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Map of the 229th regiment’s counterattacks against the German offensive The Commander of Armoured and Mechanized Forces of the Central Front blamed the staff of the 229th regiment for failing to not only organize artillery or infantry support for its tanks, but even to maintain cohesion between its own companies.Įven in this condition, the regiment claimed some significant victories: 6 enemy tanks and SPGs disabled, 5 anti-tank guns, 8 machine guns, 2 mortar batteries, and up to 350 enemy soldiers and officers killed. Over the two days of fighting 8 of the regiment’s tanks burned up and 11 were knocked out. On the night of July 13th all companies of the regiment retreated to the western outskirts of Vavilonovka. The company reached the village’s northern outskirts, but was fired upon from Protasovo and was forced to retreat. The second company of Sherman tanks was attached to the rifle regiment for this attack. The 229th regiment was ordered to knock the enemy out of the village alongside the 78th Rifle Regiment of the 74th Rifle Division. On the next day the enemy had made it to Grinevka. As a result, the Shermans managed to take the height and the supporting infantry dug in. The Chief of Staff didn’t just force the tanks into battle but managed to coordinate a joint attack by tanks and infantry.

At 19:00 the third and fourth company rushed to attack height 255.6 on orders of the Chief of Staff of the 15th Rifle Corps. The third company also came under fire and was forced to retreat behind the height. By then the second company had arrived, but its fire was ineffective. Luckily, the third company arrived at height 260.3 from where it could cover the retreat of the first company towards Vavilonovka. The second company was supposed to support the first one, but it was incapable of doing so since it was late to the battle. The M4A2 tanks of the 229th Independent Tank Regiment were fighting on the eastern flank of this dent in Soviet lines German penetration of the Soviet defenses on the north of the Kursk Salient. 10 tanks managed to punch through the German defenses and reach the south slope of height 255.6. The company continued its advance but was tied up in fighting 15 German tanks and up to two battalions of infantry east of Protasovo.

The result was predictable: upon reaching height 255.6 the first company of the regiment was fired upon from height 248.8 and had three of its tanks burned up. The attack was carried out not only without infantry cover, but also without proper reconnaissance. At 10:00 on July 11th the regiment was ordered to take the line height 255.6 - height 238.6 - Trosna on the right flank of the 74th Rifle Division and hold until infantry arrived. On July 11th the regiment reported 39 functional tanks.

He ordered the regiment to guard the Tinyakovskiy farm in the sector of the 74th Rifle Division. At 03:00 on July 10th the regiment arrived at Leski (6 km south-east of Maloarkhangelsk) and reported to the commander of the 15th Rifle Corps. On July 9th the Commander of the Central Front reallocated the 229th regiment to the 13th Army which stood in the way of the German XLI Tank Corps. The M4A2 tanks never got to fight as a part of the 48th Army. Later features like applique armour over the ammunition racks are not yet present This tank no longer has direct vision ports and now has the M34A1 gun mount with a wider mantlet. An intermediate model of an M4A2 tank on display at Victory Park in Moscow.