The Eastern Front: Memoirs of a Waffen SS Volunteer, 1941–1945 by Leon Degrelle

Author:Leon Degrelle [Degrelle, Leon]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: personal memoir, Waffen SS, autobiography, Nazi Germany, World War II, Wallon Legion, Third Reich
ISBN: 9780939484782
Publisher: Institute for Historical Review
Published: 2015-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

STAROSELYE

The line of retreat from Staroselye to Derenkovets had been dug by thousands of Ukrainians at the beginning of January. At dawn on February 5, 1944, the Assault Brigade Wallonia occupied it.

The layout of the line had been well chosen. It extended from southeast to northwest atop high crests that overlooked the valley, the bogs, and the canal from Derenkovets to the Olshanka. Far away we could make out the forests by which we had returned from Belozerye.

The trench, dotted with numerous firing emplacements, extended in a zigzag for thirty kilometers. Unluckily it didn’t have any fascines38 and had been dug too deep. It was so deep that, once inside this clayey serpent, we could no longer see a thing.

If the whole line of combat had been strongly held, this inconvenience would have been reduced. But we had only three hundred infantry men to defend thirty kilometers.

The 2nd Company was to have taken position fifteen kilometers north of Derenkovets. Another of our companies occupied a line facing the east that departed Staroselye at a right angle, straight toward the south.

We were left with three hundred infantrymen to hold the principal line. Thus we only had, on the average, a group of ten men to defend each kilometer of front.

The rest of the brigade, the drivers of our three hundred trucks, the artillery men, the anti-tank men, the anti-aircraft men, and the communications troops had fallen back behind the line of combat or were defending with light weapons the points of the trench that were particularly menaced.

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