A SOVIET SORTIE

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3139, 6 July 1942, Page 3

A SOVIET SORTIE

HOW SCOUTS OPERATE TAGANROG INCIDENT UNEASY GERMANS IN RUSSIA (By War Correspondent Nikitin) The suburbs of Taganrog, once so lively, are deserted. Not a soul is in sight. The factories are dead silent. The tall chimneys rise skyward in a gesture of gaunt appeal. Deserted, windowless buildings gape towards the east. The German sentry near the factory gates is shivering with cold. His eyes try to pierce the darkness. Before him stretches the Gulf of Taganrog, icebound and silent. A dark tangle of barbed wire is dimly seen near the shore.

The factory he is guarding is being used as a barracks. The Nazis are inside, sound asleep. Machine-guns cover the approaches. At last the sentry cannot bear the cold any longer. He goes into his dugout.

A party of Soviet scouts, lying invisible and motionless on the, ice 50 yards from the shore, have been waiting for just this moment. Led by Lieutenant Kokotov, a Byelorussian teacher, they begin to crawl forward. Kokotov has ten comrades with him -Senior-lieutenant Sidorov, Baryshev from, the Urals, Molokpv from Transcaucasia, Puzhanov and Kirichenko from Kukan, Ostrizhnov and Vasilyev from .collective farms on the Don River, the miner Ustinov, and Chuyko and Zhilkin from the Ukraine; Locate Enemy Positions Their assignment is to find out the enemy’&• positions and the location of his batteries. While Kokotov climbs towards the shore a group of his men take up a position among the hummocky ice, ready to silence the enemy guns.

The rest of the men, with Kokotov, are already only 30 yards from the shore. The outlines of the familiar factory buildings loom dark ahead. A dog begins to bark. The order is whispered round: “Baryshev’s group to the right of the plant. Kirichenko’s to the left. . The lieutenant will tackle the centre with three men.”

The scouts move on. Baryshev comes

up against an obstacle —barbed wire. They cut a passage with their swords.

Then/'A minefield!” The message runs along the line. Baryshev strains his eyes and picks a delicate, zigzag way through the minefield. The men creep after him. Only a few yards now. The factory wall towers high above them. The last obstacle, a snow» hill, is overcome.

Ostrizhnov advances cautiously. As he crawls the snow crunches under his camouflage coat.

Suddenly a flare goes up to the right illuminating the shore, the ice, the scouts, an enemy pillbox, the factory yard and walls. Machine-gun fire follows. Rush Factory Wall Baryshev and his men rush towards the factory wall. Kirichenko and his men make for a window from which enemy automatic fire is heard. Kokotov opens fire on the dugout. Six hand-grenades burst in the German barracks as Kirichenko silenced the automatic riflemen. The Nazis are dashing frantically about the courtyard. The scouts are strafing them with bullets. Soon the whole shore and the icefield is a mass of fire. Lieutenant Sidorov, hiding behind the hummocks of ice, quickly draws up a map of the enemy positions and gun emplacements. .. The object of the Soviet sortie is accomplished. The scouts begin to withdraw. A bullet has hit Pyzhyanov in the leg. Heavy fire is coming from the dugout. Kokotov, Chuyko and Zhilkin are fighting a rearguard action. They concentrate their fire on the enemy pillbox while the rest of the men retreat across j>he ice.

At last all the scouts meet at a rendezvous away from the shore, among the ice-blocks. But the enemy keeps shelling the sea for a long time after they have withdrawn, laying down a barrage in the path of a nonexistent troop landing.