Tag #115409 - Interview #83163 (Anatoli Kraemer )

Our Estonian corps was supposed to be sent to Stalingrad, where severe battles were being held [23]. We were most likely to die there, but we were not sent to Stalingrad, but to Velikiye Luki. The town was captured by Germans, and the Soviet army encircled it. The winter was frosty and we had to walk 100 kilometers. At last, we got there. The battle for Velikiye Luki started. [The Velikiye Luki offensive operation was executed by the forces of the Red Army's Kalinin Front against the Wehrmacht's 3rd Panzer Army during the Winter Campaign of 1942-1943 with the objective of liberating the Russian city of Velikiye Luki. It is particularly notable as an example of the failure of German operational combat in relieving an encirclement, similar to those employed at the Battle of Stalingrad.