Russia at war 1941-1945

Thus at the railway station of Frolovo [west of Stalingrad] I ran into the

headquarters of the 21st Army. The H.Q. was on wheels. Everything, including

Army Commander Gordov's sleeping outfit, was on the move—in cars and lorries. I

did not like such excessive mobility. One could feel a lack of stability, and a lack of determination. They looked as though they were trying to get away from their

pursuers—everybody, including the Army Commander.

A few days later, travelling west towards the Don, he also saw evidence of very low

morale:

I saw how these people were moving along the waterless Stalingrad steppe from

west to east, eating up their last reserves of food, and overcome by the stifling heat.

When I asked them: "Where are you going? Who are you looking for?" they gave senseless answers: they all seemed to be looking for somebody on the other side of the Volga, or in the Saratov region... In the steppe, I met the staffs of two divisions who claimed to be looking for the H.Q. of the 9th Army. These staffs consisted of afew officers sitting in three or fours cars, loaded to the brim with petrol tins. Inreply to my questions: "Where are the Germans? Where are our units? Where areyou going?" they didn't know what to say. It was, clearly, not going to be easy torestore the morale of these people and the fighting spirit of the troops in retreat...

Some of the generals were no better. General Gordov, who had been commander of the

21st Army, was appointed commander of the 64th Army, with Chuikov as his Deputy.

On the night of July 19 we met at the H.Q. of the 64th Army... I had never met him before. He was a general with greying hair and with tired grey eyes which seemed to see nothing, and whose cold expression seemed to say: "Don't tell me about the situation, I know all about it. There's nothing I can do about it, since such is myfate."

Being in a defeatist mood, Gordov ordered that only part of his Army should hold

positions inside the Don Bend, and that the reserves be left on the east side of the Don.

Chuikov was critical of this decision, but adds that "General Gordov was not a man who tolerated any contradiction from his inferiors."

Nevertheless, only a few days later, Gordov was summoned to Moscow and was

appointed to the even higher post of commander of the Stalingrad Front (i.e. Army

Group). Meantime, Chuikov was left as acting commander of the 64th Army. On July 25

the troops under his command made contact with the Germans at Nizhne-Chirskaya, in

the south-east corner of the Don Bend. After describing a ferocious two-day battle, in the course of which many German tanks were destroyed, and the Germans also suffered

heavy casualties from the Russian katyusha mortars, Chuikov then relates how the Germans nevertheless succeeded in breaking through the Russian lines inside the Don

Bend.