I spent the night in Belgorod, and on the way there I passed this monument to Sov tankers:
The inscription says: "To Soviet tankers--participants in the destruction of the German-Fascist troops in the Kursk battle."
Next morning I set out early for Prokhorovka; just where the road turns off the main Kursk-Belgorod highway, I saw my first Russian windmill, didn't know they had them here...
Here is a shot of the countryside; generally very wide open, but with lots of gradual rises and dips, resulting in LOS for miles sometimes, along with covered pockets. Interesting terrain for a tank battle. Note the train tracks in the middle distance, I assume that they are shown on the game map?
OK, now the oligatory series of tank shots from the main monument at Prokhorovka:
Some mortars, they didn't have signs on them, but I guess the first one is a 120mm mortar, not sure what the second one is, I guess a heavy mortar?
In case you've ever wondered what the heck a 152mm gun-howitzer is:
As opposed to a standard 152mm howitzer:
Didn't expect this, but in the middle of the monument-park there is this monument to the 9th Guards Airborne Division, which heroically defended this spot from July 11-13, 1943; from the point the division "began its victorious advance."
On to the museum in Prokhorovka itself, a little map of the battlefield, showing where the various fronts were deployed:
And a dramatization the victory of the Russian tanks:
A list of the recipients of the "Hero of the Soviet Union" Medal from the battle of Kursk--no small number! [&o]
More shots of the terrain:
It was a nice trip to a beautiful area, am thinking about heading back down for the anniversary of the battle, at least if they have any live re-enactments, etc., that would be cool!
Ooops, just noticed the size of the pix, sorry about that but too lazy to fix...
