NAZIS IN RUSSIA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 65, 18 March 1942, Page 5

NAZIS IN RUSSIA

WINTER’S GRIM TOLL AGONY OF THE WOUNDED Sydney, March 5. The German armies were unprepared for the unbelievable Russian ■ cold and are undergoing frightful | suffering, reports the Sydney Morn-i ing Herald’s Moscow correspondent.l Long conversations I had with Ger-i man soldiers at a Russian prison camp I have confirmed the information I. gathered during my recent visits to the front. These prisoners told me of continuous hospital trains laden with victims of frostbite, stomach troubles, pneu-j monia, and other serious illnesses due: : to the cold; wounded men dying in. I the snow; of men who were lost and* whose limbs when they were found 1 were so severely frost-bitten that; amputation was inevitable. Their t stories were told with the nervous in-' tensity of men who have seen horrors j and they indicated as clearly as any ( statistics how heavy German losses|; must be in dead and incapacitated' from this cause alone. As if to confirm what they had told | me. one of a batch of new prisoners: who arrived on the day T left was a bad of fm-’ that one leg actually fell off below, the knee while surgeons were cutting: away the dead flesh in readiness for I amputation. Stretcher-Bearer’s Story. One of the first prisoners to whom ' i I spoke had been a stretcher-bearer . ’ since the beginning of the war. He j had been in mobt of the conquered t European countries. “In the two* years of the war I have seen nothing; like it was here when the cold came."l he said. “Men not only had to survive their wounds, they had to survive the; cold as well. It did terrible things to ' them. I have seen many horrors but' sometimes as I carried cases in I felt: that I could not bear it any longer, I I did not know cold could be like this.’’ Neither, obviously, did the German High Command, and neither did Napoleon. “How were you dressed?’’ I asked | the stretcher-bearer. I received the,' same reply as I was given by every | prisoner I interviewed on variousparts of the front—a shrug of the j shoulders and a motion of the hand I to the garments they were wearing These consisted or ankle-high boots I made of such a flimsy type of leather j that it might have been ersatz, a medium-weight cloth uniform. a medium-weight coat, suitable for a normal winter, and a light forage cap with flans which turned down to cover the ears. Some men had underclothing and some not. Orders Blindly Followed. Among 1000 prisoners were three j officers—Lieutenant Walter Zuleg, j aged 21, Lieutenant Alfred Tammai. 23. and Josek Mashek, 28. They were I a dejected, monosyllabic trio, until I! mentioned the cold. That stirred them to quick retort-: "It was terrible. ” I Mashek said, almost excitedly. He I swept his boots he was wearin ey ai less." he said, and his companions: nodded violently. “Why didn’t you have warm - clothes?" 1 asked. “It is a matter for Command," I Mashek ‘aid. !< “Did they expect to reach Moscow = or were th< of the Russian winter?" Mashek hesitated a moment and: then repeated: "It is a matter fori Command." I asked them what they j told the soldiers, who were obviouslv j suffering. ‘We told them nothing." , they replied. "It is a matter for Com- ’ naand.” From what they said, the Germans I (at leas! on 1 1 ■■ n ' h-v <st fr mt.! where thev were captured) were not provided w?‘h any structures where I the troons off duty might hax •• round I some relief from living In the open snow, ’f thev were in a village or a town the? • ' ’ ses they were not the men had to sleen under canvas and make whatever provision thev could for warmth and for heat i for cooking. Soldiers Losing Heart. Alfred Hutch told me he was born, in 1916, and that one child. He believes that the pro-1 tracted nature of the war and the; fighting in the snows of Russia are • having their effect on the morale of j the German forces. Hutch, who ■peaks a little Russian and is spend-1 ing his leisure time now in trying to improve his knowledge, said: “We! were told that if we were captured! W’e would be killed or brutally * treated.’’ ■ “I am ' . than the snows on the front. This I room is warm." •Why did you saj that morale is affected?” •"Some ' " believe in victory. ”| Wutd to be’.;times fo s nut come. Propaganda si . ‘ills said that Moscow would fall. It did not. The soldiers now do not believe. They do not heft lieve the new commanders who say that the war will soon be finished.’’