Yefretor Vinogradov DM to Starshina Zdhanov
Monday 29th November 1943
Comrade Starshina, Chief Clerk & Unit archivist Btn HQ.
Monday 29th November 1943
Comrade Starshina, Chief Clerk & Unit archivist Btn HQ.
Acting on reports from front line units of an immobilised Tiger tank near the ruins of Grozny Kolkhoz, battalion HQ initiated a raid to destroy the stalled tank.
My squad was supplemented by a squad from the NKVD and a sniper from A Company for the raid. Our initial attempt to outflank the tank and its defenders came to nothing when Trooper Lebedev and the sniper came under fire from the Kolkhoz and were obliged to retreat very quickly.
Politruk Berezov was all for an immediate charge as he put it "Showing Fritz the cold steel", and adding "They do not like it up 'em, Yefretor Vinogradov". I had hoped that what General Zhukov referred to as ‘this kind of hurrah patriotism' had died a death in 1941, even in the NKVD, but apparently not.
However, I was able to persuade him that an alternative plan might work. As the crew of the MG42 was clearly visible my idea was for Berezov's group plus the sniper to sneak forward to the edge of copse #1 and for the sniper to shoot down the crew of the MG. (I stressed several times that everything depended on the sniper getting both the crew immediately and that if he could not do so then we would retreat and wait for cover of darkness and try something else.)
Having disposed of the MG crew Berezov's group were to engage the NCO and any Germans visible at copse #2. Once this was under way Berezov's group was to throw down smoke grenades and my team would attack the ruined farmhouse, driving off or killing the NCO up on the first floor and then throwing grenades over the wall before rushing round the wall to take possession of the tank. (see map).
What actually happened
As it turned out, from the moment Sniper Kuznetzov shot the MG crew nothing went to plan.
Putting together conversations with the NKVD and interrogation of wounded prisoners (by Trooper Morozov) the sequence seems to have been as follows.
1) Sniper Kusnetzov shoots MG gunner.
2) NKVD squad fire frantically at MG loader, NCO and SS defence squad in copse#2
3) Sniper Kusnetzov shoots MG loader
4) NKVD Squad (having foolishly fired off all their ammunition in their mad moment) run out of ammunition at the same time.
5) Instead of getting them to reload Berezov leads them forward in a mad, howling bayonet charge towards Grozny Kolkhoz.
6) The SS defence squad which had been prepared for an all round defence cannot get back through the bushes in time to stop Berezov's charge and only a couple of desultory shots are fired at them from copse# 2.
7) Having heard all the howling I quickly scramble through the bushes to where Kusnetzov is and see the shambles that was my plan and stuck for any other option call my squad forward into the copse.
8) The SS NCO, having had a couple more near misses from Kusnetzov, bails out the window of the Kolkhoz and, with a fair idea what is going to be coming over the wall next, orders the tank crewmen into copse#2 and runs after them.
9) The SS in copse#2 return fire as my group arrives and a firefight ensues.
10) Berezov's team, who had given us all their grenades which were to be thrown over the wall when we got there find themselves in possession of Grozny Kolkhoz but are unloaded with an SS Squad about thirty metres away, finally come to their senses and start to reload.
11) According to Morozov's interrogation there is an intense discussion in copse# 2 which results in a crewman rushing over to the immobilised tank under fire from my squad and diving inside.
12) A few seconds later, just as Berezov is getting ready to charge round the corner to the tank (and, incidentally running head first into the hull MG if the tank had still been occupied) there is a muffled explosion and a huge plume of smoke from the tank as the crewman sets off the self destruct mechanism in the hull but is caught in the explosion.
13) Simultaneously the firefight intensifies and a couple of SS men are hit but so unfortunately Kusnetsov and Lebedev are also hit.
14) As the firefight continues it is obvious that the SS are pulling out.
15) We bandage our wounded and collect a couple of prisoners and quickly pull out also before the mortars arrive.
As it turned out, from the moment Sniper Kuznetzov shot the MG crew nothing went to plan.
Putting together conversations with the NKVD and interrogation of wounded prisoners (by Trooper Morozov) the sequence seems to have been as follows.
1) Sniper Kusnetzov shoots MG gunner.
2) NKVD squad fire frantically at MG loader, NCO and SS defence squad in copse#2
3) Sniper Kusnetzov shoots MG loader
4) NKVD Squad (having foolishly fired off all their ammunition in their mad moment) run out of ammunition at the same time.
5) Instead of getting them to reload Berezov leads them forward in a mad, howling bayonet charge towards Grozny Kolkhoz.
6) The SS defence squad which had been prepared for an all round defence cannot get back through the bushes in time to stop Berezov's charge and only a couple of desultory shots are fired at them from copse# 2.
7) Having heard all the howling I quickly scramble through the bushes to where Kusnetzov is and see the shambles that was my plan and stuck for any other option call my squad forward into the copse.
8) The SS NCO, having had a couple more near misses from Kusnetzov, bails out the window of the Kolkhoz and, with a fair idea what is going to be coming over the wall next, orders the tank crewmen into copse#2 and runs after them.
9) The SS in copse#2 return fire as my group arrives and a firefight ensues.
10) Berezov's team, who had given us all their grenades which were to be thrown over the wall when we got there find themselves in possession of Grozny Kolkhoz but are unloaded with an SS Squad about thirty metres away, finally come to their senses and start to reload.
11) According to Morozov's interrogation there is an intense discussion in copse# 2 which results in a crewman rushing over to the immobilised tank under fire from my squad and diving inside.
12) A few seconds later, just as Berezov is getting ready to charge round the corner to the tank (and, incidentally running head first into the hull MG if the tank had still been occupied) there is a muffled explosion and a huge plume of smoke from the tank as the crewman sets off the self destruct mechanism in the hull but is caught in the explosion.
13) Simultaneously the firefight intensifies and a couple of SS men are hit but so unfortunately Kusnetsov and Lebedev are also hit.
14) As the firefight continues it is obvious that the SS are pulling out.
15) We bandage our wounded and collect a couple of prisoners and quickly pull out also before the mortars arrive.
Conclusion - I think it would be best if the NKVD confined themselves to guarding Lenin's Tomb in future. We achieved our objective by a combination of Kusnetzov's skill and some blind luck.
Postscript - Trooper Lebedev will be out of action from 2-3 weeks and Sniper Kusnetzov for about the same.
HQ have sent two replacements for our losses - thankfully neither of them raw recruits. Trooper Iryutsk was a history of art student at Moscow and Trooper Petrov is an older guy, seemingly once a senior party official from Demyansk. Hopefully he will not be some apparatchik slumming it with the troops by way of padding out a post war career.
Dimitry Vinogradov
Kanev
My Squad at present consists of:
Myself (PPSH)
Trooper Morozov (Rifle)
Trooper Borovich (Rifle)
Trooper Ilyutsk (Rifle)
Trooper Petrov (PPSH)
Troopers Volkov, Lebedev and Smirnov in hospital at Kanev.
Volkov out for another 6 weeks
Lebedev out for 15 days
Smirnov - unknown
Click here to go to individual episodes:
http://www.spodilicious.com/five-men-in-ukraine-30-october-1943.html
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http://www.spodilicious.com/five-men-in-ukraine-14-november-1943.html
http://www.spodilicious.com/five-men-in-ukraine-29-november-1943.html
http://www.spodilicious.com/five-men-in-ukraine-30-october-1943.html
http://www.spodilicious.com/five-men-in-ukraine-05-november-1943.html
http://www.spodilicious.com/five-men-in-ukraine-14-november-1943.html
http://www.spodilicious.com/five-men-in-ukraine-29-november-1943.html
