Visiting main Russian front battlefields?

[1st Trip] Windmill

Right accross to ‘Katyusha’ there r working windmill that is at least 30 years old. When there r good wind blows there r chance to see its working (at winter it is stopped to prevent unwanted damage).
Amazing structure to me since I’ve never seen windmill – maybe Netherlanders would say that it is usual stuff, but here it is not This place marked on modern map with 'W'.




Going further. At this picture u can see on background a sequence of trees – it’s a road to Prokhorovka. At this point u r viewing from mark 'W' on modern map like it was viewed by germans in july 1943, because their assault was along that road (in 1943 it was just a rut).

 

[1st Trip] Battlefield

Here we go.

After about 30km from marks 'K' and 'W' we arrived to tank battlefield. This is the road to it:

Here u can see my HONDA hiding in back of the tank.

On modern map u can see marks 'B' and 'T'. At mark 'T' is placed an exposition of common tankbattle armored vehicles. This is overview of mark 'T' from field:

On vehicle in center it is me

Acrros the road is battlefield (to be correct it is central part of actual battlefield because battle was on each sides of road) itself. In center of it build big belltower in memory of all soldiers killed in battle. Bell on tower rings every 1 hour, recalling memories of all victims of war.
This is view from mark 'T' to belltower:


to be continued..

 

This is really an amazing thread - please keep the images coming!

 

Amazing posts and great Info!!!

 

Excellent posts Alex, good idea to put the maps in.
This is really helping me get a "feel" for the area.
Keep them coming.

I read in one of my books that your town, Belgorod, fell to the Germans in October 1941, is there anything in the town to remember that date by?
Thnx for high rating

About Belgorod - have to answer yes and no. Why no? Belgorod's citizens was highly affected by germans rules - when nazi were beaten from town there was only 50% (or even less) of population in comparison with before war population. Many people (mostly young) was caught and sent to camps to work on Third Reich, many was killed like supported soviet rule, some was killed in hard fights for town. Going out of town nazi blown up all bridges, administrative buildings and such stuff. When soviet troops recaptured town in august 1943 they've seen town half-ruined. So in town at this time nothing can recall memories of german occupation because of such damage to town.
Why yes? Because our town has its own day - day of liberation that is celebrating every 5 august - in this day soviet troops re-capturead Belgord and Orel. In memory of soldiers and their commanders new-builded streets of Belgorod was named with their names. We have street of general Vatutin with its small memorial, statue of general Apanasenko that was deputy of commander of Voronezh Front, he was deadly wounded in day of liberation of town and primary was buried on central square of town (lately he was reburied in his hometown, on south of Russia), statue of general Lebed' that was deputy of commander of 5th Guards Mech Corps that was liberated town, small memorial to senior lieutenant Popov - commander of 192nd tank company that was killed in first attemp to liberate town in 9th february of 1943 and finally common grave memorial (I gave u photo from marriage, Owen) with so-called 'eternal fire' that is located at central square where has been buried about 200 soldiers killed on liberation of town (in this list also Popov & Lebed').

PS: good links on history of german occupation:
Àðõèâíûé ôîíä Áåëãîðîäñêîé îáëàñòè > Î ïðîøëîì ïàìÿòü âîçâðàùàÿ > Óåçäíûé Áåëãîðîä
Àðõèâíûé ôîíä Áåëãîðîäñêîé îáëàñòè > 1943 ãîä
can be readable thru google

 

Here is Google Earth snapshot, arrow shows aprroximate position of battlefield memorial, black lines shows railroad, green lines shows road.

 

Same map as Alex but in English.
Damn! Owen, do u see that places on english map is mispelled or even named incorrectly? Think that russian translators of this book was in hell when they've reached translation of the map

 

[1st Trip] Battlefield

Ok, after we have seen all the vehicles and did all-sides shots (and even inside - terrible views of slowly dying from inside armor ) we moved to battlefield itself - to the belltower. It is located further down the road - maybe about 100m from mark 'T'. The field was empty - noone was staying there - only wind and snow.
Here is view along the road from soviet positions to mark 'T':


And here is the view to soviet positions:

U can see there my mate r reloading his Nikon D40 to get more shots )

And here is the view across the field (I was standing somewhere around belltower) to mark 'T' (u can see there a bus stop painted in russian flag colors - it is right about a mark 'T'):


to be continued..

 

Here is Google Earth snapshot, arrow shows aprroximate position of battlefield memorial, black lines shows railroad, green lines shows road.


Can I ask what the Google Earth reference is for this location?

INTERACTIVE BOOK of EASTERN FRONT from 22 june 1941 to 9th may 1945 (5+ hours of show with videos, photos, audio notes from soviet veterans etc.): POBEDITELI — Soldiers of the Great War

This is a really excellent website - is it yours? My wife is a history teacher and teaches Blitzkrieg, the German Invasion of Russia, Stalingrad etc for GCSE and will be using this in future lessons. Do you have plans to release this on a CD? It would be of great interest to schools here.

 

Can I ask what the Google Earth reference is for this location?

This is a really excellent website - is it yours? My wife is a history teacher and teaches Blitzkrieg, the German Invasion of Russia, Stalingrad etc for GCSE and will be using this in future lessons. Do you have plans to release this on a CD? It would be of great interest to schools here.

Of course Paul - here it is: Ðîññèÿ, Áåëãîðîäñêàÿ îáëàñòü, ßêîâëåâñêèé ðàéîí, ñåëî ßêîâëåâî - Êàðòû Google

Unfortunately it is done not by me But I proud present this work to everyone interesting history of Great Patriotic War. This website done by those people: Authors | POBEDITELI — Soldiers of the Great War, they r truly heroes
Does ur wife knows russian? Because I'm suprised that in english version there r no download page - but on russian side of website u can download a local copy of this website (approximately 130Mb). If u r interesting - here is the link to download page: Âàðèàíòû çàãðóçêè | ÏÎÁÅÄÈÒÅËÈ - Ñîëäàòû Âåëèêîé Âîéíû (u can use google to translate descriptions). According to russia version of website authors have planned to release it on CD but instead provided it for free download.

 

I feel like a kid in a toy shop. Owen and Dead are making the Eastern Front forums veritable delight to go into.

 

Of course Paul - here it is: Ðîññèÿ, Áåëãîðîäñêàÿ îáëàñòü, ßêîâëåâñêèé ðàéîí, ñåëî ßêîâëåâî - Êàðòû Google

Unfortunately it is done not by me But I proud present this work to everyone interesting history of Great Patriotic War. This website done by those people: Authors | POBEDITELI — Soldiers of the Great War, they r truly heroes
Does ur wife knows russian? Because I'm suprised that in english version there r no download page - but on russian side of website u can download a local copy of this website (approximately 130Mb). If u r interesting - here is the link to download page: Âàðèàíòû çàãðóçêè | ÏÎÁÅÄÈÒÅËÈ - Ñîëäàòû Âåëèêîé Âîéíû (u can use google to translate descriptions). According to russia version of website authors have planned to release it on CD but instead provided it for free download.

Many thanks for that - I will drop them an email. Sadly she doesn't know Russian!

 

[1st Trip] Battlefield

Going back to battlefield itself. Let's look around it and into all directions.
At this pic we r viewing from belltower to soviet vanguard positions - on the back u can see T-34 on pedestal as a mark of this position. Can say that in this place - where is standing belltower and further away from Prokhorovka (according to maps, but I'm not sure to 100%) german armor met soviet armor. There must have been hell on earth.


Here u r looking into direction from where arrived left flank of german assault group (can anyone say who was commanding that group).


At this pic u r probably viewing (I'm not sure 100% because in this direction can be seen 2 villages) an edge of village 'Грязное' (Gryaznoe, it is marked on map from book like 'Грезное') - the houses in the back side of picture:

This is a close look:


At this point we left field rest in peace lets see whats on it. As u can see on previous pictures there many ligths on it and proprojectors that r lighten up the belltower and field itself. At summer night the view of this place is wonderful.

First of all ther r sign showing us that we r on Prokhorovka Field:


At the entrance there r memorial plate showing us that this place is given status of culture preserve by order of President Boris Eltzin in 1995:


Also on the field is standig statue of one authors of belltower that died before it was complete:


to be continued..

 

[1st Trip] Belltower

Ok, here we go to belltower intself. Belltower building was started in october 1993 and completed in april 1995 to 50th anniversary of Great Victory.

First of all I'll show u how its big. I've perfect shot for that - see this:

On the left of belltower is standing wife of my mate and waiting when we complete our maniac photo session I don't know how much tower is high but u can at least measure it in heigths of that girl figure

Here is tower from left side:


Here is tower from right side:


to be continued..

PS: is someone interesting in more close look to tower bas-relief?

 

Funny you should say that as I was just thinking; "I never realised it was decorated with bas-reliefs before"