Yet it was on Cristmas day 1944 that the Cossacks won their greatest victory of the war .On the Christmas eve,the Red 133 "Stalin " Infantry Division ,supplemented by Tito partisans and units of the Bulgarian army,tried to force a bridgehead across the river Drava seven Kilometres west north-west of Virovitica,at a village called Pitomarca.Prior to the Cossacks being ordered into the attack,the Stalin division had already beaten off and defeated German and Croatian attempts to dislodge its foothold.This did not deter the three Cossack regiments,the fourth Kuban,sixth Terek,and the fifth Don,who were odrered to make the first strike against a numerically superior enemy.While the attack was officially under the command of Colonel Joachim von Schultz,the actual fighting was directed by the Don Cossack Colonel Ivan N. Kononov,who,with Schultz's permission,decided to send the Kuban Regiment against the left flank of the enemy;the Terek to the right flank,while his own Fifth Don Regiment was to launch the frontal of attack.
BY this time the enemy was fully prepared.Deep and semiarmoured bunkers and firepoints had been constructed,and it artillery was crefully camoflaged and strategically placed.The three Cossack regiments went into the attack simultaneously,but the powerful red artillery blasted the fifth Doon to a standstill,and the two arms of the pincer movement were pinned to the ground by heavy cross fire.
During the assault Kononov directed operations ,in the midst of the fighting,by standing upright in a German built patrol car.When he saw that th first attempt had failed; tht his artillery with a limited supply of shells and the few german tanks at his disposal were unable to destroy the enemy position,he called upon Captain Orlov,one of the many formaer Red Army officers in the Corps ,to take squadron of Don Cossacks and silence the Soviet batteries.
Out of the sight of the enemy ,Orlov attacked from the rear.Fierce hand to hand fighting broke out aout the gun emplacements,but Orlov fulfilled his mission.Every Gun was silenced and the breech blocks smashed.As soon as he noticed that guns had stopped firing Kononov again ordered his men forward,and this time they were successful.
With sword and bayonnet the firth Don charged with Kononov,keeping place with them and cheering them on.To the left and the right the arms of the pincer movement began to close.Panic spread among the Stalin division.Men began to throw away their rifles,left their machine guns,and looked for a means to escape.It was too late.The pincer had already closed and was beginning to squeeze.Only two alternatives remained for the Red soldiers -to fight or surrender,and they chose the latter.And it was not until then that most of them realised that their enemy was not a crack german unit but Russians like themselves.
At the outset of the battle the Stalin division numbered eighteen thousand men hile Kononov had exactly half that,nine thousand men.The Cossacks losses were 312 dead and 602 wounded.The Reds lost 4000 dead,most of whom were drowned in the river,and the remainder surrendered.A mere handful managed to escape.
Out of those who became prisonners ,3,455 soldiers were sent to POW camps,and the others at their own request ,were recruited en masse into the Cossack Corps.And the Cossacks ,contrary to their usual behavior towards prisoners,welcomed them as brothers.
To mark the overwhelming victory,the only time when the Cossacks as a unified and large force faced the Red army,Colonel Kononov recieved the Iron Cross,First Class,as did Captain Orlov and many others who showed unparalled heroism.