Soviet Union, battles of Kholm & Staraya Russa.-Maj. Theodor Scherer
with Knight's Cross (awarded on 22.2.1942), Commander of the
"Kampfgruppe Scherer", pipe smoking, and private with wounded soldiers
(?) in a building during battle.
The fortress area of Kholm measured barely a square mile, and later
shrank to only about half a square mile. It was held by 5000 to 5500
men. In parts, the front of the pocket ran right through the middle of
the town. The men knew every house, every ruin, every tree, and every
bomb-crater between the northern cemetery, the hairpin bend, the GPU
prison, and the police-station ravine. These were the four most
notorious strongpoints of the fortress. The town was being besieged by
three Soviet rifle divisions, who charged day after day.
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