Last Line Before Oboyan

As the battle of Kursk intensified in the southern half of the salient, the Totenkopf division reached the last Russian barrier before Oboyan. Lightly defended fortifications lined the River Psel, constructed over the previous weeks and months. Pressed by the German advance, the 6th Guards Army...

1943-07-10

K01

As the battle of Kursk intensified in the southern half of the salient, the Totenkopf division reached the last Russian barrier before Oboyan. Lightly defended fortifications lined the River Psel, constructed over the previous weeks and months. Pressed by the German advance, the 6th Guards Army hurried portions of the 52nd Guards Rifle Division into these fieldworks just ahead of the arrival of the SS tankers. Standartenfiihrer Karl Ullrich was ordered to cross the river and seize the villages there, and the high ground over looking them. In the waning hours of dusk, his 3rd Battalion waded across the river braving the artillery, tanks, and machineguns the Russians had emplaced. Crossing quickly with only moderate casualties, the SS grenadiers and engineers captured the north bank villages of Vasilyevka, Koslovka, Kliuchi, and Krasny Oktabyr. The fight ing only hinted at the battles to come. Overseen by Standartenfiihrer Ullrich, the engineers quickly set to building pontoon bridges. There would be little time to reinforce the meager bridgehead with the tanks, men, and guns necessary to stop the inevitable Russian counter attack. Little did they realize that this bridgehead would so alarm the Russian High Command that they would release the bulk of two Guards Armies to crush it.

Oboyan, Russia

The Battle of Kursk was a Second World War engagement between German and Soviet forces on the Eastern Front near Kursk in the Soviet Union, during July and August 1943. The battle began with the launch of the German offensive Operation Citadel, on 5 July, which had the objective of pinching off the Kursk salient with attacks on the base of the salient from north and south simultaneously. After the German offensive stalled on the northern side of the salient, on 12 July the Soviets commenced their Kursk Strategic Offensive Operation with the launch of Operation Kutuzov against the rear of the German forces in the northern side. On the southern side, the Soviets also launched powerful counterattacks the same day, one of which led to a large armoured clash, the Battle of Prokhorovka. On 3 August, the Soviets began the second phase of the Kursk Strategic Offensive Operation with the launch of Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev against the German forces in the southern side of the Kursk salient.

Wikipedia: Battle of Kursk

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