John Stieber - Against the Odds - Survival on the Russian Front 1944-1945 [2nd Edition]

Bazooka “Panzerfaust” (Tank fist)

German hand-held rocket-launcher used against tanks. Weight 6.1 kilogrammes. Length one metre. Diameter five centimetres. Range 80 metres. Able to penetrate 200 millimetres of steel.

MG-42

Highly successful German 7.92-millimetre machine-gun. Weight 11.6 kilogrammes. Length 1.22 metres. 1,500 rounds per minute. Range 3,500 metres.

V-1

German long-range rocket. Weight 2.14 tons. Length twenty-five feet. Speed 660 km/hour. Range 370 kilometres. Carried 0.82 tons of explosives. 10,500 rockets were built. Rocket flew on a pre-determined course. Descent was activated by a propeller-driven timing device.

V-2

German long-range rocket. Weight 12.9 tons. Length 12.2 metres. Diameter 1.4 metres. Speed 5,760 km/hour. Range 360 kilometres. Ceiling 185 kilometres. Carried one ton of explosives. Rocket was propelled by four tons of liquid-alcohol fuel together with five tons of liquid oxygen for combustion. Flight controlled by an electric guiding beam. Rocket travelled through the stratosphere.

Katyusha “Stalin Organ”

Russian rocket launcher. 48 projectiles dispatched within seconds. Range, according to model, 2.5 to 8.2 kilometres. It achieved a strong psychological effect due to howling noise of rockets during flight.

Braun, G.:Der Fallschirmjäger. (Verlag) Karlsruhe, Articles contributed between 1959 and 1980 by:

Dinger, Ludwig:

Der Wandernde Kessel, 1960.

Die Winterschlacht beginnt, 1959.

Tollhaus – Steinau Brückenkopf, 1959.

Versprengt, 1960.

Dittrich, Heinz.

Die letzten Kriegswochen im Osten, 1967.

Otte, Alfred:

Das Fallschirmkorps in Ostpreussen, 1968/69.

Das war das stärkste Flakregiment, 1976

Der neue Panzer-Grossverband 1972/73.

Die Schlacht an der Neisse, 1969.

Sie erlagen der Übermacht, 1980.

Unser Einsatz an der Weichsel, 1970/71.

Von Utrecht nach Graudenz, 1972/73

Ellis, John:The Sharp End of War, David & Charles, London, 1980.

Guderian, Heinz:Panzerleader. Holles Street Press Ltd., Slough, Jan 1952.

Haupt, Werner:Das Ende im Osten. Podzun Verlag,Dorheim, 1970. (Later Podzun-Pallas, Friedberg).

Magenheimer, Heinz:Abwehrschlacht and der Weichsel 1945, Verlag Rombach, Freiburg 1976.

Michaelis, Prof. Dr. Herbert, et al.:Der Zweite Weltkrieg Bilder Daten Dokumente. C. Bertelsmann, München. 1983.

Nehring, Walther K.:Der ‘Wandernde Kessel.’ Deutsches Soldatenjahrbuch, compiled by Helmut Dameran Schild Verlag, München, 1976.

Niepold, Gerd:Mittlere Ostfront Juni ’44. Mittler Verlag, Bonn, 1985.

Otte, Alfred:Die Weissen Spiegel, Vom Regiment zum Fallschirm-Panzerkorps. Podzun-Pallas, Bad Nauheim, 1989.

Snyder, Louis L.:Encyclopaedia of the Third Reich. McGraw Hill, 1976.

Überreiter, Carl:Die Zertrümmerung der Ostfront 1944. Zeitschrift für die Ausbildung im Bundesheer, Verlag Carl Überreiter, Wien, 1969.

White, B.T.:Tanks and other Armoured Fighting Vehicles of the World. New Orchard Editions Ltd., 1988.

Zentner, Kurt:Illustrierte Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Südwestverlag, München, 1963.

Map 3 produced with acknowledgements to:

Zentner, Christian, Lexikon des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Jahrverlag KG, Hamburg, 1977

First published in 1995 by

Poolbeg Press Ltd, Dublin, Ireland.

This 2nd edition published in 2016.

© John Stieber 1995

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Reprinted with permission from the children of the author:

Anthony Stieber, Christine Cann, and Annette Kunigagon.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN-13:

ISBN-10: 1523347368

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The book is sold subject to the condition that is shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold or otherwise circulated with the author’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Original cover photograph of crest by Gillian Buckley

Original cover design by Poolbeg Group Services Ltd