As the surgeon concentrated on an operation, a soldier yelled into the operating room, “The Russians have broken through!” Kohler kept working and, when he finished, went to the door to see several Soviet tanks squashing German vehicles only a hundred yards away. The sight brought a roar from his throat. Spitting out the cork, he screamed, “Load the wounded!” At that instant, concealed German antiaircraft guns fired ear-splitting salvos directly at the enemy tanks, which blew up, and scattered flaming fuel and bodies across the ground.
