Evening star., 1942-10-25
Skiing Red Colonel
Brought Nazit General
Home on His Back
German Officer Carried
More Than 100 Miles
In Behind-Lines Roid
Eleventh of a Series.) J
BY LELAND STOWE.

(EleDenth of a Series.)
BY LELAND STOWE,
Foreisn Correspondent of The Star and
Chicago Daily News.
WITH THE RED ARMY ON THE
RZHEV FRONT.-Lt. Col. AnatoIe
Alexandrovitch Smirnov wears the
map OF the Ukraine on his face, vet
strangely enough, it bears a sur
prising similarity to the map of
Ireland.
The fact is, you've seen giants
with faces much like Col. Smirnov's
on the police force of almost any
large American city-but, Just the
same, you've never met quite the
equal OF Smirnov. Nor have the
Germans. <Nor have very many
UNainians, for that matter. In INV
wanderings I have encountered a
considerable number of happy war
riors, but this 6-foot human dynamo
with his rolled steel muscles and
snorting relish for battle tops them
all.
Talk with Col. Smirnov for five
minutes and you wonder If any,
oody, anywhere, is having as good
time out of this war as he is.
TAX long enough to get his story
out OF him and then it seems most
unlikely. Unquestionably, he is the
only man in this whole worldwide
war who has captured a German
general and brought him back alive
on his own back. But wait min
ute-and also on skis.
He didn't even mention that little
item about skis, at first. It took a
little time after we got back to
his dugout inside the ridge and
could really chew the fat. Time and
some vodka, that is. The trouble
was he had been having too good
a time telling about his men-about
fellows like that young corporal
from Krasnodar who has two deco
rations, one of them for taking up
his gun right on the heels of the
infantry in hot attack.
"Horosho, eh? Good, ehO." Col.
Smirnov gets tremendous kick out
OF his men and maybe it's no acci-
dent that his artillery battalion has
collected an extraordinary number
OF decorations scattered through all
the ranks. He, of course, has three
medals: One of them for Juggling in
that Nazi general alive and kicking.
"Squealed Like a Pig"
When I caught him in bed he
squealed like pig" Col. Smirnov
said. He thought I was going to
shoot him." and Col. Smirnov broke
into a roar of laughter.
But that is getting ahead of the
story. 1t really begins, suppose, on
the quais Of Nikolaiev, Col. Smir-
nov's native town in the Southern
Ukraine. That is where this Red
Army giant began collecting his
muscle, unloading ships and working
as stevedore in his early teens.
He Is blond, Of course, and blue-eyed
and his hands are half as broad as
my portable typewriter. Today Col.
Smirnov is 80, but his build would
rival Gene Tunney's in the days
when Gene was topping Jack Demp-
Sey.
I always did lot Of skiing" Col.
Smirnov was saying, land once 1
won the cross-country championship
of the Red Army. So last winter
when things were little too quiet
they let me do some raiding behind
Fritz's lines. This time 1 took so
men with me. That was up on the
Lenlngrad front. We were raiding
place called Porchov- -Novgorod,
about 10 miles or more inside the
German lines.
Aided by Russian Woman.
I'VE worked through the forests
and hid in them for one night.
Then we raided the town after
midnight of the second night and
we caught Fritz with his nose inside
his coat collar. We got their sentries
without shooting-before they knew
what hit them. Then a Russian
woman told us the German general
was living in the town hall. That
was my borscht. All I wanted was a
taste of that general. 1t was too
easy. AS easy as it is for the German
artillery to miss whatever they're
really aiming at"
Col. Smirnov's private map of the
Ukraine developed a large number
OF jovial crevices as he pounded
the table, and his major and cap
tain grinned appreciatively.
L took four men and posted them
around the town hail." he continued.
The Russian woman pointed out
the room where the German gen.
eral always slept. I decided the
quickest way was to climb up the
drain pipe. So pulled off my skis
and climbed up, and sure enough
there was the German general
r1oo 1il,o - L,L,,