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Stand and fight the fascists! Here they come! Stand firm! Not one step backwards! Throw your grenades then follow up with your weapons! Angriff! The Russians are all dead! Stand to for a counter-attack. The village will soon be ours! Ooooraaaaaarahhhhhh! They are counter attacking! Ivan's met his match today! Comrades! Sharpen your spades, at them again! Russian machine guns! Ach...der blut.... Victory is ours! The Fritzies don't have the stomach to fight! The Diary of Vladimir Petrenko, a second year student studying Russian Philology at Moscow University, May 1943. Dear diary: The screams and fighting from the east of the village were almost unimaginable, it was relentless in its ferocity. As the rate of gunfire slowed I dared to cast a glance in that direction. Imagine my pride and pleasure when I saw a young comrade waving a red flag from that position! My enthusiasm was tempered however by the pile of corpses which lay all around him, many of which wore Russian colours. My gaze was immediately diverted by a more pressing issue which demanded immediate attention. A massive German charge with several tanks and infantry! Directly on our positions next to me! I saw many of our soldiers immediately defeated horribly in ways I would rather describe, as these terrible metal creations spitting hate and advancing with impunity! But some survived the initial wave to make a stalwart resistance. And with flaming vessels flying though the air, smoke soon began to protrude from one of the tanks followed by a loud explosion from within! And then black acrid smoke billowed out as the Germans made a bid to escape the smoking hulk, with our soldiers now rallying to defend their position and their honour! German soldiers ran directly up the far hill And from the top they showered bullets on our men from above, which seemed to greatly inhibit them as they battled the tanks! Our brave Soviet soldiers fell before they could even react! The battle seemed to be going against us! Our men were forced to retire under this withering assault! But then our men charged the tanks! I could not stop myself standing up in amazement to witness this spectacle. From the edge of the very field I was in, Russian soldiers emerged armed with large explosive looking devices and with dogs at their sides, they immediately joined the assault! More explosions resulted in several German tank crew appearing from the vehicle exits with yet more flame and smoke engulfing the scene. But once again our troops are repelled! What seemed to be going our way now once again looked desperate! I fell to my knees in anguish! Sappers! Stand-by to assault again! Their tanks are blind! Use the cover assault! Comrades rally! Counter-attack! Call for the flamethrower tanks to mop up what's left of those Fritzs. The Russians are charging yet again! Another tank is in trouble Sir! And Russian OT4 tanks are advancing on our Eastern flank through the village! Advance the Tiger on the objective! Receiving fire! Heavy artillery! Gott im Himmell flammpanzer! Are you receiving? Hello?.... We have ranged in! Heavy mortar fire commencing! We are on the Russian guns! Where is the support? There is no support! They have over-run us! What had seemed a certain defeat was now a certain victory! I witnessed our men despatch two, then three and finally four tanks. With the Germans in the village dying and the tanks on fire the heart seemed to go out of them and so before long every German in sight was running! Many red flags began to appear from our lines and soldiers and tanks began to sweep through the remnants of the German forces until finally none were to be seen, and the gunfire began to fade into the distance. A Russian soldier seemed to spy me, and came over to me, lifting me up into a standing position. "It is over, you can relax now!" he exclaimed loudly. His ruddy face the last image I recall as I collapsed, the fatigue and stress of the day suddenly overcoming me. I awoke in a barn some time later and recounted my tale to soldiers which I was asked to repeat many times that evening. |
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