Battles of the Russian Front

The German Retreat from Stalingrad

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Even as the operation to eliminate von Paulus’ foothold in Stalingrad proceeded, Stavka planned operations to destroy German forces in the Caucasus. This plan included cutting through left flank of Army Group A, commanded by General Kleist, at Elista. A second operation would attack north toward Aravir from the Terek River through the Caucasus passes. A third attack envisioned movements by Vatutin’s and Yeremenko’s forces down the Don River to Rostov. Stavka’s goal was to clear the Caucasus for good.

General Kleist’s analysis of his situation found the Soviet forces 65 kilometers from Rostov while his own units were nearly 630 kilometers from Rostov. Initially, Hitler prohibited a retreat only to authorize a tactical retreat the next day stipulating that Kleist bring all his equipment and supplies with him. General Kleist possessed 18 divisions, including 11 Panzer divisions, one Panzer Grenadier Division and seven infantry divisions. They covered a 160-kilometer front between Zmyev and Slavyansk.

Stavka’s plan ordered Voronezh Front, commanded by General F.I. Golikov, with four infantry armies, a tank army, and an air army, to capture the Liski-Kantemirovka railway. They ordered Southwest Front, commanded by General N.F. Vatutin., with three infantry armies, an air army, and a Front Mobile Group, to establish itself at Starobelsk and attack toward the Black Sea coast at Mariupol. These two fronts possessed 54 divisions and ten tank corps. Both fronts had fought through the entire Stalingrad campaign and bordered on exhaustion. Additionally, the goals of these fronts required advancing on diverging axes with no troops to fill the gap.

To the north, Army Group B fielded 19 divisions. Army Group Don possessed 18 divisions. Field Marshal von Manstein now commanded these forces. Von Manstein demanded permission to withdraw from Rostov to the Mius River line. He received a summons from Hitler to discuss this demand on 6 February, 1943. He went to meet Hitler with some trepidation, but, to von Manstein’s surprise, Hitler authorized a tactical withdrawal and advised von Manstein he would transfer divisions from France to the Ukraine.

As it happened, the Soviets took Voronezh on 26 January, and Kursk on 8 February, 1943.

In the Caucasus the race for Rostov proceeded. The Soviets outran their supply facilities and administrative skills. They possessed less than half the transport needed to bring up food, fuel, and ammunition to cut off the German forces at Rostov. When they took Rostov on 14 February, Kleist and his Army group A had already passed through. Kleist was promoted to field marshal as a result.

On 16 February the Soviets took Kharkov and Voroshilovgrad. In Kharkov the Soviets found the city population of 900,000 had been reduced to 300,000 inhabitants. The Germans had deported 12,000 to German labor camps and 70,000 to 80,000 had died of hunger and cold. Thirty thousand, including sixteen thousand Jews, had been slaughtered.

Soviet forces captured Pavlograd, 32 kilometers from the Dnieper River on 17 February. Kuznetson’s tanks arrived in the vicinity of von Manstein’s headquarters at Zaporozhye.

Sources: Red Army Resurgent, John Shaw and the Editors of Time-Life Books, Time-Life Books, Inc., Chicago, IL, 1979

“Soviet Setback after Stalingrad”, Geoffrey Jukes, History of the Second World War Magazine, 1970s

Stalingrad Falls

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On 10 January 1943, at 0805 the Soviet bombardment of Stalingrad began. Along with thousands of guns and mortars, the 16th Air Army joined in supporting the Don Front offensive.

At 0900 the 21st and 24th Armies struck from southeast of Vertyachi eastward toward the Red October factory. Another attack by the 57th and 64th Armies advanced from south of Tysbenko toward Basargino Station, while a third force formed by the 62nd and the 66th Armies attacked towards Gorodisheche.

By the evening of 13 January the 65th and 21st Armies reached the west bank of the Rossochka River. Pitomnik airfield fell to the Soviets on 14 January.

In seven days the Germans lost 780 square kilometers of the 1430 square kilometers they had occupied.

Don Front entered Stalingrad on 17 January.

The final phase of ‘Operation Ring’ consisted of a general assault against the entire front of the German Stalingrad forces. The 21st Army took Gumrak airfield on 21 January and entered the Red October workers’ settlement. The right flank of 65th Army threatened Alexandrovka and the northern edge of the Red October factory.

On 22 January the German VI Army retreated into the city itself. The 21st, 57th, and 64th Soviet Armies utilized 4,100 guns and mortars to advance ten to fifteen kilometers from 22 January to 25 January.

Hitler discussed using a battalion of Panther tanks to take supplies to the surrounded VI Army. Major von Zitzewitz advised Hitler that, if a Panzer Army couldn’t get through the Soviet cordon, a battalion certainly couldn’t. He recommended the VI Army surrender. Hitler’s response was that surrender was out of the question. The surrounded army must resist to the end.

In sixteen days the VI Army lost 94 square kilometers of territory and 100,000 men killed, wounded, or captured.

At last Soviet tanks entered the ruined factories on the north side of Stalingrad. The 21st Army advanced to the Volga River, joining the 62nd Army, thus cutting the German forces in two. The southern sector held the city’s center. The northern sector included the Tractor Factory and the Barricades.

On 27 January the Soviets began destroying the remnants of VI Army. The 21st, 57th, and 64th Armies were tasked with destroying the southern group. General Shumilov’s 64th Army crossed the Tsaritsa River and entered the city’s center.

On 30 January Hitler promoted General von Paulus to field marshal. No field marshal had ever surrendered. On the night of 30/31 January the 38th Motorized Rifle Brigade besieged the Central Department Store and captured Lieutenant General Schmitt and Field Marshal von Paulus. The southern group laid down its arms. Hitler wondered why von Paulus had not killed himself.

In the north General Schreck refused to surrender. A barrage of gunfire descended on the northern sector and they surrendered on 2 February.

To the north, on 13 January, General Golikov, commanding Voronezh Front, hammered the II Hungarian and VIII Italian Armies taking 80,000 prisoners and advancing 145 kilometers toward Kharkov. Already STAVKA formed plans for a strategic offensive using the Voronezh, South-West, South, and North Caucasus Fronts. South Front would strike toward Rostov.

Sources: The Soviet Air Force in World War II, translated by Leland Fetzer, Edited by Ray Wagner, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1973

Red Army Resurgent, John Shaw and the Editors of Time-Life Books, Time-Life Books, Inc., Chicago, IL, 1979

“Stalingrad: The Relief,” Colonel Alexander M. Samsonov, History of the Second World War Magazine, 1970s

“Soviet Setback after Stalingrad,” Geoffrey Jukes, History of the Second World War Magazine, 1970s

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Reducing the Stalingrad Pocket

The Soviet Air Force remained busy during December 1942 supporting 3rd Guards Army and 5th Tank Army’s attacks against German concentrations near Kotelnikovo. 2nd and 17th Air Armies provided 455 aircraft opposing the Luftwaffe’s 450. When 3rd Composite Air Corps joined the 17th Air Army the balance of power shifted to the Soviet side.

Deteriorating weather interrupted air support for the engaged forces until 15 December when the weather again improved. The Soviet Southwest Front went on the offensive on 16 December with the Air Force attacking German defensive lines and troop concentrations at Toerdockhlevovka, Radchenskoye, Boguchev, and airfields at Tatsinskaya and Morozovsk.

On 18 December the 16th Air Army struck enemy forces near Karpovka with 100 aircraft. This attack allowed Soviet forces to break through the German defense lines. By the end of 21 December Soviet air action closed all escape routes for the Italian 8th Army.

The 24th Tank Corps commanded by Major General V.M. Badanov, took the airfields and rail line at Tatsinskaya destroying 350 German aircraft, five equipment dumps, and seven warehouses.

By this time the 2nd Guards Army, reinforced by 6th and 7th Tank Corps, had a two to one superiority in men and tanks, and a 1.6 to 1 superiority in artillery. The Germans still had air superiority 1.7 to 1.

The Soviet 2nd Guards Army forced the German withdrawal from the Aksay River. On 25 December General Rotmistrov’s 7th Tank Corps crossed the river seizing Generalovsky.

On Christmas Day General von Paulus authorized the slaughter of 400 horses for food.

By 28 December the Soviets cut off all escape routes going west and southwest from Kotelnikovo. They also captured another airfield where they acquired fifteen aircraft, 800 cans of petrol, and large numbers of heavy bombs. The next day they captured Kotelnikovo itself.

General S. I. Bogdonov’s forces moved toward Rotmistrov’s corps forcing a general German withdrawal to Rostov.

General Malinovsky took Tormosin on 31 December capturing German supplies for Army Group Don.

As the German relief force fell back the distance between them and the surrounded Stalingrad forces increased to 200 to 250 kilometers. Seven Soviet armies now surrounded the Stalingrad pocket. Within the pocket ammunition, fuel, and food was running out. Eighty thousand German soldiers were lost to sickness and wounds leaving 250,000 remaining. Soviet aircraft shot down any remaining supply transports.

On 1 January, 1943, Adolf Hitler promised von Paulus that everything was being done to get them out. Meanwhile, Von Paulus set up a dense defense network.

The Soviet Don Front received reinforcements. The Stalingrad Front, operating on the inner front included the 57th, 62nd, and 64th Armies. The plan for liquidating the Stalingrad pocket, Operation ‘Ring’, was authorized on 4 January.

65th Army had a superiority over the surrounded German forces in the Stalingrad pocket of three to two in guns and mortars, and three to one in aircraft. The Germans superiority in men and tanks was six to five.

On 8 January the Soviets issued an ultimatum giving the Germans until 1000 hours 9 January to surrender. This ultimatum was rejected.

Leaflets rained down on Stalingrad on 9 January offering troops safety if they surrendered. Resisters would be wiped out. Von Paulus forbade any discussion of surrender.

On 10 January, at 0805 hours, artillery and air bombardment began.

Sources: The Soviet Air Force in World War II, translated by Leland Fetzer, Edited by Ray Wagner, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1973

Red Army Resurgent, John Shaw and the Editors of Time-Life Books, Time-Life Books, Inc., Chicago, IL, 1979

“Stalingrad: The Relief,” Colonel Alexander M. Samsonov, History of the Second World War Magazine, 1970s

Stalingrad

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General Hermann Hoth’s Fourth Panzer Army finally arrived south of Stalingrad, after its turn at Kotelnikovo, and attacked the Soviet 64th Army commanded by Major General M. S. Shumilov. In the hill country, the 64th Army fought the Fourth Panzer Army to a standstill on 23 August.

As the area around Red Square burned, 6,000 soldiers were ferried across the Volga River and sent north to confront Lieutenant General Hans Hube’s 16th Panzer Division which entered Stalingrad from the west striking toward the tractor factory on the north end of the city. These soldiers, with the assistance of unpainted T-34 tanks from the factory driven by factory workers, stopped this attack.

Adolf Hitler moved his headquarters from Rastenburg, East Prussia to Vinnitsa, Ukraine on 25 August. On the same date a state of siege was declared in Stalingrad.

Marshal Semyon K. Timoshenko was quietly removed from command of the defense of Stalingrad, and replaced by the savior of Moscow, General Georgy Zhukov, with Varonov in charge of artillery, and Novikov in charge of the Soviet Air Force in the Stalingrad area.

General Hoth’s troops sidestepped the Soviet position in the hills south of Stalingrad and attacked on 30 August penetrating the Soviet fortification at Gavrilovka. This move threatened to drive a wedge between the Soviet 64th and 62nd Armies. The 64th Army retreated into the city.

Turning east Hoth’s Fourth Panzer Army struck into the city and reached the Volga River south of the grain elevator on 10 September.

Lieutenant General Aleksandr I. Lopatin, commanding the 62nd Army, was relieved of command on 12 September and replaced by General Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov who promised he would hold the city or die there.

On the same date, Lieutenant General Friedrich von Paulus and General Maximillian von Weichs were called to Hitler’s headquarters in Vinnitsa. He told them it was vital to take Stalingrad and the banks of the Volga River. Von Paulus voiced concerns about the northern flank of the Sixth Army, at which point Hitler reassured him the allied armies were watching the Volga banks in that area.

Von Paulus launched his main offensive on 13 September after an artillery bombardment.

On the 14th of September Chuikov moved his headquarters from the threatened Mamayev Hill to the bunker in the Tsaritsa Gorge.

The Luftwaffe bombed Soviet forces, concentrating on the railroad station where the Soviets kept their last reserve of tanks.

Under severe pressure, Chuikov knew he had to keep the Germans from taking the Volga River ferry landing. Without that the 10,000 soldier of the 13th Guards Division, commanded by Major General Alexandr Ilyich Rodintsev, would not be able to reinforce the defenders.

Rodintsev’s soldiers landed on the west bank of the Volga on 15 September and were able to retake Mamayev Hill on the 16th.

The battle for Stalingrad took on the appearance of a house-by-house fight. This erased the German army’s superiority in training and teamwork allowing the Soviets to take advantage of their knowledge of the city to pop up behind the German lines and force them to fight back through areas they had already taken.

By 21 September the Germans cleared all of the Tsaritsa Gorge and positioned themselves within a few yards of the landing stage forcing Chuikov to move his headquarters to the Matveyev-Kurgon area.

Sources: Red Army Resurgent, John Shaw and the Editors of Time-Life Books, Time-Life Books, Inc., Chicago, IL, 1979

“Drive to the Don,” Alan Clark, History of the Second World War Magazine, 1970s

“Stalingrad: The Onslaught,” Alan Clark, History of the Second World War Magazine, 1970s

The Battle for Moscow – Part 1

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With the invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June, 1941, a state of threat existed in Moscow. The Soviet Army began building 12 divisions for the defense of the city. Twenty-five battalions of militia patrolled the outskirts of the city against the chance of parachute troop assaults. Firefighting units were established. Citizens camouflaged the Bolshoi Theater to look like small houses. Larger buildings were made to appear like parks from the air.

German night air raids on the city began on the night of 21-22 July. Thirty-six took place during the period from July through September.

The citizens of Moscow built the Vyazma Defense Line and, on 16 July work on the Mozhaysk Defense Line began. One hundred thousand citizens of the city, 2/3rds women and children, built three lines of defenses around the city. These were known as the Ring Road, the Sadovoye Ring, and the Boulevard Ring. Six hundred eighty kilometers of anti-tank ditches, 447 kilometers of breastworks, 383 kilometers of anti-tank barriers, 30,000 firing points, 1,306 kilometers of barbed wire, and 1,537 kilometers of wooden obstructions in wooded areas were built.

Obstacles including metal spikes, barbed wire entanglements, and minefields were placed in the streets.

In the factories of Moscow workers repaired 263 guns, 1,700 mortars, 15,000 rifles and 2,000 lorries.

Partisan groups were organized and armed with rifles, grenades, warm uniforms, and food. Forty detachments formed in Moscow with another 30 in Tula.

On 8 October heavy rain slowed the movement of the German forces. IV Army reached the area east of Kaluga, their left on the Borovsk – Mozhaysk Line. IX Army reached the Volga at Kalinin and Rzhev. General Guderian’s forces established positions on either side of the Bryansk Pocket but the weather and fuel and supply shortages hindered his operations.

Marshal Zhukov, hero of the battle at Kalkin Gol in Mongolia, took command of the Western Front. General Konev commanded the Kalinin Front.

Fighting around Vyazma ended on 14 October. The Germans liquidated the Bryansk Pocket on 20 October. Field Marshal von Bock, in his report of 19 October, claimed the destruction of eight Soviet armies, but he worried about his southern flank where a gap between Army Group South opened near Belgorod due to the slow advance of II Army.

OKH issued new orders on 14 October. II Panzer Army was to move on Moscow from the south and east while IV Army and IV Panzer Gruppe were to close in from the north and west. II Army was released from Bryansk. II Panzer Army received orders to move on the Orel – Kursk – Yelets line to protect Army Group Center’s southern flank.

The season of mud began in the second half of October. The only paved road in Byelorussia connected Smolensk and Moscow. This road, torn up by traffic and Soviet bombing forced the Germans to form road crews to fill the craters. Traffic bogged down. Horses died from overwork and starvation. Communications were cut and air support was unavailable.

Sources: “Battle for Moscow: The Soviet View,” Colonel D. Proektor, History of the Second World War Magazine, 1970s

“Battle for Moscow: The German View,” Generalmajor (AD) Alfred Phillippi, History of the Second World War Magazine, 1970s

Barbarossa-22 June, 1941

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The German attack on the Soviet Union was not un-telegraphed. For months German troops and tanks gathered in Poland, yet Josef Stalin trusted Adolf Hitler. On the fateful day German artillery began bombarding the Soviet front lines. Luftwaffe aircraft crossed the frontier at 0300.

The German’s three pronged attack spanned a 3,200 kilometer front. Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb commanded Army Group North. Army Group South, commanded by General Gerd von Rundstedt invaded south of the Pripyat Marshes into the Ukraine. Army Group Center, under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock advanced toward Minsk, aiming to take that and Smolensk on the way to Moscow.

When Stalin’s troops invaded Poland in September 1939 he did not fortify the front. Instead, he relied on the fortifications established pre-1939.

Disorganized, with little support from artillery or aircraft, and no defense plans, the Soviet troops fell back in disarray. The Germans bypassed organized resistance. The fortress at Brest-Litovsk, surrounded with no chance of escape, held out for four days.

In the air the Luftwaffe reigned supreme, hitting airfields, anti-aircraft artillery, and aircraft on the ground. They claimed 322 aircraft shot down and 1,489 destroyed on the ground. The Soviet Air Force launched 1,900 sorties on 23 June attacking tank and troop concentrations and claiming 100 German aircraft destroyed.

By 23 June Soviet forces retreated from Bialystok. The German Army Group Center thrust out two arms to surround Soviet forces near Minsk. General Bock felt the Soviets were retreating to prevent his intended encirclement. He commanded his forces to take Polotsk and Vitebsk on the Dvina River to prevent the establishment of a defense line behind the River.

On 24 June the Panzer Gruppen occupied Slonim in the south and Wilno in the north and prepared to close their trap. The main crossing on the River Bug was taken. As the encirclement developed tanks outpaced the infantry and gaps between them appeared. In the east the tankers found they could not contain infantry units effectively. Many Soviet troops escaped and fell back to reorganize.

As the Germans tightened the encirclement, the large pocket degenerated into several smaller pockets. One around Bialystok and another around Volkovsk. Making use of the dense forests around Bialystok and using ration and ammunition dumps the resourceful and tough Soviet soldiers progressed northeastward toward Novogrudok, but were encircled again on 29 June. The double envelopment captured the Soviet 3rd and 10th Armies.

The next step was to capture the ‘Land Bridge’ between the Dvina and the Dnieper rivers. First there was the reconsolidation of Army Group Center. The infantry would replace the Panzers in the job of containing the Soviet soldiers now surrounded, while the tanks advanced toward Smolensk, the next objective.

Sources: Barbarossa: The Shock, Lieutenant General N. K. Popel, History of the Second World War Magazine, 1970s

Barbarossa: Drive to Smolensk, Generalmajor Alfred Philippi, History of the Second World War Magazine, 1970s

The Soviet Air Force in World War II, Edited by Ray Wagner, Translated by Leland Fetzer, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1973World War II: Day by Day, Anthony Shaw, MBI Publishing Company, Osceola, WI, 2001

Kharkov: von Manstein’s Riposte

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Soviet pressure on the German forces in Kharkov pushed Grossdeutschland back into the northeast corner of the city. Lieutenant General Pavel Rybalko’s Third Tank Army attacked the entire front of the German forces from the east and southeast, while Sokolov’s 6th Guards Cavalry Corps applied pressure on a wide arc south of Kharkov.

On 15 February, 1943, Major General G. M. Zaitzev’s 62nd Guards Rifle Division broke into the southeast quadrant of the city pressing Leibstandarte back while Koptsov’s 15th Tank Corps battled them in the factory district. Moskalenko’s 40th Army forced its way into the north side near Red Square while Kravchenko’s 5th Guards Tank Army threatened the Germans’ retreat path.

At 1100 hours von Manstein ordered Totenkopf to block Kravchenko. A battle group of the Leibstandarte stood firm against Sokolov’s 6th Guards Cavalry Corps. By noon the Germans began fighting a withdrawing action. Von Manstein remained reluctant to defy Hitler’s orders to hold the city at all costs. But Lieutenant General Paul Hausser retreated from the city.

Hitler, himself, relieved Lanz from command of his detachment and assigned the unit to General Kemp, who set the detachment up facing northeast from Akhtyrka to Borova, in front of Voronezh Front’s drive to the Dnieper River.

STAVKA ordered 40th and 69th Armies to move on Poltava while Rybalko’s Third Tank Army covered Kharitonov’s right flank.

In the midst of the crisis Hitler arrived at Zaporozhye on the Dnieper River to discuss the situation with von Manstein. During the meeting on 17 February von Manstein proposed driving Vatutin’s Southwest Front back behind the Donets River using Colonel General Eberhard Makensen’s 1st Panzer Army, Colonel General Herman Hoth’s 4th Panzer Army, and Hausser’s SS Panzer Corps.

The attack began on 19 February. Hausser’s SS Panzer Corp assembled near Kraznograd. Knobelsdorf’s 48th Panzer Corps and Kirchner’s 57th Panzer Corps struck northwest of Krasnoarmeiskoye while Makensen’s 1st Panzer Army moved out from south of the same city. Support was provided by Field Marshal Wolfram von Richthoffen’s Fourth Air Fleet. The Stuka’s attacked Popov’s and Kharitonov’s columns forming the Soviet spearhead nearing Dnepropetrovsk within 25 kilometers of the Dnieper River. Interestingly no discussion of Soviet Air support appears in The Soviet Air Force in WW II. Makensen’s 1st Panzer Army isolated Popov’s battle group while Hoth’s 2 Panzer Corps tore up Kharitonov’s 6th Army in five days.

Under STAVKA’s orders the 69th Army and Rybalko’s 3rd Tank Army advanced toward Poltava and Krasnograd leaving Moskolenko’s 40th Army alone at Kharkov to fight General Raus’ Grossdeutschland.

At this time things started to unravel for the Soviets. On 23 February Hausser’s SS Panzer Corps returned to the battle, mauling Kharitonov’s 6th Army. Rybalko’s 3rd Tank Army, fighting to open a corridor to Kharitonov’s 6th Army at Kegichevka east of Krasnograd, was immediately attacked by Das Reich and Totenkopf Divisions. Vatutin’s Southwest front began full retreat on 28 February.

Sources: Manstein’s Victorious Panzers, William E. Welsh, WW II History Magazine, Aug/Sept 2020

Kursk: The Clash of Armour, Geoffrey Jukes, Ballantine Books, New York, NY, 1968

Soviet Setback After Stalingrad, Geoffrey Jukes, History of the Second World War Magazine,

Hans-Ulrich Rudel–Stuka Pilot

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Hans-Ulrich Rudel’s name and the story of the Stuka (Junkers 87) belong together. The crank-winged dive bomber became legend during the attack on Poland in September 1939, and the blitzkrieg through France and the Low Countries in spring 1940. It fell out of the sky like a bird of prey, siren screaming, spraying machine gun fire, and dropping bombs on fleeing civilians on crowded country roads, leaving the dead, and wounded in its wake.

The Stuka lost some of its luster during the Battle of Britain in summer, 1940. The British Hurricanes and Spitfires found the Ju-87 an easy kill.

The Stuka again ruled the skies over Crete and during the invasion of the Soviet Union. German fighters cleared the skies of Soviet machines, most of which were left overs from the days of the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.

Deemed an average pilot in training, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, volunteered to fly the Stuka in lieu of flying bombers. He spent his early years as a flight instructor before being assigned to 3 Gruppe, Stukageschwader 2, Immelmann. Rudel quickly gained a reputation for diving quite low and achieving remarkable accuracy. During the siege of Leningrad, on 16 September, 1941, the Luftwaffe, caught the Soviet battleship Marat at sea. Rudel hit it with a 500 kilogram bomb, damaging it and sending it back to Kronstadt harbor. There he hit it again, this time with a 1,000 kilogram bomb, breaking its back.

Rudel flew his 500th sortie in September, 1942, and his 1,000th on 10 February, 1943. By this time the Ju-87D replaced the Ju-87B model. Rudel helped to evaluate the Ju-87G model. This variant carried a 37 mm cannon under each wing which fired shells with tungsten cores. These shells made short work of the thin, rear armor plate of the Soviet tanks. During the Battle for the Kursk Salient in July 1943, Rudel destroyed twelve tanks on the first day. He often flew at an altitude of five to ten meters above ground level on his attack runs. (Please refer to previous blogs on Hitler’s Airborne Anti-Tank Guns Part 1, February 2017, and Part 2, March 2017.)

During the battle for Cherkassy and the Korsun pocket in August 1943 (please refer to my blog of October 2017) on the Dnieper River, Rudel continued his destruction of Soviet tanks . By March 1944 his unit operated at the Dniester Bridgehead farther north.

Hans-Ulrich Rudel was a proponent of ‘tank-busting.’ During his career he destroyed at least 519 tanks. Some sources credit him with many more. He flew 2,530 combat sorties, more than any other pilot flying on the Eastern Front. He rescued six air crews by landing in the midst of battles to pick them up. Shot down by anti-aircraft fire at least 30 times, he was never shot down by a fighter. In addition to the Marat, he sank two cruisers and one destroyer.

Near the end of the war he was wounded by a fragment from an exploding Stalin tank, resulting in the amputation of his right leg. His left leg was put in a cast.

When Germany surrendered, Rudel, directed to surrender to the Russian, instead surrendered to the Americans. After the war he moved to Paraguay where he lived for thirty years until returning to Germany where he died of a brain hemorrhage 21 December, 1982, at the age of 66.

Sources: Warplanes of the Third Reich, William Green, Doubleday and Company, Inc., Garden City, NY, 1972

War Over the Steppes, The Air Campaigns of the Eastern Front 1941-1945, E. R. Hooton, Osprey Publishing, New York, NY, 2016

‘He was ‘worth an entire division.”‘ Ludwig Heinrich Dyck, WW II History, Sovereign Media Company, Inc., February, 2020

 

Women Fighter Pilots of the Soviet Union

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During the Great Patriotic War (World War II) many women in the Soviet Union flew fighter aircraft in combat. These women were generally underappreciated by their peers (the men they flew with), and the Soviet public. Only a few names are known in the West. The 586th Women’s Fighter Regiment, along with the 587th Women’s Bomber Regiment, and the 588th Women’s Night Bomber Regimen, was formed by Marina Raskova by order of Josef Stalin in late 1941. These units consisted of all women, including the mechanics. The 586th Regiment assigned to Saratov in the summer of 1942.

The 586th Fighter Air Regiment contained other women pilots of note. Valentina Petrochenkova and a woman comrade chased a reconnaissance bomber quite beyond their area of operation until they ran out of ammunition. Valeria Khomyakova shot down a night bombing Ju-88 and inspected the wreckage on the banks of the Volga. Galia Boordina infiltrated a Ju-88 bomber formation at night and shot down one of the aircraft.

The most famous woman fighter pilot Lilya Litvak began her career in the 586th Fighter Air Regiment. Please refer to my previous blog, ‘Lilya Litvak.’ Katya Budenova gained nine victories and was a consummate fighter pilot. She kept her hair short and was always singing. She became Lilya’s wing mate in the 586th Fighter Air Regiment and followed her to the 73d Fighter Air Regiment, an all male unit. Eventually Lilya convinced the Regimental Commander Colonel Nikolai Baranov to let them fly, initially as wing mates on the colonel’s and Captain Alexei Salomaten’s wings.

Lilya, as the highest scoring woman ace in the Soviet Air Force, achieved a victory tally of 12 aerial kills plus three shared victories in 268 sorties over a period of less than a year of combat. She owes much of her fame to her mechanic, Ina Pasportnikova, who gave an interview to a Soviet newspaper reporter, and also to Bruce Myles, author of Night Witches, The Amazing Story of Russia’s Women Pilots in World War II.

Bruce Myles’ accounts add a personal touch to the harrowing life of a fighter pilot living in primitive conditions under severe mental and physical stress. The Ukraine, Russia’s bread basket, captured by the Germans in 1941, reduced Soviet food supplies. The rations consisted of one meal per day of bread with watery soup. Shower trains arrived at airfields at rare and irregular intervals. These allowed all personnel to get a hot shower. Women first.

In intervals between the arrivals of the shower trains, Lilya used slivers of soap and hot water drained from the radiator of her Yak fighter, mixed with cold water, to wash her hair. Colonel Nikolai Baranov turned a blind eye to that disobedience stating the Soviet Air Force could afford the loss of a bit of hot water. Lilya typically brought flowers into her cockpit before going flying and frequently wore a flower in her hat.

Colonel Baranov also allowed her to paint a white rose on both sides of her aircraft, number three, which she called “Troika.” Each aerial victory was celebrated by adding another white rose as a victory marking. She became known as the ‘White Rose of Stalingrad,’ and achieved notoriety among German airmen.

Lilya was shot down twice in three weeks, once making an emergency landing, another time bailing out of her flaming machine, she emerged from that period emotionally shaken. Her boyfriend, Captain Alexei Salomaten, was shot down and killed, and Lilya carried a photograph of them sitting together on the wing of her aircraft. After his death her friends became worried about her. She withdrew into herself and threw herself into her combat flying. Only her friend, Katya Budenova, was able to comfort her. When Katya was shot down and killed, Lilya was devastated.

Surprised as she attacked a formation of Ju-88s bombers, Lilya was killed in single combat with eight Bf-109s.

Sources: “Red Air Force Female Fighter Pilot Lilya Litvak Became an Ace and Hero of the Soviet Union Fighting the Germans” Michael D. Hull, WW II History Magazine, January 2005, Sovereign Media, Herndon, VA

Night Witches: The Amazing Story of Russia’s Women Pilots in World War II, Bruce Myles, Academy Chicago Publishers, Chicago, IL, Second Printing 1990

Writing in the Time of COVID-19

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It’s no joke. I hope everyone stays well in spite of the fact that we have lost more than 100k people in the United States and many more worldwide. Many of us have been sickened, and I know those numbers include writers.

Enter COVID-19 forcing me to self-isolate. Being introverted by nature, I have no problem social distancing. As a retired person, I spend most of my time at home in any event; reading and writing. The rough draft of my work in progress proceeded slowly, requiring much time doing research, thinking, planning and putting words on paper. Now I am beyond the rough draft. I am arranging the scenes, which requires a laptop. This is where the real creative work happens. Character development, adding action to dialogue, generating images to make the story come alive in the reader’s mind. 

My current struggle is getting my rough draft into some sort of order. I started with my opening scene–probably not surprisingly. The first page is in constant flux. Should I spend that page in setting the scene, introducing the main character, presenting the problem, or building the conflict? Mystery writers just need to have a body on the first page.

Moving beyond the first page I found the flow of the story moves in fits and starts, jerking from scene to scene like some Frankenstein’s monster learning to walk. For the reader the story must move freely, increasing the tension, challenging the main character to find solutions to problems, and then finding the solutions only complicate the problem. Most readers want relatable characters, conflict beyond World War II itself, a problem to solve, excitement along the way, and a believable and satisfying ending. Not too much to ask, is it?

Keeping the reader entertained and interested is the goal. I love a good dogfight, and the thrust of the battle to retake the Ukraine intrigues me. The Yakovlev fighter aircraft cries out for description. After all, it is one of the secondary characters, as is the Ukrainian Steppes. For some readers that may be enough, but, for those who are not World War II aviation aficionados, it just isn’t. 

And, when I feel I might be boring the reader, I procrastinate. I eat, nap, pet the cat, and watch the birds at my numerous bird feeders. I have hummingbirds, deer, and goslings in my back yard. Amazingly, I find my mind moves on resolving conflicts in the story line, and hearing the characters telling me more about themselves, even when I am apparently not listening.

Currently, I am re-writing the first third of the novel. The bones have arranged themselves. In some ways this part is easier and in other ways it’s more difficult. Fitting the pieces together to make a narrative challenges me. I must move some scenes forward in the manuscript and drop some later while maintaining the flow of the weather and the history of the battles in the correct sequences.

The main character’s love interest disappears in the smoke of battle and her heart breaks. But another two-thirds of the book looms ahead, so he must reappear. Right? And she is wrapped up in the battle herself, flying her fighter in the wild dogfights, and shooting down German aircraft.

For those of you working during this period, or, just as scary, not working during this period, and who can’t disappear into their writing, please know I salute your courage and willingness to carry on.