48. Seela's Pioneers

[Gerry1]

Here is an excerpt from Nipe's decision in the Ukraine:

"In the evening, a Totenkopf battle group under command of Knight’s Cross winner SS-Sturmbannführer Max Seela engaged the troops of 49th Tank Brigade and 17th Tank Regiment that held Levandolovka. The SS combat engineers of 1./ Pionier-Abteilung 3 assaulted the village, broke into the perimeter and destroyed a number of the Soviet tanks with antitank weapons in close combat. Only a few survivors of the Russian force were able to escape to a wooded area northwest of the village. The sixty to seventy men of Kampfgruppe Seela continued north from the village, reached the railroad line near a rail station at Vodjanaja and worked slowly down the length of the railroad toward the west. 5 The battle group of 112th Tank Brigade that had occupied Vysokopol’ye continued to fight off In the evening, a Totenkopf battle group under command of Knight’s Cross winner SS-Sturmbannführer Max Seela engaged the troops of 49th Tank Brigade and 17th Tank Regiment that held Levandolovka. The SS combat engineers of 1./ Pionier-Abteilung 3 assaulted the village, broke into the perimeter and destroyed a number of the Soviet tanks with antitank weapons in close combat. Only a few survivors of the Russian force were able to escape to a wooded area northwest of the village. The sixty to seventy men of Kampfgruppe Seela continued north from the village, reached the railroad line near a rail station at Vodjanaja and worked slowly down the length of the railroad toward the west. 5 The battle group of 112th Tank Brigade that had occupied Vysokopol’ye continued to fight off attacks by other elements of the SS engineer battalion that attempted to drive them from the town."