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In February 1944 after defense in depth we proceeded attacking. I was the commanding officer of a platoon in our ski battalion. We were ordered to settle down in Bykhov [Russia] double track station on 23rd February 1944, Soviet Army Day [25], where there were many trains with German military equipment. We proceeded into the rear of the enemy at night with our camouflage cloaks on. We covered almost 40 kilometers that night dragging our machine guns. We got stationed at the station without a single shot and began to wait for the rest of our units to join us. They were supposed to join us in the afternoon of 23rd February, but they weren't there on the 23, or the 24 or the following days.
The Germans in the end understood that there were actually only a few of us there. They started bombarding us from an armored train and bombers. What an ordeal that was! We suffered losses and there were hardly any of our troopers left. We kept the fascists back for ten days. On the tenth day other units arrived. When we got the order to retreat, a mine exploded at our commandment point. The commanding officer of the battalion was severely wounded and the deputy commander, major Zhys, a Jew, was killed. A splinter of a mine injured my jaw. I was taken to a field hospital where I stayed for two days. I needed surgery since my lower jaw was shattered, I lost all teeth, and, besides, I was slightly wounded in my stomach.
I was taken to hospitals in Bryansk and Penza where I had a surgery. After the surgery I was sent to a rear hospital in Novosibirsk and from there I went to the hospital in Frunze where my mother worked. She knew about my injury, but she didn't expect that I would come to Frunze. My mother wasn't at work when I arrived. I stayed there a few days until a medical nurse found my parents at my request. My father, mother, uncle Nuchim and Yankel's families came to the hospital immediately. They were so happy that I had survived and wasn't to go back to the front. I had complications - inflammation of marrow - and stayed in hospital for almost ten months.
The Germans in the end understood that there were actually only a few of us there. They started bombarding us from an armored train and bombers. What an ordeal that was! We suffered losses and there were hardly any of our troopers left. We kept the fascists back for ten days. On the tenth day other units arrived. When we got the order to retreat, a mine exploded at our commandment point. The commanding officer of the battalion was severely wounded and the deputy commander, major Zhys, a Jew, was killed. A splinter of a mine injured my jaw. I was taken to a field hospital where I stayed for two days. I needed surgery since my lower jaw was shattered, I lost all teeth, and, besides, I was slightly wounded in my stomach.
I was taken to hospitals in Bryansk and Penza where I had a surgery. After the surgery I was sent to a rear hospital in Novosibirsk and from there I went to the hospital in Frunze where my mother worked. She knew about my injury, but she didn't expect that I would come to Frunze. My mother wasn't at work when I arrived. I stayed there a few days until a medical nurse found my parents at my request. My father, mother, uncle Nuchim and Yankel's families came to the hospital immediately. They were so happy that I had survived and wasn't to go back to the front. I had complications - inflammation of marrow - and stayed in hospital for almost ten months.
Period
Year
1944
Location
Bykhov
Belarus
Interview
leonid rozenfeld