Geography of the USSR. Orel under german occupation

[TabsTabs1964]

But the importance of Orel as a communications node for the German invaders is given to us by the existence of other bridges that remained intact.

One of them on the outskirts of the city was the railway bridge. Orel had an important train station, mandatory stop on the way to Moscow.







Orel Banhof.








The train station and railroad tracks were essential to transport the troops, ammunition and supplies of the entire army; as well as to transfer the thousands of wounded who from the "Feldlazareten" of the city were evacuated to the rear and to the homeland.

[TabsTabs1964]

The city offered leisure opportunities to German occupants. A busy and bustling market and, of course a Soldatenkino, in the building of the "Homeland Cinema" (kinoteatr Rodina)





With the arrival of good weather the streets were animated. These images correspond to the celebration of the first day of May 1942.

[TabsTabs1964]

But the captured city still had other bridges. One of them very similar to the Bridge of Mary or Red Bridge, was the Alexander Bridge, which crossed the river and led to the building of the episcopal palace.



An image on a 1900 postcard.



Detail of its structure.



General view on a snowy day.



Downstream view.



Episcopal palace on the opposite bank.

[TabsTabs1964]

There was also another pontoon bridge for pedestrians and that supported the weight of horse carts, whose background clearly shows the image of the Orel Cathedral (Cathedral of Akhtyrskaya)






Two views of the Orel Cathedral taken by a German soldier



A curious and handmade photo of the city of Orel seen from the tower of the Cathedral.

[TabsTabs1964]

But the heat of the summer of 1943 will bring with it will bring first the German offensive "Operation Zitadelle" and after its failure, the Soviet counterattack "Operation Kutuzov" that will mean the elimination of the Orel´s bulge and the liberation of the city.



The German plan to eliminate the Kursk salient.

The 9th Army of Model is introduced in the soviet front, creating the named Bulge (or salient) of Orel.
On the map we see that Model's position constituted a German salient on the front line. The Soviets were aware of it and waited for the Germans to wear out with their attacks before going on the offensive. Thus, on 12 July, the operation begins on the part of the Central Front (Rokossovsky) and the Briansk Front (Popov) The operation is a success and contributed, in addition to frustrating the German north clamp, to reduce the salient of Orel, the liberation of Orel First, and even of Smolensk a couple of months later.





A group of women cheers on the soldiers who parade through the city after their release.



Red Army soldier Malashenko with the Red Banner in the liberated city of Orel.



Russian soldiers resting in front of the Church of the Intercession August 5, 1943.



After the war. Two citizens of Orel contemplate a Soviet tank placed as a monument on the avenue that we have seen so many times.

[TabsTabs1964]

Orel Winter 1942-43. Watercolor of War Reporter H. Schneider.

What I have uploaded to the forum today was a small work that I did some years ago and some photographs of my private collection.
Recently I found two Russian pages on the internet from which I obtained interesting images (and that contain many others). It is fair that I link them below:

Орёл в годы Великой Отечественной войны. - soullaway — LiveJournal
Орёл | SmolBattle

I hope you enjoyed.
Best regards.

Santi

[TabsTabs1964]

I have uploaded seven new photographs to the thread that I hope they complete it.

[Woolgar]

Excellent thread
I was watching a documentary about the battles of Orel recently .. fascinating

[TWS]

Great thread! Thanks for posting. I really enjoyed it.

Yes, the Germans occupied Orel for quite some time. Kurt Werner Anders of the 20th Panzer Division wrote (with a tinge of disgust it seems) about stopping in Orel and discovering that numerous Wehrmacht members had filed applications to marry Russian women and that there were 900 illegitimate babies in the city from such liaisons(!)

[AZPhil]

Yes this is a great thread with fantastic photo's.
Thanks for sharing them
Semper fi
Phil