Where the Iron Crosses Grow

In the lead was I./IR 47, led by Major Gustav Alvermann, who had been awarded the Ritterkreuz for leading an air assault into Holland in 1940. Close behind was III./IR 16. The German Stossgruppen did not attack in large units, but advanced using infiltration-type tactics, in small, well-armed groups. Each group comprised a mix of infantry and pioneers, the latter of which were essential for breaching the enemy obstacles. Rushing across the bottom of the ravine, which was swampy in places, the assault troops came under sporadic automatic-weapons and mortar fire, but the enemy was firing blindly into the smoke created by the Nebelwerfer barrage, so casualties were initially light. Hearts pounding, the first assault teams approached the base of the western side of the ravine and began to suffer casualties from Soviet PMD wooden antipersonnel mines. The pioneers began marking lanes through the minefield, while the rest of the assault troops covered them from prone firing positions. After this tedious task was completed, with more casualties from enemy shrapnel, the pioneers began cutting through the barbed-wire obstacles, some of which had probably been smashed about by the German artillery preparation. At this point, members of the 9th Company of Potapov’s brigade, deployed in combat outposts along the edge of the Kamyschly Ravine, began to engage the German troops attempting to breach the obstacle belt. The Germans were prepared for this and a 2cm flak platoon had moved forward in direct support of the Stossgruppen; the flak gunners engaged flashes from Soviet automatic weapons with 150 large-caliber rounds per minute, which quickly suppressed them. Awed by the firepower display, many Soviet infantrymen did not fire, but simply made themselves as small as possible at the bottom of their trenches. As the pioneers cut through the wire, some troops threw smoke grenades to cover them while others hurled Stielgranaten to suppress enemy troops on the far side. Then they were through – a thin corridor at first – but as more Stossgruppen reached the wire and began to breach it, the penetration widened. After a brief fight for the forward trenches, the Germans began to climb up the western side of the ravine.

Off on the left flank of the 22. Infanterie-Division, troops from Generalleutnant Friedrich Schmidt’s 50. Infanterie-Division’s IR 121 and IR 123, supported by Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung 197, were crossing the ravine further south, heading toward the village of Kamyschly and the “Trapeze.” Oberleutnant Erich Bärenfänger, who had performed so well during pursuit operations in November 1941, had been partly in charge of leading the assault elements from III./IR 123. Bärenfänger led a Stossgruppe from the front, racing across the open terrain of the valley floor toward the Soviet trenches. He and his troops hurled a barrage of a dozen Stielgranaten before leaping into the trench and engaging in close-quarter combat with the naval infantrymen of Potapov’s brigade. After clearing the frontline trenches, Bärenfänger boldly pushed up a trail toward the heights, and his battalion was soon 1,000 yards ahead of the rest of his regiment. Small groups of naval infantrymen attacked his open flanks, forcing Bärenfänger to stop and deploy his machine guns to prevent the Soviets from encircling him.³²