Battle of Oryol (1943)

Summer landscape in the Oryol region (panorama).

An anti-tank rifle crew in a trench in early June 1943. A machine gunner in position.

A soldier smokes a hand-rolled cigarette.

Soviet tanks camouflaged in the forest.

A scout observes the enemy's forward edge through binoculars.

Panorama of the area.

Map of the enemy's occupation of the Oryol bridgehead (animation).

Map of the formation of the Kursk salient by 1943 and the German plan to destroy the Soviet bridgehead near Kursk (animation).

German armored and motorized units advance to the front lines.

German tanks, motorized units, and aircraft go on the offensive.

German infantry on the march.

An officer at an observation post.

Soviet sappers mine the approaches to the defensive line.

German tanks attack.

Elevating a gun barrel.

Soviet artillery fires at the enemy, hitting German tanks.

Soviet artillery crews in action.

German tanks cross a ditch.

Soviet artillery fires at the enemy from indirect and direct fire positions.

Burning German tanks.

A salvo of rocket launchers, Soviet officers at a command and observation post.

German aircraft bomb the front line, aircraft in flight, bombs exploding.

Soviet soldiers run along a trench.

Providing first aid to the wounded.

Anti-aircraft artillery fires at German aircraft.

Air combat.

Infantrymen fire at German tanks and infantry.

A grenade is thrown from a trench, a German tank catches fire.

Soviet fighters and bombers take off from the airfield.

Il-2 attack aircraft approach their target.

Air attack on German battle formations and rear units.

Air battles.

German aircraft burning on the ground.

A T-60 light tank goes on the attack.

Soviet troops counterattack, infantry in combat.

Corpses of German soldiers.

Evacuation of the wounded from the battlefield, machine gunners firing.

Small arms fire, faces of Soviet soldiers during the battle.

Burning German armored vehicles.

The corpse of a German soldier.

Wreckage of downed German planes.

Destroyed German tanks and self-propelled guns.

Map of a minor enemy penetration into our defenses (animation).

A destroyed German Tiger tank.

A destroyed artillery piece.

The corpse of a German artilleryman.

A stunned German soldier sits by the wrecked piece, his head in his hands.

Captured Germans are escorted to the rear.

Captured Germans walk through the streets of Kursk.

Soviet tanks and motorized infantry advance to the front during the concentration of strike groups on the Bryansk Front.

Soviet infantry units march across the steppe to the front.

Soviet troops advance to the front.

Map of the liquidation of the Oryol bridgehead according to the plans of the Soviet command (animation).

Summer landscapes at dawn.

Barbed wire entanglements on the enemy's forward line, Soviet soldiers in position.

Soldiers prepare for an offensive, smoking before battle.

A sentry at an anti-aircraft gun.

Soviet aircraft at an airfield at dawn.

An observer at an air observation post looks through binoculars.

A flare signal is sent.

Artillery fire on enemy positions in the pre-dawn darkness.

Guards mortars fire.

A Soviet officer watches the results of fire from a trench through binoculars.

Soldiers before the attack during artillery preparation.

An officer blows a whistle to signal the attack.

The infantry rushes forward, breaking through barbed wire.

Gaps appear on the German front line.

Assault units attack German fortifications.

Trucks carrying infantry enter the breach.

Soviet aircraft bomb German fortifications, burning airfields and ammunition trains.

Rocket mortar fire.

Bryansk Front headquarters officers emerge from a dugout.

Bryansk Front commander Colonel General Popov holds binoculars.

Faces of the Front Military Council members.

Front headquarters members and General Popov discuss the combat situation plotted on a map.

A view of the area through binoculars.

An officer fires a flare gun from a trench.

Soviet troops ford and cross a river on pontoons under cover of a smoke screen.

Soldiers carry pontoons to the shore.

Infantry lies low while suppressing enemy fire points.

Soviet artillery fires at German fortifications; shells explode on German positions and deep within the defenses.

Horse-drawn infantry and artillery ford a water obstacle.

Sappers advance along a trench to clear mines.

Sappers clear mines under enemy fire.

Removing an anti-tank mine.

A sapper cuts barbed wire.

Clearing a passage through the barbed wire.

Tanks carrying infantry on their armor advance to break through German positions on the Oryol bridgehead.

Combat operations on the Oryol bridgehead.

Soviet aircraft bomb German fortifications.

Infantry advances with tank support.

A burning German tank, advancing Soviet infantrymen pass by.

Aircraft, tanks, and infantry attack the enemy.

Air battles.

A plane crashes.

The burning wreckage of a German fighter.

A damaged Soviet plane lands at the airfield.

A damaged Soviet fighter, having reached the airfield.

Providing aid to a wounded pilot.

The pilot is carried away on a stretcher.

The wreckage of burning German planes on the ground.

Infantry attacks the enemy across open ground during a Soviet breakthrough of the German defenses.

A German mortar crew opens fire.

Soviet infantry approaches German dugouts, a Soviet mortar opens fire.

Infantry breaks into a German trench.

Captured German artillery pieces, corpses of German soldiers.

Soviet soldiers capture German dugouts and lead German prisoners out of them.

A column of German prisoners of war moves across the steppe to the rear.

Liberation of populated areas by troops of the Bryansk Front.

A Soviet soldier kills a German machine gunner on the roof of a house with a grenade.

Infantry fights in a village, moving from house to house.

Residents of the liberated village greet Soviet soldiers.

Soviet troops move west.

Local residents return to their homes from the forests.

Burning village houses.

Soviet tanks move past burning houses and German soldiers' cemeteries.

Troops pass through villages destroyed and burned by the German occupiers, local residents emerge from dugouts and ravines.

A German commandant's office announces a shooting.

Refugees return to their homes.

Soviet troops continue their advance west.

Views of Mtsensk with its ruined buildings; Soviet troops march through the city streets.

A red flag flies over liberated Bolkhov.

Views of Bolkhov after its liberation from the occupiers, the face of a Bolkhov resident.

Map of the liberation of the Oryol bridgehead by Soviet troops (animation).

Views and panoramas of the German fortified area on the Oryol bridgehead, captured by Soviet troops.

Destroyed German dugouts, corpses of German soldiers, disabled German tanks and guns.

A broken German armored cap.

Destroyed German military equipment.

A column of German prisoners moving, corpses of German soldiers.

Crosses and helmets on the graves of German soldiers.

Panorama of a part of the German soldiers' cemetery.

Columns of German prisoners moving to the rear under convoy (panorama).

Commander of the Western Front troops, Colonel General V.D. Sokolovsky at the command post.

A Soviet cavalry unit crosses a water obstacle.

The cavalry enters a breakthrough through the German rear.

The body of a German soldier.

Breakthrough tanks pursue the retreating enemy.

Corpses of German soldiers.

German soldiers being captured after capturing another stronghold.

Faces of German prisoners of war (panorama).

Artillery of the Central Front firing at the enemy, gun crews at work.

Troops of the Central Front are engaged in combat.

Commander of the Central Front, General of the Army K. K. Rokossovsky, and Chief of Staff of the Front, Lieutenant General M. S. Malinin, at the command post.

Infantry and tank advance on the Central Front.

Map of the offensive of the Steppe and Voronezh Fronts on Belgorod (animation).

Troops of the Steppe and Voronezh Fronts on the offensive.

Burning and destroyed German tanks.

The body of a German soldier.

Commander of the Voronezh Front, General of the Army N. F. Vatutin, at the command post.

Commander of the Steppe Front, Colonel General I. S. Konev with the Chief of Staff at the command post.

Konev's face.

Shell explosion.

Flamethrower stream.

Tree trunks snapping.

Fighting on the approaches to Orel.

Soviet troops engaged in street fighting.

Burning houses.

A division commander at his command post.

Soviet tanks advancing.

A view of the burning city.

Soviet troops enter Oryol on August 5, 1943. Gestapo prisoners wave through the bars.

Freed prisoners emerge from Nazi dungeons.

The population of Oryol greets Soviet troops; a woman blesses a Soviet officer with an icon.

Soviet soldiers tear down the sign of the German commandant's office and tear down the swastika banner.

The destroyed city train station and railway junction (panorama).

City blocks and buildings destroyed by the Germans.

Tram depot smashed against rusted cars.

People deprived of their homes with their belongings (panorama).

The raising of the USSR national flag over the destroyed executive committee building.

The command of the Red Army units hands over the city to civilian authorities.

Views of Belgorod after its liberation on August 5, 1943, buildings destroyed by the Germans.

Young women present bouquets of flowers to Soviet soldiers marching in formation.

The raising of the Soviet flag over Belgorod.

The wall of a building with traces of artillery shells.

Soviet troops march through the streets of Belgorod.

View of a section of a city block (from above).

The funeral of Major General Gurtyev and the tank crews who died during the liberation of Orel and Belgorod.

Views of the funeral procession, faces of the mourners.

Officers in the honor guard at the coffin.

A civilian speaker addresses the funeral service, standing on the turret of a tank.

The coffins of Major General Gurtyev and General of the Army Apanasenko are lowered into the graves.

Coffins in a mass grave.

Funeral artillery salute.

Passing Red Army soldiers throw earth onto the mass grave.

Inscription on the monument erected at the grave of the tank crews of the 17th Guards Tank Brigade who died during the liberation of Belgorod.

Brigade personnel in formation near a memorial tank.

The inscription on the side of the tank: "Death to the German occupiers!" Tanks carrying infantry head west, the people of Belgorod cheer the passing troops.

The face of an officer marching in formation.

The faces of Belgorod residents.

The face of one of the standard-bearers.

Presentation of flowers to Soviet soldiers.

A soldier holding a girl.

Fireworks in Moscow in honor of the liberation of Orel and Belgorod, the faces of people watching the fireworks.

Views of Moscow streets and the Moscow Kremlin.