Leibstandarte at Viitivtsi station (March 1944)

[stoveb]

Found a wartime German map for Gushwy, from the 9th and 10th of March 1943; from NARA roll 611.

Cheers
Steve

[GregSingh]

Nice find.

I've been going through Soviets reports for 69 A, it's corps and divisions, hoping to find anything about the incident at Gushwy. No luck so far.
On one Soviet map there is a red arrow going into Gushwy, but nothing else. No unit number, no time stamp.
Interestingly that red arrow points north from Dergatchi!

[stoveb]

Hmm,

Interesting. From what I can see on the maps in 'Befehl des Gewissens', the two Russian units that may have been involved were either 270th Rifle Division or the 160th. But they were coming from the north east of Gushwy, but again no arrows.

Cheers
Steve

[EugE]

Hi, Thanks Greg, the location is where three members of the 9th (Pionier) Kp/SS Pz Rgt 1 were killed on the 13th, including the commander of the 2nd Zug. Thanks again Steve

Hello to all!

In the report of the 975th shooting regiment(270th shooting division) there is a record "on the night of March 14 on the southern suburb Zolochev the passenger car is detained, the officer has been killed, the taken documents are sent to headquarters."

In the report of the 270th shooting division there is a report "on March 13 conducting reconnaissance in the direction on Dolzhik - Beryozovka is met reconnaissance of the opponent - SS-PzRgt 1 Adolph Hitler. Two officers are killed, documents and the car are brought to division."

[stoveb]

Hi,

Thanks so much for this, Dolzhik is straight up the railway line from Gushwy, and I guess that is Besrukowka below Gushwy, so presumably they were heading south towards it.

The commander of the 2nd Zug, 9th Kp, was actually an Oberscharführer, not an officer, the other men were a Schütze and a Rottenführer, so that does not quite match. Very interesting though, thanks so much for posting this!

Cheers
Steve

[GregSingh]

Dolzhik is straight up the railway line from Gushwy,

It's not. That's a parallel railway, around 11km to the west, going to Zolohiv. Berezovka is 5km west of Zolohiv.
Besrukowka is not the same as Berezovka!

Still could be the same incident...

Fragment of the Soviet map (from 10.03.43 to 16.03.43) showing directions of German attacks.

Soviet map

[stoveb]

Going through Trang's Dictionaire and cross-referencing to the Volksbund website there were four officers of the LAH killed on 13.03.1943.

They were:
Herbert Holzhauer, AA, killed in Charkow
Bruno Riedel, 8./2 SS Pz Gren Rgt, Charkow

and then:
Karl Neuner, 2 SS Pz Gren Rgt, Dergatschi
Erich Wendt, SS-Nachschub, LSSAH, nordwestlich von Dergatschi

This may not of course be all of them, but the Dergatschi ones are interesting!

Greg, you are right of course, mis-read another map, Dergatschi is east of the rail line in question as you say.

Cheers
Steve

[stoveb]

Hi again Greg,

What is the unit above Gushwy, with a defensive perimeter for the 12.03.43? Might be useful.

Thanks
Steve

[EugE]

What is the unit above Gushwy, with a defensive perimeter for the 12.03.43? Thanks Steve

According to this map there were several Soviet units: 37 shooting br., 183 sd., 340 sd. But the sector from Slatino to Kamjishevaha had been defended by 37 sbr since March 12th. It means that Gushwy was in the back of german HKL???

[stoveb]

Hi,

From what I can tell, there was little to no northward action by the LAH until after the 15th March. Dergatschi was the base for the Division Stab and the supply troops, from about the 10th to the 15th March. In fact in 'Befehl des Gewissens', their concern for the exposed northern flank is mentioned a few times, particularly by the SS Pz Korps KTB.

Maybe the 9th Kompanie/SS Pz Rgt 1 was sent to give a screening position north of Dergatschi, maybe the 37 sbr made a recon south towards Dergatschi on the 13th?

A lot of 'maybes'!

What seems clear is that the 9th did not take part in the attack on Charkow, and they were often assigned defensive roles during this campaign.

Thanks again for everyone's help with this, very interesting - to me at least!

Cheers
Steve

[Alexey.Tretjak]

Hello! I am a historian from Dergachi. I study the events of 1941-1943. On March 9-10, the German army advanced from the north of Polevoy. Then they split up. One part went to Zamirtsy, the second to Legenkiye. Then they cut off the road to Zolochev. Some of them are advancing on the railway, and in parallel they surround Dergachi from the north. Then they go to Russkaya and Cherkasskaya Lozovaya