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On 19/12/2014 05:39, Erinnerungen wrote:
> The story of the German capture of the bridge at Novgorod Severskiy in
> late August of 1941.
>
> The 3rd Panzer Division had been moving down the road from Starodub to
> the south for the past five hours. Its commander, Lieutenant-General
> Model, was in his jeep at the head of his headquarters group, which
> included an armoured scout-car, the radio-van, motor-cycle orderlies,
> and several jeeps for his staff. The infantrymen cursed whenever the
> column tore past them, making the dust rise in even thicker clouds.
> Model, leading in his jeep, pointed to an old windmill on the left of
> the road. The jeep swung over a little bridge across a stream and
> drove into a field of stubble. Maps were brought out; a headquarters
> staff conference was held on the bare ground. The radio-van pushed up
> its tall aerials. Motor-cycle orderlies roared off and returned.
> Model's driver went down to the stream with two field-buckets to get
> some water for washing. Model polished his monocle. Bright and
> sparkling, it was back in his eye when Lieutenant-Colonel von
> Lewinski, CO of 6th Panzer Regiment, came to report.
> A Russian map, scale 1:50,000, was spread out on a case of
> hand-grenades.
> "Where is this windmill?"
> "Here, sir." Model's pencil-point ran from the hill with the windmill
> right across on to the adjoining sheet which the orderly officer was
> holding. The pencil line ended by the little town of Novgorod
> Severskiy.
> "How much farther?"
> The Intelligence officer already had his dividers on the map.
> "Twenty-two miles, Herr General."
> The radio-operator brought a signal from the advanced detachment.
> "Stubborn resistance at Novgorod. Strong enemy bridgehead on the
> western bank of the Desna to protect the two big bridges."
> "The Russians want to hold the Desna line." Model nodded.
> Certainly they wanted to. And for a good reason. The Desna valley was
> an excellent natural obstacle, 600-1000 yards wide.
> Enormous bridges were needed for crossing the river and its swampy
> banks. The big road-bridge at Novgorod Severskiy was nearly 800 yards
> long, and the smaller pedestrian bridge was not much shorter. Both
> were wooden bridges, and neither of them, according to the division's
> aerial reconnaissance squadron, had been blown up so far. But they
> were being defended by strong forces.
> "We must get one of those bridges intact, Lewinski," Model said to the
> Panzer Regiment commander. "Otherwise it'll take us days, or even
> weeks, to get across this damned river." Lewinski nodded. "We'll do
> what we can, Herr General." He saluted and left.
> "Let's go," Model said to his staff. As the main route of advance was
> congested with traffic the divisional staff drove along deep sandy
> forest tracks. Through thick woods their vehicles scrambled thirty
> miles deep into enemy territory. They might find themselves under fire
> at any moment. But if one were to consider that possibility one would
> never make any progress at all.
> From ahead came the noise of battle. The armoured spearheads had made
> contact with the Russians. Motor-cycle troops were exchanging fire
> with Russian machine-guns. The artillery was moving into position with
> one heavy battery. Through his field-glasses Model could see the
> towers of the beautiful churches and monasteries of Novgorod Severskiy
> on the high ground on the western bank of the river. Beyond those
> heights was the Desna valley with its two bridges.
> Russian artillery opened fire from the town. Well-aimed fire from
> 15.2-cm. batteries. The artillery was the favourite arm of the
> of war," Stalin was to say in a future Order of the Day. The plop of
> mortar batteries now mingled with the general noise. A moment later
> the first mortar-bombs were crashing all around. Model was injured in
> But a shell got Colonel Ries, the commander of 75th Artillery
> Regiment. He died on the way to the dressing-station.
> Low-level attack by Russian aircraft. "Anti-aircraft guns into
> action!"
> The enemy's artillery was now finding its range. Time to change
> position.
> The 6th Panzer Regiment and the motor-cycle battalion launched their
> attack that very evening at dusk. But the tanks were held up by wide
> anti-tank ditches with tree-trunks rammed in. The infantry regiment
> which was to have attacked the Russians from the north-west at the
> same moment had got stuck somewhere on the sandy roads.
> Everything stop! The attack was postponed until the following morning.
> At 0500 everything flared up again. The artillery used its heavy guns
> to flatten the anti-tank obstacles. Engineers blasted lanes through
> them. Forward! The Russians were fighting furiously and relentlessly
> in some places, but in others their resistance was half-hearted and
> thirty-five and forty-five, largely without previous military service
> and with no more than a few days' training now. Naturally they did not
> behind them. German tanks, self-propelled guns, and motorcycle
> infantry drove into the soft spots.
> At 0700 hours First Lieutenant Vopel, with a handful of tanks from his
> 2nd Troop and with armoured infantry-carriers of 1st Company, 394th
> Rifle Regiment, took up a position north of Novgorod Severskiy. His
> task was to give support to an engineers assault detachment under
> 800-yard-long wooden bridge. First Lieutenant Buchterkirch of 6th
> Panzer Regiment, who was Model's specialist in operations against
> bridges, had joined the small combat group with his tanks. Towards
> 0800 a huge detonation and cloud farther south indicated that the
> Russians had blown up the smaller bridge.
> Everything now depended on Storck and Buchterkirch's operation.
> Storck and his men in the armoured infantry-carriers took no notice
> whatever of what was happening to the right or left of them. They shot
> their way through Russian columns. They raced across tracks knee-deep
> in sand. Under cover of the thick dust-clouds they infiltrated among
> retreating Russian columns of vehicles. They drove through the
> northern part of the town. They raced down into the river valley to
> the huge bridge.
> "It's still there!" Buchterkirch called out. Driver, radio-operator,
> and gunner all beamed. "Anti-tank gun by the bridge!
> Straight at it!" the lieutenant commanded. The Russians fled. Second
> Lieutenant Storck and his men leaped from their armoured carriers.
> They raced up on to the bridge. They overcame the Russian guard.
> There, along the railings, ran the wires of the demolition charges.
> They tore them out. Over there were the charges themselves. They
> pushed them into the water. Drums of petrol were dangling from the
> rafters on both sides. They slashed the ropes. With a splash the drums
> Sergeant Heyeres and Sergeant Strucken. Corporal Fuhn and
> Lance-corporal Beyle were dragging the machine-gun. Now and again they
> ducked, first on one side then on the other, behind the big
> water-containers and sand-bins.
> Suddenly Storck pulled himself up. The sergeant did not even have to
> middle of the bridge lay a heavy Soviet aerial bomb, primed with a
> time-fuse. Calmly Storck unscrewed the detonator. It was a race
> against death. Would he make it? He made it. The five of them combined
> to heave the now harmless bomb out of the way.
> They ran on. Only now did they realize what 800 yards meant. There did
> not seem to be an end to the bridge. At last they reached the far side
> and fired the prearranged flare signal for the armoured spearhead.
> Bridge clear.
> Buchterkirch in his tank had meanwhile driven cautiously down the bank
> and moved under the bridge. Vopel with the rest of the tanks provided
> cover from the top of the bank.
> That was just as well. For the moment the Russians realized that the
> Germans were in possession of the bridge they sent in demolition
> explosive charges, and Molotov cocktails. They ran under the bridge
> and climbed into the beams.
> Coolly Buchterkirch opened up at them with his machine-gun from the
> other side. Several drums of petrol exploded. But wherever the flames
> threatened to spread to the bridge squads of engineers were on the
> spot instantly, putting them out. Furiously, Soviet artillery tried to
> crawled under the planking of the bridge and removed a set of
> would have been enough to touch them off.
> Half an hour later tanks, motor-cycle units, and self-propelled guns
> were moving across the bridge. The much-feared Desna position, the
> gateway to the Ukraine, had been blasted open. A handful of men and a
> few resolute officers had decided the first act of the campaign
> against the Ukraine. Russia's grain areas lay wide open ahead of
> Guderian's tanks. Under a brilliant sunny late-summer sky they rolled
> southward.
> some plaster on the back of his injured left hand when General Model's
> armoured command-vehicle came over the bridge.
> The Second Lieutenant made his report. Model was delighted. "This
> Russian gunners again started shelling the bridge. But their
> gun-laying was bad, and the shells fell in the water. The General
> drove down the bank. Tanks of 1st Battalion, 6th Panzer Regiment,
> followed by 2nd Company, 394th Rifle Regiment, were moving into the
> mortars and the rattle of machine-guns, interspersed by the sharp bark
> of the 5-cm. tank cannon of Lieutenant Vopel's 2nd Company. The
> Russians rallied what forces they could and, supported by tanks and
> artillery, threw them against the still small German bridgehead. They
> tried to eliminate it and recapture the bridge of Novgorod
> But Model knew what the bridge meant. He did not need Guderian's
> reminder over the telephone: "Hold it at all costs!" The bridge was
> their chance of getting rapidly behind Budennyy's Army Group
> South-west by striking from the north. If Kleist's Panzer Group,
> operating farther south, under Rundstedt's Army Group South, pushed
> across the lower Dnieper and wheeled north, a most enormous pocket
> would be formed, one beyond the wildest dreams of any strategist.
>
> ....Hitler Moves East by Paul Carell
>
That is superbly written. I must find a copy of the book.
--
Moving Things In Still Pictures
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