The Eastern Front in 1944
Looking back over the year - as the Germans are forced into headlong retreat
Less than three years after launching Operation Barbarossa , German forces in Russia are not just on the back foot but facing annihilation …
We were manning our positions in a temperature which had dropped to 45° below zero. Some men fainted as the cold struck them, paralysed before they even had a chance to scream. Survival seemed almost impossible. Our hands and faces were coated with engine grease, and when our worn gloves were pulled over this gluey mixture, every gesture became extremely difficult.
Freezing on the Eastern Front
At these words Hitler leaped up, threw himself across the table, screwed up the map in his left hand and screamed, ‘If only the generals could finally understand why I cling to this area so much! We urgently need Nikopol manganese! They simply don’t want to understand this. And as soon as they are a few tanks short, they go immediately to their radios and say; “Without tanks we can`t hold on. We ask for permission to retreat!"
Hitler calls for "iron will"
Besides that, we could not always have a normal meal - the battalion kitchen was stuck in the dirt somewhere and could not catch up with us. It was impossible to find a dry spot during breaks, we had to sit down right in the dirt and immediately fell asleep for 10 or 15 minutes. Some soldiers even fell asleep while walking from exhaustion. One should not forget that most of the soldiers were just 18 years old.
The Red Army marches west
As soon as we meet Ivan, we charge. Machine guns to fire from the hip. We will take no notice of what happens to the left or right. We go on storming through the wood until we meet our own people. If I should drop out, Zech will take command, and if he falls, Brugmann. In that case, I shall be left lying. This applies to everyone. We can’t worry about the dead or wounded. I must tell you this quite frankly. And there is another thing: anyone who does not follow or keep up with us will be shot in accordance with military law. That is a promise. Now, let’s go.
The fight continues in Finland
As I recall, the hurricane broke at 3.05am, on the dot, just as it had in 1941. The fire was concentrated mainly on the main line of resistance. Only isolated heavy-calibre shells dropped in the village. We had long since left our quarters in houses, and were waiting in the cover trenches beside them. I had been woken by the crash of bursting shells after just an hour’s sleep. That action began for me with a thundering within my skull, weakened by schnapps and tiredness.
Operation Bagration
We knew for certain that there had been some Germans in a house on a slight rise about 400 metres away, perhaps closer. It was a difficult rifle shot but easily within range of their Maxim. I pointed the house out to him. He crouched behind the gun and started to fire long and, in that confined space, enormously noisy bursts. Whatever his other merits as a machine-gunner, conserving ammunition was not one of them.
Warsaw - the fight goes on
On 20th November 1944, Hitler left his ‘Wolf’s Lair’ for the last time. He had spent over 800 days directing the war from the remote Field HQ in East Prussia. This was the scene of the early exhilaration over the dramatic advances into Russia during Operation Barbarossa - through to all the subsequent reverses. When he left, the sound of Red Army guns in the distance was unmistakable.
'Hitler’s Wolfsschanze'
The Wolf’s Lair Headquarters on the Eastern Front – An Illustrated Guide