Stories of German soldiers about Russians. Russian soldiers through the eyes of the Germans
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"Soldiers of the Red Army shot, even burning alive"
Letters from German soldiers and officers from the Eastern Front as a cure for the Fuhrer
June 22 in our country is a sacred, sacred day. The beginning of the Great War is the beginning of the path to the great Victory. History knows no more massive feat. But also more bloody, more expensive in its price - perhaps too (we have already published terrible pages from Ales Adamovich and Daniil Granin, stunning frankness of the front-line soldier Nikolai Nikulin, excerpts from Viktor Astafyev "Cursed and Killed"). At the same time, along with inhumanity, military training, courage and self-sacrifice triumphed, thanks to which the outcome of the battle of the peoples was a foregone conclusion in its very first hours. This is evidenced by fragments of letters and reports of soldiers and officers of the German armed forces from the Eastern Front.
"The very first attack turned into a life-and-death battle"
“My commander was twice my age, and he already had to fight the Russians near Narva in 1917, when he was in the rank of lieutenant. "Here, in these endless expanses, we will find our death, like Napoleon," - he did not hide his pessimism ... - Mende, remember this hour, it marks the end of the former Germany "" (Erich Mende, chief lieutenant of the 8th Silesian infantry division about the conversation that took place in the last minutes of peace on June 22, 1941).
“When we entered the first battle with the Russians, they obviously did not expect us, but they could not be called unprepared either” (Alfred Dürwanger, lieutenant, commander of the anti-tank company of the 28th Infantry Division).
"The quality level of Soviet pilots is much higher than expected ... Fierce resistance, its massive nature do not correspond to our initial assumptions" (diary of Hoffmann von Waldau, Major General, Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe Command, June 31, 1941).
"On the Eastern Front, I met people who can be called a special race."
“On the very first day, as soon as we went on the attack, as one of ours shot himself from his own weapon. Clutching the rifle between his knees, he inserted the barrel into his mouth and pulled the trigger. This is how the war and all the horrors associated with it ended for him ”(anti-tank gunner Johann Danzer, Brest, June 22, 1941).
“On the Eastern Front, I met people who could be called a special race. The very first attack turned into a life-and-death battle ”(Hans Becker, tanker of the 12th Panzer Division).
“The losses are terrible, they cannot be compared with those that were in France ... Today the road is ours, tomorrow the Russians will take it, then again we and so on ... I have never seen anyone more angry than these Russians. Real chain dogs! You never know what to expect from them ”(diary of a soldier of Army Group Center, August 20, 1941).
“You can never say in advance what a Russian will do: as a rule, he rushes from one extreme to another. His nature is as unusual and complex as this huge and incomprehensible country itself ... Sometimes the Russian infantry battalions were confused after the very first shots, and the next day the same units fought with fanatical stamina ... Russian as a whole is certainly excellent soldier and with skillful leadership is a dangerous enemy "(Mellenthin Friedrich von Wilhelm, Major General of Tank Forces, Chief of Staff of the 48th Panzer Corps, later Chief of Staff of the 4th Panzer Army).
"I have never seen anyone more angry than these Russians. Real chain dogs!"
“During the attack, we stumbled upon a light Russian T-26 tank, we immediately snapped it straight out of 37-millimeter paper. As we approached, a Russian leaned out of the hatch of the tower and opened fire at us with a pistol. It soon became clear that he was without legs, they were torn off to him when the tank was hit. And, despite this, he fired at us with a pistol! " (memoirs of an anti-tank gunner about the first hours of the war).
“You just can't believe it until you see it with your own eyes. The soldiers of the Red Army, even burning alive, continued to shoot from the blazing houses "(from a letter from an infantry officer of the 7th Panzer Division about battles in a village near the Lama River, mid-November 1941).
“… Inside the tank lay the bodies of the brave crew, who had only been wounded before. Deeply shocked by this heroism, we buried them with all military honors. They fought to their last breath, but it was just one small drama of the great war "(Erhard Raus, colonel, commander of the Kampfgroup" Raus "about the KV-1 tank, which shot and crushed a column of trucks and tanks and an artillery battery of the Germans; a total of 4 Soviet the tankers held back the advance of the battle group "Raus", about half of the division, for two days, June 24 and 25).
“July 17, 1941 ... In the evening, an unknown Russian soldier was buried [we are talking about 19-year-old senior artillery sergeant Nikolai Sirotinin]. He alone stood at the cannon, shot a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone was amazed at his courage ... Oberst before the grave said that if all the soldiers of the Fuehrer fought like this Russian, we would have conquered the whole world. Three times they fired volleys from rifles. After all, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary? " (diary of Chief Lieutenant of the 4th Panzer Division Henfeld).
"If all the soldiers of the Fuehrer fought like this Russian, we would have conquered the whole world."
“We hardly took any prisoners, because the Russians always fought to the last soldier. They didn't give up. Their hardening cannot be compared with ours ... "(interview to war correspondent Curizio Malaparte (Zukkert) of an officer of a tank unit of Army Group Center).
“Russians have always been famous for their contempt for death; the communist regime has further developed this quality, and now massive Russian attacks are more effective than ever before. The twice undertaken attack will be repeated for the third and fourth time, regardless of the losses incurred, and the third and fourth attacks will be carried out with the same stubbornness and composure ... They did not retreat, but irresistibly rushed forward "(Mellenthin Friedrich von Wilhelm, General major of tank forces, chief of staff of the 48th tank corps, later chief of staff of the 4th tank army, participant in the Stalingrad and Kursk battles).
"I'm so furious, but I've never been so helpless."
In turn, the Red Army and the inhabitants of the occupied territories faced at the beginning of the war with a well-prepared - and psychologically also - invader.
"25-th of August. We throw hand grenades at residential buildings. Houses burn very quickly. The fire is thrown to other huts. A beautiful sight! People cry, and we laugh at tears. We have already burned ten villages in this way (diary of Chief Corporal Johannes Herder). “September 29, 1941 ... Feldwebel shot each in the head. One woman begged to be spared her life, but she was also killed. I am amazed at myself - I can look at these things quite calmly ... Without changing my expression, I watched the sergeant-major shoot Russian women. I even felt some pleasure in doing so ... ”(Diary of a non-commissioned officer of the 35th Rifle Regiment Heinz Klin).
“I, Heinrich Tivel, set myself the goal of exterminating 250 Russians, Jews, Ukrainians, all without discrimination during this war. If each soldier kills the same number, we will destroy Russia in one month, everything will go to us, the Germans. I, following the call of the Fuehrer, call on all Germans to this goal ... ”(soldier's notebook, October 29, 1941).
"I can quite calmly look at these things. I even feel some pleasure in doing so."
The mood of the German soldier, like a backbone to the beast, was broken by the Battle of Stalingrad: the total losses of the enemy in killed, wounded, captured and missing amounted to about 1.5 million people. Self-confident treachery was replaced by despair, similar to that which accompanied the Red Army in the first months of the fighting. When Berlin decided to print letters from the Stalingrad front for propaganda purposes, it turned out that out of seven bags of correspondence, only 2% contained approving statements about the war, in 60% of the letters the soldiers called to fight rejected the massacre. In the trenches of Stalingrad, a German soldier, very often briefly, shortly before his death, returned from a zombie state to a conscious, human one. It can be said that the war as a confrontation between equal-sized troops was ended here, in Stalingrad, primarily because here, on the Volga, the pillars of the soldier's faith in the infallibility and omnipotence of the Fuhrer collapsed. So - in this is the justice of history - happens to almost every Fuhrer.
“From this morning I know what awaits us, and it became easier for me, that's why I want to free you from the torment of the unknown. When I saw the map, I was horrified. We are completely abandoned without any outside help. Hitler left us surrounded. And this letter will be sent in the event that our airfield has not yet been captured. "
“At home, some people will rub their hands - they managed to preserve their warm places, but pathetic words will appear in the newspapers, surrounded by a black frame: eternal memory of the heroes. But don't be fooled by that. I am so furious that it seems that everything around me would be destroyed, but I have never been so helpless. "
“People are dying of hunger, fierce cold, death here is just a biological fact, like food and drink. They die like flies, and no one cares about them, and no one bury them. Without arms, without legs, without eyes, with torn bellies, they are lying everywhere. It is necessary to make a film about this in order to destroy the legend of "a beautiful death" forever. This is just a bestial gasp, but someday it will be lifted on granite pedestals and ennobled in the form of “dying warriors” with their heads and hands tied with a bandage.
"Novels will be written, hymns and chants will be heard. Mass will be served in the churches. But I've had enough."
Novels will be written, hymns and chants will sound. Mass will be served in the churches. But that's enough for me, I don't want my bones to rot in a mass grave. Do not be surprised if for some time there is no news from me, because I have firmly decided to become the master of my own destiny. "
“Well, now you know that I will not return. Please report this to our parents as carefully as possible. I'm in deep confusion. Before I believed and therefore I was strong, but now I don't believe in anything and I am very weak. I don’t know much of what is happening here, but even the little that I have to participate in is already so much that I cannot cope. No, no one will convince me that they are dying here with the words "Germany" or "Heil Hitler". Yes, they die here, no one will deny this, but the dying say their last words to their mother or to the one they love most, or is it just a cry for help. I saw hundreds of people dying, many of them, like me, were in the Hitler Youth, but if they could still scream, they were cries for help, or they called someone who could not help them. "
“I was looking for God in every crater, in every ruined house, in every corner, in every comrade, when I was lying in my trench, I also looked in the sky. But God did not show himself, although my heart cried out to him. Houses were destroyed, comrades were brave or cowardly, like me, hunger and death on earth, and bombs and fire from heaven, only God was nowhere. No, father, God does not exist, or you only have him, in your psalms and prayers, in the sermons of priests and pastors, in the ringing of bells, in the smell of incense, but in Stalingrad he is not ... I no longer believe in the kindness of God, otherwise he would never have tolerated such a terrible injustice. I no longer believe in this, for God would clarify the heads of the people who started this war, while they themselves spoke about peace in three languages. I no longer believe in God, he betrayed us, and now see for yourself how you are to be with your faith. "
"Ten years ago it was about voting ballots, now you have to pay for it with such a" trifle "as life"
“For every reasonable person in Germany the time will come when he will curse the madness of this war, and you will understand how empty your words were about the banner with which I must win. There is no victory, Mr. General, there are only banners and people who perish, and in the end there will be neither banners nor people. Stalingrad is not a military necessity, but a political madness. And in this experiment, your son, Mr. General, will not participate! You block his path to life, but he will choose a different path for himself - in the opposite direction, which also leads to life, but on the other side of the front. Think about your words, I hope that when everything collapses, you remember the banner and stand up for it. "
“Liberation of peoples, what nonsense! The peoples will remain the same, only the power will change, and those who stand aside will again and again assert that the people must be liberated from it. In 32nd it was still possible to do something, you know that very well. And you also know that the moment was lost. Ten years ago it was about voting ballots, but now you have to pay for it with such a “trifle” as life. "
The diary of Helmut Pabst tells about three winter and two summer periods of fierce battles of Army Group Center, advancing eastward in the direction of Bialystok - Minsk - Smolensk - Moscow. You will learn how the war was perceived not only by a soldier performing his duty, but by a person who sincerely sympathized with the Russians and showed complete disgust for Nazi ideology.
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Here, in Stalingrad, it was before Christmas 1942. On November 19 - 20 we were surrounded, the boiler closed. The first two days we laughed at this: "The Russians surrounded us, ha ha!" But it quickly became clear to us that this was very serious.
I was on guard when it got light, at about six or seven in the morning, one comrade came in and said: "Drop your weapons and get out, we surrender to the Russians." We went outside, there were three or four Russians, we dropped our carbines and unfastened our bags of ammunition. We didn't try to resist. So we ended up in captivity. The Russians in Red Square collected 400 or 500 prisoners.
The first thing the Russian soldiers asked was "Uri est"? Uri est "?" (Uhr - clock) I had a pocket watch, and a Russian soldier gave me a loaf of German soldier's black bread for it. A whole loaf I haven't seen in weeks! And I told him, with my youthful frivolity, that watches are more expensive. Then he jumped into a German truck, jumped out, and gave me another piece of bacon. Then we were lined up, a Mongol soldier came up to me and took my bread and bacon. We were warned that whoever fails will be immediately shot. And then, ten meters away from me, I saw the Russian soldier who gave me bread and bacon. I got out of line and rushed to him. The convoy shouted: "nazad, nazad" and I had to return to duty. This Russian approached me, and I explained to him that this Mongolian thief had taken my bread and bacon. He went to this Mongol, took his bread and lard, gave him a slap, and brought the food back to me
To answer
The first six months of captivity were hell, which was worse than the cauldron. Then many of the 100,000 prisoners of Stalingrad died. On January 31, the first day of captivity, we marched from southern Stalingrad to Beketovka. They collected about 30 thousand prisoners. There we were loaded onto freight wagons, a hundred people per wagon. On the right side of the car there were bunks for 50 people, in the center of the car there was a hole instead of a toilet, on the left there were bunks too. We were driven for 23 days, from February 9th to April 2nd. Six of us got out of the car. The rest died. Some wagons died out completely, in some there were ten to twenty people. What was the cause of death? We weren't starving - we didn't have water. All died of thirst. This was the planned extermination of German prisoners of war. The head of our transport was a Jew, what was expected of him? It was the worst thing that I have experienced in my life.
To answer
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From there, from Uzbekistan, the sick were sent to the infirmary, and the so-called healthy ones were sent to a labor camp. We were in Uzbekistan in rice and cotton fields, the norm was not very high, it was possible to live. After that, they began to treat us in a human way, I would say so. There, too, some died, but in general, we were treated like human beings.
Once in Orsk we were taken to a banja, in an open truck in a 30-degree frost. I had old shoes, and handkerchiefs were wound in place of socks. Three Russian mothers were sitting at the bathhouse, one of them walked past me and dropped something. These were German soldiers' socks, washed and darned. Do you understand what she did for me?
Once we got a tetanus shot. In the Wehrmacht, vaccinations were done in the front, and in Russia under the shoulder blade. The doctor had two 20-cube syringes that he filled in turn and one needle with which he injected all 1,700 people. The doctor gave all of us, 1,700 people, vaccinations. He had two syringes, which he filled in turn, 20 cubes, and one needle with which he pricked all of us. I was one of three who got the injection inflamed. Such things cannot be forgotten!
On August 23, 1945, I was at home - the first to return home from Russia. I weighed 44 kilograms - I had dystrophy. Here in Germany we have become criminals. In all countries, in Russia, in France, soldiers are heroes, and only we, in Germany, are criminals. When we were in Russia in 2006, Russian veterans hugged us. They said: "There was a war, we fought, and today we drink together, and that's good!" And in Germany we are still criminals ... In the GDR I had no right to write my memoirs. Three times at the enterprise they worked on me, asked to think that I was talking about captivity. They said: "You cannot tell such things about the Soviet Union, our friend."
All my photos were burned. I photographed during the war, sent films home, they developed them there. They were at my house. Our village was in neutral territory between the Americans, the Russians and the hordes of the SS, the Germans. On April 19, 1945, two Americans were killed at the entrance to the village. The entire village, 26 houses, were burned by the Americans along with the residents with incendiary shells. The house burned down, the photographs also burned down, I have not a single photograph left from the war.
To answer
The Russian soldiers were having lunch. They ate pasta from huge bowls. Apparently, we looked with such hungry eyes that they offered us to eat what was left. I could not believe it! Some of them also gave us their spoons! From that moment on, they never beat me, never scolded me, I never slept in the open air, I always had a roof over my head. On the first evening we were placed in an empty warehouse. We were sitting at the table when a Russian soldier came and brought sausage rings, some bread and beef on his hand. But I had no appetite, and I ate almost nothing, because I thought that in the morning we would certainly be shot. Propaganda inspired it to me! If I live any longer, I will describe this time, because I hear over and over again about how awful the Russians were, what Russian pigs were, and what great guys the Americans were. It was hard in captivity. There were different camps. There were those in which 30 percent of the prisoners died ... On the day the war ended, I was in a camp on the Polish border, in Landsberg. It was an exemplary camp: very good facilities, toilets, bathrooms, a red corner. Only the cabaret was missing! In the camp, they gathered transport to the east. On May 8, we were supposed to be loaded onto a train, but we remained in the camp until May 10, because the camp commandant did not release anyone. After all, on May 9, the Russians celebrated Victory Day and could shoot us all drunk in joy! There is a nursing home not far from here, there lives one person who was in American captivity on the Rhine, he spent from May to October in the open air. One of their comrades had pneumonia, so they just gave him a board on which he could sleep in the open air. When the war ended, drunken Americans fired machine guns at him, killing dozens of people. One comrade who was in Russian captivity told me that they wanted to cut off his leg because he had inflammation. The doctor told him: “Alfred, when the commission comes, I will lock you in the pantry. We will restore the leg with folk remedies. ”And he still has a leg! The doctor addressed him by name! Can you imagine a German doctor addressing a Russian prisoner by name? In 1941, about one million Russian prisoners of war died in German captivity from hunger and thirst ... I always say that we were treated differently than we were with Russian prisoners of war. Of course we were told "faschist" and "Gitler kaput", but that doesn't count. The Russian administration, it is absolutely obvious, made efforts to save the lives of the prisoners.
To answer
There was a camp commandant, there was a convoy that guarded us at work, there was a camp guard. There were camps in which the German administration mistreated their comrades. But I was lucky, I didn't have that. In Izhevsk, the Russian administration was normal, and so was the German one. There was a Russian senior lieutenant, when a prisoner greeted him, he also saluted him. Can you imagine a German chief lieutenant saluting a Russian prisoner? I spoke a little Russian and was one of the most intelligent - all the time I tried to find a common language with the master. This greatly simplified life. In the fall of 1946, a large party of prisoners was transported to a camp in the Urals, in Karinsk. This was the best camp. It was inhabited only in October, before that it was empty and there were supplies of food: cabbage and potatoes. There was a house of culture, a theater, and Russian soldiers with their wives went there. In the morning the doctor stood at the gate and carefully watched that the prisoners were dressed in winter clothes.
To answer
At the end of November 1949. On my birthday, I turned 23, the train came. Booms! We are already on the train home, but the train did not move. Do you know why? A Russian officer came to check whether everything was in order, food, heating, and noticed that we were wearing only thin work trousers, although it was already November, and from October 1 we were to receive wadded trousers. And so we waited until the truck brought 600 pairs of cotton trousers from the warehouse. I must say that it was a very disturbing expectation. For the last two days we have been checking the mailing lists and crossing out some of them. When we were already on the train, one of my friends was called off the train. He just said: "Oh my God!", Deciding that he was deleted. He went to the commandant's office and 10 minutes later came back jubilant, raised his hand, showed a gold wedding ring, and said that the administration had returned the ring to him, which he handed over as a valuable thing. Nobody in Germany believes this, it doesn't fit the stereotype of Russian captivity.
Memories of a German soldier Helmut Klaussmann, corporal of the 111th infantry division
Combat path
I began serving in June 1941. But then I was not really a military man. We were called auxiliary units, and until November, as a driver, I traveled in the Vyazma-Gzhatsk-Orsha triangle. There were Germans and Russian defectors in our unit. They worked as loaders. We transported ammunition, food.
In general, there were defectors from both sides, and throughout the war. Russian soldiers ran over to us after Kursk. And our soldiers ran across to the Russians. I remember that near Taganrog two soldiers were on guard and went to the Russians, and a few days later, we heard their appeal over the radio with a call to surrender. I think that usually the defectors were soldiers who just wanted to stay alive. They usually ran across before big battles, when the risk of dying in the attack overpowered the feeling of fear of the enemy. Few people ran over their convictions to us and from us. It was such an attempt to survive in this huge carnage. We hoped that after interrogations and checks you would be sent somewhere to the rear, away from the front. And there life will be formed somehow.
Then I was sent to a training garrison near Magdeburg in a non-commissioned officer school, and after it and in the spring of 1942 I ended up serving in the 111th Infantry Division near Taganrog. I was a small commander. But he did not make a great military career. In the Russian army, my rank corresponded to the rank of sergeant. We held back the attack on Rostov. Then we were transferred to the North Caucasus, then I was wounded, and after being wounded on an airplane, I was transferred to Sevastopol. And there our division was almost completely destroyed. In 1943, near Taganrog, I was wounded. I was sent to Germany for treatment, and after five months I returned to my company. In the German army there was a tradition - to return the wounded to their unit and almost until the very end of the war it was like that. I fought the whole war in one division. I think this was one of the main secrets of the stamina of the German units. In the company we lived as one family. Everyone was in front of each other, everyone knew each other well and could trust each other, rely on each other.
Once a year, a soldier was entitled to leave, but after the fall of 1943, it all became fiction. And to leave your unit could only be wounded or in a coffin.
The dead were buried in different ways. If there was time and opportunity, then each was entitled to a separate grave and a simple coffin. But if the battles were heavy and we retreated, then we buried the dead somehow. In ordinary funnels from under the shells, wrapped in a cloak, or tarpaulin. In such a pit, as many people were buried at a time, how many died in this battle and could fit in it. Well, if they fled, then there was no time for the dead.
Our division was part of the 29th army corps and together with the 16th (it seems!) Motorized division made up the army group "Reknage". We were all part of Army Group South Ukraine.
As we have seen the reasons for the war. German propaganda.
At the beginning of the war, the main propaganda thesis, in which we believed, was the thesis that Russia was preparing to violate the treaty and attack Germany first. But we just happened to be faster. Many then believed in this and were proud that they were ahead of Stalin. There were special front-line newspapers in which they wrote a lot about this. We read them, listened to the officers and believed in it.
But then, when we found ourselves deep in Russia and saw that there was no military victory, and that we were bogged down in this war, disappointment arose. In addition, we already knew a lot about the Red Army, there were a lot of prisoners, and we knew that the Russians themselves were afraid of our attack and did not want to give a reason for war. Then the propaganda began to say that now we can no longer retreat, otherwise the Russians will break into the Reich on our shoulders. And we must fight here to ensure the conditions for a world worthy of Germany. Many expected that in the summer of 1942, Stalin and Hitler would make peace. It was naive, but we believed it. They believed that Stalin would make peace with Hitler, and together they would start fighting against Britain and the United States. It was naive, but the soldier wanted to believe.
There were no strict requirements for propaganda. Nobody forced to read books and brochures. I still haven't read Mine Camph. But they followed the morale strictly. It was not allowed to conduct "defeatist talk" and write "defeatist letters". This was followed by a special "propaganda officer". They appeared in the army immediately after Stalingrad. We joked among ourselves and called them "commissars." But every month it got harder. Once in our division they shot a soldier who wrote home a "defeatist letter" in which he scolded Hitler. And after the war, I learned that during the war years, for such letters several thousand soldiers and officers were shot! One of our officers was demoted to the rank and file for "defeatist talk." Particularly feared by the members of the NSDAP. They were considered snitches because they were very fanatical and could always file a report on you on command. There weren't very many of them, but they were almost always distrusted.
The attitude to the local population, Russians, Belarusians was reserved and mistrustful, but without hatred. We were told that we must defeat Stalin, that our enemy is Bolshevism. But, in general, the attitude towards the local population was correctly called “colonial”. We looked at them in 41st as a future labor force, as in the territories that would become our colonies.
The Ukrainians were treated better. Because the Ukrainians greeted us very warmly. Almost like liberators. Ukrainian girls easily had romances with Germans. This was rare in Belarus and Russia.
There were also contacts at the normal human level. In the North Caucasus, I was friends with Azerbaijanis, who served as auxiliary volunteers (khivi) with us. In addition to them, Circassians and Georgians served in the division. They often cooked shashliks and other Caucasian dishes. I still love this cuisine very much. From the beginning they were taken a little. But after Stalingrad there were more and more of them every year. And by the 44th year they were a separate large auxiliary unit in the regiment, but they were commanded by a German officer. We called them "Schwarze" behind their backs - black (;-))))
They explained to us that we should treat them as comrades in arms, that they were our assistants. But a certain distrust of them, of course, remained. They were used only as support soldiers. They were less armed and equipped.
Sometimes I also talked with local people. I went to visit some. Usually to those who collaborated with us or worked for us.
I have not seen the partisans. I heard a lot about them, but where I served they were not. There were almost no partisans in Smolensk until November 41.
By the end of the war, the attitude towards the local population became indifferent. He seemed not to be. We did not notice him. We had no time for them. We came and took a position. In the best case, the commander could tell the locals to get out of the way, because there would be a fight here. We had no time for them. We knew we were retreating. That all this is no longer ours. Nobody thought about them ...
About weapons.
The main weapon of the company was machine guns. There were 4 of them in the company. It was a very powerful and rapid-fire weapon. They helped us a lot. The infantryman's main weapon was a carbine. He was respected more than a machine gun. He was called "the soldier's bride." He was long-range and good at penetrating defense. The machine was only good in close combat. The company had about 15 to 20 machine guns. We tried to get a Russian PPSh machine gun. It was called the "little machine gun". The disc seemed to contain 72 rounds and with good care it was a very formidable weapon. There were also grenades and small mortars.
There were also sniper rifles. But not everywhere. I was given a Simonov sniper rifle near Sevastopol. It was a very accurate and powerful weapon. In general, Russian weapons were valued for their simplicity and reliability. But it was very poorly protected against corrosion and rust. Our weapons were better processed.
Artillery
The Russian artillery was definitely superior to the German one. Russian units have always had good artillery cover. All Russian attacks were under heavy artillery fire. The Russians very skillfully maneuvered fire, knew how to masterfully focus it. They perfectly camouflaged artillery. Tankers often complained that you would see a Russian cannon only when it had already fired at you. In general, one had to visit Russian shelling once to understand what Russian artillery is. Of course, a very powerful weapon was the "Stalin organ" - rocket launchers. Especially when the Russians used incendiary shells. They burned whole hectares to ashes.
About Russian tanks.
We were told a lot about the T-34. That this is a very powerful and well-armed tank. I first saw the T-34 near Taganrog. Two of my comrades were assigned to the forward patrol trench. At first I was assigned with one of them, but his friend asked me to go with him instead. The commander gave permission. And in the afternoon, two Russian T-34 tanks left in front of our positions. First, they fired at us from the cannons, and then, apparently noticing the forward trench, they went to it and there one tank just turned around on it several times and buried both of them alive. Then they left.
I was lucky that I hardly met Russian tanks. There were few of them on our sector of the front. In general, we, infantrymen, have always had a fear of tanks in front of Russian tanks. This is clear. After all, we were almost always unarmed in front of these armored monsters. And if there was no artillery behind, then the tanks did whatever they wanted with us.
About stormtroopers.
We called them "Rusishe piece". At the beginning of the war, we saw few of them. But by the 43rd year they began to annoy us very much. It was a very dangerous weapon. Especially for the infantry. They flew right over their heads and poured fire on us from their cannons. Usually Russian attack aircraft made three passes. First, they threw bombs at artillery positions, anti-aircraft guns or dugouts. Then they fired rockets, and on the third approach they turned around along the trenches and killed everything alive in them from the cannons. The shell that exploded in the trench had the power of a fragmentation grenade and gave a lot of fragments. It was especially depressing, then, it was almost impossible to shoot down a Russian attack aircraft from small arms, although it flew very low.
About night bombers
On-2 I heard. But he personally did not come across them. They flew at night and threw small bombs and grenades very accurately. But it was more of a psychological weapon than an effective combat weapon.
But in general, the Russian aviation was, in my opinion, rather weak almost until the very end of 1943. Apart from the attack aircraft, which I have already mentioned, we hardly saw any Russian planes. The Russians bombed little and not exactly. And in the rear we felt completely calm.
Study.
At the beginning of the war, the soldiers were trained well. There were special training shelves. The strength of the training was that the soldier tried to develop a sense of self-confidence, reasonable initiative. But there was a lot of pointless drill. I think this is a minus of the German military school. Too many pointless drills. But after the 43rd year, teaching became worse and worse. Less time was given to study and fewer resources. And in the 44th year, soldiers began to come, who did not even really know how to shoot, but they marched well for that, because they almost did not give cartridges for shooting, but the front sergeant-major with them was engaged from morning to evening. The training of officers has also become worse. They already knew nothing but defense and knew nothing but how to dig trenches correctly. They only managed to cultivate loyalty to the Fuhrer and blind obedience to senior commanders.
Food. Supply.
They fed well on the front lines. But during the battles it was rarely hotter. Mostly they ate canned food.
Usually coffee, bread, butter (if any) sausage or canned ham was given in the morning. For lunch - soup, potatoes with meat or lard. For dinner, porridge, bread, coffee. But often some products were not available. And instead they could give cookies or, for example, a can of sardines. If a part was taken to the rear, then the food became very scarce. Almost hungry. Everyone ate the same. Both officers and soldiers ate the same food. I don’t know about generals - I didn’t see them, but everyone in the regiment ate the same. The diet was shared. But you could only eat in your own unit. If for some reason you found yourself in another company or unit, then you could not dine in their dining room. That was the law. Therefore, when leaving, they were supposed to receive rations. But the Romanians had as many as four kitchens. One is for the soldiers. The other is for the sergeants. The third is for officers. And each senior officer, a colonel and above, had his own cook, who cooked for him separately. The Romanian army was the most demoralized. The soldiers hated their officers. And the officers despised their soldiers. Romanians often traded in arms. So our "blacks" ("hivi") began to have good weapons. Pistols and machine guns. It turned out that they bought it for food and stamps from the Romanian neighbors ...
About SS
The attitude towards the SS was ambiguous. On the one hand, they were very tough soldiers. They were better armed, better equipped, better fed. If they stood side by side, then there was no need to fear for their flanks. But on the other hand, they were somewhat condescending to the Wehrmacht. In addition, they were not very well liked due to their extreme cruelty. They were very cruel to the prisoners and to the civilian population. And it was unpleasant to stand next to them. People were often killed there. It was also dangerous. The Russians, knowing about the cruelty of the SS towards civilians and prisoners, did not take the SS prisoners. And during the offensive in these areas, few of the Russians figured out who was an essaman or an ordinary Wehrmacht soldier in front of you. They killed everyone. Therefore, behind the eyes, the SS were sometimes called "the dead".
I remember how in November 1942 we stole a truck from a neighboring SS regiment one evening. He got stuck on the road, and his chauffeur went to his own people for help, and we pulled him out, quickly drove him to our place and repainted there, changed the insignia. They searched for him for a long time, but did not find him. And for us it was a great help. When our officers found out, they swore a lot, but did not say anything to anyone. There were very few trucks left then, and we moved mainly on foot.
And this is also an indicator of the attitude. Our (Wehrmacht) would never have stolen from theirs. But the SS were disliked.
Soldier and officer
In the Wehrmacht there has always been a great distance between a soldier and an officer. They were never one with us. Despite the fact that the propaganda spoke of our unity. It was emphasized that we were all "comrades", but even the platoon lieutenant was very far from us. Between him and us there were still sergeant-major, who in every possible way maintained the distance between us and them, sergeant-major. And only behind them were the officers. The officers usually had very little contact with us as soldiers. Basically, all communication with the officer went through the sergeant-major. The officer could, of course, ask you something or give you some kind of assignment directly, but I repeat - this was rare. Everything was done through the sergeant-major. They were officers, we were soldiers, and the distance between us was very great.
This distance was even greater between us and the high command. We were just cannon fodder for them. No one reckoned with us and did not think about us. I remember in July 1943, near Taganrog, I stood at a post near the house where the regiment headquarters was and through an open window I heard a report from our regiment commander to some general who had arrived at our headquarters. It turns out that the general had to organize an assault attack by our regiment on the railway station, which was occupied by the Russians and turned into a powerful stronghold. And after the report on the intention of the attack, our commander said that the planned losses could reach a thousand people killed and wounded, and this is almost 50% of the regiment's strength. Apparently the commander wanted to show the senselessness of such an attack. But the general said:
Good! Prepare to attack. The Fuehrer demands from us decisive action in the name of Germany. And this thousand soldiers will die for the Fuhrer and Vaterland!
And then I realized that we are nobody for these generals! I felt so scared that it is now impossible to convey. The offensive was to begin in two days. I heard about this through the window and decided that I must save myself at any cost. After all, a thousand killed and wounded are almost all combat units. That is, I had almost no chance of surviving this attack. And the next day, when they put me in the forward observation patrol, which was put forward in front of our positions towards the Russians, I was delayed when the order came to withdraw. And then, as soon as the shelling began, he shot himself in the leg through a loaf of bread (this does not cause a powder burn to the skin and clothes) so that the bullet would break the bone, but go right through. Then I crawled to the positions of the artillerymen who were standing next to us. They knew little about the wounds. I told them that a Russian machine gunner had shot me. There they bandaged me, gave me coffee, gave me a cigarette and sent me to the rear in a car. I was very afraid that in the hospital the doctor would find bread crumbs in the wound, but I was lucky. Nobody noticed anything. When, five months later, in January 1944, I returned to my company, I learned that in that attack the regiment had lost nine hundred people killed and wounded, but the station was never taken ...
That's how the generals treated us! Therefore, when they ask me how I feel about the German generals, which of them I value as a German commander, I always answer that, probably, they were good strategists, but I have absolutely nothing to respect them for. As a result, they laid seven million German soldiers in the ground, lost the war, and now they are writing memoirs about how great they fought and how gloriously they won.
Hardest fight
After being wounded, I was thrown to Sevastopol, when the Russians had already cut off Crimea. We flew from Odessa in transport planes in a large group and right in front of our eyes, Russian fighters shot down two planes packed with soldiers. It was terrible! One plane crashed into the steppe and exploded, while the other fell into the sea and instantly disappeared into the waves. We sat and waited helplessly who was next. But we were lucky - the fighters flew away. Maybe they were out of fuel or out of cartridges. In Crimea, I fought for four months.
And there, near Sevastopol, there was the most difficult battle in my life. This was in early May, when the defense on Sapun Mountain had already been broken, and the Russians were approaching Sevastopol.
The remnants of our company - about thirty people - were sent across a small mountain so that we would go out to the flank of the Russian unit attacking us. We were told that there was no one on this mountain. We walked along the stone bottom of a dry stream and suddenly found ourselves in a sack of fire. They were shooting at us from all sides. We lay down among the stones and began to shoot back, but the Russians were among the greenery - they were invisible, and we were in full view and we were killed one by one. I do not remember how, firing from a rifle, I was able to crawl out from under the fire. Several fragments from grenades hit me. Especially the legs got it. Then I lay for a long time between the stones and heard the Russians walking around. When they left, I examined myself and realized that I would soon bleed out. In the living, apparently, I was left alone. There was a lot of blood, but I had no bandage, nothing! And then I remembered that there were condoms in my jacket pocket. They were given to us upon arrival along with other property. And then I made bundles out of them, then tore my shirt and made tampons from it on the wounds and pulled them with these bundles, and then, leaning on a rifle and a broken branch, I began to get out.
In the evening I crawled out to my own.
In Sevastopol, the evacuation from the city was already in full swing, the Russians from one edge had already entered the city, and there was no longer any power in it.
Everyone was for himself.
I will never forget the picture of how we were driven around the city in a car, and the car broke down. The chauffeur undertook to repair it, and we looked over the board around us. In front of us on the square, several officers were dancing with some women dressed as gypsies. Everyone had bottles of wine in their hands. There was some kind of unreal feeling. They danced like crazy. It was a feast during the plague.
I was evacuated from Chersonesos in the evening of May 10, after Sevastopol fell. I cannot tell you what was happening on this narrow strip of land. It was hell! People were crying, praying, shooting, going crazy, fighting to the death for a place in the boats. When I read somewhere the memoirs of some general - a chatterbox, who told that we left Chersonesos in perfect order and discipline, and that almost all units of the 17th Army were evacuated from Sevastopol, I wanted to laugh. Of all my company in Constanta, I was alone! And less than a hundred people escaped from our regiment! My entire division lay down in Sevastopol. It is a fact!
I was lucky because we were wounded lying on a pontoon, directly to which one of the last self-propelled barges approached, and we were the first to be loaded onto it.
We were taken by barge to Constanta. All the way we were bombed and fired upon by Russian planes. It was horror. Our barge was not sunk, but there were many killed and wounded. The whole barge was in holes. In order not to drown, we threw overboard all the weapons, ammunition, then all the dead, and all the same, when we came to Constanta, we stood in the water up to our throats in the holds, and the lying wounded all drowned. If we had to walk another 20 kilometers, we would definitely go to the bottom! I was very bad. All wounds were inflamed from sea water. At the hospital, the doctor told me that most of the barges were half filled with dead people. And that we, alive, were very lucky.
There, in Constanta, I ended up in a hospital and never got to the war.
German soldiers about Russians:
From the book "1941 through the eyes of the Germans" by Robert Kershaw:
“During the attack, we stumbled upon a light Russian T-26 tank, we immediately snapped it straight out of 37-millimeter paper. As we approached, a Russian leaned out of the hatch of the tower and opened fire at us with a pistol. It soon became clear that he was without legs, they were torn off to him when the tank was hit. And, despite this, he fired at us with a pistol! " / Anti-tank gunner
“We hardly took any prisoners, because the Russians always fought to the last soldier. They didn't give up. Their hardening cannot be compared with ours ... "/ Tankman of Army Group" Center "/
After a successful breakthrough of the border defense, the 3rd Battalion of the 18th Infantry Regiment of Army Group Center, numbering 800 people, was fired upon by a unit of 5 soldiers. “I didn’t expect anything like this,” battalion commander Major Neuhof confessed to his battalion doctor. "It's sheer suicide to attack the battalion's forces with five fighters."
“On the Eastern Front, I met people who could be called a special race. The very first attack turned into a life-and-death battle ”. / Tankman of the 12th Panzer Division Hans Becker /
“You just can't believe it until you see it with your own eyes. The soldiers of the Red Army, even burning alive, continued to shoot from the burning houses. " / Officer of the 7th Panzer Division /
"The quality level of Soviet pilots is much higher than expected ... Fierce resistance, its massive nature do not correspond to our initial assumptions" / Major General Hoffmann von Waldau /
“I have never seen anyone more angry than these Russians. Real chain dogs! You never know what to expect from them. And where do they only get tanks and everything else ?! " / One of the soldiers of Army Group "Center" /
“The behavior of the Russians, even in the first battle, was strikingly different from the behavior of the Poles and allies, who were defeated on the Western Front. Even when they found themselves in the encirclement, the Russians defended themselves stubbornly. / General Gunther Blumentritt, Chief of Staff of the 4th Army /
71 years ago, Hitler's Germany attacked the USSR. What was our soldier in the eyes of the enemy - the German soldiers? What did the beginning of the war look like from other people's trenches? Quite eloquent answers to these questions can be found in a book whose author can hardly be accused of distorting the facts. This is “1941 through the eyes of the Germans. Birch crosses instead of iron crosses ”by the English historian Robert Kershaw, which was recently published in Russia. The book consists almost entirely of the memoirs of German soldiers and officers, their letters home and entries in their personal diaries.
Non-commissioned officer Helmut Kolakowski recalls: “Late in the evening, our platoon was assembled in the barns and announced:“ Tomorrow we will have to fight world Bolshevism. ” Personally, I was just amazed, it was like snow on the head, but what about the non-aggression pact between Germany and Russia? All the time I remembered that issue of the Deutsche Wohenschau that I saw at home and in which it was reported about the concluded contract. I could not even imagine how we would go to war against the Soviet Union. " The Fuhrer's order caused surprise and bewilderment among the rank and file. “We can say we were dumbfounded by what we heard,” admitted Lothar Fromm, a spotter officer. “We all, I emphasize, were amazed and not ready for such a thing.” But bewilderment was immediately replaced by the relief of getting rid of the incomprehensible and painful waiting on the eastern borders of Germany. Experienced soldiers, who have already captured almost all of Europe, began to discuss when the campaign against the USSR would end. The words of Benno Zeiser, who was then still studying to be a military driver, reflect the general sentiment: “It will all end in three weeks, we were told, others were more careful in their forecasts - they believed that in 2-3 months. There was one who thought that this would last a year, but we laughed at him: “How much did it take to get rid of the Poles? And with France? Have you forgotten? "
But not everyone was so optimistic. Erich Mende, Chief Lieutenant of the 8th Silesian Infantry Division, recalls a conversation with his superior that took place in these last peaceful moments. “My commander was twice my age, and he already had to fight the Russians near Narva in 1917, when he was in the rank of lieutenant. "Here, in these endless spaces, we will find our death, like Napoleon," he did not hide his pessimism ... Mende, remember this hour, it marks the end of the former Germany. "
At 3 hours 15 minutes, the advanced German units crossed the border of the USSR. Anti-tank gunner Johann Danzer recalls: “On the very first day, as soon as we went on the attack, one of ours shot himself from his own weapon. Clutching the rifle between his knees, he inserted the barrel into his mouth and pulled the trigger. This is how the war and all the horrors associated with it ended for him.
The capture of the Brest Fortress was entrusted to the 45th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht, numbering 17,000 personnel. The garrison of the fortress is about 8 thousand. In the first hours of the battle, reports of the successful advance of German troops and reports of the seizure of bridges and fortress structures rained down. At 4:42 a.m. "50 prisoners were taken, all in one underwear, the war found them in their beds." But by 10:50 the tone of the combat documents had changed: "The battle for the capture of the fortress is fierce - numerous losses." 2 battalion commanders, 1 company commander have already died, the commander of one of the regiments was seriously wounded.
“It soon became clear, somewhere between 5.30 and 7.30 am, that the Russians were fighting desperately behind our front lines. Their infantry, supported by 35-40 tanks and armored vehicles, found themselves on the territory of the fortress, formed several centers of defense. Enemy snipers fired aimed fire from behind trees, from roofs and basements, which caused heavy losses among officers and junior commanders.
“Where the Russians were knocked out or smoked out, new forces soon emerged. They crawled out of basements, houses, sewer pipes and other temporary shelters, fired aimed fire, and our losses grew steadily. "
The summary of the Wehrmacht High Command (OKW) for June 22 reported: "It seems that the enemy, after the initial confusion, is beginning to put up more and more stubborn resistance." OKW chief of staff Halder agrees with this: "After the initial" tetanus "caused by the suddenness of the attack, the enemy moved on to active operations."
For the soldiers of the 45th division of the Wehrmacht, the beginning of the war turned out to be completely bleak: 21 officers and 290 non-commissioned officers (sergeants), not counting the soldiers, died on its very first day. In the first day of fighting in Russia, the division lost almost as many soldiers and officers as in all six weeks of the French campaign.
"Boilers"
The most successful actions of the Wehrmacht troops were the operation to encircle and defeat the Soviet divisions in "cauldrons" in 1941. In the largest of them - Kiev, Minsk, Vyazemsky - Soviet troops lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers and officers. But what price did the Wehrmacht pay for this?
General Gunther Blumentritt, Chief of Staff of the 4th Army: “The behavior of the Russians, even in the first battle, was strikingly different from the behavior of the Poles and allies who were defeated on the Western Front. Even when they found themselves in the encirclement, the Russians defended themselves stubbornly.
The author of the book writes: “The experience of the Polish and Western campaigns suggested that the success of a blitzkrieg strategy lies in taking advantage of more skillful maneuvering. Even leaving resources behind brackets, the enemy's fighting spirit and will to resist will inevitably be crushed under the pressure of huge and senseless losses. From this logically follows the mass surrender of demoralized soldiers surrounded by them. In Russia, however, these "elementary" truths were turned upside down by the desperate, sometimes fanatic, resistance of the Russians in seemingly hopeless situations. That is why half of the offensive potential of the Germans was spent not on advancing towards the set goal, but on consolidating the already existing successes. "
The commander of Army Group Center, Field Marshal Fyodor von Bock, during the operation to destroy Soviet troops in the Smolensk "cauldron" wrote about their attempts to break out of the encirclement: "A very significant success for the enemy who received such a crushing blow!" The encirclement ring was not solid. Two days later, von Bock lamented: "So far it has not been possible to close the gap in the eastern section of the Smolensk boiler." That night, about 5 Soviet divisions managed to get out of the encirclement. Three more divisions broke through the next day.
The level of German losses is evidenced by the message from the headquarters of the 7th Panzer Division that only 118 tanks remained in the ranks. 166 vehicles were damaged (although 96 were subject to repair). The 2nd company of the 1st battalion of the Great Germany regiment, in just 5 days of fighting to hold the line of the Smolensk "cauldron", lost 40 people, with the company's regular strength of 176 soldiers and officers.
The perception of the war with the Soviet Union among ordinary German soldiers also gradually changed. The unrestrained optimism of the first days of the fighting gave way to the realization that "something is going wrong." Then indifference and apathy came. The opinion of one of the German officers: “These huge distances frighten and demoralize the soldiers. Plains, plains, there is no end and will never be. This is what drives you crazy. "
The troops were also constantly worried about the actions of the partisans, whose number grew as the "cauldrons" were destroyed. If at first their number and activity were negligible, then after the end of the fighting in the Kiev "cauldron" the number of partisans in the sector of Army Group South increased significantly. In the sector of Army Group Center, they took control of 45% of the territories occupied by the Germans.
The campaign, which lasted for a long time with the destruction of the surrounded Soviet troops, evoked more and more associations with Napoleon's army and fears of the Russian winter. One of the soldiers of Army Group Center on August 20 lamented: "The losses are terrible, cannot be compared with those that were in France." His company, starting from July 23, participated in the battles for the "tank highway number 1". “Today our road is ours, tomorrow the Russians will take it, then again we, and so on.” The victory no longer seemed so close. On the contrary, the enemy's desperate resistance undermined the morale and inspired by no means optimistic thoughts. “I have never seen anyone more angry than these Russians. Real chain dogs! You never know what to expect from them. And where do they only get tanks and everything else ?! "
During the first months of the campaign, the combat effectiveness of the tank units of Army Group Center was seriously undermined. By September 41, 30% of the tanks were destroyed, and 23% of the vehicles were under repair. Almost half of all the tank divisions envisaged for participation in Operation Typhoon had only a third of the initial number of combat-ready vehicles. By September 15, 1941, Army Group Center had a total of 1,346 combat-ready tanks, up from 2,609 at the start of the campaign in Russia.
The personnel losses were no less severe. By the beginning of the offensive on Moscow, German units had lost about a third of their officers. The total losses in manpower by this time reached about half a million people, which is equivalent to the loss of 30 divisions. If we take into account that only 64% of the total composition of the infantry division, that is, 10,840 people, were directly "fighters", and the remaining 36% were logistic and auxiliary services, it becomes clear that the combat capability of the German troops has decreased even more.
This is how one of the German soldiers assessed the situation on the Eastern Front: “Russia, only bad news comes from here, and we still don't know anything about you. And in the meantime you are absorbing us, dissolving in your inhospitable viscous expanses. "
About Russian soldiers
The original idea of \u200b\u200bthe population of Russia was determined by the German ideology of the time, which considered the Slavs "subhuman". However, the experience of the first battles made adjustments to these ideas.
Major General Hoffmann von Waldau, Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe Command, 9 days after the start of the war, wrote in his diary: "The quality level of Soviet pilots is much higher than expected ... Fierce resistance, its massive nature does not correspond to our initial assumptions." This was confirmed by the first air rams. Kershaw quotes one Luftwaffe colonel: "Soviet pilots are fatalists, they fight to the end without any hope of victory or even survival." It is worth noting that on the first day of the war with the Soviet Union, the Luftwaffe lost up to 300 aircraft. Never before had the German Air Force suffered such large one-time losses.
In Germany, the radio shouted that the shells of "German tanks not only set fire to, but pierced through and through Russian vehicles." But the soldiers told each other about Russian tanks, which could not be pierced even with point-blank shots - the shells ricocheted from the armor. Lieutenant Helmut Ritgen of the 6th Panzer Division admitted that in a collision with new and unknown Russian tanks: “... the very concept of waging a tank war has radically changed, the KV vehicles marked a completely different level of weapons, armor protection and tank weight. German tanks instantly went over to the category of exclusively anti-personnel weapons ... "Tankman of the 12th Panzer Division Hans Becker:" On the Eastern Front I met people who can be called a special race. The very first attack turned into a life-and-death battle ”.
An anti-tank gunner recalls what an indelible impression on him and his comrades made by the desperate resistance of the Russians in the first hours of the war: “During the attack, we came across a light Russian T-26 tank, we immediately snapped it right out of 37mm. As we approached, a Russian leaned out of the hatch of the tower and opened fire at us with a pistol. It soon became clear that he was without legs, they were torn off to him when the tank was hit. And, despite this, he fired at us with a pistol! "
The author of the book "1941 through the eyes of the Germans" quotes the words of an officer who served in a tank unit in the Army Group Center sector, who shared his opinion with the war correspondent Curizio Malaparte: “He reasoned like a soldier, avoiding epithets and metaphors, limiting himself only to argumentation, directly related to the issues under discussion. “We hardly took any prisoners, because the Russians always fought to the last soldier. They didn't give up. Their hardening cannot be compared with ours ... "
The following episodes also made a depressing impression on the advancing troops: after a successful breakthrough of the border defense, the 3rd battalion of the 18th infantry regiment of Army Group Center, numbering 800 people, was fired upon by a unit of 5 soldiers. “I didn’t expect anything like this,” battalion commander Major Neuhof confessed to his battalion doctor. "It's sheer suicide to attack the battalion's forces with five fighters."
In mid-November 1941, an infantry officer of the 7th Panzer Division, when his unit broke into Russian-defended positions in a village by the Lama River, described the resistance of the Red Army. “You just can't believe it until you see it with your own eyes. The soldiers of the Red Army, even burning alive, continued to shoot from the burning houses. "
Winter of the 41st
In the German troops, the saying quickly came into use: "Better three French campaigns than one Russian." "Here we lacked comfortable French beds and the monotony of the area was striking." "The prospect of being in Leningrad turned into an endless sitting in numbered trenches."
The high losses of the Wehrmacht, the lack of winter uniforms and the unpreparedness of German equipment for combat operations in the conditions of the Russian winter gradually allowed the Soviet troops to seize the initiative. Over the three-week period from November 15 to December 5, 1941, the Russian Air Force flew 15,840 sorties, while the Luftwaffe only 3500, which further demoralized the enemy.
Corporal Fritz Siegel wrote in his letter home on December 6: “My God, what are these Russians planning to do with us? It would be nice if up there at least listened to us, otherwise all of us here will have to die ”
