The runway

Operation Bagration map

Destroyed German vehicles during Operation Bagration

The Beresina at high tide

Landscape in Belarus

Summer landscape in Belarus

River landscape in Belarus

Belarusian women in national dress

Die Rollbahn is a war and romance novel by Heinz G. Konsalik from 1959, which is set on the Eastern Front in 1944 and 1945 .

content

Blurb

“The runway is the road on which millions of men went to their death in lockstep. In the experiences of the East Prussian shooter Theo Strakuweit, the fate of an entire generation is reflected, the generation that had to go through the hell of war. A great novel on a startling subject: The German Eastern Front in World War II. "

- The runway

action

The action begins in the early summer of 1944 in Belarus . The company group of the 5th Company is in the stage in the village of Dubrassna on the Dnieper , south of the taxiway near Orsha. While the rest of the company is on the main battle line , the company command and entourage enjoy all the comforts of the rear area. In the front, the rifle platoons face the Red Army in their trenches . The great highway battles of 1943 are over. Except for the occasional fire from snipers and artillery , it is noticeably quiet.

The company receives personnel replacement. In addition to young and completely inexperienced soldiers, the two home vacationers Leskau and Strakuweit are also returning to their regular unit. Leskau had said goodbye to his fiancée Inge Hellwag in Koenigsberg and Strakuweit learned that he has just become a father.

It seems strange to the battalion staff that the Red Army is not using the good weather conditions for an offensive, as they were used to in the past. Reconnaissance results also give no indication that the enemy might be planning an attack. There is a deceptive passivity on both sides of the taxiway to Smolensk. Lieutenant Vogel would like a raid to take Russian prisoners and then interrogate them.

Leskau and Strakuweit arrive at Orsha train station. You have already learned from Borisov that the war is very close again. Even before they reach their troops via the front control center, they unabashedly help themselves to the supply depots.

Further away, in the Sczynno field hospital, on the Wkra River, near the Polish city of Nasielsk and the Modlin Fortress , the San Sergeant Walter Heinrich falls in love with the teacher Elsbeth Holzer, who teaches ethnic German children in Poland . There is a lot to do, as hospital trains from the battlefields of Belarus, from Borissow and Baranowitschi , are now arriving and bringing a large number of seriously injured people who urgently need to be treated.

In Dubrassna, the death of Cologne private Schmitz, who was tragically killed in an artillery attack, is celebrated with military honors at Vogel's instigation. At an inopportune moment they have to reluctantly sing songs like “ Good comrade ”, “It's so nice to be a soldier”, “ Black and brown is the hazelnut ” and other soldier songs. While Sergeant-Major Kunze is comforting himself on the chest of his lover Tamara, Leskau and Strakuweit finally arrive at their unit.

In the East Prussian Königsberg Inge Hellwag is ordered to the registration office for war labor operations. SD head of personnel Hubert Burger, who feels strongly sexually attracted to her, asks her. He enjoys his feeling of power over other people. Especially about women. Her father, a Reichsbahnrat, was accused of defeatism in 1933 and almost ended up in Buchenwald concentration camp . Hubert threatens Inge with forced labor in an underground ammunition factory. The interview ends with Inge being transferred to Berlin , where the bombing war is raging. She is beside herself because her old father, whom she looks after, lives in Königsberg. She wants to write to her Fritz that they absolutely want to keep her down here and force her to bed, but then she decides against it, as such a letter would be her sure death sentence.

The 5th Company is in their positions. It is a winding system of trenches made up of trenches, listening posts and machine gun positions. Company commander Oberleutnant Faber telephones the battalion from the company command post. With Lieutenant Vogel, who commands the announced raiding party for the night. It is feared that the Russian will soon start a major summer offensive. Eight volunteers should register for this. Strakuweit and Leskau lead the raid operation. With them six more comrades. Private Lönne went with the MG to support the fire. In addition, ordnance in the form of concentrated charges. Since it will be a suicide mission, fathers like Strakuweit should be exempted first. The tense personnel situation at the front, however, does not allow these sentimentalities.

Further back in Dubrassna, a perforated kettle worries the entourage and, above all, main field Kunze, who cares about hardly anything apart from his sexual instinct and constant hunger for pea soup . In addition, the battalion commander, who will appear today when the raiding party arrives with the Russian prisoners, is to be properly entertained. There should be beef goulash with noodles instead of pea soup.

At 11:30 p.m. Major Schneider appears at the HKL with the porters. You go through the operation plan using a map made up of aerial photographs. The area of ​​operation is a 7 km long and 4 km wide piece of forest (Bajewo Forest), in which the Russians were presumably hit by tanks and artillery. Air strikes had failed. Now prisoners must be taken from the Soviet company opposite who have in-depth knowledge of the enemy situation. Comparison of clocks, food and the raiding party set off into no man's land. They have to go through wire entanglements and mine alleys. You sometimes have to crawl and slide around. From earth bunker III, Major Schneider and Lieutenant Faber observe the movements of the raiding party in a bump with a night glass. In the meantime they have reached the Soviet minefield and its wire entanglements. Then they discover a group of radio operators from the Red Army who want to set up their listening post in the bump. The coup d'état of the raiding party goes wrong because the shooter Brehm has to sneeze. Immediately a night fire fight with tracer ammunition breaks out. Brehm is shot in the lung . Mortar and light artillery fire is also included in the further course. The raid troop operation leads to a Soviet counterattack by the infantry. At the last minute, Strakuweit's men get back into their own positional system. They are dragging the seriously injured rifleman Brehm and a Russian whose skull gapes after being hit with a folding spade. With the help of artillery barrage and Major Schneider himself behind the machine-gun, the Soviet attack can still be repelled. Private Karl Lönne, however, is torn apart by shrapnel.

Major Schneider is beside himself. The task of bringing in a prisoner who could be questioned was not fulfilled. Instead, just a seriously wounded Russian who first has to be cared for and only has a short time to live. There is no place on the ambulance for Brehm, who is about to bleed to death. The Russian has higher priority. Arrived at the battalion command post, the battalion doctor Dr. Wensky about the head injury of the captured Russian. Major Schneider is impatient. He really wants to know the number of Russian troops in the Bayewo forest. In addition, he would have embarrassed himself up to the division if the Russian had died prematurely. Such a mistake would not have happened to him with his “active team”. Because of the war, he even forgot the 13th wedding anniversary with his wife. The Russian dies in agony without being able to be interrogated again. Brehm did not survive the night either. He dies in dire circumstances because he was denied medical care.

June 23, 1944. The OKW reports on the major offensive of the Red Army. In Vitebsk to heavy fighting have developed.

Air strikes and an artillery raid also begin in the combat section of the 2nd Battalion, which abruptly end the silence. The fire destroyed the trench system of the 5th Company. The survivors are fought by the fighter pilots with on-board weapons. The firing positions of the enemy artillery are predominantly in the forest of Bajewo. The Red Army's fire roller lasts four hours and hits the area from Vitebsk to Bobruisk hard. The fire of annihilation lies on the entire front of Army Group Center. Major Schneider's battalion command post is also completely surprised. The connections to the HVAC are interrupted. Radio messages from the higher command confirm that the offensive applies to the entire area of ​​the Army Group. An unprecedented inferno sets in.

In the Molodechno command post , an anonymous general and Colonel von Bennewitz are discussing the dire situation of their large unit. 38 infantry divisions, 34 of them at the front. Three reserve divisions and one armored division that has no fuel to move to a center of gravity. The two staff officers are desperate. Because instead of pulling back and shortening the front behind the Dnieper , Hitler orders it to stand still. That is the certain death sentence for the entire Army Group Center.

Leskau and Strakuweit are still lying in the trench by the HKL, waiting for the T-34 tanks to attack . Then they decide to flee backwards.

San Sergeant Heinrich visits Elsbeth in a manor house. The two lonely people kiss for the first time. Ten days later the large flood of wounded arrives at the Sczynno hospital and the long-distance reconnaissance clinic. It is operated on like on an assembly line , amputated and then diverted back home depending on its ability to be transported. There are disturbing rumors from Belarus of the dreaded "Russian breakthrough": Vitebsk is said to be enclosed, the 3rd Panzer Army cut off from supplies, north of Mogilev a 40 km wide gap in the front, armored spearheads of the Soviets are already approaching the Beresina and the 4th and 9th Army would be in disintegration. The enemy is now advancing on Minsk . The mass attack of the many wounded, traumatized, many brain injuries, offers a horrific sight of blood and torn bodies. Elsbeth and Heinrich understand that it is only a matter of time before the Red Army is in Nasielsk. Heinrich tries to calm her down. There are still 600 kilometers from here to the front and the enemy will still be able to be intercepted. But Elsbeth doesn't believe him. Heinrich asks her to take the train back to Dortmund . She denies that. As a Reich German who is obliged to serve, she can only leave her place of work on express orders. Anything else would be sabotage and the destruction of military strength . Heinrich is very afraid for Elsbeth. He wants to protect her with his life from not being raped by the Russians . He wants to dress her up as a nurse and take her from Poland on the next hospital train. The bloody work calls and Heinrich and Elsbeth arrange to meet for the evening on the Rehmdes estate.

Further away in the east on both sides of the Belarusian runway, a tremendous human disaster is looming that is beyond imagination. The survivors of this inferno fight their way back west through forests and swamps. It quickly becomes clear that the Russian is marching towards Germany.

The small village of Dubrassna, in which Sergeant Kunze had ruled as a kind of "king" for some time, is drowning in artillery fire and bomb carpets. The train of 5th Company had to flee quickly and leave the dead behind unburied. Main field Kunze and Tamara are among the refugees. He leaves the wounded clerk Julius Simpelmeier behind and leaves him to his fate. Simpelmeier crawls after him bleeding. He cries, begs and whines that he should be taken away. He has a family and children. Kunze leaves him a pistol. May he take his life into his own hands. Simpelmeier fires at Kunze out of anger, but does not hit him.

June 24, 1944. New horror reports from OKW. The major Soviet attack has increased in force. The enemy has broken into German positions on both sides of the Smolensk runway and the defensive battle is continuing with increasing violence.

In a forest south of the runway, Leskau, Strakuweit, Faber and twelve other soldiers were the last survivors of the 5th Company. They have limited ammunition and food and are extremely exhausted from the rigors of their escape. They divide the food into rations per man. They wish the cowardly traitor HFw Kunze that he and his whore (Tamara) fall into the hands of the partisans . Tensions arise between Faber and Strakuweit over their low combat strength and their chances of survival. Faber tries to maintain at least a minimum of military discipline. He is on the verge of kicking Strakuweit from the group for his demoralizing remarks. Then they respond to Strakuweit's suggestion to take possession of a car at the stroke of a hand in order to be able to move around faster.

Army Group Center no longer has any lateral connections and is on the verge of being surrounded. The German army is on the run and is trying to get through to the west as a "return fighter".

Three kilometers north of the Leskau, Strakuweit and Faber group there are Major Schneider, Lieutenant Vogel and medical officer Dr. Wensky, who also break through to the west. They want to go to the Dnieper because they suspect German detention centers there. On their hike they pick up other soldiers from 3rd and 4th Company, tank drivers without a combat vehicle, artillerymen and other dispersed soldiers, so that their group grows to 43 men. So they get to several machine guns and even grenade launchers . They take a marching formation with a scouting group , a support group with MG and Major Schneider, a main group with Wensky and Vogel, and a rear guard with the grenade launchers and the tank soldiers. They move next to the taxiway towards the Dnieper and Orsha, which is under murderous fire.

The Strakuweit group marches through the undergrowth at night. Again and again they have to bow when fire indicates that Red Army soldiers are bivouacking . But then they head for one of these fires, as they suspect vehicles are here too. There they discover a Russian off-road vehicle with steel caterpillars. The seven-member Tatar crew sits by the campfire and gets drunk on vodka . The coup succeeds. They conquer not only the vehicle, but also kasha (buckwheat groats) in an iron kettle. They put on Russian uniforms and drive in the light on forest paths and not on the taxiway to the west. It is an extremely dangerous action, as partisan troops roam the woods left and right, tracking down, torturing and killing dispersed Germans. They meet Russians in ecstasy as they celebrate the victory over the German occupiers. In the meantime, partisan activity has increased sharply and has developed into a people's liberation movement. The Minsk – Orsha railway line has been blown up in more than 30 places. There is utter chaos in the whole of Belarus.

While the last German division is in agony in Orscha, Strakuweit's car races towards the Schneider group. The two groups recognize each other. Faber reports to the battalion commander that the 6th Company should have been overrun and the 7th Kp had disappeared. Schneider promises that he will have Kunze shot dead if they seize him. They continue on their way together. The wounded and weak are allowed to sit on the vehicle, the rest march on. They all hope that the situation west of the Dnieper has stabilized again.

Main field Kunze, Tamara and two other people from the entourage are also on their way to the Dnieper. They avoid paths and make their way through the undergrowth. Kunze doesn't want the other two with him because they cut their food. He plays with the unrealistic thought that he and Tamara will put on local country clothes and settle on a farm as “Farmer Kunzew and Farmer Tamara Kunzewa” until it's all over. Kunze harassed the two entourage men in this situation as well, like a commission . Tamara as a local offers herself as a scout, which Kunze only allows after some resistance.

Tamara is overwhelmed by men on her nightly expedition through the forest. It is the Schneider Kampfgruppe. Tamara is brought before the commander. Lieutenant Vogel wants to take her to court because she belongs to Kunze, who stole food from the Wehrmacht. Major Schneider orders, however, that Tamara leads her to Kunze. She does that too. Kunze wants revenge on Tamara for this betrayal and tries to kill her. But the other soldiers can prevent that, overwhelm and tie Kunze. Then he is brought before Major Schneider for questioning. This is held as a court martial in the headlight cone of the vehicle. Kunze is accused of cowardice in front of the enemy, desertion , theft of comrades, refusal and failure to provide assistance . The others are disgusted by the spectacle. Despite the justified hatred of Sergeant Kunze, it is the depersonalization of a person. Even to the major, the whole thing suddenly seems absurd in their special escape situation. In the absence of an emergency, Lieutenant Vogel presses for execution. But it is not carried out.

10:00 a.m. Inge Hellwag reports to the Königsberg armaments factory in Berlin. Berlin is a depressing city that has been badly damaged by the bombing . She reports to the SS head of the branch office. He tells her that she should have accepted Burger's immoral offer, because here she was sentenced to an agonizing death through forced labor. The manager, however, feels sorry for her and wants to use her in a distribution point that forwards the finished parts to the armaments branches. Furthermore, he even offers her a room to sublet. Inge shares the room with Grete Bollow. A cheeky and cheerful high school graduate who is in a relationship with the well-known Berlin slider Gustav "Justav" Strapinsky, a former zoo keeper. Inge doesn't like her at first because she thinks Grete is a prostitute . Also a consequence of the economic hardship that prevails in war-torn Germany.

Grete shows her the new Berlin. Above all, how to get to the next air raid shelter in the event of a bomb alarm. Grete Bollow shows Inge her new ring, which "Justav" took off a dead finger from a bomb victim. Inge feels disgusted. In response to the argument that looting is a death penalty, Grete replies that her “Justav” also serves the wishes of Nazi celebrities for jewelry from the dead. Inge gradually gets used to her new life. From one bombing raid to the next. While Grete has sex with her “Justav” for hours every Saturday in the next bed, Inge is consumed with longing for her Fritz.

The Sczynno field hospital has to cope with a new flood of wounded ( “a wave of blood and pus” ) after the evacuation of the Minsk hospitals in an extremely tense medical supply situation . Elsbeth Holzer is now an auxiliary nurse and medical sergeant Heinrich has to operate, amputate and inject morphine against the pain. You experience shocking scenes of young people dying.

According to the latest reports from the front, Orsha and Vitebsk have been conquered. The partisans keep the tarmac open and the Red Army is advancing on Minsk. The Dnieper and Berezina have already been crossed. Borisov can fall at any moment.

Brain injured people come from the abandoned Baranowitschi hospital. Heinrich asks his superior Dr. Take Seidel Elsbeth away. Under no circumstances should she let the Russians “run over” her because she would not survive. The fate of a single girl would no longer count in these times. He tells her about his plan to smuggle her out of Poland as a DRK nurse on a hospital train, which he had planned for a long time. Medical officer Dr. However, Seidel still believes in the final victory and does not want to get involved. The paramedics bring a transfer order. Sergeant Heinrich has been assigned to the front as battalion doctor with immediate effect.

On June 25th and two days later on June 27th, 1944 new reports came from the OKW. However, the full extent of the military disaster on the Eastern Front is not disclosed. The Red Army has reached the Dnieper near Orsha and the last German defense collapses like a house of cards. The General Staff in Molodechno is relocated. The serious defeat broke the general's spine. The German army in the east has thus been finally defeated. The two reserve divisions approved by the Fuehrer's headquarters seem like a bad joke. In grief, the general says “Hitler, give me my divisions back!” He decrees that the two divisions should form a deadlock near Minsk, but according to the Fuehrer's order they should be deployed at Vitebsk.

The battle group Schneider moves on with the captured Kunze. Vogel wants to shoot Tamara, but Major Schneider wants to use her as a scout on the Dnieper in order to find a gap between the Soviet lines. They continue to march at night, staggered and secured. A guard ring, a narrow guard ring, pendulum guard and in the middle a hedgehog position with the armored troop transport. Early in the morning the scouting party reports that partisans have blocked the forest in front of them. You are now about 23 kilometers close to the Dnieper, from which the noise of the battle can be heard. Breaking through is out of the question. 43 men against thousands of Red Army soldiers. You are thinking of bowing and bypassing the partisan bar. There are several options. Possibly at Staroselje on the Dnieper, then further towards Shklow and then north again towards Borissow. At Shklow , south of Orsha, there should be transition options across the Dnieper. There are also discussions about the use of Tamara. As a Belarusian, she could betray her to the enemy. On the other hand, she had fallen for Kunze and Strakuweit and would therefore always return to them.

Lieutenant Vogel has Kunze and Strakuweit tied to a tree in order to put pressure on the woman. Then Tamara is sent to look into the forest. The partisans are supported by Lieutenant Igor Pjetonnek Grashin from the 2nd Belarusian Front and NCO Fedja Poltansky. They turned the peasants and partisans into a powerful and disciplined force. You also specialize in the killing of German displaced persons. A girl whom they picked up in the forest is brought to the lieutenant. It's Tamara Turjetza. He recognizes her Wehrmacht socks. You can also find German Schoka-Kola. This makes her a collaborator . They call her a whore, beat her and abuse her. They tortured her for an hour until, in unbearable pain, she reveals the location of the Schneider Kampfgruppe. With a glowing wire they burn a large swastika on her forehead as a sign of shame.

The German scout troops are wiped out. Then the Kampfgruppe Schneider has to encircle itself against a far superior enemy. He attacks so specifically that he has to have absolute knowledge of the situation. They are preparing for their last stand. The Russians' element of surprise fails. There is a firefight and then close combat. Strakuweit and eleven others are able to flee in the armored car. Then they miss Leskau. You left him in the turmoil.

Tamara wanders through the forest. She was able to escape her tormentors. She was naked during the torture, but then put on the clothes of a dead partisan. On her escape, she witnessed gruesome scenes of how Russians bat or beat dead Germans while they cheerfully sing revolutionary songs. Tamara only sees naked corpses. She is desperately looking for Kunze or Strakuweit. She is desperate because she has lost everything. She can no longer talk to her own countrymen as a branded “traitor to the fatherland”, since each of them would pit her to death without pity. Then she finds the injured Leskau. He weakly tells her that the others left him here alone. Tamara takes care of him, supports him and walks with him towards the Dnieper. Leskau promises to take her to Germany, where a German doctor will operate on the disfiguring scar on her forehead.

The Schneider group is also seven kilometers from the banks of the Dnieper. Strakuweit refuses to cross the river without Leskau. He and Faber want to look for him. They meet on a lane. Tamara is infinitely grateful to Strakuweit. They go to meet the burning orsha. Then they meet the camp of the Schneider group. Vogel shoots Tamara in a fanatical rage. Faber gives him a punch for it. Major Schneider, however, is not ready to make an example of Vogel. The group has to get through it. At night they finally reach the Dnieper. The group undresses, puts on guns and uniforms, and swims through the river.

Heinrich, meanwhile, is waiting at the medical team in Minsk to be deployed at the front and listens to Wehrmacht reports on the radio . He had previously had a poignant farewell to Elsbeth. The situation has come to a head. A bolt position was set in front of Minsk and an anti-tank ditch was created. The OKW does not announce the situation in its reports of June 28 and 29, but only speaks of bitter defensive battles.

The battle group Schneider manages the crossing over the Beresina at Borissow and is taken up by the staff of the 26th Infantry Division and welcomed by division commander Colonel Fromberger. Major Schneider is to take over the 3rd Battalion on the side of the taxiway near Studenka in the Beresina Marshes and Faber the 9th Company. Sergeant Kunze, Sergeant Leskau and Corporal Strakuweit are also supposed to join the 9th Company. The 9th Company is badly battered and in a miserable condition due to diseases, mosquito plagues, malaria and malnutrition. Lieutenant Vogel begins to set up the battalion command post with his arrogant behavior. As a first act he has latrines built. Even before the ceremonial inauguration, it is soiled by the messenger Strakuweit. Major Schneider has postponed the promised stand trial against Kunze for the time being. He sends Kunze to what is currently the most contested point on the front so that the sergeant there has the opportunity to die decently like a real German man.

Strakuweit sits in the Beresina Marshes and admires nature. At the sight of a colorful bird he feels sentimentally reminded of his parents' house. As he tries to catch the bird, he feels a knife stab from behind. It's a Russian attacking him. Strakuweit struggles with him for his life. Leskau calls for him. The Russian disappears and Strakuweit threatens to drown in the swamp. Fritz discovers him and wants to pull him out. But he doesn't make it. Then he shoots the machine gun in the air to get the others.

11:12 pm. Kunze was sitting in front of the daily report when he heard the shot. They cannot classify that and think that they are being attacked by partisans. Kunze wants with another soldier desertion commit. With combined forces, the other Strakuweit can finally pull out of the moor. They recover the injured East Prussia and go back to the entourage. There they meet Kunze. He initially responds according to the regulations and reports to the battalion by field phone that they had contact with the enemy in the swamp. Also a seriously wounded man and need a San vehicle.

Borisov falls and the Berezina swamps are hectically cleared. The retreating German army leaves scorched earth behind . Marshal Rokossovsky encounters with his first Belorussian Front in the thin seam between the remains of the 4th and 9th Army, swings in the back of the 4th Army in Minsk and drives the 9th Army south of Bobruisk before him to Slutsk , Stolbtsy and Baranovichi. Reaching the Berezina is a great victory for the Red Army. You will be greeted enthusiastically by the starved rural population.

“The partisans stood on the runway, starved, filthy, ragged and waved their weapons. The girls danced in the streets, and the Red Army's supply armists have never been so loved as in these days, when the victory over the Germans was celebrated in a frenzied frenzy in every pile of hay and every barn.

The fighting reaches the Belarusian capital Minsk. The first spearheads of the Red Army can still be stopped, but the fall of the city has long been sealed. The gap in the front is already 90 kilometers and massed Soviet tank units are pushing through it. June 28, 1944. Field Marshal Ernst Busch, Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Center, is relieved of his command by Hitler personally. In his place, Field Marshal Walter Model takes over the middle section. Between Smolevichi and Minsk, on the runway, the 3rd Schneider Battalion fought back. Strakuweit is badly injured in his lungs from the knife stab in the back . He threatens to bleed to death. Strakuweit is pushed to the main dressing station in a wheelbarrow. It's a dangerous march, always avoiding the low-flyers. Kunze can no longer. Nobody wants to take them away from the many vehicles that flood back. Every man for himself. But they make it there and Strakuweit is out of danger. Leskau and Kunze should go back to the unit. The company consists of only 19 men. A motorcyclist sent an urgent report that a company of battle tanks will shortly be in position. The battalion staff curled up and prepared to die, but managed to escape in the end.

With the appearance of the first tanks in front of Minsk, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Clear the Sczynno hospital. The seriously injured are taken away by hospital trains to Thorn , Graudenz and Deutsch-Eylau . Dr. Seidel also enables Elsbeth to leave Nasielsk with some children by train to Frankfurt an der Oder and then to her home town of Dortmund . He had promised her father that. With just one backpack she sets off on the journey.

Leskau and Kunze flee from the Soviet tanks. Schneider and Vogel flee on a motorcycle . They are being shot at by the tanks. The Red Army riflemen follow about forty meters behind the tanks. You get scenes of how captured soldiers have to undress and die in agony from being shot in the abdomen or how they are deliberately crushed by armored chains. Leskau and Kunze have to get down from the runway into the swamps. The two run for their lives. Then the corpulent Kunze collapses in the morass. He can not more. Then he puts on the uniform of a dead Kyrgyz in order to continue undetected.

The rest of the 3rd Battalion had settled east of the main formation station. They have made a final locked position and with the Pak even destroyed three Soviet tanks, arrives as Leskau. The next morning they want to make their way to nearby Minsk, which Hitler has declared an impregnable fortress.

Kunze walks alone through the night in a Russian uniform. Lieutenant Vogel observes the swamp with the night glass and recognizes the supposed Russian. He orders a soldier to fire a burst of fire at him with the machine gun, which the soldier does. While falling, Kunze shouts "Halt!" And thus reveals himself as a German. Vogel shifts the guilt of the "comrade murder" on to the machine gunner whom he had given the order to shoot.

On July 20, 1944, the Wehrmacht High Command reported heavy fighting in the central section near Brest. Minsk falls. 25 German divisions enclosed or destroyed. The battle in Russia seems to be lost. In the liberated Belarus, after years of occupation, a real folk festival breaks out. Field Marshal Walter Model takes over the command of Army Group Center and argues with Hitler about how seven German divisions should stop 127 Soviet divisions.

The 3rd Battalion Schneider (3 officers and 149 NCOs and men) is one of the last to leave the taxiway and go to Minsk. Strakuweit is now transportable and can escape. The prospect of seeing his Lottie and child keeps him alive. After he got better, he became a general's chief driver. Strakuweit gets to know the stage and how valuable food is defended by force of arms against stray soldiers and scattered people. Because of his lack of discipline and disrespect, Strakuweit quickly had problems with the sergeants. Then he drives the listening car of the general and his adjutant, Colonel von Bennewitz.

Medical officer Dr. After escaping from Minsk and through the "partisan-infested" areas of Baranowitschi, Wensky set up a makeshift hospital in the house of the city soviet in Nowy Dor. Paramedic Walter Heinrich joins him. Dr. Wensky wonders about Heinrich and why he didn't flee like everyone else, but Heinrich is an idealist and admits that nobody at the front is needed as much as the doctor. Although he has never operated before, he has to act immediately with the most primitive means and hardly any sterilization and disinfection without gloves. It is a mass death, because for most of the wounded there is no hope of rescue given the precarious situation. The so-called “hero theft” prevails, the forced recruitment of unfit for military service, either too young or too old soldiers, for the last “contingent”.

Soviet spearheads reach the Njemen , the East Prussian Memel . While loading a train, a fellow soldier with a heart condition, named Peter Schmelzer, reports to Heinrich that his “fiancée” Elsbeth fled from Nasielsk to his homeland, if she could possibly be charged with undermining military strength . Heinrich is overjoyed at this news, knowing full well that its carrier is unfit for war due to his heart defect and will inevitably die at the front. Now the hospital also receives the inhuman order to "comb out" the sick leave for men who are not ready for front use. A little later, Peter Schmelzer is admitted with a lung shot and dies.

On July 20, 1944, the news came that an assassination attempt was carried out on Hitler . However, the fact that Hitler survived this attack makes everyone fearful of his revenge. This has no effect on the front. Even worse is the news that Heinrich Himmler has been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Home and Replacement Army. Lieutenant Vogel brings Major Schneider the "good news" that the Führer survived the assassination attempt. Schneider is deeply saddened by this, as he knows that senseless dying is going on now, which Vogel cannot understand at all. First Lieutenant Faber brings the news that Himmler now has new orders and power in the interior of Germany. Schneider and Faber drive to the division, while Vogel takes command of the battalion. Vogel sees this as high treason and informs the GeStaPo in Brest. The division staff, Colonel von Bennewitz and Captain Hellberg, heard about the attack on Hitler and the resulting wave of shootings, dismissals and arrests on the estate on the Nyemen. The general fears that they will come and pick him up. He feels morally called to take Army Group Center back to the border and negotiate with the Russian. But he can't. The Red Army would be here in ten hours at the latest. The staff and the entire division feel a deep bond with their commander and are determined to go down with him.

Strakuweit trades blood sausage and is supposed to drive the general, who is very sympathetic to the East Prussian farm worker, to the 3rd Panzer Division . During the journey, the general changes his mind and orders Strakuweit to head for 6th Company at the HKL (main battle line). Strakuweit tries to point out the dangers to life and limb, but the general refuses. Strakuweit recalls that not long ago von Bennewitz instructed him to notify him immediately over the radio if the general did anything unusual. The retreating Wehrmacht is seriously astonished to see a senior staff officer so close to the front. Colonel von Bennewitz found out about it and immediately followed him on a motorcycle. The general and Strakuweit arrive at the train of the 6th Company. The discipline has since suffered a lot. A soldier is sitting in the company trine with a bowel movement and does not even greet properly when the division commander drives past him. The general reports to the company commander, Lieutenant Vorberg. The current situation is presented to him, that they are fighting against Rokossowski's elite troops here in a kissing area. Despite the great danger posed by Soviet snipers, the general moves at the lowest possible pace even into the advanced positions in order to have a better view of the battlefield from there. The general, who completed his basic training in the Märkische Heide , has still not forgotten the infantry skills. Both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army have taken positions and both are watching each other. Colonel von Bennewitz arrives and looks for the general. He too has to slide into the general's earth bunker because he is being shot at by a machine gun. The general says goodbye to Strakuweit and Lieutenant Vorberg. Then the general gets up, moves towards the Soviet lines and kills himself with hand grenades . Strakuweit crawls after him, but comes too late. The force of the explosion is so great that the general's head is torn off. He wears a smiling expression. The front holds its breath for a few minutes. The arrest squad that was supposed to arrest the general also came too late.

The final battle has begun. National Socialist Leadership Officers (NSFO) are now supposed to whip in the collapsing front, promote the final victory and fight defeatism with all severity. Lieutenant Vogel also received training on NSFO in Warsaw and returned to the Schneider Battalion. Back with the troops, he immediately conducts ideological training . Major Schneider is now learning to fear Vogel, since he is now equipped with completely new powers. Partisans of a sabotage squad are being led away, including women who were surprised when they tried to cut wires from the battalion. Vogel mistreated the partisans. He feels sexually aroused by the mother and the younger daughter. He has the small group led away into a wood. Vogel is determined to shoot all seven with his service pistol. Then the German firing squad is attacked by partisans. Only Lieutenant Vogel remains alive for the time being. This pulls the daughter to the ground and uses her as a bullet trap. The girl is shot and Vogel is cruelly tortured to death. Later he is found, near the Pjeljew river, tied to two trees with a wire rope and died bit by bit in a brutal manner for hours. Even Major Schneider had not granted him such a fate.

The remnants of Army Group Center, which were reclassified to Army Group Vistula , have long been fighting in Poland . The partisans are everywhere, driving the fleeing soldiers in front of them in loose formations ("cauldron driving") and inflicting heavy losses on them everywhere. Bialystok , Brest-Litovsk fall and the enemy is close to Warsaw. The Führer does not want the dramatic facts to be true and buries himself in Wolfsschanze . Medical officer Dr. Wensky is on the run. They are chaotic conditions. They have neither bandages nor medicines more. Then they arrive in Sczynno and Heinrich's memory of Elsbeth is immediately back. The conditions in Poland are an absolute mess. Scattered, deserters with forged marching papers and soldiers flowing back. Heinrich then finally discovers medical supplies from the long-range scouts and night fighters, which an Air Force field pharmacist does not want to give out due to his regulations. With the permission of the air base commander, Heinrich finally gets what he needs, a complete truck landing, including sanitary towels from the news agents . The cellulose packs can soak up blood from flesh wounds and can also be tamponed.

Nasielsk is almost deserted. He meets his Elsbeth again in the market square. She tells us that she was in Germany and that the longing for him drove her back to Poland. In addition, she received an official order to take up service in Nasielsk. But here, where everything had already been evacuated, she was left alone. She has to stay here until the Red Army arrives. She is threatened with rape and shooting. Heinrich immediately had terrible images of torture and desecration against the Russians in his head. What they do to the vanquished and collaborators. It is expected that the Soviet spearheads will be here in two days. Heinrich wants to desert with her at gunpoint, but is very afraid of the reprisals by the military police . Stand-legal shootings are now allowed to be carried out by any squad leader. You are in a desperate conflict of conscience. Elsbeth wants to accept her sad fate and demands that Heinrich return to the front in order to save the lives of wounded soldiers with the requisitioned medicine. This is even more important than their love. Then they separate. Pawlek Staniswortsky, hairdresser and head of the Nasielkier underground movement, wants to help Elsbeth Holzer when the Russian comes and when the going gets tough. In the meantime, fresh troops of very young soldiers arrive who sing " Erika (a little flower is blooming on the heath) " and transfer them directly to the front, where they will almost certainly fall.

With the death of the general, the staff also disintegrates. Colonel von Bennewitz becomes the commander of the newly established 234th Infantry Division in Posen . It is supposed to operate exactly in the gap between Army Group Center and Army Group North . von Bennewitz falls upright after a direct hit on his command armored car. Theo Strakuweit is given a new role and is allowed to return to the fighting troops at his own request. After the fall of Orshas and the bold breakthrough to the Dnieper, Major Schneider received the Knight's Cross . Then a special SD unit picked him up from Warsaw and shot him in a forest near Sokołów. The newly promoted Captain Faber now leads the 2nd Battalion and NCO Leskau becomes company commander of the 6th Company due to a lack of officers. Most of the officers have either died or are being executed. Strakuweit returns to the front when there is a brief period of rest and both opponents are settling into positions. The Red Army has to reorganize its supplies, clean roads from wrecked vehicles and relocate railways. The fast tank formations are faster than the fuel supply. This tremendous work is done by an army of slave labor . The German Air Force is unable to prevent them from doing so. The balance of power has shifted: infantry 11: 1, armored troops 7: 1 and artillery pieces 20: 1. Hitler is presented with the catastrophic situation and the threatening land gains of the 3rd and 2nd Belarusian fronts. They advance towards Berlin and the Americans and British come from the west. 263 divisions and over two million soldiers of the Red Army against a tiny number of Wehrmacht divisions. Hitler's order is: “The gaps in the attack must be closed!” That is the death sentence for the battle in the east. One only believes in a turning point for a short time.

Strakuweit, who as "Prussian Lance Corporal after five years of war" has acquired a Russian boy, is greeted with joy by his "bunch". One day Strakuweit's boy is gone. Presumably he will lay plate mines on paths again. Later he was shot dead by a scouting party in the section of the 5th Company because he was sending light signals over the HKL. A new main dressing station is being set up in Pruschany , south of the Jossiolda Marshes. Medical officer Dr. Wensky, under doctor Dr. Bohr and medical sergeants Walter Heinrich are also at the forefront to integrate the wounded for the defense of the Polish line. There are hardly any transports back home. According to Himmler's will, after “Gotentreue” (allusion to the battle on Mons Lactarius of the Ostrogothic king Teja ), people should die in front and not behind. Heinrich, who is very concerned about the fate of his Elsbeth, suffers very badly. There are disturbing reports that Germany was devastated in the bombing war and that there are only mass graves . The soldiers take a very critical view of this and are surprised that there has not been a popular uprising back home. But rebellion can cost your life. In nature it can be observed that wolves have disappeared from the Polish forests to the east into the Siberian taiga. At that time a sure sign that the Wehrmacht was advancing. Now it's the other way around.

The medical staff also have to fight in an abandoned village near Pruschany. There are partisans in the surrounding woods. The peasants who collared with the Germans must now fear the bloody revenge of the Soviets. Dr. Wensky called to the farmer Wanda Tscherasowa, who had worked with the German occupiers for years. He is supposed to help her after a suicide attempt (wrist cut). In the middle of the night, Dr. Wensky through dangerous partisan territory. Everyone advises against it, but he knows no friend and enemy, but feels solely committed to humanity. The woman has to go to the hospital. The Red Army's artillery barrage begins with 30 cm guns. The opponent continues his offensive. The farmers are killed and Dr. Wensky is bleeding to death. As a doctor, he diagnosed his dwindling body functions while he was still dying. The 6th Company only consists of seven men and two MG 42s . They flee from the gigantic fire roller of the artillery. Captain Faber is fatally wounded. Strakuweit wants to shoot him with the pistol as a last act of grace, then he bleeds to death. The others stop him. Beyond the forest, 35 Soviet battle tanks are approaching. Strakuweit and Leskau hide in a shell hole. Enemy infantry will now appear on the battlefield. Then the two run backwards. Leskau gets a hit and has to be carried by Strakuweit.

Pawlek Staniswortsky struggles with his feelings. On the one hand, he hates the German occupiers and wants bloody revenge on them. On the other hand, he wants to save Elsbeth, who was always decent towards him and whom the pianist Lubja Wawara saved from certain death, by enabling her to escape from the Russians on a horse. On January 14, 1945, the Red Army stood on the Vistula . East Prussia and Silesia will fall next. The winter offensive is initiated again with massive artillery barrage. Before Elsbeth rides off on the horse, she warns Pawlek of the Russians as false friends. Her ride to the west takes seven hours until she is caught by a German unit. Meanwhile the Soviet divisions cross the Oder and conquer Wroclaw in the south . Heinrich and Strakuweit are also moving backwards. On German soil, the fight makes sense again for them. Strakuweit learns that his Lottchen is safe in Oldenburg .

main characters

• Major Willi Schneider : Battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion / 26th Infantry Division “Dom Division von Köln ”. The “dashing Willi”, outwardly more like a blood teacher than a fighter. Schneider has a very strong will for this, which cost him the Knight's Cross , a five wound wound and the battalion killed 384 on the Eastern Front in just a few years.
• Lieutenant Emil Vogel : The "tight Emil" is adjutant in the battalion headquarters. As holder of the golden party badge , HJ - Oberbannführer and member of the National Socialist Education, loyal National Socialist and ardent Hitler admirer . Whenever he goes “on business”, he puts on a “striking face” that is as masculine as possible.
• Medical officer Dr. Wensky : Battalion doctor . He is inherently humanistic and compassionate. He becomes a pacifist because the war hit him hard and betrayed his ideals. He experiences the war from its worst side and how the "executioner works overtime". Together with the paramedic Heinrich, he discussed contemporary problems and the barbaric senselessness of war.
• First Lieutenant Faber : Company Commander of the 5th Company. Faber is jovial and good to his soldiers. He has a friendly relationship with his subordinates. At the beginning he gets along very well with Leskau and Strakuweit. This changes in the extreme situation when they are left on their own in a small group.
• Hauptfeldwebel Kunze : Kunze is the uneducated and incompetent company troop leader of the 5th Company. The Berliner is corpulent, stupid and voracious. He's also acting like a pig. While he lets himself go, he leads a strict regiment in his company. He is the self-proclaimed "ruler of Dubrassna" and commands the morale and discipline of the troops and their food supplies. The Russian women have to do his thing.
• Müller I, II, III : Members of the 5th company with the last name Müller. Müller III is responsible for the field kitchen.
• Corporal Theo Strakuweit : A strong East Prussian farmer / farm worker and a tough, cheerful character from Pillkallen. The nature-loving Strakuweit and his fiancée Lottchen, who is happy to give birth, take life as it comes. For his troops he is an "officer fright", a "typhoon" and a "natural event". It is extremely robust and indestructible. In addition, Strakuweit is an experienced soldier and fearless daredevil who is predestined for ascension undertakings. As a bearer of EK I and II, close combat clasp and medal Winter Battle in the East 1941/42 ("Frozen Meat Order") is the myth of the 3rd Battalion.
• Sergeant Fritz Leskau : The intelligent young man is also an EK carrier. He never wanted to be a non-commissioned officer, rather he wanted to study philosophy . But for that he lives in the wrong time.

• Medical Sergeant Walter Heinrich : A medic who has only completed six semesters of medicine , is stationed in Poland and falls in love with a German teacher. At the front, as an emergency surgeon, he quickly learns that a person is only worth a pile of dirt in a war. He learns that the euphemism “heroic death” only hides miserable perishing.
• Inge Hellwag : Leskau's fiancée from Königsberg. Her father is a member of the opposition and she therefore gets to know the Nazi repression apparatus with all its severity.

• Elsbeth Holzer : German teacher who teaches ethnic German children in Poland. She is Heinrich's lover.
• Tamara Turjetza : The 20-year-old daughter of the shot village naschalnik from Dubrassna. She becomes Kunze's interpreter and lover. He keeps the extremely attractive woman like his sex slave and forbids her z. B. to wear panties so that he is constantly aroused.

linguistic style

“The summer sky brooded over Dubrassna. Dubrassna is not on any map, however good it may be ... it is a village on the Dnieper, east of Orsha, and even the general staff's table records record it as a desolate nest of nine huts, two wells, a banya, a kolkhoz stables and scattered over the plain a tractor station for the even more desolate villages within a radius of 50 kilometers. "

“What is Dubrassna? A tiny point on a large map. The runway - 12 meters wide into the infinity of Russian space. A ribbon into eternity, a huge swath through fields and swamps, primeval forests and steppes, cities and kolkhozes. Just a word, a sounding word that almost seems like a marching song - runway ... runway. You can hear the rhythm of the engines and the lock step of the millions that pass over them. "

Konsalik describes the typical characters of a German Wehrmacht unit with great verbal power and language diversity. The representation of the opponent is less successful. The figures of Tamara or the partisans are very clichéd.

Reviews

The Rollbahn is a relatively early work by Konsalik, in which he processes his relatively fresh experiences at the front. He describes everyday life in the country in a lively and sometimes coarse humorous way, mostly from the perspective of the simple corporal Theo Strakuweit. The novel also strongly addresses the heroic death , which was abused by the National Socialists in a perverse and inhuman way.

"It's easier to die with a drunk head, and you don't notice it so much when your hand is shot away, half your butt is missing, or mum's son crawls across the steppe with an open mind and shouts earth in his mouth because he has his own Can no longer hear screams. "

Konsalik describes this as an “aesthetic and heroic trimmings of blood, tatters of flesh, pus, torn stomachs, halved heads, sawed-away legs and bulging brains”. It is the “song of fate of the soldiers” in the area between Orsha and Vitebsk . The author describes the scene in Belarus and the conditions at that time shortly before the Soviet operation Bagration with a keen sense . In contrast to the initial phase of the German-Soviet War , all enthusiasm has been lost among the troops. It's about the elementary things of daily life like getting food and having a reasonably tolerable service . With his book Konsalik is on the side of the common soldiers and their worries and needs, in complete contrast to the careerism of officers or fanatics loyal to the leader. He is very time-critical and denounces, among other things, the poor supply situation of the Wehrmacht . While there is need in many places at the front, large quantities of food are moldy in the depots elsewhere ( oranges as a source of vitamin C for front-line soldiers). The choice of his characters is very varied. Here the front life offers a cross-section of society. While Hitler fanatics like Lieutenant Vogel believe in "the hardness of the German front-line fighter", others show themselves from the human side in the daily struggle for survival. Konsalik represents a traditional image of women (“Women should limit their biology to having children”) and strongly polarizes between good and honorable German women (Inge and Elsbeth) and the animal-like and inferior Russian woman (Tamara). The novel is very much misogynistic in terms of Tamara’s character traits. She is reduced to her body alone (Tamara with her bulging thighs and pointed breasts, which were so large that he needed two hands to hold her. And “What?”, “A woman!”, “Probably crazy? "," But no. Where I pack is breast. "), Her German is falsified or discriminated in a degrading way (" I love strong man, "said Tamara, stroking her breasts with both hands.) And it is talk of their primitive mind. It is only used by the German occupiers, kept like an animal and treated as an object.

"Who is Tamara?" Schneider looked up at Strakuweit, who was crouching behind the large steering wheel. »The special mattress from Sergeant Kunze, Breast Soft brand.« "

- Tamara when she is caught again by the Germans

In the end, she is dropped by both the Germans and her compatriots and dies a gruesome death. In addition to the two heroines Inge and Elsbeth, women at the front are generally condemned as "little carbolic mice, little carbolic nutty" and female news soldiers as "officer warmers". Konsalik conveys the image that while people suffered, fought and died at the front, the stage was alive and well. Drink, hurt and eat. Major Willi Schneider arrives at the reader as a torn personality. On the one hand he is a war hero but on the other hand he is completely “de-souls” and “dehumanized”. The testimony of a Russian prisoner of war is more important than one's own wedding day.

Historical context

Konsalik's war novel deals with the runway and its special significance for the Wehrmacht. The motorway, as one of the few paved roads, is the main lifeline of the Moscow - Smolensk - Minsk - Brest axis . In flashbacks he briefly refers to the autobahn battles of 1943. The story begins in Belarus in spring 1944 shortly before the Soviet operation Bagration and the collapse of Army Group Center . It is set near Orsha, a city that is known as the “Gate of Smolensk ”, the land bridge between the Dnieper and Daugava , due to its special strategic location . On June 23, 1944, the 3rd Belarusian Army launched a major attack on Orsha and the main supply route, or " Aorta ", of Army Group Center, which led to a military catastrophe. The novel accompanies the characters of an infantry battalion of the German Wehrmacht, starting with their battles on the Belarusian runway, through the "rematch" (scattered Army Group Center on their way to the west before encirclement and destruction) through Belarus via Poland to Germany. The book makes use of the senselessness of war, in which it ends with a scene of brain-injured soldiers marching singing through the snow in collapsing Germany and greeting their general.

Text output

• Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Current book publisher, Bad Wörishofen 1959, ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 . (Original edition)
• Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 5, ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 . (New edition)

literature

• Matthias Harder: Experience of War. To depict the Second World War in the novels by Heinz G. Konsalik. With a bibliography of the author's German-language publications (1953–1996) . (= Epistemata, literary studies series 232). Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1999, ISBN 3-8260-1565-7 .

Web links

• Heinz Konsalik: The runway , as PDF

Notes and individual references

1. ^ Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Current book publisher, Bad Wörishofen 1959, ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
2. ↑ At that time common self-service mentality for supplies in order to compensate for the often insecure supply situation. According to Wehrmacht law, the execution by court martial
3. ↑ Most of which fell on the battlefields of France and the Eastern Front or returned to Germany as a war cripple
4. ↑ The worst defeat in German history. The landing in Normandy in June 1944 suppressed memories of the Red Army's major offensive. The losses from "Operation Bagration" exceeded Stalingrad by far. The world. June 23, 2014
5. ↑ The person cannot be classified in more detail. General Field Marshal Ernst Busch is probably not meant , as he appears in a different context
6. ↑ The Red Army is in the victorious offensive movement in its own country, light camouflage can now be completely dispensed with
7. ↑ Belarus is a war zone. There are no longer any intact farms. Only mass murder, hardship, displacement and famine
8. ↑ he calls it a "sweet offer" in a misogynistic way
9. ↑ Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 146. ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
10. ^ Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 133. ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
11. ↑ Stowbtsy, Stoŭbcy, Stołpce - Стоўбцы
12. ^ Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 176. ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
13. ↑ or scattered people who are being formed for a new mission
14. ↑ kv = war-usable
15. ↑ cut through area with groups of bushes
16. ↑ not specified, several municipalities in Poland come into question here
17. ^ Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 247. ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
18. ^ Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 249. ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
19. ↑ Anti-tank mines such as Tellermine 29 , Tellermine 35 , Tellermine 35 (steel) , Tellermine 42 or Tellermine 43
20. ^ Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 5. ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
21. ^ Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 11. ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
22. ↑ Description of death in Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 13. ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
23. ^ Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 22. ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
24. ↑ Gunar Ortlepp : The jungle goddess is not allowed to cry . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1976, p. 219-221 ( Online - Dec. 6, 1976 ).
25. ^ Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 68. ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
26. ^ Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 109. ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
27. ^ Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 111. ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
28. ^ Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 53. ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
29. ^ Heinz Konsalik: The runway. Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt 2007, p. 92. ISBN 978-3-453-00049-0 .
30. ↑ The inferno of the highway battles in Russia. The world. November 7, 2013
31. ^ "Autobahn battles " cost the Red Army 500,000 men. The world. February 25, 2019
32. ↑ On January 20, 1942, Heinrici was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 4th Army. His task: to maintain the precarious position of the 4th Army on the narrow strip of the "taxiway". Southgerman newspaper. December 29, 2016
33. ^ Army Group in mid-1944. This is how the Wehrmacht's worst defeat began. The world. June 21, 2019
34. ^ On the collapse of Army Group Center in the summer of 1944. IfZ Munich
35. ↑ 75 years ago. Bagration: the forgotten major offensive in the east. Märkische Online Zeitung. June 22, 2019