Stalingrad

by Stalingrad- The City that Defeated the Third Reich (epub)

  There we were visited by representatives from the region and from the People’s Commissariat of Defense. [ . . . ] In July comrade Voroshilov came and spent two days with us. We conducted a join exercise with the 120th Division. Comrade Voroshilov was pleased with our division, met with our command staff, and gave instructions regarding weaknesses that needed attention. Then he gathered the divisional commanders and the chiefs of staff of the regiments on their own, got to know them, sat with them for two hours in one of the classrooms, talked with them, and then he left. Not long afterward we were sent to the front.

  Senior Sergeant Nina Mikhailovna Kokorina (Nurse, assistant deputy for political affairs, 347th Rifle Regiment): I finished [school] in 1941. I’d been planning to go to Sverdlovsk University, but then the war broke out. I got a letter from my sister who had already volunteered. She was headed to the Volkhov Front. I don’t know where she is now. My older brother is also at the front, got transferred from the east. My father is at home, works at the Gosrybtrest81 fish factory. My mother, grandmother, and younger brother stayed at home. All of them are in Tobolsk.

  Nurse Nina Kokorina

  When I got that letter from my sister, I went home to tell my mother I was going to nursing school. I became a member of the Komsomol there in 1939. In October [1941] I completed nursing school. We tried to sign up after graduation, but they wouldn’t take us. “Come back again when you turn nineteen.” I wrote a letter to comrade Stalin. They showed me the letter with his decision: to be sent to the front immediately. I was also working with the Red Cross.82 Sixty of us went to the enlistment office after we learned that a detail was going to arrive, and we all signed a petition. They took about forty-five of us girls, mostly medical orderlies. Then we came to this unit.

  I’d also like to talk about when we left. I’ll never forget that moment. Usually when they come to see you off, it’s nothing but tears. Our mothers stayed strong, it was amazing. In one of her letters Mama said that women often say to her: “Anna Vasilievna, you’ve sent two daughters and a son to the front—how are you still happy?” She answers them: “I didn’t raise them to stay at home.”83

  Major Vasily Georgievich Belugin (Commissar in the 347th Rifle Regiment): I was born in 1897. I’ve been a member of the party since 1919. The first time I joined the army was in 1916. I was in the old army for nine months until 1917. In December 1916 I was arrested for spreading revolutionary propaganda and weakening army morale. They released me in February 1917. In September 1917 I started working as an inspector in the bakers’ union. In 1918 I was drafted into the Rogozhsko-Semyonov battalion. From August 1919 to 1924 I worked for special departments in the Cheka and GPU.84 At the same time I began my studies. In 1931 I finished technical college and worked as the head of the personnel department at the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy,85 then as director of the Industrial Transport Institute for the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry, and then I was named director of the All-Union Industrial Academy by order of the Central Committee in 1935. After that I was sent to work at the People’s Commissariat until the beginning of the war. On June 22 I tendered my resignation so I could volunteer for the army.

  The Moscow city and regional party committees approved my application on the 25th, so I was free to go. I volunteered, and my daughter accompanied me. She was nineteen. She was carrying a duffel bag when she came to the station to see me off. She’d made up her mind to come with me. No matter what I said she wouldn’t leave the station, she just kept asking over and again for me to take her along. At that time we were approached by a member of the military council of the Siberian Military District. Once he understood the situation, he said: “Just let her go.” I asked whether I could really take her with me. “You both can and should.” And so the two of us set off together.

  Captain Semyon Solomonovich Ryvkin (Commander of an independent field engineering battalion): The battalion was set up in March 1942. On March 25 we celebrated our one-year anniversary. I was with the battalion right at its formation. Most of the people were Siberians. Inexperienced youths with no combat experience. We worked with them for a long time. After two months of training we all went to the front, so we were actually working with these soldiers for about five months. By then every one of them could be trusted with all sorts of combat missions.

  Senior Sergeant Nina Mikhailovna Kokorina (Nurse, assistant deputy for political affairs, 347th Rifle Regiment): We were very thoroughly trained by General Gurtyev. Nearly every day we were marching thirty to sixty kilometers. There were days when you’d never get dry after it rained, when you’d have just gotten to sleep and the alarm would go off. When you hear it, you get up and go again. The girls held up wonderfully. Sometimes we’d be on the go for three days running, no rest, and we were always singing songs. During halts we danced. Regimental commander Mikhailov really liked our medical company.

  Lieutenant Colonel Afanasy Matveyevich Svirin (Deputy commander for political affairs, 308th Rifle Division): The division’s previous commissar had been removed. General Medvedyev came and told me I had fifteen minutes: An airplane was waiting at the airfield, he said, and it was taking me to the 308th Division, which was on its way to the front. A car came and took me to the airfield. We went directly to the air base in Omsk. On June 10 we arrived in Saratov. Now I had to get to know the division’s political staff. A week later we held a party meeting, where we discussed our party-political work and the objectives of the party organization. I gave a report on the status of the party-political work and set a number of specific tasks—what needed to be done and how—so that the division would be completely prepared. The work of the party organization was to be the basis of everything. The first issue concerned everyday welfare—namely, the operation of the mess hall. After the party meeting we inspected the mess hall and discovered a number of shortcomings. We outlined several measures that would address this. The next problem concerned the soldiers’ hygiene. They needed to wash, to get clean clothes. These questions were dealt with sensibly. Finally there was the question of the division’s combat training. For this we undertook a wide range of party-political work. This work took the form of meetings at the regiment and company level, and quite a lot of people would come to take part and speak on a number of issues.

  During combat training we set ourselves the task of eliminating the soldiers’ fear of tanks, and also of planes—issues that we soon enough had to deal with in reality.

  What practical methods are there for eliminating a fear of tanks?

  First of all, we made each antitank soldier aware of the merciless power and strength of their antitank gun. We gave each soldier the chance to shoot through some metal plates we picked up from the railway. Every soldier convinced himself that a tank could be penetrated and that he was well able to handle his antitank gun. As for the other aspect, what we did was drive tanks over the soldiers as they crouched down in trenches. They were reassured that these narrow trenches provided a safe location, and afterward they could get out and throw grenades.

  We also educated them using the examples of the courageous men at Sebastapol, who threw themselves under tanks in groups of five, and of the heroic deeds of Panfilov’s men, the twenty-eight who kept an avalanche of vehicles at bay. [ . . . ]

  We taught them our Russian military traditions. We often quoted our great military leaders, who said that to protect your wives and children you must defend the fatherland, you must give everything to defend the fatherland. We told them about the heroic deeds of Ivan Susanin and gave many other examples from the history of the Russian people. All of this enters the consciousness of every soldier, giving him confidence in our victory. Several times on the road I gave speeches on the challenges that our soldiers would be facing in upcoming battles. Other party workers spoke too. Whenever we stopped we held discussions, gave lectures and reports. We did all this so they would arrive at the front in a state of full combat and political readiness. [ . . . ]

  Political deputy of
the divisional command, Lieutenant Colonel Afanasy Svirin

  About the fear of planes—we knew we were going to the front, and that we’d come across them even before we got there. We drove home the idea that it wasn’t just antiaircraft artillery that could hit planes. You can also shoot one with a rifle, submachine gun, or antitank weapon. We gave examples from newspapers of planes being shot down by rifle fire, and made it perfectly clear that the fear of planes was something they must eliminate in themselves.

  Our third task was to get them all, and especially the Komsomol members, to shoot well. During our combat training period we had around three thousand Komsomol members. We set them a goal: a quarter of them to become snipers, and the rest to qualify at no less than “good” or “excellent.” [ . . . ]

  Before deploying to the front we conducted a great amount of party-political work. We held a meeting of all the political staff where we set ourselves the task of reaching the front without losing a single soldier or political worker on the way. We also held Komsomol meetings in the companies. Because of this work, we arrived at the front without having a single deserter. There was one incident where a private from our headquarters company dropped his weapon. The commander of the headquarters battery told us that the soldier had lost his carbine about three kilometers back. We sent him back to look for it, and after about five hours he returned, drenched in sweat, with his carbine. That’s how we managed not to lose anyone. We brought twelve thousand people to the front. It took seven days.

  Major General Leonty Nikolayevich Gurtyev (Commander of the 308th Rifle Division): Our disembarkation point was Kumalga.86 Some of us got off at Kumalga, and the rest got off at various locations to the north and south, and then we regrouped. We arrived safely. Only one train had been shot at, and one platoon commander was wounded. We gathered at Kumalga and then marched toward the village of Eterevskaya. From there we set off toward Kotluban and Samokhvalovka.87 For several days we marched without incident. It was a rather difficult march. It was hot, and because we didn’t have much time we were covering great distances, and our transportation was delayed. We were always in column formation. We deployed quickly and got there safely. At one point we lost a few men and four horses. [ . . . ]

  In the first couple of days our division suffered very heavy losses. We lost a lot of people to enemy aircraft. A lot of shrapnel wounds. We also lost men from heavy enemy mortar fire. Within a few days more than five thousand men were treated by the medical battalion. All day, from dawn till dusk, there were fifteen to twenty, or as many as forty enemy aircraft, and that whole time we were being shelled by mortars. We didn’t have many planes. They joined the fight, but only for general missions. The Luftwaffe was in control of the skies.

  Lieutenant Colonel Afanasy Matveyevich Svirin (Deputy commander for political affairs, 308th Rifle Division): On September 1–2 we came to the area of Kotluban. For a few days our division was under the command of the Stavka, but then we were made part of 24th Army. Then we got the order about combat operations in the area of Kotluban. We were ordered to attack at night. Before our departure we held meetings again in all the regiments and battalions. Comrade Yudin, a representative of the Central Committee, gave a speech, as did many other political workers, myself included.

  Airplanes were prowling everywhere, illuminating the area all around. We often had to interrupt our meetings. It was as if the enemy had found out about our meetings, were lighting the area with flares and then dropping bombs. Comrade Yudin had come from Moscow only to end up in this mess, and we were the ones who were told to protect him. After our speeches the soldiers pledged that they would carry out their orders, liberate Stalingrad, and link up with the Stalingrad units. The group decided to send a letter to comrade Stalin in which every regiment swore that when these Siberian soldiers were ordered into battle they would give everything they had to execute those orders and defeat the enemy.

  That morning when the division left for battle it was good spirits all around, you couldn’t help feeling uplifted.

  They ordered us to take Hills 132, 154.2, and 143.8, and the 339th and 347th Rifle Regiments moved in with artillery support. We’d been promised tank support for the offensive but hadn’t gotten any, so on the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th our regiments attacked these hills without tanks. These hills were of great importance because they commanded a view of the entire city. Comrade Stalin knew these hills,88 and we set ourselves the task of taking them no matter what. Also, these hills would allow further advancement on Gumrak and eventual contact with the people in Stalingrad.

  The hills were taken on September 19. Holding them wasn’t easy, but we held out until the 27th.

  Dmitri Andrianovich Petrakov (Commissar in the 339th Rifle Regiment): On September 4, 1942, we were Lesnichestvo, in the Stalingrad region. We got the order to set out for the Kotluban station. We were on the march from the 5th to the 8th, around three hundred kilometers, and by daybreak on the 9th we reached the Kotluban station. That is when the air raids began. It was a massed air raid. Our regiment didn’t have a chance to break formation, so we were still marching in a long column when they started dropping bombs and pounding us with mortars and artillery. That was when we joined the battle. We didn’t have any intel beforehand. The area was completely flat and open, and only thing we could see in front of us was the hills, where the enemy was firing at us from his entrenchments. People started to dig in right then and there. We deployed in combat formations and began the assault of Hill 143.9 and Hill 154.2. There were lot of casualties.

  That evening 2nd Battalion led the first attack wave and pressed the enemy. That first day we lost about 50 percent of our staff, and nearly all of the political staff. A German sniper and two tank operators remained in some shot-out tanks to keep an eye on 2nd Battalion, but when the battalion advanced those Germans were left behind. We saw someone from the political command staff aiming at the Germans. The Germans eventually worked out that they were being shot at from behind.

  That evening something terrible happened. Men were rushing into a ravine without knowing where they were. The division lost about a thousand men altogether. The political workers had to work all night under fire.

  Senior Sergeant Nina Mikhailovna Kokorina (Nurse, assistant deputy for political affairs, 347th Rifle Regiment): On our way to Stalingrad we covered 260 kilometers in three days. We did wonderfully on this trip. The girls always kept up with the soldiers. We’d march, ford rivers. The soldiers were often getting sores on their feet. We treated them. The girls were being thanked nearly every day.

  We arrived in the area of the Kotluban station. I’ll never forget that first day. The attack began at five o’clock. There were two hills: 143.8 and 154.2. A few divisions had come before us, but none of them could take these hills. This was on September 10. It’s not something you’re used to, you don’t understand it. You can’t imagine what war is like. This was when the Germans threw their planes into the battle and started bombing our positions. We went around one of the hills and down into a ravine. That’s where we took our first casualties. We could feel it immediately. Before that, I didn’t really sense that this was something serious. It was like we were in training. The first casualty was from an antitank company. I rushed over to him. His guts were all coming out. I put everything back inside and bandaged him up. [ . . . ]

  A German submachine gunner wearing a Red Army uniform infiltrated our ranks. He didn’t shoot at the soldiers or medics, but he immediately shot the first officer who appeared.

  Lieutenant Tarnyuk, the battalion commander, ordered me to go dress the wounded and see where the shooting was coming from. I crawled to the right of 2nd Battalion’s position and noticed that someone was shooting toward us from that direction. Then I saw this private run off, and after a little while the shooting was coming from the left. I determined roughly where he was shooting from. There was a wounded soldier from 3rd Platoon. I sent him to report what I’d seen. I stayed behind to keep an eye on the gunn
er and our soldiers. While the soldier was gone, the submachine gunner disappeared and climbed into a tank that was blocking our path, about five hundred meters from the ravine. He took out the commander of 8th Company. My platoon commander, Ganchenko, took command. Half our platoon went there. But the enemy was covering a large area, we couldn’t cross it. Ganchenko ordered his men to go around the tank and kill that submachine gunner. They carried out his order quickly.

  Nearly all the girls in our battalion were sent up for medals.

  I want to talk about Sonya Fateyeva, who was wounded in that battle. She was from Tobolsk. Such a tall and robust girl. This one time in class, when we were still in Yazykovka, this officer showed up, and when she brought her hand down on his shoulder he lost his balance and fell over. We thought very highly of her. A wonderful girl, so friendly. If she saw that someone was a bit down, she’d make them feel better right away.

  The Germans had been bombing our ravine since 5:00 P.M. I decided to try slipping through the firing line to get to our people. And I made it. There I discovered that Motya Gurina, a medic, had been wounded. The Germans had the area covered with mortar fire, and there were also airplanes and shelling. I’d nearly gotten to the last trenches. I could see a medic lying there. I crawled over and saw that it was Sofya. Her head was bandaged. She’d been shot in the head, no exit wound. Our sergeant major had tended to her. She’d been brought there from the front line. I don’t know how she made her way through the no-man’s-land.

  I asked her: “Sofya, what happened?” “Well, I got hit. Lost a lot of blood.” I said: “You’ve got to get to the ravine.” She said—and I’ll never forget it—“I know that life is there, but I’m not going.” I didn’t try to order her. I didn’t have the right to.