Posted on 01/19/2012 5:01:21 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
When I was in college in the early 90’s, I took odd jobs and one such job was a clean-out. We cleaned this guy’s garage and attic and found papers dating back to the 1930’s and extending through the early 50’s. Thumbing though those was the best education I ever attained.
If I remember correctly it was the Buffalo Evening News and the Courier/Express.
Oil Depot Blazes (Durdin) – 2-3
Official Detained (MacDonald) – 3-4
The International Situation – 3
MacArthur’s Anti-Aircraft Experts Keep Japanese High in the Air (Clark Lee, new contributor) – 5
Carrier’s Fliers Guard Vast Area (Hailey) – 6-7 Wake Captives Reach Yokohama; Marine and Civilian Total is 1,235 – 7
Netherlands Indies-I (Baldwin) – 8
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on Fighting in Various Zones – 9-10
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/jan42/f19jan42.htm
Red Army attacking German supply lines
Monday, January 19, 1942 www.onwar.com
Soviet troops destroy a rail line behind German linesOn the Eastern Front... The Red Army recaptures Mozhaysk after fierce street fighting. Soviet paratroopers are landed south of Smolensk to help organize partisan action in the German rear.
From Berlin... Bock is appointed to succeed Reichenau in command of Army Group South.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/19.htm
January 19th, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM:
In a letter to General Ismay, Churchill writes regarding the defenses of Singapore; paragraph 4:
“An attempt should be made to use the fortress guns on the northern front[land side] by firing reduced charges and by running in a certain quantity of high explosives if non exists.”[p.51]. The Chiefs of Staff followed with a letter the next day, also quoted directing Wavell to make full preparations for using fortress guns on landward defence against attacks. (Wyatt Reader)
Minesweeping trawler HMS Sir Gareth launched.
Submarine HMS Sahib launched.
Submarine HMS Splendid launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: Directors of German armament firms were told today that they must increase production by 10% this year. The message was delivered by Robert Ley, the leader of the German Work Front. Increasing number of foreign workers, as well as PoWs, will be forced to work in German factories during the course of the year. Armaments remain the main priority and the Nazi authorities intend to offer productivity bonuses in the form of tobacco or brandy for armament workers. Improved conditions for working mothers are also promised, but there is a sterner side to the productivity drive, too: the workforce is also to be motivated by the threat of various punishments for “slackness”, including transfers to concentration camps.
Reports by the Security Service of the SS speak of “idleness” and “insubordination” towards superiors. Certainly Germans do not like the longer working hours - the average working week is up from 47 to 49.2 hours this year.
Field Marshal Fedor von Bock is appointed to succeed Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau as Commander in Chief Army Group South, Eastern Front. Von Reichenau died of a stroke on 17 January. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.S.R.: The Red Army recaptures Mozhaisk, 100km west of Moscow.
Heavy fighting continues on the southern front; the Germans in the Crimea recapture Feodosia. Soviet paratroopers are landed south of Smolensk to help organize partisan action in the German rear.
MIDDLE EAST: General Claude E. Auchinleck, General Officer Commanding Middle East Command. issues operations instructions to Commander, British Troops in Egypt (BTE), and Commander, Eighth Army, restating that the objective in Libya is Tripoli and outlining a plan for a defensive stand in the event the Libyan offensive cannot be continued. (Jack McKillop)
AUSTRALIA: The ground echelons of two USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress squadrons that arrived in Australia by ship on 22 December, depart for service at Singosari Airdrome on Java, Netherlands East Indies. (Jack McKillop)
BORNEO: Beginning at 0700 hours, the Japanese landing force from the ships that had anchored in Sandakan Harbour yesterday because of the weather, come ashore unopposed in Sandakan. The British Governor surrenders British North Borneo to the Japanese and they send the European residents home where they will remain until May 1942. (Jack McKillop)
MALAYA: After fierce battles to defend road-blocks in the Muar/Yong Penang area, only 850 out of 4,500 Allied troops escape.
Bitter fighting continues in the Muar-Yong Peng area. The 53d Brigade of the British 18th Division, under command of the Indian 11th Division, takes responsibility for the strategic positions west of Yong Peng, a defile and a bridge, but loses them. The Muar force (Indian 45th Brigade and two Australian battalions), now isolated, is ordered to withdraw; HQ of the Indian 45th Brigade is bombed and most of the senior officers are killed and an Australian takes command of the brigade. “East Force” is formed consisting of the Australian 22nd Brigade, 2/17th Dogra Battalion and the Jat Battalion. (Jack McKillop)
With Japanese troops 30 miles (48 kilometres) from Singapore island, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill cables his top commander on the spot, General Archibald Lord Wavell, General Officer Commanding Australian-British-Dutch-American (ABDA) Command, South West Pacific, to ask what sort of defenses the island has. Wavell’s answer, “There are neither plans nor fortifications to defend the north side of this ‘impregnable fortress.’ “ Churchill is staggered, and orders what Wavell has been pushing for, digging entrenchments. The defenders of Singapore react by hiring local labor to dig trenches...then waste five days arguing over how much overtime pay they should get. (Jack McKillop)
Churchill orders Wavell and Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, General Officer Commanding Malaya, to fight to the last man, and refuse to surrender. Wavell is happy to comply, but Singapore’s immense 15-inch (38 cm) guns face the ocean...not the north, where the Japanese armies are. (Jack McKillop)
BURMA: Japan takes Tavoy, with a good airstrip. Because of this, it is decided to withdraw the Mergui garrison by sea to Rangoon at once, although Mergui has not yet been attacked. The balance of the Chinese 93d Division, Chinese 6th Army, is ordered to move into Burma. (Jack McKillop)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: On Bataan, the II Corps continues their efforts to regain positions along the Balantay River on the west flank, the 45th Infantry (-), Philippine Scouts, reaching the river in the region between the U.S. 3lst Infantry and the Philippine Army (PA) 41st Division. The 31st Infantry, however, is under increasingly strong pressure. The Japanese column driving down the Abo-Abo River valley reaches positions near Guitol and is engaged by the 31st Division and elements the 21st Division, PA. The I Corps restores the outpost line in a counterattack but is forced to abandon it a£ter nightfall. Elements of the 92d Infantry, PA, are sent to block Japanese infiltrators from Mt Silanganan, on the corps’ eastern flank. (Jack McKillop)
Nine USAAF Far East Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses based at Singosari Airdrome on Java, are dispatched to attack shipping at Jolo Island in the Philippine Islands. Three aircraft abort due to weather but the remaining six bomb the ships and then land at Del Monte Field on Mindanao Island in the Philippines. (Jack McKillop)
Motor torpedo boat PT-31 is damaged when her engines fail because of what is believed to be sabotaged gasoline and she runs aground on reef north of Mayagao Point, Bataan. (Jack McKillop)
PHOENIX ISLANDS: USAAF Hawaiian Air Force B-17s of Task Group 8.9 fly antisubmarine mission from Canton Island in the Phoenix Islands. (Jack McKillop)
CANADA: Patrol craft HMCS Valdes (ex-fishing vessel Departure Bay II) commissioned.
Corvette HMCS Kamsack departed St John’s to escort Convoy SC-65 to Londonderry. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Lindbergh meets with two friends, Juan Trippe of Pan Am and Guy Vaughan of Curtiss-Wright. At the meeting, both are enthusiastic about hiring him but several days later, Trippe calls and tells him that “obstacles had been put in the way.” Several days later, Trippe tells him that “The White House was angry with him for even bringing up the subject and told him ‘they’ did not want Lindbergh to be connected with Pan Am in any capacity.” Vaughan also told him that the situation was “loaded with dynamite.” It became clear that any company with a government contract had to get clearance from the Administration before employing Lindbergh.
Lindbergh’s cousin was Chairman of the US Maritime Commission and he arranged a 15-minute meeting with “Wild Bill” Donovan, who became head of the OSS. They discussed the possibility of Lindbergh studying international air transportation but nothing came of it. Another friend was Lieutenant Colonel P.R. Love, commanding officer of the 50th Transport Wing at Wright Field, Ohio. Love tried to get Lindbergh back in the military but was told to dismiss the idea. Then the president of United Aircraft came up with several projects that he thought Lindbergh could handle for the company.
Ten days later, it was leaked that United had sold aviation equipment to Japan and Germany before the war (like many other companies) and the offer was withdrawn. United did not need any other adverse publicity. (Jack McKillop)
The 317 Nisei members of the HTG (Hawaian Territorial Guard) are discharged without explanation and classified as 4-C, “enemy aliens”. (Gene Hanson)
Escort carriers USS Barnes and Block Island laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
Actor James Stewart receives his wings and is commissioned into the USAAF. (Jay Stone)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: In attacks against unescorted coastal shipping, German submarines sink unarmed merchant ships off the East Coast of the U.S.
(1) At 0516, the unescorted and unarmed SS Norvana was hit just after the stack by one torpedo from U-123 south of Cape Hatteras after a first torpedo fired at 04.41 hours had missed. The explosion sent pieces of the ship into the air, some of them hitting the U-boat in a distance of 450 meters and caused the ship to sink within one minute, leaving no survivors among the eight officers and 21 crewmen on board. The US Navy later found an empty lifeboat from the Norvana off Wimble Shoals;
(2) At 0909, the unescorted and unarmed SS City of Atlanta was torpedoed by U-123 about 12 miles south of the Wimble Shoals Buoy and about eight or ten miles off the coast of North Carolina, after Hardegen had spotted the navigational lights of her. The torpedo struck the port side forward of the #3 hold. The ship quickly took a sharp list, making it difficult for the crew of eight officers and 38 crewmen to abandon ship. The vessel rolled over in about ten minutes before any of the four lifeboats could be lowered. The U-boat surfaced on the starboard side flashed a searchlight to read the name of the ship and left. Only one officer and two men survived by clinging to wreckage and were picked up by the American railway car carrier Seatrain Texas after six hours;
(3) At 1034, the unarmed SS Malay was shelled by U-123 off Oregon Inlet, while steaming in an unescorted convoy of five ships with dim navigational lights set. The U-boat fired ten shots of which five or six struck from about 650 meters. The shelling killed one man, destroyed two lifeboats, damaged the crew’s quarter and started a fire on the tanker. Then the U-boat left to follow another ship, torpedoed at 1201 hours the Ciltvaira and returned to the tanker. In the meantime the passing Scania helped the crew of Malay by passing firefighting equipment. The eight officers and 26 crewmen got the fire under control and the ship under way. U-123 fired at 1244 hours, her last torpedo, hitting the #7 starboard side tank, just aft of amidships in 35°40N/75°20W. The crew abandoned ship in three lifeboats, but one capsized and four men drowned. The survivors circled the ship for about an hour before reboarding her. The dead man and three badly injured were later taken off by boats from the Chicamacomico Coast Guard Station. The Malay reached Hampton Roads, Virginia under own power the same day;
(4) At 1201, the unescorted SS Ciltvaria was torpedoed and damaged by U-123. She was taken in tow, but was later abandoned and sank off Carolina in 35.46N/74.37W. The ship had a crew of Finns, Swedes, Danes, Estonians and a few other nationalities;
(5) a Canadian steamer is sunk 192 miles (309 kilometres) east of Cape Hatteras in position 35.00N, 72.30W. SS Lady Hawkins of the Canadian National Steamships Company passenger-liner, sunk off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina by U-66 (Zapp). The ship had been proceeding alone from Boston to Hamilton, Bermuda. Approximately 250 crewmembers and passengers were lost from the 321 persons onboard. Three lifeboats were launched as the ship sank but two were never seen again. The SS Coamo recovered one lifeboat, containing 71 survivors, after five days adrift. Five other people in the boat died before they were rescued. (Jack McKillop)
During April 1942, a total of about 12 personnel including war correspondents Clark Lee, Dean Schedler, and Frank Hewlett will be evacuated from Corregidor via the tandem seat army liason aircraft.
Viktor Nikolayevich was an experienced fisherman on Lake Ilmen. He wore a goatee beard and was known by his fellow villagers as "The Counselor." He was the leader of Vzvad's eighty-strong village guard against partisan attacks. Viktor Nikolayevich and his friends simply wanted to be left in peace. At the beginning of September 1941 the Germans had arrived with their pleasant Lieutenant-Colonel Iffland and his Panzerjäger Battalion 290. They had settled down at the northernmost point of the strategically important neck of land between Lakes Seliger and Lake Ilmen. That point marked the end of the only road leading up from Staraya Russa through 10 miles of steppe, forest, and swamp to the lake and the Lovat estuary.
The fishing village of Vzvad was therefore a strongpoint, a roadside fortress, and the terminal point of the front between Lakes Seliger and Ilmen, on the wing of 290th Infantry Division. In the autumn the Panzerjägers had left. What point was there in guarding swamps and marshes?
But towards the end of December units of the battalion had returned. For what in the summer had been impassable territory—except for those with local knowledge—might become an easy passage through the German front in the winter, once the swamp was frozen solid. Scouts and supply columns for the partisans tried their luck there. Patrols sent out by the Russian units holding a line through the forests north of Sinetskiy Bay were crossing the marshes and frozen lakes and ponds on skis.
A major Soviet breakthrough in the direction of the traffic junction of Staraya Russa would have been a mortal threat to the two Corps holding the line between Lakes Ilmen and Seliger. The Russians had tried before—and often successfully—to unhinge entire sectors of the German front by capturing their rearward supply bases. The temperature on 6th January 1942 was 41 degrees below zero Centigrade. The ice-cover on the lake and on other waters was over two feet thick. The depth of the snow was nearly two feet. German patrols were constantly on the move, searching the area for tracks. They found nothing.
In the early afternoon "The Counselor" came to see Captain Pröhl, the commander of the Panzerjägers in Vzvad and Lieutenant-Colonel Iffland's representative there.
"There's talk in the village that the liberation battle for Staraya Russa is starting to-day, our Russian Christmas Day," he said.
The captain knew that Viktor Nikolayevich was not given to gossip. He also knew that no amount of patrolling could prevent secret contacts between the fishermen on both sides of the fighting-line. He immediately sent out two ski patrols. Two hours later the first patrol was back. "Numerous ski tracks by the Lovat river," they reported.
The second patrol brought back three prisoners—two Soviet infantrymen and a suspect civilian. Night fell. Pröhl put his men on immediate alert. On the far side, over the Russian lines, red and green flares rose into the sky.
The icy night passed quietly and uneventfully. Not a shot was fired along the snow-bound front between Lakes Ilmen and Seliger.
The prisoners were interrogated through an interpreter. The civilian claimed to come from a near-by village. He had been forced by the two soldiers, he said, to show them the way to Vzvad. His shaven head, however, suggested that he too was a soldier, probably on an Intelligence assignment. Captain Pröhl had him locked up in a sauna. The interrogation of the two uniformed men yielded some interesting facts. Both belonged to the Soviet 71st Ski Battalion. They reported that their battalion had been freshly sent up to the front and was equipped with snow-ploughs and motorsledges. Food was poor, they complained. All the supplies consisted of were weapons and ammunition.
Was there any talk about attack, the interpreter asked. For a moment the prisoners hesitated, but presently they started talking. "Yes, it's said that the balloon's going up tomorrow."
Pröhl received the interrogation protocol with caution. Surely they would notice soon enough when the artillery started its preliminary bombardment. That was the invariable sign of an impending attack. On the morning of 7th January Pröhl informed Division. Then he sent out more patrols. The icy eastern wind was freshening, developing into a blizzard and obliterating tracks, paths, and even the road to Staraya Russa. The thermometer outside "The Counselor’s" cottage showed 45 degrees below zero.
At dusk the sound of aircraft was heard. The lighthouse at Zhelezno was blinking all the time, no doubt acting as a beacon to the Soviet aircraft. Strangely enough, not a single machine came anywhere near the front. Not a shot was fired. Not a gun opened up.
At 2120 hours the telephone rang. Second Lieutenant Richter reported from strongpoint "Hochstand 5." two miles southeast of Vzvad: "Strong enemy movements. Motor-sledges and ski troops bypassing us."
A runner arrived from the observation post on top of the church tower of Vzvad: "Columns of motor vehicles approaching from the south-east with headlights full on."
Two strong patrols left at once. Panting, runner after runner came back: "Scrub-covered ground at 'Hochstand 5' held by enemy." "Enemy ski troops near the hamlet of Podborovka—i.e., south-west of Vzvad, on the road to Staraya Russa. They are providing cover for snow-ploughs employed on road-clearing."
What could it mean? The Soviets, unobtrusively and well camouflaged, had clearly broken through the German front, which was held only intermittently, by separate strongpoints. They had moved without artillery preparation.
Action stations! The telephone-line to "Hochstand 5" was still intact. Pröhl rang Second Lieutenant Richter: "Pack up at once and get through to Vzvad with your men."
"We'll try," Richter replied.
A continuous procession of Soviet columns was moving past the German strongpoint. Richter and his twelve men pulled their snow-smocks firmly over their uniforms. Then they infiltrated into the Soviet columns. At a suitable spot they dropped out again and reached Vzvad unmolested. At 0300 hours the Russians attacked the German strong-point. Telephone connection with Division was abruptly cut. But Captain Pröhl knew even without orders from above that the strongpoint of Vzvad had to be held as a 'breakwater.'
Meanwhile the 6th Company, 1st Luftwaffe Signals Regiment, units of Motorcycle Battalion 38, under 18th Motorized Infantry Division, and 2nd Company Local Defense Battalion 615 had moved into Vzvad to avoid being over-run by the Russians. As a result, Pröhl now had 543 men under his command.
These 543 men held the isolated strongpoint on Lake Ilmen, far ahead of the main German fighting-line, for thirteen days—an island in the enemy flood.
Furiously the Russians tried to wipe out Vzvad, the strong-point controlling the road. They employed ski battalions. They tried "Stalin's organ-pipes." They brought on fighter bombers. And eventually they came with tanks. But Vzvad held out.
The Soviets fired incendiary shells into the village in order to destroy the troops' quarters: each of the shells contained twenty to thirty phosphorus sets. The wooden houses blazed like torches. Hospital quarters and dressing stations were consumed by the flames. Twenty-eight wounded had to be laid out in the open on mattresses and blankets, behind the ruins of buildings, in the snow. In 35 degrees below.
The operations diary and the radio signals sent to 18th Motorized Infantry Division in Staraya Russa, under which Pröhl was placed after contact had been lost with 290th Infantry Division, are profoundly moving in their unadorned, matter-of fact account, and compel the admiration of every reader.
12th January. Ceaseless enemy artillery ombardment. A German aircraft dropped ammunition. But instead of HE shells the container was full of AA shells, which were useless. In another container was the Knights Cross for Captain Pröhl. Five Iron Crosses 1st Class and 20 Iron Crosses 2nd Class were, moreover, awarded by radio signal from Division.
By 1640 hours ammunition and bandages were getting low. An urgent signal was sent to Division asking for supplies. A request was added that these should be dropped from greater height; the day before all four ammunition containers had exploded on hitting the ground.
At 1900 hours Pröhl urgently repeated his demand for ammunition and food supplies. The wounded horses were slaughtered, and one day's ration gained as a result. But there were no potatoes or bread whatever.
By 2000 hours five men had been killed and thirty-two wounded.
14th January. The commander of the Soviet 140th Rifle Regiment sent a horseman under a white flag. He demanded capitulation. He was sent back, and a salvo was fired by antitank and infantry guns against Podborovka, where the Russian regimental headquarters were situated.
During the night the Russians came with tanks. A T-26 broke through and stopped right outside Prohl's command post. Inside, the men waited calmly to see if the Russian would open his turret. He did not. They flung explosive charges at the tank The crash of the grenades seemed to worry the Russians. The tank withdrew to the southern end of the village. There it passed right in front of Sergeant Schlunz's anti-tank gun. Two shots rang out. Both were direct hits. The tank went up in flames.
A Fieseier Storch aircraft arrived with a medical officer, Dr Günther, and medical supplies. A signal from Hitler commended the defenders and simultaneously informed them that relief was impossible. Pröhl was given permission to evacuate Vzvad if the garrison was threatened with annihilation.
This carte blanche faced Pröhl with a difficult mental conflict: were they already threatened with annihilation, or not just yet?
The strongpoint had already been bypassed by the Soviets to a depth of 10 miles. Should Pröhl evacuate it? At that moment of doubt came a signal from 18th Motorized Infantry Division: "Staraya Russa is holding out, in spite of being encircled." Pröhl realized that these island fortresses tied down the enemy and broke the momentum of his headlong advance. Vzvad too would hold out.
18th January, the 11th day of encirclement. The thermometer had dropped to 51 degrees below. Minus 51 degrees Centrigrade! At night patrols went out and stripped the felt boots off the Soviet dead in front of the lines. They collected their fur caps and cut the fur coats off the bodies frozen into rigid postures.
19th January. Soviet large-scale attack during the night. Penetrations. Hand-to-hand fighting in the flickering light of blazing houses. Savage battles for the sauna and the collective farm store. Four tanks knocked out with hand-grenades in close combat.
The fighting lasted eight hours. The Soviets were repulsed. German casualties totaled seventeen killed and seventy-two wounded. "One more such attack and we're finished," Lieutenant Baechle reported to Captain Pröhl in a calm voice on the following morning, the morning of 20th January.
Pröhl nodded. He had already made his decision. "Tonight's our last chance. After the losses they've suffered the Russians will be regrouping. That's when we must act."
Officers, platoon leaders, and the commander of the local civilian guard were summoned to a meeting. It was decided to break out across the ice of Lake Ilmen. The objective was Ushin on the western shore of Tuleblskiy Bay. It meant marching 12 miles over the piled-up ice of the lake and through chest-deep snow.
The dead were buried by the "House Olga," which had burnt down, and where, as a result, the ground was still thawed from the blaze. A mass grave was blasted and dug there. Sixty-two wounded men, incapable of marching, were put on sledges and the last remaining healthy horses harnessed to them. Snow was falling. There was a haze. On the other hand, it was not quite as cold as the day before—a mere 30 degrees below.
At nightfall they moved off. A patrol with local guides went in front, trampling a firm path for the rest. The men of Motorcycle Battalion 38 were waist-deep in snow. The lead group had to be relieved every half-hour: that was as much as even the strongest man could stand. The separate marching units followed at ten-minute intervals, in close order. The civilian guard of Vzvad moved off with them, with "The Counselor'' Viktor Nikolayevich at their head. Not one of them dared stay behind. It would have meant death.
The last signal to 18th Motorized Infantry Division read: "Breakthrough beginning. Our identification signal: Flares in sequence green—white—red."
Second Lieutenant Richter, left behind with two platoons as the rearguard, continued for the next two hours to put up as much harassing fire as possible, simulating positions held in strength. Then Sergeant Steves moved off with the sapper platoon. No. 3 Platoon of the Reconnaissance Squadron stayed behind for another thirty minutes, keeping the machine-guns stuttering. After that one gun after another fell silent. A strange stillness fell over Vzvad—now utterly gutted and wrecked.
Sergeant Willich was the last to move out—past "House Olga," where their dead watched them leave.
It was a bad journey. First they moved over the ice of the Lovat to the north, as far as the lighthouse, then in a northwesterly direction on to the ice of the lake, and finally south-west towards the shore. The temperature was 40 degrees below, and on the lake as low as 50 degrees. The men were like moving icicles. The horses were reeling. Some of them collapsed. A quick coup de grâce, and the men moved on again.
Their compass needles froze up. They had been on the move for six hours. First Lieutenant Mundt stopped and let his group march past him. "Everything all right?" he asked Second Lieutenant Voss as his platoon moved past. "Everything in order."
But when No. 2 Platoon came past, First Lieutenant Beisinghof was not at its head. It was being led by Sergeant Matzen, Beisinghof and Dr Wiebel, the M.O., were with a man who refused to go on. He had sat down in the snow and wanted a rest. "Only half an hour—until the next group comes," he begged. But it would have been certain death. They pulled him to his feet; they argued with him; they ordered him. The lieutenant and the medical officer supported him one on each side. A hundred yards behind their platoon they slowly made their uncertain way forward.
Beisinghof once more moved to the head of his column. That was what they all did—Captain Pröhl, Second Lieutenant Matthis, Second Lieutenant Giile, and Dr Günther, the M.O., with the main body of the force, and Sergeant Feuer with the vanguard and Second Lieutenant Richter with the rearguard. Like sheep-dogs they moved forward and backward along their columns, seeing to it that no man was left behind or had thrown himself despairingly into the snow. Dog-tired themselves, they covered the distance twice and three times over. After fourteen hours' march they made it.
At 0800 hours Sergeant Feuer caught sight of men with German steel helmets, wrapped up to the tips of their noses. He called out to them, stumbled over to them, and caught hold of the nearest one: "Kamerad, Kamerad!"
They embraced. But what on earth was the man saying? Feuer understood only the words "Santa Maria" and "Camarada." But he guessed that "Bienvenido" meant "Welcome." The German combat group had encountered a Spanish unit.
Spaniards, volunteers of 269th Infantry Regiment of the Blue Division, employed on the Eastern Front, north of Lake Ilmen, as the 250th Infantry Division.
On 10th January the Spanish ski company under Captain Ordâs had left the northern shore of Lake Ilmen with 205 men in order to reinforce their German comrades in Vzvad. But the ice barriers on the lake had made the 20 miles as the crow flies into 40 miles as the men had to march. The Spaniards' radio equipment broke down and their compasses froze up. When Captain Ordâs reached the southern shore of Lake Ilmen a long way west of Vzvad half his men were suffering from severe frostbite. On their further move they were attacked by Siberian assault detachments. The Spaniards fought excellently and even took some prisoners. They recaptured Chernets and, together with a platoon from a police company, repulsed furious Soviet counter-attacks. On 21st January only thirty-four men were still alive of the 205 men of the Spanish ski company. Hence the demonstrative way in which they welcomed the German garrison of Vzvad, four miles east of Ushin. Two days later they mounted a counter-attack against the lost strongpoints of Malyy Ushin and Bolshoy Ushin side by side with German infantrymen, in the sector of 81st Infantry Division, which had only just arrived from France.
Twelve Spanish soldiers survived— twelve out of 205.
The combat group from Vzvad had lost five men on its journey over the lake. They had fallen victim to the cold. Exhausted and lethargic, they had dropped into the snow, unnoticed, and had gone to sleep for good in the boundless waste.
As the survivors staggered into their cold quarters in Ushin they could hear the distant rumble of the front and see the fires of Staraya Russa. That magnificent ancient town, the old trading centre on Lake Ilmen, was once more in flames. Many a battle had been fought for its possession throughout the centuries. It had been captured, and it had been destroyed. In this winter of 1941/42 Staraya Russa had become a traffic junction, a supply base, and the heart of the supply services for the German front between Lake Ilmen and Lake Seliger. If it fell the whole front would fall.
Next: Staraya Russa
Evidently, Weissblatt was wounded Jan 7, 1942 and taken captive by the Japanese. He reports that he was held prisoner at Bilibid prison which was liberated on Feb 4, 1945. Soon thereafter, Wessblatt was once again filing reports from the Philippines.
"Soviet forces recapture Mozhaisk, the closest that German troops had come to Moscow.
With this, the Soviet capital is saved from occupation."
It looks like the mid-day post is not going to happen. Now I am looking at late afternoon or this evening. Possibly even tomorrow. I want to avoid that if at all possible because I haven't miss a whole day since 8/15/39.
Homer, we pay you good money for this service and we expect punctuality!
January 20, 1942 is one of the more important dates in history.
I presume you have something special intended for it...?
My post for January 20 will be longer than usual, and followed up by related posts for several days after.
Good luck!
Darn, I forgot about that. What a day for equipment failure.
The little gathering of bureaucrats in the lovely Wannsee district to discuss a planned government program. Refreshments will be served.
Thanks to my current (and hopefully temporary) time shortage I haven't been able to prep much more than the Times images. So I don't have anything extra planned for today.
It’s those damn military censors again...
Those bath soap advertisements for women and the prune ads targeted at children sure gave me a laugh.
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