Activities of the Department of Motor Transport and Road services of the Voronezh Front to ensure the operation of military roads in preparation for the Battle of Kursk: functioning problems and analysis of their solutions

Abstract

The article analyzes the activities of the Department of Motor Transport and Road Services of the Voronezh Front to ensure the operation of military roads during the preparation for the Battle of Kursk (from April 1 to July 4, 1943). The source of the study is previously unpublished documents containing information about the functioning of the military roads of the Voronezh Front in April – early July 1943, which are stored in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The study of these archival documents made it possible to get an idea of the length and routes of the military roads of the Voronezh Front of the analyzed period, the specific difficulties and problems that existed during the time of their functioning in April 1943, as well as overcoming these difficulties by the beginning of the Battle of Kursk. Based on the above statistical data, the author concludes that the Department of the Motor Transport and Road Service of the Voronezh Front has done a lot of work to organize transport support for the relevant military forces. Ultimately, this led to the fact that the military roads during the Battle of Kursk, in general, provided the troops with everything they needed.