The memoir excerpt turns the citadel into more than a strongpoint: its underground corridors hold wounded men while the complex also serves as a rendezvous point, supply depot, bakery, and kitchen. Ammunition, food, and medical supplies arrive by parachute because the Soviet encirclement has made ordinary supply impossible. Soviet aircraft bomb without opposition from anti-aircraft artillery while spotlights signal between Russian positions and blasts fill the confined rooms with smoke and brick dust. Soldiers risk being trampled when a shell strikes between the windows, showing how bombardment turns crowded shelter and logistics spaces into lethal bottlenecks.
Chapter · 4:50-6:23
The citadel as shelter and supply hub
A memoir passage shows Poznań's citadel serving simultaneously as fortress, crowded shelter, casualty station, kitchen, and parachute-supplied depot under Soviet bombardment.