Battle of Kursk Prokhorovka visit 1994

**paragon man** · 05-22-2012, 02:47 AM

I visited the Kursk battlefield several times in the early 90s. This was my first visit. The Monument at Prokhorovka was under construction when I was there the first time. We wandered around the field finding skulls, debris, aircraft parts, a helmet, field gear ect. as the digging was bringing to the surface much history. The helmet pictured had a Berlin newspaper dated May 1943 stuffed inside it. Much of the paper was ledgeable. Where the trench is in the panaroma is where the human bones were dug up. I returned the next year to see the finished monument with a battlefield guide and walking this same path we found bones that had been missed the year before probally from the same soldier since we were in the same spot as the year before.

The old guide was a pilot during the battle. He was our guide in the city of Kursk which had a small museum in a public meeting hall. He went to the battlefield with us. The following year I went back I hired him and a driver to take me and he told me about flying during the battle. He flew a medium ground attack plane and was detailed to Prokhorovka the day after the titanic clash. He told me he landed and while waiting he went into an underground medical bunker for SS soldiers. The soldiers wounded too badly to move had all been shot in the head. While he was in the bunker he told me black bugs kept climbing out of the soldiers mouths.

The painting, map, shadow box and life size diorama were in the city museum. There were other weapons and displays including a Stalin tank in the city. Along the way we passed a Soviet truck with katusha launcher and a small outdoor museum with trenches and artillery. I went to a museum in the Northern battlefield and it was closed. Since I have been there the Prokhorovka mounument has had many many tanks and guns added to the field around it.

**ObKrieger** · 05-22-2012, 02:55 AM

What a lovely place for a tank battle. Thank you for the photos.

The skull is a very sobering reminder of the brutality of war.

**Paul E** · 05-22-2012, 08:16 AM

Great post you really were a Pioneer of visiting Eastern front Battlefields !!

**Woolgar** · 05-22-2012, 08:24 AM

Nice thread indeed! Grisly story about the SS in the medical bunker

I like the drama of the art work too

Nick

**TrondK** · 05-22-2012, 08:27 AM

Interesting photos, thanks for sharing!

**Salzburg** · 05-22-2012, 01:19 PM

Great report. Must be an awesome place knowing what happened there.

Martin

**paragon man** · 05-22-2012, 02:43 PM

Thanks Paul...coming from you makes that a supreme compliment. I am headed to KIev this summer...gonna visit Korsun area and the Crimea.

**Paul E** · 05-22-2012, 03:18 PM

by paragon man

Thanks Paul...coming from you makes that a supreme compliment. I am headed to KIev this summer...gonna visit Korsun area and the Crimea.

I really wish i had the time to come along that sounds like a terrific trip !! As i say you must have been one of the fisrt westerners to see these places since the Battles themselves