world war two veteran vassily ships off 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 reveal. 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 ability. we were told to leave our personal belongings behind. were you will no longer need them they said and 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 the rip off when we were leaving your officer

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. or it was a point of no return. as a lie in bed i still can't believe i. knew who were there 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 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 secon