Behind Soviet Lines by David Higgins

Author:David Higgins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Behind Soviet Lines: Hitler’s Brandenburgers capture the Maikop Oilfields 1942
ISBN: 9781782006015
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Published: 2017-05-17T04:00:00+00:00

The Brandenburgers seize Bataisk Bridge

With Soviet resistance east of Rostov-on-Don evaporating, during the afternoon the 8./II Brandenburg Battalion of Hauptmann der Reserve Siegfried Grabert was directed through the city to capture the railway bridge/causeway leading to Bataisk and hold them until larger conventional forces arrived. Capitalizing on 1./43rd Kradschützen Battalion’s position near the key railway bridge, its 1st Battalion commander was ferried across the Don River alongside 28 volunteers from the battalion’s engineer platoon. As the first German unit from Rostov-on-Don to move to the far bank, it quickly established a makeshift command post a few hundred metres west of the structure’s southern end. Soon after, Grabert arrived on scene in the area, and he divided his formation into an assault and support force; Leutnant Oskar Hüller soon set off across the 300-metre wide river with his half-company on inflatable assault boats. Once reasonably secure on the south bank, the remainder followed suit, and the entire company assembled at Oberstleutnant Stolz’s command post.

After dark, Grabert led half of his command to the causeway, just south of the Don River Bridge, while nearby elements of 43rd Kradschützen Battalion occupied a deep ravine before the enemy-held second bridge, where they provided suppressing fire against Soviets who were now partially surrounded at the main structure some 200 metres to the north. Even though the Soviets employed a heavy machine gun from one of the railway bridge piers, Stolz’s men kept the enemy from destroying the structure, and eventually eliminated the threat. Hüller led the remainder of 8./ Brandenburger Battalion in support of Grabert as the burning railway bridge and Soviet parachute flares illuminated the advance force struggling southward amid constant artillery and rocket fire. Some 10km to the west, Mühlenkamp conducted a surprise attack that secured a ford that the Soviets were using to cross over the low-lying Don River Delta. As the terrain was too soft for vehicle and heavy weapons, vanguards of 73rd and 298th Infantry Divisions prepared to cross to the south bank before respectively moving eastward toward Bataisk and south-west for Azov. The remainder of both formations continued to push for Rostov-on-Don along the river’s northern edge.

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