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Yefretor Vinogradov DM to Starshina Zdhanov (Chief Clerk/Unit archivist Btn HQ.)
Tuesday 13th December 1943

Comrade Starshina,

Acting on orders to reconnoitre the area WSW to SW of the village of Zvartovka, I led my patrol through a flat countryside dotted with a few smallish wooded areas (see map). With our recent arrival this far west and the lack of any reliable maps of the area we undertook a combination of patrolling and surveying.

In our sweep through the northernmost wooded area Pte Lebedev discovered a booby trap on the path consisting of a new type of mine with a wooden casing. Pte Boruvich, having seen this type before, informs me that it is a German Schu-mine 42 and its wooden casing is aimed at fooling mine detectors. We marked the mine for the engineers and gingerly made our way through the woods in case of others.

We then moved to the wooded area just south of the road and discovered the bodies of three Germans. A search of the bodies did not reveal anything of interest but the scarred trees and condition of the bodies would seem to indicate that they had been hit by air attack - probably within the last day or so.

Advancing along parallel to the road we came in sight of a walled collective farm and a t-junction heading off the road directly north. Lebedev cautiously checked out the farm building and found it clear. However, from his vantage point at the window he could see where what looked like some anti-tank mines had been hastily buried.

Lebedev having 'Done his bit for the Socialist Motherland for the day' and wishing to avoid another tedious afternoon of sulks and moaning I asked Boruvich if he would check out the mined area, using his greater experience in planting and lifting mines. Boruvich unhesitatingly stepped forward and sneaked off towards the T-junction. He took out his bayonet and was probing along the road towards the junction when a shot rang out and a spurt of earth splashed up beside him. Morozov had been scanning the woods with my binoculars (point D) and luckily saw the muzzle flash. He fired back and the rest of us fired a suppressing fire into the woods while Boruvich crawled backwards into cover. He came over and gasped "Teller mines with Schu-mines scattered around them."

As he was making his report the woods at point D lit up with muzzle flashes including the ominous ripping sound of an MG-42. Almost immediately young Morozov was hit in the shoulder and the rest of us went to ground. I slapped a dressing on Morozov's shoulder and Simeonov helped me bind it while MG rounds passed overhead or cracked against the farmhouse's sturdy walls. Realising that there could be no forward movement against such an amount of incoming fire we started to edge towards the back door which was speeded up as Lebedev shouted "They're flanking us, chief". I popped up for a quick look and sure enough about a dozen Germans were headed for the woods beside the T-junction.

We hurriedly moved back towards the wall to the east of the farm and began to retrace our steps towards Zvartovka - thankfully without any signs of pursuit - and got young Morozov into the field hospital.

Overall conclusions on the patrol:
It looks like the Germans intend to hold their positions at the T-junction but showed little inclination to advance further. I suspect the three dead Germans at the wood south of the road had originally been set as some sort of piquet before our friends in the VVS found them. As they had remained unburied I can only assume that these three were on their own.


As our summer and autumn offensives have taken us to the western borders of the Ukraine and we are about 100 versts from the Polish border perhaps the enemy are hoping to dig in for the winter.


As the new squad members have now arrived along with our new LMG the squad is pretty much up to strength and consists of:

Pte Borovich - Degyatarev DP 28
Pte Lebedev - M1891/30 rifle
Pte Simeonov - M1891/30 rifle
Pte Iryutsk - - M1891/30 rifle
Pte Petrov - PPSH