What can be cooked from squid: quick and tasty

One of the critical days of the Battle of Stalingrad was August 23, 1942, when the 14th Panzer Corps of the Wehrmacht under the command of General von Wittersheim broke through to the Volga. In 11 hours, passing an average of 5-6 km per hour, the tanks of the 16th Westphalian Panzer Division, which was at the forefront of the attack, almost met no resistance, overcame 50-60 km and reached the Volga north of Latoshinka in a section several kilometers wide.

The Battle of Stalingrad became the largest land battle in the history of mankind - for more than six months on a small piece of land, millions of people annihilated each other with small arms, thousands of aircraft, tanks and tens of thousands of guns. Almost all buildings and structures in the city were destroyed, with more than two million people killed on both sides. The exact figures of the victims of this battle are still unknown and will never be known.
One of the critical and bloodiest days of this battle was August 23, 1942, when the 14th Panzer Corps of the Wehrmacht (one tank and two motorized divisions), under the command of General von Wittersheim, broke through to the Volga. The corps did not take part in the crossing of the Don - it was transported in the Peskovatka area to the already captured bridgehead. Tanks were transported along a pontoon bridge 140 meters long to a section of the coast held by the infantrymen of the 51st Infantry Corps of the Wehrmacht, and dispersed on it.

On August 23, 1942 at 4:30, after an air raid and artillery preparation, the 14th Panzer Corps, consisting of about 200 tanks and 300 vehicles, went on the offensive, breaking through the weak defense line of the 62nd Army units. The distance from the Don to the Volga was covered by Wittersheim's body along the shortest path - where it was planned to build the Volga-Don Canal under Peter the Great. In 11 hours, passing an average of 5-6 km per hour, the tanks of the 16th Westphalian Panzer Division, which was at the forefront of the attack, almost met no resistance, overcame 50-60 km and in a narrow section several kilometers wide reached the Volga to the north Latoshinki. South of the Kotluban station, the Germans cut the Stalingrad-Frolovo railway and consolidated their positions in the captured positions, ensuring the defense of the formed corridor from possible attacks from the north and south.

The rapid advance of German armored vehicles was restrained by pockets of resistance, which were provided by a few Soviet units of the 87th Infantry Division, which was advancing to the forward. German motorized infantry units remained to block and suppress these foci, as well as to temporarily ensure the safety of the flanks of the 14th Panzer Corps, while the tanks of the 16th Division broke through further and already at 15:00 were half a kilometer from the Volga. Here is what Paul Karel wrote about this episode in his book “Stalingrad. Collapse of Operation Blau:

“In the afternoon, towards evening, the commander of the lead tank shouted into the throatophone to the commanders of other combat vehicles:“ To the right is the outline of Stalingrad! ”

But the continuation of the offensive on the northern outskirts of the city, where a number of enterprises were located, turned out to be difficult for the Germans.

The fact is that to cover from air attacks the railway and auto-horse-drawn crossings, the Stalingrad Tractor Plant (hereinafter referred to as STZ), which produced tanks, and the Barricades plant, which manufactured the guns, batteries of the 1077th and 1078 th anti-aircraft artillery regiments (hereinafter - ZenAP). The big problem of the anti-aircraft gunners was that there were neither infantry nor any other positions of the Soviet troops in front of them - the enemy's offensive was not expected here. In addition, the anti-aircraft guns were not equipped with armored shields, which could have saved the calculations from exploding shells, and many batteries were armed with small-caliber anti-aircraft automatic guns, whose 20- and 37-mm shells were useless for fighting medium German tanks.

A grouping of medium-caliber anti-aircraft artillery (76- and 85-mm) of the air defense of Stalingrad by 23 August 1942. There are inaccuracies in the scheme and batteries of small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery are not indicated

Source - "Air Defense Troops of the Country" - Moscow: Military Publishing House, 1968

The position of the anti-aircraft gunners was complicated by the fact that on August 23, on the orders of Hitler, one of the bloodiest acts of intimidation during that war was carried out - the bombing of Stalingrad. In the first half of the day, it was the northern part of the city that underwent active bombardment in groups of 5-15 aircraft - German aircraft attacked anti-aircraft gunner positions, the STZ and the Barricades plant. By 14:00, the batteries of the 1077th ZenAP repulsed up to 150 air raids, while shooting down 7 enemy aircraft. In his book "I was at war" M.I. Matveeva, at that time a scout of the 748th ZenAP, recalls:

"The first half of the day. The raids in our sector are common. The groups are small. A little more often than before. The regiment meets them with fire from separate batteries ... In the north, they are still heavily bombed. Dust and smoke clouded the Tractor and Barricades shops. Latoshinka is not visible from us. But they are probably bombing too. "

A little later, at 16 hours 18 minutes, the raid on Stalingrad began, which became the case of the most massive use of bomber aircraft in the entire history of mankind. The 4th and 8th corps of the Luftwaffe bombed the city, making up to 2,000 sorties per day and dropping 1,000 tons of bombs. Only one bomber squadron KG51 "Edelweiss" took off five times in full force. The city was burning - from the broken oil tankers installed on the banks of the Volga, thousands of tons of oil products were poured into the water. The river was on fire, and factories and factories burned with it. Washed off the face of the earth not only enterprises, military units or the infrastructure of the city, but also civilian objects, including the housing stock. Remembers M.I. Matveeva:

“You can already see them. And the course 90, and the course 180, and 45, and 125, and ... from all sides. Heinkeli. These are above all. Dornier. Also high. Behind them - more, and more, and more. "Junkers-88", "Junkers-87" - the entire album of German planes, through which we once studied them ... And planes float, float, float on it. From the horizon to the zenith ... Bombs are already exploding in the center of the city, on the banks of the Volga. The first ones got into buildings well known to me and visible from Dar-Gora. The house of pioneers and the maternity hospital on Pushkinskaya ... The roof of the maternity hospital has collapsed, tongues of flame burst out of the windows. "

The heat of August favored the spread of fires, and Stalingrad was practically wiped off the face of the earth. The exact losses among civilians and defenders of the city on this day are still unknown, the generally accepted number is 40 thousand people.

At this time, at about 15:00, the first thirty tanks of the 16th division of Colonel-General Hube went out to the positions of the 12th battery of the 1087th ZenAP, which covered the railway and auto-ferry crossings near the village of Latoshinka. Battery commander Lieutenant M.A. Baskakov reported to the regiment's command post:

“Enemy tanks are located 500 meters west of the OP(presumably - firing position) in the hollow. The battery took up anti-tank defenses. The order to prevent the Germans from reaching the Volga is feasible. We will fight to the last drop of blood. "

But it was almost impossible to carry out this order. - the anti-aircraft gunners had too few shells, and the small-caliber anti-aircraft guns of the battery could do little harm to the advancing German tanks Pz.Kpfw.III and Pz.Kpfv.IV. Nevertheless, the battery opened fire on the German armored vehicles. When the tanks reached the artillery positions, small arms and hand grenades were used. Almost all batteries (43 people) were killed. Interestingly, the ferry service worked all evening, and even at night, cargo was transported to the left bank of the Volga. German tanks and guns could not freely appear on the high right bank, as they were easily destroyed by the fire of the Volga flotilla ships and artillery firing from the opposite bank.

Calculation of a 37-mm automatic anti-aircraft gun 61-K at a combat position in the Stalingrad area

On August 24 at 8 o'clock in the morning on the last flight from the right bank near Latoshinka a ferry and a boat "Rutka" left. The sailors of the ferry had to cut the ends, as the Germans, who took up positions on the shore at night, opened fire from tank cannons, machine guns and small arms. As a result of this shelling, there were no casualties on the ferry, and a sailor was killed on the "Rutka".

The unexpected appearance of German tanks on the banks of the Volga caused a real commotion among the city leadership. Commander of the South-Eastern Front, Colonel-General A.I. Eremenko wrote:

“The ringing of the phone interrupted my thoughts. Comrade Malyshev spoke from the Stalingrad Tractor ... He said:

– From the factory we observe a battle going north of the city. Anti-aircraft gunners are fighting with tanks. Several shells have already fallen on the territory of the plant. Enemy tanks are moving to the Market. The plant is in danger. We have prepared the most important objects for the explosion.

– Don't blow anything up yet, ”I replied. - To defend the plant at all costs. It is necessary to immediately prepare the workers' squad for battle and prevent the enemy from entering the plant. Support has already reached you.

Then Comrade Malyshev handed over the phone to Major General N.V. Feklenko(to the head of the Stalingrad armored center - author's note) who reported:

– I am in a tank training center, I have up to two thousand people and thirty tanks; decided to defend the plant.

– The decision is correct, - I answer. - I am appointing you as the chief of the combat area. Immediately organize the defense of the plant with the forces of the training center and the workers' squad. Two brigades are being transferred to you: one tank and one rifle. "

Oil tankers carrying Caspian oil up the Volga were immediately returned back to Astrakhan. On the same day, a pontoon bridge built with such difficulty was blown up over the Volga in the area of ​​the STZ, the construction of which was completed the day before. An order was received to immediately move to the northern outskirts of Stalingrad a militia brigade, formed back in July from one militia battalion of the Kirovsky region and two battalions from the STZ plant (the brigade was commanded by the plant engineer-technologist N.L. Vychugov). In addition, the 99th Tank Brigade (hereinafter referred to as TB) of Lieutenant Colonel P.S. Zhitnev, who was able to arrive at the position only on August 25.

Also, to help the plant workers, a combined battalion of marines (numbering 260 people under the command of Captain 3rd Rank P.M. Televny) was sent, which arrived at the northern outskirts of STZ on the evening of 23 August. Interestingly, some of the battalion's fighters were armed with old German rifles raised from the sunken barge. A group of ships of the Volga flotilla, consisting of gunboats "Usyskin" and "Chapaev" and five armored boats (No. 14, 23, 34, 51, and 54, of which two - with rocket launchers M-13 and M-8), took a position in the source of the Akhtuba River (opposite the northern outskirts of Stalingrad near the eastern left bank of the Volga). From there, the ships provided fire support to the marines and militias, acting at the request of spotters.

At STZ, the formation of a tank company began, which was supposed to support militias and marines with armor and fire. The fact is that STZ became the only Soviet tank enterprise that found itself in the battle zone, the equipment and personnel of which were not immediately evacuated to the Urals or Siberia. Production in its workshops was finally stopped only on September 13, 1942, when the battles were already taking place on the territory of the plant.

In July 1942, STZ produced 451 tanks, and by August 20, Stalingraders had assembled 240 vehicles. The leadership of the USSR paid special attention to the plant - on the 6th, 11th, 16th and 21st of each month, its director had to report to the State Defense Committee on the implementation of the production plan. On the night of August 18-19, People's Commissar of Heavy Engineering V.A. Malyshev to deal with the problems and needs of STZ on the spot. He was still in Stalingrad when the news came that German tanks appeared a few kilometers from the plant.

In connection with the bombing on August 23, only an assembly shop worked at STZ, which used the backlog of ready-made units produced by other workshops of the enterprise for assembling tanks. By evening, a tank company of 12 T-34 tanks was ready.

Despite the fact that the Germans captured Latoshino, they failed to suppress the resistance on the northern outskirts of Stalingrad. 11 Soviet anti-aircraft batteries entered the battle with the tanks, some of which were armed with 76-mm 3-K and 85-mm 52-K guns, whose shells pierced the armor of Pz.Kpfw.III and Pz.Kpfv.IV medium tanks.

The main blow was taken by the 1st and 5th divisions of the 1077th ZenAP, covering the STZ from the north. On the 3rd battery, its commander, Senior Lieutenant G.V. Goikhman, and was replaced by Lieutenant I.P. Koshkin. Soon Koshkin was seriously wounded - his hand was torn off. Of the four guns of the battery, three were destroyed, but one that remained stubbornly continued to fire at German tanks. Until nightfall, the Germans did not manage to break into the anti-aircraft gunners' positions.

At night, machine gunners of the motorcycle battalion of the 14th Westphalian Tank Division infiltrated the rear of the battery. The next day, the German sergeant-major wrote home (quoted from Anthony Beevor's book "Stalingrad"):

“Yesterday we reached the railway ... We captured a train with weapons and equipment, which the Russians did not manage to unload, and also took many prisoners, half of them women. Their faces are so disgusting that we tried not to look at them at all. Thank God the operation did not take long. "

The anti-aircraft gunners took up a perimeter defense and held out until the morning, when they were unblocked, and the battery with the only surviving gun changed position. According to a combat report, on 23 August, the battery destroyed 14 tanks, one mortar battery and up to 80 enemy soldiers and officers.

On this day, the commander of the 1st division of the 1077th ZenAP, senior lieutenant L.I. Dohogovnik and the personnel of his headquarters. At the critical moment of the battle, German tanks broke through to the command post (hereinafter - CP) of the division, where the artillerymen did not have anti-tank defenses. Then Dohovnik called fire on himself - the attack was repulsed by artillery fire, but all those who were on the command post were killed under the "friendly" fire.

Panzergrenadiers of the 16th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht, who reached the bank of the Volga near Stalingrad

When German tanks reached the positions of the 4th battery of the 1077th ZenAP, located in the area of ​​the working village of Spartanovka, it was just undergoing an air raid. Having received a report from the observation post about the appearance of German armored vehicles, the commander of the 4th battery, senior lieutenant N.S. The horse ordered the first and second guns to be put forward into the caponiers prepared in advance. The anti-aircraft gunners had to repel the air raid with two guns, and the ground attack with two more. The battery fought for an hour and a half, the anti-aircraft gunners were out of order one after the other, and the deputy commander of the battery, Lieutenant E.A. Deriy and political instructor I.L. Kiselev. According to a combat report, on that day, the battery destroyed 2 German aircraft, 18 tanks and 8 vehicles with enemy infantry.

On the other, the 5th battery of the 1077th ZenAP under the command of senior lieutenant S.M. 80 enemy tanks left at once. The anti-aircraft gunners repulsed the attack, while the battery commander received a severe concussion, but did not leave the combat post. Many other seriously wounded anti-aircraft gunners followed his example. Judging by the combat report, the battery knocked out 2 aircraft, 15 enemy tanks, destroyed dozens of German soldiers and defended their positions. The 8th battery reported 8 destroyed tanks and 80 machine gunners.

The crew of the Soviet 76.2-mm anti-aircraft gun 3-K fires at ground targets. The trunks of two more such guns are visible in the background.

Other batteries are less fortunate. 6th, under the command of senior lieutenant M.V. Roshchina, let the enemy at a distance of 700 meters and opened fire. According to combat reports, in an hour and a half of the battle, the battery knocked out 18 tanks, the He-111 aircraft and 2 trucks, but when the ammunition ran out, the surviving personnel were forced to leave the combat positions, if possible, destroying all the material that remained unharmed by that time. Lieutenant A.I.Shurin's 7th battery was completely killed.

In the second half of 23 and the first half of August 24, the 1077th ZenAP fought an unequal battle with superior enemy forces and at the cost of huge losses retained its positions. According to combat reports, during the day of the hardest battle, anti-aircraft gunners destroyed and knocked out 83 tanks, 15 vehicles with infantry, 2 tanks with fuel, destroyed over 3 battalions of machine gunners and shot down 14 enemy aircraft.

Foreign historiographers do not confirm these figures, claiming that German tankers, practically without suffering losses, destroyed 37 Soviet anti-aircraft guns on August 23. Most likely, the losses of German tank units in Soviet combat reports were overestimated, but the fact that on that day German tankers, no matter how hard they tried, could not break through to the STZ, suggests that the fire of Soviet anti-aircraft gunners 1077 and 1078- zenAP was not so ineffectual.

Meanwhile, at the plant, the gathering of militia fighter battalions and their armament were coming to an end. In the yard of the plant, 12 tanks were assembled, on which numbers were not applied in a hurry, and some of them did not even have time to paint. Tank crews were also formed, tankers of the 21st and 28th separate tank training battalions (hereinafter - OUTB) - special tank units, where front-line tankmen and graduates of tank schools were trained, sat on the levers. According to some reports, the appearance of German troops found them at a tank range, located half a kilometer from the plant. By imitating an attack on training tanks, the tankers forced the enemy to retreat, thereby facilitating the combat mission of the anti-aircraft gunners.

OUTB tankers were often dressed in dirty blue and black robes, which later gave rise to the legend that factory workers sat at the levers of tanks leaving the factory. This legend is only partly true - for the first twelve tanks, some of the drivers and tank commanders were indeed recruited from the factory workers, but they did not fight for long. Already on August 25, they were returned back to the STZ, since the production of tanks did not stop, and qualified personnel were more needed in the shops.

Each "thirty-four" had to go to the front with a double ammunition load of shells. Fortunately, the STZ kept a huge stock of ammunition and weapons that were used to complete the finished tanks. By 23 August, 1 thousand 7.62-mm DT tank machine guns, 50 thousand 76-mm shells for F-24 tank guns and 5 million 7.62-mm cartridges for machine guns were concentrated at the factory warehouses. Cartridges and machine guns were stored on the territory of the plant, but the warehouse with shells was at the very line of the suddenly formed front, which passed that night along the Sukhaya Mechetka river that flows into the Volga. The river separated the working village of Market (the northern bank, where the Germans were) from the village of Spartanovka.

The tanks prepared for defense were supplied with ammunition available at the plant, but, according to the recollections of the surviving tankers, that night they received ammunition, in which there were only two armor-piercing shells. To the warehouse, where the main part of the gun ammunition was stored, an assembled detachment, consisting of military receptionists, "horseless" tankmen of the 21st and 28th OUTB and workers of the plant, went. It was commanded by Major Engineer Kinzhalov. During the night, these people moved almost all the contents of the warehouse to the factory, so in the future there were no problems with providing the tanks with ammunition.

The defenders of the plant also had certain problems with machine guns. The fact is that bipods, aiming strips and front sight are not provided on DT tank machine guns, so the factory "Kulibins" had to hastily manufacture them and attach them to weapons that were not adapted for this in order to arm the pedestrian militias with them.

STZ militias defending their plant from advancing German troops. The fighter in the foreground is armed with a DT tank machine gun equipped with a bipod and sighting device made at the factory.

To help the defenders of the northern outskirts of Stalingrad, part of the tanks of the newly formed 23rd Panzer Corps was deployed. Iosif Mironovich Yampolsky recalls (memoirs published on the website iremember.ru):

“On August 23, we were read out an order by the commander of the front's armored forces, General Shtevnev, about an attack on the German units that had broken through in the area of ​​the Tractor Plant settlement. The city burned after heavy bombing. Oil from the damaged storage facilities caught fire and rushed to the Volga. The river was literally burning. The entire sky was covered by hundreds of German bombers. Our brigade was assigned to the 23rd Panzer Corps, which suffered huge losses in the previous July battles. The corps commander, General Abram Matveyevich Khasin, personally approached each commander, shook hands, instructing them to fight. German tanks stood one and a half kilometers from the territory of the factory settlement and waited for their infantry to pull up. If they had rushed forward that day, without waiting with their German punctuality for a corresponding order, there might not have been a battle on the Volga ... "

On August 24, 1942, at 4:40 am, the battle group of the 16th Panzer Division under the command of Colonel Krumpen, which included tank, artillery, sapper and mortar units, after processing Soviet positions by aviation, moved to assault Spartanovka. But now, in addition to the anti-aircraft guns that survived yesterday's bloody battle, Soviet tanks were also hitting German tanks. The ships of the Volga flotilla and long-range artillery divisions located on the left bank of the Volga fired defensive fire.

Soon the thirty-fours, which were repaired or assembled at the factory, went into battle. The tank commander in the first tank company formed at STZ N.G. Orlov recalled:

“Suddenly the commander of the armored forces flew(most likely, we are talking about People's Commissar V.A.Malyshev - author's note) , says: “The Germans have broken through to the Volga! They are going straight to the factory! "... We got the first command to move there and stop the tanks by the river. Well, the commands are simple: “Follow me!”, “Forward!”. The attack was very powerful. Several tanks were destroyed. The Germans also lost many tanks along with their crews. We advanced in narrow columns, drove the Germans out of there(most likely, we are talking about the village of Spartanovka - author's note) ... And then my tank ran over a mine, the caterpillar exploded, and the tank spun in place. I got out of the tank and while running to another, I was wounded. The first bullet hit my helmet and knocked me off my feet. As soon as I stood up, the second bullet hit my shoulder. And already near the tank, when the commander opened the hatch, the third bullet hit me in the chest, went right through, and my eyes went dark. "

Remembers I.M. Yampolsky:

“There, for me, for the first time, there was a head-on battle with German tanks. My crew managed to burn two of them ”.

In the summer of 1942, German medium tanks were no longer as helpless against Soviet T-34s as they had been the year before. In the process of preparing for the summer offensive, the modernized PzIII and Pz.Kpfv.IV tanks began to enter the Wehrmacht's tank divisions, equipped, respectively, with 50-mm KwK 39 L / 60 tank guns and 75-mm KwK 40 L / 43 cannons. Before the start of the summer offensive, the 16th Panzer Division was equipped with the following tanks:

• Pz.Kpfv.II - 13 pcs.;
• Pz.Kpfw.III with a 50 mm KwK 38 L / 42 gun - 39 pcs.;
• Pz.Kpfw.III with a 50 mm KwK 39 L / 60 gun - 18 pcs.;
• Pz.Kpfw. IV with a 75 mm KwK 37 L / 24 gun - 15 pcs.;
• Pz.Kpfw. IV with a 75 mm KwK 40 L / 43 gun - 13 pcs.;
• Command tanks KlPzBefWg (SdKfz 265) - 3 pcs.

Some of this equipment was lost during the battles on the Mius River and on the Don, but the division was constantly receiving replenishment of the materiel. The generally recognized number of tanks in service with the 16th Westphalian Tank Division at the beginning of the battles for Stalingrad is 200 vehicles. Thus, a large armored formation broke through to the northern outskirts of Stalingrad, which could bring many troubles to the defenders of the city.

To combat German tanks, STZ workers, in addition to ready-made tanks, also rolled out tanks with a faulty chassis and even, after a while, armored hulls, on which no towers were installed, into positions. Fixed tanks were buried in caponiers and used as fixed artillery points, and the hulls as machine-gun ones. Remembers I.M. Yampolsky:

“There were tanks, the tractor plant continued to produce cars almost until the end of September(in fact, until September 13 - author's note) ... But we could not use tanks on a massive scale. Usually, two or three vehicles were dispersed in different areas to support the infantry. If a tank was knocked out, then it was dug in, turning it into a bunker. But the Germans were perle with a tank mass. "

Tankers, gunners, anti-aircraft gunners, militias and marines on August 24 were able to repel the German attack and keep Spartanovka behind them. On August 25 and 27, they made desperate attempts to recapture the village of Rynok from the Germans, but each time they captured it, the poorly organized sailors and militias who did not have a unified command again rolled back behind the Sukhaya Mechetka. A big problem was that their commanders did not coordinate well with the 99th TB, which was deployed to the northern front of the city's defense. The 99th TB included tank units of training battalions that had already fought here, and later all the tanks produced by STZ were supplied to replenish the material part of this particular brigade.

German tank Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.G, knocked out in the area of ​​the Stalingrad Tractor Plant

Tanks across the Volga to Stalingrad 1942

Such an illiterate conduct of battles led to unnecessary losses among tankers, militias and marines. When on August 28, the future hero of the northern defense sector of Stalingrad, the commander of the 124th rifle brigade, Colonel S.F. Gorokhov, he found that the Marines lost up to 40% of their personnel (22 killed, 45 wounded, 54 missing), and the workers of the militia battalions were demoralized and many of them left their combat positions. As a result, all the troops in the sector, including the 99th TB (briefly, before the first days of September), were subordinated to Gorokhov.

On August 29, the brigade, with the support of five tanks of the 99th TB, a company of marines and armored boats, finally recaptured the village of Rynok. Until the end of the battles in Stalingrad, this settlement was the impregnable northern point of defense of the 62nd Army. This made it possible over time to evacuate part of the equipment and workers of the STZ, as well as a significant part of the population of Stalingrad. During the period from 23 August to 13 September 1942, the workers of the plant assembled and repaired about 200 T-34 tanks. In addition, they transferred 170 towers and hulls of the T-34 tank, armed with tank cannons and machine guns, as fixed firing points for the army.

On September 13, battles began on the territory of the STZ itself, because of which work in the shops had to be stopped. On October 14, the enemy managed to seize the tractor plant and break through to the Volga at a front of about 2.5 km. On October 15, the headquarters of the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht announced:

« Most of the tractor plant is in our hands. Only small pockets of resistance remained behind the line of German troops. ".

However, this local success did not save the 6th Army from the subsequent defeat.

On November 19, Soviet troops launched Operation Uranus, as a result of which by November 23 all German troops stationed in Stalingrad and its environs, including the 14th Panzer Corps of the Wehrmacht, were surrounded. By that time, the corps was already commanded by the former commander of the 16th Panzer Division, Hube, who became a general in November of the same year. On January 26, the German troops encircled in the city were split into two unequal groups: the northern one, which defended itself in the area of ​​the STZ and the Barricades plant; and the main one, entrenched in the rest of the German-controlled parts of the city.

Calculation of the German 50-mm anti-tank gun PaK 38 at one of the crossroads of Stalingrad

On January 31, 1943, the commander of the 6th Army, Field Marshal Paulus, signed a surrender, and the bulk of the German forces defending in Stalingrad surrendered. But the northern group refused to comply with the surrender order. Only on February 2, 1943, after three days of constant artillery shelling and attacks by Soviet troops, the commander of the northern group, Colonel-General Strecker, signed the text of surrender. The 21st army captured about 18 thousand people, another 15 thousand people surrendered to the 62nd army - among them were the few surviving tankers, artillerymen and infantrymen of the 14th tank corps. It was not possible to take the corps commander prisoner - in January 1943, Hube, on the orders of Hitler, left the Stalingrad cauldron by plane. Thus, the defense of Stalingrad, which began on 23 August 1942 in the area of ​​the STZ, ended here.

Soviet soldiers walk past a smoking German Pz.Kpfw tank. IV in the Stalingrad area

The Tatsinsky raid of Major General Vasily Badanov became one of the most glorious pages of the Great Patriotic War. In December 1942, when the situation at Stalingrad remained very tense, the troops of his 24th Panzer Corps broke through the front and reached the German rear airfield, which was located in the village of Tatsinskaya and was used to provide supplies to the Paulus army surrounded by Soviet troops. For this feat on December 26, 1942, the tank corps was renamed the 2nd Guards Corps, it was given the name "Tatsinsky", and General Vasily Badanov himself was awarded the Order of Suvorov, II degree, number one.

Speaking about the Tacino raid, one cannot help but think about the role of personality in. The operation was led by a man who devoted a long time of his life to a purely peaceful profession Vasily Mikhailovich Badanov (1895-1971) was a teacher. In his youth, he successfully graduated from a teacher's seminary, but the First World War changed a lot. In 1916, he graduated from the Chuguev military school and by the time of the revolution he was already in command of a company, being a lieutenant. After returning home from the front, he again took up teaching work, returning to the army only in 1919, now into the ranks of the Red Army. In general, after the end of the Civil War, his military career went up. In January 1940, he was appointed director of the Poltava Military Automobile Technical School, and on March 11, 1941, just before the war, he assumed command of the 55th Panzer Division from the 25th Mechanized Corps. The fact that the former lieutenant of the tsarist army did not fall under the "knife" of repression in 1937 indicates that Badanov was born under a lucky star, he was "a man of the finest hour." This hour struck in December 1942, forever inscribing the name of the general in history.

The Catholic Christmas of 1942 was approaching, and off the banks of the Volga the culmination of a grandiose battle was ripening, which in the future would mark a radical turning point in the war. Manstein's troops tried with all their might to break through to Stalingrad, unblocking the army of Paulus surrounded by the city. For this, Operation Wintergewitter ("Winter Storm", literal translation "Winter Thunderstorm") was organized, which became a tactical surprise for the Soviet command. The Soviet command was expecting a deblocking strike by German troops, but not from the south, but from the west, where the distance between the main forces of the German armies and the encircled grouping was minimal.

Vasily Mikhailovich Badanov, spring 1942

The German offensive began on December 12, 1942, and developed very successfully at the first stage. The 302nd Rifle Division of the Red Army, which took the main blow of the Germans, was quickly dispersed and a gap arose in the front of the 51st Army. This fact provided the German unblocking units with a rapid advance. By the end of the day, the German 6th Panzer Division, which formed the backbone of the advancing group and had recently been transferred from France, reached the southern bank of the Aksai River. At the same time, the 23rd German Panzer Division, transferred from the Caucasus, reached the Aksai River in the area north of Nebykov. On December 13, crossing Aksai, the 6th Panzer Division was able to reach the village of Verkhne-Kumsky, where it was stopped by counterattacks by Soviet units for 5 days, which ultimately decided in many ways the fate of the German counterstrike. When on December 20, parts of the German group reached the Myshkov River (35-40 km remained to the encircled Paulus grouping), they met there units of the approaching 2nd Guards Army of the Stalingrad Front. By this time, the Germans had already lost up to 230 tanks and up to 60% of their motorized infantry in battles.

The encircled group of German troops near Stalingrad was supplied by air and was not going to surrender in December 1942. The supply of the encircled units was made from a large airfield located in the village of Tatsinskaya. It was at this moment, when Manstein's units continued their attempts to unblock Paulus's troops, Vasily Badanov received his main combat mission about the army commander Vatutin. Badanov's tank corps was supposed to carry out something like a grand reconnaissance in force. The operation was largely calculated on heroism without regard to circumstances and losses. Having broken through the positions of the 8th Italian Army, the 24th Panzer Corps had to go to the rear of the Germans, solving three tasks at once: to try to cut off the operational group of German troops from Rostov-on-Don, to divert the German troops, which were aimed at Stalingrad, and destroy the airfield at the Tatsinskaya station, which was used to supply the encircled 6th Army of Paulus.

Major General Vasily Badanov took over the 24th Panzer Corps in April 1942. After heavy fighting near Kharkov, where the corps lost almost 2/3 of its strength, it was withdrawn for reorganization. Until December 1942, the corps restored its combat readiness, in fact, being in the reserve of the Supreme Command Headquarters. By the time of the Tatsinsky raid, the corps consisted of three tank brigades: 4th Guards Tank, 54th Tank, 130th Tank, as well as 24th Motorized Rifle Brigade, 658th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment and 413th Separate Guards Mortar division. By the time of the offensive in the 24th Tank Corps, manning was 90% with tanks, 70% with personnel, and 50% with vehicles. In total, it included up to 91 tanks (T-34 and T-70).

The first stage of the 24th Panzer Corps' offensive was successful. On December 19, being put into battle from the Osetrovsky bridgehead in the zone of action of the 4th Guards Rifle Corps, in the sector of the front defended by Italian units, Badanov's tank corps practically did not meet significant resistance from their side. The blocking units, which were involved in the depths of the Italian front, in the drainage basin of the Chir River, soon fled under the pressure of attacks by Soviet troops, throwing guns and vehicles onto the battlefield. Many Italian officers tore down their insignia and tried to hide. Badanov's tankers crushed the Italians, literally like bedbugs. According to the recollections of the tankers themselves, they met combat vehicles that literally darkened with blood. Despite the fact that the Germans learned about the advance of the Russian tank corps, they did not have time to "intercept" it. For five days of a rapid march, Badanov's tankers were able to overcome 240 kilometers.

At the same time, during the actions of the Soviet troops, the 8th Italian Army was actually defeated. More than 15 thousand of its soldiers were taken prisoner. The remnants of the Italian divisions withdrew, abandoning equipment and warehouses with food and ammunition. Many headquarters were removed from the scene, losing contact with the units, all fled. At the same time, the 8th Italian Army, which by the fall of 1942 numbered about 250 thousand soldiers and officers, lost half of its composition in killed, wounded and captured.

By eight o'clock in the evening on December 21, 24th Panzer Corps was able to reach the settlement of Bolshakovka. After that, Vasily Badanov ordered the commanders of the 130th tank brigade, Lieutenant Colonel S.K.Nesterov and the commander of the 54th tank brigade, Colonel V.M. by the end of December 21, take possession of this settlement. At the same time, the 4th Guards Tank Brigade, commanded by Colonel G. I. Kopylov, was tasked with liberating Ilyinka from the enemy by the morning of December 22. Having overcome the water barrier, units of the 130th Tank Brigade crushed the enemy outposts and broke into the northeastern outskirts of Bolshinka and started a battle there. Lacking information about the forces of the advancing Soviet troops, the enemy threw his reserves against the 130th Tank Brigade. At this time, the 54th Tank Brigade struck at the enemy from the northwest. On December 21, at 23 o'clock, the village was captured.

The corps began to fight heavy battles only on the approaches to Tatsinskaya. So it was with difficulty that Ilyinka was captured, which, oddly enough, was very stubbornly defended by half a battalion of the Germans and up to one and a half hundred Cossacks who joined the Wehrmacht. At the same time, already in front of Tatsinskaya, less than half of the fuel reserves remained in the tanks of the tanks, and the corps supply base was located at a distance of 250 kilometers in Kalach. At the same time, the corps vehicles for the supply of fuel and ammunition were clearly not enough, but the corps successfully advanced in such conditions.

The second stage of the offensive operation is directly the assault on the village of Tatsinskaya. It began on the morning of December 24 at 7:30 am after the strike of Katyusha rocket launchers from the 413th Guards Mortar Division. After that, Soviet tanks rushed to the German rear airfield, from which General Martin Fiebig, the commander of the 8th corps of the Luftwaffe, barely managed to get away. The strike was struck simultaneously from three sides, the signal for the general attack was the Katyusha artillery raid and the 555 signal transmitted by radio communication.

Here's what the German pilot Kurt Schreit later recalled about how it happened: “Morning December 24, 1942. A faint dawn broke in the east, illuminating the still gray horizon. At this moment, Soviet tanks, firing on the move, suddenly burst into the village of Tatsinskaya and the airfield. The planes flashed like torches. Flames of fires raged everywhere, shells exploded, stored ammunition flew into the air. Trucks rushed about the takeoff field, and between them screaming people rushed about. Who will give the order where to go to the pilots? Take off and leave in the direction of Novocherkassk - that's all that General Fibig managed to order. Shaped madness begins. Airplanes leave and take off from all sides on the runway. All this is happening under enemy fire and in the light of the flaring fires. The sky stretched out like a crimson bell over thousands of dying soldiers, whose faces expressed madness. Here is one Ju-52 transport plane, not having time to rise into the air, crashes into a Soviet tank and explodes with a terrible roar. Already in the air "Heinkel" collide with "Junkers" and are scattered into small fragments together with their passengers. The roar of aircraft engines and tank engines mingles with the roar of explosions, cannon fire and machine-gun bursts to form a monstrous symphony of music. All this together creates in the eyes of the viewer of those events a complete picture of the open-ended hell. "

Less than 12 hours later, Major General Vasily Badanov reported by radio that the task had been completed. The village of Tatsinskaya and the enemy airfield were captured. The Germans lost up to 40 aircraft (large command "registrations", which brought the number of destroyed and captured aircraft to almost 400, appeared much later). But the most important result was that the encircled group of Paulus lost its air supply base. However, the Germans did not sit idly by. On the night of December 23, Manstein, realizing that he would not break through to Paulus, would redeploy the 11th Panzer Division and the 6th Panzer Division, against Badanov's corps. They are moving on a forced march in order to stop the advance of the Soviet tank corps. German tank divisions managed to clamp Badanov's corps with pincers, on which artillery is now constantly working and German aviation is striking. Already on December 24, the forward detachments from the 6th German Panzer Division, with the support of assault gun units, captured the areas located north of Tatsinskaya.

By December 25, 58 tanks remained in the Badanov corps: 39 T-34 medium tanks and 19 T-70 light tanks, while ammunition and fuel and lubricants were running out. On the morning of December 26, 6 trucks with ammunition, as well as 5 petrol tankers, were able to break through to the location of the corps with the support of 5 T-34 tanks. The corps will not be able to receive any more supplies. Around the same time, Vasily Badanov learns that his corps was awarded the rank of the Guards.

Vatutin tried to help Badanov by sending two motorized corps and two rifle divisions to the rescue, but General Routh, who commanded the German 6th Panzer Division, managed to repel all the attacks of the Soviet troops. Parts of Major General Badanov were surrounded, resisting desperately. Many soldiers of the corps fought literally to the last bullet. The silos and granaries burning in the village of Tatsinskaya illuminated the horrific picture of the fighting - twisted anti-tank guns, broken supply convoys, aircraft wreckage, burning tanks, people frostbitten to death.

On December 27, Vasily Badanov reports to Vatutin that the situation is very serious. Shells are running out, in the corps there are serious losses in personnel, it is no longer possible to hold Tatsinskaya. Badanov asks for permission to break through the corps from the encirclement. But Vatutin orders to keep the village and "only if the worst happens", to try to break out of the encirclement. Realistically assessing his capabilities and the situation, Major General Badanov personally decides on a breakthrough. On a frosty night on December 28, the remaining forces of the 24th Panzer Corps managed to find a weak spot in the German defense and broke through from the encirclement to the Ilyinka area, crossed the Bystraya River and united with the Soviet units. At the same time, only 927 people survived, barely a tenth of the corps, which began the offensive on December 19, 1942. Larger and fresher forces could not break through to their rescue, but they were able to get out of the encirclement, having accomplished a real feat.

The Supreme Soviet and the Soviet High Command noted the heroism of the 24th Panzer Corps units, their valiant resistance to the end and the unparalleled tank raid deep in the German rear, which became a wonderful example for the rest of the Red Army. During its raid, the 24th Panzer Corps reported on the destruction of 11292 enemy soldiers and officers, 4769 people were taken prisoner, 84 tanks were knocked out, 106 guns were destroyed. In the Tatsinskaya area alone, up to 10 enemy batteries were destroyed. After the Tatsin raid, a joke appeared among the troops that the best means of fighting German aviation were tank tracks.

Vasily Badanov himself eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant general. Two years later, during the Lvov-Sandomierz offensive operation, he was seriously wounded and concussed. After recovering in August 1944, Lieutenant General Vasily Badanov was appointed head of the department of military educational institutions of the Main Directorate for the formation and combat training of armored and mechanized troops of the Soviet Army. This is how the combat general returned to teaching.

Monument-memorial "Breakthrough"

Sources of information:
http://warspot.ru/191-tanki-protiv-lyuftvaffe
http://windowrussia.ruvr.ru/2012_12_25/Tacinskij-rejd
http://gosu-wot.com/tank-general-badanov
Materials from free sources

Such a young boy lived and enjoyed the whole world around him, played the accordion enthusiastically, had just successfully finished school, and was preparing to celebrate his eighteenth birthday.
& nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp Only suddenly the terrible word "war" split his life into "before" and "after". And in his little red book, in which he so carefully wrote down both the schedule of lessons and his speeches, a recording appears in black ink - "the last speech"

Soon, terrible lines appear in the booklet - bombing, injury, the first death. And - the agenda.

In 1942, together with his older brother Ivan (pictured on the right), Peter was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army.
This is how his front line began.

• August-December 1942 - Red Army soldier of the 33 reserve rifle regiment of the 29 reserve rifle brigade of the Arkhangelsk military district.
• December 1942 - April 1943 - 49th separate rifle battalion of the 53rd Army of the NWF. In 1943 he took part in the battles on the North-Western Front as a rifleman.
• April 1943 - June 1944 - cadet S.T.U. (Stalingrad Tank School)
• In 1944 he graduated from the Stalingrad Tank School and in the same year took part in the battles on the 1st Baltic Front as the commander of the T-34 tank.
• The Stalingrad Tank School was formed on August 12, 1941. Evacuated to Kurgan with the advance of German troops to the city in the fall of 1942. The Stalingrad military tank school departed from Kurgan in July 1944.
• June - September 1944 - commander of the T-34 tank of the 3rd tank battalion of the 79th Sivash tank brigade of the 1st Baltic Front

Since June 1944, the 79th Sivash Tank Brigade fought in the Baltic direction as part of the 1st Baltic Front, participated in the Byelorussian and Baltic operations.

TEAM STAFF OF THE 79TH SIVASH TANK ORDER OF THE KUTUZOV BRIGADE

TEAM LEADERS:
• Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Ivanovich Proshin [from 01/21/1942 to 11/04/1942]
• Major, from January 12, 1943, Lieutenant Colonel Fyodor Prokofievich Vasetsky [from 11/05/1942 to 09/15/1943]
• Colonel Pyotr Semenovich Arkhipov [from 16.09.1943 to 11.05.1945], slightly wounded 04.10.1944
  DEPUTY TEAM LEADER FOR BUILDING PART:
• Colonel M. L. Ermachek
• Colonel Alexander F. Goncharov, died in October 1944
  MILITARY COMMISSIONER OF THE BRIGADE, FROM THE END OF 1942 - DEPUTY. POLITICAL BRIGADE COMMANDER:
• Lieutenant Colonel Ivan Sergeevich Batalkin
  DEPUTY TEAM LEADER FOR TECHNICAL PART:
• Lieutenant Colonel N.A. Buinevich
  brigade chiefs of staff:
  assistant chief of staff of the brigade:
  head of the political department:

The brigade was formed on January 21, 1942 in Vladimir and Gorky (Moscow VO). The composition of the brigade, by the beginning of hostilities:
Brigade management
& nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp 175th tank battalion (not in the list of battalions)
& nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp 177th tank battalion (not in the list of battalions)
As part of the active army:
& nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp from 02/17/1942 to 08/05/1943
& nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp from 09/30/1943 to 05/31/1944
& nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp from 07/13/1944 to 04/01/1945
In the composition - 31st A, 19th shopping mall.

The brigade had awards and honorary titles: Sivash, Order of Kutuzov, II degree

In 1944, having received a serious wound, he was undergoing treatment in ev. hospitals until June 1945.

1945 XII was transferred to the reserve for injury.

All materials related to the war are very carefully stored in our family. It is our family tradition to preserve the family archive and pass it on to children. However, the Pope had his own "military secret", which we learned about only after his death. We found a whole album at home with photographs of the front-line comrades, carefully pasted onto the yellowed pages. Apparently it was too painful to remember the front-line friends, and he did not want to share his difficult memories with someone. But now we are so sorry about it.

Here are just some of the photos from the front-line album.

& nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp From childhood I remember my father's officer's field tablet, which miraculously survived from the wartime.
& nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp Every tanker, and dad was the commander of a T-34 tank, constantly carried such a bag for maps with him. This tablet (sample 1935) is made of thick, smooth brown leather. Inside the tablet there are partitions, transparent celluloid plates for cards.
& nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp The officer's field tablet, or bag for cards, sample 1935 was made of smooth or grained brown leather of various shades. Inside the tablet there are partitions, transparent celluloid plates for cards. The valve could cover the tablet entirely, half, or only its upper third, fastening either with a leather tongue with a buckle, or with a bracket passing through the slots in the plates riveted to the valve - the cover tongue was passed into it. Domestic field bags were closed in a similar way. They wore German tablets either hanging from the loops on a waist belt, or on a transverse strap with an adjustment buckle. Carrying trophy bags was evidence of military success - as, indeed, in the Red Army.

There is only one desire -
come closer,
so that the enemy cannot shoot,
destroy it quickly.

I was born on September 15, 1925 in the city of Uryupinsk, Volgograd Region. On June 22, 1941, I went fishing with friends. A friend says to me: "Listen, Molotov will speak at twelve o'clock." - "What?" - "They declared war."

The whole school year 1941/42 I studied in the ninth grade. In the summer of 1942, when the German came close to Stalingrad, my classmates, who were older than me, volunteered for the front and almost all died. And we, guys, enrolled in the extermination battalion of the city of Uryupinsk. The task of the battalion was to catch spies, saboteurs, guard military facilities, and monitor blackouts. There were not enough men, so the city leadership turned to the Komsomol members with a request to help. We were given rifles with cartridges, and we patrolled the city, guarded the district party committee, the city council, helped guard the creamery, the Lenin plant, which made mortars during the war. We never caught saboteurs, but we had to catch thieves and crooks.

In the autumn of the same year, I entered the Agricultural College. In November, when the offensive at Stalingrad was being prepared, many troops arrived in the city. Tankers stopped in the houses next to ours. I got into the habit of going to them and, as they say, fell in love with the thirty-four. The tankers showed it to me, told its characteristics. In general, they gave out military secrets. Their commander was Lieutenant Sergei Antonovich Otroshchenko. In 1944, I arrived at Subbotitsa, on the 3rd Ukrainian Front, and ended up in the battalion he commanded, having become a major by that time. I studied at a technical school for a year and a half, and in 1943, at the age of seventeen and a half, I was drafted into the army. We were not accepted, but we asked so much that the military commissar took pity on us and sent us to the 1st Saratov Tank School.

Back in school, I learned how to shoot and handle weapons well, I also knew the structure of the tractor. So it was easy for me to study. Therefore, two months after taking the oath, I was already awarded the rank of junior sergeant and appointed commander of a squad, and then a zakomplatoon.

The cadets walked in boots with windings, and we, the "bosses", were given patched tarpaulin boots. To clean with what? There was no cream. They took sugar, soaked them to a mushy state and rubbed their boots with this gruel - they shone like chrome!

There were eight people at the table in the dining room. For breakfast, lunch and dinner, they were given a bowl of food and white or black bread, and for breakfast they also gave twenty grams of butter. For lunch, be sure to first, second and compote. Vermicelli with stew - I did not eat that at home! So we were fed. 9th norm! We recovered well, but we were still hungry - the load was heavy. We got up at 6 o'clock. Regardless of the weather, in an undershirt, riding breeches and boots, we ran to physical exercises. Then classes for eight hours, then self-study, a couple of hours of personal time and lights out at 23 o'clock. You go to lunch, the company commander looks around the corner as the company goes. As soon as we reach the dining room, jumps out: "Rota, all around!" Another little circle - "you go badly, you sing songs badly." We ate, we go out unwashed. He stands on the porch: "Fifteen minutes of drill training." That's how they got used to order, to discipline.

We stayed at the school for a very long time - eighteen months. For about a year they studied on the "Matilda" and "Vapentine", then on the T-34.

They taught us well. The theory was held in the classrooms, and the practice at the training ground, where they were engaged for weeks - they drove, fired, analyzed the tactics of one tank and a tank as part of a unit. Moreover, they studied not only the actions of tanks, but also the infantry, since it required the ability to interact with the paratroopers. Our training battalion was commanded by an old cavalryman who fought in the Finnish Civil War and even at the beginning of the Patriotic War. The company commander Dravenretsky was not at the front. By the end of my training, I was driving and shooting very well.

Driving practice and tactics took place on the T-26 and BT-7, and fired from the tanks on which they were trained.

First from "Matilda" and "Valentines", and then from the T-34. To be honest, we were afraid that we might be released on foreign tanks: "Matilda", "Valentine", "Sherman" - these are coffins. True, their armor was viscous and did not give splinters, but the driver sat separately, and if you turned the turret, and at that time you were knocked out, the driver would never get out of the tank. Our tanks are the best. The T-34 is a wonderful tank.

We were released in August 1944, having been awarded the rank of "junior lieutenant", after which we were taken to a plant in Nizhny Tagil, where we were assigned to marching companies. For about a month we did tactical, fire training and driving. They gave us crews, brought us to the factory, showed us an armored hull: "Here is your tank." Together with the workers, we planted rollers and helped as best we could. High-class specialists worked at the assembly. There were boys-drivers thirteen or fourteen years old. Imagine, a huge workshop, tanks are being assembled on the right and left. And in the center, at a speed of thirty kilometers, a tank is rushing, with such a kid sitting behind the levers. Yes, he simply cannot be seen! The tank had a width of about three meters, and the width of the gate was three twenty. The tank slips into the gate at this speed, flies into the platform and freezes rooted to the spot. Class!

We assembled a tank for ourselves, equipped it and went on a fifty-kilometer march with live fire at the range. Here I need to say a few words about my crew. The driver-mechanic had ten years of conviction and after a short training he practically did not own a tank. The gunner was the former director of the Saratov motor ship restaurant, an adult man in a body who could hardly fit into a tank. Charger - born in 1917, with a slight mental disability. There was no fifth crew member. Here is such a crew - all without combat experience! We made a march and went to the shooting range. On the command "Forward!" went to the firing line. I command: "Load the shrapnel!" The loader grabs the projectile. Loaded. Short. The gunner shoots - into the milk. I shout to him: "Take a smaller scope." Charger: "Charge!" And there is no loader - he ran to the mechanic, afraid of a rollback. I grabbed him by the collar, dragged him out: "Come on, load", We fired poorly.

We returned, embarked on a train and drove through Moscow, Ukraine, Moldova to Romania. Before loading onto the platforms, we were given a huge tarpaulin, about ten by ten meters. I left the loader to guard the tank: "Be careful not to steal the tarpaulin." In the morning we get up - there is no tarpaulin. He called everyone: “Where is the tarpaulin? As you wish, and a tarpaulin to be sent. " Where they took it is unknown, but they brought the tarp.

On the way, the loader was left with dysentery in the hospital. Already in Romania, the gunner's finger swelled up, and he was also hospitalized. So in September 1944, we arrived at the location of the 170th Tank Brigade together with a driver. At the same time, he almost burned the brake band on the way without adjusting the clearances.

When we arrived, the company commander, Vasily Pavlovich Bryukhov, gathered all the tank and platoon commanders: “Look, we have three good tankers in reserve who want to go into battle. If anyone thinks that the crew does not match, we can replace. " I asked to replace the driver-mechanic for me, but the gunner and loader were given new ones.

I must say that Vasily Pavlovich was from the category of fathers-commanders. A talented, brave person. A real warlord. He has always been at the forefront. Who is on patrol? Always Bryukhov! Solved problems by maneuvering, did not get involved in frontal battles. It is no coincidence that at the age of twenty he became a battalion commander. He always took care of the youth, he will send those who have already fought into battle, and you, until you get used to it, go second or third. It is from such experienced tankers that we received tremendous help in preparing for battles. They taught us the intricacies and tricks of tank combat. Explained how to move, maneuver, so as not to catch the blank. Forced to remove the springs on the latches of the commander's turret double-leaf hatches. After all, even a healthy person with an effort opened it, but a wounded person would never have been able to do this. They explained that it was better to keep the hatches open so that it would be easier to jump out. The guns were fired again. We did everything, prepared ourselves.

And here's the first attack. The commanders were assembled: “Do you see the grove? The enemy is there. The task is to bypass this grove and enter the operational space. " We got into the tanks. Team - go ahead! And we went. You drive, shoot, the tank on the right is on fire, on the left the tank is on fire. The crew managed to jump out or not, it is not visible. The gunner is firing. You command him: “30 to the right - a cannon. To the left of 20 is a machine gun. Shrapnel ". There is only one desire - to come closer so that the enemy cannot shoot, to destroy him as quickly as possible. You send round after round to where they are shooting from. We approached the German positions - the guns were overturned, the bodies were lying around, the armored personnel carriers were on fire. They seized the grove, went around it, broke free into the open. Ahead, a kilometer away, the Germans were running, the guns were being carried. Some of the guns are deployed. We stopped and shoot. They throw them and run. Forward! I was staring at the panorama of the battle, and suddenly the tank dived into a wide ditch and caught the sand with its barrel. We stopped. They took out a brush, cleaned the gun. We caught up with the company, which by that time had gone about a kilometer. This was the first fight. And then there were these battles ...

Particularly heavy fighting took place in the Szekesh-Fehervar area. There I destroyed my first tank. It was in the afternoon. We attacked, and suddenly a tank crawled out to the left from behind the woods, about 600-700 meters, right side towards us. As we later found out, the Germans had prepared caponiers, and, apparently, he was crawling into one of them to take a position for defense. I say to the loader: "Armor-piercing". To the gunner: “To the right of the grove. Tank". He smacked him into the side - he caught fire!

One day in December, when we were encircling a German group, after a night march, we got up to rest. We camouflaged the tanks a bit and went to bed. In the morning we wake up - three hundred meters from us, on a hill, there are "Tigers" disguised as heaps. We get away faster. They started the cars and took the tanks out into the hollow. These "Tigers" entered the flank along it and began to fire at. A couple of tanks were burned. Three of our tanks reached the left slope of the ravine, where they were quickly burned by tanks that were not visible to us, standing somewhere to the right. Then our neighbor, apparently, moved forward, the Germans left, and only then did we manage to continue moving.

We were advancing day and night. On the night of December 26, 1944, the city of Esztergom was captured on the banks of the Danube. We see a convoy coming from the west, twenty cars. We dispersed and placed tanks across the road. The front vehicle ran into the tank. They shout to the driver: "Hyundai hoh". He jumps out, they cut him off from a machine gun, the rest of whom were shot, who were taken prisoner. And in the cars - sausages, cheeses.

Packed with food. We spent the night on the western outskirts of the city, and in the morning, having built up in a column, we went further. Ahead of the platoon are three tanks - the head patrol. I follow them. We had just left the city when they opened fire on the leading tanks from a grove that grew not far from the road. All three tanks were destroyed. We rolled back to the city and, without getting involved in a battle, went around this grove across the field, going out to some kind of railway station. There we captured an echelon of light tanks, which we left for the trophy teams following us. Through the mountains we came to the city of Kamarom, on approaching which on December 30, 1944, I was wounded. From an ambush, a German tank slammed into us. The blank hit the tower, I was concussed from the impact, I broke my left arm, and, in addition, I was slightly injured by shrapnel of armor. The second round was slapped into the transmission. The tank caught fire, but we all managed to jump out.

I stayed in the hospital almost until mid-February 1945, and when I was discharged, I ended up in another battalion already as a platoon commander. We were in the second line of defense between Lake Kelec and Lake Balaton. We buried the tanks, dug a hole under the tank for the crew, equipped it for rest, and covered the tank with a tarpaulin. One is on duty in the tank at the gun, and the rest are resting. It was about three kilometers to the front edge. Breakfast was brought to us at 12 o'clock in the morning. Dinner, lunch and the prescribed 100 grams - at 4 o'clock in the morning, Once we had dinner downstairs, when "Vanyusha" played for us. I didn't hit the tank, but we suffered through the fear.

On the right flank, I remember, there was a battery of SU-100 self-propelled guns. They moved forward about a kilometer, standing on the outskirts of the village. As soon as dawn began, one torch lit up, the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth - all the self-propelled guns were destroyed by the Germans.

Soon we went on the offensive again. Our aviation processed the cutting edge - they ironed thoroughly. We saw how "Eli" burned and exploded in the air. And when they went on the offensive, it was nice to see the results of their work: "Tigers" with towers rolled to one side.

We were advancing in the direction of the city of Shefron. On March 14 or 15, I knocked out a self-propelled gun.She fired at the neighbors, standing in the caponier, not seeing how my tank went into her rear, and when she tried to get out of the caponier to change position, we stabbed her with a sub-caliber almost point-blank. She immediately flared up!

And soon our crew crushed a battery of 37 guns. It turned out well: we went to them from the rear and let's crush them. For this battery I was nominated for the Order of the Battle Red Banner, but I was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. And then he received the Order of the Red Star. I have already learned how to fight ... In total, I knocked out one tank, one self-propelled gun, but how many tankettes and armored personnel carriers - I don't know. The infantry, probably, a man of two or three hundred laid down. I came home, I had ten thousand rubles on my book. I say to my father: "Come on, I'll get the money." I gave this money away, went home, and my father was not there until midnight. I came. The money is all intact, and he is screwed.

March 30, 1945. They captured a village, and in it a column of equipment: prisoners, cars, armored personnel carriers, guns, only there were no tanks. We stopped. Loaded with ammunition, refueled. The enemy retreated three kilometers. Everything is ready to continue the offensive. The battalion commander says: “You will go to the head outpost. I send the tank ahead and follow it. Until we left the village, I sat down on a ball mount of a machine gun, to the right of the driver, and the gunner and radio operator settled on the tower, hanging their legs into the hatches, behind the transmission there were about ten paratroopers. The first tank drove off, ours followed him, and the road turned sluggish, and the first tank left a deep rut. The driver-mechanic, in order not to get bogged down, takes a half-truck to the left. We drove a few meters - and suddenly an explosion! The tank was blown up by a land mine. The tower, together with the gunner and the radio operator, flew twenty meters away (I then walked and looked). Both survived, but their legs were crippled. I was thrown by a blast wave onto the roof of the house, from which I rolled into the yard. Fell successfully - broke nothing. I open the gate, jump out into the street. The tank is on fire, shells and cartridges are torn. I looked - in front, about four meters from the tank, the party organizer of the battalion was lying. He was doused with fuel, and he was all on fire. I rushed at him, extinguished, dragged him out of the gate. The driver and loader who were in the tank were killed in the crew. And almost all of the landing was killed. One I got off lightly - only the eardrums burst.

I spent a week in the battalion reserve, and when I recovered a little, the battalion commander took me to his position as chief of staff, since the chief and assistant chief of staff were wounded.

Once we took a settlement. He stood very unsuccessfully - in a hollow, between two hills. The Germans fortified themselves on the slopes. The first five tanks went along the road to its eastern outskirts. As soon as we approached the houses - tyap, tyap, tyap - five tanks burned down. Three more tanks are sent - burned out. And we need to go through this village and move on. No more tanks were sent, bypassing, through the mountains, they found some kind of path and entered this village from the rear. They shot down the Germans from one hill, fortified themselves, the Germans are still firing from the other slope. The battalion commander's tank is behind the house, and in the next one I sit with the battalion radio operator and talk to him about something. Suddenly a blank flies through the window and knocks his skull off. Brains out, blinking eyes. I met, of course, with death, but then I got scared. He threw the radio down. I run out onto the porch and run to the battalion commander. There were probably thirty meters between the houses, and the German was shooting through this space with a machine gun. I ran about ten meters. He will give me a line ahead of me. I stopped. He had just finished shooting, and I ran again - there was a queue from behind. I ran up to the battalion commander, told everything. Somehow we got out of it later.

The scariest moment? There was such ... My crew became the crew of the company commander. In one battle, we sluggishly fought with German tanks. In front of us, in the trenches, the infantry is located. The company commander sat down in the commander's seat and allowed me to lie down next to the tank to sleep. Suddenly a drunken infantry captain with a pistol crawls out of the trench and walks along the trench, and then machine-gun fire. Goes, shouts: "I will shoot you all!" And he comes to our tank. I’m asleep. Suddenly someone kicks in like a foot: "I will shoot you now, bastard!" - "What are you doing ?!" - "Why are you lying here, go into battle!" I was numb. After all, now he will pull the trigger, and that's it! It's good that the gunner, a healthy guy, heard the cry of this captain, got out and jumped on him right from the tower. The pistol was taken from him.<…>Here it was really scary - if not for the gunner, he would not have died for the smell of tobacco.

In May 1945, we transferred the remaining tanks to another battalion. The brigade fought right up to the 8th, and we were in reserve. On the 7th, the battalion commander left. Although I am a junior lieutenant, I stayed with the chief of staff: “You can organize a party here. They say the war is over. " We stood in the courtyard of the master - everything is there: cattle, wine. The battalion commander arrives on the 8th at 12 o'clock in the morning, says: "Guys, the war is over." It’s impossible to describe what started - they fired from machine guns, pistols, from rocket launchers. Then everyone at the table. The people are drinking with joy ... The commanders feel that they have to do something. And they began to put the technique in order.