The Wilmington morning star., 1943-08-13

even for stealthy night q
bombing, at iow altitude and with
high precision, on crowded battle
flelds like the one which was to
develop at Stalingrad.
OF all these arms, the Red army
found itself c,ltdistanced by h e
Germans only in numbers of tanks
and planes, and in both quantity
and quality Of mortars. The Ger
mans had concentrated on NOR
tars at the expense of their light
tlllery, while the Russians had
neglected mass development of
lnortars in favor of guns. This
error they rapidly repaired. A peo-
rje's commissariat for m r r
manufacture was established, hun
dreds Ct factories were turned
over to it, and soon, so, 8, and
lz-mllllmeter mortars took their
place in the Red army's arma-
ment.
All this, the Germans learned,
to their disp!easure; and we, to
our pleasure.
One mystery we did not solve
the mystery of ''Katiusha." Her
stcry was one of the most intrigu-
'ng of the war, the story CT g
secret weapon, the kind that al
ways catches the imagination of
all peoples.
Katiusha came on the scene at
the very start of the war, when
stories were whispered, from
mouth to ear. of her marvellous
prowess: she was the latest and
BEST weapon If the Red army, she
cast death ray, or she belched
forth flames, or she hurled null
1iple-explosives. Her effect was so
devastating that, wherever e
struck, no living thing survived
FOR feet or yards or miles around.
So frightening was her aspe
that, upon her every appearance,
the enemy fled in panic So secret
were her operations that, person
ally escorted by NKVD men, she
drove to the front in private
car, fired three times, and then
withdrew so that she should never
fall into the hands of the enemy.
This much was certain: katiu-
sila was a new powerful weapon,
built by Andrei Kostikov, a dark,
young-looking shrewd military en-
gineer OF first rank, made 1ieuten-
ant-general, chief of construc-
ton bureau. The nickname Katiu-
sha came from love song, popu-
lar among millions of Red army
men. Red army men who pre-
ferred 10 be respectful invented a
more polite form of first and mid
ole names, Maria Ivanovna.
Katiusha remained a mystery
throughout the first two years of
the war. I came across what seem
ed to be her tracks several times.
Once, I was shown a rocket gun,
and told that was little Katiu-
sha." Another time, crater was
pointed out, and I was told, "Ka-
tiusha did that" An artillery gen.
eral tod me the Germans feared
her so much that they threatened
to employ poison gas if the Rus
SANS continued to use Katiusha; !;
and they warned that no Red army
man serving Katiusha would ever
be taken alive by the Wehrmacht
The only otner information he
would give about Katiusha was
that she was still in action.
In the second year of the war,
I was told that Katiusha had grown
a large family. and that now her
offspring, big and small, were liv-
ing all along the front. They work
ed, I was told, on the mortar prin-
ciple. By then, the Germans had
captured several of them, and had
produced thei own version of the
gun-promptly nicknamed, by the
Russians, "Vaniusha. Exactly
what Katiusha or Vaniusha was,
I still did not know.
But IN that first summer of the
war, Katiusha was only one of the
mysteries Of the Red army. No
foreign observer had yet been to
the front. Then. as the Red army
shook oft the first shocks of the
invasion, felt the confidence of it's
strength flowing back and fought
the Germans to a standstill on the
central front. we were admitted
10 its mystic precincts. General
Mason MacFarlane, chief of the
British military mission, later to
become governor general of Gil
braltar, was escorted on trip to
the front near Snolensk late in
August. On September s, the Red
army announced its greatest VIC
tory to date, the defeat of eight
German divisions and the reoccu-
patton of Yelnia, southeast of
smolensk. That news was given
20 the correspondents in the cellar
o: the Narkomindiel while the anti
aircraft guns outside played their
version Of the Seventh Symphony.
One week later. the correspondents
we're taken on their first visit to