Gewehrschütze 2: Füsilier Wladimir Stamer, born on 26 July 1909 in Sosnowitz, Upper Silesia, baker’s assistant in Gleiwitz,
Gewehrschütze 3: Füsilier Otto Beer, born on 2 December in Süptitz, Kreis Torgau, agricultural worker in Süptitz.
My deputy section leader was
Obergefreiter Rudolf Iwanek, born 20 October 1919 in Vienna, automobile painter in Vienna.
I can see the faces of almost all those men in my mind’s eye, as I read their names, even though I have never seen any of them since. I knew that Mutz was killed in action a few days later, and that Budewizk, a happy lad with a friendly face, was posted missing.
Though I had reported from my post on sentry duty ‘nothing unusual to report’ to the company commander, the situation for the battalion suddenly changed drastically. I quote from the regimental history:
Of the fighting in which individual units were involved with divisions other than their own, the action of II./Infanterieregiment 7 (Vielhauer), parts of Panzer-Jäger Abteilung 252, 14./Infanterieregiment 7, 14./Infanterieregiment 461 under Oberst Karst as Kampfgruppe leader should be mentioned. The alarm was sounded on 12 August 1942.
Some 50km south of Gshatsk, in the region of the 3rd Panzer-Armee, and the area of IX Armeekorps and XX Armeekorps, the Soviets had succeeded in breaking into the positions of the divisions. They were the 183rd Infanteriedivision and the 292nd Infanteriedivision. Especially in the area of the 183rd Infanteriedivision, the Russians had succeeded in penetrating deep into the main combat area. A breakthrough threatened.
The Kampfgruppe was loaded on lorries and driven up to the main highway leading south from Gshatsk. They were unloaded in Upolosy and placed under the command of the 292nd Infanteriedivision. Marching up beside the road, partly on ‘corduroy’ roads, the scattered II./Infanterieregiment 7 reached Ssilenki to take a rest. A supply dump that was being dismantled served to strengthen the unit. Hordes of Army baggage handlers were fleeing back to the rear, parts of the baggage-train and flak units were getting ready to flee. All of that characterised the situation. Although it all reeked of retreat in disorder, the Kampfgruppe was in the kind of mood to advance. In a wood near Ssawinki west of the highway, positions were taken up facing south.
To the east of the highway II./Infanterieregiment 131 had taken up position. That battalion, too, was placed under the command of Kampfgruppe Karst. Further to the east was a gap up to II./Infanterieregiment 351. It appeared that eastwards there was a coherent front, but the situation to the west of the positions of II./Infanterieregiment 7 was completely unclear. There the 183rd Infanterieregiment appeared to have been broken through. Scarcely had II./ Infanterieregiment 7 hastily dug into the woodland, at about 8pm on 14 August 1942, than the enemy armoured attack began. It was beaten back with bloody casualties.
Further armoured attacks followed in which it was mostly only individual tanks that succeeded in breaking the main line of resistance. The few anti-tank weapons did not succeed in dispatching the tanks that had broken through, so the infantry had to do it at close range. After an unquiet night, on 15 August, at 6.15am the Soviets again attacked with armour and infantry. With the energetic support of the artillery, it was possible to repulse all enemy attacks. But to the west of the position the Soviets had succeeded in pushing forward through a gap towards Besmino. By striking out widely, they encircled II./ Infanterieregiment 7. With Kampfgruppe Karst taking up a position of all-round defence, it was possible to block the highway successfully further on.
On 17 August heavy fighting was taking place around the village of Ssilenki, while the 292nd Infanteriedivision withdrew to a line further to the north. Seriously combat-weary, completely soaked, with only cold rations, the troops were partly broken through in a very strong armoured attack. They had to make a fighting withdrawal on to the Upolosy high ground. As a result Upolosy itself was drawn in to the bridgehead position. West of Upolosy the enemy had broken through at Popowka. That was Infanterieregiment 19. One company of Panzer-Abteilung 18 was placed under the command of Kampfgruppe Karst and supported the infantry.
A Stuka attack in the early morning of 18 August, on Cholmino and the wooded territory to the south-east of Upolosy, won some more breathing space. Enemy armour, assembled immediately south of Cholmino, was shattered by artillery fire. The gap to the west of Kampfgruppe Karst still yawned. On the eastern wing Feld-Ersatz-Bataillon 292, then under the command of the Kampfgruppe, maintained the connection. Renewed enemy attempts to assemble armour were successfully opposed by the artillery. But it was not possible to prevent Soviet infantry, with armour, from advancing to the west of Upolosy northwards across the Worja. The enemy seemed from this point to have shifted the emphasis of their attack from the east, against 292nd Infanteriedivision. They moved opposite the sector held by Kampfgruppe Karst and further westwards.
The intervention of Infanterieregiment 82 on 20 August, and the arrival of Infanterieregiment 282, had a relieving effect on the Kampfgruppe. On 24 August it was possible to repulse a large-scale enemy attack on the Upolosy sector. But further to the west the enemy succeeded in taking Bekrino and Schatescha. On 1 September Oberst Karst was decorated with the Knight’s Cross, for personal gallantry in counter-attacking. On 2 September fresh enemy attacks took place against the Upolosy bridgehead. But they were all repulsed. Only on 6 September were orders executed for the planned evacuation of that position. Bataillon Vielhauer returned to the Division with a combat strength of about 80 men. A small barracks at Waldlager Nord was sufficient to provide accommodation for that little band.
My personal experience was more exciting than the picture painted by the dry report from the regimental history. During the night the battalion was relieved from its position and removed from the Division’s Field Reserve. I handed over my section sector and the stocks of ammunition, hand-grenades, and machine-gun belts. We thought it was a relief that those supplies did not need to be dragged along. I marched off with the section in the direction of the assembly area to which we had been ordered.
Company after company joined us on the route. Soon the whole battalion was on the march with us. We went in line, one behind the other at long intervals in order to invite as few casualties as possible in the event that we were attacked from the air, or fired on. From Shabino, the baggage-train village, the battalion went to Gschatsk, to the camp in the woods some kilometres north of the town. In the summer of 1941 that camp had served as headquarters to the Russian Supreme Commander, Central Sector, Marshal Timoshenko.
Hauptfeldwebel Melin, the ‘sarge’, a strict, self-possessed man, had his cross with the drivers, not only those of the horse-drawn vehicles. In a mighty voice he gave out his orders. In pure Silesian, one of them asked, ‘Wot ‘ave ah for’t tek, Herr Hauptfel?’ And the Hauptfeldwebel replied, ‘Tek ‘t’ Poischou’, by which he meant a captured French Peugeot lorry. Several ways led to Gschatsk. The one that went via Staroje was the furthest, but was better for the vehicles and the Peugeot. We followed the route that had more ‘corduroy’ roads and was therefore better. But even so, to the accompaniment of dreadful cursing, horses and motor vehicles had to be heaved out of the sticky mud.