Suicidal Soviet assault on Waffen SS

17th September 1941: Kurt Meyer watches another futile Red Army attack

Soldiers of the Waffen-SS in a captured Ukrainian village pass by a Soviet Comintern artillery tractor

As another huge German encirclement developed in southern Russia, the Red Army grew increasingly desperate. The Soviet system allowed little imagination among officers, and they were often compelled to mount futile attacks. The Germans had become famili…