Not to worry, Martin- I'll have it soon enough! Amazon actually has some used copies already, plus some discounted...
Now, on to this Ponyri thing... Ponyri was a small agricultural town/settlement (really small and primitive) located about 12 km south of Model's start position. It was located on a main railroad line running from Orel to Kursk, and Ponyri was also a road junction used to distribute heavy farm machinery.
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/av...5/kskmap01.htm
The website we have discussed on Kursk has Ponyri on a map, but I think it should be slightly more south. But I digress...
Germans of the 292nd Infantry Division took the railway embankment and the northern part of town on July 5th. Seems like as soon as they made it to this point, the 292nd started taking heavy russian fire. For the rest of the day, the 292nd held the northern part of town, but was not able to muster enough strength to attack the russians dug in in the southern part of town. Beginning July 6th, Model began feeding more and more units nito the struggle to take Ponyri. Over the next couple days (or possibly all late in the 6th), the 9th and 18th Panzer Divisions along with the 86th Infantry Division were sucked into the fight for Ponyri. (Also, the 292nd had Heavy Jagdpanzer Battalion 653 with it's Ferdinands attached). According to Healy, on July 7th the germans made an attack using around 300 tanks, but the attack ran into T-34s from the Russian 16th and 19th Tank Corps, and resulted no significant gains for either side. From 6 to 9 July the fighting went back and forth, with the focus of the fighting being the schoolhouse, tractor depot, railway station, and water tower. On the 9th, the Germans mounted another attack using 6 Ferdinands as support. Again, inconclusive results. According to Healy, the Ferdinands ran into the same problems as throughout Kursk. The infantry supporting the Ferdinands got pinned down, leaving the TDs defenseless. According to photographs Healy claims are from Ponyri area, at least one of this group of Ferdinands was taken out by a landmine.
And again on July 10th, Model planned yet ANOTHER strong assault against Ponyri. The 10th PanzerGrenadier and 31st Infantry Divisions were moved up the night of July 10/11 to join in the fight for Ponyri. These two divisions made up the last of Model's reserves. In fact, by this point Model had essentially gone over to the defensive in all areas of his front EXCEPT for Ponyri. The assault on Ponyri continued until the 12th or 13th, being one of the last areas the Model withdrew his troops from. Apparently, the germans never actually succeeded in throwing the russians out of Ponyri. Carell suggests that the 10th PzGr. Division (which he claims deployed among other things 7 artillery battalions, one nebelwerfer battalion, one heavy mortar and one assault gun battalion) essentially spent July 10-12 defending Ponyri against Russian counter-attacks.
Carell backs all of this up as well, but those were the only sources I had time for last night...
Impressive that the fight for one small town sucked in at least 6 german divisions and all their attached units- 292nd, 86th, and 31st Infantry, 9th and 18th Panzer, and 10th PanzerGrenadier. Clearly, on the northern (central) front of the attack, the russians were achieving their plan- a battle of attrition the germans could not afford.
I'm still looking for more specific details from the Ponyri struggle, along with some of the other smaller fights, and some more info on the armor deployed. More to come!