This information is the first I have seen about the very start of the battle of Rostov. Most contemporary sources do not discuss resources in the Rostov region, save for those identified in STAVKA (Soviet Supreme Command) dispatches.
Most English language treatments of the time of Operation Barbarossa generally gloss over how really critical matters were.
And it doesn't help that even in contemporary Soviet accounts, units are often misidentified adding to the confusion of the era.
What we do know, and the written historical record shows, is that Marshal Semeon Timoshenko was very much in charge, at first of the Soviet Southwestern Front then later in the supreme strategic layer, attempting to gather resources to defend the approaches to the Caucusus oilfield, Hitler's goal in southern Russia.
[VK] On October 8, 1941, reconnaissance units of the SS Motorized Infantry Brigade "Leib-Standard" Adolf Hitler "under the command of Sturmbannführer Mayer entered the territory of the Fedorovsky District of the Rostov Region. SS Brigade "Leib-Standard" Adolf Hitler was a brigade in 1941,. then later it became a full on division. In historical accounts the SS unit was used as a covering party for the advance of the German 1st Panzer Army.
The headquarters of the North Caucasian Military District learned about the enemy's breakthrough into the district's territory not from the military pilots and not from the command of the Southern Front. An unknown female, a collective farmer phoned Taganrog and reported about the military in the "frog" uniform, who "do not talk our way, shoot dogs and chickens, chase pigs on motorcycles."
This message caused a shock in Rostov-on-Don, both in the regional party committee and in the district command. Both the secretary of the Rostov regional committee of the CPSU (b) B.A. Dvinsky and the commander of the North Caucasus Military District, Lieutenant General F.N. Remezov, believed that the front line passed two hundred kilometers west of the borders of the region and the district. Goes to show just how crappy Soviet tactical recon intelligence really was throughout much of WWII. Lt. General Fyodor Remezov was Soviet 13th Army commander during the Smolensk defensive operation in July, 1941.
At an urgently convened meeting, the chief of staff of the North Caucasus Military District, Colonel L.M. Barmin, reported on the forces and means of district subordination in Rostov and its environs.
These forces were extremely small: the 339th Rostov Rifle Division was still in the Persian camps, the Novocherkassk Cavalry Advanced Training Courses for command personnel (KUKS), three Rostov military schools - infantry, military-political and artillery - and even the Frunze Sevastopol Higher Naval School evacuated from Crimea. In Taganrog, there was a mortar company of the 10th mortar battalion, an airfield service battalion, plus units and subunits of the Rostov Air Defense Divisional District.
In reality, only the consolidated regiments of military schools, which were armed only with rifles, and a mortar company in Taganrog were available
Combat order number 001 \ op of the headquarters of the North Caucasus Military District of 8.10.41.
All these forces were immediately alerted and sent to meet the enemy. By the same order, the commander of the artillery of the district, Major General of Artillery G.S. Kariofilli, was appointed the head of the Taganrog defense region. The head of the regional department of the NKVD Sergey Viktorovich Pokotilo for the defense of TAGANROG allocated several units of the 33rd motorized rifle and 59th security regiments of the NKVD from the 36th brigade of the NKVD, Colonel M. Mikryukov. Major General of Artillery G.S. Kariofilli was deputy artillery commander of the Soviet Western Front, June-August, 1941.
Two armored trains of the NKVD - "Felix Dzerzhinsky" and armored train No. 59 under the command of Captain A.D. Kharebava were sent for actions on the section of the railway:
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[REGNUM] During the week, 25 foreign reconnaissance aircraft approached the borders of Russia. This was reported on October 8 by the official publication of the Ministry of Defense "Krasnaya Zvezda".
Also during this period, 33 foreign drones were recorded carrying out aerial reconnaissance along the Russian borders.
It is reported that all of these objects were tracked by Russian radar stations. In order to prevent violation of the border, fighters from the air defense duty forces were sortied twice.
According to the Ministry of Defense, there were no violations of the airspace of the Russian Federation in any of the episodes.
It appears pressure was applied as a result of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers to the local military prosecutor's office to initiate, at least, an investigation.
In the Tagil missile division in the Sverdlovsk region, two conscripts died in two days. One of them, according to the Central Military District (CVO), got lost in the woods during an exercise, where he climbed onto a power transmission line and died from an electric shock.
The committee of soldiers' mothers "Kommersant-Ural" said that the disappearance of the soldier was noticed only a few hours later, and his search began only the next day. The second conscript committed suicide before joining the outfit with a service weapon. In this regard, a special commission of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation was sent to the unit. The Committee of Soldiers' Mothers described the unit as "very good", there were never any problems there.
In ZATO Svobodny (Sverdlovsk region) in the 42nd Tagil missile division (military unit 34103), two conscripts died in two days - Ivan Katlinskikh, called up from the village of Berdyuzhe (Tyumen region) and Mikhail from the Penza region.
The body of Ivan Katlinskikh was found the day before, on September 28, in the forest near the missile unit. According to the official information of the Central Military District, in the afternoon of September 27, during the planned command and staff exercises, the soldier retreated into the forest and got lost. With him, he had a bayonet-knife and an AK-74 submachine gun without ammunition.
Trying to determine his location, the conscript climbed onto the power line support, he was electrocuted, from which he died in place. This part refers to the Strategic Missile Forces (Strategic Missile Forces). Scheduled command and staff exercises with the Tagil missile formation began on Tuesday. In total, more than 3 thousand servicemen and about 300 pieces of equipment were involved in the exercise.
In a nuclear missile unit, which is located near Nizhniy Tagil, two soldiers were killed in two days. One died of an electric shock while climbing a power line. According to the official version, the guy got lost in the forest during a training exercise. Perhaps, in order to find his bearings and find his way, he climbed onto the power line.
[Lenta] The prosecutor's office opened a case of hazing in a military settlement, where two soldiers died
In the closed-type settlement (ZATO) Svobodny, Sverdlovsk region , where the 42nd missile division is stationed, the military prosecutor's office conducted an inspection after the death of two soldiers. As a result, a criminal case on hazing was initiated. This was reported to E1.ru by the Deputy Military Prosecutor of the 24th Military Prosecutor's Office of the Army, Lieutenant Colonel of Justice Alexei Varchuk.
According to him, the prosecutors are faced with the task of finding all the servicemen against whom the illegal acts were committed, and bringing the perpetrators to justice. Victims are being identified, but not all soldiers are ready to talk about the crimes committed against them due to fear of revenge. To protect them, the prosecutor's office is making efforts to transfer victims to other units.
Varchuk pointed out that no cases of hazing have been identified so far in the units where the soldiers died. Prosecutors have not yet clarified the cause of the soldier's suicide and the facts of hazing against him. There is no bodily harm on his body, except for those that he himself inflicted on himself. Varchuk noted that the deaths of the two soldiers are not related, they did not even know each other.
But in another military unit, also stationed in Svobodny, hazing was revealed, a case was initiated against Ensign Utigenov, who beat the soldiers. The materials so far feature six criminal episodes, which are qualified under Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Excessive powers").
“Things were going on in this unit that were definitely criminal. It was revealed that a number of servicemen suffered from this warrant officer. He beat soldiers for symbolic violations, ”Varchuk noted.
In September, two conscripts were killed in two days in Svobodny. One got lost in the forest during an exercise, climbed onto a power transmission tower, where he was electrocuted, and died. The second conscript committed suicide. A few months ago, two officers died there - the captain and the senior lieutenant.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
