Josefstal: July 28, 1919
The Battle raged. July 1919 saw forces from the 10th Red Army do battle with White Cossaks for control of the Volga area. Wrangel had already received word to march towards Moscow. The British 47th Air Squadron was involved, assisting White Forces by bombing and raids against Red forces. My grandmother, Elisabeth Dieser Gerk remembered that this was the first time she had ever seen an airplane. She stated that Josefstal would go back and forth between Red and Whites a number of times. She remembered that the White forces were kind, but shuddered when she thought of what the Red troops did in her quiet village of Josefstal. She also noted that the “front” was between Josefstal and neighboring village of Marienfeld. Also on the map are the Volga German villages of Rosenberg, Oberdorf, Erlenbach, Neu Norka, Weisenfeld – these villages all were in the middle of the battles that were fought. Josefstal residents would put bricks into their windows to keep stray bullets from hitting anyone.
One (among many) of the Red Army men were killed near the village, so Red Army troops forced their way into the home of Elisabeth Dieser, were he was worked on by a medic. After he died the men went outside and fired a salute using their guns.
The map on the left is an enlarged section, featuring Josefstal, listed on the map by its Russian name of Skripalovo. July 28, 1919, was the date that many of the battles were fought.
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