We pass Gumrak airfield with its distinctive water tower and station. And now, here I sit on the bank of the River Don, up on an escarpment, the river below and, on the other side – the Steppe beyond Kalach leading off into the distance – and eventually Stalingrad.
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| Bridge over the Don at Kalach |
There is a Joseph Stalin tank and behind me a memorial covered in bits of
metal retrieved from the battlefield. We had travelled here from the NKVD
Museum in the old prison where we learnt how the men of the NKVD won the
battle!
A veteran - Anatoly Kozlov - a Colonel who served with the Soviet 158th Tank Brigade and he tells the story of this place. Anatoly is responsible for the nearby memorial which commemorates his fallen comrades.
A veteran - Anatoly Kozlov - a Colonel who served with the Soviet 158th Tank Brigade and he tells the story of this place. Anatoly is responsible for the nearby memorial which commemorates his fallen comrades.
On 12th
July the Stalingrad Front was formed and three armies from the reserve occupied
this point. No. 62 and a number of Rifle Divisions. We were west of the Don and
No. 63 was on the east. No. 64 was on the southern front fielding four Tank
Brigades, four Marine and two Infantry divisions.
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| Colonel Anatoly Kozlov |
On the 17th July the advance groups on the Chir were engaged and
this was the start of the Battle of Stalingrad. They held the Germans for only
one week. On the 23rd July the defence line was broken – most of the
Chir team were killed. Battalion 33 had 2,000 people but only 20 got back to
the main defence line.
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| Memorial on the West Bank of the Don near Kalach |
The
advance team had the best equipment. The Germans broke our defence line
straight way. The German objective was to surround the Russians at Kalach. On
the 24th July the Russian 62nd and 64th Armies
were surrounded – many were killed and taken prisoner.
To
prevent the Germans crossing the Don No. 1 and No. 4 attacked on the 24th
July. I was in the 1st Tank Army and we held our position here on
this very spot. Two Russian tank armies broke out - 5,000 from two armies.
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| The Don - Volga Canal Built by German Prisoners of War |
I was
liaison officer here on the Don bridge and I had a dream to raise a monument
where the Joseph Stalin tank now sits. I built the monument in 1997. We got
back across the river on pieces of wood – under fire. We then built a defence
line on the east side of the Don. 100,000 died on the Chir / Don in July 1941.
The
Germans had total air supremacy. There were so many planes! One flew so low we
shot it down with a tank shell. The only time the Russians appeared in the air
was during the big August air raid.
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| Recently Buried Soviet Dead at Rossoshka |
Anatoly
went on to recount the following story from when he was serving with the 2nd
Guards Army holding the line against Manstein’s relief effort.
The
Germans used tannoys to tell us that if we were captured carrying Communist
papers we would be shot. Some soldiers hid their papers but the NKVD would ask
to see them. Some said they had lost them and one lad admitted that he was
frightened and that he’s hidden them. He was court martialled and sentenced to
death. His commanding officer was asked to carry out the sentence in front of
the other soldiers. He used his pistol but shot the lad without killing him. He
tried again and his gun misfired – it was broken. He went from man to man
trying to pull a rifle from other members of the squad but they were all crying
and their fingers were stiff around their rifles. The officer had to find a
rifle from another squad to finish the job.
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| Victory Day March - Fallen Heroes Square, Volgograd |
The 9th
May 2002. The Victory Day parade in Fallen Heroes Square, Volgograd. A
goose-stepping colour party and lots of young soldiers. The commanders in their
blue berets demonstrate some self-defence moves.
To read Part Four click here.
