Star Media - Soviet Storm WWII in the East Series 1 (2011) Part 9 The Battle of Kursk
On 22nd June 1941, Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa–the Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia. Four million troops, backed by 19 panzer divisions, fought their way east, confident of total victory within a just few short months. They were wrong. Instead of collapsing, the Soviet Union held strong and–under the utterly ruthless leadership of Josef Stalin–fought a savage, four year war of attrition on a scale the world had never before witnessed. Over 30 million people would be slaughtered in the horror, most of them civilians. Four out of every ten German soldiers to be killed in WWII would die fighting the Russians. The Red Army suffered ten times as many dead as the Western Allies combined. Hitler and Stalin were prepared to accept losses on any scale in the pursuit of victory. Soviet Storm tells the complete story of the War on the Eastern Front, profiling the epic campaigns and battles, revealing the tactics employed by both sides and exposing the true horrors of a conflict almost unimaginable in its sheers cruelty and depravity. Here were the greatest civilian losses the largest battle and the biggest tank battle–Kursk–the world has ever seen. This was war on a scale and ferocity never seen before as Hitler and Stalin battled for the future of the world. Soviet Storm WWII In The East tells the incredible stories from the Second World War's biggest and bloodiest theatre of war. Told from an unprecedented Russian perspective the episodes explore some of the most devastating battles of World War II from the Red Army's catastrophic encirclement at Kiev in 1941 to the notorious Rzhev meat-grinder. The series also looks at the dramatic recovery of the Soviet air force from it's almost total destruction in the first days of the war, the role of Baltic Sea Fleet submarines, the brutal partisan war fought against a backdrop of Nazi genocide, and the crucial role of Soviet secret intelligence. Across 18 episodes the biggest battles, the key personalities and the decisive weapons of the war are examined in depth including legendary tanks like the T-34 and the Tiger, and less well-known Soviet aircraft such as the Ilyushin 2 flying tank or the superb Lavochkin La-5 fighter. From the German invasion of 22nd June 1941 through to the brutal fighting outside the gates of Moscow, the savage street-fighting of Stalingrad, and the long, bloody road to Berlin, this is an epic retelling of the world s most devastating conflict. Especially produced to mark the 75th anniversary of Operation Barbarossa with unrivalled access to rare and and previously unseen combat film from military archives, Soviet Storm WW2 in the East is by far the most detailed and extensive film history of the war on the Eastern Front ever released.
Part 9 The Battle of Kursk
After two years of war, Hitler was no closer to victory in the East, and his forces had suffered a devastating defeat at Stalingrad. Now the Germans gathered their strength for one last massive offensive to decide the outcome of the war. It was April 1943. The frontline froze, but the Soviet Command was already designing plans for the Summer, paying special attention to the Kursk region. Here the troops of the Central Front had deeply bucked in the German defenses. The Germans planned to cut off the Kursk bulge with a double blow during Operation Citadel. Army Group Center was supposed to attack from the North and troops of Army Group South were to attack from the south. In the battles near Leningrad, Soviet troops captured a new German tank with an elephant sign on its armor. However, the true name of the tank becomes known much later, it is the German “Tiger”. As a result of testing the captured “Tiger”, it turned out that its armor could not be penetrated even when a shell was fired from cannon at 200 meters distance. Soviets had to admit that their artillery was powerless against such tanks. Meanwhile, by the summer of 1943, the Central and Voronezh fronts of the Red Army had made a deep breach in the enemy's defenses, forming the so-called Kursk salient. The German operation “Citadel” planned an offensive from the south and north to the Red Army, locking it in a “bulge” in the Kursk region.
Full Version Available Upon Request
</hidden>