The Bloody Triangle

by Victor Kamenir

  After holding on most of the day and buying the XIX Mechanized Corps as much breathing room as he could, Rokossovskiy ordered his corps to disengage and fall back. Attempting to preserve as many of his armored vehicles as possible, General Rokossovskiy’s corps pulled back to Rovno, bolstering beleaguered defenses of the city.

  Isayev quoted Rokossovskiy’s reasoning: “I think, in this case it was more prudent to take personal responsibility and give the troops a mission that was based on existing situation before [we] received the directive from General Staff.”

  XIX Mechanized Corps, Maj. Gen. N. V. Feklenko Commanding

  Despite demands by the commander of the South-Western Front, the XIX Mechanized Corps was in absolutely no shape to conduct offensive actions on June 27. In fact, it was steadily being pushed east by elements from German 13th Panzer and 299th Infantry divisions. General Feklenko’s corps was being slowly squeezed into diminishing positions south and southeast of Rovno, desperately attempting to prevent or minimize German crossing of Goryn River.

  After the Germans breached the defensive positions of the 228th Rifle Division approximately five miles south of Rovno, the Soviet forces defending the city were in real danger of finding themselves on the wrong side of the river. In late evening, one particularly fierce German probe reached the southern outskirts of the city before being beaten back by a tank counterattack. Shortly thereafter, and with heavy heart, I. I. Feklenko ordered his corps to pull back across the Goryn River, less than fifteen miles east of Rovno, exposing the southern approaches to the city.

  XV Mechanized Corps, Col. G. I. Yermolayev Commanding

  After receiving Kirponos’ original orders about the pullback behind defensive lines of the 37th Rifle Corps, Colonel Yermolayev ordered his 10th and 37th tank divisions to disengage. His 212th Motorized Rifle Division remained in place, covering the withdrawal of tank formations. However, it paid dearly for the rear-guard action, struck again and again by punishing German air attacks.

  At around 1000 hours a liaison officer from the headquarters of the South-Western Front arrived at Yermolayev’s command post. He informed Yermolayev that pullback orders were cancelled and he was to turn around his tank divisions once again and attack toward Berestechko. It took over two hours to relay the new orders to commanders of the 10th and 37th Tank Divisions and turn their units around. Exhausted by marching and countermarching, the tank divisions could not attack during June 27.

  Task Force Lukin, Ostrog

  General Lukin had not been idle the previous night, moving whatever forces he had available to engage the Germans at Ostrog. In addition to the 173rd Reconnaissance Battalion, which already engaged the Germans the previous night, Lukin was able to concentrate at Ostrog the following forces from the 109th Motorized Rifle Division: the 381st Motorized Rifle Regiment (three battalions) under Lt. Col. A. I. Podoprigora; 2nd Battalion from the 602nd Motorized Rifle Regiment; 229th Engineer Battalion; six tanks from the 16th Tank Regiment; and the 404th Artillery Regiment; however this unit was still en route and not available for operations in the morning. The rest of the division, along with the rest of the Sixteenth Army, had already departed for Byelorussia.

  Leaving one rifle battalion in reserve on the east bank of Viliya River, the other three battalions, without artillery support, advanced on Ostrog across the one available bridge. However, the small bridge was not able to accommodate timely advance of the three battalions, and some of the men had to commandeer whatever boats were available or swim across the narrow river.

  The 2nd Battalion of the 602nd Motorized Rifle Regiment under Captain Morozov met with initial progress and soon was disputing the south edge of town near a Catholic monastery. The two battalions from the 381st Regiment had tougher going against Germans entrenched in basements and upper floors of buildings. Only after the regimental artillery battery, brought up into direct-fire mode, suppressed some of the more stubborn German positions were the battalions able to advance.

  The 173rd Reconnaissance Battalion, barely hanging onto the northeastern edge of town, was under heavy German pressure. After its commander Major Yulborisov was killed, the 3rd Battalion from the 381st Regiment was sent to reinforce it.

  While visiting Lieutenant Colonel Podoprigora’s command post, roughly two miles east of Ostrog, commander of the 109th Motorized Rifle Division, Col. N. P. Krasnoretskiy, was struck down by a shell fragment. His deputy, Col. N. I. Sidorenko, took over. The seriously wounded Colonel Krasnoretskiy was evacuated to the rear, where he partially recovered and returned to duty, only to fall in battle near Moscow in October the same year.

  Since the early morning, the German forces at Ostrog numbered one infantry regiment and some reconnaissance elements from 11th Panzer Division. More help was on the way, namely the 15th Panzer Regiment of that division, which spent the night in Mizoch, approximately twenty-five miles west of Ostrog. Gustav Schrodek, after dropping off his damaged tank at the repair shop, joined a reconnaissance platoon, tasked with scouting the route of advance for the regiment.

  Traveling in darkness over roads not indicated on the map, the platoon cautiously probed its way forwards, constantly on alert for Soviet opposition: “Contact with enemy could happen at any instant, so keep machine-guns clear.”31

  Sometimes losing their way, they drove on to the sound of the guns:

  Far away from us on the left, we observed night combat and saw flashes of artillery and tracers. We became more careful, halting from time to time and listening with our engines off. . . . After a long travel, we arrived at dawn and began to discern some buildings ahead of us. . . . Suddenly, a rifle shot rang out. We immediately stopped and positioned machine guns. . . .

  In the meantime, Lt. Karge shot towards the houses with his machine gun. It came to life over there. Rifle and machine-gun shots whipped through the area and came perilously close over our heads. We also returned fire immediately. There was a flash over by the houses, and immediately thereafter it hit close to us. Afterwards all hell broke loose. Shells exploded all around us. I believed that several cannons were zeroed in on us. “Mount up and withdraw!” ordered Lt. Karge. The drivers immediately jumped to their vehicles and started them, while the other men grabbed their weapons and began jumping aboard. A scout car and two motorcycles were unfortunately left behind. Their drivers and riders were picked up by other vehicles. More steel greetings followed us from over there, but caused no more damage, with company putting a good distance between us.32

  After being appraised by the scout detachment of contact with the Soviets, the 15th Panzer Regiment entered the fight in earnest, vigorously attacking the Red Army defensive positions north of Ostrog. Arrival of the panzers permanently tilted the fight in German favor.

  Colonel N. I. Sidorenko, replacing the fallen Krasnoretskiy, cobbled together a stop-gap force of seventeen BT-7s, fifteen armored cars, and several companies from rear-echelon units and sent them in to support the crumbling center. It was too late, and the 381st Motorized Rifle Regiment began falling back in disorder. The retreat over narrow bridge was verging on panic, with German mortar and artillery shells falling among the withdrawing men. Some men drowned, falling off the bridge or unable to swim the river. Casualties were heavy, including 1st Battalion’s commander Senior Lieutenant Hayrutdinov.

  The remnants of the 173rd Reconnaissance Battalion and the 2nd Battalion of the 381st Motorized Rifle Regiment were not able to disengage and became trapped in town.

  In the afternoon, retreating Soviet units rallied in the woods near Vilbovnoye village on the east bank of Viliya River. In the late evening, the 404th Artillery Regiment and the 229th Engineer Battalion finally arrived in the area. However, the engineer battalion, having already sent off its heavy equipment and part of personnel to Byelorussia, numbered roughly two-companies–worth of men. Colonel Sidorenko posted them several miles north of Vilbovnoye, guarding a nearby railroad bridge at Mogilyany across Goryn River and covering division’s right flank.

  G
iving his men a chance for brief rest, Colonel Sidorenko made a second attempt at Ostrog in the afternoon. Leaving one rifle battalion in reserve, the remaining two battalions, this time supported by fire of the 404th Artillery Regiment, threw themselves at the hard-fought-for town, attempting to reach the survivors of the other two battalions trapped in Ostrog. Despite friendly artillery support, the two Soviet infantry battalions ran into serious German opposition and could not make progress. With nightfall, they fell back across the river once more, in the relative safety of the woods around Vilbovnoye.

  The fight for Ostrog was a costly one for the Germans as well. By the end of the day, the 1st Battalion of the 15th Panzer Regiment numbered only twelve operational tanks.

  VIII Mechanized Corps, Lt. Gen. D. I. Ryabyshev Commanding

  Shortly after midnight, after visiting Colonel Gerasimov’s 7th Motorized Rifle Division, Commissar Popel arrived at the 34th Tank Division. He barely missed Ryabyshev, who himself departed for Gerasimov’s division less than an hour earlier. While Popel was familiarizing himself with the situation of Vasiliev’s division, chief of counter-intelligence of the VIII Mechanized Corps, Commissar M. A. Oksen, found him there. Oksen had disturbing news: several Soviet soldiers, apparently deserters from a different corps, were picked up in the VIII Mechanized Corps’ rear. According to these men, rumors were spreading that 12th Tank Division was retreating, with two Soviet generals surrendering to Germans. One of the men swore that he actually saw large bodies of Soviet soldiers retreating through the woods.

  Unable to reach neither General Mishanin’s 12th Tank Division nor the headquarters of the VIII Mechanized Corps by radio, Popel raced off there in his lone T-34. As he was approaching the location of the corps command post in the woods outside Brody, Popel was surprised to see intense air attacks to which German aviation was subjecting this small town. As far as he knew, there wasn’t much of military value located in the town.33

  Another unpleasant surprise awaited him at the command post—it was deserted. Minutes later, a motorcycle platoon pulled into the command post’s perimeter. Its commander, a junior lieutenant, reported that he was sent to Colonel Gerasimov’s 7th Motorized Rifle Division, but could not get through the burning woods along Styr River and had to turn back. The young lieutenant was also surprised seeing the vacated corps command post, informing Popel that the command post was occupied less than two hours earlier.

  A staff car pulled in. Major Petrenko, Oksen’s deputy, informed Popel that Mishanin’s tank division did indeed abandoned its positions. On the way to the corps command post, Petrenko spoke with several retreating soldiers who insisted that division received orders to pull back. While the bulk of the 12th Tank Division was pulling back to Brody in disorder, it left the flank of Colonel Gerasimov’s division exposed. Now Popel understood why German aviation was bombing Brody so heavily.

  Stragglers began gathering at the corps command post:

  Approximately an hour went by, and roughly one hundred men belonging to corps rear elements and battalions and regiments from Mishanin’s division gathered in the tree line. In the night’s disorder, men would lose their way, wander around the woods and, glad to have stumbled upon us, remained at the former command post.34

  They were quickly put to work digging in and improving existing defenses. Leaving Major Petrenko in charge of the command post, Popel again set off in his T-34 towards the highway in hope of getting some news. The road cross-country in heavy rain was difficult. The great forest fires raging throughout the day were slowly suppressed by the torrents of water. Visibility dropped to almost nothing, and Popel was forced to open the cupola hatch so that he could guide his driver. The insides of the tank immediately became drenched, adding to misery of tired men.

  To his great relief, Popel found Lieutenant Colonel Volkov, commander of the 24th Tank Regiment, on the road. “Pale, dirty, with dried blood on his cheek, in ripped jumpsuit,” Volkov informed Popel that he was the rear-guard of the 12th Tank Division:

  Volkov briefly, tiredly answered my questions, rubbing his wide, balding forehead.

  “At two o’clock we received orders from division commander to immediately begin retreat to Brody-Pochayev-Podkamen. We are to concentrate at Podkamen by daybreak.”

  “Who delivered the orders?”

  “Chief of Staff Popov, by radio. I heard it myself.”

  “Did you see General Mishanin?”

  “No.”

  “General Ryabyshev?”

  “No.”

  “Where are the divisional headquarters?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Corps headquarters?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t have communications with anybody.”35

  Lieutenant Colonel Volkov, fighting so bravely the previous day, was visibly discouraged by this retreat, lamenting the losses suffered by his regiment in now-useless attack. Both Popel and Volkov were in agreement that the 12th Tank’s pullback exposed the flanks of the other two divisions. On his own risk, Popel halted Volkov’s retreat, ordering him to hold the road at all costs. Volkov happily began gathering his regiment and stragglers from other units and taking up defenses across the road. Popel himself set off for Brody.

  With the sky lightening and the rain letting up, Popel’s tank entered a small town, which presented a nightmarish scene:

  The rain . . . extinguished the fires. Only here and there, hissing pieces of logs and wooden boards were burning out. The streets were impassable. Bomb craters, bricks, masonry, and corpses. Corpses—in the street, on sidewalks. . . . When [tank halted], we climbed outside and discovered that we [were] in a room. Three walls were knocked down; only the fourth remained.36

  The grisly scenery continues: “A [car halted] around the corner. Two steps away from it, a body of an officer, with a bloody wound in the back of his head. A dead hand is clutching a field bag. I roll over the corpse. [It is] Colonel Popov, division’s chief of staff. I take his bag, remove from his pocket documents, unsent letter, two photos.”37

  It goes on:

  Slowly, halting at every step, we drive along the dead town . . . across a church—KV. This is the first tank that we found in Brody. Whose vehicle is it? . . . The tank tucked in next to half-collapsed wall of a two-story building. Bricks and pieces of masonry are on the armor. The forward hatch is open, and I peek in.

  General Mishanin is in the driver’s seat. His head, with thin, gray hair, rolls lifelessly, arms lowered along his body. The uniform blouse and undershirt are torn from collar to belt. [His] chest is covered in blood and bruises. The right sleeve is singed. Now I also noticed that his hair is singed as well.

  “Comrade General . . . Timofey Andreyvich!”

  No signs of life. I climb into the hatch and shake Mishanin’s shoulder. An incoherent moan: “M-m-a-a-a . . . .” [His] lowered head does not move. Another moan and not a sound more.”38

  To Popel’s surprise and joy, another man climbs out of Mishanin’s tank: “It’s Mishanin’s adjutant. I only briefly saw this pink-cheeked young lad before. He is pink-cheeked no longer, and his age is undeterminable—unshaven, dark, grimy.”39

  Speaking loudly due to a concussion, Mishanin’s adjutant told Popel a sad tale. While directing movements of his division, Mishanin was half-buried by a collapsing wall. His adjutant, driver, and radio-operator dug the general out and placed him inside the tank. When the young lieutenant climbed in with Mishanin, the other two men stayed outside. A near bomb miss mangled the two exposed crewmen while bouncing the adjutant inside the tank.

  Leaving the young man with the still-unconscious Mishanin, Popel hurried south through the town, attempting to catch up to the other two of Mishanin’s regiments and turn them around.

  Popel found Lieutenant General Ryabyshev on a road south of Brody. The corps commander, who looked liked he aged about ten years, brought his commissar up to date. Shortly before 0300 hours, a liaison officer from headquarters of the South-Western Front arrived at Ryabyshev’
s command post with the pullback orders.

  As we already know, the VIII Mechanized Corps was to retreat behind the XXXVI Rifle Corps, which was in defensive positions along the line of Kremenets-Podkamen. Ryabyshev wrote in his memoirs that this officer, Gen. V. P. Panyukhov, did not inform him about the reasoning behind the order, merely stating that the VIII Mechanized was to be in reserve of the South-Western Front. Panyukhov did not have any information about progress of his neighboring XV Mechanized Corps, nor about the IX and XIX Corps.

  Ryabyshev immediately sent out his own liaison officers to his divisions. His main concern was to reach his units before they continued their offensive. He did not have functioning radio communications with his divisions, and everything depended on how fast his liaison officers would get the word out.

  As already shown, the 12th Tank Division received their instructions in time and began pulling back, albeit under heavy air attacks. Ryabyshev was shocked when Popel informed him that the 7th Motorized Rifle and 34th Tank Divisions did not get the word about the pullback and remained in place.

  The tremendous efforts which Ryabyshev’s divisions had to expend in order to pull back were in vain. Shortly before 0700 hours, another liaison officer from the South-Western Front headquarters arrived at their impromptu command post at the side of the road with another set of conflicting instructions. The VIII Mechanized Corps was to renew the offensive, push Germans out of Dubno, and defend the city until relieved!