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By Lyubov Tsarevskaya
The veterans of the war that this country fought against Nazi Germany from
1941 to 1945, a war that is locally known as the Great Patriotic war, keep
leaving this world. This makes their recollections of that war all the
more important to us. Retired Lieutenant-General of Armour Nikolai Orlov
shares his reminiscences of the war. After the war he taught at the
Academy of the Armoured Corps and was appointed professor.
I met Nikolai Orlov at his place and was pleased to see that at 81 he looks
smart and energetic, with bright hazel eyes and a sonorous voice and with
no deep wrinkles on his face. During the conversation that followed he
told me about the way he made it to the Stalingrad front.
“When the war broke out in 1941, Nikolai Orlov reminisced, I was only 19
and fresh from the armoured corps school in the city of Oryol. I had just
been sent to the Byelorussian capital, Minsk, to serve as platoon commander
in the local armoured corps school. Hardly had 10 days passed since my
arrival, when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union. The command took
the decision not to send us to the front line, but ordered that we should
instead leave for the city of Ulyanovsk, on the Volga river. In Ulyanovsk
we continued to get ready for combat. The Soviet Union was at war with
Germany, the Soviet troops were fiercely resisting the advancing Nazis,
so it was only natural that young Army officers went all out to get permission
to go to the front to defend our motherland. We bombarded our command with
requests to that end. Each Saturday I would post a letter to the Soviet
leader of that time - Joseph Stalin - asking him to help. I realized, of
course, that his aides wouldn't let my letters, and, possibly, thousands
of other similar letters, to reach his table. But our commanders knew that
young officers were bursting to go into action. Yet, it was not until July
1942 that my unit commander received a cabled order to send me to the Stalingrad
armoured corps centre. I joined a training tank battalion at the Stalingrad
tractor-making factory, which had by then concentrated on manufacturing
T-34 tanks. The T-34 was a very good tank, superior to German tanks in
many ways. At the factory I had my tank company formed and trained, and
on August 24th we were ordered to leave for the Don river to help the Soviet
troops, locked in fierce fighting with the Germans near Kalach. But on
the 23rd a German tank corps unexpectedly breached the Soviet troop defences
on the Don, and one tank division made directly for Stalingrad. The Nazis
turned the breach they effected into a corridor 70 kilometres (about 43,5
miles) deep and 8 kilometres (5 miles) wide, and it took them half-a-day
to reach the northern part of the city, - a mere 1,5 kilometres (about
1 mile) away from the tractor-making factory, almost on the Volga bank.
On that very day - August 23rd – German warplanes launched the first massed
attack on Stalingrad. According to Soviet data, German pilots flew some
2,000 sorties to bomb the city non-stop from 3 p.m. to dark. The city of
mostly wooden houses, stretched along the Volga, had been set ablaze and
covered in thick black smoke. Everything was in flames, even telegraph-poles,
- an appalling sight, indeed.”
I interrupted General Orlov to ask him, why German tanks could freely reach
the northern part of the city.
“Unfortunately, no regular forces had been deployed in the city's northern
part, said Nikolai Orlov. The troops that ought to have been there were
engaged in bitter fighting between the Don and the Volga. And since German
tanks managed to break through the Soviet defences very quickly, the Soviet
command had no military manpower available to try to check the enemy advance.
The only Soviet military force in the northern part of the city was the
tank battalion, of which my company was part. I was ordered to attack German
tanks in the built-up area Rynok, in the immediate vicinity of the river,
from where one commanded a perfect view of the entire city. We engaged
the enemy and tried to counterattack several times, but to no avail. It
was indeed a fierce and drawn-out battle. The situation grew critical,
and the Germans would have certainly forced their way to the Volga, had
it not been for the tank-destroyer battalions that were formed of the workers
of munition factories, located in that part of the city. Other reinforcements
we received were the seamen of the local Volga Military Flotilla, the daredevils,
who, in their sailors caps and striped vests, would get onto tanks and
attack the enemy, shouting their deafening "Hurrah!" Against all the odds,
we did manage to drive the Nazis away from Rynok. We remained in control
of the area for five days until a Soviet Army regiment under Colonel Gorokhov
took over from us to defend Rynok. They dug themselves in and never budged
an inch until the Germans were defeated in Stalingrad, in February 1943.
Both the Wehrmacht and the Soviet Army suffered heavy losses. I lost almost
the whole of my company and was gravely wounded myself. This happened when
my tank was damaged, and I as a commander was supposed to dive into another
tank, to be able to control the battle. When I was doing just that, a German
sharpshooter caught me in his telescopic sight. His first bullet hit my
interphone headset, and the blow was so strong, it sent me sprawling to
the ground. I felt as if someone had hit me with a club on the head. As
soon as I leapt to my feet and ran, the second bullet cut my waist-belt.
And when the third bullet pierced my lung, I was taken to hospital. It
was a grave injury, and I think I survived by a miracle…”
“At the hospital, as soon as I felt better, General Orlov recalls, I began
to press for the doctors’ permission to return to Stalingrad, so I could
avenge myself on the Nazis for my injury and the death of my mates. I was
really lucky, for I was sent to a mechanized corps that was being formed
in Saratov, a city close to Stalingrad, where I came across my comrades-in-arms.
This is how it happened. I approached the regiment commander and reported
to him:
“Lieutenant Orlov has arrived for further service in your regiment.”
“Lieutenant Orlov, said the Commander, you should have assumed command
of a “T-34” tank company, but all vacancies for the commanders of the “T-34”
companies have been filled. You can take over command of the company of
light tanks “T-70.”
The proposal proved a bitter disappointment.
“Why, I’ve never even seen these tanks, how can I do the job?”
“Never mind, you will manage it, come on, I’ll show you the tanks and the
fellows.”
We went to see the tanks, - 17 newly-made light tanks “T-70”, - on a forest
edge, with the crews in front of them. And just imagine my surprise and
happiness when I saw that standing in front of the tanks were the former
tank school students whom I taught to handle armour before leaving for
the front-line. We were all happy and started to hug each other. So it
was with that company and that a mechanized corps that I made it to the
Stalingrad front again in November 1942.
The corps was perfectly trained and armed with the latest types of weapons.
It featured 220 tanks, more than 100 armoured vehicles, trucks and artillery
guns. To move around, the corps personnel naturally used vehicles, as it
was a mechanized corps. Also, the personnel had been carefully picked out
from tank crew members with practical battle experience. We were all dressed
as one should be in winter, in severe war-time conditions, - tank crew
members were wearing warm leather jackets and warm interphone headsets,
infantrymen riding on tanks were dressed in knee-length sheepskin coats
and felt boots. Rear service operation was quite efficient, and one result
of it was that we were always having hot food. But during the operations
to breach the German defences we received a dry 72-hour ration. The soldiers
and officers were cheerful folk and quite optimistic that Germany would
be defeated. The troops were clearly in a much better mood than a year
before, when the Red Army failed to adequately resist the advancing Nazis,
the situation was that of utter confusion, and the troops felt despondent.
But now it was all over. By autumn 1942 the Soviet troops had been well-armed
and organized. Some people make outrageous claims that the Red Army had
been allegedly forced to breach the German defences at Stalingrad with
no military hardware, literally with bare hands and filling German fire
trenches cram-full with the dead bodies of their soldiers. Such people
ought to be ashamed of themselves! How could it have been possible to rout
- with no tanks, artillery pieces and warplanes - the powerful 330,000-men
strong battle group under Field Marshal Paulus, a group that boasted a
great many tanks?!
As the Soviet High Command was preparing their counteroffensive codenamed
“Uran” (uranium), to destroy Paulus’ 6th Army, they amassed a huge military
force in the area of Stalingrad, namely all-arms armies, tank armies, air
armies, mechanized and cavalry corps.”
“But hadn’t the Germans been aware of the preparations for the counteroffensive?
I asked General Orlov. After all, it’s hard to conceal such great concentrations
of manpower from the enemy.”
“The Germans did not know, so they didn’t bomb us, General Orlov replied,
although their reconnaissance aircraft kept trying to sniff out what could
pose a serious threat to the Nazi forces. The counteroffensive was prepared
thoroughly and in total secrecy, so when launched, it came as a bolt out
of the blue for the Germans. It was natural, therefore, that they lost
their head and heart. That this was the case is clearly stated by a number
of Nazi Generals in their memoirs. Yes, the preparations were carried out
in total secrecy, and, by way of an example, the mechanized corps
that I belonged to crossed the Volga in stages and only at nighttime. It
was strictly forbidden to smoke or move during the day. If some unit failed
to reach their destination until dawn, they had to take cover in some woods
and stay there until dark. Well, there’s no denying the fact that the Soviet
troops were highly disciplined.
So, on November 19th the Don Front and the South Western Front mounted
their counteroffensive and - with powerful tank, air and artillery support
– breached the enemy defences. The objective, set to our corps, was to
force our way through the infantry-breached defences deep into the enemy
rear and cut off the Stalingrad-Rostov railway and all west-bound roads
in the area of the hamlet Sovetsky. It took us 48 hours to go 100 kilometres
(62 miles) deep into the German rear and fulfill the task set in what was
an incredible rate of advance by the standards of the time. On November
23rd we linked up with a south-bound Soviet tank corps in the area of the
hamlet Sovetsky, the corps that had forced the Don river and seized the
town of Kalach. Very soon Soviet infantry divisions reached the place
to securely seal off Paulus’ battle group in the pocket.
But, of course, the Germans did resist our advance to Sovetsky and burned
all of my 17 light tanks. I was wounded again, but this time it was a light
wound. Very soon I was locked in a tank battle against a special army corps
under Field Marshal Manstein that sought to rescue Paulus’ forces. It was
bitter fighting, and both the Germans and the Soviet Army suffered heavy
casualties, but neither would think of easing their grip on the enemy.
Of course, both the Soviet Army and the Germans had their orders, but besides,
they must have had some inner feeling that they were fighting a crucial
battle of the Second World War.”
To rescue the encircled 6th German Army under Field Marshal Paulus Hitler
ordered a special army corps, codenamed “DON”, under Field Marshal Manstein,
to fight its way eastwards and make breaches in the lines of Soviet troops
that held Paulus’ troops in a huge pocket. Manstein’s troops did breach
the Soviet defences and fought their way to the river Myshkova, the last
river line on their way to Stalingrad, which lay a mere 40 kilometres away.
Since it was in that battle that the fate of Paulus’ Army was decided,
the area became the scene of, perhaps, the fiercest and most concentrated
fighting of the entire war.
The major tank battle against the Manstein-led troops near Stalingrad took
place in close vicinity of the hamlet Verkhne-Koomsky, in the Myshkova
- Aksay river system. Fighting was so bitter, it’s really hard to describe.
The mechanized corps that I was part of and that had already been in fighting
for a whole month by then, found itself to be the central target of the
German tank battle group under General Hoth. The Germans were a powerful
enemy, and with their 3 panzer divisions, 2 motorized, 4 infantry and 2
cavalry divisions they were several times numerically stronger than our
mechanized corps. Both the Nazis and the Soviet troops were exerting themselves
to make mincemeat of each other, so it seemed impossible to remain alive,
let alone hold our positions. But we did survive and we did not surrender
a single inch of our land to the enemy. I had the order to use my T-34
tank company to prevent Germans from crossing the Aksay river at a ford.
We found a former sand quarry and hid our tanks there, with only their
turrets sticking out. It was a good fire position, yet, when German tanks
started to roll in, followed by artillery pieces and motorized infantry,
we thought that was the end of us. Man, they made a scary picture. But
we had no time to shake with fear. We let them move closer and fired point
blank. We hit the first and the last tanks, and also a tank somewhere in
the middle. The tank closest to us caught fire, stopped and started to
reverse. The lines of attackers got mixed up since they couldn’t spot our
whereabouts.
In the open snow-covered steppe our mechanized corps had for six days been
repelling the Hoth-led divisions, which were attacking almost non-stop.
German aircraft that dominated the skies would not only bomb and machine-gun
our battle group, but would even chase individual servicemen. In that fighting
we lost more than 3,000 troops and 82 tanks. To crush our resistance, Manstein
committed to action a fresh tank division on December 18th. It was a critical
moment, we seemed to lose all our strength and – what a surprise! – on
that very day we heard a Moscow newsreader reading a decree over the radio
about granting our 4th mechanized corps the rank of a Guards corps. This
rank is normally granted for mass heroism. We grew so happy and excited,
we felt as if we were capable of moving mountains. Indeed, you can’t find
any other word but “heroism” to describe the way our soldiers and officers
fought the enemy. Lieutenant Alexander Plugin of my company had his tank
knocked out of action, but instead of backing into the rear, he made his
seriously damaged and smoking tank with half its cannon torn away, speed
up towards the Verkhne-Koomsky hamlet, with more than a dozen German tanks
waiting there, and ram it into one of the German armoured vehicles. The
attack by the fearless tank crew must have scared the Germans out of their
wits, for when we captured the hamlet later that day, we were surprised
to see German tanks with their engines running, but with their crews nowhere
to be seen. We spotted them later in a gully, some 300 metres away from
the hamlet. The German tanks, which were freshly painted, and even painted
white from within, turned out to be part of the 6th panzer division, which
had been transferred from France to help out Paulus, but was several days
late for the battle because of the need to repel attacks by Soviet guerrillas
while en route. Soon the 2nd Soviet Guards Army under General Malinovsky
approached the battle field and threw the Manstein-led army corps back
and away from Stalingrad. This left Field Marshal Paulus’ Army with no
alternative but to surrender.”
As I was listening to General Orlov’s reminiscences about the Battle of
Stalingrad, I was impressed by his good memory. He remembers the names
of all people he fought shoulder to shoulder, the total number of military
hardware committed to action, the type of terrain they fought on and even
small ravines near the Verkhne-Koomsky hamlet. But on second thoughts,
maybe there’s nothing to wonder at. After all, fighting that tank battle
was sheer hell. So, how can one forget those who fought next to him?! But
the General not only cherishes fond memories of his comrades-in-arms, but
also has been doing a lot to immortalize the memory of the fallen.
“I have been to Verkhne-Koomsky recently, General Orlov goes on to say,
and attended the re-burial of remains of 160 soldiers in a communal grave.
On the grave there is a monument that’s unparalleled anywhere in Russia.
It is flames made of shiny steel, 12 metres high, so it can be seen from
a spot many kilometres away. On the right and the left of the flames are
gravestones with the names, carved on them, of those who fell in that battle,
including the fellows of my three companies. Soon this cemetery of communal
graves is due to be turned into a war memorial featuring the words: “NOBODY
AND NOTHING HAS BEEN FORGOTTEN.”
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