Excerpt form Chapter 9:
The Russian air attacks became more ferocious
with Illyushins appearing over the position in
increasing numbers. Luckily two 88 mm heavy gun
batteries were nearby to deal with those
monsters, while it was up to we 2 cm units to
take on their fighter escorts. Fortunately, on
this particular crossing, we had the company of
another battery of 2cm guns so were quite a
formidable force but whenever an alarm was given
it was still terrifying to see the Illyushins
appear on the horizon sometimse 15 , 16 in close
formation coming closer and closer and watch
them doing their slow circling . We would brace
ourselves for what would surely be our last day
on earth, knowing the arsenal of destruction
they carried. Just waiting for them to dip their
wings for the dive needed all the will power to
stay with the gun and not run for shelter.
Trying hard to ignore those lumbering
battleships, our task was to concentrate on
their escorts, the fast moving and dreaded MiG
and Yak and Laggs. They came swooping down at
the crossing like angry hawks, almost at ground
level and from any direction. As loading gunner
I never had much opportunity to watch what was
going on above as my whole concentration was
directed to the gun and its quick-moving barrel
mechanism and make sure the shells slip smoothly
from the magazin into the barrel without
jamming. Although we had dug ourselves into the
ground with a substantial earth wall around us
for shrapnel protection it wouldn't have saved
us from a well-aimed rocket from an Illyushin
and during four days in that position we
sustained quite a few casualties.
On one early morning attack the Sturmoviks
changed their approach tactic. Some 16 of them
came in, split up into two groups and dived from
two directions on to our 88 mm batteries, wiping
out two heavy guns with the loss of one complete
crew. On another occasion an IL 2 was hit on its
dive and crashed into one of our positions with
a full load which exploded on impact leaving
nothing but a huge crater and smoke. During our
stay at that crossing, five Illyushins were shot
down by the 88 mm crews and 4 Yaks and 3 MiGs
fell victim to the 2 cm crews while German gun
crews sustained heavy casualties. We should have
all been awarded some sort of recognition on
this occasion but that was wishful thinking.
The last week in May we were pulled out towards
Izyum which by then had been taken by Kleist's
Panzers, thus cutting off the 6th and 57th
Russian Armies in the salient. Heavy fighting
followed when those two Armies tried to crash
through towards Izyum in a futile attempt to
break out to the east. We reached a sharp bend
in the Donetz river 30 km from Izyum and met up
with elements of General Ruoff's 17th Army. Our
battery Commander, Oberleutnant Belling received
orders to attach our unit to a motorised
infantry company and a wireless unit which was
proceeding south towards Slavyansk. We made slow
progress on the Rollbahn, being hindered by
thousands of Russian prisoners on their way
north to a camp. This strangely enough made the
Rollbahn very vulnerable to air attack,
deliberately aimed at the columns of prisoners.
Stalin's view was that a soldier who gave
himself up, had also lost his right to live
though until recent times nobody would have
dared question the edict or morality of
Generalissimo 'Uncle Joe' Stalin.
Getting nearer, some 10 km or so outside Izyum
heavy artillery bombardment stopped our
progress. Shells of 152 mm calibre came howling
in, much too close for comfort, and Langhans
ordered us off the vehicle and to spread out and
it was none too soon. I dived into the mud and
tried to run, but didn't get very far. One of
those 'heavies' came in right behind me with an
eerie high pitched screech and an enormous
explosion spewed dirt and shrapnel all around
me. I didn't realise it then but a small piece
of shrapnel had entered my left boot, trouser
and foot wrapping and embedded itself in the leg
muscle. Not waiting for the next shell I jumped
up and flung myself into the newly blasted
crater behind me. 'No place gets hit twice in
one barrage' I remembered being told in
training. In quite a few cases that theory
proved to be a fatal assumption.
The crater was still warm and full of cordite
smoke which I nearly choked on and a second
later I nearly died as a body fell on top of me.
It was Ferdinand, our driver, still alive but
shaken up a bit. When the barrage veered away
from the Rollbahn and concentrated on the
railway line leading to Izyum we crawled out of
the crater which by now had filled with watery
mud, and climbed up to our vehicle which Ferdl
had left stranded in the field nearby.
Miraculously it was undamaged. Ferdle asked
whether I got hit and I replied "No". "Your boot
is ripped," he said and he was trying to get the
attention of a stretcher bearer from the
wireless company. I still hadn't felt anything.
A wound can take anything up to an hour for the
nerve to return and register pain. The medic
came along and removed my boot and started to
dig out the splinter saying how lucky I was that
the boot leather and the cloths underneath had
softened the impact and the fragment was only
lodged a centimetre into the flesh, missing the
bone. A good splash of iodine and a bandage and
I would be as good as new, he assured me. The
artillery attack left 2 dead, and some seriously
wounded behind on the crowded rollbahn and quite
a few damaged vehicles.
After consulting his map our Commanding Officer
decided to move off the Rollbahn and head for
the river to our right before the Russians
changed their minds and resumed firing. The dead
and seriously wounded were left on the Rollbahn
to be picked up by the ambulances. With the
vehicles spread out to minimise damage from
incoming artillery we proceeded towards the tree
belt in the river area. My left leg was now
beginning to hurt a bit though I think that was
due mostly to the excessive use of iodine.
Langhans told me to take it easy and make myself
comfortable on top of the ammunition boxes!
"Little wounds like that don't do anything for
you," he said after studying the rip in my boot.
"Had it ripped your foot off, then they would
have sent you home" he said. Just trying to
cheer me up I assumed.
It was late in the afternoon and we were slowly
and cautiously getting closer to the woods when
all of a sudden two KV I tanks appeared to the
right of our column with their guns swinging in
our direction and commenced firing. The wireless
van to our right received a direct hit and
disintegrated in flames, killing all 5 occupants
instantly. Next to it was a personnel carrier
the crew of which managed to get off in time,
before it too was hit. All of a sudden my leg
didn't hurt any more and as soon as the first
shell obliterated the wireless van I was off the
ammunition boxes in a flash, jumping to the
ground with the rest of the crew. Luckily the
tanks continued moving and disappeared into the
woods. (A moving tank's vision is severely
restricted if the turret lid is closed as aiming
of the barrel is done by means of a periscopic
sight, absolutely useless while the vehicle is
moving).
From the woods a machine gun opened up somewhere
to our left. We crawled back to our vehicle and
swung the gun round ready for immediate action.
All four of our 2 cm guns began firing into the
woods and our infantry stood ready to move in as
soon as we stopped our overlapping crossfire.
The Russians apparently didn't expect to come
under the devastating fire of 2 cm cannons
because as soon as we stopped they came out from
under the trees in large numbers with their
hands behind their shaven heads, roughly about
300 of them. Four KV tanks were recovered by the
mopping up infantry; the crews had abandoned
them intact. The Russians had suffered quite a
few casualties since trees and bushes are no
protection from incoming high explosives. Any
branch, even the smallest, causes the missile to
explode, showering the area with shrapnel from
tree top height.
Our infantry closed in, searched and disarmed
the prisoners and their walking wounded were
given first aid by our medics as best as they
were able to and sent off towards the Rollbahn,
escorted by one of our gun carriers. The
seriously wounded were put on a personnel
carrier and driven to the Rollbahn to be picked
up by passing ambulances, (meat wagons), while
our dead were also taken to the Rollbahn to be
collected for burial. The Russian dead were left
where they fell, with rifle and bayonet upturned
stuck into the ground. Russian infantry
invariably had their bayonets fixed when in
action.
As darkness fell we took up night positions on
full alert with double guards as there were
bound to be more Russian units somewhere in that
forest. Langhans inquired about my leg. I said
it was all right but he suggested I get a
tetanus injection at the next First Aid station
in the morning and try to get the boots changed.
He thought there should be a few spare boots in
the 'Schlachthof' (field hospital) not needed
any more! I didn't really fancy wearing boots
whose previous owner got cold feet too early for
his health, but Langhans always knew what was
best for us...
We settled down for the night, eating the last
of our salami and Schwarzbrot. Langhans said we
could thank our lucky stars we were still there
and alive because had the tanks only stood still
for a second to get their range they could have
got all four of our guns with their first salvo
and we would have been history. He pointed to
the upturned rifles in front of us, which were
eerely silhouetted in the moonlight: "they could
have been us," he cheerfully reminded us. The
night passed quickly and was peaceful apart from
some artillery activity and sporadic machine
gunfire in the direction of Izyum. At daybreak
we moved off and by keeping close to the
Rollbahn reached Slavyansk without further
attacks, where I got a tetanus needle and a
slightly worn replacement for my damaged boots.
The remnants of the beaten Russian 6th Army had
retreated to the Kupiansk region. Also badly
mauled was the 9th Army from the Barvenkovo
sector, in retreat east of the Donetz. Mopping
up operations carried out by Ruoff's 17th Army
from the south and von Paulus's 6th Army from
the north resulted in enormous bottlenecks on
the Rollbahn, choked with endless rows of
prisoners marching north to prison camps. By May
29 the Russian losses were 20 infantry
divisions, 7 cavalry divisions and 13 tank
brigades wiped out, 1,246 tanks and 2,026 heavy
guns captured and about 214, 000 prisoners
taken. German losses were estimated at 20,000.
General Gorodnyansky was killed fighting in the
front line and to escape the wrath of his
supremo Generalissimo Stalin, Gorodnyansky's
colleague General Podlas, committed suicide
together with the whole of his staff.
We rode south and eventually linked up with our
original reconnaissance unit at a makeshift
airfield in the region of Slavyansk, where we
took up a position around the field for their
protection. Things then began to quieten down a
bit, with the Russians licking their wounds in
the Izyum sector, whereas down south on the
Crimean Peninsula the fighting had just begun.
From the first week in June General Erich von
Manstein with the 11th Army was engaged in
capturing the great fortress of Sevastopol with
its virtually impenetrable defence installations
and forts - Fort Stalin, Molotov, Volga,
Siberia, GPU., and the most formidable of all,
Maxim Gorki I and II. The attack began on 7 June
using extra powerful weapons unknown in previous
battles to reinforce the conventional artillery.
These included 6-barrelled rocket launchers (Nebelwerfers),
and 'Gamma', a 427 mm calibre gun, 'Karl,'(615
mm) and the biggest of them all, 'Dora', or Big
Gustav as it was nick named, a monster with an
unbelievable 800 mm calibre, capable of
destroying installations as deep as 100 m
underground. Its barrel was 106 feet long and
weighed 130 tons. In addition, 600 of General
von Richthofen's Stuka bombers were at
Manstein's disposal.
The German advance was slow as Sevastopol's
defences comprised something like 3,600
fortified installations and practically all had
to be taken by fierce hand to hand combat, and
some of them were deep underground. It was not
until July 9 that the last resistance in the
Khersonessky peninsula was overcome. Captured
were 95,000 Russians and 467 guns before the
forts of Sevastopol were firmly in German hands.
German losses were 24,111 killed or wounded.
Colonel/General Erich von Manstein was promoted
to the rank of Fieldmarshal on July 4.