One particular observation that is unique only to Red Vengeance is its quick rate of fire. Supported by numerous accounts and observations, the tank can fire and reload the 76 mm gun with greater speed and deadlier accuracy than a Tiger (which holds a crew of five). The assumption is that an extra crewman has been put on board as a gunner, thus freeing the commander from the duty and allowing him to focus attention on tactical decisions, observation, and fire direction. One school of thought is of the opinion that a specialized sighting system and an advanced load/fire mechanism are employed. Weapons technology along these lines has yet to be found on enemy vehicles examined by army specialists. Another theory suggests Red Vengeance is a hybrid fighting vehicle, a one of a kind, which has failed to go into full-scale production; however, there is no evidence to lend credence to this theory.
Voss continued to read. There were other details, specifically the camouflage netting draped over the gun barrel and hull, barbed wire on mud guards and rear deck; also the Cyrillic letters spelling out the alleged words krasni mecTb on the left turret side. Included in the documentation were transcripts of eyewitness accounts of troops in the field associated with events and actual encounters. Falkenstein’s own experiences were conspicuously absent. Searching through the file, Voss couldn’t find a report or debriefing that detailed the circumstances of the captain’s fateful engagement. The only reference, and this only a short memo from Army Group intelligence, suggested the incident on the Kalmyk steppe of September 1942 was most likely the first known skirmish involving Red Vengeance. The bulk of reports covered the time frame from December 1942 until April 1943 and was drawn almost exclusively from the intelligence section and war diaries of General Hoth’s Fourth Panzer Army. Red Vengeance seemed to have it in for the general that winter. Mounting a relief operation to link up with the encircled Sixth Army at Stalingrad, Fourth Panzer Army engaged in tooth-and-claw defensive battles through bitter cold, slush, and snow. Streaked in whitewash, Red Vengeance targeted reconnaissance units that covered the outer flanks of the spearhead. Subject to repeated attacks were the supply columns ferrying the fuel and ammunition. Although these support companies did not operate in secure areas, the beguiling aspect of the raids occurred under the noses of motorized infantry whose sole objective was to offer protection to the supply lines. Red Vengeance had the uncanny ability to slip through the protective cordons, destroy several vehicles of fuel and materiel, and vanish. What stuck in the minds of the German troops was how this T-34 operated alone, without support, and its appearance presaged an attack in some other sector and a different unit with devastating consequence. Red Vengeance would drift in and out of antitank gun sights and manage to elude a direct hit from veteran gunners. Against a bleak winter sky, the specter, its hull splashed with white camouflage, would be observed on the horizon, tracks kicking up sprays of white powder, just centimeters out of gun range.
Hoth’s army bogged down thirty kilometers from Stalingrad. Enemy resistance was too strong, and his best division, Sixth Panzer, was ordered detached to answer a crisis when the Italian Eighth Army faced a massive Russian offensive. Fourth Panzer Army could go no further, and rumors of Red Vengeance were beginning to spread.
From mid-December to early January, the German front on the middle Don collapsed. The army group began the long, painful trek westward as the Russians prepared a gigantic pincer movement to take Rostov. Fourth Panzer Army was caught between the Sal and Manych rivers as it engaged in ruthless defensive fighting against the Soviet Second Guards Army, trying desperately to keep the Germans out of what was being called the “Rostov bottleneck.” A Russian bridgehead was already established at the village of Manychskaya and threatened First Panzer Army’s retreat from the south.
Voss thoughts returned to his own experiences during that time. The Greyhounds had covered Hoth’s flank from the assaults of the Soviet Twenty-Eighth Army, and he’d been involved in operations to take the village of Manychskaya where the Manych River flowed into the Don. The weather was brutal, the going arduous, and the battles nothing short of inhuman. He was amazed that he had survived at all. There were enough dangers and experiences during that single episode to last a lifetime; yet, with all he had been through before and since, it was but a few threads of a larger, more hellish tapestry. On January 30, First Panzer Army retreated across the Sea of Azov, over forty kilometers of black ice, from Rostov to Taganrog.
Another entry from the war diary of Fourth Panzer Army, dated February 3, concerned a raid on a battery of self-propelled assault guns positioned in defensive laager for the night. A T-34 swept in, past the picket lines of escort grenadiers, blasting a siren and activating a searchlight that picked out targets easily against the snow. The laager was hurled into tumult. Within moments, three self-propelled assault guns were destroyed with armor-piercing shot, and the fuel dump was set ablaze. Gun crews were cut down by machine gun as they attempted to climb into their vehicles. Every assault gun was either burning or damaged, and only one vehicle escaped in serviceable condition. The T-34 was Red Vengeance. The grenadiers who survived the assault swore that no sound produced by a diesel engine or track link noise was heard in anticipation of the tank’s approach. The vehicle simply appeared, out of nowhere, and with devastating effects. One grenadier remarked that just prior to the attack, he was nearly overcome by a sickening odor, “…like an abattoir on a hot day.” The rankness permeated the senses and did not lift for some time (several other witnesses who survived the attack supported this. They claimed to have become nauseous from the smell).
By early February, Field Marshal von Manstein ordered a strategic withdrawal to the Mius River. Italian, Hungarian, and Romanian armies to the north had disintegrated as Soviet armored forces poured through the gaps in the line from Voroshilovgrad to as far as Belgorod. Despite the shortened front, German troops were spread thin. Understrength companies of infantry were required to hold sectors of several kilometers in length. Small combat groups received radio transmissions from even smaller patrols. Red Vengeance was on the loose… word of an attack… and then a cold silence would follow. Hearing the name would cause restlessness, even panic among the troops. When rumor spread that Red Vengeance had been sighted in the vicinity, entire platoons were known to break into a run. NCOs told their unit commanders who, in turn, informed regiment headquarters of the impact this tank had on the men’s morale. Reports filtered back to divisional staffs. The T-34 was referred to as the “phantom” or “ghost” tank. Other references included “the beast” or “Moloch.” Every company, platoon, and rifle squad seemed to have a pet name of its own. Panzer crews were beginning to get nervous over the prospects of having to engage this particular T-34. A reputation as an unstoppable killer had already taken root.
February 17, 1943, Soviet Armored Group Popov crossed the Donets River near Izyum, penetrated south to the rear of First Panzer Army, and captured Krasnoarmeyskoye. The Russian Sixth Army, bearing, ironically, the same number as Von Paulus’s army recently lost at Stalingrad, pushed toward the west and took Pavlograd, penetrating as far as the railroad junction at Sinelnikovo. The plan was to cut off the German southern armies and annihilate them before they could fall back to the Dniepr. This is what Stavka, the Red Army High Command, perceived as the only option left for Army Group South—a strategic retreat to the river. Cunningly, von Manstein allowed the Russian general staff to believe this, and then launched his counteroffensive that lasted from late February to mid-March. The results were nothing short of astounding. Hoth was given the task to stop the Russian Sixth Army, and with three panzer corps, he launched a pincer movement of its own. The Russians were encircled and mauled. Attempting a desperate retreat back across the Donets, the Russian Sixth lost over twenty-five thousand men and countless armored vehicles along the way.