare.

It's a formidable objective, and over

the spring and early summer, the Germans

amassed two entire army groups.

780,000

men,

close to 10,000 guns,

and 2,500 tanks.

An immense force that will shake Mother

Russia to the core.

But this buildup has not gone unnoticed,

and as the Germans prepare for Operation

Citadel, so do the Soviets.

To meet the impending German attack, the

Soviets build up almost 2 million men,

25,000 guns,

and more than 5,000 tanks.

And all across the Kursk Salient, they

dig in.

>> [music]

>> The backbone of the Soviet armored corps

is a T-34 medium tank.

With a 76-mm main cannon and 47-mm of

sloping frontal armor, the 31-ton T-34

has a deadly [music] balance of

firepower, protection, and mobility.

By the summer of 1943, Soviet factories

had produced tens of thousands of them.

And all across the Kursk Salient, the

T-34s move into position.

July 5th, 1943.

After 3 months of preparation, the

Germans are finally ready for their

attack.

1 hour before Operation Citadel is to

begin, Soviet gunners unleash a massive

artillery attack on German positions.

>> Full of a sudden, such a huge

You could go deaf from it.

It was like

They never expected this from us.

As it was dust, it looked like

fireworks.

When the Stalin Organs exploded, the

barrage was so intense, they actually

destroyed the position.

This caused lots of casualties right

from the beginning.

But something must have happened, as it

was impossible for the Russians to

figure the time of the attack. Exactly 1

hour prior to the planned attack.

>> But the Soviets knew the time of the

attack to the minute. They'd captured a

team of German sappers who revealed it

under interrogation.

The artillery barrage causes chaos in

German lines and delays the launch of

Operation Citadel.

But only for 1 hour.

Shortly after dawn, the Germans attack.

>> A mass of 500 about 500 were coming.

A company commander with tanks.

The German tanks were advancing towards

us.

Each tank carried 20 to 30 devils and

all of them jumped like shoemakers.

>> And that's when all hell broke loose.

>> The air and the sky were burning.

Tanks were on top of tanks.

Armageddon.

How do we [music] kept our word?

No backing away, not even a step.

For aesthetic.

>> By the end of the day, the Germans have

made only modest inroads into the vast

network of Soviet defenses along the

Kursk salient. [music]

In the south, the German fourth army's

panzers advance only 20 km, while in the

north, the ninth army has fared even

worse with gains of only 10 km at a cost

of dozens of tanks and more than 1,000

men.

So far, Operation Citadel is going

nowhere. And now, Soviet forces along

the northern shoulder of the Kursk Bulge

prepared a counter attack.

The Tiger is the German Army's biggest

tank. Encased in over 100 mm of armor,

it is [music] practically impervious to

frontal attack.

But it is the Tiger's 88 mm cannon with

a range of more than 2 km that makes it

the deadliest weapon on the Kursk

battlefield.

And the horrible epic battle begins.

Half of our

tanks were lightweight.

They run on gas and they would burn up

like candles.

Sorry, but here you can

I came out of the bushes with the only

bottle behind me.

>> [music]

>> I will take

76 mm gun.

It didn't come in handy there at the

tank.

I can hear the artillery coming.

And they finished him.

They began destroying each other.

Mutual losses, but the enemy had mutual

losses, too.

The Germans would come this way four or

five times.

My hatch was open, so I could look out

and find a target.

>> And in jumps the commander of my

battalion,

Gustav Godilo,

and it burned out. Enemy infantry

surrounded

so he decided to hide in the mud.

As soon as you see the anti-tank gun

pointing at you,

as soon as you see the anti-tank gun

pointing at you,

you get hit. You get out of the tank as

soon as you

And that's the kind of story

>> In less than 2 days of fighting, tens of

thousands of men die on both sides and

the hulks of hundreds of tanks lie in

the burning fields around Kursk.

And it's only the beginning. The Germans

now prepare to strike again. Their

target, the small rural village of

Ponyri, a quiet railway stop that is

about to become ground zero in one of

the bloodiest battles of the Second

World War.

July 5th, 1943.

In an effort to change their fortunes on

the Eastern Front, the Germans launch a

massive [music] armored offensive

against Soviet defenses on the plains of

western Russia.

>> [snorts]

>> The objective of Operation Citadel is to

encircle and destroy Soviet forces

[music] in the bulge around the

industrial town of Kursk.

The Soviets put up a stubborn defense

against the advancing Panzers.

There are heavy losses on both sides,

and by the end of the second day, the

Germans have made only modest gains.

Now more than a day behind schedule and

determined to take Kursk, Field Marshal

Walter Model launches a new assault. His

target, the railway town of Ponyri.

Ponyri is on the main line between Oryol

and Kursk, making it a central

collection and distribution point for

farms in the area.

If Model and his Ninth Army are to take

Kursk, they must first take Ponyri.

But Soviet Field Marshal Konstantin

Rokossovsky knows the strategic value of

the town. He digs in with a massive

force of tanks and guns and lays

thousands of mines. Little Ponyri

station now becomes the most heavily

fortified point along the entire Kursk

salient.

>> This what is in the valley to the stone

of the massive building in the city

of the sunken people

in the city

of the

sunken

people in the city.

>> sitting here in these trenches.

When Rokossovsky was preparing

to create three lines of defense.

All three lines of defense

It had a barbed wire fence.

The artillery and tanks

The tank is a dug out

Such dug out where with co

three at three shallow

and one shallow slope.

The frontal part approached

and then the tank lay on the ground

and the tank itself was a formidable

weapon

a weapon

against the enemy.

And

it was precisely this territory

that was

at the epicenter of the fighting.

>> The Germans and Soviets engage in a

vicious seesaw battle for control of

Ponary.

The town changes hands five times in a

single day.

The Germans send wave after wave of

panzers into the fight. Many are

destroyed by mines, T-34s, and anti-tank

guns.

On July 9th, the Germans attack

northeast of the village, striking

Soviet positions on high ground

designated on their maps as Hill 253.5.

Our division is a Sturmgeschütz 177

and joins the others on July 9th.

We were supposed to attack a hill that

was occupied by the enemy.

We used the shotguns, infantry, and one

unit of brand new Ferdinand tank

destroyers.

>> The Ferdinand is Germany's newest

self-propelled gun, [music] never before

used in battle.

It's a 65-ton monster with 200 mm of

protective armor plating and twin 300

horsepower engines that move it along at

30 km an hour.

But its most dangerous feature is its

6-m long high-velocity 88-mm cannon.

>> And we had big hopes for these tanks.

They were able to shoot with their 88-mm

cannons at a distance of 3,200 yd.

The Ferdinand could knock out the T-34

at 700 yd.

This was their headquarters led by our

captain.

After they opened fire, one after the

other

We assumed that the engines were

overheated and exploded.

The crews got out and ran away.

After the

battle, we depended on the

Sturmgeschütz.

>> The Germans' most widely produced

assault gun is a Sturmgeschütz or StuG.

Built on a Panzer III chassis, the

turretless StuG is armed with a

high-velocity 75-mm cannon and is

Germany's most successful tank

destroyer.

>> [music]

>> The ambush came close. The tanks came

They drove across a minefield on the

hill.

The Russian artillery was hitting us

like crazy.

The commander was standing in the

He showed us that we have to spread out.

He signaled us that

We were immediately hit and there

One of the tanks got hit. One of the

tanks

The tank was on

>> Although they lose more than half of

their StuGs, the German advance breaks

through Rokossovsky's first line of

defense.

>> We fought our way across the first line

of defense.

And took the second

The Russians retreated.

There was a very narrow turn.

And immediately behind it there was a

Russian heavy tank.

>> Those who managed to escape were shot by

the infantry.

Shortly behind the next turn,

there was another anti-tank gun.

We could not react in any way. We were

unable

The order was given to the driver

to hit it full throttle.

>> July 9th, 1943.

The Battle of Kursk enters its fifth

bloody day with a German 9th Army still

unable to penetrate the Russian defenses

in the northern [music] sector.

The Germans, desperate to complete their

drive to Kursk, launch an enormous

armored assault on the strategically

important town of Ponyri.

Their goal, seize the high ground

northeast of the village known as Hill

253.5.

>> Before our vehicle crossed the first

road ditches,

we took the second one.

The Russian infantry retreated.

Shortly behind the next turn,

there was another anti-tank gun.

We could not react in any way. We were

unable

The order was given to the driver

to hit it full throttle.

The order was given to the driver to hit

it full throttle. We managed to get

The crash.

The whole talk

is about the tank.

The T-34 was about to fire.

The shell bounced off.

And we were afraid that our shell might

not have the power to destroy a tank at

this distance.

>> The T-34's 47 mm of frontal armor is

sloped at a 60° angle, enabling it to

deflect oncoming shells and giving the

equivalent of almost 75 mm of head-on

armored protection.

>> But the tank had been shocked. The side

side hit.

The damage to the shooting in the side.

It blew up right away.

Our tank shells had the ability to punch

through tanks.

The only exploded shortly after piercing

the tank steel wall.

Therefore, the destruction of the tank

and its crew was guaranteed.

>> By the end of the day, the Germans

finally capture Hill 253.5,

taking heavy losses, but inflicting

worse on the Soviet defenders, [music]

who fight to the last man.

>> The German demons were aiming to have

the Soviets panic and leave.

But our soldiers, with our general's

command,

did not even shudder. We were not

afraid.

Soldiers didn't think about losing their

life to win.

If they had to slide under a tank,

they did just that in order to save the

city.

>> The strategy of the Russian tank troops

was, put it like this, stubborn.

Stubbornly, they were attacking at the

same spot

over and over again.

Numerous former attacks had been fended

off, and lots of tanks were standing on

the field burning.

And the next wave followed,

and the next one.

>> No stepping back.

Those were our orders.

Forgive me, but everyone wants to live.

And when the enemy started their attack,

this is their

Just like the old Soviet Union, they

didn't

>> There is a particular way of dealing

with and button tanks,

which is the same for all tanks.

Everyone had the goal of letting the

tank come as near as it could.

And shoot into the most vulnerable

places of the tank.

There is no point in firing into the air

because there's about 100-150 mm of

armor. You always aim to destroy its

sides.

I would shoot at the tanks with

armor-piercing shells.

Did I hit the tank?

But there is a shell bouncing off and

went upwards.

In that time, the enemy would aim what

[music] he was going to aim and shoot at

the tank.

>> July 11th, 1943.

It's been 6 days [music] since Hitler's

Operation Citadel began.

And his massive panzer armies have made

only modest gains.

In the south, the German Fourth Army,

spearheaded by three elite SS panzer

[music] divisions has penetrated just 50

km into the Kursk salient. And in the

north, Model's ninth [music] army has

advanced only 20 km towards Kursk.

In order to finally achieve a

breakthrough, Model prepares for one

final [music] attack and commits all of

his remaining reserves hoping to finally

crack the stubborn Russian defenses at

Ponyri.

>> Everyone had the goal of attacking the

tank as near as possible and shoot into

the most vulnerable places on the tank.

But there is no point shooting because

because the armor is about 100-150 mm

armor. You always aim to destroy its

sides.

I would shoot at the tanks with

armor-piercing shells.

And then we see that I hit the jackpot.

But the missile itself bounced off and

went up.

But in that time the enemy tank shot at

me.

I managed to hide in the bushes. If I

hadn't, I would have been destroyed.

>> After almost a week of intense fighting,

the Germans are exhausted and battered,

and they haven't even taken Ponary. But

they've inflicted huge losses on the

Soviets, who seem to [music] have

endless reserves of men and T-34s for

the fight.

>> The tanks drove against each other.

And there was shooting everywhere.

The gunners told me later that all they

saw were tank walls.

>> During the combat, my steering had been

damaged.

I couldn't move forward and steer.

We had to drive backwards to steer

the tank.

And of course, this was an immense

handicap.

And so, I decided to drive back and give

notice to the commander

that I was returning to the garage.

While I was standing there,

a T-34 came at us at full speed.

I shot the front full of holes. And it

started burning right away.

I asked my comrades what had happened.

They told me that the Russian tanks

had broken through the

front.

Now, a tank battle started, the likes of

which had never been seen before.

And we never experienced again the like

of it.

>> What Bow and the rest of the Germans on

the northern front are experiencing is

just the beginning of a massive Russian

counteroffensive.

One that will determine the outcome of

the Battle of Kursk and will ultimately

change the course of the Second World

War.

The Battle of Kursk enters its second

bloody week. The losses on both sides

have been enormous. 80,000 men killed

and more than 2,000 tanks destroyed.

On the northern front, the Germans have

lost 21,000 men and 50% of their armored

strength. They have no reserve forces

left. Model is no longer able to attack.

Despite even heavier losses, the Soviets

are able to field more than 400,000 men,

15,000 guns, [music] and almost 1,400

tanks.

With these deep reserves, they launch

Operation Kutuzov.

>> The units that were really out of shape

from the battle and lost too many lives

in this war.

We had a goal to defeat the German army.

The rest of our possible reinforcements

That's when the enemy suffered heavy

losses.

>> And we started to do practice.

>> It begins on July the 12th.

Their aim is to smash through the

largely undefended flank of Model's 9th

Army.

This attack marks the end of Hitler's

Operation Citadel and heralds the

beginning of the Russian summer

offensive.

>> All of a sudden, I was standing in a

lower area surrounded by bushes and

trees.

And was observing the enemy's flank.

After a while, I noticed movement on the

other side.

All of a sudden, I heard this strange

sound of a bush.

>> The Germans are getting help from the

air. In a desperate bid to halt the

Soviet advance, they throw everything

they have into the battle, including the

battered remnants of their once

formidable Luftwaffe.

>> Dive bombers were approaching us

unexpectedly and [music] attacking the

Russian tanks.

You go inside the tank, close the hatch.

But when I hear

Suddenly it was silent.

Now everything was

silent. Nothing was left.

>> The bombs hit the tank.

The tank fell in this deep crater.

I wanted to turn as I saw a Russian tank

in front of me.

100 m away.

I heard it backfire and all of a sudden

it got stuck.

You hear hear the stump. The truck is

stuck.

We were stuck

and couldn't move forward.

I jumped out right away and checked what

was on.

And then the next we managed to chop off

some logs

and levered the tank up a little.

And then I just shot when it blew up.

The Russian pressure is stronger and

stronger.

And we weren't able to hold the front.

The infantry had been sent out in time

as a unit. There were only three, four,

or five men left.

So, it was impossible to withstand the

immense pressure of the enemy and

stabilize the new position.

>> Operation Citadel, Germany's last

Eastern Front Offensive [music]

of the Second World War, is over. The

Battle of Kursk ends on July 13th, 1943,

but the fighting goes on.

Now, it's the Soviets on the offensive.

>> After the freeing of places where the

German devils resided,

after our bombing and bombardment of

those places,

all of his hiding spots,

all of his camps were

all of his bunkers were liquidated. They

were liquidated.

>> They begin a relentless pursuit and

destruction of German forces that will

continue all the way to Berlin.

In eight days of fighting, over 200,000

men are killed or wounded, and nearly

3,000 tanks are destroyed.

The battlefield [music] is littered with

the dead and with a smoldering hulks of

German and Soviet tanks.

But the true cost of the battle cannot

be measured just in terms of soldiers

and tanks. For the real price of war on

the Eastern Front has been paid by every

man, woman,

and child.

>> I remember all the time

>> It was in what year?

>> [music]

>> In 1943.

>> That's when the Battle of Kursk

happened.

>> Everything was destroyed. [music]

There was nothing left.

There was nothing

Everyone was dying. What can you say?

The entire

The entire countryside was filled with

the bodies of soldiers.

Everything was ruined.

>> From behind

you could hear lots of screams.

Mama.

Don't leave us here.

Take us with you.

I had stopped.

There was there was many wounded men up

on my tank. It was possible.

It was terrible to see.

>> What else can I tell you?

There is so much to put it all into

words.

It was colossal.

You can't describe it.

Bodies lying everywhere.

But with our spirit we defended our

motherland.

>> Mhm.