Великая Отечественная; 1941; Фотографии; Части и соединения;
Re: 31.10.1941, Тула,...
>Может у кого есть доки немецкой 3-й тд и пехотного полка "GD" за октябрь - ноябрь 1941 года?
Фрагмент из книги по истории полка-дивизии-корпуса "Великая Германия" (англ.):
The Battles for Tula
The 30th of October, the day selected for the occupation of the city of Tula, began well for the attackers as reflected in the account by the same participant from I Battalion:
"We were to attack again at 05.30. The 2nd Company was to the right of the road, the 3rd to the left and behind. The enemy made no move. Once again our attack was delayed. Panzers, artillery observers, heavy weapons — all had to be assembled first. The commander of the 5th Panzer Brigade, Oberst Eberbach, ran from house to house in the front lines, conducting a personal reconnais-sance.
The regiment's commander, Oberst Hoernlein, dismissed us con-fidently: I wish you the prettiest maidens of Tula! That was an irony in this land.
The workers settlement consisted of house after house built along the main street. The houses and several wooden apartment buildings were the only cover. In rows the 2nd Company, led by Leutnant von Oppen, scrambled through the gardens. With it was a platoon from 4th (MG.) Company as well as mortars. The Panzers growled along the street on the left. Forward artillery observers went along with the Grenadiers. Behind us in long lines followed III Battalion under Major Krьger. The great war machine was at work.
The first enemy machine gun began to fire. It was an uncomfortable sound, hurried and irregular. Rifle fire also began to come from the nearest houses. The battle had begun. The picture changed in no time: groups of soldiers collected behind every house. The stone houses were the most sought after. Then two or three men would dash forward to cover behind the next house. Every time the machine gun would open fire seconds later.
The run from one house to another required a decision and an act. It was no easier after a dozen such dashes. The veteran troops listened to the noise of battle before deciding to go. The young, inexperienced soldiers had not yet learned this skill. They followed the old hands. These older fellows led the way in the fight — firing, running and looking. The younger ones ran behind them carrying hand grenades and ammunition. All were enthusiastic: the young simply over combat, the old over a good shot, a daring dash, a brave comrade.
The style of combat was unusual. Up front there were only a few men. The company was very deep. The few up front were the boldest: the Leutnant, a Feldwebel and several others who had worked their way forward. They worked in a quick and businesslike fashion. This phenomenon was a source of wonder during every attack: the forward impetus of the volunteers. Every one of these splendid fellows acted as if the capture of Tula hinged on him alone.
Wounded came back. They walked calmly, despite the firing. They were no longer bothered by it. They joked among themselves: Hey Emil! Say hello to home for me. — Don't talk foolishness. I'll be back tomorrow! They kept their spirits up. In general, the wounded didn't lower our fighting spirit, rather they raised it.
Helmet back, long hair, unshaven, cigarette hanging from his mouth, one arm in a sling, boots and pants covered with mud, a hand grenade still in his jacket pocket — this was the fighter of Tula.
Ill Battalion tried to move out to the right. The attack had to be broadened. The attempt failed and the battalion suffered casualties. The 'Third' had to fight its way through a brickyard to the left of the road. It then found itself facing apartment blocks at the edge of the city 500 metres away.
Progress was slow. Suddenly, there was an anti-tank ditch ahead and then an area of open ground. The rows of houses curved away to the left. A large, red apartment building stood several hundred metres in front of us. The decision to make this dash was more difficult. Several made it. Others made it only as far as the anti-tank ditch. Wounded gathered in the ditch itself. The red apartment building was visible from everywhere. The main enemy fire must be coming from there.
Our Panzers were unable to help. The forward artillery observer, a plucky Wachtmeister, was up ahead, but he had no communication with the guns.
There was no actual battle noise, but rather a large number of rifle shots. One needed only raise a hand and the firing started. And always from the red apartment building.
Unteroffizier Wichmann of the 4th (MG.) Company attempted to work his way farther forward. He moved in stages from house to house. This blond dare-devil, who had earned the Iron Cross, First Class in France, was known by the whole battalion. His gun crew panted along behind him. From far ahead he called out targets. He was an irrepressible fellow with a secret love for battle. The crew assembled the machine gun. With all his strength, Wichmann ran towards the anti-tank ditch. Out in the open he was knocked down by enemy fire. His gun went into position and opened fire. The 'Second' moved up a few houses farther.
By the afternoon the attack had bogged down. The 2nd Company was too weak. It was unable to take the red apartment building. Russian anti-tank guns fired through the roofs, the anti-aircraft guns fired senselessly into the air and the rifle fire kept up. The company was unable to obtain a clear picture of the overall situation over the radio.
As darkness fell we organized a thin line of security based on houses, sheds, rubbish heaps and barbed wire. The red apartment building was about 150 metres away. The Leutnant went from man to man, organizing and seeing to their needs. He was fresh and apparently unaffected by the battle. This instilled confidence in the Grenadiers. They read the state of things from the face of their leader."
The report that went back to the rear was momentous — '. . . the attack has bogged down. . .' This meant that the objective the commanders wanted so badly could not be taken. It remained in sight — unattainable, yet so near. It also meant that all of the efforts to take Tula had been in vain. Success had eluded the attackers.
The changeover to the defensive placed a great strain not only on the troops, but also on their commanders and headquarters. The shift from an offensive to a defensive mentality, from the optimistic atmosphere of the attack to the desperate need to hold on to what had been gained and persevere against an ever-growing weight of enemy fire meant a moment of weakness for everyone. The hours of the changeover were the hours of the commanders who, in order to master the situation, had to be pillars of strength in the front lines. It was they who had to do everything necessary for their men in order to change their earlier spirit of attack into a determination to hold on. While the attacking spearheads still lay forward, facing the enemy in lonely isolation, the heavy weapons moved up and dug in close to the future defensive position so as to be ready to meet the enemy counterattacks expected in the early hours. Supporting fire from the heavy machine guns, the infantry guns and artillery and its effects on the attacking enemy were to ease the transition to this new phase of the battle for the Grenadiers.
Outside Tula the transition from the offensive to the defensive, a process which was repeated so often in this war, was completed on the night of 30/31 October 1941. Soon after midnight the Russians demonstrated to 2nd Company/I Battalion under Lt. von Oppen, which was holding onto the first houses at the edge of the city, that they were determined to defend Tula. At 03.00 the company came under fire from a weapon it had not encountered before. This began the first day of the defence in the Tula battle zone and many more were to follow until 30 November. This day also showed what was in store for I.R. GD in the days to follow:
"A barrage from a Russian multiple rocket launcher. We called it 'Firing Elias.' On other fronts it was also known as the 'Stalin Organ.' Thirty to forty rockets struck a small area simultaneously. It thundered and howled for half a minute and the houses shook. Window panes fell into the rooms. The 'Firing Elias' was not for weak nerves.
The weather changed abruptly. The ground became wet and slippery. It was raining lightly.
In the morning dawn there was machine gun and rifle fire from all sides. A new entrance was knocked through the rear wall of our house and the old one blocked up. Several messengers ran toward the old entrance, drawing machine gun fire on the house. We stood battle-ready behind the thickest wall and smoked.
Enemy soldiers moved against 2nd Company in the semi-darkness. We couldn't see them until they were quite near. Tracer fire came from the red apartment building. The Grenadiers lay in the mud and fired on every suspicious shape. Often their tired eyes saw ghosts. The mental strain on the individual soldiers was great. The fighting there was reduced to a basic, instinctive level: the man whose vigilance was poor and fired too late, or who failed to hear the enemy as he sneaked toward him, was overcome. The mud, the cold, the heaps of rubble, the barbed wire entanglements, the red apartment building — these things weighed heavy on the minds of the defenders. This battle was no heroic charge across a field of flowers.
It became lighter. The sound of engines was heard from behind the red apartment building. Soon afterward the first shells from the Russian tanks crashed into our houses, which collapsed or had their roofs torn off. Wounded called for help and were moved to the rear. Rifle fire crackled everywhere. The enemy leapt from house to house, apparently without any plan. The number of men wounded by rifle fire grew. Crawling and running, the Leutnant moved back and forth among the Grenadiers. He and his Feldwebel were the heart of the position and the soul of the defence.
In the cold and mud, and after many serious situations, the day came to an end. The companies had been weakened, but in front of every rifleman lay a heap of brown forms. The position had held. There were no longer sufficient numbers to allow relief. Everyone had to spend the night out of doors."
The positions of I Battalion — if the few holes manned by the weakened companies could be referred to as such — lay with 2nd Company on the right and 3rd Company on the left of the Jassnaja Polyana—Tula road. To the right, or east of 2nd Company, on the other side of a significant gap, was III Battalion, to which 1st Company under Obit. Derben had been attached. As the right hand battalion of the I.R. GD, II Battalion had dug in on the heights on both sides of the village of Gostewka after the Soviet positions on the heights had been rolled up by 6th Company on 1 November. The brick yard played a major role in the battalion's defensive system. The heavy weapons, as well as the batteries of the 400th Artillery Battalion, were located in the wide area behind these positions near Kossaja Gora, near Ssudakowa and at the northern edges of the forest near Kostowka. The regimental command post, formerly hidden in this forest, was transferred south into the village of Trossna after the situation firmed up.
In the beginning the Soviets launched repeated attacks with and without tanks against the weakened companies in their unfinished defensive positions. Things went too far for the defenders when, on 1 November, four to five Russian tanks attempted to break through at the junction between III and I Battalions and even opened fire on 2nd Company from behind. Lt. von Oppen and a Feldwebel worked their way up to the tanks from behind. While the Feldwebel provided covering fire with his submachine gun, the Leutnant climbed up onto one of the tanks, pulled the pins on several hand grenades and stuck them into the tank's turret. Two members of the crew who tried to escape were shot down by the Feldwebel. The tank was disabled. Another was knocked out by German anti-tank gun fire and the rest withdrew. This type of incident occurred daily along the defensive line. Each man had to look out for himself to defend against the enemy's superiority in numbers. The numbers bear witness to the depleted condition of the companies. The following strength report was sent back by I Battalion on 3 November: 8 officers, 56 NCOs, 303 men.
This sobering report indicated that individual combat companies often had no more than 50 men on strength. A novel experience and one that was almost amusing for the men up front was the first use of loudspeakers by the Russians. Suddenly, the Grenadiers of Tula heard: "Come over brothers, and bring your mess kits." Or: "The Russian winter will destroy you!" Between messages the Russians played German marching music. This went on for a while, until the troops in the front line discovered the approximate location of the loudspeaker. There was a burst of fire and then quiet. A little later it reappeared in another location and resumed its broadcasts. Although the Russian propaganda messages made no special im-pression on the Grenadiers, the appearance of the loudspeakers introduced a certain amusing variation to the daily routine.
Forward in the positions a monotonous daily routine set in: fire from rifles or machine guns interspersed by salvoes from Stalin Organs or mortar barrages. One Russian weapon which was very noticeable was the much-feared 7.62 cm anti-tank or tank cannon, the so-called "Ratsch-Bum". Its hard crack was a very unpopular sound. In several places the enemy was within 60-80 metres of the German positions. These were very dangerous areas; the men could move little during daylight but had to remain constantly vigilant.
The Soviet soldier was certainly tenacious, but less out of convic-tion than apathy. Death was not the worst for him, as his life was scarcely worth living. Although he seldom carried out close-quarters fighting down to the final consequence, the Soviet soldier certainly didn't run away. He fired from his hole until the enemy was within about five metres. Then he ducked down, awaiting a bullet or the death blow. If he was not noticed, he would fire into the enemy's back. He would remain sitting between the positions all day long. On the other hand, in counterattacks and battles of movement it often came down to wrestling matches and knife fights; then he felt personally threatened.
