Selected text
I was the senior officer of the battery. Our regiment was called SCR - supreme commandment reserve. The regiment was armed with 122-mm howitzer. It was heavy artillery. In 2 weeks our squad was sent to the north-western front. We appeared in the region Staraya Russa, in the vicinity of Demyansk [about 500 km to the north-west from Moscow]. In Demyansk our troops besieged Germans but did not manage to do away with them as Germans broke through the siege. Our task was to exterminate German groups. I happened in the period of January-February 1943. We had fought in that area by spring and forced the river Glavat and took a defense position.
War is a daily hard labor. The artillery did not attack, but it did not mean that we were safe. We were frequently bombed by aviation and fired by the artillery of the adversary. German reconnaissance planes must have noticed our firing points. There were times when our positions were fired by the entire division over open sights. Of course, during the firing we hid in the shelter, but there were wounded. When we were taking positions, our life was getting calmer and more gradual. We lived in the dugs-out or in the huts. If the land was dry, we made the dugs-out. If it was not possible, we made log huts. Then logs were laid with stones for them not to be hit with fragments and shallow shells. Sometimes we settled in the houses of the local citizens, sometimes we had to live in the trenches. There were all kinds of things.
War is a daily hard labor. The artillery did not attack, but it did not mean that we were safe. We were frequently bombed by aviation and fired by the artillery of the adversary. German reconnaissance planes must have noticed our firing points. There were times when our positions were fired by the entire division over open sights. Of course, during the firing we hid in the shelter, but there were wounded. When we were taking positions, our life was getting calmer and more gradual. We lived in the dugs-out or in the huts. If the land was dry, we made the dugs-out. If it was not possible, we made log huts. Then logs were laid with stones for them not to be hit with fragments and shallow shells. Sometimes we settled in the houses of the local citizens, sometimes we had to live in the trenches. There were all kinds of things.
Period
Interview
Vladimir Tseitlin
Tag(s)