Brutal Reality of Eastern Front Exposed by Lost German Diaries

These are the Diaries of Loiten and Friedrich Zander. He was born on August 31, 1916 in Groudens, then a small merchant town in German West Prussia, on the banks of the Fistula River and now in north-central Poland. Zonda was apprenticed to a merchant at Osner Brook in northwestern Germany, but like many his age, he would spend six months in the Reich Labor Service before the start of his military training in early November 1937 and volunteered for service in Vermont as a signalman or radio operator in a Panzer Regiment he rose through the ranks rapidly becoming a commissioning officer in late 1938, undertook training as a tank commander the following year, and was commissioned as an officer in 1940.

He saw no

front

-line service in Poland and France and spent the years 1939 and 1940 training troops for the regiment's replacement battalion during their service on the Eastern Front. He was awarded both kinds of the Iron Cross, the German Gold Cross and the Tank Destroyer Badge. His

front

line service ended in December 1942 outside Stalingrad when he was wounded. during an attack intended to relieve the encircled troops of the 6th Palace Army in the summer of 1941, he was only 24 years old and commander of a platoon of Panzer 35 in June of that year, he would become one of three million troops Marching into the Soviet Union as part of Operation Barbarossa, the largest military invasion in history in which Panzer Regiment 11 would fight as part of the six Panzer Divisions in Army Group North.

It is through his words that we will see the

reality

of unbreakable and relentless nature. War on the Eastern Front On the morning of June 17, 1941 at 9:30 a.m. the company was assembled in the parking lot ready to move past the schoolyard fence where the vehicles had been parked for years. last three months the dense crowd of the people has ascended many school children among them they have been given a day off just to watch us go this article makes his report and then the bus arrives not too early as he usually is doing exercises and he report to uber as boss and then briefly head over to whereupon we are fired up and set up our vehicles and then our trusty old skoda 35t lt rolls again the old buckets work admirably in september 1939 the

german

s launched their attack on poland in response to this act of German aggression Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany World War II had started on September 17, 1939 The Soviet Union invaded

eastern

Poland sealing the country's fate The last Polish operational unit surrendered on October 6 after the defeat of Poland Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union divided the country in accordance with a secret clause in the German-Soviet non-aggression pact that had just been signed a few days before the demarcation line for partition from German-Soviet-occupied Poland ran along the Bug River nearly two years later Vietnam Sander found herself in the West Prussian town of Freestat just seven kilometers from the Soviet border ready to be part of an armored Vanguard that I would tear up the Molotov tape through the pact June 17, 1941 the debate in the tank is excellent there is a bottle of champagne in my luggage that I will break open to name the first attack Outback plays the harmonica Herring is also sitting in the turret and reading a funny book a collection of jokes drawings caricatures and humorous anecdotes every time you read a particularly juicy story you laugh out loud as we look at the contents of your shoulder, put that aside, I also have to keep an eye on my society while looking at our surroundings, the summer scenery with all its lakes is quite pleasant and the towns and villages make an orderly impression after dark on a clear night there is a pit stop as the journey continues they settle down for a little sleep little Earthwick gets up in the compartment amid boxes of ammunition bags of luggage and fuel canisters sleeping the sleep of those just below the gun guarding stretches out next to the fuel canisters on top of one of the hatches above the engine, a wonderful fan-driven warmth radiates from the other open hatch and sends my wireless operator off to a blissful sleep for Zonda and many of her fellow soldiers the year before would have been quiet in 1939 and 1940 Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and France had fallen.

The British Expeditionary Force and the French Army had been routed in a matter of weeks. Most of Western Europe was under the Nazi yoke in the shadows. However, Hitler was planning a new war that he had always wanted. and one that had been on the cards since the beginning of the war against the Soviet Union June 18, 1941 seven kilometers east of Weiss Island I am sitting in a meadow at rastram 1 hoping to be safe here from the huge swarms of mosquitoes in the woods where the tanks are is just unbearable we spent the rest of the night sleeping next to the tank having been very careful to camouflage everything now we have finally put everything away properly we are dreaded and do the last tech check alien at night the journey continues further and further east just like yesterday many planes passed over us it is a nice and reassuring feeling to know that in the worst case we can always count on our heads from above June 21, 1941 in Disposition in the area of deployment at the very moment the chief returned a message Rider brought the fever address to the soldiers of the

eastern

front was read by uttarovitia vasmud in his distinctive voice standing in the chief's kubel wagon the whole company was gathered around him , everyone listened with eager straight faces during Furious's deliberations and as his last words were read, it was clear that the show would go on. foreigner foreigner hitler had announced his decision to go to war with russia on 31 july 1940. after plans were drawn up hitler issued directive number 21 to the joint staff of the armed forces in the

german

high command ordering the three branches of Vermont to prepare an attack on the Soviet Union by May 1941 to overthrow Soviet Russia even earlier.

At the end of the war against England, the company was given the code name Neyman Barbarossa or Case Barbarossa. It would be a military enterprise of unprecedented scale comprised of three huge army groups advancing along a front line nearly 3,000 kilometers long. The German Army and its allies. it would go deep into the Russian Heartland. Army Group North was tasked with annihilating the enemy forces in the Baltic states to seize the Baltic ports and then capture the cities of Leningrad and achieve the initial objective of the strongest and most powerful of the three armored group Center. was the capture of Smolensk, while Panzer Group South was to attack Russia's southern and southwestern front through Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania.

The key would be speed and aggression, while the spearhead would once again be formed by the Panzer divisions crushing the Russian lines before starting to chew up hundreds of kilometers of enemy territory commanding a platoon of one of those formations. Transit. Lloyd and Friedrich Wilhelmsander's Baltic Offensive Operation June 22, 1941. Wake-up call at 2:30. He has asked for cold and we have been bothered by mosquitoes, but it does not matter, it is Sunday and today is the hour of the show 250 fire up and forward March blocked in China and his platoon in front, then the boss and the heavy platoon and me, the boy new and this rabbit in the rear as soon as we leave the forest Hell Breaks Loose I can't see anything at all but I can hear some of our guys open up eventually me and my group also get to the place where nothing seems to advance anymore because a long anti tank obstacle is stopping the advance, some bunkers are behind, built with wood and sand, very solid job, the boss and the Panzer 4. with Uber blocked and Leonard drove up to the wooden boxes and shot straight into the slits of shooting from a range of five meters or less, the companions inside did not come out and kick the bucket, instead, they were Mongolians.

Army Group North received 20 infantry divisions three. Panzer divisions and three motorized infantry divisions were organized into two 16th and 18th infantry armies. and John Panzer Group Panzer Group four Panzer Group 4 received the order to break through the enemy border zone between Naaman and the Riga Road tilsit and in no time the dubsier the sector between the mouth of the river and zala Panzer group 4 will then advance towards Western Divina and establish bridgeheads between dunburg and jakobstadt the point of greatest effort as far as the situation allows will be the duneburg area then new operations will be ordered issued by army group June 23, 1941.

I am sitting in the turret with binoculars around my neck, headphones on, and a microphone at my throat in front of us. Something is burning. It must be a bigger place. Russini. giant columns of smoke are the best signal to announce that we are here much better than any signal flare they jump wherever there is enemy resistance if you fire your gun at one of those lithuanian wooden huts they immediately catch fire yesterday morning we could see clearly the smoke was rising from taubach and it was thick enough to block the sun now here on the road i can see the smoke rising all along the horizon on the first day of the german fantasy crossing the russian border the spencer division had advanced beyond the erzville Cass a respectable distance of about 90 kilometers but failed to reach the objective the tubsia junction northeast of Racine the main reason for this was the unexpected fierce defense of the Red Army soldiers who often fell to the preferring to be killed rather than be taken prisoner, the fierce resistance offered particularly during the first days of the fighting cost the German army dearly with more than 42,000 men killed, wounded and taken prisoner in the first eight days of the Fighting for men like Logan and Sander's death became a constant companion of everyday life, something that was treated and welcomed, but never alleviated the traumatic effect of losing friends.

He has fallen. like a sieve 4.7-centimeter anti-tank gun, he took a shell in the back and went and one can only thank God for this he could immediately, since the next shell had torn off both hands, short salute hands in salute to the cap and our Panzer. he rode on his parents he will receive a letter from the company commander who is heartbroken like us there will be a death notice in the local paper and his little blonde sister will cry for him however we will carry on with him in our thoughts he will fight to our side and his death will not go unpunished Friedrich sander and many other young soldiers like him, tankers, infantrymen and aircrew, the fight was the first of their military careers, they had all heard tales of heroism from their more experienced comrades who they had already seen. action in Poland, Norway and France now was Sandra's opportunity to prove her worth in combat the Red Army soldiers however she did not make this undertaking easy the German army faced a new enemy who fought fiercely Soviet propaganda denounced all germans as murderous violent beasts and cannibals hatred of germans was actively and openly encouraged many red army soldiers who were fighting bravely in defense of their homeland believed that the germans took no prisoners which had the desired effect june 27, 1941 and finally we were deployed to fight back a long drive to the burning barn ahead, taking the riflemen with us, a few shots at the gigantic tank that suddenly starts to burn, then a few shots at an armored target on our hard drive, not visible to a driver and affects therefore unnoticed the company stands in our way we drive along the edge of the forest where the Russian field kitchens are, the infantry is only a few meters ahead of us when suddenly, to the left of our tank a russian stands up, the swinat pretended to be dead as our infantry passed him, that's an old classic pretending to be dead then shooting from behind but that's not a good idea when facing men tank as we step on the gas turn left and run over him problem solved that man won't hurt anyone anymore we were moving forward when suddenly There was a very loud and scary metallic bang at the same moment I feel a sharp pain in the back of my head for a moment my vision darkens then red I try to figure out what has happened to my sky above me a bit missing from the edge of the turret hedge the observation mirror is broken the leather padding on the inside of the turret hatch is broken there is a hole in itlight signal apparatus in the turret tiny metal slivers cover the gap in the gun and the rest of the turret is littered with leather fragments and similar slivers.

I touch the back of my skull and there is blood on my fingers. Everything seems fine. they won the tanks of the 6th Panzer Division had advanced another 290 kilometers constantly harassed ambushed shelled and shelled by the Red Army on little sleep and in

brutal

heat the stress of rapid advance was taking a heavy toll both mentally and physically 28 June 1941 the demand on men not only in battle but also on the march is enormous, sometimes the doctor administers some pills that keep us awake and then he goes on, always on, without clear eyes, almost glued together by sweat and dust , tired and unwashed. two o'clock in the morning we came upon a creek the bridge across which he couldn't carry a load and where uber lot and playkin and his knights directed traffic needless to describe the resulting chaos on the other bank the local jews had been put to work by the locals serves those brothers right beards cut now they can repair the roads for many in the baltic states the german conquerors were greeted as liberators from the ussr occupation and its repressions lithuania latvia and dystonia all of whom had been absorbed by force in the soviet union in the mid 1940s. for jewish communities, the german invasion brought not freedom but unspeakable horror, fear, violence and death began in lithuania one day after the german invasion of the soviet union.

Murderous anti-Semitic riots broke out even as the first German troops arrived. Driven and encouraged by the Germans, thousands of Jews would be killed in the early summer of the period 220,000 Jews living in Lithuania when the Germans invaded on June 22, 1941 More than 195,000 were killed in the Holocaust as we passed through the area of yemegala we noticed that Lithuanians waved their old national colors from their green yellow red houses in In the smaller towns and cities there were men in olive green uniforms with swastika armbands in Lithuanian colours. Smiley explained that he was a Lithuanian guerrilla, some of these tiny forest strangers were even carrying rifles and were protecting some scruffy jews working the streets, by the way the streets deserve their own chapter unpaved just covered with a layer of gravel and in dry weather a layer of fine white flower-like dust and if it only rains a little, these roads which are already marked in red on our maps turn into a mud bath of a kind that no one in Germany could imagine, but a Once the people of the Baltic states rejoiced at the time of the expulsion of the Soviets from their lands, Barbarossa was far from a normal invasion.

Territories within the Soviet Union were crucial to Nazi plans to acquire the kingdom of Lieben. The war against the Soviet Union was to make full economic use of the newly won territories in the east to achieve this goal. The supposedly inferior races, the Slavs and Jews who lived there, had to be removed and ethnic Germans settled in their place by Friedrich Wilhelms Ander, who would apply to join the SS in 1936 and was a strong believer in National Socialist ideas about war. against Russia was a noble crusade against communism that would not only benefit him but also Europe and the rest of the world that all the soldiers on our side know what the big point of all this is it's not just that everyone got the point deeper in there just look at all that rich soil and it's acres and acres of it but it's also poorly cultivated if these people here are incapable of cultivating the land then they have no right to it bring German settlers here they know about cultivation and breeding of animals there are many things to see here for the Lancer although life is not the same as in France it is however a great political education for them because they can learn about the broader plants of the fair they can witness the difference between the culture German and the state of affairs in Lithuania you can see the women here going to church in their dirty gray dresses most of them walk barefoot some have wooden shoes the shoes they usually carry in their hands even when they go to church the hats look like strangers the best the women wear a white headscarf but even this is usually dirty and gray scruffy cats many of them and many Alonso can't help but compare them to the French women we met last year when June turned into July The German forces Incredible progress had been made by elements of Army Group South, they had crossed the Horim River and were fast approaching Tarnapal, which would fall on July 2 by June 30, in Army Group Center's sector, the commanding 2nd Panzer Group General Oberst Heinz Guderian and the 3rd Panzer Group under General Low Burst Hermann Hoth decimated the Soviet border defenses, defeated several Soviet counterattacks, and encircled four Soviet armies near Allied stocks and Minsk. 420,000 men would march into German captivity about a week later in the north.

German forces were in the process of capturing Riga and the Baltic coast, while Panzer Regiment 11 had turned north, established a bridgehead over the Degava and Livani and was approaching villainy one of the final objectives before crossing the border with Russia, it seemed that the conquest of the Soviet Union would only be a matter of time, but even in the rapid pace of the advance and in the midst of the fighting there were brief moments of respite on July 1, 1941. in the GIF the tents our regalia prepared for the night were disassembled and packed up March and vehicles ready corporals and fed the people in the yard were in boisterous motion amid other jokes and nonsense someone suddenly began humming a tune one man after another joined in and soon everyone they were loudly singing the song of marushka, the polish girl, then countless lodged in china's conductor shot a harmonica between their lips and filters lit.

World War I had been a prisoner for seven months in Limburg and Elan stood in the doorway with his wife and listened to the music. I had ample opportunity today to watch her work, even with all the heavy farm work in the fields and in the stables, she kept herself well groomed and some of the more curious infantrymen even managed to watch the girl through their binoculars as she bathed. . herself in a stream now that beautiful girl that I carry in my heart suddenly came up to me with a bouquet of sweet-smelling wild roses said something in her own language that I did not understand however I realized that there was something good and pleasant and I felt it too because he held my hand in his for quite some time in an affectionate way.

I have no idea why these people are suddenly wishing us a safe trip and good luck. The man, of course, had learned a bit of German during his time as a prisoner, apart from that, I have noticed that the whole area on the Latvian side is much cleaner and more cultivated than on the Lithuanian side. and non-efficient goats bred in Lithuania the wooden houses are clean and not covered with rotten straw but with proper roof tiles in general the properties here are more spacious cleaner and better looking the farmer offered us fresh cow's milk as soon as we arrived and soon after he produced two finely cut glasses which he filled with home brew drawn from a nice ceramic pot in return he asked me for some cigarettes because he would love to smoke but could never get tobacco he was delighted when winterhagaman handed him two big packs of russian cigarettes we went out into the rain torrential the white roses the girl had given me taped to the front of my tank now it's friday july 4th 1941 a truly hellish concert an mg34 to my right shoots first must be overlord and eggert at the same second i squeeze too I pull the trigger and keep firing belt after bed there are a lot of massive targets on the road to my left the two Panzers from the light staff company platoon poor flanking gun fire on the trucks more to less than 500 meters away the russians in front of my vehicle they fell as if they had been mowed off the side a little farther back the russians trying to take cover in some bushes at the roadside some high explosive shells for them now trying to get from the bushes across the field to a forest about 400 meters away on a sports field it takes about a minute to run 400 meters running for a minute until the stream of fire from the three mg-34s of the Panzer two will probably be the end of it and trying to cover the distance tracking down is sheer madness not a single one of them make it to the safety of the woods the lorry column however it's ours the vehicles are mostly undamaged some have been abandoned with engines running with some from the guns -down the russians to the front keep moving chapansky finishes them off with a rifle to the right there's a basket that can't walk any more on another one hasn't stiffened yet damn the dog just pretended to be dead i kick for the ass and then push it back to the farm where a large number of prisoners are slowly assembling as i take a closer look at a russian who shot himself the boss and leonard have discovered a russian still breathing one more waterhole ahead we are trying to get the poor son of a bitch out the boss bends down and at that moment the bastard pulls a pistol a revolver out of the water and shoots the boss who stares at us with a face of hatred contorted in a satanic The masked man jumps into the ground and the shot does not come out.

I draw my pistol and send the bullet into the Russian's skull, but at the same time he collapses under a flurry of bullets from under Officer Butler's submachine gun. I am livid with anger, such pigs. we're trying to help the wounded and we get shot this is the price paid for our fucking Humanity so we're treating this scum too softly i grab my pistol and shoot another wounded guy in the head with a roaring breath the pig collapses i am such an idiot having preached to my men over and over again that we are the nation of culture and we have to play it safe but here we get our comeuppance for being soft july 6th 1941 here they will not let us swim some spearmen are standing there and tell us that swimming is forbidden since the other side has not been cleared of the enemy the small stream forms the border between Latvia and the former Soviet Union no one knows what is called something unpronounceable ultimately we bathe in the creek between Latvia and the union just like our channel based soldiers and we are proud of it we have the corps of lightning klein young in the bow of the tank that responds almost knocked me down im going to start crying im going to start cussing and yelling I feel bad and I walk to the tank and there lies young Klein right under the machine gun he was shot in the head after he had left his vehicle the poor man is still a bit alive in this gurgling lung.

I'll make the Russians pay for that. I call a doctor and a Sanka or doctor. Maya climbs on a blanket and bandages her head from which she oozes a thick mass of brain. There will be recovery time soon. soviet russians live damn miserable lives today i walked into the house of one of these collective farmers there is no getting rid of the stench one finds in these one room checks not even with hours of ventilation a few covered stairs lead to the living room the pannier lives in the Taj womb while all their cattle live in the sutera the botukudo and other jungle tribes live the same way the conditions in the one true Motherland are farmers and workers are even dirtier and more degenerate than those in Lithuania the catalytic converter serves as auxiliary heating in case the huge oven isn't enough the perches for the multi headed family members are usually behind the oven we finally found all the cattle here near borgino that is how far the panya has a russian shell that exploded in the middle of the herd but none of the animals were harmed russian shells are much less effective than ours but their tanks are superior and have good snipers many russians had come up waving leaflets thrown by us in which the government German guaranteed to treat well all Red Army soldiers willing to surrender personally I interrogated three of them to the best of my ability I was told they were members of a rifle regiment the Germans had fired a lot which had caused their regime to disperse the soldiers the commander had escaped, one of them speaking in a mix of russian and yiddish told me that they had 40 tanks to support them, but these had old Avec tanks with strangers, not tracks, he explained, I guess we will meet soon they. anyway we are following as a reserve platoon one of leonhardt's panzer force is standing in front of some bushes where several russians are hiding our rifleman saw the danger first but at that moment thewretches had already shot down two of them feige is angry he yells and rages and orders his men to launch attacks maybe he finally understood that the ground should always be thoroughly checked and the other rifle brothers say that's not their job , well, that's why they are now missing two of their riflemen but what The War Continues By mid-July 1941, the German advance was advancing apace along the entire length of the front.

The vitabs had fallen and Smolensk was finally within range of Army Group Center's panzer groups in the south. German troops were advancing slowly towards the denipper in the north, the Soviet Union's Second City, Leningrad, apparently within range of the exhausted tank crews of Panzer Regiment 11, who had a combat advance of more than 1,000 kilometers. behind them, during which they fought not only against the troops of the Red Army, but also against nature itself. July 15, 1941. Initially, the plan had been that we, together with the infantry, would form a vanguard in the advance on Leningrad. It is a maximum of 150 kilometers until we reach our objective.

I have no idea why they let us sleep until six in the morning, but then sleep was desperately needed there was a storm in the night and it had rained heavily sorry for those who didn't pitch a tent we were once caught by that rain and since then we pitch a tent whenever possible tudash and japan ski scare everyone mosquitoes smoking some rossis puppy or a cigar after the rain however masses of mosquitoes swarmed around the beasts know how to find even the smallest bit of skin bare the earth and then one can hear the distinctive slap of a hand followed often by some juicy curse now, however, we have come to an area where not only mosquito bite flies corpse cat flies and fat horseflies and all those are determined to stab you it is not uncommon to see men with swollen hands cheeks and the eyes the beasts are everywhere I hope there are none in Leningrad yes Leningrad all the soldiers are waiting for this metropolis of Russian Europe and inside I feel the same.

I look forward to the end of this period of struggle here in the east. What will happen after that, no one knows, but we will have reached an important goal and that makes me happy when I talk about Leningrad, although the average Lancer expects more mundane things. All the Lancers in my platoon have been talking to me. By now, there are bound to be schnapps factories in Leningrad. Leningrad too we will finally get food other than pea soup and black pudding the women here too are dirty they will be washed in the big city yes tilting the goal of all comrades' dreams we are about 150 kilometers away and progressing terribly bad advanced roads it is slow war in the Soviet Union it was not only about leibensarm it was about German racial purity and a political crusade against Bolshevism in the words of Hitler to Velton sounds Creek a war of ideologies of peoples and a war of races with the objective of annihilating those who were seen as ethnically inferior and also politically dangerous. who had somehow managed to survive the effects of the infamous commissar order issued by the German army in June 1941 ordering their immediate execution as was supposed in the forces of the Judeo-Bolshevik ideology, they were then taken to the camps total of between 140,000 and 500,000 Soviet prisoners of war died in concentration camps, most of whom were shot or gassed 5.7 million Soviet soldiers who were in German captivity 3.3 million they did not survive the war july 19, 1941 the scene at the crossroads is terrible dead russians everywhere one looks the whole area is littered with them dead horses among them and vehicles locked up on the side of the road never before have I seen so many crushed corpses that they lie on the road in the ditches and in the fields in ledinki there was a whole pile of corpses in front of our vehicles, but not as many as here.

The few kilometers from the junction to Gidau are full of wagons, gun carriages, limbus cars, gun trucks and all sorts of other equipment, then we enter the town through the mist we can see Lake Pipers on our right there are also some boats are apparently Russian evacuating troops fleeing north into still unoccupied territory the Russians have hit it here I decide not to stay with the vehicles but walk to a square open space along the lake where prisoners are kept under trees there are a large number of wounded being treated by women dressed in jodhpurs and boots a Russian surgeon who looks more like a butcher is standing among them with his hands in his pocket doing absolutely nothing we don't have enough clothing material for the wounded here the Russians themselves do not carry anything of the sword with them a woman in a civilian coat under which the uniform of the Russian women's battalions is visible approaches wants to have a passport proof that we have been discharged here and asks to be allow him to stay with the wounded he has sent to find and bring white clothes that can be used as a bandage there are 1500 prisoners next to a fence separated from the others there are about 20 more they are Volga Germans who have been forced to serve in the Russian army , it is true that the creatures are not very trusting and inspiring, but they still have at least some German blood in their veins and have therefore been separated from the Mongols.

Caucasians and Russians only speak broken German. mixed with Russian and they find it hard to understand our High German after all their ancestors were Swabians who had come to the Volgais settlers for me they are Bolsheviks just like the others they too have taken up arms against us and have fought in the ranks of the Red Army, but the party knows better what to do with such people. The other Red Army men are savages. There are some civilians among them. Communists in plain clothes caught carrying weapons. to set fire to a captured gasoline depot and then the process had fired on our men the question of what to do with the pigs is met with a short answer from an aide to staff shoot them the two are led behind the house a few minutes later some pistol shots were heard made by a couple of fanatical bolsheviks minus 23 july 1941 a lot has happened today several russian bombers came up and had scored some direct hits on the artillery column of the 1st infantry division very nasty nasty for the gunners some of them dead 15 soldiers more or less badly wounded 12 horses dead and tamchick my radio operator injured when a splinter bomb hit a scarf which is the result of an attack by five russian sb2 bombers and some clowns yelling that they are german they are german without having clearly identified them tanchik was in great pain he could not put any weight on his right leg with a splinter in it the boy made a brave face though and tried not to show how much he was in pain as Barbarossa entered his fifth week millions of men along the huge front wondered when the campaign in the north would end, where Russian resistance seemed to be weakening desperate counter-attacks ambushes and air raids With no time to rest, the advance had to continue further and further towards Leningrad across of dusty roads and through the hellish heat of summer July 27, 1941 for the third time yesterday while sitting in the thunder box a mosquito bit me in my most delicate parts how bad is that plague of mosquitoes he is crazy at home no one can imagine what it's like here, where you automatically slap all the buzzy beasts with your hands, just like horses and cattle do with their tears and then dust and heat even though we don't have 72 degrees Celsius in the sun on the inside our iron coffins easily reach that temperature and not infrequently one spends 20 hours from three in the morning until night inside our buckets when one needs to relieve himself outside another man has to take his position in the guns we have all experienced something like this and if one has saved a small drink of coffee which is often shared with a crew or some poor thirsty foot soldiers those poor bastards are getting even less than we are supposed to soon be able to enjoy the roads of Soviet Paradise again never in my life i can forget that dust makes one look like a flower miller someone who wears floral sex and not a black uniform but all is well anyway if we just capture leningrad we must take possession of leningrad july 30, 1941 8 pm The people seem being home to huge swarms of mosquitoes but it doesn't matter we're not getting used to them plus a lot of the 5th there's also Uber like and Eggert with three Panzer fours and a lot of speaker with his pioneers his men just ran a search of men. 14 years old turns out to be a one-eyed hydrocephalic man of about 30 years old and five scratchy old men one of them on crutches all have long beards and scruffy hair almost no one has teeth in their mouths all gathered in the Village Square where our tanks are, none Some of them have an idea what is going on, they laugh at my attempts to speak Russian and immediately relax a bit, then I ask them where the partisans are and suddenly everyone is excited again.

I said they were too old, they explained, pointing to their toothless-jawed head of water and showing me the orbit of their dark red eye. The partisans are all Naz lujba in service in Leningrad. legs and can pull a trigger back in Leningrad the rapid German advance on a huge front the lack of infrastructure and terrible road conditions make the issue of food supplies to the troops Fuel and ammunition a logistical nightmare the lines of Oversupplied and vulnerable to partisans and small pockets of regular enemy troops still fighting far behind the German front line, the hastily retreating Red Army troops were no longer being supplied and, like their opponents in the other side, they were forced to live off the land in their After local people left their farms taking their remaining livestock and supplies with them in the scorching heat of the July summer, the lack of drinking water in particular was becoming an ever-present problem for the German troops.

On Thursday, July 31, 1941 we noted that the old houses here so close to Leningrad show more traces of culture than those we have seen further south-west here the wooden constructions rest on stone foundations while inside there are sometimes two or three rooms inside we often find traces of small items like photographs that link to a bygone era of culture before 1917. there are no traces of any cultural achievement from the soviet period the people here are also a little better dressed than the villages and not everyone has the bearing of the international proletariat many women still see the short hairstyles I remember seeing in Germany during the communist marches in general their clothes instead of Germany in 1926 27. when our propaganda claims that the Bolsheviks have proletarianized everyone here turning to people in a large herd of submissive cattle is totally correct the exterior appearance alone proves it, plus we have noticed that the collectives and caucuses are hiding your Kettle or driving it north away from us which which puts us at a huge disadvantage, as that means that in addition to gasoline and ammunition, our supply units also have to haul large amounts of food over enormous distances, but overall nothing to complain about, there's enough bread and crusty bread and that's quite appropriate we just have to be careful what we have and take the rest of the dirt if we can find some now the thoughtless foot soldiers take whole potato Fiats just to find enough to fill a small basket of potatoes and in the winter we are the ones who can feed the population and we already have all of Europe hanging from our shirtsleeves Relentless campaigning in hellish heat on difficult terrain and abysmal roads The tension was also beginning to affect the machines, engines, gearboxes, brakes, suspensions, tracks and other mechanical parts that began to break down in ever greater numbers. the road, in particular, spare parts for the Checkmate Panzer 35t, for which it was increasingly difficult to find, but Leningrad was already almost on the horizon on Friday, August 1, 1941.

Now that I am writing here, my driver is testing our new brakes right in front of me. I just had new brake pads installed and now he's going back and forth with a howling engine and it's quite distracting. Particles from the escape suit rain down on the paper, but I'm more than willing to put up with that if only the old cube can still get us to the strategic objective of Leningrad. Leningrad Hill is in LaSaskina, where he's trying to educate the men on the situation in Iowa. He's sitting in the next room and the map was hanging on the door.

So what do you think the strategic objectives are here at the e-star we are standing behind the map our head sticks out to the left and right and we both look at the empty faces of the Lancers in front of us they are all quiet and looking at us with big eyes hello he loses patience and shouts the river Volga someone asks no one wants to believe it in other states that with our old cards we can be happy if we make it to Leningrad that would be all for us august 7, 1941 it is finally starting up again thank god for no more endless waiting here at the crossroads we are waiting for the artillery section with its neighbor to which today we have adhered I remember when we saw their rockets detonating in rusini howling through us towards dubisa many lancers fell to our knees they were trampling on each other and it was an eerie sensation as we saw the detonation clouds rising up ahead, I hope to witness the spectacle again today, while on the south field Marshall Von Runstead's troops were clearing the deniper, the protruding formations of the group of Center armies were transferred north to support the final attack on Leningrad loknan sander with forward elements of the 6th Panzer Division now stood only 130 kilometers from the center of the city after their advance had slowed for some time to allow For the leading elements of the other approaching armies to close in time that gave the Soviet high command a much-needed breather to organize and strengthen the city's defenses between 11 and 13 August, the division had been involved in heavy fighting north of the Luca river and was now preparing to launch his final attack towards Leningrad on August 13, 1941.

We will soon also cross the bridge on which the men of the organization currently toured repairing the damage caused by the russian long range battery fire planes had tried to hit the bridge there are huge craters that have surely been carved into the ground by 1000kg russian bombs I Do you remember that morning when we came back from Bridgehead and when everything was enveloped in a dense fog? The girders of the Black Bridge rise like a wrath in the sky. The fallen comrades and mass graves of the Russians, then the site of the burnt forest, burnt heaths and barricaded houses through all we retreated and then had to wait until the other wings of the army in the north-west closed in. to Leningrad in those four weeks of waiting the Russian had entrenched himself so well that each of his excellent positions could only be taken with heavy casualties the scorching summer heat gave way to more moderate temperatures scattered showers and thunderstorms turned the roads to sand in sticky quagmire making vehicle movement increasingly difficult the heat of the sun still had enough power to drive Road surfaces rapidly nighttime temperatures dropped rapidly a worrying sign of things to come Thursday August 14, 1941 10 Leningrad 1800 hours It's raining again and thick clouds hang low in the sky that you don't really look Great, the division's weather technicians have said that night frosts are not uncommon in this area of ​​Russia from mid-August onwards since Schmalt I've received a thick coat Albert I have picked up a fine Russian blanket of which you have several in your vehicle as far as I am concerned Frost May was now installed on Sunday 17th August 1941.

There was a great deal of chaos on the way as by order of the chief all the platoons had left their defensive positions to go see him at the Village Center. Now they were all being shot down by Soviet heavy artillery. Two of the Riflemen had been standing right where a Russian heavy shed had exploded. Not a single piece of them could be found anymore. The third had both legs torn off. The infantry climbed. in our tanks and slowly rolled towards our objective. We had advanced about a kilometer through Rye and Old Fields when the enemy defensive fire became so heavy that the infantry had to dismount.

They then advanced behind our tanks using them as cover against the rain of shells supported us from the Russian defensive positions. Savage hand-to-hand combat soon ensued. I had to hand over some of our hand grenades to the Infantry. We always have about 20 meters ahead of the Infantry or directly with them. The Russians closest to us. I often had to make use of my pistol to shoot down various guys on foxhoes near my tank next to a road leading in the direction of our attack. It was a group of about 20 Russians who surrendered when we stopped the infantry.

He took them all prisoner. he is delighted, our progress is excellent, then suddenly another group of 10 Russians slowly rose from the tall grass, the reds knelt down and raised their hands, but among them was a pig who suddenly pulled out a hand grenade and he threw it into my tank alright I shot the man with my pistol the machine gun opened up and shot the whole group down. Now the Russian artillery starts firing and is sending 10.5 centimeter rounds into the village. it really was a classic piece of soldier's luck that's still alive Michelle was a dud or better some kind of exercise shell filled with a concrete-like substance the top half with the fuse broke through the bottom half with the base of shirt shredded through the armor before being stopped by the engine block if that had been a live show there wouldn't have been much left out of the tank and just as the weather was changing so did the nature of tank operations. combat when Swift armored thrusts and maneuvers were replaced by Brutal hand-to-hand combat in the woods and bitter fighting for every town and hill Nerves were

exposed

and mistakes were made Monday August 18 Contact with the enemy The rifleman dismounted Advance on foot Enemy tanks in front of three of them Big cubes are reported standing next to a bar, one of the Panzer Forces opens fire Venture is sending out one radio message after another all the Panzer Forces now roll to the edge of the woods and begin to firing short after shot in the direction of the bar and in one of the large Russian tanks another, according to Fayetteville, the adventure has withdrawn.

Few Russians have escaped by running across the field to the right. Then suddenly the adventure reports that there is an anti-tank gun firing from the bushes to the right. Oswald rolls forward and opens fire into the bushes where Enemy movement has apparently now been observed, no one realizes that they are firing at what are our own advancing riflemen and because of that they direct a hell of fire and they angrily ask us to take advantage of the shooting in the bushes when i run to oscar to tell him the pigs are laughing at me he says i should concentrate on leading my platoon he wouldn't be shooting to the right later i found out down there to the right german soldiers had been killed and wounded by our tanks where and the anti-tank gun later turned out to be a mine obstacle in which Vince's tank had almost ended up in a wooden box mines buried in the ground and covered with Turf easy to miss if not one is very careful and if we are not being careful one might have seen that the tank in the barn was actually a threshing machine with over 1000 rice marks in ammunition wasted shooting bleeding farm equipment and just due to Vince's idiocy i take a moment to take a look at my surroundings and find that there are two russian soldiers in the foxhole right next to my tank i took out my pistol and shot bros table origier rookie village one of them however is raising his rifle, I made short work of both of them and emptied a full pistol magazine into them, they won't. harming no one ahead to my left another russian playing dead I grab the automatic pistol from inside the turret and fire a few rounds into the back of his head the pig as he bites the dust a hand grenade rolls out of his hand into Despite the arduous efforts of the campaign, the suffering of hardships, and the traumatic experiences of combat loit, Nintendo's belief that it was acting for the greater good of the führer and the motherland did not waver and the loss of friends and comrades only stole his determination to end the campaign victoriously and make the Russians pay on August 19, 1941.

Rider Dispatch had found Matoseek and brought him back to the company where he reported that his crew was not heard in the other crew, however , Winter Officer Dalman had been slightly wounded and Bosman, his gunner, had been badly wounded. he killed Albert he had been lucky and completely unharmed there were Russians lying on the grass just 15 meters in front of his tank as soon as Massheuser jumped out he was shot in the head and killed immediately there was a shootout in which Diamond and Albert tried desperately to defend himself with his Pistons, but only when Albert fired at one of the Russians, when the situation changed, the Russian was in the process of throwing a grenade and, after being shot down, it detonated in his hand, shattering the top of his hand. lower abdomen. and making the others pick up more mail came Tuesday.

We were billeted in an old barn which we had furnished to a fairly comfortable standard later that day after getting rations out of the field kitchens. Alvis and I walked over to where the two destroyed tanks were. standing to find and bury masheiser a recovery vehicle from the fiat workshop in koppmann had arrived and maize had already wrapped the massage body in a tent Square took out some private items from his pocket and had torn up his nameplate we carried He massaged back on the road and then dug him a grave under a tree next to a bunker one of the tank mechanics had found some flowers in one of the houses shot up in clubichi each of us dumped three shovels of dirt in the grave and then placed his black cap on top of the birchwood cross and thus added to the many such monuments that adorned the graves of a bold and brave paunch Compares us even more Relentless commitment his death will not go unpunished in one of the bushes there was the corpse of a Russian captain a first lieutenant and a commissar in total more than 20 corpses lay around the destroyed tank a wounded Russian also lay there still with his rifle in his hand he did not react when I ordered him to raise his arms arms I shot him myself I did the same to another who was lying in a trench closer to the tank and he pretended to be dead when I told him to stand up if they act that way because they are afraid of us or because of deceit if it is the first reason then The commissioners are to blame for the death of those men, if it is the letter, then they deserve it on August 25, 1941.

Yesterday afternoon it was reported that Luga had fallen. I still don't know if that is true. sky in the direction was lit by a large fire last night the horizon was bathed in blood red colors just good that the war is not fought on german soil like it was in the 30 years war last night it was very cold again it makes me wonder how the climate will develop in the future. Hopefully, there will be less rain than what we had for the last few days. The heat of the day is much better for Bear than the freezing cold of the nights. trying to keep warm today is the 25th and personally I doubt that Leningrad will be completely surrounded in six days maybe that's what they're going to use us for maybe we're the ones who are supposed to close the airlock but I need to stop thinking about if and when It doesn't make sense that earlier we passed through a town that was inhabited by a strikingly northern type of people, undoubtedly Finns or Germans, women and children with long beautiful faces, pale blue eyes, and pale blond hair who were clearly neither Russian nor Slavic descent.

It was amazing to see gardens, even very well-kept gardens with very well painted fences. I wonder how these people managed to persist here. Their fears were the best we had seen in the entire region. August 27, 1941. Yesterday I couldn't write more Lopez The other platoon leaders and I were called to a briefing with Uber solenkopf to discuss the further deployment of our company. We are defending a line facing the defeated Russian troops returning from the place. Pioneer platoon set up a number of fines mines booby traps Spring Guns last night after heavy artillery preparation about 600 Russians attacked from the direction of krasnog vadies as usual were repelled and suffered heavy casualties overall casualties of the The Reds are absolutely huge and when you talk to the workers here well they think the same way our workers think about the Lost War the working population suffers the most am I too materialistic if I say that the upper levels of the population can bear theloss of ideation? much better values ​​than the working class can bear their material loss that is saying it carefully i dont want to be classed as a bolshevik but my socialist vaid anshawang is only strengthened by this war only when it comes to me the International social ideology is replaced by a strong nationalist Directorate with an emphasis on racial stance, the Lancers' political perspective has been broadened a lot in this particular campaign, although there are a bit of drafts here.

I have escaped from the company of the mutineers in my spoken platoon. schweinberg graphic or Burger freitamin four years of service the roofer one worse than the other graphic in particular is one of the colorless internally quite a good partner but politically neither more nor less people like this without a clear position have always existed especially after the last war, they have quickly taken advantage of a secure bourgeois existence, but they have gained as much as they have, but not much, especially when it comes to intellectual matters. 14 years of their lives with one foot in a fortress prison cell, they have been despised by the gluttonous citizens while they themselves have been forced to live from day to day marked by society as feared existences, but it was they who had to shape and create a huge new struggle and that Monumental thought and the satisfaction that arises from it is worth so much more than quietly munching on middle-class cabbage bought on a secure union wage now then enough politics we have to move soon for lots of volunteer German troops and conscripts alike and regardless of their personal thoughts and motivations, the campaign in Russia had not only taken them further from home than ever before, but also brought them directly and often very personally into confrontation with the people they had come to conquer in order to survive. interact peacefully with the Russian people German soldiers often stayed in Russian houses shared a table with a Russian family had to buy their food and talk to them many German soldiers did so with great interest wrote about these new cultural experiences and documented them in a large number of photographs friday august 29, 1941 kurisa at 1:00 p.m. we inspected the positions of the rifle company and then accompanied by lopa and his tanks we went to the glass factory whose name i don't remember is located next to the lake and it was built by germans a lot made of the geheimer fed polizzai who was born in that town was just at that moment visiting the house where he was born in the section there he is being held by ubalat nunchtaka who was asleep and we arrived because he had taken him in his vehicles the all night to get there one of their vehicles had driven into a ditch and got stuck there didn't see the need to get up when we turned up and greeted us like samoble Lady lying in bed has always been a bit of a braggart We left the Lopez's lot in another small town and then we drove to another place where Pharah and Hiller wanted to organize some meat, but not a single egg had been won, since the population of the village with a glass factory, who were all workers of the factory and did not own any land or livestock, it had to be supplied by the surrounding villages the situation in the area was similar to famine hundreds of people queued for hours in front of the vehicles from which the bread was distributed a stark contrast with our situation at home no one in Russia had

lost

a thought about ensuring provision for the non-combatant population we spoke to a worker who was fluent in German he said that only one old man in his 70s remained of the original German workforce until recently he was still the highest paid worker now he received a pension of 102 rubles but then he had earned 700 rubles which is 70 marks in german currency we took a look at the church in the neighboring village which had been turned into some kind of dance club which was also something that the worker had told us that only the old people still lived in their orthodox religion, the young people grew up without any religion and felt good inside the Red Club they had hung big canvases with the faces of Stalin Lenin or ashiloff kalini and other soviet dignitaries hung just above the old and much smaller images of the saints I was struck by the scruffy appearance of the workers, even before 1933 no one in Germany looked that ragged, then we went back to the glassworks and stopped briefly at the position of Lopez, where someone had managed to obtain some fresh Veer fragments of which some were delivered here.

I took the time to rummage through some of the nearby houses. Road kitchen Sports Hall a grocery store and cleaning all grouped there o very handy and in my opinion the right thing to do from a socialist perspective. maybe it's because of the army i'm so fond of the communal kitchen just the right thing for the communal kitchen employed and the Cooperative Society but there's no room for individualism just one of the many arguments against all of this on our way back we went outmaneuvered by solinkov's aide who told us something was brewing in civiosk, we got back as fast as we could but not without exchanging half a dozen eggs from a finnish woman for half a loaf from the army the foreign population was simply struggling to survive and he would be happy to trade with whichever side was in control of his Village at the time when there was another significant part of the Soviet population that would be actively resisting. mind of all the German soldiers on the entire Eastern Front on August 30, 1941.

This morning I was sitting in my tank drinking coffee when the mayor of the town passed by. He was distributing flour. I sent virenga to take a look at the Great Barn which had been locked he returned and reported that the barn was more or less empty containing only several radio headsets some food supplies some old rubber tires and old pots and pans I decided to look more closely the headphones that the mayor explained to him told me that they had been left by members of the red club, but by then I had already switched my interest to the other barn and ordered them to open it. the bastards had made themselves the bottles contained an extra layer of very fine tobacco of the kind used for pest control in cabbage fields to help the burn time rubber straps made from old tires listened to the long match lighter was burning with rage to order the man to be brought before comrade halitat, being the commander of the village, he would have to decide the punishment after the interrogation, what a bloody mess if one does not face the soldiers then one has to deal with the partisans only this morning in the neighboring village of novoskaya two women notified the Russians about one of our reconnaissance patrols, one of them has already been hung on the sports ground.

The town itself has turned to ashes and the population has been gathered in the town square. The most incredible things happened there. All Russian recognition. the squads have spent the night there the women have smuggled weapons to the guerrillas and we are giving them bread in exchange despite the fact that we barely have enough to eat and distributing the expendable grain of coal makes only the affable German find trouble among his workers like this, someone should shoot a lot of them on September 6th. A decision of great importance for the further course of the campaign was made.

Hitler suddenly dropped his interest in Leningrad and declared the north a secondary theater of war. In doing so, he yielded to the insistence of the General Staff and ordered the preparation of an attack against Moscow, transferring all expendable forces from Army Group North to Army Group Center by September 5, 1941. The campaign must end soon. one way or another but for me there is only one option now to hold on until I achieve the nseq do not think that the wounded are better or if I had a wound like this I could at least get out of these Uncomfortable Dirty Environment I have overcome all that now just today a few few letters from good and very dear friends on the high mat a few photos and the thought of my mother's upcoming birthday have brought me to my senses I don't give up now that the end is already in and which side is Leningrad the thought of the NC and the knowledge that the people in the heimat are watching and entrusting us with everything that will now propel us during the final push into the Red Metropolis in the Cradle of the Red Revolution outside Leningrad, September 1941.

Looking on the map , we just noticed that our entire flank is still open at the top of the copy. The Russians are still stubbornly clinging to their anti-tank defenses. That is the goal of the SS Pulitzider vision and from there. the enemy is afraid of fire towards sadesi Wilhelm Loper was here to see me he thinks we're not going to capture these tank obstacles he thinks it's better to just close shop here and then just starve by peeking into the garage although that would take a bit longer for us it would inflict far fewer casualties we have already

lost

enough men I don't know what to think better to attack now expel the enemy if we could look to the future The German high command was less willing than ever to accept high level materiel losses and manpower involved in the destruction of Leningrad , they would surround and besiege with the fewest forces and starve the city.

The great city of Leningrad would be forced to surrender by starvation and the plan went even further when combined with considerations to let the city's population starve even after the fall of Leningrad, already at the end of August, without doubtless, in consultation with the title of Field Marshal of Hitler, it had been considered that the population of Leningrad could not be fed and therefore had to be expelled with it. From his point of view, he followed the guidelines of economic policy in the occupied eastern territories that had been drawn up before the campaign and which took into account the starvation of much of the civilian population, as UNI commanders on the ground were unaware of these terrifying plans for whether the city should be conquered or besieged occupied or starved preserved or destroyed remained an open question for them and Army Group North, resulting in heated exchanges of ideas about the treatment of Leningrad, which was characteristic of the German relationship between war ideology and the crime.

On September 20, however, he realized that 10 depleted infantry divisions were no longer enough to conquer Leningrad. It was stipulated that Petersburg should not be attacked or occupied. Surrounded and then destroyed with artillery fire and airstrikes. All preparations for the occupation and exploitation of the city can be interrupted. Lloyd and Xander would have no part in this, and unknown to him at the time, he would never see the streets of Leningrad. Lloyd and Zander were heading south on December 22. The General House had issued an order hinting at spending the winter here. for further preparation, the blizzard that broke out today was so strong that even the pioneer horses perished in it, we humans could hardly survive there, it's just horrible, faces, frozen hands, feet too, like that we are supposed to work and clear the roads it snows again as soon as one is finished there are always several men who are sick december 27, 1941. during the night i had to think we were supposed to stay here all winter surely we will get replacements and new vehicles and when new operations are possible again next spring we launch attacks that will destroy the east siberian army I will be there until an anti-tank gun an aerial bomb a shell or a mine put an end to the last sentence from my life story thanks for watching this history video Visit the YouTube channel you can subscribe right here to make sure you don't miss any of our great movies coming out or if you are a true history fan visit our special channel dedicated to history History hit dot TV you will love it