800 Days on the Eastern Front by Nikolai Litvin Stuart Britton

Author:Nikolai Litvin, Stuart Britton [Nikolai Litvin, Stuart Britton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
ISBN: 9780700615179
Goodreads: 618450
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Published: 2007-04-24T00:00:00+00:00

Transferred Again

We hastened our advance to Baranovichi, and beyond to Slonim and Bialystok, by using all possible means and types of transportation. Many soldiers attached supply wagons and peasant carts to tanks and self-propelled guns, and then hopped in for the tow. Many others traveled in carts being pulled by confiscated horses, ox, and even goats. We passed Baranovichi quickly and traveled through Slonim in the middle of the day. The city was empty. The citizens remained inside their homes and hid. Since we had to hurry on to Bialystok, I didn’t see any major violations of discipline in Slonim. Sashka and I spent approximately a week with the headquarters’ platoon, and then we were transferred to the 473rd Separate Transportation Battalion of the 354th Rifle Division.

Captain Afana’ev, the commander of the battalion, and his adjutant Senior Lieutenant Gorshkov were interested in our experience. Sashka had worked previously on pickup trucks, but I had worked only on Willys jeeps. This was great! The transportation battalion had a worn-out Willys that no one could repair. They handed it over to me for my care. I started on the repair work, and within two days I managed to get the vehicle “back on its feet” and became its designated driver. This was excellent; after all, to drive around is better than walking around! The repaired Willys and I were placed at the disposal of the deputy divisional commander, Lieutenant Colonel Davydkin. After a week of trips with Lieutenant Colonel Davydkin, I knew all the units of the division.

By this time, the war had reached the old national border. One day, before departure from the command post, Davydkin announced that we would be heading to a large manor in the great Bialowiecz Forest. We arrived there around noon. The manor was heavily damaged. We found Colonel Dzhandzhgava there, and many other officers. There I also saw for the first time our 65th Army commander, Lieutenant General Pavel Ivanovich Batov. The weather was bright and sunny, but the enemy’s air force made no visits. Batov ordered us to disperse into the nearest woods, just in case of an air raid.

We crossed the Polish border in the district of Biabzhega. Rumors traveled among the troops that this was the birthplace of our front commander Rokossovskii. Troops pointed out a farmstead where his parents lived.

Immediately upon crossing the Polish border, I noticed a change in the landscape. Farms were neatly arranged, and the soil was carefully tilled. You could sense the spirit of individualism. Among the peasants here, everything was “my,” while in the Soviet Union, everything was “our” in the kolkhozes. We asked the peasants, “Why aren’t you together, in a collective?” And their answer? “My.” For the first few days, the local Polish people looked at the Soviets and communists as if they had horns on their head, and at us, Siberians, as if we liked to devour little children.

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