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The Lesser-Mentioned Hero: A Review of the Russian Film The Battle of Lezhev (Part 1)
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Small arms in the film (continued)
In the film, the Germans use a heavy machine gun placed in the bunker, which once killed and wounded the attacking Soviet army with heavy firepower. After the Soviets captured the German positions, the gun became a soviet trophy and killed a large number of Germans at the hands of Evgeny. This heavy machine gun with heavy firepower was the Czechoslovak ZB53 heavy machine gun. The original intention of the development of the gun was that the Czechoslovak military proposed to replace the bulky water-cooled Maxim heavy machine gun with a lightweight air-cooled heavy machine gun, so the state arsenal designed an air-cooled heavy machine gun based on the ZB26. This heavy machine gun was successfully developed in 1935 and improved for up to 2 years, and was officially finalized as a ZB37 heavy machine gun in 1937, and the export type was named ZB53. The ZB53 heavy machine gun fires a 7.92mm Mauser rifle cartridge, fed with a chain, and after 5 minutes of continuous firing, the barrel can be quickly changed in a similar way to the ZB26 to maintain continuous firing capability. It is worth mentioning that the gun also came to China with the ZB26. At that time, the Chinese army purchased about 850 ZB53 heavy machine guns, which were distributed together to elite troops equipped with Czech light machine guns, and once gave the Japanese a great blow on the battlefield.
In the film, the GermanS deployed the ZB53 heavy machine gun in the bunker
After Germany annexed Czechoslovakia, the ZB53 heavy machine gun was adopted by the Germans along with the Czech light machine gun and was given the designation MG37(t) heavy machine gun. As a result, this type of heavy machine gun appeared on the Soviet-German battlefield. However, the gun was soon discontinued because Germany forced the Czech state arsenal to convert to German firearms, and the number of production was said to be only 6411. However, the gun was mass-produced in the United Kingdom as a vehicle-mounted machine gun, which was the British Besa (also known as the Bursa) vehicle-mounted machine gun. The gun was produced at more than 60,000 units, with 59,322 produced during World War II alone. It is worth mentioning that the British-produced Bertha machine gun did not switch to the British caliber, mainly considering the tight time of the war, still using the original 7.92mm bullet. As a result, the British had to purchase a large number of guns of this caliber, and they could also be used by capturing German ammunition from the battlefield.
Yevgeny shot with the ZB53 heavy machine gun
At the beginning of the war, the Soviet army, which had suffered heavy losses, was also in a long-term dilemma of lack of various types of equipment, and had to use a lot of captured German equipment and its own inventory of old equipment. In the film "The Battle of Lezhev", Yevgeny Company was supported by 2 machine gun groups after capturing the German position, and the heavy machine gun used was a stock of old equipment. In terms of appearance, this water-cooled heavy machine gun is very similar to the M1910 heavy machine gun designed in the Tsarist era, but its cooling water barrel lacks the latter's characteristic groove, which is actually an M1905/10 heavy machine gun.
The M1905/10 heavy machine gun was an important model in the development of the Tsarist heavy machine gun, but it was far less famous than the M1910 heavy machine gun. During the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian army used imported Maxim heavy machine guns to inflict huge casualties on the Japanese army, thus laying the foundation for its emphasis on heavy machine guns. The first self-produced Maxim heavy machine gun in Russia was the M1905, which differed little from the Maxim heavy machine gun and used a Sokolov wheeled gun holder for better towing by infantry, and its cooling water cylinder was made of all copper. The gun has a mass of 65.8 kg when filled with cooling water, and the increased mass is mainly the wheeled gun frame and the newly designed shield. This shield played a certain protective role for machine gunners, so it was used in Soviet heavy machine guns after that.
In the film, the Soviet M1905/10 heavy machine gun is firing
The M1905 heavy machine gun was produced in a short period of time and introduced an improved M1905/10 heavy machine gun, mainly changing the cooling water cylinder to steel, only the front of the water cylinder was made of copper. Judging from the picture of the film, the front end of the heavy machine gun water cylinder of The Evgenylian is obviously made of brass, and the place where the paint of the barrel is peeled off is not brass but black metal. Judging from these characteristics, the heavy machine gun in the film is the M1905/10 heavy machine gun.
The most obvious external difference between the M1905/10 heavy machine gun and the later M1910 heavy machine gun is the cooling water cylinder, which has grooves on it. As for the role of this groove, in addition to increasing the heat dissipation area, more importantly, the cold winter in Russia may completely freeze the cooling water and expand the cooling water cylinder, and the addition of grooves greatly reduces this possibility.
The M1910 heavy machine gun was used until World War II, when it was not until 1943 that it began to be replaced by the Goryonov SG43 heavy machine gun. Apparently, the M1905/10 heavy machine gun on the Soviet-German battlefield was also used as a substitute for standard equipment.
The tactical representation of both sides in the film
Overall, the "Battle of Lezhev" film is well-made and the props are very in place, but it does not pay attention to the tactical use of the two armies. This may be related to the theme of the original book mainly exploring the existence of various contradictions in the then rigid Soviet system, and the completion of self-redemption at the cost of life and blood in war.
From the Soviet side, the shortcomings of its tactical application are obvious. First, the Soviet Yevgeny Company formed a simple infantry charge when launching the attack on the village of Obsyannikov, with a serious lack of fire support and cover. The equipment of the Evgeny Company was not neat, and there were no light machine guns and small-caliber mortars in the picture, let alone heavy machine guns and medium-caliber mortars reinforced by superiors. This was normal before 1943, when the Soviet army was short of equipment due to insufficient production capacity and huge losses on the battlefield, especially in secondary areas. As a result, the Evgeny Company had to charge without direct support fire. Moreover, the company was not supported by higher artillery fire before the impact. In this case, it was impossible to suppress the fire of the germans on the other side during the march with the rifles and submachine guns of the infantry alone.
If the firepower of the defender cannot be suppressed, then the attacking party's action will fail. Fortunately, the German defense preparations were not sufficient, and Yevgeny Company finally rushed to the German positions by relying on fierce shocks and heavy losses. In the brutal hand-to-hand combat, the burly Soviet soldiers were no less than the well-trained German soldiers, and finally drove the Germans out of the village.
Secondly, after taking the village, the Evgeny Company did not have the precautionary measures in place, and was almost attacked by the German army and completely destroyed. Although Yevgenylian suffered heavy losses, he still obeyed the orders to hold the village of Ofsyannikov. By this time, the Soviet soldiers had been fighting and preparing for defense all day, exhausted. Although night raids by the Germans were rare, Yevgeny was right to issue orders to strengthen vigilance against villages and abandoned churches at night. However, the Soviet army's vigilance measures were obviously not perfect. Only a few Soviet troops were on the defensive in the abandoned church, they did not arrange the shift guard well, and they were all asleep as the Germans approached. The commander in charge of defending the abandoned church and the village should send out guard posts on duty in turn at different times, and also keep people on guard at the position. As a result, with all the men asleep, the Germans managed to approach the abandoned church and village. If it were not for Rekov and Barkov calling the police in time and holding back the Germans from the rear, Evgeny would not have been able to escape the fate.
Finally, the abandoned church, which was an independent stronghold outside the village, lacked the ability to support each other. The church was located not far from the village of Obsyannikov, which was regarded by both the Soviet and German armies as an important stronghold to rely on the village, and invariably deployed troops there. However, the connection between this independent stronghold and the main position village was too weak, there were no communication trenches to connect with each other, and there was no ability to carry out mutual support in terms of firepower. This left the church as an isolated stronghold, making it difficult to hold out for long on either side.
The Soviet army also has tactical actions in place in the film. Immediately after taking the village, Evgeny ordered his men to transfer all the barbed wire fences originally deployed by the German army to the other side of the village to prevent a possible German attack. This was actually a kind of reconstruction of the fortifications, because the original German defense was the direction of the Soviet attack. After the Evgeny Company seized the position, it had to be transformed. This included not only reversing the direction of obstacles, including barbed wire, but also building fortifications facing the Germans, especially various fire points and trenches, as a basis for resisting German attacks. When the Germans launched a night raid, they only captured the abandoned church, and their troops attacking the village were all shot by the front and rear fire and the barbed wire, which showed the great effect of fire and obstacles.
In addition, when Yevgeny launched a friendly attack on the village of Usovo, he ordered heavy machine gun groups to fire even if they exceeded the effective range. This is a proactive and coordinated tactical maneuver. Even if this firepower could not effectively threaten the German defense forces in the village of Usovo, it could play a certain role in attracting the attention of the German army, and it should be said that it was a manifestation of Yevgeny's initiative. However, in my opinion, if Yevgeny had been able to send several combat teams to carry out a feint or a real attack on the village of Usovo at that time, it would have better played a role in containing the German army in the village of Usovo. When the Germans discovered the Soviets approaching them from the village of Ovsyanikovo, they were bound to be forced to divide part of their forces and firepower from the main direction of the Soviet attack to deal with the Soviets, which would improve the situation of the Soviets in the main direction of attack. Although this move did not necessarily lead to the success of the attack on the village of Usovo, it would certainly reduce the losses of friendly forces in the main direction of attack.
The German side also had the problem of insufficient defensive vigilance in the first place. When the Soviets began to attack the village of Ofsyannikov, the German forces had not yet entered the position. After the Soviets began to charge and were bombarded by German artillery, most of the German defenders hurried from the village into the fortifications on the outskirts of the village. The Germans could not withstand the russian cold and most of the personnel were warmed in the room, so that they were a bit busy when they were attacked. This hastily organized defense was seriously unstable and was one of the important reasons why the Germans lost their positions under the simple infantry onslaught of the Soviets alone.
The Night Raid on the Village of Orvsyannikov did have the effect of surprise. As far as the battlefield situation at that time was concerned, the Soviet army learned how to fight with the Germans at the cost of heavy losses, and improved the technical quality of its officers and men and accumulated the necessary combat experience, while the German army still had a large advantage in overall combat effectiveness. In this case, the Soviet army used more night warfare to weaken the advantage of the German army, so there is a saying in the film that the Germans do not fight at night. The Germans, on the other hand, usually took advantage of the daytime conditions to play their advantages in equipment and technical warfare, and conducted night operations more passively to deal with Soviet attacks. This time, the German army adopted the night attack tactic in the opposite direction, which was indeed greatly unexpected by the Soviet army. If it were not for the occasional appearance of Rekov and Barkov calling the police, this tactic would have yielded good results.
As for the tactical formation of the Germans when they finally launched a counterattack and entered the village, there were major problems. They advanced along a pathway in the village, only to fall within range of the ZB53 heavy machine gun personally operated by Evgeny, all of which were killed by heavy fire. If they dispersed and advanced together from several pathways, not only would casualties be greatly reduced, but they would also be able to quickly make a roundabout attack on Yevgeny's heavy machine gun fire point. Of course, in order to show the heroism of the Soviet Red Army, it is normal for the Germans to make some mistakes. Moreover, the Germans also believed that they would not encounter any resistance after the heavy bombardment of mortars, so they relaxed their vigilance and adopted this marginal "rolling mill" tactic.
Outside the film
On June 30, 2020, six months after the release of the film "The Battle of Lezhev", the Monument to the Battle of Lezhev was inaugurated near Lezhev in Russia to commemorate the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Red Army soldiers who were killed or injured in several fierce battles in the region. In heroic Russia, the rarely mentioned heroes of the battle, which were overshadowed by the glory of the Battle of Stalingrad, finally gained popular attention. In these battles, the brave soldiers also made an indelible contribution to the final victory. The Soviet poet Tvardowski once wrote a poem "I Die Under the City of Lezhev": "Under the city of Lezhev, I died in a fierce air raid, on the left flank of the Fifth Company, in that nameless swamp ... Until I lived to the end of the world, I had no deeds to pass on to future generations, no bars on my epaulettes, and no medals on my chest. The protagonist of the poem was killed in the Battle of Lezhev, but no one remembers his deeds, nor is he promoted to officer or awarded military merit during his lifetime. Perhaps, this is the best account of the Soldiers of the Red Army who died and were wounded at the Battle of Lezhev.
(This article was published in "Light Weapons" No. 11, 2020, and the public account has been deleted)
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