Word: gorodok
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Dates: during 1944-1944
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...fury of battle had died down. Now weary, haggard, bundle-laden refugees slipped out of the forests, bent into the icy wind and snow, plodded across the pitted battlefield. Before them lay Gorodok - the "Little Town" - charred, ruined, stinking of dead flesh and gunpowder...
Tough Town. Small, sleepy Gorodok was one of the keys to Vitebsk. All through the summer the Germans fortified its approaches with steel, timber, concrete. They buried old tanks, to serve as pill boxes. They strung out miles of barbed wire, sowed the swamps with mines. They had hoped to stay in Gorodok a long, long time: the dugouts were large; the officers' quarters had hardwood floors...
...reduce Gorodok, the Red command used the new First Baltic Army, with its winter-trained Siberian regiments, which fought at Moscow, Stalingrad, the Don. It massed heavy artillery, tanks, planes. Then, in a heavy snowfall, the Siberians struck out from three directions...
...cannon pulverized enemy defenses. Despite wind and snow, the Red Air Force bombed and strafed the foe, special officers attached to each column directing the air attacks by radio. Soon panic spread through the German ranks. Their lines gave. Savage fighting boiled over into the streets of Gorodok. By 2 o'clock one afternoon last week, the German garrison-two infantry divisions, one tank division-gave up the battle. In Moscow, 124 cannon boomed a salute to victory...