Russians about the Germans in the second. German soldiers about Russian soldiers
https://www.site/2015-06-22/pisma_nemeckih_soldat_i_oficerov_s_vostochnogo_fronta_kak_lekarstvo_ot_fyurerov
"Soldiers of the Red Army fired, even burning alive"
Letters from German soldiers and officers from the Eastern Front as a cure for the Fuhrers
June 22 is a sacred, sacred day in our country. The beginning of the Great War is the beginning of the path to the great Victory. History does not know a more massive feat. But even more bloody, expensive for its price - perhaps, too (we have already published terrible pages from Ales Adamovich and Daniil Granin, amazing frankness of front-line soldier Nikolai Nikulin, excerpts from Viktor Astafiev "Cursed and Killed"). At the same time, along with inhumanity, military training, courage and self-sacrifice triumphed, thanks to which the outcome of the battle of peoples was a foregone conclusion in its very first hours. This is evidenced by fragments of letters and reports from soldiers and officers of the German armed forces from the Eastern Front.
“Already the first attack turned into a battle not for life, but for death”
“My commander was twice my age, and he had already had to fight the Russians near Narva in 1917, when he was in the rank of lieutenant. “Here, in these vast expanses, we will find our death, like Napoleon,” he did not hide his pessimism ... “Mende, remember this hour, it marks the end of the former Germany” ”(Erich Mende, Lieutenant of the 8th Silesian infantry division about the conversation that took place in the last minutes of peace on June 22, 1941).
“When we entered the first battle with the Russians, they clearly did not expect us, but they could not be called unprepared either” (Alfred Dürwanger, lieutenant, commander of an anti-tank company of the 28th Infantry Division).
"The quality level Soviet pilots much higher than expected ... Fierce resistance, its massive nature does not correspond to our initial assumptions ”(diary of Hoffmann von Waldau, Major General, Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe Command, June 31, 1941).
"On the Eastern Front, I met people who can be called a special race"
“On the very first day, as soon as we went on the attack, one of ours shot himself with his own weapon. Clutching the rifle between his knees, he inserted the barrel into his mouth and pulled the trigger. This is how the war and all the horrors associated with it ended for him ”(anti-tank gunner Johann Danzer, Brest, June 22, 1941).
“On the Eastern Front, I met people who can be called a special race. Already the first attack turned into a battle not for life, but for death "(Hans Becker, tanker of the 12th tank division).
“The losses are terrible, not to be compared with those that were in France ... Today the road is ours, tomorrow the Russians take it, then we again, and so on ... I have never seen anyone angrier than these Russians. Real chain dogs! You never know what to expect from them ”(diary of a soldier of Army Group Center, August 20, 1941).
“You can never say in advance what a Russian will do: as a rule, he rushes from one extreme to another. His nature is as unusual and complex as this vast and incomprehensible country itself ... Sometimes the Russian infantry battalions were confused after the very first shots, and the next day the same units fought with fanatical stamina ... The Russian as a whole, of course, is excellent a soldier and with skillful leadership is a dangerous adversary ”(Mellenthin Friedrich von Wilhelm, Major General of the Tank Forces, Chief of Staff of the 48th Tank Corps, later Chief of Staff of the 4th Tank Army).
"I have never seen anyone angrier than these Russians. Real watchdogs!"
“During the attack, we stumbled upon a light Russian T-26 tank, we immediately clicked it right from the 37-graph paper. When we began to approach, a Russian leaned out of the hatch of the tower to the waist and opened fire on us with a pistol. It soon became clear that he was without legs, they were torn off when the tank was hit. And despite this, he fired at us with a pistol! (memoirs of an anti-tank gunner about the first hours of the war).
“You just won’t believe this until you see it with your own eyes. The soldiers of the Red Army, even burning alive, continued to shoot from the burning houses ”(from a letter from an infantry officer of the 7th Panzer Division about the battles in a village near the Lama River, mid-November 1941).
“... Inside the tank lay the bodies of a brave crew, who had previously received only injuries. Deeply shocked by this heroism, we buried them with full military honors. They fought to the last breath, but it was just one little drama. great war"(Erhard Raus, colonel, commander of the Raus campfgruppe about the KV-1 tank, which shot and crushed a convoy of trucks and tanks and a German artillery battery; a total of 4 Soviet tankers held back the advance of the Raus battle group, about half a division, for two days, 24 and 25 June).
“July 17, 1941… In the evening they buried an unknown Russian soldier [ we are talking about 19-year-old senior artillery sergeant Nikolai Sirotinin]. He alone stood at the cannon, shot a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone marveled at his bravery... Oberst before the grave said that if all the Fuhrer's soldiers fought like this Russian, we would conquer the whole world. Three times they fired volleys from rifles. After all, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary? (Diary of Lieutenant of the 4th Panzer Division Henfeld).
"If all the Fuhrer's soldiers fought like this Russian, we would conquer the whole world"
“We almost did not take prisoners, because the Russians always fought to the last soldier. They didn't give up. Their hardening cannot be compared with ours ... ”(interview with war correspondent Curizio Malaparte (Zukkert), officer of the tank unit of Army Group Center).
“Russians have always been famous for their contempt for death; communist regime further developed this quality, and now massive Russian attacks are more effective than ever before. The attack made twice will be repeated for the third and fourth time, regardless of the losses incurred, and both the third and fourth attacks will be carried out with the same stubbornness and composure ... They did not retreat, but rushed forward uncontrollably ”(Mellenthin Friedrich von Wilhelm, General major of tank troops, chief of staff of the 48th tank corps, later chief of staff of the 4th tank army, participant in the Battles of Stalingrad and Kursk).
"I'm so furious, but I've never been so helpless"
In turn, the Red Army and the inhabitants of the occupied territories at the beginning of the war faced a well-prepared - and psychologically too - invader.
"25-th of August. We are throwing hand grenades at residential buildings. Houses burn very quickly. The fire is transferred to other huts. A beautiful sight! People cry and we laugh at tears. We have already burned ten villages in this way (diary of Chief Corporal Johannes Herder). “September 29, 1941. ... The sergeant-major shot everyone in the head. One woman begged to be spared her life, but she was also killed. I am surprised at myself - I can look at these things quite calmly ... Without changing my facial expression, I watched the sergeant-major shoot Russian women. I even experienced some pleasure at the same time ... ”(diary of a non-commissioned officer on the 35th rifle regiment Heinz Klin).
“I, Heinrich Tivel, set myself the goal of exterminating 250 Russians, Jews, Ukrainians, indiscriminately, in this war. If each soldier kills the same number, we will destroy Russia in one month, we Germans will get everything. I, following the call of the Fuhrer, call all Germans to this goal ... ”(soldier’s notebook, October 29, 1941).
"I can look at these things quite calmly. I even feel some pleasure at the same time"
The mood of the German soldier, like the back of the beast, broke Battle of Stalingrad: the total losses of the enemy killed, wounded, captured and missing amounted to about 1.5 million people. Self-confident treachery gave way to despair, similar to what accompanied the Red Army in the first months of the fighting. When in Berlin they decided to print letters from the Stalingrad front for propaganda purposes, it turned out that out of seven bags of correspondence, only 2% contained approving statements about the war, in 60% of the letters the soldiers called to fight rejected the massacre. In the trenches of Stalingrad, a German soldier, very often briefly, shortly before his death, returned from a zombie state to a conscious, human one. It can be said that the war as a confrontation of equally large troops was over here, in Stalingrad - primarily because here, on the Volga, the pillars of the soldier's faith in the infallibility and omnipotence of the Fuhrer collapsed. So - this is the justice of history - it happens to almost every Fuhrer.
“Since this morning, I know what awaits us, and it has become easier for me, so I want to free you from the torment of the unknown. When I saw the map, I was horrified. We are completely abandoned without any outside help. Hitler left us surrounded. And this letter will be sent if our airfield has not yet been captured.
“At home, some will rub their hands - they managed to save their warm places, but pathetic words will appear in the newspapers, circled in black: everlasting memory heroes. But don't let yourself be fooled by that. I am so furious that I think I would destroy everything around me, but I have never been so helpless.
“People are dying of hunger, severe cold, death here is just a biological fact, like food and drink. They are dropping like flies and no one takes care of them and no one buries them. Without arms, without legs, without eyes, with torn bellies, they lie everywhere. A film should be made about this in order to forever destroy the legend of the “beautiful death”. This is just a bestial breath, but someday it will be raised on granite pedestals and ennobled in the form of "dying warriors" with their heads and hands tied with a bandage.
"Novels will be written, hymns and hymns will be heard. Mass will be celebrated in churches. But I've had enough"
Novels will be written, hymns and hymns will be heard. Mass will be celebrated in churches. But I've had enough, I don't want my bones to rot in a mass grave. Do not be surprised if there is no news from me for some time, because I am determined to become the master of my own destiny.
“Well, now you know that I will not return. Please inform our parents as discreetly as possible. I am deeply confused. I used to believe and therefore was strong, but now I don't believe in anything and am very weak. There's a lot I don't know about what's going on here, but even the little that I have to participate in is already so much that I can't handle it. No, no one will convince me that people die here with the words "Germany" or "Heil Hitler." Yes, they die here, no one will deny this, but the dying people turn their last words to their mother or to the one they love the most, or is it just a cry for help. I saw hundreds dying, many of them, like me, were members of the Hitler Youth, but if they could still scream, they were cries for help, or they were calling for someone who could not help them.
“I looked for God in every crater, in every ruined house, in every corner, with every comrade, when I lay in my trench, I looked in the sky. But God did not show himself, although my heart cried out to him. Houses were destroyed, comrades brave or cowardly like me, hunger and death on earth, and bombs and fire from the sky, only God was nowhere to be found. No, father, God does not exist, or only you have it, in your psalms and prayers, in the sermons of priests and pastors, in the ringing of bells, in the smell of incense, but there is none in Stalingrad ... I no longer believe in the goodness of God, otherwise he would never allow such a terrible injustice. I no longer believe in this, for God would have cleared the heads of the people who started this war, while they themselves were talking about peace in three languages. I no longer believe in God, he betrayed us, and now see for yourself how you should be with your faith.
"Ten years ago, it was about ballot papers, now you have to pay for it with such a "trifle" as life"
“For every reasonable person in Germany, the time will come when he will curse the folly of this war, and you will realize how empty your words were about the banner with which I should win. There is no victory, Mr. General, there are only banners and people who die, and in the end there will be no more banners, no people. Stalingrad is not a military necessity, but a political madness. And your son, Mr. General, will not participate in this experiment! You block his path to life, but he will choose another path for himself - in the opposite direction, which also leads to life, but on the other side of the front. Think about your words, I hope that when everything collapses, you will remember the banner and stand up for it.
“Liberation of the peoples, what nonsense! The peoples will remain the same, only the authorities will change, and those who stand aside will again and again argue that the people must be freed from it. In 1932 it was still possible to do something, you know that very well. And you also know that the moment was lost. Ten years ago, it was about ballot papers, and now you have to pay for it with such a “trifle” as life.”
From Robert Kershaw's 1941 Through the Eyes of the Germans:
“During the attack, we stumbled upon a light Russian T-26 tank, we immediately clicked it right from the 37-graph paper. When we began to approach, a Russian leaned out of the hatch of the tower to the waist and opened fire on us with a pistol. It soon became clear that he was without legs, they were torn off when the tank was hit. And despite this, he fired at us with a pistol! / Artilleryman of an anti-tank gun /
“We almost did not take prisoners, because the Russians always fought to the last soldier. They didn't give up. Their hardening cannot be compared with ours ... ” / Tanker of the Army Group Center /
After a successful breakthrough of the border defense, the 3rd battalion of the 18th infantry regiment Army Group Center, numbering 800 people, was fired upon by a unit of 5 soldiers. “I did not expect anything like this,” the battalion commander, Major Neuhof, admitted to his battalion doctor. “It’s pure suicide to attack the forces of the battalion with five fighters.”
“On the Eastern Front, I met people who can be called a special race. Already the first attack turned into a battle not for life, but for death. / Tanker of the 12th Panzer Division Hans Becker /
“You just won’t believe this until you see it with your own eyes. The soldiers of the Red Army, even burning alive, continued to shoot from the blazing houses. /Officer of the 7th Panzer Division/
“The quality level of Soviet pilots is much higher than expected ... Fierce resistance, its massive nature does not correspond to our initial assumptions” / Major General Hoffmann von Waldau /
“I have never seen anyone angrier than these Russians. Real chain dogs! You never know what to expect from them. And where do they get tanks and everything else?!” / One of the soldiers of Army Group Center /
“The behavior of the Russians, even in the first battle, was strikingly different from the behavior of the Poles and allies who were defeated on Western front. Even being in the encirclement, the Russians staunchly defended themselves. /General Günther Blumentritt, Chief of Staff of the 4th Army/
71 years ago, Nazi Germany attacked the USSR. What was our soldier like in the eyes of the enemy - German soldiers? What did the beginning of the war look like from other people's trenches? Very eloquent answers to these questions can be found in a book whose author can hardly be accused of distorting the facts. This is “1941 through the eyes of the Germans. Birch Crosses Instead of Iron Crosses” by the English historian Robert Kershaw, which was recently published in Russia. The book almost entirely consists of the memoirs of German soldiers and officers, their letters home and entries in personal diaries.
Non-commissioned officer Helmut Kolakowski recalls: “Late in the evening, our platoon was gathered in the sheds and announced: “Tomorrow we have to enter the battle with world Bolshevism.” Personally, I was simply amazed, it was like a bolt from the blue, but what about the non-aggression pact between Germany and Russia? I kept thinking of that issue of Deutsche Wochenschau that I saw at home and in which the contract was announced. I could not even imagine how we would go to war against the Soviet Union.” The Fuhrer's order caused surprise and bewilderment among the rank and file. “We can say that we were taken aback by what we heard,” admitted Lothar Fromm, a spotter officer. “We were all, I emphasize this, were amazed and in no way prepared for this.” But bewilderment was immediately replaced by relief from the incomprehensible and tedious waiting on the eastern borders of Germany. Experienced soldiers, who had already captured almost all of Europe, began to discuss when the campaign against the USSR would end. The words of Benno Zeiser, who was then studying to be a military driver, reflect the general mood: “All this will end in some three weeks, we were told, others were more careful in their forecasts - they believed that in 2-3 months. There was one who thought that it would last a whole year, but we laughed at him: “And how long did it take to get rid of the Poles? And with France? Have you forgotten?
But not everyone was so optimistic. Erich Mende, Oberleutnant of the 8th Silesian Infantry Division, recalls a conversation he had with his superior during those last moments of peace. “My commander was twice my age, and he had already had to fight the Russians near Narva in 1917, when he was in the rank of lieutenant. “Here, in these vast expanses, we will find our death, like Napoleon,” he did not hide his pessimism ... Mende, remember this hour, it marks the end of the former Germany.
At 3 hours 15 minutes, the advanced German units crossed the border of the USSR. Johann Danzer, an anti-tank gunner, recalls: “On the very first day, as soon as we went on the attack, one of ours shot himself with his own weapon. Clutching the rifle between his knees, he inserted the barrel into his mouth and pulled the trigger. Thus ended the war and all the horrors associated with it.
capture Brest Fortress was entrusted to the 45th infantry division of the Wehrmacht, numbering 17 thousand personnel. The garrison of the fortress is about 8 thousand. In the first hours of the battle, reports were pouring in about the successful advance of the German troops and reports of the capture of bridges and fortress structures. At 4 hours 42 minutes "50 people were taken prisoners, all in the same underwear, the war found them in cots." But by 10:50 the tone of the combat documents had changed: "The battle for the capture of the fortress was fierce - numerous losses." 2 battalion commanders have already died, 1 company commander, the commander of one of the regiments was seriously injured.
“Soon, somewhere between 5.30 and 7.30 in the morning, it became completely clear that the Russians were fighting desperately in the rear of our forward units. Their infantry, with the support of 35-40 tanks and armored vehicles, found themselves on the territory of the fortress, formed several centers of defense. Enemy snipers fired accurately from behind trees, from roofs and basements, which caused heavy losses among officers and junior commanders.
“Where the Russians managed to be knocked out or smoked out, new forces soon appeared. They crawled out of basements, houses, from sewer pipes and other temporary shelters, conducted aimed fire, and our losses continuously grew.
The summary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) for June 22 reported: "It seems that the enemy, after the initial confusion, is beginning to offer more and more stubborn resistance." OKW Chief of Staff Halder agrees with this: “After the initial “tetanus” caused by the suddenness of the attack, the enemy moved on to active operations.”
For the soldiers of the 45th division of the Wehrmacht, the beginning of the war turned out to be completely bleak: 21 officers and 290 non-commissioned officers (sergeants), not counting the soldiers, died on its very first day. During the first day of fighting in Russia, the division lost almost as many soldiers and officers as during the entire six weeks of the French campaign.
The most successful actions of the Wehrmacht troops were the operation to encircle and defeat the Soviet divisions in the "cauldrons" of 1941. In the largest of them - Kiev, Minsk, Vyazemsky - Soviet troops lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers and officers. But what price did the Wehrmacht pay for this?
General Günther Blumentritt, Chief of Staff of the 4th Army: “The behavior of the Russians, even in the first battle, was strikingly different from the behavior of the Poles and allies who were defeated on the Western Front. Even being in the encirclement, the Russians staunchly defended themselves.
The author of the book writes: “The experience of the Polish and Western campaigns suggested that the success of the blitzkrieg strategy lies in gaining advantages by more skillful maneuvering. Even if we leave out the resources, the morale and the will to resist the enemy will inevitably be broken under the pressure of huge and senseless losses. From this logically follows the mass surrender of the demoralized soldiers who were surrounded. In Russia, however, these "primary" truths were turned upside down by the desperate resistance of the Russians, sometimes reaching fanaticism, in seemingly hopeless situations. That is why half of the offensive potential of the Germans was spent not on advancing towards the goal, but on consolidating the successes that had already been achieved.
The commander of Army Group Center, Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, during the operation to destroy Soviet troops in the Smolensk "cauldron" wrote about their attempts to break out of the encirclement: "A very significant success for the enemy who received such a crushing blow!". The encirclement was not continuous. Two days later, von Bock lamented: "Until now, it has not been possible to close the gap in the eastern section of the Smolensk pocket." That night, about 5 Soviet divisions managed to get out of the encirclement. Three more divisions broke through the next day.
The level of German losses is evidenced by the message of the headquarters of the 7th Panzer Division that only 118 tanks remained in service. 166 vehicles were hit (although 96 were repairable). The 2nd company of the 1st battalion of the "Grossdeutschland" regiment in just 5 days of fighting to hold the line of the Smolensk "cauldron" lost 40 people at headcount companies of 176 soldiers and officers.
Gradually, the perception of the war with the Soviet Union among ordinary German soldiers also changed. The unbridled optimism of the first days of the fighting was replaced by the realization that "something is going wrong." Then came indifference and apathy. The opinion of one of the German officers: “These vast distances frighten and demoralize the soldiers. Plains, plains, there is no end to them and never will be. That's what drives me crazy."
The troops were also constantly worried by the actions of the partisans, whose number grew as the “boilers” were destroyed. If at first their number and activity were negligible, then after the end of the fighting in the Kiev "cauldron", the number of partisans in the sector of the Army Group "South" increased significantly. In the sector of Army Group Center, they took control of 45% of the territories occupied by the Germans.
The campaign, which dragged on for a long time to destroy the encircled Soviet troops, caused more and more associations with Napoleon's army and fears of the Russian winter. One of the soldiers of the Army Group "Center" on August 20 complained: "The losses are terrible, not to be compared with those that were in France." His company, starting from July 23, participated in the battles for the "tank highway No. 1". “Today the road is ours, tomorrow the Russians take it, then we again, and so on.” Victory no longer seemed so close. On the contrary, the enemy's desperate resistance undermined the morale and inspired by no means optimistic thoughts. “I have never seen anyone angrier than these Russians. Real chain dogs! You never know what to expect from them. And where do they get tanks and everything else?!”
During the first months of the campaign, the combat effectiveness of the tank units of Army Group Center was seriously undermined. By September 1941, 30% of the tanks were destroyed, and 23% of the vehicles were under repair. Almost half of all tank divisions intended for participation in Operation Typhoon had only a third of the initial number of combat vehicles. By September 15, 1941, Army Group Center had a total of 1346 combat-ready tanks, while at the beginning of the campaign in Russia this figure was 2609 units.
Personnel losses were no less heavy. By the beginning of the attack on Moscow, the German units had lost about a third of their officers. The total losses in manpower by this point reached about half a million people, which is equivalent to the loss of 30 divisions. If we take into account that only 64% of the total composition of the infantry division, that is, 10840 people, were directly "fighters", and the remaining 36% were in the rear and support services, it becomes clear that the combat effectiveness of the German troops decreased even more.
This is how one of the German soldiers assessed the situation on the Eastern Front: “Russia, only bad news comes from here, and we still don’t know anything about you. And in the meantime, you are absorbing us, dissolving in your inhospitable viscous expanses.
About Russian soldiers
The initial idea of the population of Russia was determined by the German ideology of that time, which considered the Slavs "subhuman". However, the experience of the first battles made its own adjustments to these ideas.
Major General Hoffmann von Waldau, Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe Command, 9 days after the start of the war, wrote in his diary: “The quality level of Soviet pilots is much higher than expected ... Fierce resistance, its mass character does not correspond to our initial assumptions.” This was confirmed by the first air rams. Kershaw cites the words of a Luftwaffe colonel: "Soviet pilots are fatalists, they fight to the end without any hope of victory or even survival." It is worth noting that on the first day of the war with Soviet Union the Luftwaffe lost up to 300 aircraft. Never before had the German Air Force suffered such large one-time losses.
In Germany, the radio was shouting that the shells of "German tanks not only set fire to, but also pierced Russian vehicles through and through." But the soldiers told each other about Russian tanks, which could not be penetrated even with point-blank shots - the shells ricocheted off the armor. Lieutenant Helmut Ritgen from the 6th Panzer Division admitted that in a collision with new and unknown Russian tanks: “... the very concept of conducting tank war, KV vehicles marked a completely different level of weapons, armor protection and tank weight. German tanks instantly passed into the category of exclusively anti-personnel weapons ... " Tankman of the 12th Panzer Division Hans Becker: "On the Eastern Front, I met people who can be called a special race. Already the first attack turned into a battle not for life, but for death.
An anti-tank gunner recalls the indelible impression that the desperate resistance of the Russians made on him and his comrades in the first hours of the war: “During the attack, we stumbled upon a light Russian T-26 tank, we immediately clicked it right from the 37-graph paper. When we began to approach, a Russian leaned out of the hatch of the tower to the waist and opened fire on us with a pistol. It soon became clear that he was without legs, they were torn off when the tank was hit. And despite this, he fired at us with a pistol!
The author of the book “1941 through the eyes of the Germans” cites the words of an officer who served in a tank unit in the sector of Army Group Center, who shared his opinion with war correspondent Curizio Malaparte: “He reasoned like a soldier, avoiding epithets and metaphors, limiting himself only to argumentation, directly related to the issues under discussion. “We almost did not take prisoners, because the Russians always fought to the last soldier. They didn't give up. Their hardening cannot be compared with ours ... "
The following episodes also made a depressing impression on the advancing troops: after a successful breakthrough of the border defenses, the 3rd battalion of the 18th infantry regiment of the Army Group Center, numbering 800 people, was fired upon by a unit of 5 soldiers. “I did not expect anything like this,” Major Neuhof, the battalion commander, confessed to his battalion doctor. “It’s pure suicide to attack the forces of the battalion with five fighters.”
In mid-November 1941, an infantry officer of the 7th Panzer Division, when his unit broke into Russian-defended positions in a village near the Lama River, described the resistance of the Red Army. “You just won’t believe this until you see it with your own eyes. The soldiers of the Red Army, even burning alive, continued to shoot from the blazing houses.
Winter 41st
In the German troops, the saying "Better three French campaigns than one Russian" quickly came into use. “Here we lacked comfortable French beds and were struck by the monotony of the area.” "The prospect of being in Leningrad turned into an endless sitting in numbered trenches."
The high losses of the Wehrmacht, the lack of winter uniforms and the unpreparedness of German equipment for combat operations in the conditions of the Russian winter gradually made it possible to seize the initiative Soviet troops. During the three-week period from November 15 to December 5, 1941, the Russian Air Force made 15,840 sorties, while the Luftwaffe only 3,500, which further demoralized the enemy.
Corporal Fritz Siegel, in his letter home on December 6, wrote: “My God, what are these Russians planning to do with us? It would be nice if they at least listened to us up there, otherwise we will all have to die here"
It is not enough to kill a Russian soldier, he must also be knocked down!
Frederick II the Great
The glory of the Russian knows no bounds. The Russian soldier endured what the soldiers of the armies of other countries have never endured and will not endure. This is evidenced by entries in the memoirs of soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht, in which they admired the actions of the Red Army:
“Close contact with nature allows Russians to move freely at night in fog, through forests and swamps. They are not afraid of the dark, endless forests and cold. They are not unusual in winter, when the temperature drops to minus 45. The Siberian, who can be partially or even completely Asian, is even more enduring, even stronger ... We already experienced this ourselves during the First World War, when we had to face the Siberian army corps»
“For a European accustomed to small territories, the distances in the East seem endless ... The horror is intensified by the melancholy, monotonous character of the Russian landscape, which acts depressingly, especially in the gloomy autumn and agonizingly long winter. The psychological influence of this country on the average German soldier was very strong. He felt insignificant, lost in these vast expanses.
“The Russian soldier prefers hand-to-hand combat. His ability to endure hardship without flinching is truly astonishing. Such is the Russian soldier whom we recognized and respected a quarter of a century ago.”
“It was very difficult for us to get a clear picture of the equipment of the Red Army ... Hitler refused to believe that the Soviet industrial production may be equal to German. We had little information about Russian tanks. We had no idea how many tanks a month the Russian industry was capable of producing.
It was difficult to even get the maps, as the Russians kept them under great secrecy. The maps we had were often wrong and misled us.
We also did not have accurate data on the combat power of the Russian army. Those of us who fought in Russia during the First World War thought she was great, and those who did not know the new enemy tended to underestimate her.
“The behavior of the Russian troops, even in the first battles, was in striking contrast with the behavior of the Poles and Western allies during the defeat. Even when surrounded, the Russians continued stubborn battles. Where there were no roads, the Russians in most cases remained out of reach. They always tried to break through to the east... Our Russian encirclement was rarely successful.”
“From field marshal von Bock to soldier, everyone hoped that soon we would be marching through the streets of the Russian capital. Hitler even created a special sapper team that was supposed to destroy the Kremlin.
When we came close to Moscow, the mood of our commanders and troops suddenly changed dramatically. With surprise and disappointment, we discovered in October and early November that the defeated Russians did not at all cease to exist as military force. In recent weeks, enemy resistance has intensified, and the tension of the fighting has increased every day ... "
Chief of Staff of the 4th Army of the Wehrmacht, General Günther Blumentritt
“The Russians don't give up. An explosion, another one, everything is quiet for a minute, and then they open fire again ... "
“With amazement, we watched the Russians. They, it seems, did not care that their main forces were defeated ... "
“Loaves of bread had to be chopped with an axe. A few lucky ones managed to acquire Russian uniforms ... "
“My God, what are these Russians planning to do with us? We're all going to die here!"
From the memoirs of German soldiers
“The Russians showed themselves from the very beginning as first-class warriors, and our successes in the first months of the war were simply due to better training. Having gained combat experience, they became first-class soldiers. They fought with exceptional tenacity, had amazing endurance ... "
Colonel General (later Field Marshal) von Kleist
“It often happened that Soviet soldiers raised their hands to show that they were surrendering to us, and after our infantrymen approached them, they again resorted to weapons; or the wounded feigned death, and then fired at our soldiers from the rear.
General von Manstein (also a future field marshal)
“It should be noted the stubbornness of individual Russian formations in battle. There were cases when the garrisons of pillboxes blew themselves up along with the pillboxes, not wanting to surrender. (Entry dated June 24.)
“Information from the front confirms that the Russians are fighting everywhere until last person... It is striking that when artillery batteries, etc., are captured, few are taken prisoner. (June 29.)
“Fights with the Russians are exceptionally stubborn. Only a small number of prisoners were taken." (4th of July)
Diary of General Halder
“The peculiarity of the country and the originality of the character of the Russians gives the campaign a special specificity. The first serious enemy
Field Marshal Brauchitsch (July 1941)
“About a hundred of our tanks, of which about a third were T-IVs, took up their starting positions for a counterattack. From three sides we fired at the iron monsters of the Russians, but everything was in vain ...
Echeloned along the front and in depth, the Russian giants came closer and closer. One of them approached our tank, which was hopelessly bogged down in a swampy pond. Without any hesitation, the black monster drove over the tank and pressed its tracks into the mud.
At that moment, a 150 mm howitzer arrived. While the artillery commander warned of the approach of enemy tanks, the gun opened fire, but again to no avail.
One of the Soviet tanks approached the howitzer by 100 meters. The gunners opened fire on him with direct fire and achieved a hit - it's like lightning struck. The tank stopped. “We knocked him out,” the gunners breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly, someone from the calculation of the gun yelled heart-rendingly: “He went again!” Indeed, the tank came to life and began to approach the gun. Another minute, and the tank's gleaming metal tracks, like a toy, slammed the howitzer into the ground. Having dealt with the gun, the tank continued on its way as if nothing had happened.
Commander of the 41st Panzer Corps of the Wehrmacht General Reinhart
Courage is courage inspired by spirituality. The stubbornness with which the Bolsheviks defended themselves in their pillboxes in Sevastopol is akin to some kind of animal instinct, and it would be a deep mistake to consider it the result of Bolshevik convictions or education. The Russians have always been like this and, most likely, will always remain so.
On June 22, 1941, the Nazi troops, as well as units and subunits of the armies of the allies of Nazi Germany, crossed the border of the Soviet Union. The Great Patriotic War. Meanwhile, a few years before it began, German propaganda was actively preparing the population of the Third Reich for aggression against the Soviet Union.
Anti-Soviet myths and clichés were replicated by the powerful propaganda apparatus of Nazi Germany. The task was simple - to form in an ordinary German an idea of the Soviet Union as a terrible, barbaric country, located on the lowest level. cultural development and threatening Europe and European culture. And, I must say, Hitler's propaganda did a good job of this task.
However, from the first days of the war, soldiers and officers of the German armies began to understand that propaganda, to put it mildly, exaggerated the horrors of life in the Soviet Union, poverty and lack of culture. Soviet people. The longer the Nazis were on the territory of the USSR, having occupied Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic states, the more the soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht were convinced that the propaganda was lying. In the stories of the official German press about life in the Soviet Union, about the Red Army, about the Russian people, German servicemen were disappointed in several directions at once.
Thus, German propaganda actively spread the myth about the low combat capability of the Red Army, cowardice Soviet soldiers and their unwillingness to obey commanders. But the first months of the war showed that this was far from being the case. Blitzkrieg failed, and that they had to face a very strong and serious enemy, the German soldiers and officers understood already during the battle for Moscow. Naturally, in the first days of the war, almost all soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht were convinced that the Soviet Union could be defeated and conquered without much difficulty. After all, the Wehrmacht coped with numerous and strong French, Polish armies, not to mention the armed forces of other European states. But the battle near Moscow made total adjustments to the ideas of the Nazi soldiers about their enemy.
On the Eastern Front, I met people who can be called a special race. Already the first attack turned into a battle not for life, but for death!
- recalled a soldier of the 12th Panzer Division Hans Becker.
Soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht were struck by the soldiers of the Red Army, who fought to the last. Even alive with grief, left without a leg or arm, bleeding, the Russian soldiers continued to fight. Before the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Germans had never encountered such resistance anywhere. Of course, in other European countries there were isolated feats of military personnel, but in the Soviet Union almost every soldier showed heroism. And this both delighted and frightened the Germans at the same time.
It is easy to understand the feelings of a soldier or officer of the Wehrmacht when he was faced with Russian soldiers who fought to the last, ready to self-detonate with a grenade along with opponents surrounding him. So, one of the officers of the 7th Panzer Division recalled:
You just won't believe it until you see it with your own eyes. The soldiers of the Red Army, even burning alive, continued to shoot from the blazing houses.
Any warrior respects a strong opponent. And after the first battles on the territory of the Soviet Union, most of the Nazi military personnel, faced with the heroism of Soviet soldiers, began to imbue respect for the Russians. It was clear that they would not defend a bad country to the last drop of blood, that the people "at the lowest stage of development," as Hitler's propaganda said, would not be able to show miracles of heroism.
The courage of the Soviet soldiers dispelled the myths of the Goebbels propaganda machine. German servicemen wrote in diaries, in letters home, that they could not imagine such an outcome of the military campaign in Russia. The fallacy of ideas about a quick victory was recognized not only by privates, non-commissioned officers and junior officers of the Wehrmacht. The generals were no less categorical. So, Major General Hoffmann von Waldau, who served in a high command position in the Luftwaffe, emphasized:
The quality level of the Soviet pilots is much higher than expected... Fierce resistance, its mass nature does not correspond to our initial assumptions.
The words of the general of German aviation were followed by actual confirmation. Only on the first day of the war, the Luftwaffe lost up to 300 aircraft. Already on June 22, Soviet pilots began to use the ramming of German aircraft, which plunged the enemy into a real shock. Never before had the Air Force of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler's pride and hope, commanded by the Fuhrer's favorite Hermann Goering, suffered such impressive losses.
The peculiarity of the country and the originality of the character of the Russians gives the campaign a special specificity. First serious adversary
- already in July 1941, the commander wrote down ground forces Wehrmacht Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch.
The sixty-year-old Brauchitsch, who had served forty years in the Prussian and German armies, understood a lot about the enemy. He passed the first world war and had the opportunity to see how the armies of other European states fight. It is not for nothing that the saying “Better three French campaigns than one Russian” came into use among the troops. And such a saying existed at the beginning of the war, and by its end, most soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht would boldly compare one Russian campaign with thirty French or Polish ones.
The second myth of propaganda, in which the soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht were also disappointed, asserted an allegedly low level of cultural development. Soviet country. In fact, even then, at the very beginning of the 1940s, the Soviet Union was already ahead of most countries of the then world in terms of the level of development and coverage of the education system. For twenty post-revolutionary years, the Soviet country managed to practically eliminate illiteracy, an excellent system was created higher education.
Hoffmann, who commanded the 5th company of the 2nd Infantry Regiment of one of the SS divisions, wrote:
Currently on high level is in the USSR school business. Free choice according to ability, no fee. I think that the internal construction of Russia was completed: the intellectual stratum was created and educated in a purely communist spirit.
None of the countries of Eastern Europe, whether it be Poland or Czechoslovakia, not to mention Romania or Bulgaria, the education system at that time could not be compared with the Soviet one either in quality or in accessibility. Of course, the most attentive and thoughtful German soldiers and officers noticed this circumstance, imbued with, if not sympathy, then respect for a country that managed to ensure the right of its citizens to receive not only school, but also higher education.
Regardless of the subjective attitude towards the Soviet government, the majority of Russian people and representatives of other nationalities of the USSR loved their home country. Even white emigrants, who, as it seemed to the Nazis, should have hated the Soviet regime, for the most part refused to cooperate with the Third Reich, many of them did not hide the fact that with all their hearts they “sick” for the Soviet Union - Russia and wish the Russian people victory over the next invaders .
Hitler's soldiers were surprised that many of the Russians they met in the occupied territories or among prisoners of war surpassed even the German commanders in terms of education. They were no less surprised by the fact that even in the rural schools of the Soviet Union German. There were Russian people who read German poets and writers in the original, perfectly played the works of German composers on the piano, and understood the geography of Germany. And after all, it was not about the nobles, who mostly left the country after the revolution, but about the most ordinary Soviet people - engineers, teachers, students, even schoolchildren.
The German press portrayed the Soviet Union as a hopelessly technologically backward country, but the Nazi soldiers were faced with the fact that the Russians were well versed in technology and were able to repair any breakdown. And it was not only the natural ingenuity of the Russians, which the vigilant Germans also noticed, but also the fact that in the Soviet Union there was a very high-quality system of both school and out-of-school education, including numerous circles of Osoaviakhim.
Since among the Germans, including the military personnel of the active army, there were a lot of people brought up in a religious, Christian spirit, Hitler's propaganda sought to present the Soviet Union as a "godless" country in which the line of state atheism hopelessly triumphed.
Of course, all the 1920s - 1930s Orthodox Church, like other traditional religions of Russia and other union republics, was subjected to severe persecution. But a significant part of the population of the Soviet country retained a deep religiosity, especially if we talk about rural residents, about the older and middle generations of that time. And the Germans could not fail to notice this, and it was much more difficult psychologically to fight against Christians who pray and celebrate Christian holidays.
The third myth is about the immorality of Russians, allegedly “corrupted” Soviet power, - was also dispelled during the invasion of the Soviet Union. So, in Breslau, at the Wolfen film factory, where the labor of people driven from Russia was used, a medical examination of girls aged 17-29 years was carried out. It turned out that 90% of those examined are virgins. This result amazed the Germans, who never ceased to be surprised not only by the high morality of Russian girls, but also by the behavior of Russian men, who also shared this morality. It must be said that European countries, including Germany itself, could not boast of such indicators. In fact, by the early 1940s, Europe was far more corrupt than the Soviet Union.
The Germans were also struck by the deep kindred feelings that the Russian people had for each other. Of course, German servicemen also sent letters home from the front, sent their photographs and kept photographs of their wives, children, and parents. But among the Russians, as German soldiers noted, correspondence with their families was a real cult. Russian people really needed to maintain family relations, they took care of their loved ones. And this circumstance also could not but touch the soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht.
The longer the Nazis bogged down in the "Russian campaign", the more difficult the conditions they were. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht were taken prisoner, and there, in captivity, they were faced with a shocking humane attitude from both the Red Army and peaceful Soviet citizens. It would seem that after the atrocities that the Nazis committed on Soviet soil and about which, one way or another, most Wehrmacht soldiers were still aware, the Soviet people should have mocked and mocked the prisoners.
Violent attitudes did occur, but they were never universal. In general, compassionate Russians, and especially women, felt sorry for the German prisoners of war and even tried to help them in some way, often giving food, clothing and household items that were far from superfluous during the harsh war years.
Almost every German prisoner of war who visited the Soviet Union and left memories of the years or months of captivity finds words to admire the Soviet people who committed good-hearted deeds. Here, in distant and incomprehensible Russia, German soldiers and officers began to think about what is the very “Russian soul” that makes the Soviet people show humanism and kindness to the invaders, the executioners of the Soviet people.
From Robert Kershaw's 1941 Through the Eyes of the Germans:
“During the attack, we stumbled upon a light Russian T-26 tank, we immediately clicked it right from the 37-graph paper. When we began to approach, a Russian leaned out of the hatch of the tower to the waist and opened fire on us with a pistol. It soon became clear that he was without legs, they were torn off when the tank was hit. And despite this, he fired at us with a pistol! / Artilleryman of an anti-tank gun /
“We almost did not take prisoners, because the Russians always fought to the last soldier. They didn't give up. Their hardening cannot be compared with ours ... ” / Tanker of the Army Group Center /
After a successful breakthrough of the border defenses, the 3rd Battalion of the 18th Infantry Regiment of the Army Group Center, numbering 800 people, was fired upon by a unit of 5 soldiers. “I did not expect anything like this,” the battalion commander, Major Neuhof, admitted to his battalion doctor. “It’s pure suicide to attack the forces of the battalion with five fighters.”
“On the Eastern Front, I met people who can be called a special race. Already the first attack turned into a battle not for life, but for death. / Tanker of the 12th Panzer Division Hans Becker /
“You just won’t believe this until you see it with your own eyes. The soldiers of the Red Army, even burning alive, continued to shoot from the blazing houses. /Officer of the 7th Panzer Division/
“The quality level of Soviet pilots is much higher than expected ... Fierce resistance, its massive nature does not correspond to our initial assumptions” / Major General Hoffmann von Waldau /
“I have never seen anyone angrier than these Russians. Real chain dogs! You never know what to expect from them. And where do they get tanks and everything else?!” / One of the soldiers of Army Group Center /
71 years ago, Nazi Germany attacked the USSR. What was our soldier like in the eyes of the enemy - German soldiers? What did the beginning of the war look like from other people's trenches? Very eloquent answers to these questions can be found in a book whose author can hardly be accused of distorting the facts. This is “1941 through the eyes of the Germans. Birch Crosses Instead of Iron Crosses” by the English historian Robert Kershaw, which was recently published in Russia. The book almost entirely consists of the memoirs of German soldiers and officers, their letters home and entries in personal diaries.
Non-commissioned officer Helmut Kolakowski recalls: “Late in the evening, our platoon was gathered in the sheds and announced: “Tomorrow we have to enter the battle with world Bolshevism.” Personally, I was simply amazed, it was like a bolt from the blue, but what about the non-aggression pact between Germany and Russia? I kept thinking of that issue of Deutsche Wochenschau that I saw at home and in which the contract was announced. I could not even imagine how we would go to war against the Soviet Union.” The Fuhrer's order caused surprise and bewilderment among the rank and file. “We can say that we were taken aback by what we heard,” admitted Lothar Fromm, a spotter officer. “We were all, I emphasize this, were amazed and in no way prepared for this.” But bewilderment was immediately replaced by relief from the incomprehensible and tedious waiting on the eastern borders of Germany. Experienced soldiers, who had already captured almost all of Europe, began to discuss when the campaign against the USSR would end. The words of Benno Zeiser, who was then studying to be a military driver, reflect the general mood: “All this will end in some three weeks, we were told, others were more careful in their forecasts - they believed that in 2-3 months. There was one who thought that it would last a whole year, but we laughed at him: “And how long did it take to get rid of the Poles? And with France? Have you forgotten?
But not everyone was so optimistic. Erich Mende, Oberleutnant of the 8th Silesian Infantry Division, recalls a conversation he had with his superior during those last moments of peace. “My commander was twice my age, and he had already had to fight the Russians near Narva in 1917, when he was in the rank of lieutenant. “Here, in these vast expanses, we will find our death, like Napoleon,” he did not hide his pessimism ... Mende, remember this hour, it marks the end of the former Germany.
At 3 hours 15 minutes, the advanced German units crossed the border of the USSR. Johann Danzer, an anti-tank gunner, recalls: “On the very first day, as soon as we went on the attack, one of ours shot himself with his own weapon. Clutching the rifle between his knees, he inserted the barrel into his mouth and pulled the trigger. Thus ended the war and all the horrors associated with it.
The capture of the Brest Fortress was entrusted to the 45th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht, numbering 17,000 personnel. The garrison of the fortress is about 8 thousand. In the first hours of the battle, reports were pouring in about the successful advance of the German troops and reports of the capture of bridges and fortress structures. At 4 hours 42 minutes "50 people were taken prisoners, all in the same underwear, the war found them in cots." But by 10:50 the tone of the combat documents had changed: "The battle for the capture of the fortress was fierce - numerous losses." 2 battalion commanders have already died, 1 company commander, the commander of one of the regiments was seriously injured.
“Soon, somewhere between 5.30 and 7.30 in the morning, it became completely clear that the Russians were fighting desperately in the rear of our forward units. Their infantry, with the support of 35-40 tanks and armored vehicles, found themselves on the territory of the fortress, formed several centers of defense. Enemy snipers fired accurately from behind trees, from roofs and basements, which caused heavy losses among officers and junior commanders.
“Where the Russians managed to be knocked out or smoked out, new forces soon appeared. They crawled out of basements, houses, from sewer pipes and other temporary shelters, conducted aimed fire, and our losses continuously grew.
The summary of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) for June 22 reported: "It seems that the enemy, after the initial confusion, is beginning to offer more and more stubborn resistance." OKW Chief of Staff Halder agrees with this: “After the initial “tetanus” caused by the suddenness of the attack, the enemy moved on to active operations.”
For the soldiers of the 45th division of the Wehrmacht, the beginning of the war turned out to be completely bleak: 21 officers and 290 non-commissioned officers (sergeants), not counting the soldiers, died on its very first day. During the first day of fighting in Russia, the division lost almost as many soldiers and officers as during the entire six weeks of the French campaign.
The most successful actions of the Wehrmacht troops were the operation to encircle and defeat the Soviet divisions in the "cauldrons" of 1941. In the largest of them - Kiev, Minsk, Vyazemsky - Soviet troops lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers and officers. But what price did the Wehrmacht pay for this?
General Günther Blumentritt, Chief of Staff of the 4th Army: “The behavior of the Russians, even in the first battle, was strikingly different from the behavior of the Poles and allies who were defeated on the Western Front. Even being in the encirclement, the Russians staunchly defended themselves.
The author of the book writes: “The experience of the Polish and Western campaigns suggested that the success of the blitzkrieg strategy lies in gaining advantages by more skillful maneuvering. Even if we leave out the resources, the morale and the will to resist the enemy will inevitably be broken under the pressure of huge and senseless losses. From this logically follows the mass surrender of the demoralized soldiers who were surrounded. In Russia, however, these "primary" truths were turned upside down by the desperate resistance of the Russians, sometimes reaching fanaticism, in seemingly hopeless situations. That is why half of the offensive potential of the Germans was spent not on advancing towards the goal, but on consolidating the successes that had already been achieved.
The commander of Army Group Center, Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, during the operation to destroy Soviet troops in the Smolensk "cauldron" wrote about their attempts to break out of the encirclement: "A very significant success for the enemy who received such a crushing blow!". The encirclement was not continuous. Two days later, von Bock lamented: "Until now, it has not been possible to close the gap in the eastern section of the Smolensk pocket." That night, about 5 Soviet divisions managed to get out of the encirclement. Three more divisions broke through the next day.
The level of German losses is evidenced by the message of the headquarters of the 7th Panzer Division that only 118 tanks remained in service. 166 vehicles were hit (although 96 were repairable). The 2nd company of the 1st battalion of the "Grossdeutschland" regiment in just 5 days of fighting to hold the line of the Smolensk "cauldron" lost 40 people with a regular company strength of 176 soldiers and officers.
Gradually, the perception of the war with the Soviet Union among ordinary German soldiers also changed. The unbridled optimism of the first days of the fighting was replaced by the realization that "something is going wrong." Then came indifference and apathy. The opinion of one of the German officers: “These vast distances frighten and demoralize the soldiers. Plains, plains, there is no end to them and never will be. That's what drives me crazy."
The troops were also constantly worried by the actions of the partisans, whose number grew as the “boilers” were destroyed. If at first their number and activity were negligible, then after the end of the fighting in the Kiev "cauldron", the number of partisans in the sector of the Army Group "South" increased significantly. In the sector of Army Group Center, they took control of 45% of the territories occupied by the Germans.
The campaign, which dragged on for a long time to destroy the encircled Soviet troops, caused more and more associations with Napoleon's army and fears of the Russian winter. One of the soldiers of the Army Group "Center" on August 20 complained: "The losses are terrible, not to be compared with those that were in France." His company, starting from July 23, participated in the battles for the "tank highway No. 1". “Today the road is ours, tomorrow the Russians take it, then we again, and so on.” Victory no longer seemed so close. On the contrary, the enemy's desperate resistance undermined the morale and inspired by no means optimistic thoughts. “I have never seen anyone angrier than these Russians. Real chain dogs! You never know what to expect from them. And where do they get tanks and everything else?!”
During the first months of the campaign, the combat effectiveness of the tank units of Army Group Center was seriously undermined. By September 1941, 30% of the tanks were destroyed, and 23% of the vehicles were under repair. Almost half of all tank divisions intended for participation in Operation Typhoon had only a third of the initial number of combat vehicles. By September 15, 1941, Army Group Center had a total of 1346 combat-ready tanks, while at the beginning of the campaign in Russia this figure was 2609 units.
Personnel losses were no less heavy. By the beginning of the attack on Moscow, the German units had lost about a third of their officers. The total losses in manpower by this point reached about half a million people, which is equivalent to the loss of 30 divisions. If we take into account that only 64% of the total composition of the infantry division, that is, 10840 people, were directly "fighters", and the remaining 36% were in the rear and support services, it becomes clear that the combat effectiveness of the German troops decreased even more.
This is how one of the German soldiers assessed the situation on the Eastern Front: “Russia, only bad news comes from here, and we still don’t know anything about you. And in the meantime, you are absorbing us, dissolving in your inhospitable viscous expanses.
About Russian soldiers
The initial idea of the population of Russia was determined by the German ideology of that time, which considered the Slavs "subhuman". However, the experience of the first battles made its own adjustments to these ideas.
Major General Hoffmann von Waldau, Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe Command, 9 days after the start of the war, wrote in his diary: “The quality level of Soviet pilots is much higher than expected ... Fierce resistance, its mass character does not correspond to our initial assumptions.” This was confirmed by the first air rams. Kershaw cites the words of a Luftwaffe colonel: "Soviet pilots are fatalists, they fight to the end without any hope of victory or even survival." It is worth noting that on the first day of the war with the Soviet Union, the Luftwaffe lost up to 300 aircraft. Never before had the German Air Force suffered such large one-time losses.
In Germany, the radio was shouting that the shells of "German tanks not only set fire to, but also pierced Russian vehicles through and through." But the soldiers told each other about Russian tanks, which could not be penetrated even with point-blank shots - the shells ricocheted off the armor. Lieutenant Helmut Ritgen from the 6th Panzer Division admitted that in a collision with new and unknown Russian tanks: “... the very concept of tank warfare changed radically, the KV vehicles marked a completely different level of armament, armor protection and tank weight. German tanks instantly moved into the category of exclusively anti-personnel weapons ... " Tankman of the 12th Panzer Division Hans Becker: "On the Eastern Front, I met people who can be called a special race. Already the first attack turned into a battle not for life, but for death.
An anti-tank gunner recalls the indelible impression that the desperate resistance of the Russians made on him and his comrades in the first hours of the war: “During the attack, we stumbled upon a light Russian T-26 tank, we immediately clicked it right from the 37-graph paper. When we began to approach, a Russian leaned out of the hatch of the tower to the waist and opened fire on us with a pistol. It soon became clear that he was without legs, they were torn off when the tank was hit. And despite this, he fired at us with a pistol!
The author of the book “1941 through the eyes of the Germans” cites the words of an officer who served in a tank unit in the sector of Army Group Center, who shared his opinion with war correspondent Curizio Malaparte: “He reasoned like a soldier, avoiding epithets and metaphors, limiting himself only to argumentation, directly related to the issues under discussion. “We almost did not take prisoners, because the Russians always fought to the last soldier. They didn't give up. Their hardening cannot be compared with ours ... "
The following episodes also made a depressing impression on the advancing troops: after a successful breakthrough of the border defenses, the 3rd battalion of the 18th infantry regiment of the Army Group Center, numbering 800 people, was fired upon by a unit of 5 soldiers. “I did not expect anything like this,” Major Neuhof, the battalion commander, confessed to his battalion doctor. “It’s pure suicide to attack the forces of the battalion with five fighters.”
In mid-November 1941, an infantry officer of the 7th Panzer Division, when his unit broke into Russian-defended positions in a village near the Lama River, described the resistance of the Red Army. “You just won’t believe this until you see it with your own eyes. The soldiers of the Red Army, even burning alive, continued to shoot from the blazing houses.
Winter 41st
In the German troops, the saying "Better three French campaigns than one Russian" quickly came into use. “Here we lacked comfortable French beds and were struck by the monotony of the area.” "The prospect of being in Leningrad turned into an endless sitting in numbered trenches."
The high losses of the Wehrmacht, the lack of winter uniforms and the unpreparedness of German equipment for combat operations in the conditions of the Russian winter gradually allowed the Soviet troops to seize the initiative. During the three-week period from November 15 to December 5, 1941, the Russian Air Force made 15,840 sorties, while the Luftwaffe only 3,500, which further demoralized the enemy.
AT tank troops the situation was similar: Lieutenant Colonel Grampe from the headquarters of the 1st Panzer Division reported that his tanks, due to low temperatures (minus 35 degrees), were sky-ready. “Even the turrets are jammed, optical instruments are covered with frost, and machine guns are only capable of firing single rounds ...” In some units, losses from frostbite reached 70%.
Josef Dec of the 71st Artillery Regiment recalls: “Loaves of bread had to be chopped with an axe. First aid packages petrified, gasoline froze, optics failed, and hands stuck to metal. In the cold, the wounded died a few minutes later. A few lucky ones managed to acquire Russian uniforms taken from the corpses they warmed.
Corporal Fritz Siegel, in his letter home on December 6, wrote: “My God, what are these Russians planning to do with us? It would be nice if they at least listened to us up there, otherwise we will all have to die here"