Hello my dear friends! Today we are going to
continue our review of the diary of German Oberleutnant Martin Shteglich. Remember to rate
this video, as well as leave your opinion about this story, and we will begin!
August 23, 1942. Sunday has just begun. It's nearly
2 a.m. The radio goes on with some nonsense. Song after song. The lyrics of
each next one are dumber than the last, but everyone listens with apparent amusement.
Today the convalescent soldiers arrived. They're
a bit "wilder". This is all because they had no real commanders in the reserve units. But
we'll fix that in the very near future.
Today I spent several hours talking with
non-commissioned officers Frese, Schneidenau and Lohmann. I laughed with all my soul at their
stories, especially those told by Frese.
Otherwise, everything is slowly moving
on. We are all expecting the beginning of the offensive from our "bottleneck", but it
will have to wait for a while. In the south, the front moves forward at a good pace!
Our men are pushing hard. That's where it looks like the fate of the whole
campaign will be determined.
We're building new dugouts. I've launched a
whole "fortification program". I want to relieve some of the overcrowded dugouts by putting
people in neighboring sites. As a result, everyone will be a little
closer to their positions.
Our "trophy infantrymen" are quite annoying,
I have to deal with them. These guys are artillerymen, coachmen and drivers of ammunition
trucks. I could understand them - they wouldn't mind remaining with their batteries, take
their nags out of the stable once a day, and with a spank on the back, drive them to graze
in the meadows. This life is much more comfortable and safer than the life we have in the infantry!
And since they have no conscious wish to do so, they don't do their duty properly. I
have to yell at them all the time. The danger is that they might spoil the other
guys in the company for me. Of course, there are good soldiers among them
too, but rather as an exception.
August 25. The mood is worse than ever. This
morning the chief of the division's supply service took four of my men away at once, without even a promise of replacements.
This is already a real human trafficking.
I have such a situation on the front
line that even one soldier is needed. That's why I have to make official
scandals, using harsh expressions.
On Sunday, the battalion commander
invited us to his neighboring section. He offered us a bottle of homemade
cognac. We had a conversation.
At night I spent five hours
inspecting our front line. The day passed yesterday without any incidents.
During the night I drafted proposals
on the regulations for the performance appraisal of soldiers. There is a lot of
things to correct regarding it. I wonder how my proposals will be accepted. Surely our
high command doesn't know anything about it, because it all happens at the company level.
So, that's how I earn my soldier's bread.
For the rest, we prepare for the winter. I have
developed a detailed plan of works to build everything orderly: dugouts, trenches, camouflage,
sauna, roads, re-equipment of the site of rear services (a permanent place for the field kitchen
will be set up 400 meters behind the front line) and many other things. I hope that we will be able
to at least use what we build here. We can still build it now, but in the fall and winter it is
impossible. We're in the last third of August.
August 28. The day before yesterday we had a
visit from the regimental commander, Colonel Shtuppi, who personally inspected
our section. He spent more than five hours in the location of the company and
expressed his full satisfaction.
It was suddenly sweltering and steamy in
the evening. Then a storm came through, bringing some coolness. The day passed peacefully
yesterday - there was no particular incident. Last night there was a skirmish. The enemy
attacked with two or three Companies exactly along the line of separation between the
sections, even more on the side of the neighbors. We spotted them in time. The bright
moon covered everything perfectly. The attack was beaten back. This morning, we noticed that
their 18 fighters were still 250 meters away from our position. We wanted to sort them out, but we
couldn't because of our own minefields. I climbed a tree and surveyed the situation from above. We
pulled up a light infantry gun and cleared them away from us with a direct fire. We got a few of
them down. These guys can crawl like devils.
At noon they attacked again with two companies at
Ozheyedy. They left 60 men dead. I wonder where they got their men from again? Should
we expect another massive attack?
I was actually supposed to see Hein Lemm today, but I had to postpone because of this
mess. Well, we'll do it tomorrow.
Otherwise, there's nothing else to tell. I'm
lying on the couch, listening to the radio, letting the mosquitoes eat me, there's
nothing else to smoke. I'm wandering back and forth to our front line.
That's how our short days pass.
September 4, 1942. What can I write about? We earn our soldier's piece of bread. It's not a
bad phrase, by the way!
Two nights were spent in sorties to
the Ivans' positions. Regrettably, with no success. We ran into mines planted by our predecessors. We suffered casualties
and had to abandon our operation.
As for the rest... Oh, I was at the cinema. It
was a stupid, average movie. It's pretty much a real peacetime movie. All in all, though,
it was quite tolerable, I laughed a lot.
Sometimes I think and try to figure out how it was
possible that the Ivans were able to organize such a strong resistance. I reject the explanation
based on any ideals. I am not sure if I will be properly understood, but sometimes I feel
horrified by the truly diabolical ingenuity with which these bastards have managed to inspire their
villeins to stand here to the death. After all, death is no better than life for them. They are
deprived of the possibility of any comparison.
September 10. Today for the first time in this
year after winter we bake potatoes on the fire. "Penguin" is just
about to cook me a portion.
Somehow, I feel a little
dizzy. I have a sore tonsil and a cough. The weather is already autumnal.
The day before yesterday I visited
Lt. Breger and during the night we joyfully celebrated his Knight's
Cross. It was good and fun.
This afternoon I read out promotion orders
to the company. Among others there was also Gefreiter Wandke, but within an hour I
was standing shocked over his body - he was killed! His death is on the conscience of
the bloody sniper in the woods opposite.
Now not a single sentry is no longer looking out
of the trenches at dugouts No. 12 and No. 13. We set up two mirrors, and the sentries now sit in
shelters on the ground and only occasionally go to the post where the mirrors are. We have
to use the most sophisticated tricks.
"Penguin" put a baked potato on the
table. And there's a couple of eggs, as well. That's wonderful! And all of
this takes place on the Valdai Hills.
Before I had time to swallow the potato, I heard
"Alarm!". It was dark outside and I couldn't see a thing. I didn't even realize at once what had
happened. Everyone to their positions! What was that? Our machine gun, apparently, triggered
the detonation of one of the mines set by the Ivans. That was a pretty great detonation.
That's for the best: it lets us understand the way it happens. As they say, it's better
one more time than only once, but too late.
September 11.
The morale today is awful.
It's clearly pessimistic.
An enemy defector came out to
us this morning - a Ukrainian. The slaves standing opposite us are
mostly people from the Urals - old Communists and they are not tired of
the war at all, unlike the others.
This afternoon, it was Ober-Gefreiter Shtih. A
bullet hit him in the head. He's still alive. I'll ask about him tomorrow at the main dressing
station. He's one of our best soldiers. One of those guys everybody likes! To have him lying
at your feet is a hell of a thing to endure. There was one yesterday, there's another
one today. Well, I would understand if it was on the offensive, but like this - there's no
noticeable progress and these constant losses!
I don't share such thoughts with anyone. After
all, this is primarily my personal pain from the loss of such excellent guys as Shtih.
He's been in combat for three years now, and has made it through all the messes intact.
A career soldier from peacetime! And I won't be an officer, a front-line soldier and a company
commander if such losses wouldn't move me.
September 12. It's 1:35 a.m., which means it's September 13, 1942. I just said goodbye to one of the
wounded. "What you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts" - that's right about
his wounding. It's been that way for many days in a row now. It's like a pattern. Besides,
we've got men getting out with illnesses. And we need to have sentries everywhere, despite
the fact that we're fewer and fewer in number. These eternal estimates and counting of
every soldier are pissing me off. I don't want to be misunderstood. Perhaps, only knowing
about how sparsely staffed our front line is, one can truly understand our situation.
The reserves? Not a single soldier! But we've been in this situation for a year
now, since we reached the Valdai Hills. Yet other times will come, I think. We'll
have a good laugh at the way we are now! Stih died this morning unconscious. Today I was informed that tomorrow a
platoon of the propaganda company will arrive with filming equipment. Finally!
Tomorrow will be the culmination of our "Lunev Military Sports Games". The
text of the script is basically great. Besides, the commanding officers asked me
when I would like to take a vacation. Well, I'd like to postpone it for a while. September 14. Yesterday, on Sunday, we had a sports
festival. Even a little rain didn't stop us. Everything was great. The propaganda
platoon was filming. Tomorrow they'll be here again to film our positions. I hope
the weather will be clear and sunny. At 5:00 a.m. today we destroyed one of the
Russian pillboxes. We fired anti-tank gun, infantry gun, artillery and heavy mortars!
In short, it was whole fireworks show. It's getting pretty chilly. It's
damp and cold. There's a lot of cases of mild colds. It is good thing
that our dugouts are already heated. That is all for today! You can
find other episodes of this diary by following the link in the pinned
comment. If this video was interesting, please like it and support the channel by
subscribing. Bye everyone, until next time!
