Soviet Staff Officer by Ivan Nikititch Krylov Edward Fitzgerald

Author:Ivan Nikititch Krylov, Edward Fitzgerald [Ivan Nikititch Krylov, Edward Fitzgerald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781787204553
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Eschenburg Press
Published: 2017-04-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen — THE BATTLE OF KREMENTCHUG

WE stayed at Potoki Station two whole days before going on to Krementchug.

The Battle of the Dnieper was raging. General von Kleist concentrated the 6th, 9th, 11th and 13th Armoured Divisions, the 34th, 36th and 43rd Motorized Divisions, and the 46th, 49th and 50th Infantry Divisions on the other bank of the river. In addition he had a great number of planes in support. They circled over the Dnieper creating the famous ‘aerial umbrella’ which protected the German engineers busily building bridges near Perevolotchna and upstream from Krementchug. We had destroyed the big railway bridge carrying the line from Krementchug to Zvietkovka, an important railway junction where the lines to Odessa, Dniepropetrovsk and Zaporozhie meet.

The commander of our army, Lieutenant-General Krassovsky, had only two armoured divisions, two motorized divisions and three infantry divisions at his disposal, and, in addition, he was short of artillery. Artillery reinforcements were to have been sent to Merefa near Kharkov, but on the way they were badly knocked about by the Luftwaffe. Krassovsky asked General Yanovsky to send him his artillery from Poltava, but Yanovsky hesitated. He was afraid of a sudden appearance of the Germans from the valley of the Psiol.

The German planes flew over in broad daylight to bomb our positions. Sometimes our fighter planes took the air to attack them, but most of the time the Germans had only our antiaircraft guns to deal with, though their shooting was remarkably accurate.

The day we arrived we were invited by Krassovsky to come to his headquarters. He was anxious to examine a German prisoner personally. One of our patrols had crossed the Dnieper for the express purpose of bringing in prisoners. Krassovsky had only one officer on his staff who spoke German fairly well, Commandant Fechner, and he was anxious that I should be present at the examination.

The prisoner was a Company Sergeant-Major, and with his horn-rimmed glasses, his fine hands and his slim figure, he seemed to be a man of some education and intelligence. On the way back he had tried to escape from our patrol by jumping from the boat into the Dnieper, but a blow from a rifle butt had prevented his escape. His head was bandaged, and blood trickled from his lips from time to time as he talked. He had lost his front teeth, which made it difficult for him to talk and difficult for us to understand him. He spoke with a strong Berlin accent.

‘Your name, rank and unit?’

‘Heinrich Fechner, Company Sergeant-Major of the 147th Infantry Division.’

‘Fechner.’ General Krassovsky smiled. ‘No relation of yours I suppose, comrade Fechner?’

I noticed that the man was listening intently. He seemed to understand Russian.

‘Who is in command of your regiment?’

‘General von Falz.’

‘What sort of a general?’

‘Brigadier-General.’

‘What army does your unit belong to? What other units are there at Kriukov? Who commands them. What equipment have they?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You mean you don’t want to say.’

‘No. I really don’t know.’

‘Do you speak Russian?’

‘No.’

‘Do you understand Russian?’

‘No.’

‘Good. Very well, tell him, comrade Fechner, that we shall send him to Kharkov escorted by Cossacks.

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