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Far behind are the days of the soft Ukrainian summer, when for the Italian soldiers the life in the villages was not so hard.
In an Ukrainian airfield some Italian specialists of the Regia Aeronautica inspect the right engine of a light bomber SM 81. This
aircraft was used for transport as well.
As soon as the terrain began to consolidate in the spring of 1943, the grooves left by the tracks of the tanks formed again a
web on the Russian countryside. During that summer the Germans would launch their last offensive on the Russian Front, called
Operation Citadel, with the purpose of eradicating a dangerous projection of the Soviet Army on the frontline around Kursk. The
offensive triggered the largest tank battle on History, which after some months did not provide a success for the Germans.
Revision of the engine of a Panzerkampfwagen IV. In prevision of future combats, the crews have to perform a scrupulous
maintenance of the weapons on which they must rely to protect their own lives. The PzKpfw IV was the tank produced in largest
quantity for the German Army but, shadowed by the heavy tanks Tiger and Panther, its influence in the war has been probably
underestimated. Over time, the characteristics of the German medium tanks would be significantly enhanced.
Two extenuated German messengers try to rest for at least five minutes, but remaining on their motorbikes, ready to depart at the
first order.
A Panzerkampfwagen III medium tank fighting on the streets of Zhitomir, during the Soviet offensive to retake Kiev, in 1943.
Growing each day with supplies brought from behind the frontline and even beyond the Urals, the Red Army looks now as a Behemoth
of many lives to the increasingly worn out Wehrmacht.
Two German observers check the effects of artillery attacks on enemy positions. Month after month, the population of the besieged
Leningrad learned to live under the fire of artillery.
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A tank advances in exploration towards the enemy lines. The flag deployed on the turret helps to the prompt identification from
the air.
A German anti-aircraft cannon opens fire at night against a formation of Russian bombers.
German tanks and infantrymen advance across the harshness of a snowstorm. In the northern sector of the Russian Front, Leningrad
resisted the most terrible siege that History remembers, which lasted for two and a half years and claimed the lives of about one
million people.
A German mortar platoon begins the preparatory fire with a 80-millimeter mortar before the start of a counterattack.
As the pressure from the Red Army increases in every sector, long columns of German soldiers return by the roads of their former
advance to avoid being taken as prisoners.
In the summer of 1944, the Wehrmacht was already in full retreat under the pressure of the Red Army. But the Soviet advance was
stopped by nests of resistance that beated with artillery the Russian troops.
German soldiers retreating on the Finnish Front. In the photograph we can see the field kitchen of a quartermaster unit.
A group of German soldiers enjoying a bonfire on the crude Russian winter. However, commanders were concerned about their
soldiers lighting fires, because this could reveal their position to the enemy. But in conditions of extreme coldness fire was
often necessary, at least for heating the engines of the vehicles to make them able to start.
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