Stalingrad Heroes by Alan David

Author:Alan David [David, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2015-03-16T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Max Eckhardt was certain that they were winning the battle for Stalingrad. All Russian counter-attacks were beaten off and German units had regained the Mamayev Kurgan and strengthened their hold upon the riverbank where they had broken through. But the .intensity of the fighting did not slacken. The sky seemed to burn over their heads and the ground continually shook under their feet. The Russians kept counter-attacking, as if they were robots instead of flesh and blood. The rubble was blood-stained now, and still the bombing and shelling continued unabated. Cellars were filled with smoke and dust, and there was barely enough oxygen underground to keep a match burning long enough to light a cigarette.

But the Russian artillery was getting stronger, Eckhardt thought. They were now breaking up German attacks before they could get under way by shelling assembly areas with barrages lasting up to forty minutes. Observers estimated that the enemy artillery consisted of about three hundred guns and several rocket regiments.

More German attacks went in, still pushing forward with the bank of the Volga as their objective, and the fighting maintained its ferocity. Suicide charges were battered down by artillery or small-arms fire, and counter-attacks were dealt with in the same manner. Men struggled for the same piece of blood-soaked ground over and over again. But the Germans were grimly snatching inches here and there, and Dantine was jubilant when Eckhardt reported to him.

‘Come and look at the map,’ the Company Commander ordered, his dark eyes glittering. ‘We have the Volga bank from Kuporosnoye suburb below the Tsaritsa to the central landing stage above it. We’ve also retaken Mamayev Kurgan. God knows how many times that hill has changed hands! But the next objective is the northern part of the city. Once we’ve taken the factory area the city will be ours. The men are a credit to us. Colonel Spaten has congratulated me on the way our Company has handled itself in this action.’

‘That’s fine, sir.’ Eckhardt nodded, his gaze harsh as he studied the features on the map. They were slowly but surely taking the city, that was evident, and Russian counterattacks were being beaten off each time they came in. The Russians did make a little ground in one or two sectors, but in the main they were being pushed back, forced to relinquish their already tenuous hold upon the city. If progress could be maintained at the present rate Stalingrad would be completely in German hands within a few days.

But the Russians had pushed tanks into the north of the city, in the factory area, and sent reinforcements to back them up. The Luftwaffe bombed furiously to destroy them, and fresh smoke blurred the silhouette of the city. Eckhardt was detailed to take two platoons, whose combined strength equalled one normal platoon, and capture a strong point which was causing the advance some problems.

It was in the factory district, near the tractor plant, and had been gutted by fire and shattered by bombs. Bricks lay scattered over the cratered ground and steel girders were twisted into fantastic shapes.

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