Chapter 477: The Noble Occupiers
When Guderian stood on a high hill, watching his troops advance across the vast Ukrainian plain, he finally understood why the Führer had disagreed with the General Staff’s proposed strategic plan for the invasion of the Soviet Union.
Hundreds of tanks had once seemed a magnificent sight to Guderian. Accompanied by cars, armored vehicles, command vehicles, and other logistical support, his 1st Panzer Division had been a veritable behemoth in France.
But now, between the sky and the earth, these vehicles snaked along the highway, and compared to the vastness of nature, they were as insignificant as earthworms. An army of tens of thousands, scattered across this plain, was instantly lost to sight. He had originally thought his forces could control a large area, but now it seemed that just to control the most basic defensive zones, his troops were stretched thin.
At the beginning, Guderian had been maneuvering his troops at the battalion level. Later, because the front was too long and the terrain too vast, he was forced to operate with the company as his basic unit. Later still, he was attacking with only a platoon or a squad. For an army group commander, this was an extremely frustrating situation.
The 9th Mechanized Infantry Corps had already caught up with Guderian. The 3rd SS Panzer Division and the 9th Motorized Infantry Division had also handed over their defensive lines to the German infantry behind them and had caught up with the pace of the 1st Panzer Division’s attack. This gave Guderian more troops to use, but after these units were dispatched to various attack points, they still found that they were far too small for this land.
The battle was fought in an exceptionally strange way. The German attacking force was actually not large in scale. About 200,000 men were committed to the first counter-attack, and this force was later strengthened to 450,000. But compared to the Soviet forces they had to deal with, this attacking force could by no means be considered large.
In another massive encirclement formed by 300,000 German troops, there were about 600,000 Soviet soldiers. However, because these troops lacked heavy weapons and had no air support, they were unable to break through the thinly spread German lines.
Scenes of 1,000 Red Army soldiers surrendering with their hands up to 100 German soldiers could be seen everywhere on the battlefield. And scenes of 20-odd German soldiers, rifles in hand, launching an attack on several thousand Red Army soldiers could also be seen everywhere.
A war photographer captured the process of the German attack on a village at that time: two German machine gunners set up their position behind a fence at the entrance to the village. The machine gun then began to pour out ammunition. A dozen or so German soldiers outflanked the village and charged inside. About ten minutes later, they drove out about 300 panicked Red Army soldiers. These men looked as if they had been starving for a long time and, with their hands raised in terror, begged the German soldiers for something to eat.
Manstein, as the supreme chief of staff for the German forces on the Eastern Front, had, at Akado’s behest, drawn up an operational plan codenamed “Shine.” This plan was for the German army, after Operation Requiem, to advance at top speed, occupy Ukraine and Belarus before the Red Army could react, and simultaneously annihilate all of the Red Army’s field armies on the Eastern Front.
Now, this “Shine” was dazzling enough. On the eighth day of the battle, the German army had encircled the majority of the Soviet mobile forces. Now, apart from the Soviet northern front forces led by Timoshenko, which were still relatively intact, the Red Army in all other areas had fallen into a disaster of complete collapse.
On the morning of this day, a German reconnaissance detachment appeared at the edge of a small town. Two German soldiers on motorcycles stopped in a wheat field not far away. A four-wheeled armored reconnaissance vehicle was bolder; it crossed the wheat field and stopped at the side of the town’s street. The two German grenadiers sitting on the vehicle jumped off, and, hugging the wall, advanced, hunched over, to the first intersection after entering the town.
Several Ukrainian women with scarves wrapped around their heads and carrying baskets saw the Germans who had burst into their small town. They began to say something to the Germans in an urgent tone. The two German grenadiers could not understand what these people were saying and could only lean against the wall, warily watching the chattering foreign women.
Soon, the roar of a motorcycle engine attracted the attention of the locals. A German motorcycle with a sidecar drove into the small town. A German soldier on the motorcycle shouted to the two grenadiers who had arrived first, “There seem to be no Soviet soldiers around here.”
“What are they saying?” one of the German soldiers asked his comrade, nervously holding his rifle.
“My Russian is not very good either,” the German soldier on the motorcycle, who was wearing glasses, said with a helpless shrug. “I only caught them saying the words ‘Russians,’ ‘leave,’ and ‘eat’.”
“Are they inviting us to eat?” a German soldier grinned, making the most unlikely guess. “I think if they are inviting us to eat, I’ll give all my cigarettes to the platoon leader.”
“I’m afraid you won’t be able to keep your cigarettes,” a thin man in overalls said, pushing aside several Ukrainian women and coming before the German soldiers. He held out his hand to shake theirs. “Hello, my name is Politikovsky. I am a middle school teacher here. I can speak German.”
“Hello. What on earth are these ladies saying?” the veteran German soldier in the lead asked, his rifle slung over his back as he pointed to the Ukrainian women.
“They said thank you for coming here and rescuing them from the hands of the devil. They are willing to make dinner for you, and they said there are no more Soviet soldiers here. They left this morning,” the middle school teacher, Mr. Politikovsky, replied.
“…” The young German soldier, who had just rashly promised his cigarettes, was speechless.
“That… Mr. what’s-his-kovsky…” the old German soldier said, embarrassed that he had not remembered the other’s name. “Are you sure there are no more Soviet soldiers here?”
“Yes, sir. The Russians are not welcome here, so you can rest assured,” Mr. Politikovsky nodded. “They left in an easterly direction, in a great hurry.”
“You two, go east and set up a watch. If you see anything, fire a warning shot immediately,” the old soldier nodded and began to assign tasks. “The armored car will wait on the south side of the town. The rest of you, continue to search forward, expand the search radius to about 5 kilometers. Begin the operation.”
The two soldiers who had not gotten off the motorcycle nodded, started their engine, and left the intersection. Two other soldiers began to move along the wall in the designated direction. On the street, they saw a 122mm anti-aircraft gun that had been destroyed by the Soviets themselves, and several abandoned military vehicles.
Soon, the advance party of the German army arrived in this small town that had been abandoned by the Soviets. Two Panther tanks rolled through the town, followed by about 500 fully armed grenadiers. Cars and armored vehicles filled the town for a time, and one after another, huge swastika flags were spread on the rooftops by the engineers.
Subsequently, soldiers began to set up a radio antenna on the roof of the town mayor’s office in the center of the town. After searching the citizens’ houses, the grenadiers did not disturb the people any further. Then, some convertible cars were driven into the small town. The moment the German officers in their smart uniforms appeared, the local Ukrainian girls’ favorability towards them instantly increased.
As time went on, more and more German officers arrived, and their ranks grew higher and higher. It was not until General List stepped out of his car that the locals knew that this place had been taken over by the German Army Group E as a temporary frontline command post.
Politikovsky and two beautiful Ukrainian girls were chosen as representatives of the local people and were cordially received by General List. The group chatted enthusiastically about the local customs and traditions. Politikovsky even pointed to one of the beautiful Ukrainian girls and introduced the local clothing styles and customs.
When List assured them that the German army would only collect one-tenth of this year’s harvest as tax, the Ukrainian girls’ squeals of delight could be heard even with their hands over their mouths. Subsequently, the small town erupted in celebration, because the Germans had promised to return the Ukrainian prisoners of war to the local people. As long as these prisoners worked for a year in the “construction battalions” in Poland, they could safely return to their hometowns. The people sang and danced to celebrate the arrival of the German army. The identity of the “German occupying forces” was, from this moment on, elevated to the far more sublime “German liberators.”
A dozen or so men who had been hiding in the wheat fields were persuaded by Politikovsky to return to the town. As it turned out, the Germans really had no intention of making things difficult for them. Even a young man wearing a Soviet uniform was pardoned by List’s order. Thus, the Germans were once again elevated from “liberators” to “people sent by God to liberate Ukraine.”
Everywhere were voices thanking the Germans for driving away the “Soviet devils.” The generous Ukrainians even voluntarily provided the German army with 100 clean houses, refusing to let the officers of the army group headquarters sleep in tents around the small town.
This was the first Ukrainian town to welcome the German army’s entry, and of course, it received a great deal of attention from all sides. Field Marshal von Brauchitsch was once again awed by the foresight of Führer Akado, because Akado, in his earlier planning, had predicted that the German offensive would be welcomed by the local people of Ukraine.
Subsequently, in the name of the Army General Staff, the German army issued a temporary legal ordinance for the occupied territories, forbidding German troops from disturbing the lives of the local people. All levels of the army were required to strictly enforce this ordinance and to maintain a gentlemanly restraint towards the friendly local Ukrainian residents. In fact, the partisan warfare, resistance, and hatred that the Germans had been worried about did not materialize. On the contrary, most of the Ukrainians did not have any special feelings about the arrival of the Germans. They numbly watched the German convoys drive past them, neither cheering nor hating.
Published: 2025-08-28T05:11:47.000+00:00
Last Edited: 2025-11-23T12:22:04.000+00:00
URL: https://www.patreon.com/caleredhair/posts/mtr-c477-noble-137526681
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