Russia at war 1941-1945

protruding from one of the windows. It was the car of some local top official. Inside were two women and two children.

"Surely," I said, "at a time like this you might have more important things to transport than your aspidistra. You might have taken some old people or children."

With their heads bent, the women were silent. The driver, too, turned away, feeling ashamed.

And then came the German strafing.

Three volleys of machine-gun fire hit our truck. The driver was killed. I managed to survive, as I jumped out just in time. But with the exception of my A.D.C. and a

dispatch rider, all were killed...

Nearby, I noticed the same old Zis-101. I went up to it. The women, the children, the driver were all killed... Only the evergreen leaves of the aspidistra were still sticking out of the window.

Horror piled upon horror that day. Belostok was in a complete state of chaos, at the railway station a train packed with women and children evacuees was bombed, and

hundreds were killed.

At last, towards evening, Boldin reached the Headquarters of the 10th Army which had moved out of Belostok to a little wood some distance outside the city. It consisted of two tents, with a table and a few chairs. General Golubev was there, with a number of staff officers. He had been unable to communicate with the Front (i.e. Army Group)

Headquarters as the telephone lines had been destroyed, and radio communications were being constantly jammed by the enemy. Golubev told Boldin:

"At daybreak three German army corps, supported by masses of tanks and

bombers, attacked my 5th infantry corps on my left flank. During the first hours, all divisions suffered very heavy losses... "

His face and voice showed that he was deeply shaken. Having asked my permission

to light a cigarette, he unfolded a map:

"To prevent our being outflanked in the south, I deployed the 13th mechanised corps along the river Kuretz, but as you know, Ivan Vasilievich, there are very few tanks in our divisions. And what can you expect from those old T26 tanks—only

good enough for firing at sparrows,.. "

From his further report it emerged that both the aircraft and the anti-aircraft guns of the army corps had been smashed, and that spies had apparently informed the Germans

where the army's fuel dumps were, for during the very first hours of the invasion, these had all been destroyed by bombing.

Then General Nikitin, commander of the 6th cavalry corps, arrived and reported how his men, after successfully repelling the first German attacks, had been almost wholly

exterminated by German aircraft. The remnants of the cavalry corps had been

concentrated in a wood north-east of Belostok.

Looking up from the map, General Golubev said:

"It's hard, very hard, Ivan Vasilievich. My men are fighting like heroes. But what can you do against a tank or a plane? Where there is any chance of clinging to

something we hold on; we fight back from any strong position, and the enemy

cannot dislodge us. But there are few such positions, and the Nazis drive their