join us for technology update on r g. russia lifts the final state of emergency after our rains help douse the fog the wildfires that have ravaged much of the country the flames driven by record heat wave playing fifty four lives and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage the government has promised to provide aid and rebuild more than two thousand homes before winter. the turkish community in germany may soon be policed by officers from their homeland with more than two million ethnic turks in the country the domestic police force says it needs a new approach to tackling violence within the country's largest ethnic minority. the world is changing the us isn't this isn't the problem just for latin america but rather for the entire world this currency has military in the konami power and

at the same time it's not changing its expansionary imperialist policy speaking exclusively with r.t. nicaraguan president daniel ortega calls on a lot of america to unite against the us. he caught up full interview with daniel ortega now on our web page r.t. dot com or a little later in the day up next we're going to story of the biggest tank battle of world war two at curse as russia continues to mark the sixty fifth anniversary of the defeat over nazi germany stay with us. did she know india is a modern day take it's taken a coin come back capabilities make it one of the world's best illustrated access

plant in the city of newsman ted gillen the urals is the only manufacturer of the t. ninety in russia each year new tanks are tried out a special proving ground. the t. ninety is a descendant of the t. thirty four the legendary world war two era tank one of the last operating tanks of this kind is still officially in the service of the plant's guards also perform ceremonial duties in the town streets during celebrations marking the victory over fascist germany. it was the t. thirty four that played a key role in the battle of curse the biggest tank battle of the second world war. when british prime minister winston churchill was summarizing the outcome of world war two at a press conference in one thousand forty five he singled out three types of weapons that it showed the best performance during the war the british artillery the german

messerschmidt aircraft and the russian t.v. thirty four tank he said he understood how the first two weapons and been made but he couldn't possibly understand how the team thirty four had come into being. and how to get into the german had quarters failed to forecast the t. thirty four tank appearance of choice as it was an evident blunder of the german intelligence intended of course it should be considered that it was extremely difficult to arrange intelligence against the soviet union because it was a closed state to. on the other hand germans failed because of their pride and then it's in france but after swift victories in europe they trust in their forces so much they couldn't even suggest that such a fighting machine as the teeth thirty four would appear in the soviet union. russian ten cruise referred to the teeth thirty four is their work course this combat vehicle has been recognised as the best medium tank of world war two on the basis of three key characteristics its firepower its armor protection and its

mobility. the teacher before was designed at a plant in the city of kut by michel question in one nine hundred forty one after hitler's germany violated the non-aggression pact and attacked the soviet union the plant was moved east and with great urgency on the eve of the battle of curse in one thousand nine hundred three a train load of t. thirty force was dispatched to the front on a daily basis some one thousand tanks in a month. the germans knew they could not produce as many tanks as their phones it's a ball and you know therefore they focus not on the quantity but on the quality of the taint thus the german tanks tiger and the bouncer tanks of a new class your palm are better than the t. thirty four but it took much longer to produce such tanks on the team thirty four tank. the world's first tank and very built was launched in the soviet union in mid one nine hundred forty three and

a top secret plan known only as number one hundred eighty three war time conditions then were specially hard one shift lasted for twelve hours and work continued around the clock pushing life was very hard indeed there are some people even died of hunger who in winter time most people preferred to stay in the plant around the clock with a job he spent the night at the plant that you once one of the workers curled up next to a pile of warm cinder woodroof when he saw he was. asleep. but when we checked he was already dead and. have survived the war during those years he worked in the factories an assistant steelmaker. showed up at the factory. you know quit i had no special skills. i had been trained anyway. the silly often visits the college to trains workers for the tank plant today's students even have the chance to feel like tank commanders by using special simulators they get all

the necessary skills after five years of training them back in one thousand nine hundred three everybody was welcome to work at the plant with or without education regardless of age at that time worker study tank design examining real life german combat tanks. cannot know the what sometimes. german tanks were brought to our planet. when we were young then ludwig zan in them and even rotate in the church. in this simple manner of. my early nine hundred forty three german tanks had all but he raced the advantages of the teacher before the tiger heavy tank was expected to be the main striking force in the battle of courage. and the tigers driver mechanic had no difficulty guiding the tank using a steering wheel with

a booster tank was convenient and comfortable for combat. by contrast it took both the commander in the mechanic to steer a russian team thirty four and they did employing a far less sophisticated method. of the robot going to method was it that you see the commanding officer have only what he saw through the slit to go by in the car so if you want to the time to turn to the left he hit the driver mechanical the left shoulder. drive the mechanic knew he should turn to the left and be on whole spiral so when the come on the want to the time to turn to the right support he had the mechanic on the right shoulder. the teacher before had good speed and maneuverability and required no overly complicated skills to assemble but he couldn't compete in open battle with the tiger heavy tank. tiger treated any soviet tank of the day from a distance of two thousand meters but soviet tanks crews only had a range of five to six hundred meters. more than himself along with so that we all

still sells how we can cheat the geminids course there were problems with that for him some instances a teeth that are falling when suddenly rush to the right at full speed archer with the ball in the what is the german claw i guess slowly turned around to allow it's going to take aim not another teeth thirty four would rush to the taiga in his it reminded me of a solid if you put the white the with. the tiger was mainly designed to break through enemy defenses this rare footage shows the german army cid vance and the curse of. tigers move slowly at the head of the offensive the mere look of tires and a strong psychological effect on russian troops. bunk you can see a big hulk of a tearing. machine gunners and other machine gunners are trailing behind. him he led them through will be destroyed. not supposed to abandon the

line of defense isn't a good word for anything but a retreat near di ok but hold your positions for your. world war two veteran vice city shifts off lives in the village of crawford of near curse in one thousand nine hundred three he was nineteen years old can on july fourth he and other soldiers from his battalion were waiting for their first taste of combat in this reveals. the men had reason to believe they were unlikely to survive the battle. when we were told to load our weapons and replenish ammunition. secure everything to your body to give you maximum of village and field worker to we were told to leave our personal belongings behind. blue will no longer need them they said we read you. very much was also making thorough preparations for the battle tank units were

reinforced with specially trained cadets. karl gales dorf was one of them. this is a photograph from his private archive as part of a detached attack company of twenty two tiger tanks he first arrived at the eastern front in early july nine hundred forty three a few days before the battle his company received orders to immediately abandon their deployment position in a small village near cursed. when we were leaving your officers were rummaging through houses where we had launched destroying all traces of our presidents bits of documents and even paper left over from letter writing. moreover learned it shortly before the battle to dissociate command knew not only all our deployment areas for you but also our plans for an offensive we reasoned then why get in broiled at all over. the battle of curse

tell great importance for the german high command after a failed advance on moscow and having suffered complete defeat at stalingrad the very must was keen to take revenge they hope to successful operation a curse might again give them the strategic upper hand that would allow the germans to launch yet another offensive against moscow and strike in the direction of the caucasus if there was well aware of the importance of the battle forthcoming. an excerpt from hitler's order of july fourth one thousand forty. today your embarking on a major offensive operation was calm may decide the course of the war victory must from force the certainty everywhere in the world that any resistance to the german army will be pointless in the end you must know that everything may depend on the success of this combat. the cursed bulge took shape on the eastern front in the course of the fighting in spring nine hundred forty three to great threat to the

german verma soviet troops might launch a major offensive from that springboard and after a long period of hesitation the german command decided to forestall the red army the plan was to cut russian troops off from the main forces to pave the way for wider operations. in. turn thirteen on the eve of the battle of curse the germans had occupied the village of a chevy it's where he lived with his parents just before the battle broke out yvonne and other boys took up positions nearby tack to scouts watching the movements of german and russian troops. r t thirty four tanks came from there. but it has some thirty tanks altogether. because it as if there was no advance intelligence. the germans had what we called their menagerie is niggers panther and announce in the village.

this year to keep thirty four tanks came under massive shelling. they were forced to pull back one of the soviet tanks hid in a small gully by the roadside yvonne noticed the spot but couldn't make it to the tank before massive bombing and shelling set in from all sides. us i was hell sheer hell you know an inferno there's no other word for it you know where shell fragments all over the place was watching there was a lot of the question of the us quote gave a jag and shrapnel was very sharp. no. through early july nine hundred forty three military action at the cursed boards was mostly limited to small air raids or ground force reconnaissance missions. witnessed one of these local clashes he set out to look for the t thirty four four

days after the russian tanks came under fire. the air was literally scorching with heat and tension soviet troops were anticipating an offensive operation but the germans were still biding their time by july fourth one thousand nine hundred three the war's longest lall had already lasted a hundred days. a

massive german offensive begin in the early morning of july fifth one thousand nine hundred forty three. the fighting. sides. of the first line of soviet defenses the germans advance by ten to twelve kilometers in four days although under their citadel playin the germans were to

have encircled soviet troops on the fourth day of the offensive when its a german had quarters believe that it was possible to circle troops on the course cars shots if they planned to do it at the beginning of nine hundred forty three however the coast guard battle began six months later for those six months the soviet army had made titanic of birds who managed to thorley prepared salvo on that front line to mome and kemi sad that near course can the world's strongest antitank defense was organized to last. the battle of curse once again demonstrated to the germans that dogged heroism of russian soldiers but they were also up against a staggering a ray of ditches minefields an anti-tank barriers a total of eight entrenched defensive lines. on the first day my company was committed with twenty two tanks and couldn't two days later we had only ten combat capable tanks left twelve tanks were disabled zoli by land.

resist system of defenses unique in the entire history of world war two soldiers and local civilians built it with speeds and shovels. you could sitting in biz guinn of all was twenty years old at the time shortly before the battle she and hundreds of other young women were building a railway while military men ensured their security. after the war and became part of a railway leading to profit of cars station. in one thousand nine hundred three it was constructed in conditions of total secrecy. the tracks were laid across all of the defensive lines. during the battle the railway carried heavy artillery and ammunition to forward positions key thirty four tanks with the most important part of the cargo. it isn't going to do this israel killed three it was ready to go to line to pull. got it but you're the first guy to military railway section is now

open permission to proceed because if you'll go here god bless let's go. there was a tourist around the railway the builders lived under shelter of branches set up on the construction site they cooked food by camp fire and they followed a rigid schedule. the air raids during the first day i did with a shovel full and day. to wheel barrow and. on to the railway that. quoting the plan the railway was to be completed in ninety days the builders worked tirelessly from dawn till sunset the first train was gone when the last spike was set just thirty one days after the start of construction the work went on even under constant bombardment. and

we were. out in june and reconnaissance plane would come around to strop and. everybody would try to find shelter over it with a good sound which tied to behind things down command. but it turned out to king the ant all of us. did manage to reach that t. thirty four tank which he saw stuck in the ravine for four days following the german shelling of a convoy of soviet tanks. dunk they yell the naacp. was right here brought you what one german sappers came there. they wanted to blow the tank but the mechanic was hiding there in the swamp all the while there was a submachine gun underneath with him he would have let them blow it up front if they tried to i was inspecting the tank when suddenly somebody was

a bird. what was a boy come here i went into that direction and saw soldier who told me one hundred eighty my look i had nothing to eat for four days will you bring me something that you would put in your. ok i said. as long as the germans remained in the village the boys secretly supplied them with food. at the time of was just fourteen but after helping us commit to join the soviet tanks unit he carried our reconnaissance throughout the rest of the war. but he never saw such bitter fighting as he did it to curse. a few who i can't imagine how we were able to survive in that hell in defies description words fail me the fighting it was a nightmare the noise was deafening. this was how most

. began firing shells into and the other shelled in response. visibility was very poor i couldn't see the tanks only can see with a burst of fire. very first would not last long he survived along with the rest of his tiger's crew but they were just a gauge from the battle and sent to the rear. of my tank. as we pushed forward. i caterpillar was damaged well the tank was no longer combat keep. up with we didn't even come within sight of the first line of soviet defenses. the germans broke through two defensive lines in the village of. the soviet

realized that nothing but a colorful counterstrike to hold their mouth they would have to launch a head on attack against the positions of this is panzer division. on the morning of july twelfth the soviet tanks were ordered to move in my. xom speed to get within effective firing range as soon as possible. to cruise knew they were facing almost certain death but there was simply no other option. this is what tuchman did i knew it was the enemy positions exposing themselves to german falling sometimes soviet tanks rammed german tanks on his fields when they couldn't hit them by firing their guns and such acts certainly speak about heroism and great self-sacrifice on obviously it produced a strong psychological pressure in germany the saudi tank crews went to their deaths honorably in that final. soviet tanks fought literally to the last shell approach there would be no miracle

the remnants of the army's fifth armored guards retreated to their original positions. still they slowed to germany and france there were only one and a half kilometers separating them from but the germans never covered that distance only the battlefield itself fell under their control. the. troops had exhausted them and suffered such huge losses that they could never recover after the battle of course was the movie that is to say from a strategic standpoint we'd won it. after many consecutive days fighting on the defensive but silly ships selves battalion finally went on the counter offensive. she feared for what fighting is

all about fear but there is no fear what would you become a wild beast you have to kill them off or you'll be killed we just had no time to worry about survival in that you're not zero. vassily shifts so for often visits familiar battlefields he survived in one thousand nine hundred three only because he was wounded it was thanks to that injury that he set out his battalion's final action in which nearly all of his comrades were killed. it was a point of no return there was a lie in bed i still can't believe i'm. new here at the general leave it even now. this church has been built to commemorate to soviet soldiers who died in the

village of provocative. it's the world's only orthodox church which was completely covered in the names of soldiers who gave their lives in battle. there's a bell tower in the field near prophet of every twenty minutes the bell tolls to honor the dead. on july seventeenth one thousand nine hundred three to begin an organized retreat from the cursed bolch leaving behind piles of twisted military hardware and thousands of dead bodies. operation citadel had been

a failure i tunes troops were always on the defensive after the battle of cursed it was a turning point not only in the german soviet standoff but also in the course of the entire second world war. it's from that moment and became clear not only for german generals and officers the war was lost but even average soldiers of the german army under students that if russians could fight in severe winter and take advantage of their weather and also we men summer the war was lost indeed. on this third one thousand nine hundred three the red army launched a massive off ends of operation all along the front line on aug fifth to germans were ousted from audio limbo going to those events were marked by the war's first gun salute.

each passing year sees the death of more and more world war two veterans vassily ships so if the infantry men. who saved a russian tank commander and. the woman who helped build the crucial railway they gathered less and less frequently at this memorial they have a drink from a soldier's bowl to honor those who died in the battle of curse. the tank min of our regiment. to those who are dead and those who are alive. stay safe string rest in peace.

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