On the eve of the turning point in the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army set up new military units, including the 7th Guards Army, by the decree of the Supreme Command General Headquarters, signed on May 1, 1943. As early as in June, the Army was assigned to the Voronezh Front to take part in the Battle of Kursk.
The Army was deployed at the town of Korocha where the Nazi troops were first blunted and then thrown back to Belgorod. The 7th Guards Army contributed to the liberation of Belgorod and Kharkov, then cut across the Dnieper. Dozens of the enlisted and officers displayed courage during the Battle of Kursk and were highly awarded, also as the Hero of the Soviet Union.
Those included Guards Sergeant Ziyamat Usmanovich Khusanov who found himself in the enemy attack sector at the Dalnye Peski village on the first day of the Battle of Kursk, July 5. The group of soldiers, supported by tanks and artillery, not only stalled the enemy’s advance but attacked him and got hold of the local height. Ziyamat Khusanov and some other soldiers stayed there to cover his company withdrawal given the risk of being entrapped. His comrades-in-arms perished but Khusanov kept defending the height by himself. He fired back with his heavy machine gun, and then blew up himself and the enemy soldiers with a grenade.
The height was captured back just in a day, but the body of Ziyamat Khusanov was never found. He was awarded posthumously the title Hero of the Soviet Union. However, it turned out later that Khusanov was alive, but taken prisoner with a severe wound. In 1944, he managed to arrange for an escape together with the other Turkestan Legion fighters and got to the Yugoslav guerilla fighters to liberate Montenegro, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.
Lieutenant Ivan Ulyanovich Butyrin, although a tankman, led an infantry attack on the first day of the Kursk Battle at the villages of Maslova Pristan and Rzhavets, Belgorod Region to have gained a defense area; it happened on the first day of the Battle of Kursk in the vicinity the villages of Maslova Pristan and Rzhavets of the Belgorod region. Butyrin left his tank to raise soldiers’ morale by his personal example. The title Hero of the Soviet Union was conferred on him posthumously.
Major General Alexander Vasilievich Skvortsov, Commander of 78th Rifle Division, was also awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union for his command and valor at the Kursk Salient. His soldiers repelled no less than 15 enemy attacks and were first to reach the Dnieper river banks. They destroyed about 100 tanks and over 10 000 Nazi soldiers.
The Army was deployed at the town of Korocha where the Nazi troops were first blunted and then thrown back to Belgorod. The 7th Guards Army contributed to the liberation of Belgorod and Kharkov, then cut across the Dnieper. Dozens of the enlisted and officers displayed courage during the Battle of Kursk and were highly awarded, also as the Hero of the Soviet Union.
Those included Guards Sergeant Ziyamat Usmanovich Khusanov who found himself in the enemy attack sector at the Dalnye Peski village on the first day of the Battle of Kursk, July 5. The group of soldiers, supported by tanks and artillery, not only stalled the enemy’s advance but attacked him and got hold of the local height. Ziyamat Khusanov and some other soldiers stayed there to cover his company withdrawal given the risk of being entrapped. His comrades-in-arms perished but Khusanov kept defending the height by himself. He fired back with his heavy machine gun, and then blew up himself and the enemy soldiers with a grenade.
The height was captured back just in a day, but the body of Ziyamat Khusanov was never found. He was awarded posthumously the title Hero of the Soviet Union. However, it turned out later that Khusanov was alive, but taken prisoner with a severe wound. In 1944, he managed to arrange for an escape together with the other Turkestan Legion fighters and got to the Yugoslav guerilla fighters to liberate Montenegro, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia.
Lieutenant Ivan Ulyanovich Butyrin, although a tankman, led an infantry attack on the first day of the Kursk Battle at the villages of Maslova Pristan and Rzhavets, Belgorod Region to have gained a defense area; it happened on the first day of the Battle of Kursk in the vicinity the villages of Maslova Pristan and Rzhavets of the Belgorod region. Butyrin left his tank to raise soldiers’ morale by his personal example. The title Hero of the Soviet Union was conferred on him posthumously.
Major General Alexander Vasilievich Skvortsov, Commander of 78th Rifle Division, was also awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union for his command and valor at the Kursk Salient. His soldiers repelled no less than 15 enemy attacks and were first to reach the Dnieper river banks. They destroyed about 100 tanks and over 10 000 Nazi soldiers.
