The play no longer meant anything to Boldin; he began to brood about the alarming news that had been coming in for the last few days—for instance, the news from Grodno on
June 20 that the Germans had taken down the barbed-wire entanglements barring the
Avgustov-Seini main road, that the rumbling of countless engines could be heard that day from across the border, and that several reconnaissance planes, some of them carrying bombs, had violated Russian air space.
On the 21st, there had been reports of heavy German troop concentrations at various
points, complete with heavy and medium tanks. He was puzzled by the Army
commander's "Olympian calm"...
This calm did not last long. In the early hours of the morning, Boldin received an agitated
'phone call from Pavlov, asking him to come to Headquarters immediately.
Ten minutes later he was there.
"What's happened?" I said.
"Can't quite make out," said Pavlov, "some kind of devilry going on. General Kuznetsov 'phoned from Grodno a few minutes ago. Said the Germans had crossed
the border along a wide front and were bombing Grodno, with its army
headquarters. Telephone communications have been smashed, the army units have
had to change over to radio. Two wireless stations are already out of action, must have been destroyed... There have also been calls from Golubev of the 10th Army and Colonel Sandalov of the 4th. Most unpleasant news. The Germans are bombing
everywhere."
Our conversation was interrupted by a call from Moscow: it was Marshal
Timoshenko, the Commissar of Defence, who wanted Pavlov to report on the
situation... Soon Kuznetsov 'phoned again to say that the Germans were continuing their air attacks. Along thirty miles all the telephone and telegraph lines were down.
Liaison between many units had been broken... During the next half-hour more and
more news came in. The bombing was growing in intensity. They were bombing
Belostok and Grodno, Lida, Brest, Volkovysk, Slonim and other Belorussian towns.
Here and there, there had been German paratroop landings. Many of our planes
had been destroyed on the ground, and the Luftwaffe were now strafing troops and
citizens. The Germans had already occupied dozens of localities, and were pushing inland...
Then came another 'phone call from Timoshenko, who said:
"Comrade Boldin, remember that no action is to be taken against the Germans
without our knowledge. Will you please tell Pavlov that Comrade Stalin has
forbidden to open artillery fire against the Germans."
"But how is that possible?" I yelled into the receiver. "Our troops are in full retreat.
Whole towns are in flames, people are being killed all over the place... "
"No," said Timoshenko, "there is to be no air reconnaissance more than thirty-five miles beyond the frontier."
I argued that since the Nazis had knocked out practically all our front-line air force, this was impossible anyway, and insisted that we throw in the full weight of our
infantry, artillery and armour, and especially our anti-aircraft guns. But
Timoshenko still said No;—only reconnaissance of not more than thirty-five miles
inside enemy territory. ..
It was not till some time later that Moscow ordered us to put into action the "Red Packet", i.e. the plan for covering the State frontier. But this order came too late...
The Germans had already engaged in full-scale military operations, and had, in
several places, penetrated deep into our territory.
A few hours later, with Timoshenko's permission, Boldin flew to Belostok. His plane was hit by twenty bullets from a Messerschmitt, but nevertheless managed to land on an
airfield twenty miles east of the city. A few minutes later nine German planes appeared over the airfield and dropped their bombs, without any interference; there were no antiaircraft guns on that airfield. Several cars and Boldin's plane were destroyed.
Every minute counted. We had to get to the 10th Army Headquarters. There were
no cars at the airfield, so I took a small truck, and together with some officers and a number of soldiers—twelve people in all—we got into it. I took the seat next to the driver, and told him to drive to Belostok.
"It's dangerous, Comrade General," he said, "twenty minutes before you landed, there was a German paratroop landing; so the commander of the airfield told me."
An unpleasant bit of news, but it couldn't be helped. It was incredibly hot, and the air smelt of burning...
At last we reached the Belostok main road. Through the windscreen I could see
fifteen German bombers approaching from the west. They were flying low, with
provocative insolence, as though our sky belonged to them. On their fuselages I
could clearly see the spiders of the Nazi swastika.
On the way, Boldin stopped a crowd of workers wandering in the opposite direction.
"Where are you going?" I asked.
"To Volkovysk," they said.
"Who are you?"
"We had been working on fortifications. But the place where we worked is now like a sea of flames," said an elderly man with an exhausted look on his face.
These people seemed to have lost their heads, not knowing where they were going
and why.
Then we met a few cars, led by a Zis-101. The broad leaves of an aspidistra were
protruding from one of the windows. It was the car of some local top official. Inside were two women and two children.
"Surely," I said, "at a time like this you might have more important things to transport than your aspidistra. You might have taken some old people or children."
With their heads bent, the women were silent. The driver, too, turned away, feeling ashamed.
And then came the German strafing.
Three volleys of machine-gun fire hit our truck. The driver was killed. I managed to survive, as I jumped out just in time. But with the exception of my A.D.C. and a
dispatch rider, all were killed...
Nearby, I noticed the same old Zis-101. I went up to it. The women, the children, the driver were all killed... Only the evergreen leaves of the aspidistra were still sticking out of the window.
Horror piled upon horror that day. Belostok was in a complete state of chaos, at the railway station a train packed with women and children evacuees was bombed, and
hundreds were killed.
At last, towards evening, Boldin reached the Headquarters of the 10th Army which had moved out of Belostok to a little wood some distance outside the city. It consisted of two tents, with a table and a few chairs. General Golubev was there, with a number of staff officers. He had been unable to communicate with the Front (i.e. Army Group)
Headquarters as the telephone lines had been destroyed, and radio communications were being constantly jammed by the enemy. Golubev told Boldin:
"At daybreak three German army corps, supported by masses of tanks and