The Wilmington morning star., 1943-08-21
CHAPTER 1s

TOQS lOI wv ooJo "11A
for two nights, trying to cover
that distance-and I could n o t
make it. That was my first lesson
in the potency of old General Win
ter. It taught me lot about why
the Germans, fighting both the
Red army and winter, could not
cover the same distance from the
front to Moscow.
That lesson also taught me that
General Winter did not belong to
the Red army. If he did, he
should have been shot for treason,
because he opposed the Russians
lust as much as he did the Ger
mans. He was fighting for no one
but himself.
We heard in Moscow, during that
first winter of war, that a vague
idea had gone abroad that winter
was all on the Russians side;
that all the Germans woes were
due entirely to the weather, and
not at all to the Red army. 1t
would have been very hard to sell
that idea to men who fought the
Germans to a standstill before
Moscow, and then hunced t h r
way through snow and bitter cold
to drive back the enemy. They,
too, suffered and died at the hands
of General Winter.
But two factors did favor the
Russians in that first Writer cam
paign. The weather was less Sc
we're on the defender than on the
attacker, and since the Grmans
were on the offensive at the cru
cial point of the campaign, since
the great issue was whether they
would take or fail to take Moscow.
the Russians were fully prepared
they were at a disadvantage. Then
the Russians were fully prepared
for winter with their felt boots,
padded jackets, fur hats, and win
ter capes, their skis, sleds, and
sleighs, while the Germans were
completely unprepared-a CHASTITY.
almost inconceiviable error on the
part of so supposedly brillians a
high command.
So victory in the first winter
campaign went to the Russians
not decisive or ever very far
reaching victory, because General
Winter was still there, fighting
only for himself and against the
Red army's counter offensive, but
nevertheless, clear-cut victory.
I had a personal introduction to
General Winter on trip to the
front 1t was supposed to be Gen.
eral Bellows sector. but before we
got there, we crossed General Win
ter, and this time we lost by a
complete knockout.
We left the Metropole just be-
fore noon December is in three
big ZIS cars, the Soviet version
of a Buick, manufa ctured in the
Stain plant, Moscow. Just before
nightfall we reached Kolomna, a
quiet little town which had only
recently been an immediate OBJ
jective of battle and which still
hid behind it's barricades. There
we stopped to find a side road
which would take us 30 miles
southwest to Kashira. There, also,
one of the ZIS cars decided it
would 60 no farther.
While the drivers assembled to
discuss these two problems, Pal
gunov, chief of the Soviet press
department, with an unerring nose
for nourishment, picked out a
dark, suffered house, knocked,
and we were admitted to a res
taurant. Inside there was light,
warmth, and hospitality. Bowls OF
steaming soup and platters of hot
meat-balls and boiled potatoes
were produced. For dessert Pal.
gunov coljured up out of his bag
gage little blue pottery jug OF
yellow Chartreuse liqueur wi h
which we sweetened the tea
Outside, after supper, we found
a sullen, ominous darkness had
fallen, and answers had been found
to our two problems. The first
was that a country road ran west
through the fields and forests, a
dirt track at best, but marked by
telegraph poles which could be
followed. The second was that the
passengers from the stalled zIS
would be transferred to the other
two cars.
| We turned away from the cir.
cumspect civilization of Kolomna,
the charted course of the Moscow
road, into the wild, empty border
land of the Steppes. T h e car
groped its way deliberately along
the track vaguely indented in the
snow. Its headlights picked out,
one after another, the gray,
weather-beaten telegraph pol e S
that stood like beacons amid polls
of blackness.
Suddenly, the snow came again,
in that way storms have of start
ing in Russia, as though the at
mosphere, agonized by it's over
saturation, could contain it's bur-
den no longer and precipitated
the heavy, cloying mass to earth.
Our headlight rays were DETECTED
as though a thick white sheet had
been hung Immediately in front
of them. The path disappeared in
the untracked fields.
We pressed on to the next tele.
graph pole. Beyond that, nothing
was visible in the binding swirls
of snow. The driver stopped, went