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immediately gave them some bread baked in the hearth of a peasant home.
    Then we went to find quarters in a village southwest of Kalinin. We first tried to gather a supply of oats for the winter, a share of which was taken from each of the surrounding villages. I made the acquaintance of a man who had been a gamekeeper under the czars, and who had, some years earlier, also participated in a hunt organized by Marshal Kliment Voroshilov himself. On many occasions we went hunting together on a sleigh, wrapped in the same fur blanket, through the vast zone of marshland and peat bogs southeast of the village. Lulled by the peaceful rhythm of this new life in a frozen countryside, somewhat enervated by long sessions in the sauna and by lengthy card parties around the gigantic brick stoves that formed the center of the Russian cottages, we allowed ourselves to be overcome by the conviction that the war would soon be over. When in early December, I saw my gamekeeper for what turned out to be the last time, he greeted me and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow; we’re going to meet for our little ducks! Agreed?” So convinced were we that the war was over and that we had no reason to be concerned about our new life. Our awakening was brutal.

7
A Christmas in Hell

DECEMBER 1941-JANUARY 1942
    On November 20, 1941, Major Hirsch, who had been assigned to another command, left the Sixth Reconnaissance Battalion, and my brother succeeded him as commandant. Projects were arranged to make intelligent use of the winter. Georg thought of giving Latin courses, and procured grammar books and dictionaries, and the staff launched literary and culinary competitions. Four officers, eighteen noncommissioned officers (NCOs), and some enlisted men were sent to Germany for training. Planning for leave was begun, because many soldiers had not seen their families all year.
    At the end of November, the temperature fell below –10°C (14°F) during the night. On November 16, it fell to –16°C (3°F) in the evening. We saw the first cases of frostbite, and the doctors, assisted by Russian women, taughtthe men how to treat them: with delicate massage, applications of talcum powder, warming the affected limb. By mid-December, the daytime temperature had fallen to below –20°C (-4°F). The soldiers had still not received any winter clothing and equipment.
    Georg’s battalion had been promised four hundred pairs of skis, which finally arrived in the middle of the winter. But the men had only their thin uniform jackets. In December the whole of the Sixth Division received just a few dozen pairs of fur-lined boots and overcoats. The doctors advised the men to wear all their available underclothes. But this was not sufficient. The smallest gaps in the clothing were stuffed with newspaper, packaging materials, and rags; newspaper in one’s shorts, newspaper around one’s legs and torso. Since they were receiving nothing in the way of official supplies, Georg decided to do something. He sent our friend Karl von Wendt to Westphalia, accompanied by a small team of men and trucks, intending to bring back furs and warm garments.
    So there was the battalion in the snow, like a marmot ready to hibernate, thinking more about holing up in a comfortable bivouac than about the possibility of exposure to the cold, and more about celebrating Christmas than about fighting. However, December marked the beginning of the Russian counteroffensive to relieve Moscow. This strategic maneuver, which coincided with the entry of the United States into the conflict, clearly represented a change in the course of the war. It signaledthe end of the German advance into Russian territory in 1941, even if, we thought, that development was not yet decisive for the outcome of the conflict. The war would be long; German troops would turn out to be dangerously exposed and their immune systems fragile, particularly under such inhuman meteorological conditions.
    In mid-December, the situation no