Empty Stirrups

When the last reserves are used up, a штрафна рота (penal company) is thrown into battle. And then the fighting begins—the kind of clash that makes the earth hum with a roar, while streams run with blood… In July 1943, at the junction of the 11th Guards Army and the 50th Army, on the very first day of the offensive on the northern face of the Kursk salient, a separate penal company went into the attack, commanded by Lieutenant Vorontsov. Bursting through the enemy’s forward lines with gunfire, bayonets, and rifle butts, the penal troops gave the guardsmen and the tank brigades the chance to break through the gap and launch a successful offensive toward Oryol and Khotynets.