To the Last Round

After nearly two days of extremely intense fighting, the seesaw battle for the Totenkopfs bridgehead over the Psel was ending. Like two punch-drunk prizefighters, the Germans and Russians had exhausted each other. Gathering their remaining strength for a final push to flatten the bridgehead...

1943-07-14

K05

After nearly two days of extremely intense fighting, the seesaw battle for the Totenkopfs bridgehead over the Psel was ending. Like two punch-drunk prizefighters, the Germans and Russians had exhausted each other. Gathering their remaining strength for a final push to flatten the bridgehead, the Russians left their fox holes and lurched toward the equally exhausted SS troopers. The Germans had already decided to abandon this now useless bridgehead. Still, they fought determinedly to resist this last Russian attack. The brutal fighting resembled the combat thus far in the Psel bridgehead. The Germans successfully held the Russians back, inflicting heavy casualties. Then the Germans burned the villages and destroyed their bridges as they pulled out during the night, yielding the Psel bridgehead to the Russians for the last time.

Prokhorovka, 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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