after the

battle

THE DEATH OF 82>

THE KAISER
9 770306 154103

No. 182 £5
NUMBER 182
© Copyright After the Battle 2018
Editor: Karel Margry
Editor-in-Chief: Winston G. Ramsey
Published by
Battle of Britain International Ltd.,
The Mews, Hobbs Cross House,
Hobbs Cross, Old Harlow,
Essex CM17 0NN, England
Telephone: 01279 41 8833
Fax: 01279 41 9386
E-mail: hq@afterthebattle.com
Website: www.afterthebattle.com
Printed in Great Britain by
Warners Group Publications PLC,
Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH.
After the Battle is published on the 15th of
February, May, August and November.
LONDON STOCKIST for the After the Battle range:
Foyles Limited, 107 Charing Cross Road,
London WC2H 0DT. Telephone: 020 7437 5660.
Fax: 020 7434 1574. E-mail: orders@foyles.co.uk.
Website: www.foyles.co.uk
United Kingdom Newsagent Distribution:
Warners Group Publications PLC,
Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH
Australian Subscriptions and Back Issues:
Renniks Publications Pty Limited Left: Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, seen (right) with his first wife Auguste Viktoria.
Unit 3, 37-39 Green Street, Banksmeadow NSW 2019
Telephone: 61 2 9695 7055. Fax: 61 2 9695 7355
E-mail: info@renniks.com. Website: www.renniks.com
Canadian Distribution and Subscriptions:
Army Outfitters/Military Antiques Toronto
51 Lesmill Road, Toronto, Ontario, M3B 2T8
Tel: 647-436-0876. E-mail: armyoutfitters@rogers.com
Website: www.militaryantiquestoronto.com
or www.servicepub.com
New Zealand Distribution:
Battle Books NZ Limited, P.O. Box 5549 Lambton,
Wellington 6145, New Zealand
Telephone: 021 434 303. Fax: 04 298 9958
E-mail: sales@battlebooks.co.nz - Web: battlebooks.co.nz
United States Distribution and Subscriptions:
RZM Imports Inc, 184 North Ave., Stamford, CT 06901
Telephone: 1-203-324-5100. Fax: 1-203-324-5106
E-mail: info@rzm.com Website: www.rzm.com
Italian Distribution:
Milistoria s.r.l. Via Sofia, 12-Interporto,
1-43010 Fontevivo (PR), Italy
Telephone: ++390521 651910. Fax: ++390521 619204
E-mail: info@milistoria.it — Web: http://milistoria.it/
Dutch Language Edition: DOORN
SI Publicaties/Quo Vadis, Postbus 188,
6860 AD Oosterbeek
Telephone: 026-4462834. E-mail: si@sipublicaties.nl

CONTENTS
DEATH OF THE KAISER 2
EASTERN FRONT
The Battle of Voronezh 21
WAR GRAVES
The War Graves Photographic Project 50

Front Cover: A bust of Kaiser Wilhelm II of

Germany (inset) stands in the garden of House EIJSDEN
Doorn in the Netherlands, the place where he
lived in exile for the last 21 years of his life and
where he died on June 4, 1941 during the Nazi- LIÈGE
German occupation of Holland. (Karel Margry)
Back Cover: In 2009, Steve Rogers of The War SPA
Graves Photographic Project took a coachload of
volunteers across the Channel to photograph as
many cemeteries as they could in one week.
Here they are busy at work ‘somewhere in
France’. (TWGPP)
Acknowledgements: For their generous assist-
ance with the Death of the Kaiser story, the
Editor thanks curators Wendy Landewé and
Cornelis van der Bas and warden Jeroen
Simonis of Museum Huis Doorn; Friedhild den
Toom-Jacobi, and Paul van Dijk of the
Oudheidkamer Doorn. For their help with the
Battle of Voronezh story, he extends his
gratitude to Sergey Popov and Colin Nicol.
Photo Credit Abbreviations: BA — Bundesarchiv;
NIOD — Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocu-
mentatie, Amsterdam; TWGPP — The War The Netherlands was neutral in the First World War and Queen Wilhelmina had always
Graves Photographic Project. Unless specified
otherwise, all illustrations are from the After the maintained good relations with Kaiser Wilhelm. The country thus formed a logical place of
Battle archive or The Society for the Studies of refuge when the Kaiser suddenly needed to flee from revolution and mutiny in November
the ETO. 1918, his headquarters in Spa in Belgium being just 40 kilometres from the Dutch border.

2

Four years ago, in August 2014, we marked the centenary of
the beginning of the First World War with our account of
the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to
the Habsburg throne, at Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 (see
After the Battle No. 164). Now, four years on, we want to
remember the end of that war by describing the death of
Kaiser Wilhelm II, the ruler of Prussia and of the German
Empire, who was widely seen as the symbol of German
aggression and the one responsible for the outbreak of the
war. November 1918 — 100 years ago this month — not
only saw the end of the gruesome conflict and the signing
DOORNSE HISTORISCHE VERENIGING THORHEIM
of the armistice at Compiègne but also the abdication of
Wilhelm II and his seeking exile in neutral Holland. For the
next 23 years, the ex-Kaiser lived the quiet life of a country
gentleman, an ordinary civilian of no political importance.
However, by the time he died on June 4, 1941, having lived
to the age of 82, the Netherlands had been invaded and
occupied by Nazi Germany. Although Wilhelm had stipu-
lated that he wanted a quiet funeral with no pomp and no
Swastikas, the internment at his estate at House Doorn
was a Nazi-orchestrated affair with a guard of honour, a
military band and a huge wreath from the Führer.

DEATH OF THE KAISER

Shortly after 6 a.m. on the morning of
November 10, 1918, a convoy of nine motor
vehicles was seen approaching the Belgian-
Dutch frontier post at the village of Eijsden
in the southernmost part of the Netherlands.
The Dutch guard on duty, Sergeant Pierre
Pinckaers, halted the convoy and, to his sur-
prise, discovered that it carried the German
emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and members of
having travelled from Spa via Liège to the
Visé/Eijsden frontier post (Liège had been
considered too risky for the Kaiser to travel
By Karel Margry
his retinue. They had left the Kaiser’s head- through, hence he and his party had trans- enabling the Kaiser to await developments in
quarters in Spa where only a few hours ferred to motor cars in order to circumvent the comfort of his own saloon and restaurant
before Wilhelm, forced by revolution and it). It too was allowed to enter Holland, carriages.
mutiny in his empire, had been compelled to
give up the throne. The Germans requested
to be admitted into the country, explaining
that the Kaiser and some of his generals
wanted to seek asylum in Holland and that
the Dutch government had already been
informed about this. The border post had no
telephone, so Pinckaers cycled down to the
nearby zinc-white factory and from there
phoned his garrison commander in Maas-
tricht, Majoor G. van Dijl. The latter con-
firmed what the Germans had said, having
already received a call from Maurits van Vol-
lenhove, the Dutch envoy in Brussels, two
hours earlier, and immediately drove down to
the frontier post where he decided to allow
the German party entry into the country.
The motor convoy was directed to Eijs-
den’s railway station, two kilometres on,
where the party had to spend several hours
in a bare waiting room. At 8.10 a.m., the
Kaiser’s special train arrived there as well,

Right: House Doorn, located in the vil-

lage of that name, is today a museum
ATB

visited by tens of thousands each year.

3
VIKTOR SNIEKERS

Having arrived by car at the Dutch frontier early on the morning
of November 10, 1918, the Kaiser and his entourage were
allowed to enter the country and directed to nearby Eijsden rail-
way station, there to await the decision of the Dutch government
over the Kaiser’s request for asylum. Another reason for going to
the station was because the Kaiser’s personal train was expected
to arrive there from Liège. When the German party arrived at Eijs-
den, a local 17-year-old teenager, Viktor Sniekers, ran to his
home, picked up his 9 x 12cm plate camera and returned to take
this snapshot of the Kaiser and members of his retinue waiting
on the station platform — a picture that went round the world.
Standing (L-R) are Hauptmann Sigurd von Ilsemann, the Kaiser’s
youthful Flügeladjutant (Wing Adjutant); Generaloberst Hans von
Plessen, his Generaladjutant (ADC of general’s rank); General-
major Wilhelm von Frankenberg, Oberstallmeister (Grand Master
of the Horse); Kaiser Wilhelm; Major Georg von Hirschfeld,
another of the Kaiser’s wing adjutants; Dr Otto von Niedner, his
personal physician, and Hauptmann Albert Zeyss, his chauffeur.

For the rest of the day and throughout the

evening, the Kaiser and his party languished
in Eijsden station, waiting for a decision of
the Dutch government, while an increasing
crowd of curious civilians milled around,
many of them shaking fists and shouting
abuse at the deposed emperor. Then, shortly
before midnight a party, including the Secre-
tary-General of the Dutch Interior Ministry,
Jan B. Kan, and the German ambassador
Friedrich Rosen, arrived from The Hague
with the news that the Dutch government had
granted the Kaiser asylum and that Count
Godard van Aldenburg-Bentinck, who like
Wilhelm was a Knight of St John of
Jerusalem, had agreed to temporarily accom-
modate the Kaiser at his 17th-century moated
house at the small town of Amerongen.
At 9.20 a.m. the following morning
(November 11) the train set out, travelling
ATB

northwards — along a route thronged with

jeering people — via Maastricht, Roermond
and Nijmegen to Arnhem and then west- The small station has been completely altered but this is the same platform today.
ATB

Left: The cars of the German party were parked nearby. The local Pinckaerts phoned his superior in Maastricht, stands in the back-
zinc-white factory, from where border guard Sergeant Pierre ground. Right: This is the best possible comparison today.

4

Left: With the Dutch government having decided to grant the
Kaiser refuge, Count Godard van Aldenburg-Bentinck was
persuaded to accommodate Wilhelm for a few days in his castle
at Amerongen. This picture was taken there on November 28,
the day on which Wilhelm formally abdicated. (L-R) Carlos
ATB
Bentinck, Dr von Niedner, von Plessen, Hans von Gontard (Lord
Chamberlain), Wilhelm II, Werner von Grünau (Foreign Office
legate), Edgar von Hirschfeld (adjutant), Ernst zu Rantzau
(chamberlain), Count Bentick and Willy Bentinck. Right: Kasteel
Amerongen has seen virtually no change in 100 years.

Left: Newspaper reporters, press photographers and other
curious sightseers roamed around the castle hoping for a
glimpse of the deposed ruler, and officers from the Kaiser’s
retinue tried in vain to chase them off with drawn swords.
ATB
The brick wall on the left is the one surrounding the castle
estate. Right: The same wall still lines Drostestraat today.
Kasteel Amerongen is nowadays a museum and open to the
public.

wards to the little country station at Maarn, On November 28, the Kaiser’s spouse, eign, roaming around the brick-walled
where they were received by the provincial Auguste Viktoria, joined him at Amerongen estate hoping for a story or a scoop photo-
governor of Utrecht, Count Alex Lijnden after an anxious journey from Berlin. That graph of him; also there were repeated
van Sandenburg, and by Count Bentinck. It same day, Wilhelm regulated the German rumours — some false, some true — of
was a half-hour’s drive to Amerongen. The constitutional question by signing a formal plans to assassinate or kidnap the Kaiser;
Bentincks (the count was a widower with abdication both as Kaiser and as King of and there was a good possibility that the
three sons and a daughter) received the Ger- Prussia. Two days later, the Crown Prince Western Allies would want to persecute him
mans with good hospitality, providing them similarly renounced his rights. as a war criminal.
with a lavish dinner. That same day, at Com- The first months at Amerongen were an Article 227 of the Treaty of Versailles,
piègne, Germany signed the armistice that uneasy time for the 59-year-old ex-monarch concluded in June 1919, called for the trial of
ended the First World War. for there were numerous journalists and the ex-Kaiser, arraigning him ‘for a supreme
The following day, November 12, the press photographers, both Dutch and for- offence against international morality and
Kaiser’s eldest son, Crown Prince Wilhelm
(who had commanded the 5. Armee and
then Heeresgruppe Deutscher Kronprinz
in the war), arrived at the Dutch frontier
and was granted asylum as well. He spent
his first night at Castle Hillenraad at Swal-
men and would eventually be interned on
Wieringen, a small island in the Zuider
Zee near Den Helder in north-western
Holland (where he would stay in exile for
five years, returning to Germany on
November 9, 1923).

Right: A picture taken at Amerongen on

May 14, 1920, the last day of the Kaiser
and Kaiserine’s 18-month stay there.
Standing (L-R): Count Bentick, Wilhelm,
Dr Alfred Haehner (personal physician
of the Royal couple since November
1919), Adjutant von Ilsemann and Lord
Chamberlain von Gontard. Seated (L-
R): Auguste Viktoria, Elisabeth van
Aldenburg-Bentinck (the count’s eldest
daughter) and Countess Mathilde von
Keller, lady in waiting. (When this pic-
ture was taken, von Ilsemann and Elisa-
beth Bentinck had just announced their
engagement. They would marry on
October 7 that same year.)

5
In August 1919, the Kaiser and his wife had bought House house was completely renovated. At lower right is the
Doorn, a pleasant moated manor-house lying in 59 hectares estate’s orangery, which the couple had converted into a
of parkland in the village of Doorn. Before they moved in, the guest-house.

the sanctity of treaties’. However, as early as its aftermath, shot himself in a hunting ‘Comparative Historical Table’ that was to
December 1918, the Dutch Government had lodge near Potsdam. Still more sorrow was prove that neither he nor Germany had
made it clear that they had no intention of to come: on April 11, 1921, two months been guilty of bringing about the war. Still
handing over a ruler who had sought asylum after their 40th wedding anniversary, Wil- obsessed with the events of the recent past,
in a neutral country. On January 16, 1920, helm’s wife Auguste Viktoria died. Already he was determined to justify his actions,
French Prime Minister George Clemenceau a long-time heart patient, the outcome of sticking to his belief that he had been right
on behalf of the Entente nations formally the war, the forced move from Germany, and fostering a grievance against the world
requested the Dutch Government to extra- and Joachim’s suicide had all combined to which had so misjudged him. The work was
dite the accused but the Dutch (who were fatally affect her health. She was taken published in book form in 1921. (He would
not signatories to the Versailles Treaty) back to Germany to be buried in Potsdam later follow it up with two memoirs, equally
stoutly and repeatedly refused to comply. All but the Dutch government refused Wilhelm self-justifying, published in 1922 and 1927
they asked of Wilhelm was a promise to permission to leave the country to attend respectively.)
refrain from active politics, a pledge he gave the funeral. In the course of 1922 Wilhelm got
and observed. Although stricken with grief over his acquainted with Hermine Schönaich-Carolath
It was clear that the Kaiser could not stay loss, he soon recovered his spirits and (née Reuss Elder Line), a young widow of 34
at Amerongen indefinitely so on August 16, found things to occupy himself. His main with three sons and two daughters. The Kaiser
1919, he bought House Doorn, a moated activity around this time was compiling a enjoyed her company, she got along well with
country-house, for the price of 500,000
Dutch guilders. Located in the village of
Doorn, nine kilometres west of Amerongen
and 25 kilometres east of Utrecht, in large
parkland suitably secure from intruders, the
house was a 13th-century castle radically
rebuilt at the end of the 18th century. Before
the Kaiser moved in, he had the house
altered and refurbished at a cost of 850,000
guilders. The orangery was turned into a
guest-house. The main entrance to the park
was removed from the Utrecht—Arnhem
road to a quieter side road, the Langbroeker-
weg, and a new and impressive gatehouse
was built to accommodate his retinue and
cater for the guards.
The Kaiser would have no problem fur-
nishing his new home. Through the summer
of 1919, 59 train wagons arrived from Ger-
many, loaded to the full with his possessions
from his many castles and estates: furniture,
carpets, paintings of his ancestors, jewellery,
his library, hundreds of uniforms — every-
thing from bed-linen to porcelain pieces,
from silver cutlery to his collection of snuff-
boxes. On May 15, 1920 — after an 18-month
stay at Amerongen — Wilhelm and his wife
moved to their new home. Here he was to
settle down, and spend the remaining 21
years of his life as a retired country gentle-
man. In April 1921 Empress Auguste Viktoria died but Wilhelm did not remain a widower for
However, personal tragedy soon struck long, marrying Hermine Schönaich-Carolath (née Reuss) in November 1922. A widow of
the Kaiser. On July 18, Prince Joachim, his 34, she had five children and her youngest daughter Henriette came to live with her
youngest son, disillusioned by the war and mother and stepfather at Doorn. Wilhelm affectionately called the little girl ‘the general’.

6
Right: Convinced that he needed exer-
cise, Wilhelm spent an inordinate
amount of time with his favourite
hobby: wood-cutting. Every day he and
members of his retinue and servants
went out felling trees in the estate
grounds, the Kaiser (who since birth
had a lame and shorter left arm) doing
his bit with only his right arm. Over the
years they cut hundreds of trees. Here
the Kaiser and his personnel pose with
their rip-saws during a work break in
wintertime.

him and on November 5, 1922, they were mar-

ried. The wedlock raised quite a few eye-
brows, both because of the short lapse of time
since the death of Auguste Viktoria and
because his new bride was 28 years his junior.
The marriage was not a very happy one but
Hermine and her three youngest children
brought more liveliness to the household.
Daily life at Doorn settled into a regular
routine. Wilhelm spent most mornings with
his favourite pastime: cutting wood. A habit
he had acquired during the war, he enthusi-
astically continued with it at Amerongen and
Doorn and over the years literally felled

ATB
A special wood-cutting shed was built in the grounds some The original shed was demolished in the 1950s. Today a
distance south of the house (see the plan on page 13). replacement stands on the same spot.

thousands of trees, so much so that it eventu- Although granted exile, Wilhelm was not closely followed events taking place in Ger-
ally threatened to denude the Doorn estate. free to go as he pleased. At first he was only many. Living in a world of his own, he remained
When he was not chopping and sawing wood, allowed to make trips within a 15-kilometre confident that, sooner or later, the Weimar
he spent his daytime hours dealing with his radius of Doorn. Later this area was Republic would collapse, the monarchy would
correspondence, developing a rose-garden expanded to the whole province of Utrecht. be restored and he would be able — better still,
and later an arboretum, or feeding the ducks For each visit outside this area, Wilhelm was would be asked — to return to the throne.
on the moat. There were often visitors calling to secure special permission from his contact Every major event in Germany, in other Euro-
from Germany and other countries, and he with the Dutch government, Secretary-Gen- pean countries, even in the United States, he
spent hours talking with them or members of eral Kan. In general these permissions were interpreted exclusively in this perspective. At
his retinue. His monologues at dinner table given and there would be excursions to desti- times — for instance during the Kapp Putsch of
were notorious, and a source of particular nations further away, a favourite one being March 1920 — he was sure that restoration of
torment to his faithful adjutant, Sigurd von the beach resort at Zandvoort. the monarchy was imminent. It was all nothing
Ilsemann. However, during all these quiet years he still more than self-deception and illusions.
The Kaiser having tea with friends near
the wood-cutting shed. (L-R) Marius van
Houten, the Dutch Marechaussee major
(later colonel) who from 1920 to 1941
was in charge of the ex-Kaiser’s security
and guarding on behalf of the Dutch gov-
ernment and who over the years became
a good friend of Wilhelm; George
Viereck, a German-American poet and
writer who often visited House Doorn;
Adjutant von Ilsemann; Wilhelm, and Wil-
helm von Dommes, the House Minister
(tasked with representing the ex-Kaiser’s
interests in Germany). George Viereck,
son of a German father and an American-
born mother (and reputed to be an illegal
grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm I) had been a
bestselling poet and author in the United
States before 1914 but became a contro-
versial figure during the First World War
because in his publications he argued for
the German cause. He continued to write
in defence of Germany and the Kaiser in
the 1920s and later became a well-known
pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic propagandist.

7
 Right: All through his years in exile Wil-
helm craved for a restoration of the
monarchy and his return to the throne,
and for a time in the early 1930s he put
his hopes on the upcoming Nazi move-
ment, his expectations fired on by his
wife Hermine who was a great fan of
Hitler. On two occasions — in January
1931 and May 1932 — Hermann Göring
came to visit the Kaiser at Doorn to dis-
cuss developments in Germany. Here
Göring (who on his first visit was
accompanied by his first wife Karin)
leaves House Doorn with Princess Her-
mine and the Kaiser following behind.

Throughout his exile he was in personal and

written contact with German conservative,
right-wing, monarchist and militaristic organi-
sations such as the Deutsch-Nationale
Volkspartei (German National People’s Party,
DNVP); the Nationalverband Deutscher
Offiziere (National Association of German
Officers, NDO); the Kyffhäuser-Bund (War
Veterans Association); Stahlhelm (First World
War Front Soldiers Association) and the
Alldeutscher Verband (Pan-German League).
All of these organisations were clearly monar-
chist, and thus important lobbies for Wilhelm’s
restorative ambitions (although he was often
dissatisfied with their actions), but this was not
so clear with the organisation, the growth of
which he followed with increasing interest
from 1930 onwards: the Nationalsozialistische
Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei (NSDAP), Hitler’s
Nazi party.
Wilhelm’s attitude towards Hitler’s move-
ment was distinctly ambivalent. On the one
hand he approved of its basically nationalis-
tic fervour; on the other he was disgusted by
its racial persecution and deplored the pagan
nihilism of Nazi ideology. For a time he
appears to have seriously believed, along
with the Crown Prince, that a Nazi victory in
the elections would bring him back to the
throne. His wife Hermine certainly regarded
Hitler as Germany’s saviour and trusted him
completely, and several members of his ret-
inue were equally enthusiastic about the
Nazis.
On January 17-19, 1931, Hermann Göring,
then Reichstag deputy for the NSDAP and
Hitler’s representative in Berlin, paid a spe-
cial visit to Doorn, accompanied by his first
wife Karin. The meeting had been arranged
by Leopold von Kleist, the ex-Kaiser’s Haus-
minister (House Minister, representing his
interests in Germany) who was a pro-Nazi.

ATB
During his three-day stay, Göring told Wil-
helm that it was Hitler’s aim to restore the
monarchy. The Kaiser liked Göring, whom The steps have changed little since Hermann came by.

he had decorated with the Pour le Mérite as

an air ace and who had been friendly with
the Crown Prince during the war, but he kept
his distance and remained sceptical. On May
20-21, 1932, Göring came to Doorn for a sec-
ond visit. This time the Kaiser was more wel-
coming (even though Göring was bragging
and ruffled court etiquette) but, again, no
definite assurances were given either way.
Meanwhile, his sons were more open in
their flirtations with the Nazis. Both August
Wilhelm and Oskar joined the NSDAP, and
Left: Several of the Kaiser’s sons and
grandsons got more seriously involved
in the Nazi movement. Crown Prince Wil-
helm (centre) appeared at many Nazi-
organised events, such as here with SA
leader Ernst Röhm (left) and Stahlhelm
leader Franz Seldte (right) at an SA mass
meeting in 1932. The Nazis very cleverly
kept the Hohenzollerns on a string, sug-
gesting they would restore the monar-
chy if they came to power. In reality,
they had no intention to do so, the pur-
NIOD 30253

pose behind their deception being only

to draw supporters of the monarchy into
their camp.

8
the former Crown Prince appeared in public
at SA meetings, and spoke out for Hitler in
the 1932 presidential elections. All three, and
their brother Eitel Friedrich, were present at
the ‘Day of Postdam’ on March 21, 1933 at
which the new, Nazi-governed Reichstag was
festively inaugurated.
Putting his hopes on the Nazi movement, if
only for a short while, was the greatest error
of judgement committed by the Kaiser dur-
ing his years of exile. Once in power, Hitler
had no use for the monarchists. This first
became clear on February 3, 1934 when
Hitler banned all monarchist organisations,
and was confirmed the following August
when, after the death of Weimar President
Paul von Hindenburg, Hitler quickly pro-
claimed the amalgamation of the presidency
and the chancellorship. From then on, Wil-
helm realised that there was to be no restora-
tion of the monarchy.
Meanwhile the Kaiser had found other
things to keep him occupied. In 1931 he had
founded the Doorner Arbeitsgemeinschaft
(Doorn Study Group), which held annual
conferences at which erudite papers were
read on archaeology, the significance of sym-
bols and associated theories. Perhaps mean-
ingful, his own lecture at the 1934 conference
delved into the history and meaning of the In 1931, Wilhelm founded the Doorner Arbeitsgemeinschaft, a study circle that organ-
Swastika. ised an annual conference at which erudite professors gave lectures on archaeology
Although the Kaiser disapproved of and associated subjects. Here the Kaiser (seated left) poses with Professor of Ethno-
racial persecution, paradoxically his own graphy Leo Frobenius of Frankfurt University, who was one of his favourite scholars
thoughts were deeply ingrained with a (right), and other members of the study group at House Doorn in 1935.
strong and unmistakable anti-Semitism.
Throughout his exile, his letters to friends won by ‘Jewish-American money’; ‘Juda- his own virulent anti-Semitism, he was
and relatives were full of ranting references England’ and so on. Also on numerous appalled by the anti-Jewish violence of
to the ‘the antichrist Jew’; to ‘international occasions he expressed a view that the Jews ‘Kristallnacht’ (Crystal Night) on the night
Freemasonry-Jewry working towards world should be ‘put out of the way’, ‘destroyed’, of November 9/10, 1938, afterwards declar-
domination’; ‘world Jewry’ being responsi- even ‘beaten to death’. Strangely enough, ing: ‘For the first time I am ashamed to be a
ble for the First World War; the war being despite his wife’s approval of the Nazis and German’.

NIOD 30013

There were several occasions during the long exile when the
old grandeur returned to House Doorn. On May 4, 1938, there
was the wedding of Prince Louis Ferdinand, the Crown Prince’s
second son, with Princess Kyra of Russia. This was the couple’s
third wedding ceremony. Two days before, on May 2, they
were married in accordance with German civil law at Potsdam,
followed by a Russian-Orthodox service in a church there.
The ceremony at Doorn was a German Evangelical service.
Seated with the bride and bridegroom (in Luftwaffe uniform)
is Grand Duke Kyril, father of the bride and head of the
House of Romanov. Standing behind (L-R) are the ex-Kaiser
(wearing the pre-war field-grey uniform of a general),
Princess Hermine and the ex-Crown Prince. Among the
guests were Princess Juliana of the Netherlands (seated on
the carpet on Grand Duke Kyril’s left) and her husband Prince
Bernhard (standing fifth from left).

9
NIOD 30251

On May 10, 1940, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands and officers appear at his house and welcomed them with obvious
four days later, on May 14, the first German troops reached delight, completely forgetting how offensive this must be to
Doorn. The ex-Kaiser was thrilled to see parties of German the Dutch who had given him refuge all these years.

WAR COMES TO DOORN
When the Second World War began on
September 3, 1939, a dozen Hohenzollern
princes, including three of the Kaiser’s
grandsons, were serving in the armed forces,
several of them at the front. Within two days,
Prince Oskar, one of the Kaiser’s grandsons
(the eldest child of his fifth son Oskar), was
killed fighting as an infantry lieutenant at
Wadowka in Poland.
Wilhelm’s loyalties at this time were
divided. On the one hand, he felt events as a
German but on the other he was also con-
scious that the war threatened his court-in-
exile in Doorn and that he owed a debt to the
Netherlands, which had afforded him sanctu-
ary. His actions reflected his uncertainty.
Through the German Ambassador in The
Hague, he sent Hitler a message expressing
relief that the Führer had survived the assas-
sination attempt in Munich’s Bürger-
bräukeller on November 8. Ten days later he
sent Queen Wilhelmina a telegram of condo-
lence after the Dutch passenger steamer
Simon Bolivar had been sunk by German
mines in the North Sea.
That same month the British Government
found time to consider what would happen
to its former bête noir in the event of a Ger-
man invasion of Holland. The Ambassador
in The Hague was instructed that, should the
topic come up in conversation with the
Dutch authorities, he should seek to get Wil-
helm moved to Sweden or Denmark. How-
ever, nothing came of this.
The Dutch authorities discussed the same
matter and it was agreed that, should Ger-
many attack the Netherlands, the Kaiser and
his retinue were to be immediately interned
within the confines of House Doorn.
On May 10, Germany began the invasion
of the West, and German divisions swept
into Holland. At 3.30 in the morning the
sound of gun-fire was heard in Doorn as hun-
dreds of German aircraft seemed to be fol-
lowing the line of the Waal river, down to
western Holland (these were Ju 52 aircraft
carrying parachute troops to Moerdijk, Rot-
terdam and The Hague). In Doorn was
located the headquarters of the Dutch II
Legerkorps, responsible for defending the
central part of the front, and its main defence
position, the Grebbeberg hill, lay just 20 kilo-
metres east of the town (see Blitzkrieg in the
West Then and Now).
At 5.30 a.m. the corps commander, Gene-
raal-Majoor Jacob Harberts, instructed
Kolonel (retired) Marius van Houten, chief
of the Marechaussee (Dutch military police)
and Rijksveldwacht (gendarmerie) detail
responsible for the security of House Doorn,
to proceed with the internment of the Kaiser
and his entourage. At 7 a.m. van Houten ATB

One officer, Oberstleutnant i.G. Horst von Zitzewitz, the Chief-
of-Staff of the 207. Infanterie-Division, brought a directive from
the Führer, stipulating that the former Kaiser and his entire
household would ‘enjoy the protection of the Wehrmacht’. This
meant that the guarding and security of House Doorn, which
all these years had been the task of the Dutch police, was now
taken over by a Wehrmacht unit, a platoon from Infanterie-
Regiment 322 commanded by Leutnant Philip von Braun-
schweig being detailed for the assignment. Here the Kaiser
watches the platoon forming up in front of the house.

10

Leutnant von Braunschweig at the main gate. Behind him is the large gatehouse that
the Kaiser had built before he moved into House Doorn in 1920. It included a guard-
room (to the left of the arched entrance) but also offices and lodgings for members of
the Kaiser’s retinue.
reached Doorn and duly informed the
Kaiser. The German personnel was taken
into custody and moved to a fort near Wijk
bij Duurstede. All except three of the Dutch
personnel also had to leave. Only seven of
the Kaiser’s servants were allowed to stay
but everyone, including Wilhelm himself,
had to sign a statement that they would not
leave the estate. Radios were confiscated and
all telephone lines cut. The main gate and all
other entrances to the grounds were locked
with chains and guards positioned all around.
Meanwhile, in London, Winston Churchill,
who had just become Prime Minister that
day, found time to think about the Kaiser
and sent a message to the Foreign Office:
‘Mr Churchill wonders whether it would not
be a good thing to give the ex-Kaiser a pri-
vate hint that he would be received with con-
sideration and dignity in England should he
desire to seek asylum here.’ The proposal
was approved by the Foreign Secretary, Lord
Halifax, and by the King, and telegraphed to
the ambassador in The Hague at 5.15 p.m. on
the 11th. If Wilhelm accepted the offer, an
RAF aircraft would fly to Holland within the
next few hours and pick up the Kaiser and
his wife.
The message was transmitted to the Burgo-
master of Doorn, Baron Justinus van Nagell,
who was a good friend of the Kaiser, on Sun-
day morning, May 12, and he immediately
drove down to House Doorn to convey the
communication. The Kaiser was still in bed
but van Nagell was ushered into the room.
Wilhelm was surprised by the offer and child-
ishly pleased and his first inclination was to
accept it. Empress Hermine was overjoyed
and immediately began to pack her bags. Wil-
helm asked for some time to think about the
offer so van Nagell said he would return in
one hour to hear his decision.
Upon reflection, Wilhelm decided to turn
down the offer. He was a German and, what-
ever he thought of Hitler, he must support
his country, right or wrong. He did not, as he
told one of his adjutants, ‘wish to grant the
British the joy of drawing him into their
chess game with Germany’. He would ‘rather
be shot by the Dutch than flee to England
and had no wish to be photographed with
Churchill’. When Baron van Nagell returned,
Wilhelm asked him to convey to the British
government his sincerest thanks, but that as
he had been accused of running away once
before, he would now stay where he was.
Also, the Dutch people had been good to
him during his long exile and he did not wish
to desert them in their misfortune.
At 6.15 that evening the Foreign Office in
London received a reply from the ambas-
sador in The Hague: ‘Offer of asylum grate-
fully declined’. The official excuse given was
that his heart condition did not allow flying.
On May 13, after three days of bitter fight-
ing, the Germans finally broke through the
Grebbe Line defences. Early next morning,
May 14, troops of the 207. Infanterie-Divi-
sion entered Doorn and shortly before 8 a.m.
Oberst Fritz Neidholt, commander of Infan-
terie-Regiment 322, with five officers from
his staff, arrived at the gate of House Doorn
and asked to see the Kaiser. Wilhelm was
still in bed but, after a long wait, he appeared
on the house steps, dressed in a blue costume
with a straw hat and a walking stick. He
immediately asked Neidholt about German
casualties and was relieved to hear that they
had been considerable but not too high. He
handed out autographed portraits. Empress
Hermine came outside and the party pre-
sented her with a bouquet of flowers. She
later recorded: ‘The expression of the Kaiser,
as he stood with the regimental commander
The gatehouse and main entrance on Langbroekerweg remain unchanged.
on the front steps, looking 30 years younger,
will remain with me as unforgettable.’
An hour later, another officer arrived,
Oberstleutnant i.G. Horst von Zitzewitz, the
Ia (Chief-of-Staff) of the 207. Division. He
carried special instructions from the Führer
himself, which he read out to Wilhelm at the
house steps: ‘(1) The former Kaiser and his
entire household enjoy the protection of the
Wehrmacht like any other German citizen.
(2) House Doorn and its close surroundings
will not be billeted with or disturbed by Ger-
man troops. (3) The Geheime Feldpolizei
(Secret Field Police) will for the time being
take over protection and security of House
Doorn and the entire imperial household.
Until they arrive the Wehrmacht will take
care of the cordoning-off.’
When asked by von Zitzewitz if he wished
to move his residence back to Germany, the
Kaiser replied that he preferred to stay in
Doorn. He said he loved the house, the park,
his flowers, and would like to spend the last
years of his live there. If the military situa-
tion required him to move, he would prefer
to temporarily stay at House Amerongen.
Von Zitzewitz reassured the Kaiser there
was probably no need for that. (The Dutch
Army capitulated later that day.)
Although all of this this sounded positive,
the reality proved to be not so good. The
Wehrmacht detail assigned to protect Doorn
— a platoon from Infanterie-Regiment 322
commanded by Leutnant Philip von Braun-
schweig — was quickly replaced by an SS
detachment and it soon became clear that
they were actually there to guard the Kaiser
and prevent him from leaving the estate. In
effect, the Kaiser was interned in his own
home. The guards were given strict orders
not to fraternise but Wilhelm’s quiet cour-
tesy and dignified demeanour quickly
charmed them. Even their commander was
soon snapping to attention, saluting and
addressing the Kaiser as ‘His Majesty’.
Although contacts were forbidden, many a
German officer and delegations of soldiers
succeeded in paying House Doorn a visit.
Wilhelm immensely enjoyed these contacts,
fondly handing out autographed portrait
photos to his visitors. However, the Kaiser
found that the younger generation of
Germans had already largely forgotten him.
One day, strolling the woods at Amerongen,
he came upon a young sentry guarding a
depot. The soldier answered his questions
ATB (D)
11
Right: On June 17, 1940 — just over a
month after the Dutch capitulation —
Wilhelm visited the military cemetery on
the Grebbeberg hill, 20 kilometres east
of Doorn. The hill had seen fierce fight-
ing, being one of the positions where the
Dutch army had put up its strongest
resistance, and losses on both sides had
been heavy. The cemetery, which had
just been opened, contained the dead of
both armies.

seemingly at ease and without any reverence,

clearly unaware of whom he was talking to.
‘Youth has now forgotten me too’, Wilhelm
despondently told his retinue on his return
home.
On May 23, Prince Wilhelm, the Crown
Prince’s son and the Kaiser’s eldest grand-
son, who served in the 1. Infanterie-Division,
was severely wounded in the fighting near
Valenciennes and he died in a military hospi-

NIOD 38861
tal three days later. His body was sent back
to Potsdam and he was buried on May 29 in
the Hohenzollern Mausoleum in the Antique
Temple in the Sanssouci Park. A huge crowd
of some 50,000 people thronged to his
funeral service, the Crown Prince was there,
and it became the largest monarchist demon-
stration since the Kaiser’s abdication. Hitler
was incensed and ordered that all members
of the House of Hohenzollern were immedi-
ately to be dismissed from the Wehrmacht
and accept civilian employment. There were
rumours that he also intended taking severe
reprisals against them and their families.
Nonetheless, the Kaiser followed the
progress of the war in the West with avid
interest, great pride and enthusiasm. In his
opinion, ‘the brilliant leading generals in this
war come from my school, they fought under
my command in the world war as lieu-
tenants, captains or young majors.’ He was
profoundly stirred by the rapid victory in
France. On June 17, three days after Ger-
man troops entered Paris, he sent Hitler a
telegram of congratulations: ‘Deeply
impressed by France’s laying down of arms,
I congratulate you and the entire German
Wehrmacht on the divinely bestowed enor-
mous victory with the words of Kaiser Wil-

helm the Great: “Through God’s merciful
dispensation, what a change of fortune!” In
all German hearts sounds the hymn of
Leuthen, which the victors of Leuthen, the
Great King’s soldiers, sang: Now thank we
all our God.’ (Leuthen was a victory won by
Frederick the Great in 1757 during the
Seven Years War).
The telegram was an impetuous but inept
gesture, a serious mistake, and there has
been much debate since on what may have
prompted the Kaiser to send it. Some say it
was instigated by Wilhelm von Dommes, the
ATB
Today the Military Cemetery of Honour Grebbeberg outside the village of Rhenen
contains only Dutch graves, the German dead having all been transferred to the Ger-
man Military Cemetery at Ysselstein in the south of the country in 1947. Originally
there were 400 Dutch soldiers interred on the Grebbeberg but others have been
brought to the cemetery since 1946 so that today there are over 850 buried there.
Kaiser’s House Minister (he had succeeded Others claim it was under pressure from his
von Kleist in 1931), who thought a concilia- wife Hermine, who saw it as another chance
tory gesture was necessary to placate Hitler to ingratiate her husband with the Nazi
after the furore over the monarchist demon- leader. Hitler sent a letter of thanks on the
stration at Potsdam of the previous month. 25th, and both the Kaiser’s telegram and the
Führer’s reply were published in all German
newspapers. (Whatever lay behind it, when
after the war the telegram became known in
the Netherlands, it caused much resentment
and led the Dutch government to impound
House Doorn and all its contents).
On the same day that Wilhelm sent the
telegram to Hitler, June 17, he visited the
newly-created cemetery of honour on the
Grebbeberg, paying his respects to the fallen
soldiers of both armies, German and Dutch. It
was to be the last time he left House Doorn.
Left: On October 10, 1940, there occurred
the last festive event at house Doorn
when Princess Henriette von Schönaich-
Carolath, Hermine’s youngest daughter
(‘the general’, by now 21 years old), mar-
ried one of the Kaiser’s grandsons,
Prince Karl Franz (then serving as a lieu-
tenant in a panzer division and already a
veteran of the Polish campaign). Stand-
ing behind the Kaiser (third from right,
wearing his chain of office) is Baron
Justinus van Nagell, the mayor of Doorn,
who confirmed the civil marriage.

12
 DEATH OF THE KAISER
The Kaiser lived for one more year. On
October 1, 1940, there was a last festive occa-
sion at House Doorn when Princess Henri-
ette von Schönaich-Carolath, Hermine’s
youngest daughter, married one of the
Kaiser’s grandsons, Prince Karl Franz (the
son of Prince Joachim who had committed
suicide in 1920). Baron van Nagell confirmed
the civil marriage. The church wedding took
place at Potsdam on October 5.
By now Wilhelm was rapidly growing old
and during the spring of 1941 he began to
feel unwell. His heart had been erratic from
angina pectoris since early 1938 and for some
time now he had had trouble with his stom-
ach. On March 1, as he was wood-cutting in
the park, he suffered a collapse, which decid-
edly weakened him, and he spent more time
in bed or in a wheelchair. In the last week of
May, a cold turned to pneumonia and gradu-
ally it became clear that he would not
recover. He lay in his bed, barely conscious
but restful. His children gathered at Doorn
but when he seemed to rally slightly they On June 4, 1941, ex-Kaiser Wilhelm died at House Doorn at the age of 82.

ATB
Left: He lay in state in the dining room on the ground floor, his field-marshal’s baton and main decorations. Right: The same
coffin draped with the Imperial flag. Displayed in front are his room today, with a different portrait of Wilhelm on the wall.

departed again, only his daughter Viktoria

1
Louise (the Duchess of Brunswick) staying
on with her two children.
On the morning of June 3, he was fit
enough to rejoice over the German capture
7 of Crete, exclaiming ‘That’s wonderful! Our
glorious troops!’ However, later that day, a
clot of blood developed on his lung and, suf-
6 fering acute lack of breath and heavy chest
pains, he cried out to his nurse: ‘I am reach-
4
ing the end, I am sinking, I am sinking!’ That
2
evening, after having calmly said goodbye to
3
his wife, daughter, stepdaughter Henriette
and grandsons Louis Ferdinand and Franz
Josef, he lapsed into a coma from which he
never emerged. He died at 12.30 the follow-
ing afternoon, Wednesday June 4, in the
presence of his wife and daughter. He had
lived to 82.
5
Thus passed away the man who had been
the symbol of German imperialism and
aggression in the First World War. The news
of the Kaiser’s death caused scarcely a ripple
of interest, either in Germany or Britain. In
accordance with instructions laid down by Pro-
MUSEUM HUIS DOORN

paganda Minister Josef Goebbels back in 1933

the German papers gave the news of Wil-
helm’s death ‘with single-column headlines on
the lower half of the front page’. In his own
newspaper Das Reich Goebbels described the
Kaiser as: ‘one who only floated on the highest
crest of a rolling surf, a floating particle, a dis-
tinguished particle to be sure, but nothing
The ex-Kaiser was to be buried in the grounds of House Doorn. A special mausoleum more.’ In London, The Times curtly described
was planned to be built but until that was ready he would be temporarily laid to rest in him as ‘a man essentially weak, a leader only
the estate’s small chapel. [1] Original main road entrance. [2] New entrance and gate- by accident, set at the head of forces which he
house. [3] The House. [4] Orangery. [5] Wood-cutting shed. [6] Chapel. [7] Mausoleum. could stimulate but not control.’

13

Left: The funeral took place on Monday, June 9. Despite Wil-
helm’s wishes for a sober ceremony without much pomp, he
was given a grand military funeral. Here the special Ehren-
Bataillon (Battalion of Honour) comprising a company each
ATB
from the Heer, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe, marches into the
forecourt. The Kaiser’s bedroom, where he had died, is the one
on the left on the first floor. Right: The ivy has gone but other-
wise House Doorn remains largely as it was in 1940.

THE FUNERAL
Eight years before, at Christmas 1933, Wil-
helm had prepared elaborate directions for
his burial: if he returned to Germany during
his lifetime, he was to be laid to rest in the
family mausoleum in Potsdam; if he died in
exile, he was to be entombed in a mausoleum
in the Doorn grounds. He wanted a sober
ceremony, quiet and dignified, without
speeches or wreaths and without deputations
from Germany. In no case was there to be
any display of Swastika flags.
However, it was not to be. Hitler (who had
been kept informed of the Kaiser’s
approaching end) initially insisted that he be
given a state funeral in Potsdam, no doubt
intending to himself walk behind the coffin
so as to legitimise himself before the eyes of
the world as the sole and rightful successor of
the Hohenzollerns. However, many of
Hitler’s associates counselled against such a
move. In particular Goebbels advised against
it, arguing that there was still a lot of resent-
ment against the old Kaiser in Germany, par-
ticularly in Communists and Socialist circles One of the Kaiser’s cars, the 1931 Mercedes-Benz F 770K Cabriolet (L-15237), had
(which, in his function as Gauleiter of Berlin, been specially converted to serve as a hearse, its rear body having been taken off and
he was still trying to win over to the Nazi replaced by a platform. Here the coffin has just been placed onto it. Standing in front
cause); also the Monarchist movement, still of the car is Pastor Bruno Doehring who led the funeral service.
strong among the officer corps and nobility,
would not like seeing their Kaiser being hon- military event, with an Army band and a Imperial Army were given permission to
oured by the Nazis. guard of honour. Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the attend the funeral.
Realising that his original plan was unwise, German Reichskommissar governing the In a series of telephone conversations with
on May 29 — a full six days before the occupied Netherlands, was to represent the the Reichskanzlei in Berlin and the ‘Wolfs-
Kaiser’s death — Hitler ordered that the Führer, and lay a wreath on his behalf, and schanze’ Führerhauptquartier, Flügel-Adju-
funeral be organised by the German authori- there would be wreaths from the comman- tant (Wing Adjutant) Alexander Freiherr von
ties in the occupied Netherlands ‘with cool ders-in-chief of the three branches of the Grancy-Senarclens, Wilhelm’s confidential
observance of outer decency’. It was to be a Wehrmacht. Thirty officers of the former agent in Germany, negotiated a compromise.

Above: Despite the Kaiser’s explicit wish that there should be

no Swastikas at his funeral, this was swept aside by Hitler and
there were several in evidence, such as this one on the wreath
from the Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres (Commander-in-Chief of
NIOD 30025

the Army), Generalfeldmarschall Walther von Brauchitsch.

Right: Hitler himself had sent a huge wreath which was so
large and heavy that it had to be carried by four men.

14
Generalmajor Karl Count von der Goltz (left) and Detlev Count Walking alongside the hearse were eight house servants and
von Moltke (right), two of the Kaiser’s adjutants, walk ahead of four of the Kaiser’s adjutants — Wilhelm von Dommes,
the hearse carrying his field-marshal’s baton and decorations. Friedrich Mewes, Ulrich von Sell and Sigurd von Ilsemann —
Pastor Doehring follows behind. the latter each holding a corner of the Imperial flag.

Immediately behind came the Royal family, led by Crown Prince
Wilhelm escorting his stepmother Princess Hermine (in black veil),
followed by Prince Eitel Friedrich with Crown Princess Cecilia and
Prince Adalbert with his sister Princess Viktoria Louise.
ATB
The bridge across the moat remains but the grass circle in front
of the house, where in 1941 many wreaths were laid out, has
gone, the path today leading around the edges of the front
lawn.

As it evolved, Wilhelm’s wishes as to his to the Netherlands. Aboard were numerous Imperial Army was 91-year-old Generalfeld-
funeral were only very partially observed: on members of the Hohenzollern family and marschall August von Mackensen, the cele-
the one hand the ceremony was kept sober generals and admirals from both the old and brated victor of the Eastern Front in the
and there were no speeches but on the other new German armies with their aides-de- Great War. Others were General der Infante-
there was a sizable deputation from Germany, camp. Leading the deputation from the old rie Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel, General
there were many wreaths, and the Swastika
appeared on Hitler’s wreath and on the uni-
forms of several high officers present.
One important item had already been
arranged. Back in 1937, the Kaiser had him-
self bought a coffin, made of four-centime-
tre-thick oak wood, with a lead inner lining
and fitted with a silk bed and a pillow
embroidered with the Hohenzollern coat of
arms. Designed by German sculptor Max
Bezner, it weighed 50 kilos and cost 1,035
Dutch guilders.
Commissioned to organise the funeral was
the undertaking firm of Innemee from The
Hague, the final cost being 1,475 Dutch
guilders. A detailed plan was drawn up, giv-
ing a time schedule, seating arrangements,
the order of march of the cortege, the musi-
cal programme to be played by the military
band, etc. The body of the Kaiser would be
laid in state in House Doorn’s dining hall on
the ground floor, the coffin draped with the
Imperial flag. The mourning service would
be led by Pastor Bruno Doehring, parson of
Berlin cathedral and house chaplain of the
Hohenzollerns who had visited Doorn annu-
ally to preach a birthday sermon. As the
mausoleum, planned north of the main
house, still had to be built, the Kaiser’s body
would be temporarily laid to rest in the small Behind the Royal family came Reichskommissar Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Nazi governor
chapel that stood near the entrance to the of the occupied Netherlands, flanked by 91-year-old Generalfeldmarschall August von
estate. Mackensen. Following were the four representatives of the armed forces: (L-R) Admi-
A special train — Foreign Minister ral Wilhelm Canaris for the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW); General der
Joachim von Ribbentrop’s Sonderzug — was Flieger Friedrich Christiansen for the Luftwaffe; Admiral Hermann Densch for the
made available to convey the German guests Kriegsmarine, and Generaloberst Paul von Hase for the Heer.

15
NIOD 30030

Slowly, with drums rolling, the cortege proceeded across the worked for the German press agency Deutscher Verlag and the
estate grounds. This picture was taken by press photographer Berlin branch of Associated Press, and during the occupation
Emil Smetanic-Klinsky from Amsterdam who before the war for the Nazified agencies Transatlantic and Presse Bild Zentrale.

der Infanterie Walther Reinhardt, General
der Infanterie Hasse, General der Artillerie
von Behrend, Generalleutnant Karl von
Fabeck and Admirals Ludwig von Reuter
and Wilhelm von Lans. There were also gen-
erals from the Bulgarian and Hungarian
armies. Of the high-ranking officers selected
to represent the armed forces, three also trav-
elled to Holland in the special train: Admiral
Wilhelm Canaris, the chief of the Foreign
Branch of the Abwehr (Military Intelligence
Service), who was to represent the Oberkom-
mando der Wehrmacht (OKW, Armed
Forces High Command); Generaloberst Paul
von Hase, Kommandant of the Berlin garri-
son, who was to represent the Army; and
Admiral Hermann Densch, commanding the
Marinestation der Ostsee (Baltic Sea Naval
Station), who was to deputise for the Kriegs-
marine. All three had been selected for a spe-
cial reason: Canaris had been a celebrated
U-Boat commander in the First World War,
and was a favourite of the Kaiser; von Hase
had previously commanded the 56. Infan-
terie-Division, which had partaken in the
invasion of Holland in May 1940, and Densch
had been commander of a torpedo boat
flotilla in the 1914-18 war and had been
awarded with the Knight’s Cross of the
House Order of Hohenzollern.
Departing from Berlin’s Potsdamer Bahn-
hof at 7.10 p.m. on Sunday, June 8, the spe-
cial train halted at Potsdam to pick up most
of the members of the Royal family and then
travelled overnight to Holland, arriving at
Utrecht central station at 7 a.m. the follow-
ing morning, June 9. The members of the
Royal family were driven to Doorn in several
cars, the rest of the guests following at 9.45 in
ten other motor vehicles. Arriving at House
Doorn, they were received by one of the
Kaiser’s adjutants, Major Ulrich Freiherr
von Sell, everyone assembling in the main
house.
Already on display, inside the house and
on the lawn in front, were the dozens of
wreaths and floral pieces that had been sent,
including ones from the Danish and Swedish
royal houses, the Hungarian regent Admiral
Miklós Horthy, the Dutch Marechaussee, the
Dutch Reformed Church community of
Doorn, the Order of St John’s Hospital in
Amerongen and from numerous inhabitants
of Doorn. On the grass circle in front of the
house, the municipal citizens had laid out a
flowerbed representing an ermine mantle
with a golden cross.
At 10.30, Reichskommissar Seyss-Inquart
arrived. He was accompanied by several of
his high functionaries, including SS-Ober-
gruppenführer Hanss Rauter, the Höhere
SS- und Polizeiführer (Higher SS and Police
Leader) in occupied Holland, who was there
to represent Reichsführer-SS Heinrich
Himmler; Dr Otto Bene, representative of
the German Foreign Office in the occupied
Netherlands, and Landrat Dr Arthur
Joachim, the German plenipotentiary for the
province of Utrecht. They were received at
the gatehouse by one of the Kaiser’s adju-
tants, Oberst Eberhardt von Giese, who
escorted them first to the Crown Prince and
ATB

Walking ahead of the hearse were soldiers carrying seven large Today just a quiet path across the grounds, with House Doorn
wreaths, the last and largest being that from Hitler. just visible through the trees.

16
 Right: The funeral procession on its way
to the small chapel. In front are (L-R)
Princess Hermine and Crown Prince Wil-
helm; in the second row Crown Princess
Cecilia, Prince Eitel Friedrich, Princess
Viktoria Louise and Prince Adalbert; in
the third Prince Oskar, Princess Heinrich
(Irene von Hessen, widow of the Kaiser’s
eldest brother), Countess Margarete von
Hessen (the Kaiser’s last surviving sister)
and Prince August Wilhelm.

then to Empress Hermine to express their

sympathies. The Reichskommissar had
brought two wreaths, a personal one and a
huge tribute from the Führer.
Arriving with Seyss-Inquart was the man
who, together with Generaloberst von Hase
and Admirals Canaris and Densch, was to
represent the commanders-in-chief of the
armed forces: General der Flieger Friedrich
Christiansen, the Wehrmachtbefehlshaber in
den besetzten Niederlanden (Armed Forces
Commander in the Occupied Netherlands). A
famous naval pilot from the First World War,
decorated with the Pour le Mérite by the
Kaiser in 1917, he was to represent the C-in-C
of the Luftwaffe, Reichsmarschall Göring.
At 10.45, a special Ehren-Bataillon (Bat-
talion of Honour), comprising a band and a Rudolf-Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff up formation on either side of the forecourt.
company each from the Heer, Luftwaffe and (one of Mackensen’s former ADCs), At 10.55, Adjutant von Grancy-Senarclens
Kriegsmarine, and commanded by Oberst marched in through the gatehouse and took led the members of the Royal family to their

Right: In the next section were Seyss-

Inquart, von Mackensen and Generaloberst
von Hase, followed by Admiral Canaris,
General Christiansen and Admiral Densch.
It is remarkable how many of the high offi-
cers present at the funeral later became
involved in the July 20, 1944 plot to kill
Hitler, most of them then also falling victim
to the subsequent reprisals. Generaloberst
Von Hase, who was Stadtkommandant of
Berlin on the day of the attempt, was
arrested that same evening, sentenced to
death by the People’s Court on August 8,
1944 and hanged at Plötzensee Prison that
same day; Admiral Canaris was arrested on
July 23 and hanged at Flossenbürg concen-
tration camp on April 9, 1945; and Carl-
Heinrich von Stülpnagel, then Wehrmacht-
befehlshaber in France, was arrested,
convicted and executed at Plötzensee on
August 30, 1944. Only Rudolf-Christoph
Freiherr von Gersdorff (the commander of
the Ehren-Bataillon), who had attempted to
assassinate Hitler by suicide bombing at
the Zeughaus in Berlin on March 21, 1943,

NIOD 30019
escaped arrest, becoming one of the few
military anti-Hitler plotters to survive the
war.

seats, to the right of the coffin, while Adjutant

von Giese showed Seyss-Inquart to his place,
and Adjutants Alfred Niemann and Major
Louis von Müldner did the same with
Generalfeldmarschall von Mackensen and the
military representatives, all of them seated on
the left. The remaining guests were seated in
the vestibule. The space around the coffin was
already filled to capacity with floral tributes,
so the large wreaths of the C-in-Cs of the
armed forces, as soon as they had been
Left: Splendid in their white uniform tunics
were the representatives of the Hungarian
and Bulgarian armies. Towering high in
the third row (fifth from right) is SS-Ober-
gruppenführer Hanss Rauter, the Höhere
SS- und Polizeiführer in the occupied
Netherlands (who four years later would
be assassinated by the Dutch resistance —
see After the Battle No. 56). According to
the official programme, his assigned posi-
tion in the cortege was further up front,
alongside Reichskommissar Seyss-Inquart,
but this place was given up in favour of
NIOD 30020

Generalfeldmarschall von Mackensen. This

picture is one of several taken by SS-
Kriegsberichter Hans Fritz.

17
 Hohenzollern family, including Wilhelm’s
other surviving sons Eitel Friedrich, August
Wilhelm, Oskar and Adalbert and their
wives; his daughter Viktoria Louise and her
husband, and numerous grandchildren. Then
came the deputation from the Nazi govern-
ment: Seyss-Inquart, with Rauter, Bene and
Joachim. Next came the military contingent:
von Mackensen, with the representatives of
the Wehrmacht — Generals Hase and Chris-
tiansen and Admirals Densch and Canaris —
and those of the old Imperial Army and
Navy. Finally, the others mourners, many of
them Dutch dignitaries. (As the procession
formed up, there occurred a few impromptu
deviations from the official line-up: Mack-
ensen and his ADC moved forward, taking a
place next to Seyss-Inquart; and Rauter,
Bene and Joachim moved back, taking up
position amid the group of old Reichsheer
officers. No doubt the initiative of Seyss-
Inquart, whether these changes were just out
of reverence to the old field-marshal or out of
political design is hard to tell.)
With all formed up, the procession began
NIOD 30017

its slow march from the house to the chapel

near the entrance of the park, a distance of
some 250 metres. Crossing the moat bridge,

Above: The mourners assembling at the

chapel. Second from left is Prince Louis
Ferdinand (who had married at Doorn
three years earlier) and standing to his
left are Princesses Viktoria Louise and
Hermine, the Crown Prince, Seyss-
Inquart and von Mackensen. Right: The
view is back towards the path along
which the cortege arrived at the chapel.
Note the pigeon-loft on the lawn
through the trees in the background.
placed, were carried outside to make room for
the next ones. Only Hitler’s wreath, carried in
by four men, was left in place.
At 11.00 the official ceremony began
with a short service conducted by Pastor
Doehring and comprising a hymn accompa-
nied by a pump organ, the reading of several
verses from the Bible (selected by the Kaiser
himself), a prayer and another hymn.
Following this, the house personnel, led by
chamber servants Friedrich Prawitt and Wil-
helm Fernau, carried the coffin down the
front steps, and onto the Kaiser’s Mercedes-

ATB
Benz F 770K Cabriolet, which had been spe-
cially modified to serve as a hearse. As the
coffin came outside, the battalion of honour
presented arms, while the band sounded a
drum roll before playing the hymn Jesus
meine Zuversicht . . . (Jesus Christ, my sure
Defence). As soon as the coffin was on the
hearse, the battalion marched off, the band
playing two more hymns, Wenn ich einmal
soll scheiden . . . (When I must Die) and
Harre meine Seele . . . (Trust patiently, my
Soul)
As the battalion marched off, the cortege
formed up. Leading the procession was Kon-
teradmiral Theodor Eschenburg, one of the
Kaiser’s senior adjutants. Then came seven
large wreaths, each one carried by two
Wehrmacht soldiers, those of Empress Her-
mine and the Crown Prince coming first and
that of Hitler (with its four bearers) bringing
up the rear. Behind the wreaths came two
adjutants, Generalmajor Karl Count von der
Goltz carrying the Kaiser’s field-marshal’s
baton and Detlev Count von Moltke carrying
the Kaiser’s decorations, and Pastor
Doehring. Then came the coffin on its
hearse, escorted on each side by four house
servants and with the four corners of the
Imperial flag held by four more of the
Kaiser’s adjutants, Wilhelm von Dommes,
ATB

Friedrich Mewes, Ulrich von Sell and Sigurd

von Ilsemann.
The procession behind the hearse was
divided up into four distinct sections. First
came Empress Hermine and the Crown
Prince, followed by 33 other members of the
Left: Count von Moltke (left) and Count von der Goltz (right) present the Kaiser’s
field-marshal’s baton and decorations while Pastor Doehring leads in prayer from the
chapel door. Right: The two steps at the chapel entrance necessitated the addition of
the low ramp seen in the wartime photo.

18
the column marched right around the grass
circle in front of the house and proceeded
between the trees to the track that led across
the open lawns, past the pigeon-loft, to the
copse near the gate that hid the chapel. A
newsreel cameraman and several official
photographers were present, recording the
slow, dignified march through the park.
As the head of the Ehren-Bataillon
reached the turn-off to the chapel, it halted
and formed up along the main path, allowing
the cortege to move past. At the turn-off, he
hearse stopped, the coffin was taken off, car-
ried the last few metres to the chapel, and
with drums beating and trumpets sounding,
carried inside. The band started the hymn
Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott . . . (A Mighty
Fortress Is Our God) and the congregation
joined by singing the first two verses.
Pastor Doehring then gave the benedic-
tion and led in prayer. Taking a golden plate
filled with German soil brought especially
from the Sanssouci Park in Potsdam, he scat-
tered the earth out over the coffin. Wreaths
were then laid, the large ones being placed
outside the chapel on either side of the
entrance. Seyss-Inquart, having laid Hitler’s
wreath, gave the Nazi salute.
One incident remained in everybody’s
memory: entering the small chapel, the aged
Generalfeldmarschall von Mackensen, splen-
did in his old Hussars uniform and high fur
cap and wearing orders and ribbons dating
back to 1870, raised his field-marshal’s baton Left: Generaloberst von Hase lends a hand to von Mackensen as he emerges from the
and then, supported by his sword, knelt chapel, obviously moved by the passing of his old commander-in-chief. Right: While
unaided beside the catafalque, silent in von Mackensen and Hase give the traditional military salute of the old Imperial Army,
prayer. It was noticed he was in tears. Seyss-Inquart raises his arm for the Nazi greeting.
The Kaiser’s four sons then took up the
death watch. The band played another hymn, The ceremony over, the Empress and Crown music, only hymns and the sound of the
Ich bete an die Macht der Liebe . . . (I Pray to Prince returned to the house to receive the Yorckscher Marsch; no minute guns firing
the Power of Love) and the Ehren-Bataillon condolences of the guests. salute salvos, only a volley fired by riflemen.
then concluded the ceremony by firing three It had been a dignified ceremony, Sigurd von Ilsemann described it in his diary
shots as a final salute. They then marched off strangely lacking in pomp. No funeral ora- as ‘simple, militarily short, Prussian business-
under the sound of the Yorckscher Marsch. tion; no tolling of cathedral bells; no sombre like and yet full of high dignity’.

NIOD 30024

The flower-bedecked coffin inside the chapel, with the larger wreaths — that of Hitler on the left — placed outside.

19

The ceremony over, the grass in front of the chapel is bedecked
with dozens of wreaths and floral tributes.
On June 4, 1942 — one year to the day after the demise of the
ex-Kaiser — his remains were transferred to the small
AFTERMATH
Completion of the permanent mausoleum
took several months. Designed by the Berlin
architect Martin Kiessling, it was a simple
limestone neoclassical building, its main dec-
oration being a small coat of arms above the
door. On June 4, 1942 — exactly one year
after the Kaiser’s death — his sarcophagi was
transferred to its new abode.
By then, his widow no longer lived in
Doorn. In August 1941 Princess Hermine
returned to Schloss Saabor, her family castle
in Lower Silesia, where she remained for the
rest of the war. (Arrested by the Soviet occu-
pation authorities in 1945, she was interned
in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder and died there on
August 7, 1947, aged 59).
House Doorn was left in possession of the
Crown Prince, who dissolved the household,
leaving the Kaiser’s faithful adjutant, Sigurd
von Ilsemann (who in 1920 had married a
daughter of Count Bentinck and had decided
to stay in Holland) as its caretaker. Put under
special protection ‘due to the high cultural
value of the collections held there’, and in
consultation with the (Nazi-controlled)
Dutch Ministry of Education, Science and
Culture, a decision was taken to turn the
house into a museum. German sentries still
guarded the estate but from February 25,
1942 until the end of the war, small parties of
mostly Dutch civilians were allowed to visit
the house and admire its wealth.
20
ATB
After the war, with House Doorn turned into a museum, the chapel
served for a time as its souvenir shop. Today it stands unused.
ATB
mausoleum that had been newly built in the grounds of House
Doorn, and this is where they remain to this day.
After the war, House Doorn and all the all its unique riches and treasures has served
Kaiser’s possessions were appropriated by as a museum, visited by tens of thousands
the Dutch state. Since then, the house with every year. Run since 1953 by a special foun-
dation, over the years it has been confronted
with budget cuts, threats of closure and other
problems but each time the museum sur-
vived and emerged stronger. In 2014 it
opened a new permanent exhibition on the
Netherlands in the First World War, housed
in the estate’s former garage building, espe-
cially enlarged with a glass extension.
Left: After the death of her husband, ex-
Kaiserine Hermine returned to her family
castle at Saabor in Lower Silesia. In early
1945, she fled westwards before the
Russian advance and went to stay with
her younger sister who lived at the town
of Rossla in the Harz Mountains, 50 kilo-
metres west of Leipzig. This picture of
her walking with her niece Princess
Carmo Hartung and the latter’s two-
year-old son, Prince Franz Josef of Prus-
sia, was taken there on April 24, 1945
after she had been detained by troops of
the US 104th Infantry Division. This part
of Germany later fell under the Soviet
zone of occupation and the Russians
soon interned Hermine in Frankfurt-an-
der-Oder where she died on August 7,
NIOD 30063
1947, aged 59. Despite her wish to be
entombed in Doorn, she was buried in
Potsdam.

In early July 1942, the German armies on the Eastern front, as part
of Heeresgruppe Süd’s renewed summer offensive and south-
ward drive towards the Caucasus (Operation ‘Blau’), attacked and
captured the strategic city of Voronezh. Lying just east of the
great Don river, the city was taken in a concentric attack by four
divisions — one armoured and three motorised — striking out
from two newly captured bridgeheads. The Russian defenders
were no match for the Germans and, despite Stalin sending in
BA BILD 101I-216-0436-07A
reinforcements from his strategic reserve and ordering counter-
attacks to retake the city, the Soviets lost heavily, especially in
men and tanks. However, the protracted fight for the city kept the
German armour engaged in the Voronezh area longer than
expected, upsetting the timetable for the main offensive and
fatally delaying the operation to capture Stalingrad. This picture
of tanks of Panzer-Abteilung 103, part of the motorised 3. Infan-
terie-Division, in the northern part of the city was taken on July 7.

THE BATTLE OF VORONEZH

The failure of Operation ‘Barbarossa’ to
knock the Soviet Union out of the war in
1941 almost brought the Wehrmacht to its
The German summer offensive, code-
named ‘Fall Blau’, consisted of a three-
pronged attack by Generalfeldmarschall
By Jason Mark
knees when the Red Army struck back dur- Fedor von Bock’s Heeresgruppe Süd that south and capture the oilfields. General-
ing the frigid winter of 1941-42 with a series aimed to destroy Red Army forces in the oberst Hermann Hoth’s 4. Panzer-Armee
of successful counter-offensives. Despite this
almost fatal setback, Hitler still desired an
offensive solution, so as winter drew to an
end, the Oberkommando des Heeres (Army
High Command, OKH) began to develop
plans for a 1942 offensive. Germany’s insuffi-
cient oil reserves and inability to conduct a
prolonged war determined the objective: the
Caucasian oilfields. Fortunately for the
Ostheer (German Army on the Eastern
front), the spring thaw, general exhaustion
and overextended supply lines halted Soviet
operations and allowed it to catch its breath
and to rebuild. Warmer weather resurrected
German spirits and slowly dissipated the
taint of winter defeats. A resounding tri-
umph over a Soviet counter-offensive at
Kharkov in May 1942 (see After the Battle
No. 112) signified that the Ostheer was once
again in fine mettle.

Right: Our comparison photographs for

this story were taken by Sergey Popov, a
resident of the city and long-time stu-
dent of the 1942 battle. This is the same
spot at the junction of Donbasskaya
SERGEY POPOV

Street and Plekhanovskaya Street, near

Voronezh Railway Station II, today. The
multi-storey apartment block on the
right still stands (see also page 35).

21
Right: Operation ‘Blau’ was to comprise
four phases. Voronezh was to be cap-
tured in Phase 1 after which the 4. Panzer-
Armee and 6. Armee were to join in a
southward advance towards Stalingrad,
followed by a push into the Caucasus.
and Generaloberst Maximilian von Weichs’s
2. Armee, supported by Colonel-General
Gusztav Jany’s Hungarian 2nd Army, would
attack from Kursk to Voronezh and then
continue south-east along the Don river to
anchor the northern flank of the offensive on
the Volga river. General der Panzertruppe
Friedrich Paulus’s 6. Armee would advance
from Kharkov parallel with Hoth’s army to
the Volga, while Generaloberst Ewald von
Kleist’s 1. Panzer-Armee plunged south
towards the lower Don with the 17. Armee
on its western flank and the Rumanian 4th
Army to its east.
The initial objective for Hoth’s 4. Panzer-
Armee was the strategically important city of
Voronezh. In the summer of 1942, Voronezh
— a major provincial city of 326,840 people
and the administrative centre of Voronezh
Oblast — was less than 200 kilometres from
the front line. Straddling the Voronezh river,
a tributary of the Don, the city was a vital
transportation hub between Moscow — over
500 kilometres to the north — and southern
Russia, with railways and arterial roads radi-
ating in all four directions. Industrial areas in
its northern and western districts contained
mills, bakeries and enterprises that processed
cattle products (meat, tallow, soap and
hides). When the Wehrmacht crossed the
border on June 22, 1941, many of the city’s
manufacturing facilities converted to military
production: the excavator factory helped
develop the Katyusha rocket-launcher, while
other complexes turned out radios, diesel
motors, aircraft engines, locomotives and
rolling stock. On the city’s outskirts were two
airfields.
Armeegruppe Weichs (the northern group-
ing of Heeresgruppe Süd) formed the north-
ern pincer of a double envelopment that
aimed to surround the Soviet 40th and 21st
Armies and then exploit to the Don river. On
its northern wing was Weichs’s own 2. Armee
with three infantry corps; in the middle was
Hoth’s 4. Panzer-Armee with — from north
to south — General der Infanterie Erich
Straube’s XIII. Armee-Korps, General der
Panzertruppe Willibald Freiherr von Langer-
mann’s XXIV. Panzer-Korps and General-
leutnant Werner Kempf’s XXXXVIII.
Panzer-Korps, and protecting the southern
flank was Jany’s Hungarian 2nd Army with
two infantry corps.
Opposing Weichs were Lieutenant-Gen-
eral Mikhail Parsegov’s 40th Army with six
rifle divisions and three rifle brigades, Major-
General Aleksei Danilov’s 21st Army with
nine rifle divisions and two rifle brigades,
and elements of Major-General Nikolai
Pukhov’s 13th Army.
Kempf’s XXXXVIII. Panzer-Korps, field-
ing 280 panzers, comprised Generalmajor
Bruno Ritter von Hauenschild’s 24. Panzer-
Division, Generalmajor Sigfrid Henrici’s 16.
Infanterie-Division (mot.) and Generalmajor
Walter Hörnlein’s Grossdeutschland-Divi-
sion (mot.), all high-quality formations.
Langermann’s XXIV. Panzer-Korps, com-
prising the 9. Panzer-Division, 3. Infanterie-
Division (mot.) and 377. Infanterie-Division
(and reinforced with the 11. Panzer-Division
on July 4), had 353 panzers.
The Red Army held a slight numerical
superiority in armour: Parsegov’s 40th Army
possessed roughly 70 tanks in two brigades,
while the 16th Tank Corps with 180 tanks
was in the army’s rear; Danilov’s 21st Army
was supported by the 13th Tank Corps (163
tanks) and could also call upon the 4th Tank
Corps (145 tanks) and 24th Tank Corps (141
tanks) — giving a total of 699 tanks com-
pared to 633 on the German side.
22
2. ARMEE
1
4. PANZER-ARMEE
VORONEZH
HUNGARIAN
2ND ARMY
2
6. ARMEE
1. PANZER-ARMEE
17. ARMEE
TURKEY
THE START OF THE OFFENSIVE
Armeegruppe Weichs initiated ‘Blau’ at
dawn on June 28 with a 30-minute artillery
barrage and air strikes. Mechanised infantry
breached the Soviet defences and the armour
slipped through. The terrain was almost per-
fect tank country: gently rolling grasslands
with occasional patches of woodland, the
only obstacle being the many waterways.
Oberst Gustav-Adolf Riebel’s Panzer-Regi-
ment 24 of the 24. Panzer-Division seized an
intact railway bridge over the Tim river — lit
fuses and explosive charges were ripped off
in the nick of time — and then rolled on to
the Kshen river. Other divisions achieved
similar progress, yet an ill-timed downpour
in the evening threatened to scuttle the
entire operation, the sodden ground immo-
bilising some units for days.
Kempf’s mobile formations continued to
churn eastward on June 29. After crossing
the Kshen and covering almost 30 kilometres
with the Grossdeutschland echeloned to its
left, the 24. Panzer-Division overran 40th
Army headquarters in Bykovo and just
missed capturing General Parsegov and his
staff. Stukas mistakenly bombed the spear-
heads of both divisions, even though aerial
recognition panels were displayed, because
the pilots believed that no German unit
could have penetrated so far. As night fell,
the campaign’s first major tank duel erupted
near the villages of Bykovo and Gorshech-
noye and continued into June 30. Oberst
Riebel’s panzers bloodied their opponents,
claiming 28 tanks, mostly KVs and T-34s,
though not without loss. During the engage-
ment, Leutnant Herbert Cornelius, a platoon
leader in the 5. Schwadron of Panzer-Regi-
ment 24, narrowly escaped death:
‘While I was informing my gunner about a
tank I had spotted, I saw its muzzle flash. Fir-
ing at the same time as us, its shell struck our
STALINGRAD
3
4
gun mantlet and with a loud crack shoved the
whole cannon deep into the turret, causing
me to hit the back of my head against the tur-
ret wall and lose consciousness.’
Although the southern wing of the 40th
Army held the Hungarians west of the Tim,
Soviet leaders realised that unless Weichs
was stopped, his panzers would gain opera-
tional freedom, fan out and trap most of the
40th Army. The situation deteriorated fur-
ther for the Soviets on June 30 when Paulus’s
6. Armee set off and quickly coalesced into a
second pincer that threatened the entire
Southwestern Front of Marshal Semen
Timoshenko. The breakneck pace was main-
tained over the following days. By July 2, the
24. Panzer-Division had cracked enemy
resistance around Stary Oskol and opened
the way to the Don river and Voronezh.
In response to the German attack, Lieu-
tenant-General Filipp Golikov’s Bryansk
Front was renamed the Voronezh Front. On
July 2, after incurring disastrous losses, the
Stavka released Lieutenant-General Maksim
Antoniuk’s 3rd Reserve Army to take up
positions north of Voronezh. Once in situ, it
was renamed 60th Army. At this point, Stalin
still believed the German offensive was a
prelude to an advance on Moscow.
On July 4, Langermann pivoted his 9. and
11. Panzer-Divisions north-eastward to form
a cordon, together with the infantry divisions
of the XIII. Armee-Korps, to protect the
northern flank of the main axis of advance to
Voronezh. At the same time, the spearheads
of Kempf’s XXXXVIII. Armee-Korps — the
Grossdeutschland and the 24. Panzer-Divi-
sion, followed by the 16. Infanterie-Division
(mot.) — rushed towards the Don river. The
only forces defending Voronezh were weak
NKVD security forces, air defence units, rear
service elements of the 40th Army and the
immobile 75th and 53rd Fortified Regions.

Operation ‘Blau’ and the race to the Don began on June 28.
Seven days into the offensive, on July 4, Kampfgruppe Heller-
mann of the 24. Panzer-Division captured a ferry landing at
Rudkino and established a bridgehead, thus becoming the first
German troops to reach and cross the upper Don. Further
north, Schützen-Regiment 26 captured a bridge over the Don
near Yunevka/Malyshevo, but it was in such poor condition
that only foot soldiers could cross. Engineers worked all
NAC
through the night of July 4/5 to repair and strengthen the
span’s sagging central support, and tanks of Panzer-Regiment
24 began crossing in the morning. This is Rittmeister Ulrich
von Mirbach’s 1. Schwadron of the I. Abteilung traversing the
river. Sitting in the cupola of ‘131’ is Leutnant Cay-Lorenz
Baron von Brockdorff, leader of the squadron’s 3. Zug (and
future Knight’s Cross winner). All three battalions of the regi-
ment were across before noon.

BRIDGEHEADS ACROSS THE DON Blumenthal and a few men sprinted across, bridge, Blumenthal and his men captured the
The Grossdeutschland and the 24. Panzer- established a toe-hold and doused small fires eastern approaches the following morning,
Division agreed to establish as many bridge- on the wooden structure while Unteroffizier July 5.
heads over the Don as possible for a concen- Hempel, neck-deep in the water, tore off Four kilometres further south, near the
tric attack on Voronezh. explosives and burning fuses with his bare Semiluki railway bridge, the I. Bataillon
On July 4, Kampfgruppe Hellermann from hands. Blumenthal pulled back his small gar- (Hauptmann Theodor Bethke) and III.
the 24. Panzer-Division, under Oberstleut- rison under the cover of darkness. Although Bataillon (Hauptmann Prüss) of Oberst
nant Vollrath von Hellermann, commander fire destroyed a 15-metre section of the Eugen Garski’s Infanterie-Regiment ‘Gross-
of Kradschützen-Abteilung 4, seized Siniye-
Lipyagi and established a bridgehead over
the Don at Rudkino, 35 kilometres south-
south-west of Voronezh.
Further north, Oberst Maximilian von
Edelsheim’s Schützen-Regiment 26 and two-
thirds of Oberst Riebel’s Panzer-Regiment
24 captured an intact but rickety bridge over
the Don at Yunevka. The latter village lay
just north of the confluence of the Don and
its tributary, the Voronezh river, and some
18 kilometres closer to Voronezh city than
Rudkino. From there one could advance
directly to the city, the main part of which lay
on the west bank of the Voronezh, whereas
from Rudkino one could only make an
approach along the east bank of the
Voronezh towards the suburbs on the east
bank. It was obvious that an attack towards
the city could better be launched from the
Yunevka bridgehead. An advance from the
Rudkino bridgehead to attack Voronezh
from the east was stymied by strong resis-
SERGEY POPOV

tance and was consequently abandoned.

In the Grossdeutschland sector, Oberleut-
nant Carl Ludwig Blumenthal, leading the 7.
Kompanie of Oberst Otto Köhler’s Infan-
terie-Regiment ‘Grossdeutschland’ 1, seized
the village of Semiluki, 12 kilometres west of A single-lane pontoon bridge, installed in the 1970s, now connects the riverbanks. Maly-
Voronezh, late on July 4 and charged its Don shevo is still very rural, but its eastern neighbour, Shilovo, boasts large apartment com-
road bridge with one of its platoons. Despite plexes that arose concurrently with the construction of a nuclear power plant that began
fire from bunkers on the opposite bank, in 1983. (Voronezh residents voted overwhelmingly in 1990 to halt its construction).

23
 STARYE SEMILUKI

SEMILUKI

YUNEVKA

RUDKINO
JASON MARK

HEERESKARTE OST-EUROPA 1:300,000, SHEET A52 VORONEZH

While the 24. Panzer-Division established bridgeheads over the the city from the south-west and west. The Yunevka bridge-
Don at Rudkino and Yunevka, the Grossdeutschland Division head was then later used by the 16. Infanterie-Division and the
did the same further north, at Starye Semiluki and Semiluki. one at Starye Semiluki by the 3. Infanterie-Division when these
This enabled the two divisions to launch a concentric attack on formations were ordered to take over the battle.

24
Right: By mid-morning on July 6, the 24.
Panzer-Division had captured the southern
outskirts of Voronezh and the undamaged
southern bridge over the Voronezh river,
thus sealing off an important retreat route
for Soviet troops. The following morning
(July 7), a strong combat group — compris-
ing Schützen-Regiment 21 and the
armoured squadrons of Kradschützen-
Abteilung 4 and Schützen-Regiment 26 —
was assembled at the southern end of
Ulitsa 20-letiya Oktyabrya (20th Anniver-
sary of October Street), a few hundred
metres uphill from the bridge embankment,
in preparation for a push into the city. An
official photographer, Kriegsberichter Klaus
Niermann of Luftwaffe-Kriegsberichter-
Kompanie 8, joined the force. One of his first
shots showed an SdKfz 251 half-track of the
I. Abteilung of Schützen-Regiment 26 mov-

BA BILD 101I-452-0997-10A
ing up Baltiyskiy Alley, a minor road branch-
ing off 20-letiya Oktyabrya (see the town
plan on page 27).

deutschland’ 2 paddled across the Don in

inflatable rafts once darkness fell on July 5.
The crossing took most of the night and as
dawn broke on July 6, both battalions had
assembled on the east bank, ready to attack
eastward to Podkletnoye station. Good initial
headway was stalled first by determined resis-
tance from the station buildings, then mine-
fields on a line of hills, and finally by flanking
fire from the village of Podkletnoye, a kilo-
metre to the north. No progress could be
made until this village was taken by Köhler’s
Infanterie-Regiment ‘Grossdeutschland’ 1.
Assault guns were the first vehicles to
cross Blumenthal’s repaired bridge and
joined the infantry outside Podkletnoye at
around 0900 hours. Difficult combat in blaz-
ing heat sapped the infantrymen’s strength,
but they eventually cleared Soviet troops
from the nearby woods and troop training
grounds. Following the capture of Podklet-
noye, two companies of the I. Bataillon of
Infanterie-Regiment ‘Grossdeutschland’ 1
clambered aboard the assault guns and sor-
tied towards Voronezh, pushing deep into
the city and reaching Voronezh II Railway
Station, the freight and marshalling yards.
Though soon called back, they laid claim to
being the first German troops in the city.

SERGEY POPOV
Hoth was under strict instructions not to
let his mobile formations become ensnared
in urban combat as they were needed for the
second phase of the offensive, yet as it
appeared the Soviets were abandoning the
city, Heeresgruppe Süd allowed motorised Still a nondescript back alley today.
troops to occupy it. Four such divisions were
converging on Voronezh, but the two actu- had been ordered to pull back and head This all happened at the moment Stalin
ally in position to take the city — the Gross- south. The task of taking Voronezh thus fell ordered the Red Army to hold the city or
deutschland and the 24. Panzer-Division — to the 3. and 16. Infanterie-Divisions (mot.). recapture it. SERGEY POPOV

Left: Assault groups formed by armoured personnel carriers
and panzers swept north along individual streets, flushing
out and eliminating Soviet defenders. This T-60 light tank
was caught at the crossroads of 20-letiya Oktyabrya Street
and Novo Slobodskaya/Kirova Streets. It almost certainly
belonged to the 181st Tank Brigade — holding position in
the area of the meat-packing plant on Koltsovskaya Street
— which at 8 a.m. that morning had despatched a four-tank
platoon into the city on reconnaissance. ‘All were
destroyed’, noted the brigade’s combat journal. Right: The
apartment building still stands today, though with the addi-
tion of a new wing.

25
 SERGEY POPOV
NIOD 60320

Left: Panzer ‘214’ of Panzer-Regiment 24 rolls north past Tram
No. 56 on 20-letiya Oktyabrya, just south of the Y-junction with
Koltsovskaya. Note the aerial recognition flag draped across
the front, a sensible precaution considering the number of
Stukas in the air. Behind the tram is the Park of Culture and
Rest, known locally as the ‘Park of the Living and the Dead’
because it was a converted cemetery that had been in use until
1935 (marked [C] on the town plan on page 27). Right: The
trams are gone, the rails removed, and the Voronezh Circus
now fills the park.

PENETRATION OF THE CITY

At 0800 hours on July 5, the three battal-
ions of Oberst Riebel’s Panzer-Regiment 24
drove single file over the Don bridge at
Yunevka, repaired overnight by divisional
engineers. Major Dietrich von der Lancken,
commander of the regiment’s III. Abteilung,
recorded events in a private log:
‘In a small patch of woods two kilome-
tres north-east of the bridge, the attack was
readied. The regiment moved off at 1400
hours north-east towards Voronezh. To
our left, separated by an enemy-occupied
forest, was the II. Abteilung, while eche-
loned steeply backwards on the right was
the I. Abteilung. Against slight infantry
resistance, a hill three kilometres south-
west of the outskirts, which offered an
excellent view of the city, was occupied.
Suddenly, ten T-34s appeared in front of
the battalion. In a fierce engagement, eight
enemy tanks are destroyed. A further
advance into the city encountered strong
resistance. Anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft
guns and even dug-in tanks secured the
edge of the city. In accordance with orders,
the battalion hedge-hogged for the night
on the high ground.’
The following day (July 6), Major Josef Oberleutnant Klaus Nordmann, adjutant of the I. Abteilung of Panzer-Regiment 24,
Fau’s Kradschützen-Bataillon 53 of General- flattens a sapling in Panzer III ‘362’ while taking a short-cut across a park on the
major Helmuth Schlömer’s 3. Infanterie- north-western corner of the Y-junction. Twenty-four hours later, the street in the dis-
Division (mot.) gained a foothold over the tance would be a scene of carnage (see pages 38-41). Kriegsberichter Niermann used
Don north of Semiluki village and erected a two cameras, one with regular black-and-white film, the other with rare colour stock.
strong northward-facing flank across to Pod-
kletnoye. That night, General Schlömer
received the order to relieve the Gross-
deutschland.
Insertion of Oberst Walter Denkert’s
Infanterie-Regiment 8 (mot.) into its allo-
cated sector on July 7 was delayed by the
Grossdeutschland columns moving in the
opposite direction across the only bridge.
Major Hans-Joachim Schepers’s Sturm-
geschütz-Abteilung ‘Grossdeutschland’ was
left behind for 24 hours to support
Schlömer’s division. Piggybacking a com-
pany from Oberst August-Wilhelm Küster’s
Infanterie-Regiment 29 (mot.), its 3. Batterie
pushed into Voronezh in an attempt to
become the first German unit to take the
city, but was recalled.
A combat report prepared by Oberst Wil-
helm Lengerke’s Schützen-Regiment 21 of
the 24. Panzer-Division reveals that divi-
sion’s methodical assault into the metropolis
from the south:
‘As July 7 dawned, the armoured
SERGEY POPOV

squadrons of Kradschützen-Abteilung 4 and

Right: A hamburger restaurant and a
pharmacy now fill the space.

26
 B
A
1 3

4
FREYER’S POSITION
8

C
4
6
5 D
9

10

11

E
JASON MARK

This town plan of Voronezh was produced by Vermessungs-
und Karten-Abteilung 620 (a 4. Panzer-Armee mapping unit) on
July 3, 1942 from a captured Red Army map, German Air Min-
istry intelligence and aerial photos. We have indicated the
streets and locations that feature in our story. [1] Plekha-
novskaya Street. [2] Donbasskaya Street. [3] 3rd Internatsio-
nala Street. [4] Koltsovskaya Street (western part today named
Voroshilova Street). [5] 20-letiya Oktyabrya Street. [6] Novo
Slobodskaya Street (today Moiseyeva Street). [7] Kirova
Street. [8] 20th Anniversary of October Square (today Lenin
Square). [9] Bolshaya Streletskaya Street. [10] Krasnoznamon-
naya Street. [11] Baltiyskiy Alley. [A] Voronezh Railway Station
II. [B] Voroshilovskaya Polyclinic. [C] Park of Culture and Rest.
[D] Voronezh Aviation Institute. [E] Chizhov Military Barracks.

27
BA BILD 101I-452-0997-31A

Schützen-Regiment 26 were placed under Single panzers positioned themselves at key junctions to secure the location against
the control of our combat group. Using the enemy tanks. Niermann pictured Panzer ‘224’ sitting at the intersection of
armoured half-tracks, other shock troops Koltsovskaya and Plekhanovskaya Streets. As shown in the preceding frames of his
were set up to establish and maintain contact film, one half-track squadron of the I. Abteilung of Schützen-Regiment 26 had already
with the strongpoints and should also drive rolled past en route to the city’s main square.
along individual streets to clear them, exactly
according to plan. Single tanks were
deployed at key intersections to shoot up
enemy tanks.
‘The operation, prepared down to the
smallest detail, succeeded. By midday, after
the elimination of local resistance, the south-
ern part of the city was firmly in our hands.
Although only Panzer-Schwadron Spannoc-
chi [led by Rittmeister Emil Spannocchi]
could be deployed, since the rest were halted
due to fuel shortages, riflemen and panzer
crews with assigned pioneers held all points
reached. Reconnaissance pushed out to the
railway determined that other German
troops were nowhere in the city. On the
other hand, the pressure of our troops

SERGEY POPOV
attacking from the west and north-west was
noticeable around midday. Before this
attack, the Russians pressed against the city
centre to reach the only intact southern
bridge and gain the eastern bank. Numerous
tanks, mostly T-34s, appeared, either individ- Voronezh has seen extensive development since the war and the quiet intersection
ually or in Groups.’ of 1942 is today a busy juncture overlooked by multi-storey blocks.
BA BILD 101I-452-0997-32A

SERGEY POPOV

Left: Niermann’s next shot shows what the commander of
‘224’ was looking out for: a column of motorcycle sidecars
and half-tracks from the same battalion, each vehicle travel-
ling 50 metres apart, rolling north-eastwards along
Koltsovskaya. Resembling a victory parade rather than an
incursion into the depths of an enemy metropolis, the single-
column deployment shows that the Germans anticipated
little resistance. Right: Six lanes of traffic now fill Koltsovs-
kaya Street. Buildings like these, typical of 1930s Soviet
architecture, are colloquially known as ‘Stalinkas (‘Stalin’s
Houses’). The former government building today houses
banks, a post office and retail stores.

28

By midday, with the southern half of Voronezh apparently in Ger-
man hands, Niermann returned to the starting point of the day’s
operation at the southern end of 20-letiya Oktyabrya Street. On
the right, Oberst Fritz von Broich, commander of Schützen-
Brigade 24 (wearing the German Cross in Gold on his breast
pocket), is briefed on the situation by his battalion commanders.
The house on the right has gone but vehicles still park on the
open area today. Construction of the Voronezh Reservoir in the
BA BILD 101I-452-0997-36A
In the middle, awaiting orders, is Leutnant Hubertus Schulz,
commander of the 2. Zug of the 2. Schwadron of Kradschützen-
Abteilung 4 (wearing a peaked officer’s cap). The SdKfz 250/3
command half-track belongs to the I. Bataillon of Schützen-Regi-
ment 26. Visible in the distance, on the far side of the Voronezh
river, is the city power station.
SERGEY POPOV
early 1970s widened and raised the river, making it far more
visible today than in 1942.
29
JASON MARK
Shortly after midday, Leutnant Schulz was ordered to lead a
combat reconnaissance into the city and link up with a
patrol from the Grossdeutschland Division at the railway
station. His Kampfgruppe consisted of his own platoon of
eight half-tracks (one armed with a 3.7cm PaK anti-tank gun,
the others with machine guns), a few other half-tracks from
SERGEY POPOV
The building on the right had been the Voronezh Engineering
and Construction Institute until mid-June 1941, when it became
30
the 1. and 3. Schwadrons, plus tanks from the 2. Schwadron
of Panzer-Regiment 24. Here, the group pauses half-way
along 20-letiya Oktyabrya, opposite the Voronezh Aviation
Institute. Although the street had been swept a few hours
earlier, Schulz still proceeded with caution due to reports of
Soviet tanks roving the area.
the Voronezh Aviation Institute. Today it is the Voronezh State
University of Architecture and Civil Engineering.

After battling two T-34s, Schulz’s patrol halted on Plekha-
novskaya Street just before the intersection with 3rd Internat-
sionala Street, barely two blocks from the railway station. On
the right is Panzer ‘224’, seen earlier guarding the intersection at
the southern end of Plekhanovskaya. Smoke billows from a fuel
JASON MARK
storage depot north of the railway line. Schulz and his men —
including Oberwachtmeister Willy Neubacher, commander of
the 3. Zug — left their vehicles and advanced towards the
station on foot to meet the Grossdeutschland patrol, but
nobody was there. Schulz subsequently pulled back his patrol.

As part of the 24. Panzer-Division attack With no apparent cohesive defence, the position of the smoke-tinted sun, we
from the south, a half-track platoon from the Rittmeister Ulrich von Mirbach, commander reached the riverside road just short of the
2. Schwadron of Kradschützen-Abteilung 4, of the 1. Schwadron of Panzer-Regiment 24, north bridge after just half an hour. We halt
escorted by some panzers, reconnoitred into was ordered to block the northern road and observe if the riverbank is enemy-occu-
the southern part of the city. Patrol leader bridge over the Voronezh river with his pied. Leutnant [Cay-Lorenz Baron] von
was Leutnant Hubertus Schulz: squadron and an attached company of Brockdorf drove up alongside my panzer at
‘We drove north into the city on a wide panzer grenadiers: the front and requested permission to take the
arterial road, the vehicles at 50-metre inter- ‘The grenadiers sat on the back of the pan- bridge with his platoon. My answer: No, but
vals. Watching carefully in all directions, we zers and safeguarded them against close-com- put enemy bridge guards under fire! After the
groped our way from intersection to intersec- batants, but we saw neither enemy soldiers first bursts of fire, the Russians blew up the
tion. Nothing moved. Suddenly, an avenue nor civilians in our advance to the northern bridge! We were about 150 metres away and
tree about 100 metres ahead of us seemed to outskirts. The city seemed to be completely saw the piles of the wooden bridge whirl
be moving. I stopped and watched through deserted. Driving to the north-east, based on through the air like matchsticks.’
the binoculars. I distinctly recognised two
well-camouflaged T-34s, which turned their
barrels on us and opened fire a little later.
We threw smoke-candles and I ordered
“Dismount and vehicles back!” We jumped
out of the vehicles and dispersed into the
houses alongside the road. Due to the dis-
tance between vehicles, the platoon split
apart and every man was on his own.
‘The enemy tanks advanced and one
secured directly to our right. We tried to
attach a hollow-charge mine, but the tank
kept moving before we could arm the deto-
nator. Suddenly the street came alive. Shots
whipped from all directions. We sought pro-
tection in the partially burned-out houses.
‘After a while, the tanks returned at high
speed; they had been taken under fire by our
anti-tank guns, set up in a cross-street. That
was the end of the scare. Even small-arms
fire stopped once their tank protection had
disappeared.
‘The platoon rallied and we proceeded on
SERGEY POPOV

foot to the station, only encountering indi-

vidual resistance nests. Since we could not
find Grossdeutschland troops far and wide,
we retired to our vehicles and started our
return trip. This reconnaissance revealed
that the city was still occupied by infantry A large building (just visible on the right) prevented Sergey from taking a more-accu-
forces that were more or less fighting in iso- rate comparison but the large residential complex remains though since modified by
lated groups.’ the addition of two new wings that now enclose its U-shaped courtyard.

31
 Right: The Grossdeutschland Division —
the northern prong of the concentric
attack on Voronezh — had crossed the
Don river at two places near Semiluki on
July 4 and from these bridgeheads had
conducted two forays into the city. The
first, on July 6, had reached Voronezh
Railway Station II, but the second on July
7 was recalled because orders had been
received to hand over operations to the
3. Infanterie-Division. This explains why
Leutnant Schulz did not find any Gross-
deutschland troops at the station. The
division pulled out of the battle, with-
drawing back over the Don and moving
south to re-join Heeresgruppe Süd’s
main offensive. Here assault guns from
Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung ‘Grossdeutsch-
land’ head south along the west bank of
the Veduga river, a small stream running
four kilometres west of the Don, near the
village of Yendovishche.
BA BILD 101I-216-0435-29

Having held the northern flank of the XXXXVIII. Panzer-Korps
front for two days, the 3. Infanterie-Division was ordered to
take over the Grossdeutschland Division’s sector north of
Voronezh late on July 6. This shot, by Kriegsberichter Koch
of Propaganda-Kompanie 694, shows the relief underway.
Panzer IIs from the 3. Kompanie of Panzer-Abteilung 103 (the
tank battalion attached to the 3. Infanterie-division) cross the
Veduga river near Yendovishche en route for Voronezh,
while Grossdeutschland infantrymen move in the opposite
direction.

Other panzers and half-tracks also pressed Schwadrons, the barracks complex was able to report this break-out by radio in time,
into the eerily deserted city. A report by mopped up, from which 36 enemy tanks and our panzers managed to knock out all of
Panzer-Regiment 24 perfectly captures the broke out towards the city centre. We were those tanks.’
atmosphere:
‘Metre by metre, the fighting eats its way
into the city. The heat of the large burning
apartment blocks, together with gun fumes,
lies over the thoroughfares. The bright
façades stand out from the black clouds of
smoke from the huge fires caused by our
bombing attacks.’
Rittmeister Rudolf von Knebel-Doberitz,
commander of the 3. Schwadron of Schützen-
Regiment 21, inadvertently stumbled into a
tank nest:
‘In the morning, after a nocturnal opera-
tion, my squadron was designated regimental
reserve and sent to “get some sleep” in a
large barracks block about two kilometres
behind the regimental command post. Fortu-
nately, the squadron marched there in battle
SERGEY POPOV

formation and with reconnaissance out in

front because the barracks proved to be
enemy-occupied, namely by tanks.
‘The squadron settled down on the upper
floors of several barracks buildings, but was
then virtually encircled by the enemy tanks, The Church of the Intercession seen on the bluff in the background was Sergey’s key
which surrounded the buildings and kept to identifying the location of these two pictures. Having stood for over two centuries,
them under fire. In the afternoon, with the it was almost completely destroyed during the war. Today, a new church is being built
support of the 9. Schwadron of Panzer-Regi- in a different style a hundred metres or so from the original site. With trees and under-
ment 24 as well as the attack by our 6. and 7. growth along the riverbank blocking the view, this is the best comparison possible.

32

With Grossdeutschland units pulling back westward across the
Semiluki bridge, the 3. Infanterie-Division required its own
crossing over the Don. A Soviet engineers’ bridge at Starye
Semiluki, north of Semiluki, had been seized mostly intact. The
Germans replaced the missing eastern half with pontoons and
metal bridging sections and Panzer-Abteilung 103 began cross-
The crossing site remains unchanged, though nowadays the veg-
etation is considerably lusher. In 1942 there was a blown road
BA BILD 101-216-0435-39
ing on July 7, as seen in this picture by Koch. The tanks main-
tained strict spacing in order to spread the loading on the
bridge and the heaviest vehicles, the Panzer IVs, crossed the
span individually, maximum speed being set at eight kilome-
tres per hour. On the horizon, providing cover for the crossing
point, is an SdKfz 10/4 self-propelled 2cm anti-aircraft gun.
SERGEY POPOV
bridge just a few hundred metres upstream from here but today
it has been replaced by a modern highway bridge.
33
BA BILD 101I-216-0431-25
The missed rendezvous with Schulz’s patrol prompted the
3. Infanterie-Division to despatch its own combat patrol to the
station late on July 7. The force consisted of the tanks of
Oberleutnant Werner Kunz’s 2. Kompanie of Panzer-Abteilung
103, with the men of Oberleutnant Bernhard Sittig’s 7.
Kompanie of Infanterie-Regiment 8 riding on the decks.
BA BILD 101I-216-0436-05
Travelling on another vehicle, Koch pictured Panzer ‘241’, the
mount of Hauptfeldwebel Hans Walz, platoon leader of the
34
Two war photographers, Koch and Sautter, the latter also
from Propaganda-Kompanie 694, accompanied the force.
Squatting behind the turret of one of the tanks, Sautter
pictured the column as it trundled into the city via Don-
basskaya Street. On the right are outbuildings of Voronezh
Railway Station II.
4. Zug (and a future Knight’s Cross holder), ploughing through
the pall of a smouldering T-60.
 Right: Koch’s next shot captured Ober-
leutnant Kunz’s Panzer ‘200’ approaching
an apartment complex near the intersec-
tion of the railway line and Plekha-
novskaya Street, a major north-south
thoroughfare that joined the Zadonsk
highway north of the city. Point vehicle is
‘212’, the deputy platoon leader of Leut-
nant Fritz Heller’s 1. Zug.

On the opposite (northern) side of town,

the 3. Infanterie-Division continued to
thicken its defensive line across the inter-
fluve between the Don and Voronezh rivers.
Oberst Küster’s Infanterie-Regiment 29
formed the mainstay, but it was backed by
88mm guns, artillery assets and two panzer
companies held in reserve in tattered aircraft
hangars. Major Fau’s motorcycle battalion
scooted north to overlook the Zadonsk
highway and control the adjacent woodlands.
On the western outskirts, two battalions of

BA BILD 101I-216-0436-06A
Denkert’s Infanterie-Regiment 8 attacked
along the main road into Voronezh at 1600
hours: the I. Bataillon (Major Blume)
advanced north of the road and the II.
Bataillon (Major Scholze) south of it, while
Oberleutnant Werner Kunz’s 2. Kompanie
of Panzer-Abteilung 103 (Major Jobst von
Reinhardt) stuck close to the roadway

‘Two panzers, without troops mounted,

would be up front, all others would have
infantry on them. Oberleutnant Kunz drove
the third panzer and I sat next to him on the
turret. We should really have travelled on
different panzers but this made communica-
tion easier. All available panzers were
quickly occupied and covered with riflemen.
The pair up front, however, remained devoid
of soldiers. We took off. The first panzer
only boomed a few times along the streets in
the approaching darkness, and everything
quickly became quiet. We moved very slowly
through the city severely devastated by
Stuka attacks. The closer we got to the city
centre, the more ghostly the picture became.
Downed wires sometimes blocked our path.
Several times machine-gun fire flared up so
that we had to crouch behind the panzers,
but the forward barrels replied quickly and
decisively. Then we drove along the north-
BA BILD 101I-216-431-30

south axis, the main boulevard and business

street of the city [Plekhanovskaya Street].
The Stukas did the greatest damage here.
Then the street wound down to the bottom.
The road was narrow, the houses not so high.
We must be approaching the river quarter.
Suddenly there was a halt. The leading
A small group of infantrymen has moved
up to ‘212’, obviously happy to see the
panzers. The positioning of this picture
by Sautter in the sequence of his and
Koch’s photos; the palpable relief on the
men’s faces, and the presence of 5cm
PaK anti-tank guns (one can be seen
behind the group) are all strong indica-
tions that these men do not belong to
the force’s own infantry. They are more
likely members of the 24. Panzer-Divi-
sion who have reached this position
from the other side of the city.

because the panzers required its bridge to

traverse a gully and tank ditch. Against
strengthening resistance, the city fringe was
reached at 1945 hours, but it was impossible
for every house to be properly searched. The
infantrymen had only penetrated 500 metres
into the built-up zone by twilight. Oberleut-
nant Kunz wanted to slice through to the
Voronezh river with his panzers and
convinced Oberleutnant Bernhard Sittig,
commander of the 7. Kompanie of Infan-
terie-Regiment 8, to come along:
SERGEY POPOV

Right: The tall apartment block still

stands but today sandwiched in be-
tween two new buildings.

35
BA BILD 101I-216-0436-08A
Left: The same infantrymen gather around ‘212’ and its dis-
mounted crew. The star attached to the webbing of the man
closest to camera may mean he is wearing it as the leader in a
forthcoming night patrol, thus making him clearly visible to his
comrades following behind. The casual attitude of both the
panzer crews and infantrymen appears to indicate that there
BA BILD 101I-216-0436-12
With the infantrymen having shoved aside the anti-tank obsta-
cles, Panzer ‘212’ cautiously moves northwards past the
Voroshilovskaya Polyclinic (marked [B] on the town plan on
page 27) towards a T-34 (hidden by the building on the left) sit-
SERGEY POPOV
36
SERGEY POPOV
was no Soviet resistance in the immediate vicinity. The 125th
Regiment of the NKVD Railway Services was responsible for
defending Voronezh’s train stations, so the lack of resistance
suggests they had fled. Right: None of the old buildings on
Donbasskaya Street remain, high-rise developments having
taken their place.
ting askew on an embankment of the ramp to the
Plekhanovskaya Street viaduct across the railway. The T-34
and another T-60 had been knocked out by the infantry’s 5cm
anti-tank guns.
vehicle had encountered a large bomb crater
that blocked the street. The panzers couldn’t
continue, so we jumped down and proceeded
on foot. In the darkness we recognised that
we were facing a very steep descent down the
street. The river was probably at the bottom.
A reconnaissance troop went towards the
river. The street ended and before us lay a
meadow. It was a pitch-black night. A few
minutes later the patrol returned and
reported that the Voronezh river flowed 150
metres away. We were the first to reach the
objective.’
This bold penetration, strengthened
throughout the night by more companies,
spelled disaster to the Soviets as it blocked
elements of Major-General Ivan Chernya-
khovsky’s 18th Tank Corps that had been
Right: Trees mask the view of the poly-
clinic — today City Clinical Hospital No.
3 — but part of the building’s small
triangular roof is visible above the trees
on the left.

Kunz’s men spent the night on Bolshaya Streletskaya Street,
a cobbled road running along the sloping Strelets Ravine
leading down to the west bank of the Voronezh river. The
panzer in the foreground of this picture by Koch is ‘213’ from
the 1. Zug. While four members of each tank crew slept, the
Many of the original houses still stand on Bolshaya Strelet-
skaya Street though the landmark church on its corner with
Vyborgskaya Street is long gone. Having been badly damaged
during the war, the ruined temple was later turned into a
multi-storey residential building. Then, in the early 1960s,
BA BILD 101-216-0436-31A
fifth kept watch. Peace reigned during the night. On the
morning of July 8, Kunz’s company rolled north out of the city
to join the rest of Panzer-Abteilung 103 near the airfield on
Voronezh’s northern outskirts. In the background is the Seek-
ing of the Lost Church.
SERGEY POPOV
rumours spread among believers of the miraculous appearance
of an image of the Virgin Mary on an altar that had been uncov-
ered. Pilgrimages to the site began but, despite a petition, the
authorities evicted the residents and blew up the remains.
A brand-new gated community now occupies the site.
37
 While Kunz’s men were securing their overnight billets, a scene was deployed at the Y-junction formed by 20-letiya Oktyabrya
of high drama was playing out a few kilometres away. In the Street and the dog-legged Koltsovskaya Street (see the town
afternoon of July 7, three rifle squadrons of Schützen-Regiment plan on page 27). Freyer positioned his panzer behind a wooden
21, supported by a panzer company, squeezed the 110th Tank fence, facing south, and in the subsequent night action knocked
Brigade out of the Chizhov barracks complex located in the mili- out 11 of the Soviet tanks — an extraordinary feat that won him
tary township. Towards dusk, an estimated 36 Soviet tanks the Knight’s Cross. No photos of the nocturnal engagement
broke out towards the city centre. The German riflemen exist but the aftermath was recorded by numerous Kriegs-
reported this escape by radio, enabling an ambush to be set up. berichter and anyone else with a camera. This is the view look-
Wachtmeister Siegfried Freyer and his long-barrel Panzer IV ing south down 20-letiya Oktyabrya from Koltsovskaya. Visible
‘434’ from the 3. Zug of the 4. Schwadron of Panzer-Regiment 24 are six T-34s and two T-60s.
released from Stavka Reserve on July 4 and Oktyabrya Streets. During the wild noctur- was a wooden fence, covering us from view
had moved into the city from the south the nal mêlée, Wachtmeister Siegfried Freyer from the street. Our orders were to support
previous day. One of its formations, Lieu- and his Panzer IV ‘434’ of the 4. Schwadron our panzer grenadiers who were attempting
tenant-Colonel Isaak Eisenberg’s 110th of Panzer-Regiment 24 knocked out 11 tanks to clear the town, and to protect them from
Tank Brigade, was aware that panzers were (nine T-34s and two T-60s): enemy tanks. During the day, our only prob-
present, yet after being evicted from the bar- ‘On July 7, I took up position with my lems came from scattered Russian troops,
racks by Rittmeister von Knebel-Doberitz’s Panzer IV long-barrel at an important cross- but the actions between friend and foe in the
men, it still stumbled into an ambush at the roads in Voronezh, well camouflaged in a town kept us on our toes. It was a hot day but
Y-junction of Koltsovskaya and 20-letiya garden next to a house. In front of the panzer we didn’t realise that the evening was going
SERGEY POPOV

Freyer occupied the position where the trees and apartment of fire and reduced range to less than 100 metres, but kept his
block on the far left now stand. This location restricted his field panzer out of the line of fire for the maximum amount of time.

38
 JASON MARK
Above: Lieutenant-Colonel Isaak Eisen-
berg’s 110th Tank Brigade came rolling
along Krasnoznamonnaya (Red Banner)
Street, then turned left into 20-letiya
Oktyabrya Street, fully aware that German
armour was in the area. Their combat jour-
nal states that ‘by 1800 hours on July 7, the
enemy had assembled up to a battalion of
medium tanks along Koltsovskaya Street
and installed anti-tank guns along Kirova
Street and other streets leading to the
Cherniavskiy bridge.’ With this knowledge,
Eisenberg chose to escape under the cover
of night. However, his force ran straight
into Freyer’s ambush, the darkness sud-
denly erupting in a welter of muzzle
flashes, sparks and flames, and the metallic
thud of solid shot puncturing armour. The
Soviet drivers panicked, one T-34 ramming
the back of another and scrabbling up onto
its engine deck, and another colliding with
a T-60 and slewing it across the road.
to be even hotter. At about 2000 hours, a

JASON MARK
T-34 appeared from a side street to our left
and attempted to get past us at high speed. It
was followed by a column of about 30 more
tanks and we had to prevent this break-out.
We engaged them in quick succession and
knocked out the first three T-34s, then our The two T-34s on the left in the top picture have their turrets at six o’clock position
gunner Unteroffizier Alfons Fischer (towards Freyer’s location), but the one seen here is facing the opposite direction. In
reported: “The gun is jammed!” Our gun was the background are another T-34 and two T-60s, making a total of seven T-34s and
new and had had some teething troubles four T-60s. The sum of 11 corroborates Freyer’s account, but Panzer-Regiment 24’s
because every second or third round the order of the day incorrectly breaks that figure down to nine T-34s and two T-60s.
empty shell-case got stuck in the breech. Our
driver, Unteroffizier Wilhelm Schmidt, and I
jumped out of the panzer, screwed together
the barrel cleaner and with it pushed the
casing out of the breech. The next Russian
tank fired wildly and wounded our loader
Gefreiter Arnold Groll in the head. We
pulled him out of the panzer and our
radioman, Gefreiter Heinrich Müller, took
his place to help operate our weapon. We
fired repeatedly and kept on hitting targets.
We had to grab the barrel cleaner a few more
times and push out the jammed shells and
then quickly take cover. The Russians shred-
ded the fence in front of us with their fire,
but didn’t hit our panzer. We, however, hit
11 enemy tanks, the only time they got past
us was when our gun jammed. The engage-
ment lasted about 20 minutes, by then, 11
enemy tanks were on fire in front of us, the
flames and explosions giving the place an
eerie appearance. That is how the rest of our
Schwadron found us, despite the darkness.’
SERGEY POPOV

Right: Normally this street is full of traffic

but Sergey took his comparisons on a
Sunday morning to match the emptiness
of the wartime photos.

39

JASON MARK
Left: The Soviet view of Freyer’s ambush. Panzer ‘434’ was hid-
den behind the fence seen demolished in the middle distance
on the right. Freyer reported that ‘the Russians shredded the
fence in front of us with their fire, but didn’t hit our panzer.’ An
explanation can be found in the June 6 entry of 110th Tank
COLIN NICOL
Another view of the T-34 whose driver kept spinning his tracks so desperately that he
clawed away parts of the leading T-34 and churned the rear part of his tank into the
asphalt road surface. Note that the T-60 that stood alongside and the one that was
pushed sideways by the T-34 on the right have both gone: all four knocked out light
tanks were dragged to Koltsovskaya Street to form a barricade.
SERGEY POPOV
40
SERGEY POPOV
Brigade’s combat journal: ‘There were no anti-tank shells, gen-
erally there were just five fragmentation shells per tank and in
some tanks there were no shells at all.’ Right: None of the
wartime structures remain, Voronezh having grown into a
metropolis of over one million.
Generalleutnant Henrici, commander of
the 16. Infanterie-Division (mot.), was
ordered to relieve the 24. Panzer-Division.
His division crossed the Don over the bridge
at Yunevka but the attack into the city by
Oberst Alexander Vial’s Infanterie-Regi-
ment 60 scheduled for the pre-noon hours of
July 7 was postponed because not all ele-
ments had closed up. Eventually, two battal-
ions, supported by anti-tank guns, self-pro-
pelled guns and artillery, moved off at 1700
hours toward the large forest south-west of
Voronezh. The II. Bataillon (Major Otto
Lindner) reached the hill 1.5 kilometres
north of the Eierwäldchen (Egg Copse) at
1830 hours, but its sister battalion went to
ground under ferocious defensive fire. How-
ever, following a rocket barrage, the I.
Bataillon surged forward and likewise
reached the hill. Supporting artillery
knocked out two counter-attacking T-34s.
Despite failing light, the regiment was
ordered to comb through the city and relieve
elements of the 24. Panzer-Division holding
position along the city’s eastern edge by 0500
hours the next morning, but Oberst Vial
refused because of the fierce resistance and
the expected bitter house-to-house fighting.
He stated that the attack would only com-
mence the next morning with panzer sup-
port.
With Division’s permission, Vial ordered
Panzer-Abteilung 116 to move its panzers
into the city to support his infantry despite
protests by its commander, Major Johann-
Matthias Graf von der Schulenberg. Two
panzer groups were formed: Oberleutnant
Wilfried Palm with the 2. and 4. Kompanien
(eight Panzer IIIs and four Panzer IVs) sup-
ported the I. Bataillon of Infanterie-Regi-
ment 60 on the left, and Oberleutnant
Friedrich Stölting with 13 Panzer IIIs of the
3. Kompanie and three Panzer IVs from the
4. Kompanie went with the II. Bataillon on
the right. Schulenberg stressed that the
panzer groups not be splintered and that
infantrymen advance ahead of the panzers.
Kampfgruppe Vial’s attack into Voro -
nezh began at 0745 hours on July 8. Not
until the city fringe was reached did the
Left: The same view from the north-west
corner of Koltsovskaya Street. The west-
ern extension of Koltsovskaya was
renamed Voroshilova Street after the war.
 COLIN NICOL
Above: In their death throes, these three
T-34s effectively blocked the main arc of
Freyer’s fire and enabled others to escape
the death zone. Instead of veering north-
east along Koltsovskaya Street as planned,
the column turned west and found refuge
amongst the huts north of the barracks.
Eisenberg’s brigade did not escape its fate
for long: at the end of July 8, the 18th Tank
Corps recorded in its combat journal that
‘110th Tank Brigade continued to escape
encirclement while losing all available
tanks’. Eisenberg and his Chief-of-Staff
Lieutenant-Colonel Aleksey Payzanskiy
escaped but four other staff officers did not,
including the brigade’s commissar (Senior

SERGEY POPOV
Battalion Commissar Ivan Paliy) and chief
of brigade HQ, Major Belichev. The sur-
vivors gathered in woodlands north of
Maklok, a village north-east of Voronezh.
I. Bataillon and Panzergruppe Palm run The prominent water tower on Koltsovskaya Street was toppled during the German
into frantic resistance from T-34s, T-60s and occupation of the city. Residential apartments erected in the 1950s and 1960s now
masses of anti-tank rifles. Soviet tanks occupy the site.
deployed skilfully, flanking the streets from
hidden positions and throttling progress.
Despite promises, German infantry clus-
tered behind their armoured shepherds.
The panzers bypassed some tanks and in
this manner shot up six T-34s and two T-60s,
but Red Army soldiers then began report-
ing all panzer movements, preventing any
further side-step manoeuvres and causing
the first panzer casualties: the turrets of two
Panzer IVs were jammed by anti-tank rifle
strikes, while three Panzer IIIs were lightly
damaged by tank fire, which rendered all

Right: On July 23, 1942, during a break in

the fighting, Oberst Gustav-Adolf Riebel
and Major Hild-Wilfried von Winterfeld,
commander of Panzer-Regiment 24 and
its I. Abteilung respectively, awarded
Freyer the Ritterkreuz in a small ceremony
in the village of Krasnaya Zvezda, while
the rest of the crew were recognised for
their bravery with the Iron Cross First
Class. It was a rare feat for an entire crew
to wear this decoration. ‘In the name of
the regiment’, wrote Riebel in an Order of
the Day, ‘I wish to express my congratula-
tions to Wachtmeister Freyer for his high
war decoration. The regiment views with
pride and pleasure our Knight’s Cross
bearer and wishes him further success.’
(L-R): Major von Winterfeld, Wachtmeister
Freyer, Unteroffizier Alfons Fischer (gun-
ner), Unteroffizier Wilhelm Schmidt
JASON MARK

(driver) and Gefreiter Heinrich Müller

(radioman). Gefreiter Arnold Groll (loader)
missed the ceremony because he was in
hospital having his wounds treated.

41
BA BILD 101-748-0081G-09
Informed that they would be relieved by the 16. Infanterie-Divi-
sion, elements of the 24. Panzer-Division began leaving
Voronezh during the night and early morning of July 8. With
combat still simmering in the industrial district and barracks
area, the safest route out of the city was to the south. During
its two days of fighting (July 7-8), the division had suffered 125
SERGEY POPOV
The Chizhovskiy Bridgehead Memorial Complex (left), dedi-
cated to the Red Army soldiers who formed a bridgehead
42
casualties: two officers and 36 NCOs/men killed, four officers
and 81 other ranks wounded, and two men missing. Here, an
SdKfz 250 half-track of Kradschützen-Abteilung 4 carefully
negotiates the cobbled slope of 20-letiya Oktyabrya Street.
Baltiyskiy Alley, the small side street seen in the picture on
page 25, is just behind the photographer.
across the Voronezh river in August-September 1942, now
stands sentinel at the city’s south-eastern entrance.
Right: Arriving with the 16. Infanterie-
Division were two new photographers,
Kriegsberichter Kempe and Gregor of
Propaganda-Kompanie OBdH (Oberbe-
fehlshaber des Heeres) and Propaganda-
Kompanie 694 respectively. Early on the
morning of July 8, Kempe pictured the
crew of a 5cm PaK anti-tank gun in
defilade position on the sandy verge
half-way down 20-letiya Oktyabrya
Street. In the distance is a T-34 that was
disabled two days earlier. A gunner from
the 24. Panzer-Division described the dif-
ficulty of engaging enemy tanks from
such a position: ‘Our anti-tank gun
slipped back at least one and a half
metres and had to be re-aimed after
every shot because the gun spades

BA BILD 101I-748-0081G-11
found no real purchase in the soft and
damp sand.’ The gun crew seen in this
picture itself destroyed a tank at 2030
hours in the evening, as Oberfähnrich
Saborowski from the 7. Kompanie of
Infanterie-Regiment 60 of the 16. Infan-
terie-Division reports: ‘Two T-34s sud-
denly appeared from the rear. After
about 200 metres, one ran over mines
placed in front of the bridge and burned
there after a mighty detonation. The sec-
ond received a PaK hit on the right track
and lost it. Nevertheless, the tank rolled
on and fired its machine guns and can-
non into my platoon until it hit the
embankment. One of the crew got out. I
took him prisoner and had one of my
messengers guard him. Then I dealt with
the bogged tank with hand-grenades
from about 20 metres away because two
more tanks on the other side of the
Voronezh river provided cover fire for
the stuck tank. In order to avoid further
losses, I grabbed two explosive charges.
Regardless of my wounded knees and
enemy fire, I jumped onto the tank from
behind and placed an explosive charge
on it. The first charge did not set the
tank on fire, so I prepared a second one. I
put it behind the turret. Following a
powerful detonation, the hatch was torn
off and a burning crewman hurled from

NIOD 16772
the turret. Immediately afterwards, the
tank burned brightly and the ammuni-
tion detonated.’
temporarily non-operational. While shelling Standing almost on the same spot, PK Gregor pictured passenger cars and motor-
a factory near the military barracks, Ober- bikes of the 16. Infanterie-Division driving up the same incline. Its Infanterie-Regi-
leutnant Palm’s Panzer IV ‘400’ was struck ment 156 had begun relieving Schützen-Regiment 21 on the city’s south-eastern
in the turret by a concealed T-34 and sector on July 7: the II. Bataillon replaced the riflemen in the central city, the III.
burned instantly. Palm died of his injuries. Bataillon secured to the east in the southern part of Voronezh, and the I. Bataillon
Any further advance augured little success, held position along the Voronezh river down to its confluence with the Don.
so the panzers pulled back.
The right Kampfgruppe with Stölting’s
panzers only needed to overcome a solitary
plucky Soviet tank before it reached its objec-
tive, the southern Voronezh road bridge.
At 0900 hours, the 16. Infanterie-Divi-
sion’s second regiment, Infanterie-Regiment
156 led by Oberstleutnant Johannes Eiser-
mann, reported that its II. Bataillon had
reached the railway station from the south-
east. Because Kampfgruppe Vial had made
good progress, its supporting artillery
changed position into the city. At 1330
hours, the I. Bataillon of Infanterie-Regi-
ment 60 encountered stubborn resistance on
the north-eastern city limits and was tem-
porarily pinned down. The regiment’s III.
Bataillon, held in reserve until this point,
moved off from the south with the task of
clearing the city up to the railway line, but it
too ran into obstinate resistance and tanks in
the industrial area. Due to the tank threat,
particularly at major intersections, anti-tank
guns were moved into position for the night.
SERGEY POPOV

Once elements of the 16. Infanterie-Divi-

sion made contact, Infanterie-Regiment 8 of
Schlömer’s 3. Infanterie-Division shuffled
northward into a warren of allotments and
shacks and started setting up eastward-facing
defences. The rest of Schlömer’s division Looking north up the ascending avenue today.

43

Left: Gregor next pictured men of Infanterie-Regiment 156
marching past the knocked-out T-34. A column of Panzer IIs
from Panzer-Regiment 24 idles at the top of the road. This sec-
tion of 20-letiya Oktyabrya Street was ill-suited for tanks: the
elevated ground along both sides formed a defile, while at the
SERGEY POPOV
bottom the road headed onto a long, exposed causeway that
ran across meadowland to the Voronezh river bridge. Right:
‘Voronezh, City of Military Glory’, reads the slogan on the left.
This status was conferred to the city by President of the Russ-
ian Federation Vladimir Putin on February 16, 2008.

began shifting the Nordriegelstellung (north- back the onslaught and retreated. Shortly Soviet forces had arrived, including elements
ern blocking position) northward onto afterwards, movement was seen in the woods of Chernyakhovsky’s 18th Tank Corps (four
higher ground. At 0800 hours, Major Gün- two kilometres to the north. Substantial tank battalions and a motorised infantry bat-
ther Mollenhauer’s II. Bataillon of Infan-
terie-Regiment 29, supported by the tanks of
Hauptmann Haen’s 1. Kompanie of Panzer-
Abteilung 103, attacked over exposed
ground towards the village of Podgornoye,
held by weak remnants of Lieutenant-
Colonel Ivan Ulitin’s 232nd Rifle Division.
Despite inflicting considerable casualties on
Mollenhauer’s infantry with a few machine
guns, the depleted Siberians could not hold
Right: As the men of the 16. Infanterie-
Division prepared to launch their attack
on the morning of July 8, they were sur-
prised to hear a special radio report about
the fall of Voronezh, a broadcast that
proved premature. Pre-battle reconnais-
sance revealed powerful Soviet forces,
including 30 to 40 tanks, in the industrial
area west of the city, around the railway
station, on the airfield and tank training
ground, and in the military township
known as Red or Military Town N. I.
Muralov. This T-34 stranded in a bomb
crater on Krasnoznamonnaya Street most
likely blundered into it during 110th Tank
Brigade’s nocturnal break-out from the

NIOD 16783
Chizhov barracks. Aerial photos reveal a
string of bomb craters — at least five —
along this stretch of tramway.

talion), later joined by sub-units of Major-

General Pyotr Zykov’s 121st Rifle Division
and Lieutenant-Colonel Sergey Styzika’s
14th Tank Brigade. Major Mollenhauer
reported:
‘Tanks rolled up, but then pulled back after
the first ones were knocked out. The infantry
attack came in on a slope that fell gently
towards the battalion’s position. The battal-
ion waited until the Russians were within 200
metres before opening fire. Then all weapons
fired at once and smashed back the attack
with heavy losses [for the Russians].’
Styzika’s 14th Tank Brigade lost nine
Lend-Lease Mark III Valentines and four
BT-7s, and had 11 men killed — including
two battalion commanders (Major Pyotr
Fomichev and Captain Bogatyuk) — and 18
wounded.
German forces crossed the Zadonsk high-
way and infiltrated the botanical garden and
SERGEY POPOV

campus of the agricultural college on the

north-eastern outskirts of the city. A new
defensive front was established, the 88mm
and anti-tank guns forming a Panzerriegel
(anti-tank barrier) behind the infantry while
The No. 2 tram, connecting the military town with the city, ran along Krasnoznamon- a mobile panzer reserve stood by in the for-
naya Street until 2009 when the rails were lifted. est east of Podkletnoye.

44
At 7.45 a.m. on July 8, preceded by an
artillery barrage on the barracks and air-
field hangars, Infanterie-Regiment 60
moved off to attack the city from the
south-west. In support were two mixed
groups from Panzer-Abteilung 116, until
then held in reserve in woodlands near
Malyshevo but now called into action with
the 2. Kompanie and part of the 4. Kom-
panie under Oberleutnant Wilfried Palm on
the left and the 3. Kompanie with the
remainder of the 4. Kompanie under Ober-
leutnant Friedrich Stölting on the right.
Kriegsberichter Sonntag went with Stöl-
ting’s group and he pictured a Panzer III
from the 3. Kompanie driving along cob-
bled Novo Slobodskaya Street, just short
of the intersection with 20-letiya Okty-
abrya Street. Palm’s group encountered
fierce opposition and lost several tanks,

BA BILD 101I-79-3124-11A
while Stölting had an easier time, as
revealed in his combat report: ‘The com-
pany was subordinated to the II. Bataillon
of Infanterie-Regiment 60 with 13 Panzer
IIIs and three Panzer IVs. The infantry bat-
talion advanced in its attack lane with two
companies in the forward line.’

SOVIET BREAK-OUT ATTEMPT ‘My company was divided into three groups. Each light platoon was allocated one Panzer
In the pre-dawn gloom of July 9, the IV. Leutnant Endres led the left Panzergruppe, Leutnant Schaumann the right, while Leut-
remaining Soviet tanks inside Voronezh nant Kinzer’s was in reserve. Upon setting off, Leutnant Endres’s group received fire from
launched a desperate break-out bid, attempt- enemy tanks and anti-tank guns. Panzer ‘311’ (Leutnant Endres) was hit and damaged by
ing to escape in two different directions, east- an anti-tank gun. Endres and his group were withdrawn behind a rise in the ground. Leut-
wards to the city’s southern road bridge at nant Kinzer was moved up from the right and took over the task of Leutnant Endres, who
Monastyrshchenka, and southwards to the remained with the reserve group. The battalion progressed along its attack lane without
Don bridge at Yunevka and the ferry site enemy contact to the objective (eastern edge of the city). By listening in to the radio mes-
over the Voronezh at Yakovlevka, the latter sages of Oberleutnant Palm’s group, my company was aware of the resistance there. I
two sites being well beyond the city. Bursting pivoted Leutnant Endres’s reserve group leftward in order to strike the resistance nest
out of the industrial area in several groups, holding up Palm from the south-east, but after discussions with Oberleutnant Palm via
Colonel Vasili Konovalov’s 181st Tank radio, this intervention was not desired.’ Shortly afterwards, Palm’s Panzer IV was struck
Brigade, followed by lorries filled with sol- and he was fatally wounded. After reaching the eastern edge of the city, Stölting’s
diers, charged south along the city streets, panzers turned off and reached the southern bridge without incident. The battalion com-
About a dozen tanks with mounted infantry, mander, Major Johann-Matthias von der Schulenberg, then ordered Stölting to concen-
firing from all barrels, broke through the trate his platoons along 20-letiya Oktyabrya Street, about two kilometres north of the
ranks of the I. Bataillon of Infanterie-Regi- bridge, and so they pulled back to the ‘Park of the Living and the Dead’, their vehicles hav-
ment 60 and rolled over Vial’s regimental ing barely any fuel left. Panzer-Abteilung 116 only operated in Voronezh for one day, but
command post. Most of the tanks were even that was too much for Major von der Schulenberg: ‘The old principle has once again
destroyed inside the city limits, just three been proven: panzers have no place in city fighting.’ The battalion set in march to Ustye
managing to pass through and continue in the evening, having lost seven Panzer IIIs and three Panzer IVs.
southwards. However, before they got to any
of the bridges or ferries, they encountered North of the city, two Soviet infantry regi- SOVIET COUNTER-OFFENSIVE
Infanterie-Regiment 156. Oberstleutnant ments attacked out of the forest at dawn, On July 10, Generalleutnant Oskar
Eisermann, its commander, was alerted by striking the I. Bataillon of Infanterie-Regi- Blümm’s 57. Infanterie-Division crossed the
gun-fire. One T-34 was knocked out directly ment 8 and Haen’s company of panzers. Don near the village of Malyshevo, just
in front of his command post, another came Twenty-seven Soviet tanks were knocked north of the Yunevka bridge, and began
to grief on mines on the Monastyrshchenka out. Ten tanks pushed along the railway into relieving Henrici’s 16. Infanterie-Division in
bridge. The crews, some wounded, were cap- the city and suddenly appeared in the rear of the southern part of the bridgehead. Mean-
tured. Prisoners asserted that these tanks the regiment’s II. Bataillon. Four of them while, in the northern part, on the front of
were tasked with breaking through to the were blasted by self-propelled 7.62cm the 3. Infanterie-Division, the Soviet 476th
south or south-west in order to facilitate the Marders of Panzerjäger-Abteilung 3. Separate Tank Battalion moved against
escape of about 100 infantrymen. While
some trucks were captured, others hurtled
toward the ferry site at Shilovo, where their
men abandoned them and swam the
Voronezh. A single T-34 made it to the
Yunevka bridge and surprised its garrison. A
Russian officer dismounted under 2cm Flak
fire and guided his tank onto the narrow
bridge, but he fell, wounded. An 88mm gun
on the southern bank then struck the tank,
causing it to reverse in panic and run over
the wounded officer. Its journey ended when
it careered down a slope.
In one week, Konovalov’s 181st Tank
Brigade, lost 35 T-34s and 13 T-60s, as well
as 72 dead, 22 wounded (evacuated to hos-
pital) and 460 missing. Amongst the casual-
ties were 80 officers (16 dead, seven
wounded and 57 missing). The other forma-
tion of the 18th Tank Corps deployed in the
city, Eisenberg’s 110th Tank Brigade, had
lost 33 T-34s and 13 T-60s, while 11 T-34s
and eight T-60s were evacuated for repairs.
Personnel losses were 40 dead, 83 wounded
and 235 missing.
SERGEY POPOV

Right: Novo Slobodskaya Street was

renamed Moiseyeva Street in 1967 in hon-
our of Aleksei Moiseyev, a Bolshevik coup
leader shot by the White Guards in 1919.

45
 together with the riflemen, retreated north to
the safety of the woods. Soviet artillery pum-
melled the village and another attack began,
this time with 26 tanks. Fighting surged until
1400 hours, then the Soviets gave up after
losing 34 tanks. Stünzner suffered zero com-
bat losses and secured himself the Knight’s
Cross.
Soviet losses were ghastly: the 161st Rifle
Division had lost a staggering 574 men killed,
1,262 wounded and 144 missing between July
12 and 14, including 40 dead officers on July
12 alone. Seven officers from the 111th Tank
Brigade were killed on the 12th.
On July 13 the Soviets repeated their
breakthrough attempt with weaker forces.
Stukas intervened from 0300 hours.
Stünzner’s 3. Kompanie was replaced by
Haen’s 1. Kompanie, which knocked out ten
tanks during the day. Even though combat
BA BILD 101I-79-3124-17A

had not yet concluded, Schlömer’s division

was relieved by the 168. Infanterie-Division in
the evening. Panzer-Abteilung 103 and Pan-
zerjäger-Abteilung 3 remained for another 24
hours.
Responsibility for holding Voronezh now
fell to the purely infantry formations of Korps-
gruppe Blümm (57., 75. and 323. Infanterie-
A self-propelled 2cm Flak gun of Infanterie-Regiment 60 that accompanied Stölting’s Divisions) under Generalleutnant Blümm, the
column drives south along 20-letiya Oktyabrya Street, pictured by Sonntag. Soviet air- commander of the 57. Division. Heavy fighting
craft rarely appeared over the city — the 24. Panzer-Division downed two on July 7 — — exclusively German defence against Soviet
so the rapid-firing guns were mostly deployed against enemy strongholds. Oberstleut- tank-heavy attacks — continued until July 24.
nant Johannes Eisermann, the commander of Infanterie-Regiment 156, recalled that all Small-scale combat continued thereafter,
day on July 8 ‘there was frequent street and house combat against fiercely defended punctuated occasionally by large-scale probing
resistance nests. This fighting was very well supported by our self-propelled 2cm Flak attacks that resulted in bloody Soviet losses,
platoon.’ Each motorised infantry regiment possessed one company of light flak. but front lines around Voronezh ossified as
focus shifted southward to the mighty battles
Podgornoye with its 15 KV-1s. Haen’s bleached sky. The 195th and 121st Rifle Divi- in the Don bend, Stalingrad (see After the Bat-
panzer company knocked out seven of the sions, supported by 26 tanks, overran Ger- tle No. 166) and the Caucasus. The men of
behemoths but paid a steep price: eight dead man infantry positions, but by the afternoon General der Infanterie Hans von Salmuth’s 2.
and four wounded. An armour-piercing 88s had knocked out 14 of the tanks and the Armee occupied Voronezh for the next five
round took off Oberfeldwebel Willy Tie- attack was repulsed. The III. Bataillon of months.
mann’s head, while Feldwebel August Infanterie-Regiment 8 parried the attack
Aretz’s panzer was shot into flames: just one down the highway. FATAL DELAY?
crew member survived. A KV punctured In the west, Hauptmann Ewald von The German advance to Voronezh was no
Feldwebel Josef Mühlmichl’s Panzer III Stünzner, commander of the 3. Kompanie of doubt an emphatic victory that secured an
from the side. The gunner was killed Panzer-Abteilung 103, had positioned his eastern anchor point for a north-facing
instantly, Mühlmichl’s feet were torn off and seven long-barrel Panzer IVs amongst Pod- defensive line, but Hitler was convinced that
he bled to death within a few minutes. gornoye’s shacks, his western flank protected the week-long delay resulting from the com-
Despite destroying 64 enemy tanks by an oxbow lake. In the rush to Pod- mitment of armoured forces to capture the
between July 6 and 10, the staff of the 3. gornoye, the riflemen of the 161st Rifle Divi- city had derailed the timetable for ‘Blau’,
Infanterie-Division assessed all of these sion were overtaken by the 111th Tank squandered opportunities to eliminate major
attacks as probes and therefore expected a Brigade. Leading the way were KV-1s and Red Army formations and fatally deferred
major assault by the tank corps assembling in T-34s, followed by a second wave with Mark the capture of Stalingrad.
the woods. When this large-scale attack failed II Matildas and T-34s with mounted infantry. On July 5, Hitler had permitted General-
to eventuate on July 11, the German com- The Germans counted 40 tanks. Hauptmann feldmarschall von Bock to continue with the
mand decided to take the railway bridge four von Stünzner opened fire at close range, buf- occupation of Voronezh but attempted to
kilometres north of the city, but was fore- feting the Soviet tanks with a squall of pro- stimulate the offensive by bisecting his
stalled by a powerful Soviet artillery response. jectiles. Several brewed up, others veered Heeresgruppe Süd into two formations —
Due to the tense situation, the planned relief away into a minefield, while the rest, Heeresgruppen A and B, in order to attain
of Schlömer’s division by Generalleutnant
Dietrich Kraiss’s 168. Infanterie-Division was
delayed until the following day.
German intelligence was spot on: the Red
Army was indeed preparing a major assault.
This offensive was entrusted to Lieutenant-
General Antoniuk’s 60th Army, fresh from
reserve. Colonel Pavel Kochetkov’s 161st
Rifle Division, supported by Colonel Fedor
Korol’s 111th Tank Brigade, the 476th Sepa-
rate Tank Battalion and four companies of
heavy KVs, was ordered to advance towards
the Podgornoye workers settlement. Attack-
ing into the north-eastern outskirts of
Voronezh were Colonel Mikhail Mikeladze’s
195th and Zykov’s 121st Rifle Divisions,
each supported by a tank brigade. Three
German infantry battalions therefore faced
three fresh Soviet divisions.
After preparatory rocket and artillery fire,
the German defenders heard a guttural
‘uraaaaa’ swell from the woods at 1000 hours
on July 12. The Soviet attack came in three
SERGEY POPOV

wedges: the first along the railway struck the

I. Bataillon of Infanterie-Regiment 8 with its
full weight; the second down the highway
pushed into the regiment’s III. Bataillon
while the third raced towards the II. Batail-
lon of Infanterie-Regiment 29 in Pod- Fortunately, the building at No. 88 is one of the few on 20-letiya Oktyabrya to have
gornoye. Swirling dust stained the sun- escaped redevelopment since the war.

46

Left: Set up at the crossroads of Novo Slobodskaya/Kirova and
20-letiya Oktyabrya Streets, the crew of 8.8cm Flak gun Berta
peer into the afternoon sun, ready to intercept Soviet tanks
approaching from the west. Their gun shield boasts an impres-
sive kill tally of 11 aircraft, 40 tanks and 15 bunkers, though it is
likely that this score sheet represents the entire four-gun
battery. Photo reporter Karl Hubert Müller-Schwanneke of
SERGEY POPOV
Propaganda-Kompanie 670, attached to the 2. Armee, took sev-
eral photos of this gun and its crew, one of which featured on
the cover of the Luftwaffe periodical Der Adler. The shield-and-
oakleaf emblem represents the I. Flak-Korps and the white ‘T’
shape on the other mudguard probably denotes the flak battal-
ion, though it is unknown which one. Right: A perfect compari-
son by Sergey, looking eastwards into Kirova Street.

widely spaced objectives, namely Stalingrad

and the Caucasus — and shifting the main
effort southward. General Paulus of the 6.
Armee was ordered to send General der
Kavallerie Georg Stumme’s XXXX. Panzer-
Korps south to link up with the 1. Panzer-
Armee near Millerovo, 300 kilometres south
of Voronezh, and as soon as Hoth’s 4.
Panzer-Armee handed responsibility of
Voronezh’s defence to the 2. Armee, it was
to overtake the 6. Armee.
Problems arose when Golikov’s Voronezh
Front committed Major-General Aleksandr
Liziukov’s 5th Tank Army to strike Hoth’s
long and vulnerable northern flank west of
Voronezh. An attack by a single tank corps
(Major-General Pavel Rotmistrov’s 7th
Tank Corps) on July 6 swelled to three tank
corps (Major-General Andrei Kravchenko’s
2nd Tank Corps and Major-General Aleksei
Popov’s 11th Tank Corps joining the fray)
two days later. Tank clashes raged along this
defensive front between Livny and Voro-
nezh for over a week. Von Langermann’s
XXIV. Panzer-Korps staved off the Soviet
thrusts and even counter-attacked with the
11. Panzer-Division on July 12, clobbering
the 2nd and 7th Tank Corps and effectively
terminating Liziukov’s attack. Between July Further down Kirova Street, Kriegsberichter Koch pictured motorcyclists from the
6 and 15, the 5th Tank Army suffered nearly 13. Kompanie (infantry gun) of either Infanterie-Regiment 60 or 156 trying to disen-
8,000 casualties and lost 341 tanks, including tangle a piece of wire wrapped around the rear wheel. The distinctive building in the
130 T-34s, 59 KV-1s and 51 Matilda IIs. background is Hotel Voronezh on Ploschad 20-letiya Oktyabrya (20th Anniversary of
Their sacrifice, however, had unforeseen and October Square). At 9.45 a.m. on July 8, the II. Bataillon of Infanterie-Regiment 156
long-term ramifications for the Germans. hoisted the red war flag there on what they called the ‘town hall turret’.
Hitler had wanted Hoth’s 4. Panzer-
Armee sent south immediately after being
extracted from Voronezh on July 8, but von
Bock was reluctant to release the mobile for-
mations due to 5th Tank Army’s counter-
offensive. Hoth and von Bock compromised
by despatching the XXXXVIII. Panzer-
Korps south, but kept the XXIV. Panzer-
Korps for another week, a necessary tactical
decision that threatened to upset German
operational plans. And so began the second
phase of ‘Blau’ on July 9, not with an over-
whelming armoured wave formed by Hoth’s
entire 4. Panzer-Armee, but with a northern
pincer comprising just three divisions of
Stumme’s XXXX. Panzer-Korps: the 3. and
23. Panzer-Divisions and the 29. Infanterie-
Division (mot). It was not until July 12 that
Kempf’s XXXXVIII. Panzer-Korps (with
the 24. Panzer-Division and 16. and Gross-
deutschland motorised divisions) re-joined
the main southward assault near Nikola-
yevka and Ostrogozhsk.
SERGEY POPOV

Right: The 250-room Hotel Voronezh oper-

ated from 1940 to 1942 and again from
1951 to 1989. Today, the building houses
the Regional Council of Trade Unions.

47
 20th Anniversary of October Square attracted a constant
stream of visitors, PK photographers heading there even
before the city was secured. This photo was taken by Luftwaffe
reporter Niermann during 24. Panzer-Division’s sweep of the
city on the morning of July 7. Six months later, on January 24,
1943, four Soviet armies launched the Voronezh-Kastornoye
offensive and soldiers of the 60th Army pushed into the city
the next day. Before withdrawing, German forces demolished
many government buildings around the square and left behind
a soldiers’ cemetery on the adjoining Koltsovsky Square (off to
the right). The Soviet conquerors hoisted the Red Banner of
Victory from a balcony of the Hotel Voronezh.

Hitler was certain that Red Army forma-
tions were fleeing in disarray and that von
Bock had missed a golden opportunity to
annihilate vast numbers of them. By July 12,
Hitler and the OKH believed the Soviets were
planning to hold the Millerovo—Kamensk—
Shakhtinskii—Rostov line and that it was
essential that Hoth break this line as soon as
possible. Generaloberst Franz Halder, Chief
of the General Staff of the Army, recorded in
his diary: ‘The Führer expressed his utmost
displeasure over the delay in the move to the
front of [the divisions] of the 4. Panzer-
SERGEY POPOV
Armee. He blames the failure on the fact that
the 24. Panzer-Division and the Gross-
deutschland, against the Führer’s orders, were
sent into Voronezh, causing a delay that could
have been avoided.’
As such, the OKH issued a new directive:
Hoth’s 4. Panzer-Armee was to join Heeres-
gruppe A and proceed towards Kamensk
with the objective of engaging and destroying
the enemy north of the Don, while Paulus’s 6.
Armee covered this movement to the east
and created the conditions for an advance
towards Stalingrad. Bock vehemently dis-
agreed because his armoured formations
were being dispersed. Hitler, already agitated
by von Bock’s hesitation and intransigence,
had had enough: he relieved von Bock of
command and replaced him with General-
oberst Weichs. New orders issued to both
army groups on the evening of July 13 re-
oriented the entire offensive southward and
south-westward and ultimately set it on
course for Stalingrad.
The week-long delay at Voronezh
doubtlessly contributed to the failure to seize
Stalin’s namesake city in a surprise raid.

The square has undergone several name changes in its history. during their occupation. A new monument to Lenin was
Originally called Equestrian Square, then Starokonnaya, it was erected in 1950 and six years later the square received its mod-
renamed 20th Anniversary of October Square in 1937. The ern name — Ploschad Lenina (Lenin Square). The colonnaded
statue of Lenin erected in 1940 was removed by the Germans building is the Voronezh State Opera and Ballet Theatre.

48
 NIOD 16789
The ravages of war left 92 per cent of Voronezh in ruins. This 20-letiya Oktyabrya Street looking north-east across the city
picture was taken from the rear window of a building on centre in November 1942.

SOVIET RECAPTURE OF VORONEZH over the Dnepr. Large swathes of territory Recapturing the city cost Zykov just ten
By mid-January 1943, Voronezh was at the were liberated, as were several major cities — dead and 19 wounded. The ghost city lay in
apex of a very long bulge as a result of a suc- though Kharkov was recaptured by General- ruins with 92 per cent of all of its buildings
cession of Soviet offensives that toppled Axis feldmarschall Erich von Manstein — but the destroyed. Voronezh was conferred the sta-
defences south to north like dominos. First resulting bulge centred upon Kursk set the tus of ‘City of Military Glory’ by President
Operation ‘Uranus’ at Stalingrad from scene for operations in 1943. Vladimir Putin on February 16, 2008.
November 19-23, then ‘Little Saturn’ on the Riflemen of Zykov’s 121st Rifle Division Jason Mark is the author and publisher of
middle Don in mid-December, and lastly the (the same formation that had fought in the several acclaimed books on Stalingrad and
Ostrogozhsk-Rossoshk operation beginning attack to recapture the city the previous other battles on the Eastern Front. This article is
on January 12, 1943, which ripped apart the July) entered Voronezh on January 25, 1943. based on his Panzerkrieg, Volume 1. German
Hungarian 2nd Army, the direct southern Large detachments immediately began Armoured Operations at Stalingrad. Panzer-
neighbour of the 2. Armee. The disintegra- combing the city for ‘lone wolves and enemy Abteilungen 103, 129 and 160 (Sydney, 2017),
tion of the Hungarians prompted the Stavka spies’, while teams started clearing obstacles available from www.leapinghorseman.com,
to hurriedly plan a new attack to encircle and from the streets, bridges and buildings. specialist military bookstores and Amazon.
destroy the 2. Armee in the Voronezh area.
The Voronezh–Kastornoye operation — the
fourth phase of the general Soviet winter
offensive of 1942-43 — was implemented by
the 13th Army of Lieutenant-General Max
Reyter’s Bryansk Front and three armies
(the 38th, 60th and 40th) of Golikov’s
Voronezh Front.
On January 24, 1943, the 40th Army (now
led by Lieutenant-General Kirill Moska-
lenko) attacked the underbelly of the 2.
Armee’s salient and created the impression
that the offensive would unfold only along
this axis. German intelligence failed to detect
the preparations of Pukhov’s 13th Army and
Lieutenant-General Nikandr Chibisov’s 38th
Army. The OKH authorised the 2. Armee to
withdraw from its exposed positions at
Voronezh on January 25, yet the army suf-
fered a catastrophic reverse when the unex-
pected assaults from the north began. Two of
its three corps were encircled when the Soviet
pincers met at Kastornoye on January 28.
Busting out of the encirclement and retreat-
ing westward in the middle of the Russian
winter caused considerable losses and the 2.
SERGEY POPOV

Armee barely escaped destruction, yet its

impotence left a weak point in the Axis line
that opened the way to Kursk for the Soviets.
The entire German southern wing seemed on
the point of dissolution. To precipitate a total
collapse and force the Germans back to the There are two main war memorials in Voronezh city today. One is the Chizhovskiy
Dnepr river, the Stavka approved two opera- Bridgehead Memorial on 20-letiya Oktyabrya Street (see page 42), the other is in
tions — ‘Skachok’ (Gallop) and ‘Zvezda’ the Patriots Park along Prospekt Leninskiy (Lenin Avenue) on the east bank of the
(Star) — to liberate the Donbas, Kharkov Voronezh river. Here our photographer Sergey Popov stands in front of the impres-
and Kursk, and shove German forces back sive Chizhovskiy memorial.

49
Four years ago, in issue 164, we covered
the assassination of the Archduke Franz
Ferdinand on June 28, 1914. The conflict
that followed — then referred to as ‘The
Great War’ — led to an unprecedented
number of casualties, the true cost of
which has never been accurately deter-
mined. Out of the 65 million mobilised
from the warring nations, it has been
estimated that at least eight million lost
their lives and 21 million were wounded.
As far as Britain was concerned, in late
1914, the London branch of the Red
Cross set up an Enquiry Department for
the Wounded and Missing under Lord
Robert Cecil to assist relatives desperate
for news of the fate of their loved ones.
At the same time, Major Fabian Ware
had begun the massive task of recording
grave locations, work that led to the for-
mation of the Graves Registration Com-
mission in March 1915. The Commission
was soon receiving requests for not only
details but photographs of graves and by
May, Major Ware realised that he needed
the services of professional photo-
graphers so he turned to Kodak for help.
Right: This improvised darkroom was set
up in the grounds of the Château de
Relingue at Lillers. L-R: Sergeants Com-
fort, Bert Haddon and Frederick Roper.

THE WAR GRAVES PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECT

I had never really taken a keen interest in
the events of the First World War but had a
general interest in military history and
genealogy, also as a serving member of the
Royal Navy, having followed in the footsteps
of my grandfathers who also served at sea.
Back in 1996 I was returning from a trip to
Disneyland Paris with my family and decided
to detour through the Somme just to ‘have a
look’. I was surprised at the number of British
cars in the area, not realising the significance
of the day we had arrived. The next day —
July 1, 1996 — would be the 80th anniversary
of the start of the Battle of the Somme.
By Steve Rogers, Project Co-ordinator
That evening we were near Auchonvillers
so parked at Avril’s tearoom and strolled
through what I now know was the ‘Sunken
Lane’ and ended up in the small battlefield
cemetery of Redan Ridge No. 2. As the sun
was going down we stumbled across a
‘Rogers’ grave and I noticed that he served
in the Hampshire Regiment (where I was
born). Private Bertram William Rogers of
Hayling Island had died exactly 80 years
ago the following morning on the first day
of the Somme. We found his name in the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
(CWGC) register and discovered that he
had lived about four miles from where I was
born and was in fact a relation of mine I had
never known about. The hairs on my neck
stood on end realising that out of all the
cemeteries on the Somme, we were standing
next to the grave of a relation on what
would have been his last evening alive. The
fact that it was exactly 80 years on seemed

Second Lieutenant George Kemp enlisted in the Durham Light
Infantry in November 1915 and was wounded in July 1917. Fol-
lowing his discharge from hospital in September, a telegram
was received by his father in June 1918 stating that he had been
killed in action. Having been attached to the Royal Air Force as a
gunner with No. 20 Squadron, his commanding officer explained
that ‘it happened on June 1 during a fight with about 15 enemy
machines. One enemy machine with the sun behind him sur-
prised your son and his pilot and dived on them before anything
could be done. Before your son was killed he had shot down one
of the enemy machines and his pilot eventually shot down
another.’ Mr Kemp requested a photograph of George’s grave
No. 56 in Row B of Plot 5 of Longuenesse Cemetery, then beauti-
fully marked with a cross made by members of his squadron.

50
TWGPP

TWGPP
On May 21, 1917, the Imperial War In July 1996, Steve Rogers was on a visit to Northern France on the anniversary of the
Graves Commission (IWGC) was estab- massive Allied attack on the Somme when he came across the grave of Private Bertram
lished by Royal Charter to formally mark Rogers who had been killed on the first day of the battle. Researching Bertram’s back-
and maintain the graves of the members ground, Steve was amazed to discover that he was a distant relative, and this set him
of the British Empire and Common- thinking. He began by seeing how many Rogers had lost their lives in the First World
wealth. In September 1922, they wrote War, to then deciding to begin photographing their graves. Now, in an incredible
to the Kemp family to advise that a stan- labour of love stretching over 20 years, The War Graves Photographic Project (TWGPP)
dard IWGC headstone was to be erected has visited over 23,000 cemeteries in more that 150 countries to photograph — with
on the grave, and that they could have a the help of over a thousand contributors — the graves of every British and Common-
personal message inscribed on it limited wealth casualty from both the First and Second World Wars as well as those from later
to 66 letters. This is what they chose: ‘To conflicts. Left: This is Steve’s picture of George Kemp headstone at Longuenesse.
a cheery, loving, loyal son, brother, Above: Steve’s service in the Royal Navy gave him the opportunity to visit many over-
friend let this bear tribute’. seas cemeteries. Here he has cycled to photograph graves in Alexandria.
surreal. At that moment I decided that I stone photographs to families by putting a PROCESSING IMAGES
would research all of the 1,252 casualties link to our website on their casualty page. Volunteers from around the world would
bearing the surname Rogers of World War I We hoped in the early days that our images send images to us on a CD or USB device to
and, where possible, visit and take a photo would be displayed there as well but this be downloaded at our ‘office’ in the spare
of their grave. never came to fruition. bedroom of our home in Hampshire. Other
My job in the Royal Navy took me to The new, all Commonwealth encompass- volunteers acted as co-ordinators helping with
many foreign ports so I took the opportunity, ing website The War Graves Photographic the process for the different nationalities.
when alongside, to cycle to various CWGC Project (TWGPP) was established at the end The individual JPEG images had to be
cemeteries and photograph the one or two of 2007 with the site going live to the public renamed with the casualty surname and ini-
Rogers men buried there. During these visits in 2008 having uploaded many thousands of tial to enable us to manually align them to
it became apparent that the majority of photographs. Soon after, we were invited to each line of casualty data on an Excel
graves had never been visited by any families the House of Lords to present TWGPP to spreadsheet. This data sheet had been
but it would have been too time-consuming members of the All Party Parliamentary War extracted from the CWGC website. It takes
to photograph them all. Heritage Group. considerable time to do this but we have not
I discovered that in pre-digital days there
were projects to photograph the graves of
other Commonwealth forces whose casual-
ties were not as vast as the British contin-
gent. Therefore, I offered my help to photo-
graph these war graves during my cemetery
visits. However, it was frustrating to walk
past so many British graves knowing what an
impossible job it would be to ‘capture’ all of
those.
In 2004, I joined up with a very small
group of enthusiastic ‘grave spotters’ whose
intention was to photograph just the British
casualties buried in the UK. A website was
started and by word of mouth only we man-
aged to complete the UK very quickly. Inter-
est in the project was increasing and we were
being offered images from overseas so we
expanded our remit to cover all British casu-
alties, no matter where they lie.
In order to get some ‘kudos’ for the work
we were doing as a voluntary group, a meet-
ing was arranged with the Directors of the
CWGC. It was agreed that we could be
considered as ‘working in association’ with
them, providing we expanded our portfolio
TWGPP

to include all Commonwealth nationalities

and not just the British. We would not
receive any funding from them but they
would promote our project to provide head- Steve and Sandra Rogers at work in Cairo War Cemetery.

51
 VOLUNTEERS
In the early days we had over 1,000 volun-
teers worldwide assisting in the process and
we arranged coach tours throughout France,
Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and
even to Gallipoli. We were fortunate to com-
plete the whole of North Africa before the
Libyan conflict and the ‘Arab Spring’ which
then made access very difficult. All the other
European countries, where there are large
numbers of cemeteries, were covered by vol-
unteers on holiday. It is often more difficult
to track down and photograph a single
remote grave than it is to complete a large
cemetery of thousands. This is particularly
the case in Australia and Africa where
graves can be situated in the back of beyond.
To date, we have photographed around
23,000 cemeteries in over 150 countries but
some still remain outstanding and we need
help to complete those. Iraq will not com-
plete until the headstones have been replaced
after being damaged during the Gulf War and
Gaza still proves a challenge as a camera sent
to the one volunteer in Gaza was intercepted
TWGPP

and confiscated by Israeli authorities! Beirut

has only recently been completed, some ten
years after the project was begun, and
Geoff Thorndike in the Arnhem-Oosterbeek War Cemetery in the Netherlands. Indonesia is being progressed as I write.

found an easier way to perform this process.

However, this arduous task enabled the
TWGPP to be able to display grave and
details in a searchable format as opposed to
just an enquiry request. Although we now
have 1.86 million images displayed on site,
the archive is considerably larger so these
images are backed up in triplicate on 12
Terabyte machines to ensure that nothing is
lost in the event of disk failure. The images
are stored in alphabetically named cemetery
folders so are retrieved from these as and
when required.
The spreadsheets and images are uploaded
to site most evenings. This is also the time
when all correspondence is answered and
requests fulfilled. Many recipients are very
grateful and ask if they can visit our ‘offices’
when they come to the UK assuming we are
based in London. I still invite them to pop in
for a cup of tea if they are passing Horndean
(more famous for its Brewery).
Right: Dave Lovell being filmed at work
in Daours Military Cemetery in France,

TWGPP
by an Australian film crew during the
Anzac commemorations.
TWGPP

Members of The War Graves Photographic Project team at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli.

52
 TWGPP

TWGPP
Nic Beales searching for an overgrown A lonely job in winter. Lijssenthoek was the location for a number of Casualty
grave in Britain. Clearing Stations which resulted in the cemetery containing over 10,000 graves.

Within five years of forming we were more
or less complete for all 1.7 million Common-
wealth casualties so we have now expanded
our scope to cover all nationalities. This has
raised its own challenges as the casualty data
are not readily available although this is the
information that we need to assemble the
images. We are currently processing the
many thousands of German graves that we
hold within the archive. This involves read-
ing each and every headstone and transcrib-
ing the details to an Excel sheet. We did
approach the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegs-
gräberfürsorge (the German equivalent of
the CWGC) to try and obtain the data but
this was not forthcoming. (If anyone reading
this would like to help in this process please
get in touch.) The American Battle Monu-
ments Commission have requested that we
do not photograph headstones in the war
cemeteries under their control.
We also photograph family memorials in
UK cemeteries that commemorate someone
lost abroad. Many of these are no longer
maintained and are falling into disrepair so
at least a photographic archive is being main-
tained when they are discovered. We also
include all Service personnel from inter-war
service (not covered by CWGC data) and all
post-war casualties. To that end we have
completed Commonwealth casualties of the
Korean war, Suez, Malaysian campaign,
Aden, Cyprus and the Falklands, and many
other smaller conflicts. We do not photo-
graph town and village memorials as these
are being completed by the Imperial War
Museum so we have not duplicated effort
(see After the Battle No. 115).
MAINTAINING THE PROJECT
All of our work has been funded purely by
those volunteering with no assistance from
any other organisations. An early request to
be considered for charitable status was
turned down as it was considered that what
we were doing was not of benefit to the liv-
ing! We had approached the National Lot-
tery for funding to assist in this process but
were turned down on two bids. Subsequent
bids during the recent four-year commemo-
rative period were also turned down due to
the fact that we had started the project
before 2014 so did not qualify! This has been
frustrating as we are unable to advertise the
service we provide. Therefore, many that
might want to obtain a photograph of a rela-
tion’s grave or name on a memorial are
unable to do so through lack of publicity and
awareness. We therefore hope that this arti-
cle will help to publicise our ongoing work.
As we progressed to 2014 and the start of
the centennial commemorations we knew that
there would be considerable interest in the
First World War. It was good to see so many
communities getting involved in remembering
their war dead. A number of villages have
found our site and used our images when pro-
ducing displays and books to remember the
fallen. The poppy display at the Tower of
London gave the public the impetus to inves-
tigate if they had a dead relative yet to be dis-
covered. The additional interest in Australia
prompted the Australian War Memorial to
use our archive on a monthly basis to supply
images for their ‘Last Post ‘commemorations.

TWGPP

As if photographing the graves of many thousands of British and Commonwealth

servicemen in all corners of the world without any official funding or support was not
TWGPP

a big enough task, TWGPP have now taken on the photography of German graves.
This is Sandra Rogers at work in the German War Cemetery at Neuville-Saint-Vaast.

53
TWGPP

Vandalism in Baghdad has brought a halt to photography in North Gate Cemetery until the headstones have been replaced.

THE FUTURE
It came as a huge surprise in May 2016,
just before the 100th anniversary of the
Somme, that a volunteer informed me that
our links on the CWGC site had disap-
peared. I made enquiries and found that I
should have received a letter stating the fol-
lowing: ‘We are writing to inform you that
we have carried out a review on all of the
partner information we hold on our web-
site. The aim of this was to ensure that we
only list organisations that we are currently
partnering with and with whom we have a
close working relationship. As a result of
this we will only show our current partners
information from our website from 11th
May 2016.’
Further enquiries gave us the option to
have the links reinstated but none were to
the benefit of the project or the hard work
that had been carried out by our volunteers.
We put the proposals to the volunteers with
the result that 97 per cent said ‘go it alone’
which is what we have done ever since.
Although this development was unexpected,
we were confident that with the continued
support of our volunteers we could maintain
the service to provide photographs of loved
ones’ headstones. It has been evident that
this service is still very much required even
as we end the centennial commemorations of
World War I as relatives of Second War
casualties are out there and still looking.
With everyone armed with a camera on a
mobile phone these days, and many other
websites making images available, there may
be a time when the internet is flooded with
war grave photos. However, we at TWGPP
continue to tidy up every image for colour,
contrast, perspective and clarity before it is
sent out to ensure they are the best quality
TWGPP

possible. Judging by the positive feedback

this extra care is very much appreciated.
Hard copy photographs are still very popular
which is something we can, and do, provide. Terry Jamieson photographing panels on the Arras Memorial.

54
TWGPP

TWGPP
From high up at Ploegsteert . . . to ground level in Malta . . . nothing beats the TWGPP photographers. What an amazing accomplishment!

New volunteers are helping with what we
call ‘re-visits’ to re-photograph cemeteries
around the world. Many headstones are
being replaced so we try, where possible, to
take a new set of photos thus ensuring we
can supply the best quality images. We envis-
age this as an ongoing process so will con-
tinue to maintain TWGPP for the foresee-
able future.
To spread the word we have set up our
Facebook page where updated news and
articles from volunteers are posted. This
is proving popular with many ‘shares’ and
‘likes’ and gives us the opportunity to
publicise what we do. I hope that readers
of After the Battle who may still be
unaware of TWGPP may take advantage
of our service and search for relatives who
may have died during any of the conflicts
mentioned in the magazine’s articles.
Perhaps when I retire from my day job
there may be an ‘opening’ to do this on a
more relaxed basis!
Website: www.twgpp.org
E-Mail: admin@twgpp.org
Also on Facebook

The War Graves Photographic Project is hereby
awarded the President’s Commendation for an outstand-
ing contribution to the work and aims of the Common-
wealth War Graves Commission. The award will be
presented to Mr Steve Rogers, Project Co-ordinator, on
behalf of all volunteers.
The Project’s volunteers have pro-actively taken
photographs of over 1.7 million graves and memorial
inscriptions in the Commission’s care and continue to
provide thousands of these photographs to members of the
public each year, many of them next of kin unable to travel
to visit the grave or memorial in person.
Images have been provided to the Commission for use on
our website and in verifying records against the commemo-
ration in situ. The Project’s work has become a vital compo-
nent of our ongoing efforts to serve the public and to com-
memorate the fallen.
For an outstanding practical contribution to the work of
the Commission the President’s Commendation is awarded
to The War Graves Photographic Project Volunteers.

TWGPP

In 2015, Nigel Haines (left) and HRH the Duke of Kent, President of presented Steve and Sandra Rogers with a Commendation for
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (not in the picture), The War Graves Photographic Project at St James’s Palace.

55