Heroes of the Great Patriotic War. Overview of the game Soldiers: Heroes of World War II

24.09.2019

The war brought a lot to humanity: death, disease and villains that make John Rambo look more like Ned Flanders. These 10 simple soldiers accomplished amazing feats and somehow managed to make the story quite compelling.

10. Dirk J. Vlug.

Dirk J. Vlug, born in 1916, served in the Private First Class with the 126th Infantry Division based in the Philippines. On December 15, 1944, Dirk's squad and the checkpoint they were defending came under fire from Japanese forces. Leaving his cover, with a rocket launcher and five rounds of ammunition, Vlug threw himself under machine gun fire. He charged the rocket launcher single-handedly and destroyed an enemy tank.

Not satisfied with this, he killed the gunner of the second tank with a pistol shot and destroyed the tank with another missile. Seeing three more tanks moving along the road, Vlug took aim at the first one and eliminated it. He rushed forward to destroy the fourth tank of the day. In conclusion, he sent the last tank down the slope. In all, he destroyed five tanks single-handedly.

9. Charles Carpenter

Lieutenant Colonel Charles Carpenter (“Bazooka Charlie” to friends) was a US reconnaissance pilot during World War II. While he mainly flew reconnaissance missions, during the Allied siege of Lorient in 1944, Charles decided he hadn't seen combat and installed rocket launchers designed for foot soldiers on his aircraft. Only six. Calling the plane "Rosie's Rocket", Charles used it in a series of solo attacks, destroying as many as six enemy tanks and several armored vehicles by the end of the war. On a spy plane. With bazookas mounted on it.

8. James Hill.

The British officer Hill commanded the 1st Parachute Brigade deployed in North Africa. While his brigade was trying to liberate the town of Goo Hill from the Italians, he performed an insane feat, all this was on November 22, 1942. You might think that anyone who fought the less successful Italians was having fun, but destroying three Italian tanks is definitely not a walk in the park. His battalion ran into a fortified Italian and German camp, including 300 Italian soldiers and three light tanks.

Hill planned to force the enemy into a minefield behind them that a group of Royal Engineers was to lay, but a defective grenade in their armament caused 25 of the 27 engineers to explode and die before they could complete the minefield. Now under fire from Italian soldiers and tanks, Hill had to think fast or risk his subordinates. Armed with only a revolver, Hill set his sights on the tanks. Skillfully avoiding fire, James was able to subdue the teams of two tanks by threatening the observation hole with a revolver. During the attack on the third tank, he was wounded three times, but survived.

7. Fritz Christen.

We, especially I, the admin of the site, do not consider his act heroic, but the fact remains. Fritz was a soldier in the Totenkopf Waffen-SS during the war. They acted as the spearhead of the German invasion of the USSR and saw more than most. On the morning of September 24, 1941, Kristen manned an anti-tank fortification. During a skirmish with Soviet soldiers, most of the soldiers who worked on the fortification were killed. He had only a 50-millimeter gun left, in addition to everything else, there were no soldiers left, there was no food and no help of any kind. In the three days that his struggle lasted, he destroyed 13 Soviet tanks and killed almost 100 soldiers.

6. Ivan Pavlovich.

Ivan was a cook for the 91st Tank Regiment of the Red Army. One day in August 1941, Ivan was cooking dinner. He noticed a German tank, which stopped not far from field kitchen.

Taking a rifle and an ax, Ivan waited for the soldiers to start leaving the tank in order to refuel it. The team, seeing a moving towards them Soviet soldier with an ax, quickly returned to the tank. When the tank began to load the machine gun, Pavlovich climbed onto the tank and bent the machine gun bushing with his axe. He covered the observation hole with a piece of canvas and loudly ordered his imaginary comrades to throw an imaginary grenade at him, drumming on the body of the tank until four people surrendered, thinking that the entire Red Army was already nearby.

5. Aubrey Cozens.

Born in Latchward, Ontario on May 21, 1921, Aubrey served with Canada's Queen's Own Rifles during the war. At Mushof, Germany, on February 25 and 26, 1945, Cozens proved certain Canadian stereotypes wrong by capturing an enemy stronghold alone. After his platoon came under heavy counterattack during a German-led attempt to capture three rural houses, Cozens took control. He came out of hiding under heavy fire to send the last remaining Allied tank into the final battle. The tank rammed one of the buildings, killing several residents, and Cozens captured the rest. He then proceeded to kill or capture enemies in the second and third buildings. After he took over the buildings, he was fatally shot in the head by an enemy sniper.

4. Havildar Lachiman Gurung.

Havildar Lachiman Gurung, born in Nepal on December 30, 1917, served as a rifleman in the 8th Gurkha Rifles, part of the Indian Army during World War II. Serving in Burma, this short, 150 cm man stood up to the ferocity of the Japanese Empire. On May 12 and 13, 1945, Gurung was posted to the forward post office at Taungdaw. At this time, the Japanese in the amount of 200 people attacked this branch. He was thrown with grenades, two grenades that fell near him he successfully threw back, but the third exploded and damaged him right hand. Over the next four hours, Havildar repeatedly reloaded his rifle with one hand, fighting off the enemy until reinforcements arrived. 31 dead Japanese soldiers were found near him. He killed them all with one hand.

3. Leo Major.

Canadian Leo Major served in the Régiment de la Chaudière during the war. Born in 1921, he also participated in Korean War. On the night of April 13, 1945, in order to save the city of Zwolle, Holland, from bombardment, Leo voluntarily tried to liberate the entire city, only one person volunteered to help him. At midnight, his partner was killed and Major went on the attack alone. After capturing the driver of the vehicle that shot at his friend, he drove to a bar in the city where a German official was drinking while on time off. He told the official that at 6:00 the artillery would raze the city to the ground if they did not surrender and ran out into the street. Leo lost his temper and began to run around the city, firing a machine gun and throwing grenades. He made so much noise that the Germans thought the Canadians had attacked with a large force. Taking advantage of the turmoil among the Germans, he seized the advantage. About 10 times he escorted groups of prisoners to the city limits and waiting for the Canadian Forces. When he found the Gestapo headquarters, he set fire to it and fought eight Nazi soldiers, killing four of them before the rest fled. By 4:30 the Germans had left the city and Zwolle was saved from bombardment.

2. Warren G. H. Gracie.

Warren, the tank commander of the 761st Tank Battalion, earned the nickname "The Worst Man in the 761st" after his actions on November 10, 1944. After his tank was disabled, he appropriated vehicle, armed with a machine gun, throwing German soldiers out of him, who destroyed his tank and a group of advanced observers. When his replacement tank began to sink in the mud, he used a machine gun. Warren single-handedly held the enemy's passage, forcing them to retreat. Described as "quiet, good-natured, mild-mannered comrade," Warren was awarded the Medal of Honor.

1. Fazal Dean.

Serving in the 7th Battalion of the British-Indian Army, Fazal Dean was born on July 1, 1921. His troops were deployed to Burma on March 2, 1945 near Meiktila. Fazal's detachment came under machine gun fire during an attack on the Japanese camp. After attacking the camp, Fazal stumbled upon a bunker from which six Japanese soldiers emerged, led by two generals. One of Fazal's soldiers was able to kill one general before being killed by another. Seeing this, Fazal attacked and was wounded in the chest. Despite being wounded, Fazal captured the Japanese general's sword, killing him and another Japanese soldier. Returning back to the camp, Fazal wrote a report before he died from his wounds.

Are you looking for this? Perhaps this is what you could not find for so long?

Lenya Golikov (1926-1943) , brigade reconnaissance officer of the 67th detachment of the 4th Leningrad partisan brigade

In the summer of 1942, near the village of Varnitsa, Lenya Golikov blew up a car in which Major General of the German Engineering Troops Richard von Wirtz was driving. Lena managed to get documents about the offensive of the enemy army, thanks to which the German attack failed. For this feat, the boy was presented to the title of Hero. Soviet Union.

Golikov died in the winter of 1943, when the Nazis attacked partisans near the village of Ostraya Luka.

Photo: yelena1234.livejournal.com

Alexander Matrosov (1924-1943) , submachine gunner of the 2nd separate battalion of the 91st separate Siberian volunteer brigade. Stalin

In the winter of 1943, the Matrosov battalion launched an attack on the German stronghold and fell into a trap. The soldiers were fired from three wooden-earth firing points (bunker), then the firing from two stopped. Alexander and his comrade crawled up to the firing bunker and threw two grenades in his direction, the shooting stopped. The soldiers went on the attack again, but then the machine gun came to life, and Matrosov's partner died. The young man rushed to the embrasure. Thanks to this, the Red Army soldiers were able to successfully attack the enemy, and Alexander Matrosov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.

Zina Portnova (1926-1944), scout partisan detachment. Voroshilov in the territory occupied by the Nazis in Belarus

As a pioneer, in 1942 Portnova joined the underground organization Young Avengers, where she distributed anti-fascist leaflets in the lands occupied by the Germans. Soon she got a job in a canteen for the Germans. There she managed to arrange several sabotage. In 1943, the girl was captured by the Nazis - she was surrendered by defectors. Zina Portnova was tortured and interrogated, during one of which she grabbed a pistol from the table and killed three Germans. She was shot in prison.

Nikolai Gastello (1907-1941), pilot, captain, commander of the 2nd squadron of the 207th long-range bomber aviation regiment

In June 1941, the crew under the command of Nikolai Gastello flew out to attack a German mechanized column. It was guarded by enemy artillery, and Gastello's plane was shot down by the Nazis from an anti-aircraft gun between the cities of Molodechno and Radoshkovichi (Belarus). The pilot had the opportunity to eject, but he sent the burning plane to the enemy column, thus making the first fire ram in the Great Patriotic War. After the feat of Nikolai Gastello, all pilots who decided to ram began to be called Gastellites.

Alexey Maresyev (1916-2001), pilot

During the Great Patriotic War, Maresyev's plane was shot down by the Nazis, and the pilot ejected. Wounded in both legs, he spent eighteen days reaching the front line. He managed to get to the hospital, but the doctors had to amputate both legs of the fighter. Alexey Maresyev began to fly with prostheses. He has 11 downed enemy planes and more than 80 sorties, most of which he made without legs.

It was the life and exploits of Maresyev that formed the basis of Boris Polevoy's The Tale of a Real Man.

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya (1923-1941), partisan, member of the sabotage and reconnaissance group of the headquarters of the Western Front

In October 1941, Zoya went to a school for saboteurs, and then was sent to Volokolamsk. Here she was engaged in mining roads and destroying communication centers. During one of these sabotage Kosmodemyanskaya was captured. The Nazis tortured her for a long time, but Zoya did not say a word to them, and they decided to hang the girl. Before her death, the partisan shouted to the assembled local residents: “Comrades, victory will be ours. German soldiers, before it's too late, surrender!

She became the first female Hero of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War.

Photo: defense.ru

Efim Osipenko (1902-1985), guerrilla commander

When the war began, Yefim Osipenko became a partisan in a detachment of six people. Yefim and his comrades decided to blow up the German train. But since there was not enough ammunition, the bomb was made from a grenade. Osipenko crawled to the railway bridge, saw that the train was approaching, and threw an explosive device, but it did not work. Then the partisans hit the bomb with an iron pole, and it exploded. The train derailed, but Osipenko himself lost his sight. He became the first to be awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War."

Alexander German (1915-1943), commander of the 3rd Leningrad partisan brigade

During the war Alexander German from Petrograd was a scout. He commanded a partisan detachment behind enemy lines. His brigade managed to destroy thousands of Nazis and hundreds of pieces of military equipment. In 1943, in the Pskov region, Herman's detachment was surrounded, where he was killed.

Vladislav Khrustitsky (1902-1944), commander of the 30th separate guards tank brigade of the Leningrad Front

In 1942, Vladislav Khrustitsky became the commander of a separate light tank brigade, in which he participated in Operation Iskra, which marked the beginning of the path to victory over the Nazis on the Leningrad Front. In 1944, during a German counterattack near Volosovo, Khrustitsky's brigade fell into a trap. He radioed his fighters the command to stand to death, and was the first to go on the attack, as a result of which he died, and Volosovo was liberated.

Konstantin Zaslonov (1909-1942), commander of a partisan detachment and brigade. Before the war, Konstantin worked for railway. This experience was useful to him in the fall of 1941 near Moscow. He was thrown behind enemy lines and came up with "coal mines" - mines disguised as coal, and Zaslonov also agitated the local population to go over to the side of the partisans. A reward was announced for a living or dead partisan. Upon learning that Konstantin Zaslonov was accepting locals into a partisan detachment, the Germans changed into Soviet uniforms and came to him. During this battle, Zaslonov died, and the peasants hid his body without betraying it to the enemy.

Matvey Kuzmin (1858-1942), peasant

Matvey Kuzmin met the Great Patriotic War at an advanced age - 82 years. It so happened that he had to lead a detachment of fascists through the forest. However, Kuzmin sent his grandson forward to warn the Soviet partisans who had stopped nearby. As a result, the Germans were ambushed. In the battle that began, Matvey Kuzmin died. He became the oldest person to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Victor Talalikhin (1918-1941), deputy squadron commander of the 177th Air Defense Fighter Aviation Regiment

At the end of the summer of 1941, Viktor Talalikhin rammed a German fighter, after which, wounded, he descended to the ground by parachute. In total, he has six enemy aircraft on his account. He died in the autumn of the same year near Podolsk.

And in 2014, the remains of Talalikhin's plane were found at the bottom of a swamp in the Moscow region.

Andrei Korzun (1911-1943), artilleryman of the 3rd counter-battery artillery corps of the Leningrad Front

From the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Andrei Korzun served on the Leningrad front. In November 1943, Korzun's battery came under fire. Andrei was wounded, and then he saw that powder charges were burning, and an entire ammunition depot could explode. He crawled up to the blazing charges and with the last of his strength covered them with his body. The hero died, and the explosion was prevented.

Young Guard (1942-1943), an underground anti-fascist organization

"Young Guard" operated on the territory of the occupied Luhansk region. Its participants were more than a hundred people, the youngest of whom was only 14 years old. The organization was engaged in sabotage and agitation of the population. On the account of the "Young Guard" - an enemy tank repair shop and an exchange, from where the prisoners were taken to Germany for forced labor. The uprising, organized by the members of the group, did not take place because of the traitors who betrayed them to the Nazis. As a result, more than 70 participants were tortured and shot.

The exploits of the "Young Guard" inspired the creation of the work of the same name by Alexander Fadeev.

Panfilov, a detachment of 28 people under the command of Ivan Panfilov from the personnel of the 4th company of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th rifle regiment

In the autumn of 1941, during the counterattack on Moscow, the Panfilovites were near Volokolamsk. It was there that they met the German tank troops, the battle began. As a result, 18 armored vehicles were eliminated, the attack was delayed, and the Nazi counteroffensive failed. It is believed that it was then that political instructor Vasily Klochkov shouted to his fighters the famous phrase “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!”. According to the main version, all 28 Panfilovites died.

According to matveychev-oleg.livejournal.com

Jews during World War II were not only victims of Nazism. They fought against the Nazi invaders in the ranks of the Soviet Armed Forces ( 500 thousand soldiers and officers), US Army, Air Force and Navy ( 550 thousand warriors), other allied armies; they have contributed, together with other peoples, to Great Victory. Of the half a million Soviet Jewish soldiers, 200,000 died on the fronts of the Patriotic War. In total, 1,400,000 Jews fought in the Allied armies during the Second World War. These figures do not include Jewish partisans from the Soviet Union and occupied European countries.

From the first days of the war, tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews went to the front. Quite a few Jewish youths from Kiev, Kharkov, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, and other Ukrainian cities, without waiting for summonses, often before reaching draft age, came to the military registration and enlistment offices, sought to be sent to the active army. Kiev Jews bravely fought in the battalions of the people's militia during the August battles of 1941 for the capital of Ukraine.

It is not easy to speak, to name facts about the participation of Jews in battles with the Nazi occupiers. In all the post-war years, they were spoken about only in a patter, hushed up, “obscured” nationality, even if the names of warrior-heroes were called. So it was accepted. In the Soviet literature published over many post-war years in Ukraine, in Moscow, in Russia, such data were simply absent.

Today, interest in the military theme has significantly decreased, but in the few books about the Great Patriotic War that are still published, the nationality of Jewish warriors, Jewish heroes is no longer hidden.

All of the above to a certain extent explains why even now it is still difficult to give generalized data on the military contribution of the Jews of Ukraine to the victory over Nazi Germany.

The question arises: on the basis of what data and facts available today should the military deeds and exploits of the Jews of Ukraine on the Soviet-German front be revealed? In this regard, it seems to us possible and appropriate to talk about the Jews of Ukraine - the Heroes of the Soviet Union. This is only a part, and a small one, of the general question about the front-line affairs and exploits of the Jews of Ukraine. The Jews fought against fascism not in isolation from the Ukrainians, Russians, and other peoples of the Soviet Union. Driven by feelings of patriotism and civic duty, from the first days of the war they joined the ranks of the Red Army, which, as you know, played a decisive role in the defeat of Nazi Germany.

The involvement of the Jews of Ukraine in the ranks of the Soviet Armed Forces was complicated by the fact that the Nazi troops relatively quickly occupied a significant part of the republic, in particular its western regions, and about the deliberate evacuation of the Jewish population, which was threatened with genocide, Soviet authorities and did not think. Nevertheless, the Jews, who in terms of population in the USSR occupied the 11th place ( according to the 1959 census), are in fifth place in the absolute number of Heroes of the Soviet Union. Is this not evidence that the Jewish population of the Soviet Union did not sit out "in Tashkent", but in every possible way aspired to join the ranks of active fighters against Nazism, taking a worthy place in this struggle.

For exploits in the Great Patriotic War, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to 11,657 soldiers of the army and navy, partisans and underground workers - representatives of 57 nationalities of the USSR and 13 nationalities foreign countries. This title was awarded to 143 Jewish soldiers and officers, 72 of them were natives of Ukraine, including the only woman, Hero of the Soviet Union Polina Gelman.

From 72 Jews - Heroes from Ukraine 14 - artillerymen, 12 - tankers, 10 - pilots, 27 soldiers and officers received this title for courage and exploits in forcing the Dnieper and creating bridgeheads on its right bank. 26 Jews - Heroes of the Soviet Union, natives of Ukraine, died in battles on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War.

The names and images of several Jewish soldiers of Ukraine are immortalized on postal envelopes: Hero of the Soviet Union Colonel Abram Matveyevich Temnik, Hero of the Soviet Union Major Abram Isaakovich Tarnopolsky, Hero of the Soviet Union Lazar Khaimovich Papernik.

At a rally in Moscow in 1944 The chairman of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, S. Mikhoels, said that in terms of the number of those awarded for military exploits on the fronts of the Patriotic War, Jews are in fourth place among the nationalities of the USSR. The greeting of the rally participants stated: “The people, who for centuries had been known as the “people of the Book”, in the terrible days of the Great Patriotic War proved that in their souls the power of the sword, the power of military prowess, also lived and tempered all the time, as it is said in the ancient Jewish Haggadah: “Scroll was sent down to the earth, and the sword was inside him.” 104. These words are consonant with the poetic lines of Margarita Aliger, dated 1945, lines that are appropriate here both as an epitaph, and as the truth of history suffered by suffering, and as a laconic summary:

And the descendants of the brave Maccabees,

Faithful sons of their fathers,

Thousands of fighting Jews -

Bold commanders and fighters.

I praise you in the name of honor

A tribe persecuted for centuries

The missing boys

Youths who died in battle

Air combat required high skill - in order to shoot down an enemy plane and not die himself, the pilot must be fluent in the art of aerobatics. Masters of air combat were called aces ("ace" - that is, "ace", the first in his business). The best were the pilots of the "Luftwaffe" - the German Air Force. German pilots won not only thanks to their skill - the machines of the German aircraft companies Messerschmitt, Heinkel, Junkers and others were distinguished by excellent flight characteristics and were better than the Soviet ones.

During the war, Soviet vehicles were improved, the tactics of air combat changed. Aces of the USSR gave a worthy answer to the Nazis - on account of the first three times Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin 650 sorties, 156 air battles, 59 downed aircraft. Pokryshkin flew the Yakovlev Yak-1 fighter, and then the American P-39N Aerocobra.

Three times Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub on La-5, La-5 FN, La-7 fighters designed by Lavochkin made 330 sorties during the war and shot down 62 aircraft in 120 air battles.

NIGHT RAM

By ramming the plane, the pilot risked his life. Even more dangerous was a night ram - an attack in poor visibility. The first night ram was carried out by E. N. Stepanov in 1937 in Spain. His feat on August 7, 1941 in the sky over Moscow, near Domodedovo, was repeated by Viktor Vasilyevich Talalikhin. With a blow from the propeller of the I-16 fighter, he chopped off the tail of the German He-111 bomber. Both aircraft crashed, but Talalikhin managed to jump out with a parachute. Hero of the Soviet Union, Talalikhin shot down five more German planes and died in an air battle on October 27, 1941.

"FIRE RAM"

On June 26, 1941, a DB-3F bomber under the command of Captain Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello flew out to bomb a German tank column near Minsk. German anti-aircraft guns shot down the plane. The crew of Lieutenant A. A. Burdenyuk, Lieutenant G. N. Skorobogaty and Senior Sergeant A. A. Kalinin sent a burning car to the tanks: the plane crashed into the convoy and destroyed enemy equipment. This feat - the "fiery ram" - was repeatedly repeated during the war. A plane shot down in the air over enemy territory was sent by pilots to a concentration of soldiers or equipment, to a train, an airfield, a ship, etc., so that the enemy would pay more for their death. It was difficult to jump out with a parachute from a plane shot down at low altitude, and landing on enemy territory threatened with captivity and reprisal.

"NIGHT WITCHES"

Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot Marina Mikhailovna Raskova, who even before the war became famous for aviation records, in October 1941 formed a women's aviation group, which included more than 100 pilots, girls 17-22 years old.

Pilots on U-2 plywood training aircraft bombed the assigned targets. Low and slow flying, with open cockpits, without armor, without radio communication, the U-2 in daylight would be an easy target for the enemy. But the pilots went on night bombings - quiet airplanes in the dark "sneaked up" to the target, dropped bombs and flew away, and the dumbfounded enemy often did not have time to shoot or raise his plane in pursuit. The Germans nicknamed the pilots "night witches." The "Witches" did not even take parachutes with them, preferring to load an extra 20 kg of bombs. More than 20 pilots of the regiment became Heroes of the Soviet Union. 32 girls died in this regiment, covering themselves with unfading glory! On January 4, 1943, Raskova also died - in a snowstorm, flying to a new duty station, to the front, she crashed.

Zinovy Kolobanov on one tank knocked out 22 enemy in one battle! His tank withstood 156 direct hits. And won the fight!

The commander of an incomplete tank company, Kolobanov, on August 19, 1941, on the near approaches to Leningrad, fought a battle that has no analogues in military history, destroying 43 companies in it, and 22 German tanks with their crew!

The first on the road were three motorcycles with sidecars.
- Skip! - ordered Kolobanov. - This is intelligence.

The thick dust had not yet subsided when the column appeared. Ahead - staff vehicles, behind them - tanks. The column stretched and stretched, roaring engines, along the road. It seemed to have no end.

The head of the column passed the crossroads and went to the birch trees. The distance to it was only a hundred and fifty meters, and the crew of the "KB" saw everything quite clearly. Tanks "Pz-III", "Pz-IV" did not go as expected - at a reduced distance. The hatches were open. Part of the Germans sat on the armor. Someone chewed, someone played the harmonica. "Eighteen... Twenty... Twenty-two," Kolobanov counted. And then the reports of the crew followed:
- Commander, twenty-two!
- Twenty two!..

Kolobanov, why are you letting the Germans through?!

Meanwhile, the first fascist tank was already approaching the birch trees, and Kolobanov ordered:
- Landmark first, on the head, straight, shot under the cross, armor-piercing - fire!

A shot rang out, and there was a sharp smell of gunpowder smoke. The first fascist tank shuddered, froze, flames burst out from somewhere inside.

The column was so long that its rear tanks continued to roll forward, further reducing the distance between them. The second tank was already on fire, and Kolobanov transferred the fire to the tail of the column in order to finally lock it in the swamp.

The Nazis were taken by surprise. They fired their first shots at the haystacks, thinking that the ambush was hiding there. But after a few seconds, everything was clear to them. What did the enemy tankers think as they turned their turrets and clung to their sights? Probably, the lone Soviet tank seemed to them just suicidal. They did not know that they were dealing with "KB" and before they could bring down or destroy him, many of them would have to go to the next world.

Kolobanov: “I was often asked if I was scared. It's embarrassing to answer, they can be mistaken for a braggart. But I didn't feel any fear. I'll explain why. I am a military man. After I retired, I worked in the national economy for twenty-three years. But I still feel like a soldier all my life. Then the division commander gave me the order to "stand to the death." This is not some emotional formulation, but a precise order. I accepted it for execution. I was ready, if necessary, to die. And I no longer had any fears and could not have arisen.

The duel began at a direct shot distance. The KB cannon hit twenty fascist tanks, two dozen fascist tank guns hit the KB. In his position, the earth boiled, took off in fountains. Nothing left of the disguise. Nazi shells shredded the 80-mm "false armor" near the tower. The tankers were deaf from explosions, suffocated by powder gases, the scale, bouncing off the armor, crashed into their faces. But Usov sent shell after shell to the enemy column. This went on for over an hour.

Kolobanov: “What does the tankman remember about the battle? Crosshair of sight. Here the tension is such that time is compressed, there is not a second for extraneous thoughts. I remember how my guys shouted: “Hurrah!”, “It’s on fire! ..” But I can’t restore any details of this fight.”

There were two memorable incidents. The rupture cut off the commander's periscope. Kiselkov climbed onto the armor and installed a spare instead of the damaged one. Then the turret was jammed by a projectile. Here Nikiforov showed his skill, turning the whole car around.

And then the explosions subsided (after the battle, the KB crew counted the traces of hits in their tank - there were 156 of them).

The road was silent. All 22 German tanks were on fire. Ammunition continued to burst in their armored maws, heavy blue smoke billowing across the plain.

Suddenly, Kolobanov noticed that the Germans rolled out an anti-tank gun from behind the trees.
- Landmark ... - he shouted. - Direct under the shield, fragmentation - fire!

The cannon flew into the air, behind it - in exactly the same way - the second, then the third.

There was a long silence again. They changed position, moved to the spare. Spiller's loud voice came over the radio:

Kolobanov, how are you? Burning?
- They burn well, comrade battalion commander!

Soon a light turretless car approached. A man with a movie camera in his hands jumped down to the ground after Spiller. Clinging to the viewfinder, he took a long panorama of the burning column.

They were still in position. Then they started a battle with fascist tanks, which turned here, having received a blow on the Luga road. But then the armor-piercing shells ran out. Kolobanov reported this to the battalion commander and received an order to withdraw to replenish ammunition.