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Ivan Kobets

The events described here took place in 1941-early 1942 when the 19th Army was operating in the Kandalaksha sector of the Karelian Front.

Ivan Kobec, 1941

Episode 1. My military life, from the first days of the war, began with taking command of the "Hunters" platoon of the 1st Battalion, 596th Rifle Reg., which was formed after the first two weeks into the war. The platoon was constantly in action, pursuing various objectives, but its primary function was the reconnaissance for the battalion and the regiment. In the first months of the war, our battalion was given specific sectors, beginning with the Kuolayarvi area on the state border, then Kajrala, then north of Alakurtti. Only when the Verman defense line was established, we began operating within the regiment.

In mid-August, because of the difficult situation in the area east of Kajrala, units of the 104th and 122nd Rifle Divisions received orders to fall back and retreated to the transitory defense line near Alakurtti. Our 1st Battalion left Ungojvanselka Mt. and reached Ienikuvaara Mt. at the end of the day. At that same time, we lost communication with the regiment commander. The battalion was under command of recently assigned First Lieutenant Pavel Gavrilovich Danilov, a weathered, reasonable and meticulous officer. A little later, he became the commander of the 596th Rifle Reg.

Under the circumstances, we desperately needed to establish communication with the regiment's command and receive objectives for further actions. While on the top of Ienikuvaara Mt., I was ordered to locate the regiment's command center by morning and clarify the battalion's further objectives. I was shown the direction on the map in which to search for the regiment's command. This was not an easy task because the enemy units already operated in the area and we could make sudden contact anytime. There was no time for contemplation and I had to set out on my mission as soon as possible. Having gathered my men, whom there were 12, I made the mission plan clear to them. I must say that the men were exhausted by preceding fights and suffered from malnutrition - the adversary took a part of the road Alakurtti-Kajrala and interrupted our supplies.

Leaving on the mission, we warned our guys that we'll be coming back the same route and started our descent along a clearing in the woods. The night was dark and quiet, we proceeded slowly and carefully. We had to stop often, pay attention to every rattle and rustle. When hearing curt German phrases, we veered aside and continued moving in the right direction. My scouts kept nearby so that quiet commands could be heard by everyone. We carried on that way until dawn. In the early morning, we came across the regiment's men - those were signalers, three of them. When I asked where was the headquarters, they pointed the direction and told me to take the right turn after 300-400 meters. Luckily, we made it very quick to the staff location where I went to see the regiment commander. The meeting was beyond description as they had been much worried about the absence of communication with the 1st Battalion for so long. While they prepared the documentation for the battalion commander, we rested from the night trek. When the package was ready, we took off. We hurried lest we be too late, and there wasn't much time. It was easier to walk in the morning, yet it was more dangerous. The sun was up and it was nice to feel the warmth of the sunshine. The nights beyond the Arctic Circle at that time of year can be cool. While walking and crossing patches of ample berries, we grabbed handfuls and ravenously put them in our mouths to quench the hunger.

A "tongue" is captured. Karelian front. (photo from the Archive of Karelian Front Veterans Board)

We were approaching the battalion's location - only 300-400 meters of thinly wooded ground was left to cross. We were filled with joy and satisfaction over the mission completed on time. All of a sudden, bursts of a submachine gun roared ahead of us and I saw one of the front scouts running to me. He reported that there were Germans in 30-40 meters ahead of us. Our front group was shot at and one of the scouts was killed. I was so overwhelmed by this, one can hardly imagine. I could expect a sudden encounter with the Germans anywhere else but here, where our battalion just was.

We had no idea of the enemy numbers nor their positions. One thing was clear, they turned up here during the night, while we were gone. In such a situation, one needs to act quickly and unfalteringly, there's no time to think long. Intuitively, I decided to charge at once, break through the enemy lines and force our way toward the battalion as quickly as possible. There were no other options, we had no time for any other course of action. Only several seconds passed; I looked up at my scouts and saw them reading my mind - we rushed into attack. Everybody dashed in a some kind of frenzy, shouting "Hurrah!", throwing hand grenades and firing on the run, soon we were past their frontline. Everything happed so quickly that the adversary could not even understand what was happening and why there was an attack from their behind. And we had been in their rear, for their frontline was facing our battalion. And then, something totally unbelievable and unpredictable ensued: from the top of the mountain, where the battalion was, machine gun fire began, so powerful as we couldn't raise our heads. We just found ourselves in a crossfire.

Our guys pounded from the top, the enemy - from below. For a moment, the Germans slowed down. They may have been utterly confused, why the Russians are shooting at their own. In this horrible situation, something had to be done as I started losing people. From the bottom of my lungs, I yelled to our machine gunners to cease fire. It is still before my eyes, as one of my scouts, a brawny, tall Muscovite named Volkov, who was by me, suddenly moaned and whispered that he was wounded in the hip. I ordered him to stay put and lower himself as much as possible, - that same moment I saw blood trickling from his left temple. Suddenly, the fire stopped, they must have heard me yelling and that made things easier. Immediately, I command the scouts "Charge ahead!" Some crawling, some crouching, we began moving toward the battalion. The bushes helped us part with the pursuing enemy. I was still extremely shocked by these events but gradually recovered and reported to the battalion commander. It turned out, the thing I feared most happened. The unit posted at the entry point was changed with another, and the replacement was not told about our return. As a result, three of my men were killed and two wounded. In that fight, one bullet made a hole in my cap and another torn apart the half-belt on the back of my greatcoat. Indeed, I was pressing to the ground so hard that had I been only a centimeter higher, I would have been dead.

We buried our dead comrades at the top of the mountain and put three large rocks on their graves.
Upon our return, the enemy was suppressed with strong mortar fire. The battalion quickly assembled and operated on orders from the regiment commander. My platoon and I remained at the mountain foot to catch up on rest after the last night's trip. Everybody quickly fell asleep. Half an hour later we rose and saw a wide track left in dewy grass by the leaving battalion. We followed the trail toward the Nurmijoki river until it was time to cross the road already controlled by the adversary.
The sky was cloudless, the sun in the high noon.

Episode 2. In early September 1941, after heavy fights on the Kajrala and Alakurtti lines, the 122nd and 104th divisions retreated to the Verman defense line and stopped the enemy; the Germans never got past this point. The 596th Rifle Regiment was first deployed to the east of the Sredni Verman river but didn't remain there long. In the second half of September, the regiment took position on Lake Verman and the Nizhni Verman river, its left flank touching Lake Tolvand.

Both our forces and the adversary continued fortifying their positions. Our command needed information on the enemy, its formation and numbers on the opposite side. The regiment staff commander, Captain N.M. Butov, called me in and read out the mission objective: as night fell, we were to infiltrate the enemy lines north of Lake Nizhni Verman and obtain a "talkie" - an enemy's serviceman to be brought back and interrogated. There was very little time for preparations; in whatever time I had, I could only make clear the mission to my scouts, pick people and equip them. Only nine men were selected for the mission. A group this small could easier penetrate the enemy lines and remain undetected while operating. There were very experienced scouts in the group, those who had done many similar missions before. These were Sgt. Semenov, Priv. Ozerov, etc. Though there were some inexperienced people, too, selected from the regiment's new arrivals. I remember how everyone was yearning for rest, catching up on sleep after our routine duties. In this case, we weren't given any specifics as far as the subject goes, we simply had to go and seek. This made the mission more complicated as we had to search in the unknown terrain, knowing nothing the adversary. Their front line already had minefields and barbed-wire obstacles. The terrain was wooded, with large boulders, up to 1.5 m high, scattered here and there. Right before the frontline, there was the shallow Sredni Verman river, 8-10 meters wide. As the night fell, we took off. As we approached the river, we saw several logs thrown across by somebody. That's where the unfortunate event took place which caused a delay. When crossing the river over the logs, Private Rybin slipped and fell into the water. At first, I wanted to send him back but he begged to come along. I gave in and, after a short pause, we crawled past their outposts and headed deep inside. Lest nobody get lost in the dark, we moved very slowly, not in a single file like in the daytime, but in a compact pack, so that everybody could hear my hushed commands.

In 500-600 meters after the frontline, we suddenly hit a barbed-wire fence and set off the garlands of tin cans hanging on the wire; a machine gun burst immediately followed in our direction and we even got lit by it. The group leapt aside and we were lucky that nobody was lost in the darkness. Fearing pursuit, we ran to a safer place. The incident made me think hard - we were detected and shot at and the enemy was now alarmed. Going back was impossible. Hence, the only option was to remain where we were until dawn and, by observing and moving deeper inside, identify a target. During the following night, we were to attack and acquire the "talkie". The rest of the group supported me.

It was a quiet and bright morning, short bursts and single shots could be heard from the frontline. We hid in a small brush on top of a butte. The sound of an axe and somebody speaking German was heard from 200-300 meters away. I made myself comfortable and tried to determine our position on the map. I found where we crossed the frontline, decided where to look for the target, and just turned to the right to see the possible escape route. Right at that moment, among sparse trees, we saw a group 12-15 Germans in only 30-40 meters from us. The Germans quickly stopped, turned toward us and began taking the submachine guns off their shoulders. I froze for a second, and then thought of an idea - showing no surprise, no alarm, I looked at them calmly and continued pointing toward the escape route. My scouts caught on and continued as though nothing happened. It saved us. The adversary silently turned to the left and walked off toward the frontline. In the first following moments, I could not even comprehend what just happened, as though in a dream. I think that the Germans, seeing our coolness, thought we were Germans, too. They could not think there would be Russians so far into their territory. Later, it turned out this was a group going to rotate those who were in the trenches the previous night. We found ourselves sitting by their usual pathway. What worked to our advantage was that we were dressed in camo similar to theirs and everybody was without a hat.
Many years have passed but I will always remember this.

As soon as the Germans left, we moved closer to the construction area. We were much more careful and moved slowly, studying every inch of the ground. Finally, the darkness fell. It took us an hour-and-a-half to two hours to close in on their positions and find a dugout. The assault had to be silent so that we could safely leave and cross the frontline again where we came. I assigned three strongest scouts to the attack, privates Rybin, Roitman and another one, I do not remember his name. The others remained close by to be able to support the assault with fire if necessary. The brave three began crawling toward the dugout. The tension was enormous, something could happen any second, everybody was fully alert. And then the silence of the night was torn apart by two shots. Our tension went to the limits and then we heard rattle, screams and intense gunfire. The very minute I was ready to run toward the fight, the scouts showed up with a captive. When they entered the dugout, they stumbled upon two sleeping Germans, who immediately woke up and started screaming. The scouts tried to drag both of them out, but the Germans fiercely fought back. They shot one of the Nazis and took the other prisoner. At the same time, the Germans who were in the nearby dugouts, hearing the screaming and shots, rose alarm and began firing around. The whole fray took only a few seconds. Now, our team, without a loss, was all back and we began retreating while there still was confusion in the enemy's camp. It was a difficult march as we were running straight toward the frontline, stumbling upon rocks. As we approached the frontline, it was already dawn. We didn't notice any pursuit, but when we crossed the river and ascended the opposite bank of the Sredni Verman river, the adversary artillery fired several volleys at us.

The visibility was good and they apparently were watching us. We were crossing a clearing in the forest with scattered boulders. Using the rocks as cover, we hurried toward the treeline to avoid losses. Some of us, however, already were wounded and our captive was killed by a round's fragment. Under the circumstances, we ran as fast as we could, carrying our wounded under artillery fire. On return, I reported to the staff commander about the mission. From the captive's documents, we learned his unit number and the location of their battalion's headquarters, for, incidentally, that was what we attacked. Despite the exceptional action of the group during the mission, nobody was put forward for decoration. The staff commander told me that, if we had brought the captive alive, we would have gotten the same kind of order as on his chest. He had Order of the Red Banner.

Episode 3. In January 1942, having returned to my regiment from the hospital, I was assigned commander of the regiment's intelligence unit (foot and mounted reconnaissance). Soon I received a new mission objective - infiltrate the area 5 km northwest of Lake Tolvand and get a "talkie". This area was on the adversary's right flank, behind the lake, where their units held fortified strongholds surrounded by minefields. I would like to mention that only a month later I stumbled on a mine in the same area and was badly wounded…
After quick preparations, very early in the morning, I checked every single one of the thirty handpicked scouts and asked if anyone was sick or just reluctant. Everybody was feeling well and eager to go. We were going on foot even though the snow was deep and fluffy.
The moment we were setting off, the night was frosty and quiet, the sky clear and starry. The moon was up and shining bright. Somewhere on the frontline, were sounds of gunfire, short automatic bursts, somebody was shooting flares. We crossed our battalion's defenseline and disappeared behind a low hill.
It was difficult to walk - the snow was too soft, the scouts grew tired fast, especially the ones leading the group.
Some time later, we approached Lake Tolvand - where it was about 2.5 kilometers wide. Walking along the lake shore for 40-50 minutes, we reached the bank and briefly rested. Then, we circled an inlet and, after a while, saw a little house. This place was in a kilometer-and-a-half from the enemy strongholds. We didn't want to walk into a minefield and I decided to wait until dawn. It was pretty frosty and I thought we could use the house for rest lest the men get frostbite. Outside, we left two guards who were to be rotated. It was quiet and peaceful in the house and some were already dozing off when we heard a real gunfire. It turned out, one of the scouts gathered litter, wood splinters, and paper, stuffed everything into the wood stove and lit it, but there were rifle rounds in the litter.
The sun was rising and we had to leave at once, fearing that the adversary could hear the gunfire. In a single file, we moved toward the strongholds. As we reached a clearing in the forest, we were able to see forward up to a kilometer-and-a-half. We continued pushing ahead, rotating the ones working the trail.
After 600-700 meters, we saw a group of Germans moving toward us. They were on skis, their single file stretched over some distance and they were very conspicuous on the white of the snow. Our scouts, in their new white camos, were almost invisible on the white background. I made the decision to ambush the Germans and split the group in two: the one, under command of the political officer, Lt. Litvak, took the left side of the clearing, the other, under my command, went on the right side, at an angle. The German group was very visible in the clearing. Everyone was told to open fire on my signal - a handgun shot. In 6-7 minutes, the adversary numbering 20-25 men, skied into our ambush. I remember their leader, an unshaven, sweaty redhead with a submachine gun on his shoulder. Having carefully taken aim, I shot at him at a range of 15-20 meters. Immediately, the entire ambush squalled with automatic fire. It was so swift that the enemy was totally overwhelmed and had no idea what to do. Many just fell into the snow, struggling with their skis, some darted off toward the forest for cover.

I was concerned that the scouts would simply kill off all of the Germans; I commanded to cease fire and we rushed into hand-to-hand combat. Sgt. Semenov jumped on a Nazi who was trying to shoot, wrought the submachine gun out and knocked the German off with the weapon's butt. Then, he dropped another one on the run. Lt. Litvak and two scouts already got a "talkie." Private Sukhorukov was tackling a Finn, when Private Murtasaliev came to his help. The Finn was subdued and taken aside. Privates Zvenigora and Klepikov also caught a German who was trying to hide in the snow. Everything happened within seconds. Seeing that the mission objective was complete, I commanded to retreat.
In that short skirmish, the enemy lost eight men dead, including two officers, a German and a Finn. Three soldiers were taken prisoner - a German, Finn and Austrian. We collected the documents off the dead, took their weapons and skis. The recon group did not lose a single man. We were lucky to have large fluffy snowflakes begin coming down when we were returning back past the lake, it hid us from the enemy. Happy and satisfied, we approached the battalion's outposts, where the deputy staff commander, Cap. Vasiliev, was already waiting for us. "How did it go?" - he asked. "A complete failure," - I answered. But he said he had heard the fight and already saw the scouts' faces, he already figured everything went well. We then had some breakfast, fed the prisoners and headed for the regiment staff. Later, there were articles in the army papers about the 596 Regement's recon group successful actions.

Episode 4. During the war on the Karelian Isthmus, army scouts carried out various duties, depending on the circumstances. Not only they acquired information about the enemy and terrain, they were sent to search for command centers that went incommunicado, they served as couriers delivering orders and commands, they searched for unit documents and archives lost in combat; they even delivered propaganda flyers and posters on the enemy's territory - this was done especially often in the defensive. I would like to tell you about one example when the scouts were sent on a mission of finding an important mapcase which had been lost in combat.

In late August 1941, units of the 122nd Rifle Division were fighting and retreating to a transitory defense line at Alakurtti. At the end of that day, our battalion was approaching the assigned position where we were to render cover and support for the retreat of the division command center and its artillery. Because of heavy losses in prior fights, the battalion was weakened.

The battalion's companies were crossing a rugged terrain. The wooded hills changed with marshy areas and thin forests. The reconnaissance platoon was working ahead of the battalion, within the visibility range. It was already dusk, but we still could see quite well. Walking along with the platoon, I suddenly saw a German unit marching on us from the right, in 200-250 meters, apparently, trying to intercept us. I made gestures back to the head of our file but they did not react, nobody was watching us. I was really worried and, realizing we did not have any time, decided to open fire at the enemy to draw the attention of the battalion commander. Hearing the gunfire, the battalion instantaneously went into battle formation and opened heavy rifle and submachine-gun fire supported by mortars. The exchange was intensive and lasted for about 30 minutes. It was already dark and raining. The battalion took the opportunity to break out and take defense at the assigned time.

Having gone for about a kilometer, the commander decided to make a stop and check on men in the units. During the fight, several soldiers were wounded. My platoon and I were with the battalion commander. During the break it was discovered that the regiment's party secretary, who was with the battalion, lost in the fray his mapcase with all the paperwork in it. The battalion commander immediately turned to me and said: "I know the scouts are all exhausted but we need to do everything to try and find the lost mapcase." One can only imagine in what condition the scouts were. They did not have any rest for two days, were always in action, carrying out various missions in prior fights. And now, wet to the bone and worn out, they had to get back to the battlefield and find a mapcase. The rain strengthened, we were shivering - it does get pretty cool at this time of year north of the Arctic Circle. Trying to concentrate, I was recalling the fight, especially the terrain and layout - where were our units, where was the enemy. I was taking into account the possibility that the enemy could still be there or somewhere nearby, this made our mission really dangerous. Moreover, in the dark, we could simply run into them. Thus, we disembarked on the mission. We followed the same tracks and trails that we just took leaving the fight. We moved slowly, listening carefully, engulfed by pitch dark. First, we searched a 100-300 m wide strip, then we turned around and started again. Going back, we noticed a glowing campfire on the edge of the forest. We got alarmed and acted even more carefully. Having finished the first strip, we started searching the next one. 20-30 meters through, I heard somebody's stifled but excited voice on the right: "Here it is, got it!"

It is impossible to imagine how much thrill and relief we felt that moment. What an enormous load just fell off the shoulders of my exhausted and starved people! We quickly reassembled and silently moved back to the location of the battalion, increasing the pace as we were closing in. We already knew the way and the yearning to get it over with was growing with every step.

In good mood, we safely returned to the battalion. I immediately reported to the commander about the mission completed successfully and without loss. I handed him the find and received his appreciation. Shortly, we were moving again to a new defense line as had been set forth by the battalion's objectives.

I.L. Kobets, then Lieutenant, Commander of Regiment Reconnaissance, now Colonel in Reserve.