Tank action from Karelian Isthmus

[Crossroads]

I thought I'd share some of the stuff I am going through while doing research for my 3x3 team game...

Here's a gem of a picture series of tank action at Karelian Isthmus.

This is some 1 km from the front line, where a film crew was taking pictures in the relatively safety from the front lines.

As a lone T-34 strayed into the opening, one of three Soviet tanks that broke through the Ihantala village bridge a while earlier, the German assault guns from the 303. Assault Gun Bde exploded into action. And the film crew was were there to film it.

(The other two T-34s were destroyed earlier. Here's an overall map of the area of quite heavy fighting. You can see the location of the key bridge over the Ihantala river, as witnessed by the number of knocked down tanks in the area. The bridge was destroyed by Stukas then rebuilt by Red Army engineers several times over the days of heavy fighting in the area.)

First, a stalking and quite well camoflaged StuG of the German 303. assault gun bde has taken out a T-34/76 of the 30th Guards Tank Bde, advancing alone on a road somewhere around Ihantala.

The shot was fired from a extremly short range of 30 yards or so:



If you can't spot the StuG, it is the 'bush' in the lower middle of the picture, already moving on a bit. Apparently, the StuG hit the T-34, immobilising it, after which the tank was set to flames by a faust from the other side of the road. A perfect ambush, then.

Is the other StuG there as well, under the tree by the road? That would have required some quite serious sized cojones from the crew for sure... (See the pictures at the bottom and compare...).

A PaK 40, further back behind the field, with a firing sector towards the same road. German StuG visible in the field.



Infantry arrives to scece:



The remnants of the said T-34, after a huge explosion at its ammonition bay:





After things've calmed down, a picture from the road with a good quality close up on the two StuGs of the 303. Bde





Moving on. A bit more shrubbery added to vehicles:

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Then and now: