At the end of June 1941 III/IR9 was wood-clearing around a road
north-east of the city of Bialystok, near the village of Krynki. A
arrogantly insisted on pushing ahead of the road clearance through
pressed on and was barely out of sight of the supporting German
infantry before the vehicles were heard to stop. Inhuman shrieks of
pain soon rent the air, interspersed with shouted commands
in Russian. Major Haeften, the infantry company commander, ordered a
hasty assault to rescue the ambushed antitank platoon. The lead
platoon led by Feldwebel Gottfried Becker encountered a scene of
They were sickened by what they saw.
the greater their appreciation of the atrocities visited upon the
eyes gouged out, others their throats cut. Some had their bayonets
stuck in their chests. Two soldiers had their uniform jackets and
shirts ripped apart and their naked stomachs slit open, glistening
entrails hung out of the bloody mass. Two more had their
a
another retched into the road; a third man stood and stared, his body
convulsing as he silently wept. News swept quickly through the
division. The regimental commander had objected to the Commissar
Order, but the next political commissar captured was handed without
scruple to the military police and shot
|
|
')){kind=link}