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At 2300 hours, in bitter cold, the men moved out in three columns. With men of the ''[[SS Division (motorised) Wiking|Wiking]]'' and the 105th Regiment in the lead, the formations moved silently through the darkness, with all going well until at 0330, at the foot of Hill 239, 105th’s reconnaissance patrol returned bearing grim news. The hill was occupied by Soviet [[T-34]]s of the 5th Guards Tank Army. Major Kästner ordered his men to again fix bayonets and the formation began to attack silently. All went well until a fleeing Russian fired his weapon. The Soviets turned on their searchlights to see the ground crawling with Germans. The tanks opened fire, cutting through the ranks. The Soviet guns caused horrific casualties, however relief soon came in the form of Panzers from III Panzerkorps, who had heard the fighting and were attacking to provide whichever help they could. Soon after, the [[Panther tank|Panthers]] of the [[German 1st Panzer Division|1. Panzer Division]] had cleared the ridge, and a way out had been created.
The Russians, realizing that the Germans were escaping, began an all-out assault to close the corridor. No quarter was given by either side, the T-34s running down wounded men and those who surrendered
By morning, the majority of Gruppe Stemmermann had reached the Gniloy Tikich river, now turbulent and swollen by the melting snow. Despite the fact that 1. Panzer had captured a bridge, and engineers had erected another, the panicking men saw the river as their only escape. Closely pursued by Soviet tanks, the men plunged into the icy waters, and many were drowned by the raging torrent. When ''Wiking'' commander Herbert Otto Gille attempted to form a human chain across the river, alternating between those who could swim and those who could not, hundreds of men died when someone’s hand slipped and the chain broke.
==References==
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