by Japanese;Italian Experiences of WW II Reaping the Whirlwind: Personal Accounts of the German
OPENING THE RUSSIAN FRONT
Soon the British were fleeing back towards the Egyptian border.
On 22 June 1941 Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. By October, the 2nd Panzer Army was advancing on Odessa, where it was briefly held up by retreating Russians who were holding positions near a bridge. Captain Georg von Konrat was ordered to clear the road with three tanks – Sea Rose 1, 2 and 3 – and two armoured cars – Sea Rose 4 and 5. He decided to use an encircling manoeuvre through a forest.
We moved rapidly out through the trees and on to the field, immediately starting to pick up speed. At first, I could see nothing because of the smoke, but then, suddenly, we were through and into the open field, in sight of the Russian guns. Jochum, my driver, yelled: ‘We’re doing 55.’
‘See if you can make it 65,’ I roared back.
Two seconds later we made our first turn, shooting out to the left in an 80° twist and heading full tilt for the Russian guns. They were blasting at us non-stop, but before we could line up again we were off to the right and heading at an angle for the river. Then we went left again and back towards the turn-off. The Russians must have thought we had gone crazy or that we were trying to cut them off from their retreating forces. We made another sharp turn back towards the river and this time I jammed the lid of the turret shut – just in case one of those grenade throwers hit bull’s eye. If we had to go out, I didn’t want it to be over something as measly as that.
We turned left again, 55°, dodged towards the forest and then were off again on a right-hand tangent before the guns had a chance to aim. The Russians were going berserk. I had my periscope up and was watching them.
Two Russian 76mm infantry guns were set up at the end of the road where they could command the field. There were more heavy guns in the trees on the other side of the road.
Everything else was too well covered to be visible. But I had seen enough. I could have split my side watching their barrels turning frantically about. They were firing half blindly, sending out shell after shell in one continuous bombardment, but none even half-hopeful of aiming the right way.
But it was not just the Russians who were having a problem aiming:
Dita was having the same trouble and I could hear one unending stream of curses issuing from the gun turret.
Both sides were firing wildly when the Panzers closed in, so they dashed back and forth randomly so that the Russians could not work out any pattern.
Five seconds later, we were off again to the right and back towards the river. The Russians now had an old Katusha rocket launcher doing her bit, spraying the field with lollipops. The sky was a mass of exploding shells. I could see the infantry digging in ahead of the guns, so we charged them this time, machine-gunning and shelling madly. They dropped their spades with the first burst and went rushing back to the road and out of sight. I was grinning like a madman. I think we all were.
We careered off again, then right, then left, backwards, forwards, left, right, and off again. The tank heeled about wildly lurching off in another direction almost before it had regained its balance from the last zigzag. At times I thought we had been hit or lost our tracks, the way Jochum was throwing the poor tank around. My stomach felt turned inside out and I almost fainted with the sudden, violent jolts. I did not even dare to think what was going on in my lungs. Only the excitement kept me conscious …
The other Panzers charged in. But the Russian infantry were massing again:
I ordered my driver to race back towards them. Otherwise, they could jump on my other tanks and throw grenades down the turrets. ‘Right into them for 100m next turn,’ I yelled. Jochum didn’t answer. He didn’t have time to. With a sharper spin than ever to the left, the tank seemed to keel over. But it steadied itself on the edge and righted itself again. Now the gun turret was steady and Dita was grinning. He could shoot directly into the Russian gun positions, while our machine-guns cross-fired into infantry, sending them flying.
Von Konrat ordered the tank in again. This time Jochum seemed to lose control and overrun the road itself.
If the Russians weren’t laughing with glee, they were shivering in their boots. I could see men flying out and leaving their guns in all directions as our tanks roared down on them full tilt.
At the last minute, Jochum turned and the tank raced back off across the field to safety, leaving the Russian infantry positions shattered. However, the Russian guns were still firing at von Konrat’s other two tanks.
Ordering Jochum to spin round completely to the south, I threw open the lid of the turret and stuck my head out so I could see more clearly. At the same time, I clung onto the sides for grim death. The Russians had no idea what was happening out on the field any more. We hadn’t gone in, we hadn’t retreated. We had just played cat and mouse with them like kids at a Sunday school picnic …
He charged them again but, just as he was drawing level with Sea Rose 2, he saw the armoured car Sea Rose 4 ‘just one great roaring flame’.
Now we were completely surrounded by Russian guns and Dita had our gun turret turning to the left and right and firing continuously at everything. Sea Rose 2 came quickly back onto the main road and the three tanks moved down it in line, our machine-guns cross-spraying to keep the infantry off. We moved down towards the turn-off, gradually silencing every gun in the area. None of them was powerful enough to knock out a tank.
As they rolled on towards Odessa, all they saw was burning vehicles and infantrymen fleeing to the sea. But they were running out of ammunition.
It was becoming hard for me to think clearly. I felt sick – I felt lousy. All I wanted to do was to get the hell out of Russia, Odessa, and everything to do with it, and lie on a nice soft bed and sleep. Had we won the battle or not? And when the hell were the Das Reich boys going to arrive? If they didn’t get there soon, there just wouldn’t be any of us left.
I braced my body against the side of the tank and asked Dita how many shots we had left. ‘Another ten, that’s all,’ he told me. Sea Rose 3 had only another three salvos, so that settled it. None of us could afford to stay kicking around the highway any longer.
‘Sea Rose 3,’ I called. ‘You and I will speed right to the turn-off. Now or never or we will have to bluff it out. I’ll go in front spraying the right-hand side, and you follow about 20m behind spraying the left-hand side. Leave yourself one shot.
Meanwhile Sea Rose 2 was to head back to the forest to find out what had happened to Sea Rose 5.
While we were among them the Russians could not fire for fear of blowing each other up, so all they could do was scatter – all except for one Russian officer. We drove the tank straight at him but he did not budge. Alone on the empty road, he stood waiting unflinching for the moment when our tank would roll over him. I never felt so much for a Russian before. Just before we reached him, we turned and drove past him and down the bridge road. I did not look behind but I knew he would still be there. As soon as we turned, Dita swung his gun around and loosed off our final shell. Then we raced for the river at top speed.
By this time the infantry lines had re-formed:
They were positioned to the south-west in a half-moon arc, but there was not just one row. They were everywhere, like ants. Our low machine-gun was still intact and firing, so they shifted in a hurry. Then, to our right, we discovered an anti-tank gun facing the river. As they hadn’t fired they must think we were Russians. Cursing that we had used our last shell, we blasted at the men behind the gun with machine-gun fire. ‘Sea Rose 3?’ I called. ‘Have you still got that one shell?’
‘As ordered, yes.’
‘Then blast that darned gun out of existence.’
Sea Rose 2 then reported that it had found Sea Rose 5 ‘a red mass of fire’. Von Konrat concluded that it must have got ahead of the tanks, or that it had been caught by a gun they had missed – but he consoled himself with the thought that his men might have survived:
Maybe the boys had managed to get out and save themselve
s. But even if a quarter of the Russians in that arc of infantry had been anything like their officer who stood on the road, they would have eaten not only them, but all of us, steel and men.
When von Konrat returned to the German lines, he told his commanding officer of his high-speed attack across the field.
‘I saw that,’ said Major Horst, ‘and I nearly died laughing too. Those Ruskies must have used up half the ammunition in Odessa lighting up the sky like fairyland for you – while you did exhibition dancing underneath.’
Von Konrat agreed that it had been fun.
THE RUSSIAN WINTER
The Red Army surrendered in their hundreds of thousands, but then the Germans had to face Russia’s greatest soldier, ‘General Winter’. On the eastern front, infantry commander General Gustav Hoehne felt that his forces were ill-prepared:
Western Europeans will be hard put to imagine the masses of powdered snow that, during the most severe part of winter 1941–42, buried western Russia beneath a blanket averaging 1.2m in depth … During 1941–42 even Germans accustomed to the rigours of the eastern climate faced a situation in which all lessons of the eastern winters of World War I, and all experiences gained in the bitter East Prussian winters were useless.
During January 1942 the Russians had succeeded in encircling a German force of about seven divisions that had its easternmost elements on the high ground around Valdai. Thrusting south along both banks of the Lovat River (a tributary of Lake Ilmen), the Soviets had established themselves between Staraya Russa and Koholm. The solidly frozen Lovat served the Russians as a road. During the winter, frozen rivers are the best roads in Russia … The deep snows protected the encircled German troops around Demyansk from annihilation. Even the Russian infantry were unable to launch an attack through those snows. Russian ski troops got nowhere. The Germans were supplied by the Luftwaffe. This means of supply, however, proved inadequate and, starting late in February, German forces assembled west of Staraya Russa to relieve the encircled forces at Demyansk.
The movement was effected by rail. The transport I travelled on arrived at Volot, about 30km west of Staraya Russa, on a clear winter afternoon. We could feel the cold, which was intense but not too unpleasant. Yet, all of a sudden, the men noticed the symptoms of frostbite on each other’s face. The mercury registered –35°C. While detraining, the sun went down; before complete darkness set in the sky turned a deep blue, like blue-black ink, and poured its colour over the virgin snow. With the disappearance of the sun a light breeze started up, hardly noticeable but incessant … Paths for sleighs and vehicles were laboriously shovelled through the snowfields, only to have long stretches buried again within a matter of hours by the evening wind. To make matters worse, we no sooner had detrained than marching troops and supply columns caused traffic jams. All of which adds up to the following lesson: prior to detraining large troop units, a detailed map of winter roads must be procured, for even the primitive Russian road network cannot be kept altogether clear of snow … The winter roads frequently do not follow the course of regular streets and roads.
The countryside was only sparsely settled; one must remember that the Russian peasant usually owns a single house rather than a group of farm buildings. Billets therefore became so scarce that troops had to be quartered even in houses occupied by Russian civilians. Their eviction would have meant certain death in that temperature. The German soldier did not do such things. The upshot was numerous cases of typhus, a disease transmitted by lice. Lice are found in many Russian homes.
Despite the weather, the Germans fought on. Two divisions of German riflemen, supported by twenty tanks and assault guns, were to attack across enemy-held territory in an attempt to reach the westernmost salient of the encircled German troops. Hoehne was with them:
The southern division had to traverse more than 2km of snow-blanketed plain, offering no cover whatever, in order to reach the enemy lines. That feat would have required hours, and merely the job of struggling through the powdery snow would have drained the infantrymen of all their physical strength. An attack conducted in this manner held no prospect of success, even if it were aimed at weak enemy forces. Tanks, for that matter, were likewise unable to manoeuvre in the powdery snow.
A page was therefore borrowed from the way the Russians had cut off Demyansk in their attack up the Lovat River. It was decided to launch an attack from the north, up the frozen Polizt River …
Conditions were more favourable for the division to the north. It had to aim at reaching two points that marked the beginning of Russian winter roads … Even in Germany the surfaces of heavily travelled roads occasionally crack, once the thaw follows a severe winter. The phenomenon is caused by the fact that heavy traffic deprives a road of the snow blanket that otherwise would protect it from the cold. The Russians close improved [paved] roads as soon as the winter freeze sets in and establish winter roads either alongside the regular right of way or simply straight through the countryside.
Snow was compressed by tanks, and water was poured on to give the road a smooth surface of ice. Snow fences also had to be built to stop the wind drifting snow across the road. There were other difficulties:
The infantry was equipped as follows: cotton-padded winter uniform (which unfortunately had not yet been available at the beginning of 1942); felt boots; and two small hand sleds per squad, loaded with blankets, two shelter halves per man, some dry wood and some boughs. In addition, each platoon had two small trench stoves … Platoon tents were pitched; dug into the snow, they did not protrude above its surface. The floors of the tents were covered with boughs, over which the second shelter halves were spread for protection from the cold ground. A stove was set up at each end of every tent, and fires were started. The temperature in the tents was not uncomfortable … The pack animals were simply sheltered in pits dug into the snow alongside the winter roads. So long as the animals are protected from the wind, they can withstand temperatures even below –30°C … In the deep snow of the winter in question, any calibre smaller than 150mm was completely ineffective because the snow stopped the shell fragments. This was particularly true of mortar shells … Contrary to expectations, the mountain howitzer of the Jäger [Rifle] divisions proved to be highly effective, even though its calibre was only 75mm. By a great stroke of luck, eight per cent of the ammunition brought up for these pieces were armed with combination fuses. Most of the field fortifications which the Russian infantry had built into the snow were not splinterproof.
After one attack in February failed, Hoehne and his men tried again:
On the clear, frosty morning of 21 March the two divisions of Group Seydlitz went over to the attack. According to plan, the right division succeeded in cleaning out the stubbornly defended southern part of Ivanovskoye and rolled up the enemy positions west and east of the Polizt.
Then things began to go wrong:
Because of the dense underbrush the snow was so deep that the forest could not be used as flank protection … Enemy nests of resistance that had formed around battery positions could not be eliminated in the deep snow. Partly sparse and partly dense shrubbery, low in height and in most instances as thick as a man’s finger, had permitted the snow to pile up so high that the infantry sank into it up to their armpits. Without very thorough and careful artillery preparation, a continuation of the attack was out of the question. Aviation could not be used because of the difficulty in recognizing the front lines, nor could tanks be committed, since the Russians had failed to build a winter road to Invanovskoye from the east …
A winter road in the direction of the Russian battery positions was begun at once. The entire engineer battalion, a sizeable unit to start with, was reinforced by approximately one thousand men for the purposes of this project. Nevertheless, building the winter road took almost twenty-four hours …
The left division likewise effected the penetration into the enemy position according to plan. After enemy resistance had been broken, the attack towards the east was contin
ued at once … The left regimental combat team thrust almost to the Staraya Russa–Ramsuhevo highway, but could not get possession of it. Here the attack stopped dead in its tracks. The right combat team pushed far beyond the enemy position … In the forest east of Svinushovo the attack slowed down because of the deeper snow and the increased enemy resistance … In hard fighting the combat team reached a point about halfway between Svinushovo and Bol’gorby. The woods, however, became more and more dense, so that on 23 March this attack also bogged down.
The failure of a Russian counterattack – they were little better than the Germans at manoeuvring in snow – allowed the German offensive to resume. Now it was a race to advance down the winter roads before the thaw set in.
On 4 April the mercury began to rise and the daytime registered temperatures above freezing. As a result, the infantry had much more easy going in the snow. Nevertheless, the onset of the thaw was one of the reasons for the failure of the attack. The few, largely obsolescent German tanks had become damaged and were out of action. Russian armour, on the other hand, began to move now that the snow had hardened somewhat. German anti-tank artillery could not be set up. For that, the snow was still too deep.
After a week, the attack had to be called off. The Russians counterattacked, moving through the forest where not even their tanks could be spotted by German bombers.
Winter warfare in Russia requires heavy tanks, like the German Tiger, that can move through the deepest snow. Under those conditions the tank is superior to the assault gun, because the tank’s artillery piece is farther off the ground and can be rotated with the turret above the level of the snow …
But spring was on its way, and improving weather conditions favoured the Germans. They took the village of Vazvy, but the battle was far from over.