Monday 23 November 2015

Artillery at Kursk

Remember the ZiS-3 battery at Teploye that beat up some Tigers? That was only a small part of the battle. The overall engagement was much more grand.

Diagram 22. 3rd Anti-Tank Artillery brigade vs. enemy tanks, July 8th, 1943

The diagram shows an assembly of "up to 300 tanks and SPGs" against the anti-tank line, with an attack at 8:30, 11:30 (up to 200 tanks), 12:30 (up to 150 tanks), and 13:20 (up to 100 tanks). A German unit identified as "32nd Tank" broke through the line, but was repulsed by 2nd battery. 23rd and 16th tank units were also repulsed in the western part of the line. The 12:30 attack made some kind of complex maneuver over the positions of the 7th battery and retreated.

But enough about diagrams, let's look at some photos!

"German Tiger tank, destroyed by artillery from the 2nd Destroyer Division near Teploye"
"Fedinand SPG, destroyed on July 5th near height 257.3 by 4th battery, 642nd Gun Artillery Regiment, 5th Artillery Division, Reserve of the Supreme Command"

"German Ferdinand SPG destroyed by our artillery near Teploye."
"Inside of the Ferdinand SPG."


"Result of a direct hit by a 152 mm shell."
"Ferdinand SPG knocked out by our artillery."

"Two direct hits from 122 mm shells to the turret. Fire from 3rd battery, 642nd Gun Artillery Regiment, 5th Artillery Division, Reserve of the Supreme Command."
"Medium tank knocked out by direct hits from 76 mm shells, 7th battery, 1007th Light Artillery Regiment, 12th Artillery Division, Reserve of the Supreme Command, on July 6th, 1943, near Malaya Zorka."

"Tanks knocked out at height 257.1 by fire from 6th battery, 642nd Gun Artillery Regiment and 4th battery, 540th Light Artillery Regiment"
"A German tank after two hits by 152 mm shells to the turret. Destroyed at height 248.5 (Ponyri) on July 8th, 1943 by indirect fire from the 1st battery, 86th Heavy Howitzer Artillery Brigade."

"A German tank, destroyed on July 9th, 1943 near Ponyri station by 9th battery, 753rd Gun Artillery Regiment, 5th Artillery Division, Reserve of the Supreme Command."
"Ferdinand SPG destroyed on July 5th, 1943 near Podlesnaya by 4th battery, 753rd Gun Artillery Regiment."

"German Ferdinand SPG knocked out on July 6th, 1943, near height 255.1 by 3rd battery, 642nd Gun Artillery Regiment, 5th Artillery Division, Reserve of the Supreme Command. A 107 mm shell destroyed the track near the drive wheel."
"Ferdinand SPG knocked out on July 5th, 1943 near height 243.1 by 7th battery, 206th Howitzer Artillery Regiment, 5th Artillery Division, Reserve of the Supreme Command. A 122 mm howitzer shell destroyed the tracks."

"German medium tank and Ferdinand SPG (right) knocked out at height 257.1 (north) on July 8th, 1943 by direct fire from 6th battery, Corps Gun Artillery Regiment and 4th battery, 540th Light Artillery Regiment, 5th Artillery Division, Reserve of the Supreme Command."

"German tractor knocked out and burned up by fire from 2nd battery, 496th Howitzer Artillery Regiment, 12th Artillery Division, Reserve of the Supreme Command. July 15th, 1943."
"SPG hit by several 152 mm shells in the vicinity of 1st of May Farm"

You can see the rest of the photos from the album here.

18 comments:

  1. Some very interesting photos, showing not only the destructive power of the Soviet artillery, but also the mix of tanks used.

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  2. The first wreck in picture #7 is a "Brummbär" innit? Those don't turn up often, but then again with a production run just a hair over 300...

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    1. Yup, I was pretty surprised to see 2 entire Brumbars in the photo set.

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    2. Neat! I don't think I've ever seen a photo of a Brumbär without schurtzen, let alone on the eastern front.

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  3. It seems it is not so easy getting through when something more than 45 mm caliber will occur.
    And had Ferdinants at this stage of war HE rounds? Heinz Guderian said that infantry could not follow behind them because they were not able to neutralize enemy infantry or machine guns. Just against big targets it was adequate.

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  4. I don't think the dates on those photos are correct. The Germans didn't give back ground on the northern front until after the 9th. So the photos had to be taken of left behind material.

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    1. You'll note one date is "July 15th"... those are obviously dates of destruction, not when the photos were taken and/or compiled. But the repulsed armoured thrusts should already have left a fair few derelicts within the Soviet lines, and most are clear "unrecoverables" anyway - either total write-offs or too heavy to be readily salvaged, nevermind now under the attentions of strong artillery concentrations.

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    2. Sure or dates of discovery of the derelict. There are not a lot of real Soviet battle photos. They are either staged action shots or post battle sanitized scenes. Stories and captions concerning what went on are created at even dates.
      -Mo

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    3. Right because the people charged with documenting this stuff pulled the unit citations outta their asses. And weren't working off of the daily AARs and simple cross-referencing against friendly positions or anything.

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    4. You said it. And they never get anything wrong. Like
      "This time there were 22 tanks, supported by a Ferdinand from the flank." This August 1944. Where is this guy? In Italy?

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    5. I fail to see the relevance; doubly so as "Ferdinand" became an umbrella term for just about all German casemate AFVs. (Or at least the bigger ones.)

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  5. 107 mm guns? Those must have been fairly rare by Kursk, no?

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    1. Yes, as far as I'm aware, only HE shells existed for these guns at this point, and no ammunition was in production at all.

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    2. That's too bad. 107 AP would have been useful against Tigers and Ferdinands. Was there any reason the 107's weren't used for that kind of thing, beyond expense?

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    3. 107 mm tank and anti-tank guns were developed before the war specifically to destroy enemy heavy tanks. When it turned out that the enemy had no heavy tanks, production was ceased in favour of more practical weapons. When these tanks finally showed up, it turned out that the 85 mm gun was good enough. The 107 mm tank gun had a chance to end up in the IS-2, but the 122 mm gun was deemed superior.

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    4. I suppose rightly so, you're not losing much, if any penetration power for a massive gain in the HE department.

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  6. The 122mm preference over the 170mm was almost certainly a well thought of and correct one.

    Actual vehicle losses (TWO) for Hgr. Mitte formations participating in attacks on the northern salient of Kursks from July 5th to July 14th:

    87 tanks, StuG, and Ferdinand.
    Not included: Pz II losses, Pz38t losses and PzBefWg losses

    Source: Ba-MA RH 10/65

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  7. For comparison, Soviet irrecoverable losses (TWO) in the northern salient of Kursks 5th of July to 15th of July:
    526 tanks and SPG

    Source: Zaev, report on losses (CAMO)

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