if stories from would meet. nineteen forty five don't. rush ls the final state of emergency after rains helped douse the wildfires out of private for much of the country the flames driven by a record heat wave claimed fifty four lives and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage the government's 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 for more than two million ethnic turks in the country the domestic police force says it needs a new approach to tackle the violence within the country's largest minority.

the world is changing the us isn't this isn't a problem just for latin america but rather for the entire world this country has military in the comic power and at the same time it's not changing its expansionary imperialistic policy speaking exclusively to our team when president daniel ortega calls on latin america to unite against the us. you can watch the full or take interview now on our website r.t. dot com or later in the day next we bring you the story of the biggest tank battle of world war two that curse as russia continues to mark the sixty fifth anniversary of victory over the nazis stay with us.

did she know india is a modern day take it's taken in korea 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 key ninety is a descendent of the key 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 who also perform ceremonial duties in the town's 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 measure schmidt 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 teeth 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 and of course it should be considered that it was extremely difficult to arrange intelligence against the soviet union not because it was a closed state to be. on the other hand the germans failed because of their pride and then it's in france but after swift victories in europe they trusted their forces so much they couldn't even suggest that such a fighting machine as the t. 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. 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 initially into gill with great urgency on the eve of the battle of curse in one nine hundred forty 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 therefore they focus not on the quantity but on the quality of the taint thus the german tanks tiger and the panther 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 rules first tank and very built was launched in the soviet union in mid one nine hundred forty three at a top secret plant 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 put your life was very hard indeed there is some people even dud of hunger who in winter time most people preferred to stay of the plenty around the clock who would joey 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. i had no special skills. i hadn't been trained to anyone. 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 forty 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. none of 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 braced the advantages of the tea party for 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 a mechanic to steer a russian team thirty four and they did it employing a far less sophisticated method. of the robot going to method was it as we 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 mechanic on the left solo work 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 to hit 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 a tiger heavy tank. a tiger could hit any soviet tank a day from

a distance of two thousand meters but soviet tank roos only had a range of five to six hundred meters. more than himself one with tippett so we all still sells how we can cheat the geminids fourth year without problems with its prime some instances a teeth that are falling when suddenly rush to the right at full speed torture with the ball in the what each of us as the germans like a slowly turned around to allow it's going to take game not another teeth thirty four would rush to the taiga in his it reminded me of a sudden it's you but the way the with. the tiger was mainly designed to break through enemy defenses this rare footage shows the german army cid vance and the cursed. tigers move slowly at the head of the offensive the mere look of tires at a strong psychological effect on russian troops. bunk you can see a big hulk of a turn to produce. machine gunners and other machine gunners are trailing

behind. him he led them through will be destroyed. not supposed to have been the line of defense isn't a good word for anything but a retreat near die ok but hold your positions for your. world war two veteran varsity ships soft lives in the village of proof of your 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 revealing. 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. google no longer need to know they said we read you. very much was also making thorough preparations for the battle tank units were reinforced with specially trained cadets. carl gales dorf was one of them. this is a photograph from his private archive as part of a test attack company of twenty two tiger tanks he first arrived at the eastern front in early july one thousand nine hundred three a few days before the battle his company received orders to immediately abandon their deployment position in a small village near cursed. mom group after 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 cursed hell 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 it 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 their victory must reinforce the certainty everywhere in the world that any resistance to the german army will be pointless in the end you must know that everything they 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 is i'm sorry tanks altogether. this isn't as if there was no advance

intelligence. the germans had what we called their menagerie is niggers panther and announce in the village. 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 said in from all sides. us i was hell sheer hell you know an inferno there's no other word for it there were shell fragments all over the place was walking there was a lot of the question of the us quote the jag and shrapnel was very sharp. it really cut you. know. 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. wealthy british style stock.

markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cons or run no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cons a report. a massive german offensive begin in the early morning of july fifth one thousand nine hundred forty three. the fighting goes. from the sides. of the first line of soviet defenses the germans advance by ten to twelve kilometers in four days though 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 course shots if new plan 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 tightening coverage womanish to authority prepared self on that front line of norm it can be said that near course can the world's strongest antitank defense was organized to last. the battle of curse once again demonstrated to determines the dog 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 to the north on the first day my company was committed with twenty two tanks and good. two days later we had only ten combat capable tanks left twelve tanks were disabled soley by land. it was a system of defenses unique in the entire history of world war two soldiers and

local civilians built it with spades and shovels. you could get in and busy in of all was twenty years old at the time shortly before the battle she and hundreds of other young women were building the 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 t. thirty four tanks with the most important part of the cargo. it isn't going to do this israel kill three eight one ready to go to line to pull. got it yet decreased by its military railway section is now open for mission to proceed because it is

until. you get a blast let's go. there was a forest 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. during the first day i had to clear the. two wheel barrel and. on to the rail where 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 launched 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 would. reconnaissance plane would come around. everybody would try to

find shelter over everything good sound which hides behind. but it turned out to king the ant. 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. he was right here brought you. 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 and grenade with him he would never let them blow it up if they tried to i was inspecting the tank when suddenly somebody was a bird. would a boy come here i went into that direction and saw

a soldier who told me one look i had nothing to eat for four days will you bring me something that you would. as long as the germans remained in the village the boy 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. i can't imagine how we were able to survive in that hell in defies description words fail me the fighting 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 couldn't see the tanks all we can see was a burst of fire. very first gages would not last long he survived along with the rest of his tiger screws 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. the tank was no longer combat keep. up with me didn't even come within sight of the first line of soviet defenses. the germans broke through to defensive lines in the village of. the soviet realized that nothing but a cultural counterstrike to hold them. they would have to launch

a head on attack against the positions of division. on the morning of july twelfth the soviet tanks were ordered to move in. some speed to get within effective firing range as soon as possible. confuse 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 fun sometimes soviet tanks rammed german tanks on because fields when they couldn't hit them by firing their guns such acts certainly speak about heroism and great self-sacrifice on obviously it produced a strong psychological pressure in germany saudi tank crews went to their deaths honorably in that fight. 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 both of course but the germans never covered that distance only the battlefield itself fell under their control. the. troops had exhausted them they'd suffered such huge losses that they could never recover after the battle of course was the navy 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 but there is no fear what have 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 and you're not all. vassily shift 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 sat out his battalions 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 pro. 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 god 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 bolts 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 women summer the war was lost indeed. on this third one thousand nine hundred three the red army launched a massive off vents of operation all along the front line on august fifth the 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 minima regiment. because those who are dead and those who are alive. stay safe string theorist in peace.