30. März 1942
| GEO & MIL INFO | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collective farm[1] | 
| |||
| 30–31: Close combat days acc. to pay book | ||||
30 Mar 42. Here we go again! The Russians are attacking from the collective farm![2] Crowds of Russians, widely dispersed, move towards us from the flank. Like a huge army of ants, they come down the snowy slope into the valley to grab the village from the left flank. Our artillery fires only spatteringly into these masses. The effect is nevertheless only slight because they are too far apart. The front rows of the attackers have already reached the large orchard that begins behind the gardens of the farmhouses. Although it is already beginning to dawn, the brown figures can be seen very clearly between the bare fruit trees on the white snow. Now they are still three hundred metres away. Then our machine guns start firing and hit the front rows. The first ones hit collapse and topple over in the snow. The Ivans are badly off. The thin fruit trees offer no protection, and the attackers who can't get through the plantation are even worse off. But even our machine gun rounds largely fizzle out in the snow because the gaps between the widely loosened clusters of attackers are too large. They are not even 200 metres away. Now our carbine and sub-machine gunners begin to intervene with well-aimed shots. Mortars blare in between. Then the attack slows down and comes to a standstill. They are pinned down. They begin to retreat. Suddenly they try another advance, but then they give up. The crackling of the infantry fire dies away. The wide slope lies still in the falling darkness. Only the black spots on the light snow are the silent witnesses of the failed mass attack.
Since the position of my machine gun was on the street, it could not take part in the defensive battle. However, I was able to observe everything.
Here, once again, a Russian way of fighting showed itself, which we had already experienced in the First World War: The Russian has an inexhaustible reservoir of men. He can therefore throw his masses of men into the enemy fire regardless of losses, and he does so with brutal ruthlessness. So he attacks in places with such masses that our ammunition is not enough to mow them all down (they were often literally mown down); or we cannot fight down as many as come rushing in. There are just too many, and so our positions are then overrun by the last remnants of the attackers. In this way, despite unimaginably high losses, they remain victorious in the end, at least sometimes. Perhaps this is one reason for their final victory: They were able to replace men and material (with vigorous American help!), but we were not. Although I still believe that we would have won the war against Russia if America had refrained from its massive support of Russia. America broke our neck, not the Soviet Union.
|
Editorial 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 Epilog Anhang |
|
January February March April May June July August September October November December Eine Art Bilanz Gedankensplitter und Betrachtungen Personen Orte Abkürzungen Stichwort-Index Organigramme Literatur Galerie:Fotos,Karten,Dokumente |
|
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. Erfahrungen i.d.Gefangenschaft Bemerkungen z.russ.Mentalität Träume i.d.Gefangenschaft Personen-Index Namen,Anschriften Personal I.R.477 1940–44 Übersichtskarte (Orte,Wege) Orts-Index Vormarsch-Weg Codenamen der Operationen im Sommer 1942 Mil.Rangordnung 257.Inf.Div. MG-Komp.eines Inf.Batl. Kgf.-Lagerorganisation Kriegstagebücher Allgemeines Zu einzelnen Zeitabschnitten Linkliste Rotkreuzkarte Originalmanuskript Briefe von Kompanie-Angehörigen |
- ↑ on map Russland 1:100.000 sheet M-37 111-112 “Sowchose No. 5”, in KTB 257. I.D. “Kolchos 5”; today the place is called Schabelkiwka
- ↑ in daily and next morning's reports (KTB 257. I.D., NARA T-315 Roll 1805 Frame 000693/94), but nothing in war diary proper (Roll 1804 Frame 000839/40)