Oryol Battle
About Oryol Battle
The reel covers the front from July 5 to August 5, 1943. German tanks, including Tigers and Ferdinands, push toward Oryol and Kursk and are stopped by artillery, anti-tank guns, and aircraft. At dawn on July 12 a signal rocket opens the Bryansk Front attack. Troops cross a river under smoke, take Mtsensk and Bolkhov, and on August 5 enter the burned city of Oryol, the same day Belgorod is taken. The film closes on funerals in both cities and the evening salute in Moscow.
Cast & crew
More about Oryol Battle
Rafail Gikov and Lidiya Stepanova directed. The picture was cut from frontline newsreel, including German footage, and released on August 31, 1943. Gikov had led the Bryansk Front camera group since it was formed in January and February 1942. Leonid Khmara is the narrator.
Themes
Background
July 5 was the start of the German attack at Kursk. July 12 was the start of the Oryol offensive, Operation Kutuzov. Oryol and Belgorod were both taken on August 5, and Moscow fired a salute that night. The film was in theaters 26 days later.
Making
Efim Lozovsky built a rig for filming tank attacks and, in July 1943 on the Bolkhov axis, shot with a Debrie camera inside an armored box on a T-34. Footage also came from crews on the Voronezh, Western, and Central Fronts. The studio had already been running Oryol items in every issue of Soyuzkinozhurnal before this feature was cut.
Look
A group of newsreel cameramen shot it. Lozovsky’s July 1943 material on the Bolkhov axis was made with a Debrie camera mounted in an armored box on a T-34.
Preservation
A WebM is on Wikimedia Commons under the Russian title. The Russian Wikipedia notes that one digitized copy is missing the ending.
Notes
- The first screening in liberated Oryol was on September 19, 1943.
- On-screen commanders include Colonel-General M. M. Popov of the Bryansk Front, Army General K. K. Rokossovsky of the Central Front, and Army General N. F. Vatutin and Colonel-General I. S. Konev on the Belgorod side.
- Cameramen credited or listed for the shoot include Roman Karmen, Boris Nebylitsky, Alexander Gaft, and Ilya Gutman.
- Wikimedia Commons marked the file media of the day for July 12, 2024, the date Operation Kutuzov began in 1943.
- Some catalogs list Yuri Levitan. The Russian Wikipedia credits the narration to Leonid Khmara.
Scenes
- A map shows how little ground the German July attack actually took, then prisoners are marched through Kursk.
- A signal rocket at dawn on July 12 starts the barrage.
- Infantry cross the river in boats and at fords while sappers clear the banks.
- On August 5 the camera moves through burned Oryol, then cuts to the salute in Moscow.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1943. Орловская битва.webm)
