The Wilmington morning star., 1943-08-16
"THIS DIVISION KNOWS NO
RETREAT!"
Chapter IL

RETREAT"
Chapter II
Out of Wanna we turned off the
Mojhaisk chaussee on the muddy
road to Yartsevo, a village which
no longer existed as such, but only
as heap of ruins on a tactically
important spot which had been re-
captured July q and was still held
as an advanced point by the Red
army. Through forest, we drove
up to a divisional headquarters,
three miles from the German lines,
and forty miles northeast of Smo-
lensk. AS we entered a clump of
woods there, We could hear the
artillery humping in the distance.
1t was definitely a joyful sound,
that bump of the big guns, not
from any sadistic thought that
they were killing men, but from
the comforting feeling that those
guns were killing Germans who
might otherwise kill me in Mos
COW, my wife and daughter, Con-
stance, in Dedham, Massachusetts,
my mother, father, and brother in
Westwood, Massachusetts, my sis
ter in Chicago, Illinois. And it was
to know that those humping guns
were Russian guns, not only hold
ing the enemy, which was an
achievement at that time, but turn
ing him back in bewilderment.
From this point on, for an ac-
count of the rest of that day the
reader must excuse me if I am a
bit vague, for this is where the
cocktail-party angle of the story
is introduced. I remember walk
ing through troop-populated
wood to a dugout, where 1 was in
troduced to Lieutenant Colonel
Kirilov, commander of the divi-
sion. 1 remember walking into a
great magic tent where Sasha, the
fourteen-year-old mascot of the di-
vision, did honors at the door, a
soldier played an entry march on
piano, and girls were heaping
food and drink on long board ta-
bles: all that within sound of the
big guns on the front.
From there on l remember very
little. We sat down, with Colonel
Kirilov and Nikolai Suslov, his po-
litical commissar Gan office which
was later to be abolished), at the
head of the table and with the
correspondents along the sides, in.
terspersed with junior officers.
Erskine Caldwell sat opposite me,
beside an enthusiastic captain who
was determined to engage in a
duel of do adna,' meaning in one,
or bottoms up with vodka as the
weapon and a visitor as his op-
ponent. This it seemed, was a time
honored tradition, and the guest
challenged was honor-bound to
meet every pass of his challenger.
Caldwell skillfully turned his cap
tain's attention to me, and I be-
came the correspondents cham
pion for the day. Afterward, was
told, I was carried out of the tent,
while the captain, standing at the
door, saluted his valiant though de-
feated opponent-and then passed
out in his turn. This is possibly an
exaggeration in my case, and prob
ably in the case of the captain,
but in any case, when l next be-
came clear about the progress of
that historic trip to the front, l
was lying in comfortable cot in
a school-house, many miles back
of the front.
My colleagues informed me that,
after that lunch, I slept quietly in
my car, while the others went out
to see the command post of an ar
tillery battery, the headquarters OF
an artillery brigade, and a dugout
for troops, two miles from the Ger
man lines. If that was true, I am
sure they have written it for pos
terity.
While others assumed the role
of champions for the rest of the
! trip, I can complete my account
of it more clearly.
We drove the next day to an
other divisional headquarters, this
one only two miles from the Ger
man lines in the Dukhovschina
sector, and were met by Colonel
Mikhail Dodonov, commander OF
this Siberian unit Again, we were
seated promptly to lunch, this
time not in tent, but in an open
clearing in the woods. This must
seem very mild, going to the front
and promptly sitting down to
lunch. In fact, it was very mild.
1t was precisely this mildness that
: was impressive. So secure was the
Russian position that in both cas-
es the colonel in command could
spread a meal for us, almost with
in sight of the enemy.
After lunch, we coaxed Colonel
Dodonov, big, quiet man, into
telling us something about his unit.
Well he said, this is a Siberi-
an division. From the stories Of
prisoners, we gather that we are
regarded as wild men. But actu
ally, we are civilized men, not at
all Wild
The silent sentries, the girls
serving at tables, with white robes
over their khaki uniforms and
black boots, gave supporting evi-
dence to his testimony.
TO fight the Germans, you've
got to know their weak points, and
when you know them, you can beat