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Kampfgruppe Scherer s outstanding feat of arms was one of Germany s most famous military achievements during the Second World War. With only a few thousand men from all branches of the service, including mountain troopers, elderly reservists, police officers, navy drivers, SS partisan hunters and supply troops, Generalmajor Theodor Scherer was ordered to hold Cholm in the face of a superior enemy force. That Scherer and his men prevailed is now an historical fact but analysis of daily radio traffic and combat reports reveals that the pocket s survival was precarious; at times, even senior commanders doubted if it could be saved. On several occasions the Soviet onslaught looked poised to inflict the death blow but somehow the exhausted men of Cholm grimly clung to a few resistance nests upon which a new line was anchored. General Scherer, a popular leader and inspiration to all his soldiers, despaired many times and was forced to continually plead for more men, more supplies and more aerial support. Urgent demands by other sectors meant Kampfgruppe Scherer was drip-fed just enough supplies and reinforcements to stay alive until, eventually, a relief force forged a permanent link and freed the exhausted survivors.
After a catastrophic winter of setbacks and resounding defeats for the Wehrmacht, the General and his men were lauded as heroes and recognised with an arm shield that marked them as Cholmk�mpfer, men of exceptional courage who had prevailed despite overwhelming odds.
Primary sources have been utilised for the first time to present this battle in a detailed day-by-day format, from the forlorn days of January and February to liberation in early May.
608 pages on a high-quality gloss stock
328 photos
22 maps and sketches
22 aerial photos
9 supporting documents
7 detailed appendices
- Sales Rank: #1099537 in Books
- Published on: 2011-10-05
- Binding: Hardcover
- 608 pages
Most helpful customer reviews
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful.
As desperate a battle as any in the war
By WryGuy2
Besieged: The Epic Battle for Cholm" is author Jason Mark's latest foray into the eastern front of World War II. Mr Mark has written and/or published several books on the battle for Stalingrad, as well as a book on the "Croatian Legion" (which served on the Eastern Front and was destroyed at Stalingrad), but this time his focus is on the encirclement and siege of Cholm in early 1942.
As history buffs know, December 1941/January 1942 saw the Soviets launch devastating counterattacks on the over-extended German forces. In the face of near collapse of his forces, Hitler issued his controversial "stand fast" order, which greatly reduced the tactical flexibility of the German commanders, but which may have prevented a general collapse of the German front, particularly in front of Moscow. However, these orders also led to many German units being surrounded, typically in towns and along important transportation lines, until either relieved or overwhelmed. In the German Army Group North's sector, the Soviet offensive formed two pockets ... a large one with over 100,000 Germans trapped in Demyansk, and a smaller one at Cholm (about 60 miles away) with around 4,500 men. Both positions were critical to the Germans defensive line ... a Soviet success at either location could unhinge the entire German line and gravely threaten both Army Group North and Army Group Center.
In this book, Mr Mark gives an extremely detailed, day-by-day account of the Soviet siege of Cholm, although told primarily from the German point of view. The German forces were a hodge-podge of rear-area units, stragglers from broken formations, some security forces, and a few key combat units which bore much of the brunt of the early fighting. Because of the small size of the Cholm pocket, the nearby airfield soon fell under Soviet fire, and heavy transport losses forced the Germans to resupply the pocket almost entirely by "supply bombs" ... an inefficient way to deliver supplies ... as well as by gliders (on a one-way trip) which would bring in critical items too heavy or inappropriate for the supply cannisters (such as anti-tank guns and a few companies of reinforcements). Mr Marks also covers the many unsuccessful German attempts to relieve the pocket.
The Germans (and Soviets) were forced to live and fight under horrific conditions. While early in the battle, a few hundred German casualties were airlifted from the pocket, once the Soviets were able to position weapons to cover the airfield, the wounded were trapped for the duration of the siege in unhygienic, primitive, greatly overcrowded basements. The fighting and Soviet bombardments reduced most of the structures in the town to rubble, and both the well and the wounded suffered from severe privations. During the siege, the commander in Cholm asked for a photographer to be flown into the pocket to document the combat. Many of those pictures are included in this book, as well as other supporting photos, such as aerial overviews of Cholm, and they give you a real view into the fighting and conditions.
Over the course of the fighting, about half of the garrison became dead, missing, or wounded (and a great number of the remaining troops were lightly wounded but elected to remain with their comrades). The fighting was desperate and occurred nearly every day. The Soviets were as determined to take Cholm as the Germans were to hold and rescue it, and the fighting here was fierce as any during the war, and the Germans looked utter defeat in the eye many times. Mr Mark does an outstanding job of showing the razor's edge that the Germans were forced to operate on, and how much of a near-run affair the encirclement was.
While this is a truly great book, I do have a few small nits. First, there isn't nearly as much coverage from the Soviet side, so you're in effect only getting half of the battle most of the time. However, the silver lining in this is that you're seeing the battle the same way the trapped Germans did ... you (and they) don't know when the next attack will come from and how large of an attack it will be ... so the dramatic tension is higher. Second, Mr Marks doesn't tie Cholm in with the larger encirclement at Demyansk or the fighting in that sector in general. The reason that Cholm wasn't better supported was because the Germans were stretched everywhere, and had to make hard choices as to who got the little support available, particularly for air assets. And finally, about 1200 Soviet civilians trapped with the Germans survived the encirclement (and then were forcibly evicted from Cholm once the siege had been lifted.) Although not critical to the fighting, I would have really liked to know how many civilians were there at the beginning of the siege, how they fared, and how ANY of them managed to survive, given how stretched the Germans were on supplies just for themselves.
As you've probably noted, the book is pricey, but I can honestly say that it's well worth it. Only printed in small numbers, it details an important clash during World War II that you literally can't find elsewhere. The production quality of the book is also very high ... extraordinarily clear photos, glossy paper, and so on. I own all of Mr Mark's books (save his first one, which is out of print and extremely expensive on the used market), and I've been impressed by all of them. Five big stars.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful.
Trapped for 105 days in freezing cold and snow
By Dave Schranck
As far as scale goes, with respect to area and manpower, the German encirclement at Cholm was one of the smallest. The nearby pocket at Demyansk plus Korsun and Stalingrad dwarfed it but the German resistance at Cholm along with nearby Demyansk played an important role for if the both pockets fell, the Soviets would have had a good chance of reaching the Baltic Sea and isolating AGN. With AGN destroyed, the other two Army Groups would be forced to retreat or be destroyed as well. Stavka made the capture of Cholm a high priority and 3rd Shock Army's 33rd RD did everything possible at great loss to themselves to liquidate the pocket but ultimately failed their orders. The Soviet's job was made even tougher by the extreme cold and heavy snows that hit that sector. It was the harshest winter in 150 years.
This background info begins the book along with telling how these two pockets were formed when Zhukov's counter-offensive of December 1941 pushed the Germans back from Moscow.
The depot town of Cholm, located on the Lovat River halfway between the towns of Staraya Russa and Velikie Luki is also an important road junction that would have to be used by the Soviets to reach the Baltic. It had to be taken.
This nearly six month drama of survival against a relentless enemy and the harsh elements was recreated by primary documents and is told as a daily chronicle. All the battle action is describe and then the casualties are added up at the end of the day. If you have read any of Mark's other books then you'll know what to expect. The writing style, format and level of detail is exactly like all of his earlier books. The daily coverage begins on Jan 18 and ends on June 9, 1942. The chapters are broken down by month. The Soviets who were frequently being fed reinforcements would attack nearly everyday as well as many long cold nights. On the days with no offensive, the pocket would be heavily shelled. Of the nearly 5500 Germans who fought in the pocket, many were killed and the remainder were wounded or fallen sick. Very few men were lucky enough not to be a casualty statistic. The pocket which followed the contours of the river was in relaively flat, open ground, providing little protection to the Soviets. The attackers often made suicide runs against the German line and lost many times that number. The battle coverage is contained to the pocket; there isn't detailed coverage along the line in either direction.
Some of the accompanying photos show Cholm practically leveled; the terrain barren, looking almost like a moonscape. The attacking Soviets so often got near the front trenches that the Germans had used thousands of grenades and were often low on ammo.
With the terrain so rugged and the snows so deep, the only way to resupply the trapped men was by plane or glider. The Soviets did squeeze the pocket smaller to the point that planes couldn't land their cargo and were forced to airdrop but the Germans held on until the relief column arrived in the spring. This aspect of the resupply was heavily covered. Maj Gen Scherer, the commander, plays the largest role in the story but many of the officers and men, to varying degrees, are also sited for their determination and bravery against a growing depression and a superior enemy. (The general is on the cover.)
Mr Mark also includes an extensive Appendix which includes a 21 page section of mini biographies of German officers as well as a listing of all units that were represented in the pocket. This is in addition to the first hand accounts provided in the story.
There are 350 photos which includes an assortment of aerial photos which greatly complemented the 22 computer generated maps. These aerials and the maps will greatly help the reader understand the physical layout of the battlefield. The photo gallery was excellent. An extensive Notes Section and a Bibliogtaphy is also provided as is an Index.
While the scale of this siege can't match that of Stalingrad, it was still an important engagement at an important time that prevented the Soviets from potentially destroying AGN. I gave it five stars which is a little generous for it has little info of the Soviets but from the German perspective it was richly covered, providing a level of detail that allows the reader to see what it was really liked being isolated, cold and being attacked nearly everyone of those 105 days. High recommended.
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
Worth Every Penny
By R. A Forczyk
Although the 105-day siege of Kholm in January-May 1942 was one of the most dramatic and intense defensive battles of modern military history, it is virtually unknown in the English-speaking world, except among a handful of specialist readers. Jason Mark, an inveterate researcher who has previously written landmark books on the Stalingrad Campaign, provides a wealth of information about the Kholm Campaign in his new book, Besieged: The Epic Battle of Kholm. Besieged provides a chronological, day-by-day account of the siege, primarily from German primary records from NARA, but also with some interesting accounts from the Russian side as well. The book is pricey and will no doubt triple in price once out of print, but well worth every cent due to the content of its research and high production values (quality paper and binding, excellent photos and maps, multiple appendices). The book does have some limitations, since it tends to focus so heavily on the tactical German eye-level that it sometimes glosses over or omits important details about events that were beyond the outskirts of Kholm. For example, although the author often mentions problems with the German effort to supply the garrison in Kholm by air, he barely mentions that the Luftwaffe had an even bigger responsibility to supply the nearby Demyansk pocket, which had twenty times as many encircled troops as Kholm did. Indeed, Kholm and Demyansk are really inseparable and readers will have to consult other sources to get the "big picture."
Besieged is divided into five chapters, one for each month of the siege. Each day is covered in considerable detail, relying heavily upon the official daily reports submitted by Generalmajor Theodor Scherer, commander of the Kholm garrison, to XXXIX Armeekorps (the relief force). The book also have even superb appendices (myths and misconceptions; numbers; officer biographies; Oskars Perro; German Units in Kholm; glider landings in Kholm and plane landings in Kholm). The level of detail provided - down to how much food or ammunition was provided on each glider - is astounding. That's one of the really great things about Jason Mark as a historian - he's a detail guy and does not write in the kind of generalities that other authors use. On the other hand, the book is very German-heavy, with no Soviet order of battle or biographies provided. If he could have provided a similar kind of detail on the Soviet side, sources permitting, this book probably would have been the definitive tome on this subject. As it is, it is darn good.
The fighting Kholm was intense and virtually non-stop for four months and that comes across on page after page in this book. The narration on the fighting around the GPU building, where the German defenders used up to 1,000 hand grenades in a single night, is gripping. The desperation of the encircled defenders, running short on food and ammunition, and with nearly half the garrison dead or wounded, is palpable on each page. Scherer's pleadings with corps to deliver supplies and speed up the relief effort tends to focus much of the narrative on him and make him a sympathetic character. Scherer has always been at the center of the Kholm story because that is the way that Nazi propaganda wanted it - he was a soldier's soldier and an admirable figure (although the author does not mention the Soviet partisans/civilians he hanged). Many of Scherer's subordinates come to life on these pages, too, which is exceptional. Here and there, some Soviet soldiers are singled out. As battle narrative, this book is impeccable. One item that caught my attention was the relatively callous attitude that the German High Command had to many of the survivors after they were relieved; many of the walking wounded were forced to remain on the line in Kholm for weeks after the relief before finally being sent home. Awards for a number of key indivuduals in the garrison were denied, which seems incredibly petty. Scherer was fetted as a hero, but many of his men were treated rather shabby.
As military history, Besieged does fall a bit short, primarily due to the lack of sufficient analysis. After amassing all these great facts, the author makes absolutely no effort to assess why the Germans succeeded in holding Kholm or why the Soviets failed to take it. Indeed, German casualties are listed in considerable detail, but no similar effort is made to assess Soviet casualties. In fact, the failure to capture Kholm prevented the Soviet Northwest Front from inflicting a catastrophic defeat on the Germany Heeresgruppe Nord in its Winter counteroffensive by driving even deeper into the German lines of communication in northern Russia. The German airlift really needed assessing, as well. Overall, this book is a superb piece of research but it seems to be missing some vital components - the Soviet view, the `big picture' and analysis - which make it feel a bit "hollow" as military history. Nevertheless, Besieged is still an impressive book on a battle that deserves greater attention and hopefully this book will help in that regard.
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