Chapter 33Counter Attack, 1943
I looked at my chronometer – 4 a.m. I stood outside the tank with my field glasses trained to the east. It would start soon, I thought. From across the frozen expanse of the Volga sounded the cough of an engine, then another and another – a fusillade of motors fired up, building to a steady roar, the hum and rumble of which floated through the frigid night air. Under my parka and ulanka, I could still hear it. I thought of the men and machines we had left some ten kilometres to the west.
The first wave of machines motored toward me. As I looked eastward, I had the thought that at the first light of day, blood would flow. The first tanks rumbled by. The General patrolled the perimeter calling for the count. Signalmen stood on the frozen river directing traff
