Excerpts taking from .Divisional CO.s, Colonel Proust’s diary August 1941:
August 3rd
‘The sirens of the Stukka could be heard for what seemed like hours! The men gathered round the fires and the shelters thrown up off the panzers were lifted by each explosive echo that was carried in on the wind. Tomorrow the blitzkrieg resumes and the columns of smoke before us mean nothing of the villainous red army stand between us and our Fuhrer’s prize of Leningrad!..’
August 4th
‘They are rats or cockroaches; those are the only creatures that could ever have survived the barrage. The ground was still smoldering when we made are push forward. I can’t really remember how many cracks I heard but it seemed that as soon as the first panzers cleared the ridge down into the river valley than the exploded in a burst of flame! We didn’t stand a chance the armour was ripped to pieces in quick succession and as my troops ran to ground in the act of self-preservation they seemed to come out the ground! Those rat soldiers! Those vile Russian animals! But I will repay them the favour tonight the re supply for my 88s arrives…’
August 7th
‘One lorry! That’s all that made it! Half full of medical supplies, no shells no charges for my pioneers nothing. The driver reported that the convoy got lost and managed to push past the front line and into Russian territory where they were set on by the Russian soldiers. The only piece of useful information I have received has come from that driver he reported as he was fleeing the attacks he was winding his way through a series of bunkers and trenches so now we know how they are surviving the barrages we are leveling against them…’
August 8th
‘ We have managed to capture one of their engineers ,near the line, there would have been more but the patrol were overzealous when confronted with an enemy. We found some of our demolition charges on them, the ones missing from the ambushed convoy; they are using our own weapons against us!
We know that more of the charges are stored in their underground bunkers. I have to smash these emplacements without them I will be able to drive my reinforcement panzers through the line and on to Leningrad, The red army will have nowhere to hide anymore..’
