Blowtorch
Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2006
- Messages
- 1,754
Did some reading over the break & made a fascinating discovery that I'd like to share. If you're interested in Stalingrad, you're interested in Velikiye Luki but may not be aware of it yet. This was a much smaller battle of German annihilation that overlapped with Stalingrad, but occurred to the northwest of Moscow that winter. No less dramatic though.
The battle's been known for ever, but photos are more rare. In one of my favorite books, "PzKpfw IV at the front Vol 3" by Craig Ellis, there's a series of really haunting photos (pages76-79) of white washed panzers over what looks like a WW1 battlefield, really some of the creepiest WW2 photos I've ever seen. Long story short, I put the location at Velikiye Luki, which makes them EXTREMELY interesting photos. Going further, they are from the 11th Panzer Division, likely the small the group that pushed through to the Citadel to extract the small group of survivors there.
Backing up, Velikiye Luki was a strong fortress in the middle of a swamp...great in summer, not so much in frozen winter. The Soviets waited until winter 42/43 to surround it, and with all available German reserves being thrown in to AG Don or Rzhev, the Velikiye Luki garrison had little to come to the rescue. Initially the woefully understrength 8th Panzer, then 20th motorized & 11th Panzer (too late). When the relief got stopped 2.5 miles short of the trapp
ed garrison, the 11th Panzer sent a shock company of panzers, stugs & hanomags to crash through to the westernmost trapped group to give them an escape route. Crash through they did, and when the Russians saw them make contact with the trapped garrison, they called every available artillery tube within range down on them.
That's what is reflected in the pictures in Craig's book. He wasn't aware of the location when he published, so the captions will only be generic.
If this kind of thing interests you, or for diorama inspiration (same time period as FL figs), get Craig's Vol 3 & borrow a copy of Paul Carell's "Scorched Earth" to read his short chapter on this battle. With the photos to refer to, it will make for a captivating experience.
The battle's been known for ever, but photos are more rare. In one of my favorite books, "PzKpfw IV at the front Vol 3" by Craig Ellis, there's a series of really haunting photos (pages76-79) of white washed panzers over what looks like a WW1 battlefield, really some of the creepiest WW2 photos I've ever seen. Long story short, I put the location at Velikiye Luki, which makes them EXTREMELY interesting photos. Going further, they are from the 11th Panzer Division, likely the small the group that pushed through to the Citadel to extract the small group of survivors there.
Backing up, Velikiye Luki was a strong fortress in the middle of a swamp...great in summer, not so much in frozen winter. The Soviets waited until winter 42/43 to surround it, and with all available German reserves being thrown in to AG Don or Rzhev, the Velikiye Luki garrison had little to come to the rescue. Initially the woefully understrength 8th Panzer, then 20th motorized & 11th Panzer (too late). When the relief got stopped 2.5 miles short of the trapp
ed garrison, the 11th Panzer sent a shock company of panzers, stugs & hanomags to crash through to the westernmost trapped group to give them an escape route. Crash through they did, and when the Russians saw them make contact with the trapped garrison, they called every available artillery tube within range down on them.
That's what is reflected in the pictures in Craig's book. He wasn't aware of the location when he published, so the captions will only be generic.
If this kind of thing interests you, or for diorama inspiration (same time period as FL figs), get Craig's Vol 3 & borrow a copy of Paul Carell's "Scorched Earth" to read his short chapter on this battle. With the photos to refer to, it will make for a captivating experience.
