#german forces

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In 1943, the Schwerer Gustav emerged as a groundbreaking weapon, unmatched in combat as the largest-caliber rifled artillery ever utilized. Weighing an astonishing 1,350 tons when fully assembled, this formidable gun possessed the capability to propel 7-ton shells across a remarkable distance of 47 kilometers. Remarkably, the transportation of this behemoth was achieved via railway.

Employed by the German forces, the Schwerer Gustav found its place in the Soviet Union during the Battle of Sevastopol, a significant operation within the larger context of Operation Barbarossa. Notably, this colossal weapon showcased its destructive power by obliterating an underground munitions depot situated approximately 30 meters (98 feet) beneath the surface.

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NATO MILITARY POWER | 2024 | Not Alone

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Carl-Gustaf Recoilless Rifle Shooting Training

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Remember the Battle of Kursk: July–August 1943.

Operation Citadel was the final German offensive on the Eastern front, and Kursk is considered the greatest tank battle of the war. At Kursk, the Nazis aimed to repeat their earlier successes by surrounding and destroying Russian forces.

Thanks to Allied codebreakers, though, the Russians got advance warning and built up defensive lines of ditches and minefields to absorb the German attack. In the air, Stukas armed with 37-millimeter gun pods faced Russian armored Sturmoviks dropping dozens of anti-tank bombs.

As the German offensive stalled, Marshal Zhukov launched his counterattack and drove the Germans back with heavy losses.

Kursk

The greatest tank battle in history might have ended differently had it not been for the action in the air.

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Remember the Second Battle of Kharkov: May 1942.

Stalin aimed to drive back the invading German armies with an offensive that included more than 1,000 tanks backed by 700 aircraft. But Germany blunted the attack by air power when it flew more than 900 planes into the area. The Germans then went on the attack and encircled the Russian forces with several Panzer divisions. Trapped, surrounded, and with German bombers raining explosives down on them, Russians soldiers surrendered in large numbers.

More than a quarter of a million Russian soldiers were killed, injured, or captured—ten times the number of German casualties.

The military history story that has featured very widely in newspapers and websites recently has, for obvious reasons, been the four great b

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Remember the Siege of Leningrad: September 1941–January 1944.

The Siege of Leningrad, also known as “the 900-day siege,” since it nearly lasted that long (in actuality, it lasted 872 days), occurred when German and Finnish forces surrounded Leningrad and took over the city.

The Soviet government had its citizenry work on building fortifications throughout the city, although the area was almost entirely encircled by invading forces by November. The siege claimed more than 650,000 Soviet lives in a single year alone due to starvation, disease, and shelling.

[Check This Out: A Soviet ‘Flying Tank’ That Crashed in 1944 Is Now Being Restored in Arizona]

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Battle of Narva: February–August 1944.

This Battle of Narva is not to be confused with the other Battle of Narva that occurred between 1700 and 1721 during The Great Northern War (although both were fought in Narva, Estonia). The WWII Battle of Narva saw Germany and the Leningrad Front vying to control Narva Isthmus.

The battle consisted of two phases: the Battle for Narva Bridgehead and the Battle of Tannenberg Line. The USSR—Stalin in particular—wanted to take control of Estonia and use strategic locations in the country to attack Finland and Prussia via sea and air. German forces held their own and hampered the USSR’s attempts to build a stronghold in Narva. Both sides lost more than 500,000 soldiers combined.

[Blast From the Past: Remembering That Time the Soviet Union Shot a Top-Secret Space Cannon While in Orbit]