ID :
13054
Sat, 07/19/2008 - 15:22
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/13054
The shortlink copeid
Anniversary of Battle of Salient of Kursk to be marked in S W Russia
PPONYRI, Kursk region, July 19 (Itar-Tass) - A festive march-past in the town Ponyri in Russia's southwest Kursk region will open the Saturday festivities dedicated to the 65th anniversary of a significant episode of the grandiose Battle of the Kursk Salient that unfolded from July 5 through August 23, 1943.
Lyudmila Grebenkova, the vice governor of the Kursk region, which is located some 500 kilometers to the south of Moscow, told Itar-Tass war veterans who fought in the ranks of five rifle divisions, one artillery division, an Air Force army and a tank army will take part in the march-past.
All of these combat units had gained considerable experience of
operations by the beginning of the battle near Ponyri, as they had fought on the northern face of the Kursk salient versus the excellently quipped units of the Wehrmacht preparing for a jump eastwards.
Relatives of the soldiers who died near Ponyri will walk together with the veterans in the columns.
Traditional ceremonies of the laying of flowers will be held at a
number of monuments. One of them, the Hero Artillery Men, is located at a place where an artillery battery reporting to Captain Georgy Igishev was the first to withstand the Nazi onslaught July 5, 1943.
The battery soldiers destroyed 30 Nazi tanks then.
After the ceremonies, the veterans will have a meeting with Kursk
region governor Alexander Mikhailov at the Ponyri railway station.
At 05:30 Moscow time July 5, 1943, up to 500 German tanks started
moving towards the village of Olkhovatka where the positions of Soviet
troops were situated.
The Soviet soldiers repelled four fierce attacks and the German forces manage to pierce the defense lines and get six to eight kilometers deep into Soviet battle orders only by the end of that day.
As the assault mired, the Wehrmacht forces regrouped and concentrated near the village of Tyoploye, where up to 300 tanks, to say nothing of big numbers of infantry and artillery units, were engaged in the operation simultaneously.
The town of Ponyri changed hands seven times during the six days of the combat operations here.
The Wehrmacht lost 42,000 servicemen in killed and more than 800 tanks there.
July 12, 1943, Soviet troops began a counteroffensive.
Lyudmila Grebenkova, the vice governor of the Kursk region, which is located some 500 kilometers to the south of Moscow, told Itar-Tass war veterans who fought in the ranks of five rifle divisions, one artillery division, an Air Force army and a tank army will take part in the march-past.
All of these combat units had gained considerable experience of
operations by the beginning of the battle near Ponyri, as they had fought on the northern face of the Kursk salient versus the excellently quipped units of the Wehrmacht preparing for a jump eastwards.
Relatives of the soldiers who died near Ponyri will walk together with the veterans in the columns.
Traditional ceremonies of the laying of flowers will be held at a
number of monuments. One of them, the Hero Artillery Men, is located at a place where an artillery battery reporting to Captain Georgy Igishev was the first to withstand the Nazi onslaught July 5, 1943.
The battery soldiers destroyed 30 Nazi tanks then.
After the ceremonies, the veterans will have a meeting with Kursk
region governor Alexander Mikhailov at the Ponyri railway station.
At 05:30 Moscow time July 5, 1943, up to 500 German tanks started
moving towards the village of Olkhovatka where the positions of Soviet
troops were situated.
The Soviet soldiers repelled four fierce attacks and the German forces manage to pierce the defense lines and get six to eight kilometers deep into Soviet battle orders only by the end of that day.
As the assault mired, the Wehrmacht forces regrouped and concentrated near the village of Tyoploye, where up to 300 tanks, to say nothing of big numbers of infantry and artillery units, were engaged in the operation simultaneously.
The town of Ponyri changed hands seven times during the six days of the combat operations here.
The Wehrmacht lost 42,000 servicemen in killed and more than 800 tanks there.
July 12, 1943, Soviet troops began a counteroffensive.
