eper to the north and south of Kyiv abounds with islands, and its width, even in the narrowest places, is about a kilometer. According to the leadership of the Red Army in August 1941, the river was an important factor in creating a strong defense of Kyiv.
From orbit the situation looked very sad for the Russian troops, although for the front commanders on the ground it might not have seemed so threatening. The German 6th Army began to storm the Kyiv fortified area and thoroughly cut into the Soviet defense, but the introduction of fresh divisions allowed the Red Army to restore the situation by mid-August, pushing back the enemy and unblocking the concrete fortifications, the garrisons of which had been fighting in encirclement for almost a week. This success seemed to have led Comrade Stalin and his generals to believe in the ability of Southwest Front forces to hold the capital of Soviet Ukraine, but the situation at the front changed sharply once again.
Convinced that, despite the capture of Smolensk, the German troops could not break the stubborn resistance of the Soviet forces, the Wehrmacht command considered it impossible to continue the offensive against Moscow without eliminating the threat from the flank, from the armies of the Southwest Front, which were still stubbornly defending the Kyiv bulge. On 24 August 2nd Panzer Group[1] and the infantry army of Maximilian von Weichs turned south and launched an offensive to encircle the Russian forces defending Kyiv. The Soviet divisions, weakened by previous battles, could not stop the Wehrmacht tank fist, but they still launched vigorous counterstrokes from the east against the flank of Guderian's motorized units, which diverted his forces and slowed his advance to the south. Perhaps the Southwest Front could cope with 2nd Panzer Group, even supported by Weichs' infantry, and, if not win, at least not to be surrounded. Apparently, the Red Army command sincerely believed that the Germans would limit themselves to this strike, as soon as the enemy did not have an equally powerful tank group on the southern flank of Kyiv's defense. In fact, the Soviet generals again underestimated the Wehrmacht's ability to maneuver mobile formations quickly and unexpectedly.
Simultaneously with Guderian's strike, the huge masses of tanks, artillery and automobiles in German Army Group South came on the move. Satellites showed me columns of equipment from General Ewald von Kleist's Panzer Group stretching for dozens of kilometers, which were moving in forced march toward the southern face of the Kyiv bulge. Now they were still on the western bank of the Dnieper, and in order to strike from the south to meet Guderian's tanks, they needed to cross over to one of the bridgeheads previously captured by the Germans. However, judging by the amount of engineering equipment that the Germans were bringing to the river, the German troops were up to the task, although they had to use almost all the means of passage at their disposal. Such a mass of equipment required a kilometer-long pontoon bridge capable of supporting tanks.
I saw the death loop tighten around the Russian armies, but what can a junior lieutenant waiting to be assigned to a new unit in a shallow rear area do in such a situation?
The situation of Soviet and German troops at the beginning of September 1941. The blue shaded arrow is a strike by Heinz Guderian's Panzer Group, inflicted in early September. The blue dotted arrow is the planned strike from the Kremenchuk bridgehead by Ewald von Kleist's Panzer Group (in real history it took place on September 12 and led to the closure of the Kyiv pocket).
Our breakthrough from the encirclement was met by the command very ambiguously. NKVD officers from the Special Department of the Southern Front immediately took General Muzychenko and Division Commander Sokolov, and all the others who escaped the pocket were taken to the rear to be re-formed. But that doesn't mean we've been left alone. A week later I was summoned to the Special Department.
“Have a seat, Comrade Nagulin,” the battalion commissar nodded as he listened to my report, “we have a long conversation ahead of us.”
I sat silently on the stool in front of the officer's desk, and my face was full of concentration. The fact that he addressed me as 'Comrade Nagulin' made me a little uneasy, but at least it wasn't just 'Nagulin'. If, after all, I am a 'comrade', I can expect no immediate accusation of something incompatible with life and liberty just yet.
“It wasn't long ago that you were a common soldier, Comrade Nagulin, wasn't it?”
I wanted to answer, but the commissar stopped me by raising his palm.
“And you were promoted to junior lieutenant by personal order of the commander of the 6th Army already in the encirclement. It's a little unusual, don't you think?”
“Discussing the decisions of the Army Commander is beyond my authority and competence, Comrade Battalion Commissar,” I pretended not to understand what he was getting at, keeping a neutral expression on my face.
“In this you are undoubtedly right, Comrade Nagulin, but still. There is an opinion that the Army Commander was in a hurry and made this decision under the pressure of circumstances, not being able to carefully weigh the pros and cons.”
I was silent, and the Commissar watched my reaction carefully.
“Now the Special Department of the Front is conducting an investigation,” the NKVD officer told me in a confidential tone, “The 6th and 12th Armies effectively ceased to exist. I can't give you exact figures – the information is classified – but the implications are that the likelihood of treason at the top of the armies is very high.”
“Comrade…” I couldn't keep quiet about it, but the Commissar stopped me again with a hand gesture.
“I know what you want to say, Comrade Nagulin. But believe me, from the point of view of an ordinary soldier and even a platoon commander the situation looks quite different from what it looks like at the army level and, especially, at the front level. So don't be in a hurry to speak out, but listen to me for now.”
I obediently fell silent.
“In fact, no one has any complaints about the actions of your platoon and to you personally, although there are questions, but that's a topic for a separate conversation,” continued the Commissar, “Moreover, most likely, based on the results of the investigation, your new rank will be approved by order of the front commander. But that decision will depend on your answers to my questions – right answers, Comrade Nagulin. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Comrade Battalion Commissar. Don't doubt, I understand the importance of this investigation, and my answers will be truthful, even if that truth would put me and my people in a bad light,” I continued to play the part of the not too clever, but an extremely honest fighter, who sincerely wants to help the investigation, but doesn't know how to do it.
“Very good,” the NKVD officer grimaced slightly. He obviously wanted to hear a slightly different answer, but he didn't comment on my words, “Then let's get to it. What task did Lieutenant General Muzychenko assign you?”
“Form a platoon of anti-aircraft defense to cover the 'special purpose convoy', the headquarters of the 6th Army had to leave the encirclement as part of it.”
“And you've accomplished that task,” the Commissar nodded affirmatively, “Now tell me, Comrade Nagulin, who instructed you to bring the equipment and men into your platoon as reinforcements, which turned it, in fact, into a combined company?”
So that's how it is. Comrade Battalion Commissar intends to defame General Muzychenko, and clearly does not do it on his own initiative, but on orders from above. And I really don't want to give up the General…
“The initiative came from me, Comrade Battalion Commissar. I sought to carry out the order in the best possible way. I applied for reinforcements to my immediate supervisor, Major Svirsky. I don't know how decisions were made on them further, but I got people and equipment in most cases.”
A Panzer Group is an operational large formation, which would more commonly be called a tank army. This term was used in the armed forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. The Panzer Group had up to a thousand tanks, combined into two or four corps. In total the Panzer Group consisted of up to five tank divisions, three or four motorized divisions, and up to six infantry divisions.
