Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front, 1941-1942: Schwerpunkt

The heavy tank on which I was riding together with a group of infantrymen cautiously lumbered forward across the ice. We were ordered to jump off and walk alongside. Old Il’men, as though annoyed by the sudden disturbance of its nocturnal peace, creaked and groaned as if shaken by a storm. The fifty-ton machines – this meant a pressure of 300 pounds per square centimetre of ice – caused the ice to crack with a strange tinkling sound, and on places where the ice did not reach the bottom, its surface could be seen palpably bending under their weight. The other heavy machines were not permitted to move along the tracks of the first ones, but branched out to the right or left. Finally the lake was left behind.¹⁰

Leytenant Astakhov’s KV-1s crossed frozen Lake Il’men, but one tank fell through the ice and was abandoned when they crossed the River Lovat. With little left of the night, the Soviet tankers assembled in a forest and refuelled from drums brought on sledges. At daybreak, German infantrymen from the 290.Infanterie-Division were stunned when the four remaining KV-1s led an attack, along with a regiment of Soviet infantry, against a Stutzpünkt in the village of Yur’evo.

Two green rockets soared into the air: the long-awaited signal calling the KV-1s into battle. Suddenly with a roar that shook the ground and the air, the giants emerged in deployed formation from the grove near the road. The Germans directed a tornado of shells upon them, but our land battleships relentlessly moved forward through the sea of fire… The white disk of the hatch on Astakhov’s tank, which was advancing on the right flank, opened and a red flag flashed three times. The message meant that the third tank was to break into the village.¹¹

The third tank, commanded by a Leytenant Chilikin, was hit several times by German projectiles but burst into the village and overran the German anti-tank gun. The German defenders fell back in shock, and within two days the 11th Army was on the outskirts of Staraya Russa. This action is interesting in that Soviet tank platoon leaders were still relying upon signal flags to direct their tanks in battle and that the tanks were operating ‘buttoned up’ – it makes one wonder how Leytenant Chilikin could spot a signal flag at that distance in the heat of battle. Although caught by surprise, the German defences did stiffen near Staraya Russa and a platoon of Pz.III tanks from Panzer-Regiment 203 arrived to prevent Soviet ski troops from surrounding the city.