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| Battle-hardened Panzer crew members |
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| Pz.Kpfw. Tiger n°123 of 2.s.Pz.Abt. 503 |
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| Soviet-backed Communist partisans |
The Soviet Operation Kutuzov represents the final Soviet seizure of the strategic initiative in the east. With the Battle of Prokhorovka still in the balance, the massive Soviet counteroffensive near Orel caused Adolf Hitler to order the cancellation of Operation Citadel. The German panzer forces began to withdraw from the Kursk salient to meet Operation Kutuzov. The Soviet armies earmarked for the operation had amassed a force of 1,286,000 men and 2,400 tanks. These were supported by 26,400 guns and 3,000 aircraft. The Soviet offensive was aided by partisan attacks behind the German lines. Approximately 100,000 partisans according to Soviet reports. The German's mustered 300,700 men and 625 tanks and assault guns. The Operation began on July 12 and ended on August 18 1943 with the destruction of the Orel bulge. The Wehrmacht were unable to stop further Soviet advances westwards and were on the defensive continually thereafter. According to official Soviet sources Soviet casualties in Operation Kutuzov were 429,890 including 112,529 killed. According to German historian Karl-Heinz Frieser, Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS units suffered 86,064 casualties, including 25,515 killed and missing. Credit: Wikipedia inter alia. Top clip: Die Deutsche Wochenschau. Middle image: according to some accounts, a Tiger of the schwere Panzerabteilung 503. The unit had lost three of its 42 operational Tigers during Citadel and five more during the subsequent retreat. The massive Tiger tank will remain forever a symbol of the formidable German Panzer formations of World War II. Credit: Irootoko Jr. c. Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: a group photo of Soviet Red partisans, some in German uniforms and others in civilian clothes. Note the man in the lower right corner who is wearing an SS-Sturmmann tunic. The partisans, in order to live, needed to raid and steal from farms and villages on the fringes of the towns. War crimes against locals and Germans alike was the order of day. Credit: Georgiy Stanislavskiy.
Partisans on the Eastern Front were merciless and brutal and hardly any German soldier captured by a partisan unit lived to tell the tale. The Communists were even worse since they would rape any living thing from women down to geese and pigs. I'm not a fan of any type of totalitarian regime but people who believe that the Communists were liberators should take some time and study the history.
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