In any organization, for sure, there are employees who are entitled to standard personal income tax deductions. Because, as a rule, many employees have minor children. Therefore, it is not necessary to withhold tax from a certain part of the income of such workers, of course, if they ask for it. Therefore, the main thing for an accountant is to get a correctly executed application for a personal income tax deduction.
Look closely at the data in the table below. It shows in which case and in what amount the deduction is due. There may also be a situation if one of the employees has recently acquired housing and wants to take advantage of the property deduction at the place of work. The amount of such deduction for personal income tax also reduces the taxable income of the employee.
Standard deductions apply to the following categories of citizens:
- Disabled.
- Citizens with children.
- Military personnel.
This type of deduction is different in that it is due to the person's belonging to a particular category, in relation to which they are applied. More information is provided in the following table.
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The size of the standard deduction depending on the categories of payers
| Who gets the standard deduction | Size of the standard deduction, rub | Copies of documents required from the employee |
|---|---|---|
| Employees affected by the disaster Chernobyl nuclear power plant or at work to eliminate the consequences of the accident, and some other employees listed in subparagraph 1 of paragraph 1 of Article 218 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation | 3000 | Certificate of a participant in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, certificate of disability, etc. |
| Disabled since childhood, groups I and II, employees who have received radiation sickness or other diseases associated with radiation, and other employees listed in subparagraph 2 of paragraph 1 of Article 218 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation | 500 | Certificate of disability, certificate of a participant in the liquidation of the consequences of an accident at the Mayak production association, etc. |
| Parent of first or second child under 18 or student full-time up to 24 years | 1400 | |
| Parent of a third or any subsequent child under 18 or full-time student under 24 | 3000 | Child's birth certificate |
| Parent of a disabled child under 18 years of age or a full-time student of a group I or II disabled person under 24 years of age | 3000 | Birth certificate of the child, Certificate of disability. |
The aforementioned deductions are only possible if the employee will write a statement in his own hand. But, unfortunately, many citizens do not know about this opportunity or simply let everything take its course.
In order not to get into an unpleasant situation and not subsequently engage in proving your own innocence, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the sample applications for deduction.
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Application for the Standard Child Deduction
As you can already understand from the table of contents, it is provided if the employee has children. This is the most common case when an employee has children and wants to receive a standard personal income tax deduction. That is, use the right granted by subparagraph 4 of paragraph 1 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation. In this case, an application from the employee is required, give him the application form for the standard deduction for children. An example of such a statement is shown below.
Ivanov I.I.
from the manager Lukyanova T.A.
STATEMENT
about the provision of a standard deduction
From April 2014, on the basis of subparagraph 4 of paragraph 1 of Article 218 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, I ask you to provide me with a standard personal income tax deduction for my first child, Dmitry Vladimirovich Lukyanov, who was born on April 19, 2014.
I enclose a copy of the child's birth certificate with the application.
Manager ___________T.A. Lukyanova
Do not forget that the standard personal income tax deduction is provided from the month of birth of the child.
note
in the application for the deduction, you do not need to put the year for which the employee asks for the standard deduction for the child. The amount of the deduction also does not need to be set, because next year it may already be different and in this case it will come again to collect applications. Why do extra work. It is enough to receive it from an employee once (letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated August 8, 2011 No. 03-04-05 / 1-551).
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Application for Double Standard Child Deduction
Double the standard deduction is due to employees who are single parents. For the first and second child, 2800 rubles are provided monthly, and for the third and younger children - 6000 rubles each month.
Be careful in this case., it is important to find out if the worker is actually a single parent. If this is not the case, after all, the deduction for the child will be increased illegally, which means that there will be an underpayment of personal income tax to the budget.
An employee is considered to be the only parent if the other parent is no longer alive or is not included in the child's birth certificate. The following situation is also possible - the second parent is entered in the birth certificate according to the mother. In this case, to confirm the right to a double deduction, you should bring a certificate from the registry office in the form No. 25, which was approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 31, 1998 No. 1274)
A sample application is provided below:
General Director of OAO "GASPROM"
Ivanov I.I.
From the cashier Nikolaeva A.A.
STATEMENT
on the provision of standard deductions for personal income tax
double as single parent
Please provide me with double the standard personal income tax deduction for my first child, Sergey Alekseevich Nikolaev, who was born on May 25, 2014.
Reason: subparagraph 4 of paragraph 1 of Article 218 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
I confirm that I have been notified that I will lose the right to double deduction as a single parent from the month of marriage.
Cashier ____________ A.A. Nikolaeva
Keep in mind that on double standard tax deduction only unmarried persons can count. Upon marriage, an employee can receive a tax deduction only in a single amount. In this case, it does not matter whether the second spouse began to formalize parental rights to the child. Warn the employee about this and let him write it in his application for the deduction. It is recommended to warn the employee about this when he writes the application for the deduction.
There is also such a mistake, the divorce of an employee does not mean that he has become a single parent. Such an explanation is contained in the letter of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated January 30, 2013 No. 03-04-05 / 8-78. Therefore, divorced parents do not receive a double personal income tax deduction for a child.
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Application for the other spouse to be entitled to a child deduction
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Application for property deduction
It represents the part of the amount that was spent by the employee on the purchase of housing, by which his income can be reduced. The right to such a deduction is noted in subparagraph 2 of paragraph 1. An employee can declare it if he contacts the tax office or the accounting department of the organization in which he works.
This is the situation, the employee wants to receive a property deduction in the organization, provides a notification from the tax that he has the right to a property deduction, and asks to provide it monthly. In this case, it is necessary to take an application for a deduction from the employee. Let's not forget that any deduction is available only upon application! Submit the form below to him.
Important! Make sure that the notice is issued for the current year. Because the employee must confirm his right to a specific amount of the deduction every year. Compare the full name of the employee with the full name in the notification, this will not hurt, it is better to play it safe. Even when he receives a deduction for his spouse (there is such a right). If the data diverges, do not provide the deduction until the employee brings a properly formatted notice.
Sample application for a property deduction
General Director of OAO "GASPROM"
Ivanov I.I.
from the manager Sergeev A.P.
STATEMENT
on granting a property deduction
I ask you to provide me with a property deduction for personal income tax from January 2014 on the basis of paragraph 2 of subparagraph 1 of Article 220 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
Attached to the application is a notice from the Federal Tax Service No. 125 dated February 14, 2014.
Manager ___________ A.P. Sergeev
The deduction will be given as follows. Until the employee's income taxed at the 13% rate exceeds given value, you don't need to withhold taxes.
If you mistakenly calculated personal income tax, having already received a notification from the employee, then at the end of the year the employee retains the overpayment. Then, according to the rules, it will have to be returned.
If the amount of the deduction, which is indicated in the notice, is more than the income of the employee, then in this case the employee should contact the IFTS, where they will recalculate the balance of the deduction and issue a new notice for the next year.
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| ADDITIONAL RELATED LINKS |
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The tax deduction for children for personal income tax for each month applies to the parent, adoptive parent, guardian, custodian, foster parent, foster parent who provides for the child.
2017-03-02
An employee has the right to reduce his income for the purpose of calculating personal income tax (income tax) by the amount of standard tax deductions. The Tax Code of the Russian Federation provides for several types of deductions, in order to receive any of them, the employee should notify the employer that he is entitled to a certain deduction.
Notify the employer in writing by writing a free-form application. The application must be supported by documents confirming the right to a tax deduction.
One of the most popular standard deductions is the children's deduction. For the first and second child, an employee can receive a deduction in the amount of 1,400 rubles. for each, for the third and subsequent - 3000 rubles.
In order for the employer to take into account the deductions for children when calculating income tax, he needs to present a document that will serve as the basis. You must write an application and attach to it the birth certificate of each child.
Having received such a statement, the employer will know that before calculating personal income tax, you must first subtract the amount of the deduction from the accrued salary, income tax is considered from the reduced amount.
VIDEO - Standard deduction per child - Don't miss your benefit!
How to write an application for a standard tax deduction for personal income tax for children?
Like any statement, it must be addressed to a specific person. As a rule, the representative always acts as the addressee. management team organizations. Data about the addressee and the applicant are traditionally written in the upper right corner.
Below in the center write the name and title of the form.
In the application, you need to write a text that expresses a request from the first person for a tax standard deduction for children in a certain amount. You must specify the exact amount to be deducted.
A list of children and the amount of the corresponding deduction is given. The employee must know that the deduction for the child is only allowed until he reaches the age of majority. If at the same time it continues to study, then the period for granting the deduction is extended to 24 years.
Birth certificates for each child are attached as supporting documents.
Each parent can receive a deduction, for this everyone writes a similar statement at their place of birth.
An example of an application for a deduction for a child:
_______________________
_______________________
From ___________________
Statement
I ask you to provide me from "__" ___________ 20__ the standard tax deduction for my income for each month of the tax period in accordance with paragraph 4 of paragraph 1 of Article 218 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation for my children:
- Name of first child, year of birth
- Name of the second child, year of birth
at the rate of:
- 1400 rub. per month - for the first child;
- 1400 rub. per month for the second child.
Attached are copies of birth certificates.
"__" ______________ 20 __ Signature
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During the battle in February 1944, during the capture of the village of Dashukovka, the tank crew under the command of Alexander Fadin single-handedly destroyed three tanks, an armored personnel carrier, two mortars with crews, 16 machine-gun points of the enemy, and shot down a German aircraft with a shot from the main gun. About the hero and his feat - our material.
Colonel's watch
Alexander Mikhailovich Fadin was born in 1924 in a simple peasant family. At the time of the outbreak of the war, he was only 16 years old, and he did not belong to the draft, but he wanted to fight passionately, therefore, like many teenagers, he added two years to himself. He was enrolled in the 2nd Gorky Automobile and Motorcycle School, where he soon became one of the best. In August 1942, the school was retrained as a tank school. Naturally, the cadets greeted this change with jubilation - the Soviet T-34 and KV-1 tanks made a rustle at the front, and it was a tempting offer to fight on them.
Fadin himself recalled: "We, the youth, shout:" Hurrah! You will burn in these iron boxes."
The time has come to take exams, the theoretical part and fire training were the most important and decisive among them. You pass both with "good" and here you are - a junior lieutenant, with "excellent" - a whole lieutenant. Alexander passed the theory with "5", but the main difficulties were associated with shooting. The tests took place at the test site. During the exam, a tractor moved a target on a cable - a wooden model of a tank, and the cadets had to hit it from 1500 meters. At the same time, the T-34 with the examinees goes to a certain point, stops for a few seconds and fires a shot, and the fewer seconds the student spent aiming, the better.
During the shooting, Fadin decided not to slow down at all and make a shot right away - an unprecedented thing at that time, especially from such a distance.
“I was allowed to shoot on the move, but the examiner warned: “Keep in mind, if you don’t hit with all three shells, then you won’t get a junior lieutenant, but you will get a senior sergeant” ... As soon as they approached the firing line, the mechanic says: “ Wait, wait, now there will be a "path" (a place to stop and shoot - ed.). And I caught a target, a shot - there is no stern! It was a blast! We returned to the starting point, the colonel runs up, shakes hands, takes off and gives me his watch," he recalled.
Baptism of fire had to wait until June 1943. During the debut, Fadin knocked out the first German Pz-4, and a couple of minutes later a truck with retreating enemy infantry took off.
Fadin's crew brightly showed itself towards the end of the 43rd year, liberating Kyiv. Two T-34s and an ISU-152 self-propelled gun were blocking a strategically important clearing in the forest, when a German "Tiger" unexpectedly stepped on them. A couple of seconds passed, and, flashing, he lit up the moonless night like a hundred torches. A few moments, and the flames cover the next tank with a cross on its side. Both tanks were personally shot down by Fadin. When his car moved forward, it discovered the third victim - a self-propelled artillery mount from the StuG III assault gun class, lurking in the bushes and left without support.
No man is an island
Source:
Most major feat Alexander Mikhailovich committed in February 1944. Only his tank, with the support of infantry, held back the many times superior enemy forces. However, the word "restrained" does not show how bold and bright that battle was.
The order from the authorities almost single-handedly to hold the approaches to the village caught Fadin by surprise. But there was nowhere to wait for help, and since only his tank was on the move, it means that he had to go on a suicide mission. We loaded two ammunition into the car and set off.
The first problems appeared even before the start of the battle. Before the village, which was to be captured, there was a deep ravine, the ramp into which gave the tank crazy acceleration. However, this speed was not enough to overcome the obstacle. Several times the T-34 limply rolled back, and then the commander, together with the crew, came up with a solution: firstly, use special attachments for the tracks, and secondly, the movement should go in reverse. Succeeded!
At night, tired and exhausted tankers climbed to the other side of the ravine and found help - 45-50 infantry. Having rested a little, the Red Army went on the attack. They immediately heard the chirping of enemy machine-gun emplacements, and the tank only had time to turn its turret, extinguishing the fascist points fortified in the village with high-explosive shells on the move.
When the first part of the night battle came to an end, Alexander Fadin's T-34 had 16 such points. But out of 50 infantrymen, no more than 20 survived, and German trucks and armored personnel carriers appeared on the road. The situation seemed catastrophic, only luck and the excellent eye of the tank commander radically changed the course of the battle.
At night, fascist cars always moved with their headlights on. So they revealed themselves, but at the same time minimized the loss of cars on the roads broken by slush. This was taken advantage of by a lone Soviet tank. "Splinter, fire!" - and the first truck shattered to smithereens, another shot - the last one blazed.
"The mechanic says to me:" Lieutenant, do not shoot all the cars, you need to collect trophies. discharged a disk from a Degtyarev tank machine gun coaxial with a cannon," the tank hero said.
We had barely dealt with this problem, as two German Pz IVs sneaking around in a neighboring field noticed. Once again - shots at the enemy, and once again - the cars were hit. True, there were just no shells left - about 15 out of 150. A few minutes passed, and a German plane flew over the road with wrecked vans, right above the telegraph poles.
Alexander Mikhailovich recalled: “The plane was cruising along this line and, knowing approximately the distance between the pillars, I calculated its speed. It was small, about 50-60 kilometers per hour. When the plane dropped the load and flew past us, I decided that if he will turn around, I will try to shoot him down. I give the command to Fetisov to unscrew the cap and load it with fragmentation. The plane turns around, I take a lead - a shot. The shell hit him right in the engine, and the plane broke."
This doesn’t happen every day on the battlefield, machine-gun emplacements and armored personnel carriers are commonplace, but to shoot down a plane from a tank?! But that was not all. As if a charmed T-34 notices movement 100 meters away, and randomly fires the last shell in that direction. And now, from behind a smoke screen, German machine gunners, engulfed in flames, run out, and behind them thunders terrible explosion- Fadin's shell set the Tiger on fire, and the fire blew up the tank's ammunition.
The battle lasted over five hours. At its very end, an enemy shell hit the T-34 hull, killing the loader. The rest of the crew was injured, but held out until help and main forces arrived. For that battle, the entire crew was presented for awards, and Commander Fadin himself - for the title of Hero Soviet Union. True, he was not awarded for unknown reasons, and only in 1996 received the title of Hero Russian Federation.
On Sunday, June 22, 1941, I woke up late, around ten o'clock in the morning. After washing my face and having a lazy breakfast of brown bread, washing it down with a mug of tea, I decided to go to my aunt. When I arrived, I saw her crying. After inquiring, he learned that the war had begun, and her husband Pavel went to the military enlistment office to sign up as a volunteer in the Red Army. Having hastily said goodbye, I decided not to linger and went to the hostel of the Gorky River School, where I was studying at that time. On the way in the tram, the conversation was about the war, that it would not last long. "Moska attacked an elephant," said one of the passengers.
On Tuesday, June 24, I went to the draft board. The square in front of him was filled with people. Everyone aspired to get to the military commissar. I don’t know how, but I managed to get into the corridor of the military registration and enlistment office, where the political instructor met me. To his question why I came, I replied that I wanted to go to the front. When he found out how old I was, he told me: "You know, guy, go and continue to study, the war is still enough for you, but for now, you see how many people we have, whom to call on." About a month later, I again went to the military registration and enlistment office. After listening to the advice of my friend, I added two years to myself. Received a medical card, and, having passed the medical commission, was enrolled in the 2nd Gorky Automobile and Motorcycle School.
We were sent to Ilyino, where after dinner they announced that we were part of the 9th company of the third motorcycle battalion. The next day, classes began. We studied military regulations, learned to walk with songs as part of a company. Rifles from the boards were made personally by each. On August 7, 1941, we were sworn in, having washed ourselves in a bathhouse for the first time and given out summer military uniforms. Soon we were handed military weapons.
We started the study of motorcycles with the AM-600 model with a sidecar and IZH-9, and then moved on to the study of the M-72 motorcycles that had just been put into service. After a few lessons in theory, we were taken to the circuit for driving. At that time, a bicycle was a luxury not available to every boy, and many did not know how to ride. Therefore, they were first taught to ride bicycles, and only then put on a motorcycle.
The winter of 1941 was very severe. In December, frosts often reached 42-45 degrees. The cold was terrible. The temperature in the classrooms was not much higher, but if in the field during tactical exercises and shooting we could keep warm by dancing, then in the classroom we had to sit still, listening to the teacher. In addition, we were dressed quite lightly: a Buden helmet, cotton uniforms, overcoats, tarpaulin boots with a warm footcloth, summer underwear and mittens with one finger.
By this time, the road from the railway station, covered with a snowstorm, had become impassable, which excluded the supply of food during December. So for the whole month we were given two crackers instead of our seven hundred grams of bread and five pieces of sugar a day, and breakfast, lunch and dinner consisted of a bowl of beetroot soup. And yet, we did not lose heart, being sure that these were temporary difficulties.
At the end of November 1941, when the Germans approached Moscow, the entire staff of the 2nd Gorky Automobile and Motorcycle School wrote a letter to Commander-in-Chief Stalin with a request to send us to the front. Just two days later, the school received a response telegram from him, in which he thanked the entire staff of the school for his readiness, but indicated that the Motherland would still need us later, but for now he demanded that we study and prepare better for the upcoming battles. From this telegram, we understood that Moscow would not be surrendered, and this was the most important thing. Indeed, a few days later our counteroffensive began.
In March, after an eight-month training course for commanders of motorcycle platoons, the school sent about four hundred people to the front. We, the cadets of the 3rd motorcycle battalion, were ordered to continue our studies, but already according to the program of automobile platoon commanders.
We finished the course for motorists only in June 1942, and at the end of July we were taken to practice in Moscow at the MARZ-3 plant, from where, after an internship, we returned to the school and began to prepare for the final exams.
At the end of August, in the middle of the night, a combat alert was announced, and all the chimes were sent to the sanitary unit of the school for the next medical examination. A selected hundred people, among whom was myself, were read the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on renaming the school into the 2nd Gorky tank school. Those who did not pass the medical examination were issued by motorists. We, the youth, shout: "Hurrah!" And those who are older, who fought at Khalkhin Gol and in Finland, liberated Western Ukraine, Belarus say: "What are you happy about? You will burn in these iron boxes." We were already well prepared for the motorists program, and the transition to the study of the tank was easy for us.
In the first days of April 1943, a state commission arrived to accept the first graduation of the school. Examinations in firearms training and materiel were considered basic, and if you passed them with a “good”, then they assigned a junior lieutenant, and if you got an “excellent”, then a lieutenant. I passed the material part with excellent marks. There was an exam in firearms training. According to the program, it was supposed to shoot from short stops. "Excellent" was set if the shot was fired in less than eight seconds, "good" - in nine, "satisfactory" - in ten, well, and if it was delayed more - "unsuccessful". But I was probably the first in the school to start shooting on the move. At first, we trained to aim the gun on a primitive rocking simulator, which was rocked by the cadets themselves. Then we were taken to the firing range equipped on the collective farm field. A target for firing from a gun was dragged by a tractor on a cable three hundred meters long. And we shot from 1200-1500 meters. Everyone was afraid that they would not get into the tractor. Our battalion commander was a major, a front-line soldier, without right hand. He taught us: "Stops should be made shorter, but it's better not to stop." When I first told the guys that I would shoot on the move, the company commander warned me not to fool around, but I still decided to try. Happened! With the first shot hit the tank! I was stopped. The company commander, senior lieutenant Glazkov, runs: "Well, slob, I told you! And if you didn't hit?" Started chastising me. The battalion commander drives up: "Who fired?" - "Yes, here is cadet Fadin, not serious." - "What?! Yes, he's done well! That's how the company commander teach to shoot, as he shot, on the move!"
And at the exam, I was allowed to shoot on the move, but the examiner, the colonel, warned: “Keep in mind, if you don’t hit with all three shells, then you won’t get a junior lieutenant, but you will get a senior sergeant.” Sat in the tank. The mechanic is an experienced instructor. Having received the command "To battle!", I immediately sat down at the sight. As soon as they approached the firing line, the mechanic said: "Wait, wait, now there will be a" track. "But I caught a target, a shot - there is no stern! I also covered the second target, the infantry. It was a sensation! We returned to the starting point, the colonel runs up, presses hand, takes it off and gives me his watch.But none of the cadets began to shoot like I did - this is a risk.
On April 25, 1943, I was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and at the beginning of May we were sent to the 3rd Reserve Tank Regiment at Plant No. 112.
In addition to me, the commander, my crew included a driver - senior sergeant Vasily Dubovitsky, born in 1906, who in 1936 was the personal driver of M.I. Kalinin (when I began to ask him how he got here, he replied: "Lieutenant, everything is written down in the card," - and did not say anything); gun commander - junior sergeant Golubenko, born in 1925, and machine gunner - junior sergeant Vasily Voznyuk, from Odessa, born in 1919.
By the end of May 1943, the training of our marching company was coming to an end. Around May 30, we received brand new tanks from the factory. We marched on them to our range, where a target situation was set up for us in advance. They quickly deployed in battle formation and carried out an attack on the move with live fire. In the assembly area, they put themselves in order and, stretching out in a marching column, went to load to go to the front.
At the dawn of one of the nights, somewhere at the end of the second half of June, the echelon unloaded at the Maryino station in the Kursk region. Marched several kilometers to some grove, where they joined the 207th Battalion of the 22nd Guards Tank Brigade of the 5th Guards Stalingrad Tank Corps, battered in defensive battles.
On July 14, around noon, after having breakfast and inspecting the combat vehicles, we received the order to line up in squadrons. Here, according to the list read out by the chief of staff of the battalion, soldiers who already had combat experience began to enter our ranks, and those who arrived with an echelon who had not previously participated in the battles went out of order and were sent to the reserve. As a result of this reorganization, I became the commander of the T-34 tank from the commanders of tank platoons. And the next day, July 12, they went on the offensive.
Three red rockets went up. After walking a few hundred meters, we saw German tanks advancing. Both sides opened fire. Katyusha rockets streaked through our heads and the German defenses were enveloped in a cloud of dust. Here we agreed. I could not imagine that it was possible to get into such a stupid, but at the same time a meat grinder organized on both sides. If only not to get lost and run into one of the neighboring tanks! After the first two shots, excitement appeared: to catch the enemy tank in the scope and destroy it. But only in the afternoon I managed to hit the T-IV, which immediately caught fire after my hit. And a little later, I caught an armored personnel carrier with a flag on the right wing on the move and slammed two high-explosive fragmentation shells into it, from the explosions of which fire splashes scattered. It turned out great! And again moving forward in the attack, trying not to break the battle line of our company. By the end of July 12, the Germans began an organized withdrawal, and already at dusk we captured Chapaev. By dawn, we had eighteen of the sixty-five tanks left in the brigade. We washed, had a bite, although I didn’t really want to eat, and again into battle.
For me, the offensive ended on July 16, when our tank received two hits and caught fire. By this time there were four or five serviceable tanks left in the brigade. We walked along the edge of a field of sunflowers. Imagine: the fourth day of the offensive, almost without sleep, exhausted ... The first shell hit the track roller, knocking it out, and then stuck it into the engine. We jumped out and hid in the sunflowers. Returning to my own, I saw T-34 tanks three hundred and four meters away. They just wanted to go out to meet them, the mechanic grabs me: "Stop, lieutenant, stop! You see, they have crosses on them! These are the Germans on our tanks." - "Your mother, for sure! Probably, these tanks knocked us out." Lie down. Wait for them to pass and move on. Walked for an hour and a half. We accidentally stumbled upon the chief of staff of the battalion, he later died near Kyiv: "Well done, lieutenant, I have already introduced you to the rank of guardsman" ... What did you think ?! If in the guards corps - so immediately a guardsman ?! Not! After the first battle, if you were able to prove that you could fight, only then was the title awarded.
Of the sixty-two graduates of the school who came with me to the corps, after four days of the offensive, only seven remained, and by the fall of 1944, only two of us remained.
We ended up in the battalion reserve, where we had a good rest for several days and, most importantly, ate well, although in 1943 we were fed more or less normally at the school, but the accumulated malnutrition of the forty-one-forty-two years made itself felt. I see how the cook pours the first into my cauldron and puts the second so much that in Peaceful time I would never eat so much, but it seems to my eyes that if I put more in, I'll eat it anyway.
And then preparations began for the Belgorod-Kharkov offensive operation. They didn't give me a tank, but appointed me a liaison officer of the brigade headquarters. In this position, I fought until October 14, when I was ordered to take the tank of the deceased Guard Lieutenant Nikolai Alekseevich Polyansky. I must say that I am very grateful to Major Mikhail Petrovich Voshchinsky, Chief of Staff of the Guards Brigade, who made me an officer who knew how to work with a map, mastered the tasks of a company, battalion and even a brigade within two months. And not only the tank commander, platoon commander, but also the company commander, who did not work at the headquarters, could not do this.
Having found the tank, I approached the crew. At this time, the driver Vasily Semiletov was digging in the transmission compartment, the rest were lying nearby and, as I noticed, all three of them were looking at me carefully. All of them were much older than me, with the exception of the loader Golubenko, who was a member of my first crew and my same age. I knew right away that they didn't like it. It is clear: either I will immediately become a commander, or I will never become one in this crew, which means that in the first real battle, the crew together with the tank may die, and, most likely, the old people, under any pretext, will begin to feign and not participate in battles.
The self-confidence that had developed during my time at the headquarters helped me out, and I sternly asked: "What kind of tank is this? Why is the crew lying down?" The younger sergeant Golubenko got up and reported: "Comrade Lieutenant! The crew of the tank has completed repairs and is waiting for a new commander." - "At ease, comrades! I ask everyone to come to me." The command was slowly, but completed. Unshaven, slovenly dressed and with cigarettes in their hands came up to me. Putting my hand on the cap, I introduced myself and said that I had heard a lot of good things about the deceased commander, but the crew didn’t look like him. Then, approaching the front of the tank and, stopping a meter to the right of it, I suddenly gave the command: "Get up!" Everyone stood up, but the cigarettes were not thrown. He gave the command: "Stop smoking!" They dropped it reluctantly. Coming out to the middle of the line one step away from them, he said that it was unpleasant for me to go into battle on such a sloppy, dirty tank and with someone else's crew. “I see that I didn’t satisfy you either, but since the Motherland needs it, I will defend it the way I was taught, and the way I can.” Look, the smirk on the faces of the old people has gone. I ask: "Is the car serviceable?" - "Yes," the driver answered, "only the turret traverse motor does not work and there are no driven tracks in stock: all three are working." - "We will fight on this. By cars!" The command was executed more or less. Climbing into the tank, he said that we were going to Avetisyan's company. Having taken out the map and guided by it, I drove the tank to the village of Valki. On the way, on the outskirts of Novye Petrivtsy, they came under artillery fire. I had to hide the tank behind the stone wall of a building that had fallen apart from the bombing and wait for darkness. When the tank was properly positioned and the engine turned off, I explained to the crew where we should arrive and the purpose of my maneuver. The loader Golubenko said: "Yes, you are great at navigating the map, lieutenant!" - "Yes, and in tactics, apparently, you understand no worse," said the radio operator Vozniuk. Only the driver of Semiletov was silent. But I realized that the cold reception was over - they believed in me.
As soon as it began to get dark, we moved and soon, accompanied by enemy artillery and mortar fire, arrived at the company. Almost throughout the night, we, in pairs replacing each other, dug a trench with two shovels, throwing out up to 30 cubic meters of soil, and placing a tank there, carefully disguised it.
Our preparations for the assault on Kyiv, in which our brigade was to take part, began with the call of all commanders of tanks, platoons and companies on November 2, 1943, to the dugout of the battalion commander. It was quite dark, with a slight drizzle. There were thirteen of us and three commanders of self-propelled guns. The head of the political department of the brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Molokanov, very briefly set the task for the battalion commander. From his words, I understood that the beginning of the assault - tomorrow at 8 o'clock.
That night, with the exception of the on-duty observers, everyone slept soundly. At 6:30 on November 3, we were invited to have breakfast. Having received breakfast, we decided to eat it not in the dugout, but in the fresh air. Here, before the battle, about twenty-five to thirty meters away, our battalion kitchen was located, emitting smoke and steam. As soon as we sat down, the enemy opened artillery fire. I only had time to shout: "Lie down!". One of the shells fell seven or ten meters behind us, but did not hit anyone with its fragments. The other hit ten meters from us and, without bursting, somersaulting, swept away a gaping soldier in its path, tore off the wheel of the kitchen, overturning it on its back together with the cook who was distributing food, rolled off the corner of the house and calmed down in the gardens on the opposite side of the street. After firing two or three more shells, the enemy calmed down. We didn't have time for breakfast. Having collected our small belongings, we moved into the tank in anticipation of the assault. Nerves to the limit.
Soon a fire raid began, and I gave the command: "Start!", And when I saw three green rockets in the air: "Forward!" Ahead is solid smoke and flashes from shells, explosions from undershoots are occasionally visible. The tank twitched violently - it was we who had passed the first trench. I gradually calm down. Unexpectedly, I found infantrymen running to the right and left of the tank, shooting on the move. Tanks moving to the right and left are firing on the move. I go down to the sight, I see nothing but piled trees. I give the command to the loader: "Load with shrapnel!" "There are fragmentation ones," Golubenko answered clearly. I make the first shot at the piled logs, deciding that this is the first trench of the enemy. I watch my gap, I calm down completely, I felt like I was at the training ground when you shoot at targets. I shoot from a cannon at figures running in the form of a mouse. I am fond of fire on rushing figures and give the command: "Increase speed." And here is the forest. Semiletov slowed down sharply. "Do not stop!" - "Where to go?" - "Go-go!". The old tank engine wheezes as we crush several trees one by one. On the right, the tank of Vanyusha Abashin, my platoon leader, also breaks a tree, but moves forward. Looking out of the hatch, I saw a small clearing going deep into the forest. I direct the tank towards it.
Ahead, on the left, shots of tank guns are heard and the yapping sound of Nazi anti-tank guns in response. On the right, I hear only the noise of tank engines, but I don’t see the tanks themselves. And my tank goes forward along the clearing. I think: do not yawn, brother, I open alternately along the clearing fire from a cannon and a machine gun. It becomes lighter in the forest, and suddenly - a clearing. Noticing the Nazis rushing about the clearing, I give a shot. And then I see: because of the mounds at the other end of the clearing, strong machine-gun and automatic fire is being fired. A group of people flashed between the mounds, and suddenly - a flash: an anti-tank gun. He gave a long burst from a machine gun and shouted to the loader: "Splinter!" And then he felt a blow, and the tank, as if running into a serious obstacle, stopped for a moment and went forward again, sharply losing to the left. Again, as at a training ground, he found a group of people scurrying around the gun and fired a shot at them. I heard the cry of Fedya Voznyuk: "The gun and the servants - into chips!" The mechanic shouts: "Commander, our right caterpillar is broken!" - "With the radio operator, go out through the landing hatch and restore the caterpillar! I will cover you with fire." And several more tanks had already entered the clearing, and then the arrows. It took us about an hour to repair the caterpillar with a working truck (because we didn’t have any followers). In addition, during the rotation of the tank on the left caterpillar, it was sucked into marshy soil, and to the left, about ten meters ahead, there was a minefield set by the Nazis in a large dry area of \u200b\u200bthe clearing. Therefore, the self-pulling of the tank had to be carried out backwards. This took about two more hours.
We managed to catch up with our battalion only after dark, when the Germans managed to stop our tanks in front of the second defensive line. During the night of November 3-4, we refueled the vehicles with fuel and ammunition and had a little rest. At dawn on November 4, the battalion commander gathered the commanders for reconnaissance. Of the thirteen people who launched the offensive a day ago, nine remained in the ranks. We still had three self-propelled guns with us. We went to the trenches of the shooters, and Chumachenko showed: "You see, in front of us, three hundred meters ahead of us, there are solid forest blockages made of logs?" - "Yes, we see." - "Here, behind these rubbles, the enemy is sitting and does not allow our shooters to rise. Now move forward to this clearing, turn around and attack the enemy." Why didn't the Germans shoot and kill us, standing tall in front of their defenses? Don't know…
The tanks reached the edge, turned around and went on the attack. We managed to scatter the logs of the rubble and, chasing the Germans along the clearings and the forest thickets, reached the edge of the forest to the Vinogradar state farm before dark. Here we were met with a counterattack up to a battalion of German tanks, including Tigers. I had to retreat into the forest and organize defense. The Germans, approaching the forest, pushed forward three medium tanks, and the main forces lined up in two columns and moved deep into the forest. It was already getting dark, but then they decided to get involved in the night battle they did not like so much.
I was ordered by my tank to block the central clearing. Vanyusha Abashin's tank was supposed to cover me on the right and slightly behind me, on the left I was covered by an ISU-152 self-propelled gun. The reconnaissance of the enemy, missed by us, went deeper into the forest. The main forces arrived. From the noise of the engines it was clear that the heavy Tiger tank was ahead.
I order the driver Semiletov: "Vasya, at low speeds, give it a little forward, otherwise the tree in front of me is preventing me from hitting the enemy in the forehead." For two days of the battle, we became friends, and the crew understood me perfectly. Having improved my position, I saw the enemy. Without waiting for the driver to finally stop the tank, I fired the first shot at the lead tank, which was already fifty meters away from me. An instantaneous flash in the frontal part of the fascist tank, and suddenly it caught fire, illuminating the entire column. The driver-mechanic Semiletov shouts: "Commander, fuck it! Why did you shoot? I haven't closed the hatch yet! Now I can't see anything from the gases." But during this period, I forgot about everything, except for enemy tanks.
Golubenko, without my command, is already reporting: "The sub-caliber is ready!" With the second shot, I killed the second enemy tank coming out from behind the first burning tank. He also flared up. The forest became as bright as day. I hear the shots of Vanyusha Abashin's tank, a dull and long shot from the left of a 152-mm self-propelled gun. In the scope I already see several burning tanks. I shout to the mechanic: "Vasya, come closer to the burning tanks, otherwise the Fritz will run away." Coming almost close to the first burning tank from behind its starboard side, I find the next living target - an "artillery assault". Shot - ready. We pursue the enemy to the state farm "Vinogradar", where we stopped to clean ourselves up. We refueled as best we could, preparing for the decisive assault on the city.
On the morning of November 5, the commander of the guard brigade, Colonel Koshelev, and the head of the political department, Lieutenant Colonel Molokanov, arrived at our location. The remaining crews of seven tanks and three self-propelled guns lined up in front of the vehicles. Turning to us, the commanders set the task of capturing the city, adding that the first crews that broke into the city would be awarded the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union.
About thirty minutes later, having lined up in a battle line, we went on the attack and quickly captured the southern outskirts of Pushcha-Voditsa, crossed Svyatoshino on the move, and then the Kyiv-Zhitomir highway. The road was blocked by an anti-tank ditch, dug back in 1941, which had to be overcome in order to get into the city. Having descended into the ditch, the tank got stuck: the engine roared at maximum speed, half-meter beams of fire burst out of the exhaust pipes, which spoke of its extreme deterioration, but it was impossible to get out. To increase tractive effort, I shout to the mechanic: "Override in reverse!". And here is the first street. And again, bad luck! The working track, which we put in the forest to replace the broken wingman, now, when entering the paved streets, with its ten-centimeter tooth, raised the tank hull on the right side, excluding firing. We stopped and, having borrowed a driven track, began to repair.
The battalion was given the task of moving towards the city center. The lead tank reached the T-junction and suddenly, engulfed in flames, turned right, crashing into one of the corner houses. The scouts on it were dropped. Lieutenant Abashin and I opened fire on the fleeing enemy self-propelled gun. With the second shell, I hit her in the stern, stopping her movement. A slight hitch, the battalion commander approached with a quick step and assigned Lieutenant Abashin as the lead tank. At the signal "Forward!" we moved on, and soon came to Khreshchatyk. The city is taken.
In the evening we received the task to leave the city in the direction of the city of Vasilkov. However, overcoming a small river, our tank got stuck, and due to the deterioration of the engine, it could no longer get out. I had to pull it out with a tractor and take it to repair. The repair crews who tried to restore my tank, after seven days of unsuccessful labor, announced to me that my tank could not be repaired in the field, adding that I would be able to fight on it only in 1944. This is how the battles for Kyiv ended for me. For these battles, the battalion command presented me and six other commanders to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
During the period of preparation for further battles, I was allowed to form my own crew, since I had to part with the old crew. Without false modesty I will say that people asked me. True, I did not change anyone from the crew assigned to me, except for the driver. The radio operator was a young lad, Kleshcheva (I don’t remember his name), and the tower was an Evenk foreman, whose name and surname were also erased from memory. Several experienced battalion mechanics persuaded me to hire Pyotr Tyurin as a driver.
On December 27, 1943, the brigade received an order to advance in the direction of Chekovichi, Guta-Dobrynskaya, Kamenny Brod, Andreev. For the first time I was entrusted to go in the head patrol.
Moved to the front line at night. The weather was frosty, the ground was hard. The snow that had fallen in the morning somewhat softened the sound of the tank tracks. The engine of the new tank pulled very well, we were moving at high speed. I was nervous, because it is not clear where and how the enemy will meet you. It was reassuring that we were moving through the fields, bypassing settlements, shortening the route. After walking twenty kilometers, we entered a village. Stopped. Soon a brigade column caught up with us. The rest was very short, after which we were given the task of moving forward, but I had bad luck. My driver Pyotr Tyurin said that he could not drive the tank because he could not see in the dark. We got busy. There was no one to replace him. The crew was not interchangeable. Could drive a tank, except for the driver, only me. For about twenty minutes Tyurin made us worry. Then I felt that he was lying: if he were really blind, he would behave differently. It’s just that the guy lost his nerve: going first, not knowing what will happen to you in the next second, is very difficult. Boiling, I shouted at him: "Why did you ask for it in my crew?" - and added, referring to the deputy commander of the battalion Arseniev: "Comrade of the Guards Senior Lieutenant! At the nearest rest stop, replace Tyurin for me." And turning back to the driver, he ordered in a rude manner: "Now get on the levers and drive the tank." I gave the command: "Forward!" and, straining his eyesight, trying to see at least something in the darkness through the flying snowflakes, he began to control it through TPU10. I was often distracted by orientation on the map, bending down inside the tank, which was dimly but illuminated, and soon forgot about Peter, who was driving the tank quite confidently.
At dawn, the village of Kamenny Brod appeared in the distance, and in front of it, about five hundred meters from me, I saw a dark object, which in the predawn twilight I took for a tank. I hit him twice with an armor-piercing projectile - I see sparks from hits and black pieces flying off in different directions. I realized that I had mixed it up, and when I drove up, I saw a large boulder. Suddenly, two German T-IV tanks jumped out of the village at full speed and were fleeing from us to the right, towards the city of Chernyakhov. I shout: "Tyurin, catch up, catch up." And he got scared, stopped. They are already one and a half to two kilometers away. I fired a couple of shells - past. To hell with them, we need to take the village.
Before reaching the last houses about three hundred meters, I met an old man who showed me a passage in a minefield and said that there were no Germans in the village, but there were many German tanks in the neighboring one. Thanking his grandfather, he entered the village and moved along the street to its opposite outskirts. The houses stood in a single line along the road, and behind them wide fields could be seen to the right and left. Two more of our tanks caught up with me, including the tank of platoon commander Vanyusha Abashin. Coming out to the opposite outskirts, I saw a neighboring village located one and a half kilometers away, located along the road. I didn’t have time to look at the map to determine its name, when I suddenly noticed near a distant village, a little to the right, German medium tanks T-IV, painted white, plying across the field. Following them, "tigers" and "panthers" tanks began to crawl out from behind the houses, which were built in a battle line. I counted seven of them. Behind them, the T-IV tanks, of which there were about a dozen, also lined up in the second line. Without thinking twice, he gave the command: "Armor-piercing charge!" - "Armor-piercing - ready." I shoot at the right-flank "tiger" - by! What?! I look into the scope - I have it knocked down five divisions to the right. That is why those two tanks left me when approaching the village. I sharpen my aim, I hear the commanders of our company and the second company on the radio deploying tanks in battle formation. Leaning out of the tank turret, I saw how the entire battalion was deployed in the field to the right of the houses in battle formation in order to meet enemy tanks head-on. It was an illiterate decision of the battalion commander, which cost us dearly, but I will talk about this later.
I don’t know what pulled me, but I decided to attack the Germans. One against twenty German tanks! I completely lost my head! I give the command to the mechanic: "Forward! To that village!" Following me was the second tank of our platoon, commanded by Vanyusha Abashin. To the left of the road I saw a slope to the river. Therefore, you can turn off the road and quietly approach the enemy. And I just had time to think about it, when the last "tiger" fired a shot at me from a distance of one kilometer. He would have killed me, but the blank caught on the handle of a plow left in the fall and frozen into the ground, changed its flight path, flew a few centimeters from the turret of my tank. Lucky! If they hit me all over, I wouldn't have a wet spot left, but for some reason they didn't shoot. I shouted to Tyurin: "Turn to the left and go along the hollow along the river to the last house of the village!" Vanyusha Abashin repeated this maneuver after me.
Having approached the last house, thinking that he had covered me from the deploying German tanks, I decided to look around the corner of this hut what the Germans were doing and report the situation to the company commander by radio. As soon as I ran, stealthily, to the corner of the house and was about to lean out, when a shell fired from a tank standing behind a haystack a mile and a half from the village, apparently in order to ensure the deployment of the main forces and support their attack, fell off the corner of this hut and threw me back to my tank. I got up with difficulty, because my legs were heavy and did not want to obey, I go to my tank, my hands are shaking. And then, about three or four hundred meters in front of us, a heavy tank T-VI "Tiger" crawled out of the trench, yellow color. We are standing in the open. Why didn't he shoot? I don’t know… I haven’t jumped into the tank yet, I shout to Vanyusha: “Shoot, ras **** yay, shoot !!! Shoot at him, damn it!” And he stands and looks. You see, he was stunned. To be honest, I was above him in terms of training, especially after serving as a communications officer at the headquarters.
With some difficulty I climbed into my tank and pointed the gun at this crawling "tiger". However, apparently due to shock and great excitement, he could not determine the exact distance to it. Made the decision to retreat. I give the command to Tyurin to turn around and return to Kamenny Brod in the same way that they came. And the German tanks, having completed the deployment, went on the attack on the battalion, they shoot, our tanks are on fire. I am walking parallel to them to the right of about two hundred meters at a speed of 50-60 km / h.
I overtook them, drove behind the last hut, turned around sharply and stood between the house and the shed, near which there was a haystack: "Now I'll click you on the side." And the tanks went around the village on the right and are moving past me. I look into the scope - a lot of manure interferes. I moved forward, turned the turret and I saw the extreme right-flank enemy "tiger" coming towards me on my starboard side, ready to fire at one of our tanks standing in its way. I did not see my hit, but the "tiger" twitched and stood up, and smoke poured out of it. The tank of the commander of the 2nd platoon, Kostya Grozdev, drove up to me, he had to beat me behind another hut, but he pressed close to me. Apparently, the tank, which covered the deployment from afar and fired at me when I was at a neighboring house, hit him. The tower was torn off, and it flew off onto the roof of a neighboring house. Kostya jumped out ... or rather, the upper part of the body jumped out, but the lower part remained in the tank. He scratches the ground with his hands, his eyes pop. You understand?! I yell at the mechanic: "Get back!" Just turned around. Hit! And the tank spun and rolled all the way to the other side of the street. The blank, hitting the right side gear, tore off a large armored piece, exposing the gears of the gear, but practically did not bring any damage to the tank. The German tanks turned to the left and began to quickly roll up to leave the battle.
We burned four of their tanks, of which one "tiger", but we ourselves lost eight vehicles. We met in the forehead! We had to hide behind the huts, let them through and burn them on the sides. We would burn them all there! And so they lost the company! Basically, of course, young people - just come to the replenishment, without experience. Most importantly, they got out. Later it turned out that this grouping, with our exit to Kamenny Brod, was surrounded, which is why it went for broke in order to break through our battle formation.
Quickly regrouping, the brigade began the pursuit. It was getting dark. The mood is disgusting: so many people have lost, but now the main thing is not to let them gain a foothold and go on the defensive.
By nine o'clock the darkness and the drizzling light rain and snow completely blinded me. The movement has slowed down. Other tanks caught up with me, turning into a battle line, we go, looking around at each other. Night haze, attack to nowhere, the enemy is not visible. They began to fire high-explosive fragmentation shells in the direction of travel. Soon we passed a large village.
Imperceptibly dawn came, a dirt road appeared. I hear on the radio in plain text: "Fadina take her place." I quicken my pace and come forward, ready to act as a combat patrol. Two more tanks advance behind me. With the dawn, the soul became more cheerful, but not for long. Through the haze, leaning out of the tank up to his chest, he saw the outlines of a large settlement. It seemed to me that this was the city of Chernyakhov. And as soon as I had time to think about it, heavy enemy artillery hit us.
The deployment and attack on the move began rapidly. To my left, two hundred meters from me, a battery of new SU-85 self-propelled guns deployed and opened fire from a place. An anti-tank battery of our brigade is deployed even more to the left. We attack with three tanks, firing at the outer huts.
I look through the scope and see a column of tanks advancing perpendicularly to us, two kilometers away, entering the city from the other side. And then the artillery hits them and us from somewhere to the right. The thought flashed through how well the interaction was established to capture this settlement. And then I noticed how a man in a white sheepskin coat was running towards us from the last house, running up to the commander of an anti-tank battery and hitting him in the face. It turned out that the 21st Guards Tank Brigade had already entered the city, and we, it turns out, were firing at our own. We quickly orient ourselves and turn to the city center. I hear on the radio in plain text: "Fadin and Abashin go to railway station". I turn to the right and see a two-story stone building of the station.
I turn the turret along the street for a shot, and suddenly the tank shudders from a powerful explosion of a large-caliber fragmentation projectile that hit the right side of the stern. The tank continues to move, slowly turning to the right.
The driver-mechanic shouts: "Commander, finished off our final drive." - "Can you move?" - "With difficulties". We drove up to the last house from the station. I jumped out of the tank to look at the damage. The rest of the armor plate, covering the final drive gears, was cut off like a knife. Two gears are broken, while others have cracks. I still don't understand how we kept going. At that moment, the commander of the battalion D. A. Chumachenko drove up in his tank, ordered to take up defense and wait for the repairmen.
Having placed the tank in the thick of the apple orchard adjoining the house, we soon waited for the repair flyer sent by the battalion commander. After talking a little with the repairmen, I ordered that the gun commander and the gunner-radio operator be in the tank and conduct surveillance, and I myself decided to go to the station building and watch the city from it. Suddenly I heard screams, automatic bursts and a shot from my tank. He turned around and rushed back as fast as he could. It turned out that the Germans who remained in the rear attacked the tank. The repairmen and the crew took up defensive positions, and the loader fired a fragmentation projectile almost point-blank at the attacking infantry. As a result, the Germans lost about ten people, and the remaining thirteen surrendered.
The restoration of the tank took about a day, and then I had to catch up with my brigade leading the battle day and night. I can't remember now when we slept. All this was done in fits and starts from one to two hours a day. Fatigue provoked the appearance of indifference, which led to losses.
Already at night they entered the city of Skvira. Everyone was exhausted to the point that no one noticed the arrival of the New Year 1944. I was able to rest for three or four hours. We woke up from blows on the tower with a stick - the workers of the field kitchen were called for breakfast. During breakfast we were called to the battalion commander. Eleven people gathered near the battalion car with a booth, of which three were commanders of self-propelled guns. There were eight tanks left in the battalion - that's still not bad - plus two squads from the brigade reconnaissance platoon. Leaving the booth, the battalion commander first introduced us to the new company commander, technician-lieutenant Karabuta, and then set the task of marching to the city of Tarashcha, taking possession of it and holding it until the approach of the main forces of the brigade.
Moved out into the light. With five scouts, I again had to move at the head of the column a kilometer and a half ahead. Soon the "Rama" hovered over us. So, wait for the guests. And exactly! Eighteen Ju-87s appear. Having turned into a battle line, keeping the intervals between cars 100-150 meters, we moved forward at high speed. The bombing was intense, but ineffectual: not a single car was damaged. A small village appeared ahead, from where shots of field guns and automatic bursts came from. We were very angry and immediately opened fire, forcing a small garrison to flee.
We continued to move in battle formation, as if something told us that the enemy was not far away, and we were about to meet him. The eighteen planes that had been bombed and gone were replaced by two more groups of eighteen planes in the distance, which, having made a big turn, began to bomb us. This confirmed my assumption that the enemy was very close. Soon a large village opened up before our eyes, through which a solid column of the enemy, black against the background of white snow, was moving.
The head of this column, in which there were cars, horse teams, had already left the village and began to increase speed in order to leave. As it turned out, it was the rear of the newly approached 88th infantry division enemy. Seeing a practically defenseless enemy in front of us, we, firing on the move, began to disperse from the battle formation along the width of the column in order to prevent even a part of it from escaping. Here, to our misfortune, the population of the village of Berezanka came out of their houses to meet us, praying and urging us to quickly enter the village, preventing them from firing at the Germans. I had to fire over their heads at the Germans fleeing into the field, leaving equipped wagons and vehicles. Walking along the column, I shoot the fleeing Germans from machine guns. Suddenly I saw a group of Fritz on the outskirts of the village, fussing around some carts, unharnessing the horses and driving them aside. I give a fragmentation shot in their midst and see: the projectile scattered them to the side, and only then did I notice the gun that they were trying to deploy right on the road.
Leaning out of the tower, I saw three more of the same groups, trying to free themselves from the horses that carried the guns. I managed to fire three or four shots, and all the shells fell into the location of this artillery battery. Jumping up to the first gun, I ordered Tyurin to drive around it, and I myself shot the crews with a machine gun. Having recovered a little from the fleeting battle, I leaned out of the tower, inspecting the battlefield. It was terrible. Abandoned German carts and vehicles stood along the road, broken and whole, loaded with food and ammunition, the corpses of killed Germans and horses ... there were already our foot soldiers ...
There were about two hundred prisoners and we did not know what to do with them, since only a reconnaissance platoon was landing on tanks. I had to allocate a few people from them for protection and escort. We concentrated in the village, profiting from the trophies. Tyurin and Kleshchevoi each brought a large carcass of pork, putting them on the transmission: "We will give it to the owners of the houses where we will stay." And then Tyurin handed me new leather officer's boots, saying that you can't walk in felt boots all the time, and, they say, such boots, they say, will not be given to the lieutenant anyway. Yes, the boots turned out to be my size, and I still remember their strength, waterproofness.
Soon, the company commander, Senior Lieutenant Volodya Karabuta, approached me and set the task of moving forward to the city of Tarashche, which was about ten kilometers west of the village of Berezanka. Frozen dirt road allowed to go at high speed. After walking a few kilometers, we approached the village of Lesovichi. The Germans were not there.
There were only about three kilometers left to the city, which we easily overcame. At dusk, at high speed, watching the guns through the scope, I burst into the street. There are no residents in sight. This is a bad sign - it means there is an ambush somewhere. I see a crossroads ahead, but at that moment a woman runs out of one house and waves her hand. I stop the tank, lean out of the hatch and shout to her, but I don’t hear her answer over the roar of the engine. I get out of the tank and ask: "What's the matter?" She shouts that German tanks are standing three hundred meters ahead, at the crossroads. I thank her and head to my tank. At that moment, company commander Vladimir Karabuta, who jumped out of the tank following me, having learned from me about the enemy, said: “Fadin, you are already a Hero of the Soviet Union, so I will go first,” and began to go around my tank. Jumping into the tank, I shout to Pyotr Tyurin: "Follow him, as soon as they kill him, immediately jump out from behind him and go ahead!" Tyurin is behind him. And so it happened. After passing a hundred meters, Karabuty's tank receives a projectile in the forehead and lights up. I go around it and, shooting at nowhere, I pull forward. Only then did I see a heavy self-propelled installation "Ferdinand" in front of a hundred meters, which, resting its stern against a small stone building, controlled the intersection. Seeing the "Ferdinand" and hitting him in the forehead with an armor-piercing projectile, I give the command to Tyurin to ram him. Tyurin approached, hit the "Ferdinand" and began to crush him. The crew tried to jump out, but came under automatic fire from the loader. Four remained dead on the roof of the building, but one German managed to escape. I reassure Tyurin and give the command to turn back. I see the rest of the tanks and self-propelled guns moving along the street, firing.
I calm down, put the scouts on the tank and move out onto the street leading to the city center. The shooting stopped, and there was some kind of ominous silence. The company commander with his crew died (as it turned out later, he survived), and wait for the command "Forward!" not from anyone, someone should lead by example. And since I went first and so easily dealt with the "Ferdinand", then God himself ordered me to go further. I turn left at the crossroads and move along the street that goes down to the river. Went to the bridge. I just thought: “It wouldn’t have collapsed,” when a heavy-duty car with a large body appeared from the other side of the river because of a turn in the street. In the darkness, the Germans did not notice our tank stopped on the opposite bank at the base of the bridge and, having driven onto the bridge on the move, rested their bumper on the forehead of the tank. The driver quickly realized and jumped out of the cab right under the bridge. I had only to press the trigger of the gun, and a high-explosive fragmentation projectile, breaking through the cabin, exploded inside a body full of Germans. Fireworks! The remains of people fall on the ice, on the bridge. I say: "Petya, go ahead." The limber and the engine were thrown off the bridge and, after driving over the corpses across the bridge, they went up the street. The scouts jumped off the tank near the bridge, apparently having gone to loot - to collect watches and pistols. There were no clocks back then. Only the tank commander had a tank watch with a large dial.
We slowly move forward, turned and, firing a shot along the street, rushed at full speed to the city center. We came to a T-junction. The crossbar of this "T" was formed by a house, against the wall of which, in the shade, I pressed the tank. The Germans are not visible. Their tanks too. We turned off the engine, hid, and watched. It’s scary to go forward at night along the streets well lit by the moon without reconnaissance and landing on a tank, but it’s also inconvenient to stand idle. There is an ominous silence all around. And suddenly I heard: the engines of several tanks began to work, and instantly three of our tanks passed me along the street at high speed. Immediately in the direction where they went, explosions and gun shots were heard. A fight broke out and eastern outskirts the city where the main forces of the brigade remained. I am waiting. In the direction where three of our tanks slipped through, the battle gradually fades - apparently, they were burned.
After 15-20 minutes I heard a German tank coming from there. I decided to let him close and destroy him from a hundred meters. And then a wild thought struck me. It is necessary to destroy it so that it is beautiful, so that later on with chalk to write on it: "Lieutenant Fadin knocked out." What a fool! To do this, you need to let him in at the intersection, that is, 15-20 meters away from you and embed an armor-piercing projectile into his side when he turns left (for some reason I was convinced that he would turn onto the left street). And now I hold the enemy tank at gunpoint. Tank something small: T-III or T-IV. He went to the crossroads, turned left, I turn the tower to the right ... but it does not turn. The enemy tank rushed along the street. I shout to Tyurin: "Start up and go out on this street, we will shoot him after him!" But the tank didn't start right away. Missed! I jumped out of the tower to the stern. A tarpaulin was attached to the back of the tank turret. The scouts sitting on the stern stretched out its edges to lay it on the cold armor. The released edge of the tarpaulin fell under the teeth of the turret swivel mechanism, jamming it. He couldn't get there, he just couldn't!!! I still can't get over the fact that I missed this tank! After the war, I told this episode to my mother. I say: "The tarpaulin could not get under the tower." To which she replied: “How many times has God saved you? - 4 times. There is only one God. Apparently, honest people were sitting there. So he slipped a tarpaulin under the tower for you.”
Pulling out the tarpaulin and jumping into the tank, I order Tyurin to go out into the street along which the tank had left, in the hope of catching up with him with a shell. At this time, I hear on the radio: "Fadin, Fadina, urgently return back." I deploy my tank in reverse side and move towards the bridge. The fight has clearly subsided. The Germans, having suffered losses, began to withdraw their units. So on the night of January 4-5, we liberated the city of Tarashcha.
During the first half of the day on January 5, we put ourselves in order, got some sleep. And at 2 p.m. on January 5, 1944, they began to advance through the entire city to the west in the direction of the city of Lysaya Gora. As before, they put four scouts to me - and forward, at the head of the column.
We enter the suburb of Bald Mountain. On the right, I see Ukrainian white huts in the dark, and the forest is getting dark ahead. I command Tyurin to increase speed. Skipping through the streets of Bald Mountain, I get three or four shells from a semi-automatic cannon on my port side. The tank slid to the right into some kind of pit, so that you can only shoot from it into the air. We stop. I open the hatch, get out of the tank and see that my left side gear is broken, and the tank cannot only move, but also turn around to make it easier to shoot. The battalion commander arrived and ordered the repairmen to wait, leaving the rifle squad headed by the platoon commander to guard.
Having posted guards, we took the pork carcass, which we had captured in a wrecked convoy and since then carried on a tank, raised the owner of the house, grandfather Ivan, with the hostess and asked them to fry pork for us. We ate well. But we were not up to sleep. They began to prepare for the defense of the wrecked tank. To do this, they removed the machine gun coaxial with the cannon and the machine gun of the radio operator, prepared grenades, an automatic machine. We were joined by seven riflemen with their commander. So there were enough forces to repel the offensive of the enemy infantry. At dawn, having taken up all-round defense, I waited for the Nazis to try to capture our tank. At about nine o'clock in the morning four locals ran up and reported that the Germans were coming towards us in a group of up to twenty people, and maybe more. Having sent the locals, so as not to incur unnecessary losses, we lay down and prepared for battle.
Literally three or four minutes later, Germans in white coats with machine guns in an unorganized group, almost a crowd, appeared from behind the houses, heading in our direction. At my command, we opened heavy fire on them and apparently killed about ten people. They lay down, and then dragged away their dead and did not bother us anymore. By 14 o'clock the main forces of the brigade approached, which defeated the Germans opposing us, left the repair aircraft and, taking my infantry, moved towards the city of Medvin behind our battalion.
From January 6 to January 9, 1944, the repair crews restored my tank, bringing it into combat condition. We whiled away our free time in conversations with local beauties who lived in the neighborhood. In the evenings they would get together, talk about their childhood or play cards. On the morning of January 9, the battalion commander Dmitry Chumachenko came to us, who, praising me for my actions in the city of Tarashcha, ordered, upon completion of work, to take command of a half company of tanks that arrived, like mine, from repairs, and lead them to liberate a village a few kilometers from the city Grapes, which we did.
Around January 17, we were ordered to transfer a few remaining tanks to the 20th Guards Tank Brigade of our corps and go to the corps reserve to replenish it with incoming tank crews from the rear. We were understaffed near the town of Medvin for only a few days. For the first time, the officers of the brigade got together after the resupply, which took place in November. I missed a lot of guys. First of all, of course, the crews that arrived as part of marching companies, who received poor training when hammering together in the rear, died. The brigade suffered the greatest losses in the first battles. Those who survived the first battles quickly mastered and then formed the backbone of the units.
During the understaffing period, I was appointed commander of the battalion commander's tank. The crew included very experienced tankers who fought for at least a year, or even more: the driver of the guard, foreman Petr Doroshenko, who was awarded orders Patriotic War I and II degrees and the Order of the Red Star, the gun commander of the guard Sergeant Fetisov, awarded two medals "For Courage" and the radio operator-machine gunner of the guard Sergeant Elsukov, awarded the Order of the Patriotic War II degree and the Order of the Red Star. In addition, they were all awarded the medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad". Even by 1944, when they began to award more often, these were very high awards, and there was no longer such a crew in the brigade. The crew lived separately and did not communicate with the other thirty crews, and when, after the announcement of the order, I arrived at their house where they settled, the reception was wary. It is clear that it was difficult for them to accept the supremacy of the youngest lieutenant of the brigade, who grew up literally in three or four months of fighting, especially since Petr Doroshenko and Elsukov were much older than me. I also understood that I still had to prove my right to command these people.
Already on January 24, the brigade was introduced into the breakthrough made by the 5th mechanized corps in the direction of the town of Vinograd. The entry into battle was carried out at dawn almost by rolling over the shooters of the 5th mechanized corps who had just attacked the enemy. The entire field in front of the German defense was littered with the corpses of our soldiers. How so?! This is not 41-42, when there were not enough shells and artillery to suppress enemy firing points! Instead of a swift attack, we crawled across the arable land, driving around or leaving the corpses of our soldiers between the right and left caterpillar tracks so as not to crush them. Having passed the first line of shooting chains, they sharply, without a command, increased the attack speed and quickly captured the town of Vinograd.
Somewhere in the morning of January 26, the battalion commander received an order to send his tank, along with the crew, to the commander of the Guards Brigade, Colonel Fyodor Andreevich Zhilin, who lost the tank in the January battles. So in the last days of January 1944, I became a tank commander of the commander of the 22nd tank brigade.
To fight in the spring of forty-four in Ukraine was sheer torment. Early thaw, drizzling wet snow turned the roads into swamps. The transportation of ammunition, fuel and food was carried out on horseback, as the cars were all stuck. The tanks were still somehow moving, and the motorized rifle battalion lagged behind. I had to ask the population - women and teenagers - who from village to village carried one shell on their shoulders or two dragged a box of cartridges, bogged down almost knee-deep in mud.
At the end of January, while encircling the Korsun-Shevchenko group, we ourselves found ourselves surrounded, from which we barely escaped, sinking eight tanks in the Gorny Tikich River. Then they repelled the attacks of the Nazis trying to escape. In short, by February 18, when we were ordered to concentrate in the area of the village of Dashukovka, the brigade was left with one tank of the brigade commander - my tank - and a motorized rifle battalion of submachine gunners. True, 60-80 men and two 76-mm guns remained from the battalion, and they fell behind, getting bogged down along the road in the mud. The command of the brigade was concentrated in a village not far from Dashukovka, motorized riflemen were supposed to come up in about 5-6 hours. The enemy had just knocked out our units from Dashukovka, thus practically breaking through the encirclement. Together with the brigade commander and the head of the political department, we drove up to a deep ravine that separated us from Dashukovka, and to which there were about a kilometer. The village stood on a hillock, stretching from north to south, forming a street about one and a half to two kilometers long. It was surrounded by ravines on three sides, and only the northern outskirts, far from us, had a gentle slope to the dirt road leading from Lysyanka. A sluggish battle was going on in the area of the village. It can be seen that both sides are exhausted, there are no reserves. Occasionally, an enemy six-barreled mortar somewhere from the northern outskirts of Dashukovka scattered mines over our infantry. We returned to the village, located in front of the ravine.
Having put the tank near the hut chosen by the brigade commander, I went into it to warm up and dry my wet boots. Entering the hut, I heard a conversation on the radio between the brigade commander and the corps commander, Hero of the Soviet Union General Alekseev: "Zhilin, close the gap" - "Yes, I have one tank." - "Here, close this tank." After the conversation, he turned to me: "Did you hear, son?"
The task was clear. Support the infantry of the 242nd rifle regiment, which left Dashukovka thirty minutes ago and thus opened a three-kilometer gap. Capture Dashukovka, reach its northern outskirts and before the approach of the corps reserves, exclude the enemy’s approach and breakthrough to the encircled along the only dirt road passing 500-600 meters north of Dashukovka.
I quickly ran out of the house. My crew calmly chewed bread and stew. The hostess of the hut brought out after me a glass of milk and offered me a drink. And the white light was not nice to me. After all, I don’t know what is there, in Dashukovka, what kind of opponent and how to knock him out.
Shouted to the crew: "To battle!" The crew at first looked at me dumbfounded in bewilderment, letting off a couple of jokes about my agility, but, seeing that I was not joking, threw food, and everyone rushed to the tank. I ordered the tarpaulin to be thrown down so that an incident would not happen, as it happened in Tarashcha, everything inside the tank that was not needed for the battle should be thrown out, and ammunition should be reloaded. Thus, I went into battle with two rounds of ammunition: one hundred and fifty pieces instead of the standard seventy-seven. In about 20 minutes, the tank was prepared for battle. All the authorities came to see us off. I waved my hand to everyone and stood on the seat, holding the commander's hatch with my hands, I gave the command: "Forward!"
For the first time, as I remember myself, it was not hard on my soul, as it always happened before the attack, before the first shot. The words of the head of the political department, Nikolai Vasilievich Molokanov, said at parting: "We must, Sasha!" - acted encouragingly.
Having approached the bend of the ravine, from where it was closest to the village of Dashukovka, we began to slowly descend its slope. There was only one way out: to overcome the ravine and launch an attack on the southern outskirts of Dashukovka. We easily rolled down, but we did not manage to climb to the opposite side. Having reached half of the opposite slope on the move, the tank rolled back down at high speed. We made several attempts to get up, and every time the tank fell down. The sleet that began with the onset of darkness made our ascent more and more difficult. Exhausted, I remembered how I had crossed the ditch near Kyiv in reverse gear. There were also twelve spikes on the "zipe" tracks, which we fixed six on each track. Having managed in half an hour, we turned the tank backwards and all three: I, the loader and the radio operator-machine gunner, clinging to the ledge of the frontal armor plate, began to push the tank up. We were already so exhausted that we did not realize that our effort for a twenty-eight-ton machine was pah! And if the tank, as before, rolled down, then there would be little left of us. However, our anger, will, skill as a driver and attached spikes did their job. The tank, roaring strainedly, slowly but crawled up. It seemed that he was about to get up, but we pushed him with all our might, tried to help the engine. Having risen by the stern above the edge of the ravine, the tank froze for a moment, but, clinging to the ground, rolled over to the other side. Having climbed up, the mechanic began to turn around, and my vision went dark. Hearing the loud operation of the engine, the Germans began to launch flares, and machine-gun fire intensified. Looking around, he gave the command to the crew: "To the tank!" and ordered the tank to rest for half an hour. Closing the hatch behind me, I immediately fell into oblivion. Apparently, the same thing happened to the crew.
A loud knock on the tower brought me out of oblivion. I ask who. The commander of the 242nd Infantry Regiment answered me. He opened the hatch and introduced himself. He said that I did well that I had overcome such a deep ravine: “Look, there are moving lights. These are German vehicles. I think that several enemy units have already passed along the road. The remnants of my regiment are assembled in this area - about a company. use the night to support the attack of my infantry, go to the northern outskirts and close the road with your fire. The SME of your brigade is already on the way, so help is close.
Ahead, two hundred meters away, flashing cigarette lights could be seen - the infantry lay on the wet snow. I order the mechanic to approach the infantry and give the command: "To battle!" He showed the loader his outstretched palm - "Splintered!"
Having stopped the tank ten meters from the shooters, he examined the fighters, armed with rifles, lying on the snow. Only a few were armed with machine guns. Looks like they were collected from all units of the regiment. With a cursory glance, assessing their composition, in a chain stretched for 300-400 meters, I saw about fifty people. Leaning out of the commander's hatch, he turned to them: "Guys, we will now drive the enemy out of the village and go out to its opposite outskirts, where we will take up defense. Therefore, do not lose your shoulder blades during the battle. And now you move ahead of the tank by 20 meters in short dashes." 25 and immediately fire on the enemy. Do not be afraid of my shots, for I shoot above your heads." One of them shouted to me: "When did the tanks go behind the infantry?" I replied that the question was put correctly, but today it is necessary to act in this way. I will destroy the enemy's firing points, and as we approach two hundred meters to the village, I will come forward, and you will follow me with a throw. Now look at my command - go ahead! The engine roared - the Germans fired several rockets and immediately earned seven machine-gun points. Having set the scope for night shooting, I began to shoot them from right to left. My shells over the course of one and a half to two minutes suppressed three or four points at once. Leaning out of the tank, I give the command: "Forward!" Seeing my excellent shooting, the infantry rose at first uncertainly, but went on the attack. The enemy again opened fire from four or five points. I shot three more of them, and then gave the command to the mechanic to move forward another 25-30 meters, firing two shells at the outskirts of the village, then, moving slowly, destroyed another firing point. From the tank I see how my infantry moves forward in short dashes. The enemy conducts only rifle fire. Apparently, the Germans, having taken possession of the village, left a small barrier in it with a force of up to one platoon, not even having a single anti-tank gun, throwing their main forces to break through to the encirclement. The decisive moment came - the infantry believed in me, seeing how I dealt with the enemy machine-gun points, and continued to make dashes, firing on the move and lying down. But this favorable moment must not be lost. Therefore, I lean out of the tank and shout: "Well done, guys, and now attack!" Having overtaken the chain and firing on the move, I burst into the village. He stopped for a moment, fired two shots from a cannon along the street at the fleeing Germans and a long machine-gun burst. I noticed how some structure was trying to wriggle out of the house onto the street. Without thinking, he shouted to Peter: “Davi! The mechanic rushed the tank forward, hitting this large monster with the starboard side, which later turned out to be a six-barreled mortar.
We continue to move, shooting Germans running out of houses, rushing about by cars. Many of them managed to go down into the ravine and run away, and those who ran along the street, afraid of the darkness and the uncertainty of the ravines, received their bullet. Soon, having reached the northern outskirts, he began to choose a convenient position for defense. About two hundred meters from the main array of houses stood a separate hut. I brought my tank to it, placing it with its left side against the wall of the house. Ahead, eight hundred meters along the road are lonely cars. The task is completed - the road is under the gun.
By this time, my foot soldiers began to approach me. There are about two dozen left. I give the command to take up all-round defense - because the enemy could bypass us along the ravines - and dig in. But, as expected, the infantrymen have no shoulder blades, and they crowd around my tank, looking for protection in it. Seeing this, I recommend that everyone disperse, choose a convenient position for everyone and be ready to repel the enemy counterattack with the onset of dawn. A few minutes later, from behind a grove that grew to the left across the road, a whole city of light advanced - a column of motor vehicles with infantry, walking with headlights on (the Germans during the entire war moved at night only with their headlights on). I determine the speed of movement by the sight - about 40 km / h - and wait for them to come out in front of the front of our defense. I did not expect such a gift from the Nazis and, having determined the range, I took an amendment for the first car. In an instant, my projectile turns her body into a fireball. I move the sight to the last car (it turned out to be the eleventh), which, after my shot, jumped up and, flashing, fell apart. And then the nightmare began. The second armored personnel carrier in the convoy rushed around the first burning car and immediately sat down in the mud with its bottom. The rest of the vehicles tried to move off the road to the right and left and immediately burrowed into the mud. From my third shot, and it followed no more than six or eight seconds later, the armored personnel carrier broke out. The mechanic says to me: "Lieutenant, do not shoot all the cars, you need to collect trophies." - "Okay". The area was lit up like daylight. In the reflections of the flames, the running figures of the Nazis were visible, at which I fired several more fragmentation shells and completely discharged the disc from the Degtyarev tank machine gun coaxial with the cannon.
Gradually the night began to give way to dawn. There was a fog, and even poured, although rare, but wet snow. The enemy did not counterattack, but was engaged in pulling the wounded from the battlefield. My infantrymen were cold and basking as best they could. Some of them went to warm themselves in the outer huts.
The crew didn't budge. Experienced warriors, they understood that soon the Germans would climb to knock us out. And sure enough, soon a young soldier came up to the tank and shouted to me: "Comrade Lieutenant, enemy tanks!" I made an attempt to open the hatch to look around, but before I could raise my head, I felt a bullet hit the hatch cover, a tiny piece of broken armor scratched my neck. Closing the hatch, I began to look into the triplexes in the direction indicated to me by the soldier. To the right, one and a half kilometers away, two T-IV tanks crept along the arable land: "Well, it begins ..".
I give the command to the infantry and my crew: "To battle!" He ordered to charge with fragmentation, because the tanks were far away and sighting was required. The shell exploded five to ten meters from the front tank. The tank stopped - I slammed the second shell into its side. The second tank tried to leave, but got up after the second shot, and one of the crew members jumped out of the turret and ran into the field.
The beginning of the morning of February 19, 1944 was good, I relaxed and almost got punished for it: a bullet hit the rib of the hatch when I tried to open it to look around. The soldier who pointed out the tanks to me came up and shouted that on the left behind the ravine some German officers were examining our positions through binoculars. Having said this, he turned to move away from the tank, suddenly staggered and fell on his back. Looking into the triplex, I saw a trickle of blood flowing from the back of his head. Shouting for it to be removed, I ordered the mechanic: "Petya, turn the tank back and go around the house in readiness to return to its place." At low speed, the tank crawled backwards from behind the hut. I turned the turret around, and through the scope I saw four figures lying on the snow just behind the ravine, about four hundred meters from me. Apparently, a group of officers led by a general, whose overcoat collar was trimmed with a fox, was reconnoitering the area and my position. He shouted: "Fetisov, a fragmentation projectile!" Fetisov unscrewed the cap, reported: "The fragmentation is ready!" I took aim, and the shell exploded exactly in the middle of these groups. I immediately saw at least fifty figures in white coats rushing from all sides to save the wounded. Here I fought back for the boy soldier, firing fifteen fragmentation shells at them. Thus, having "calmed" the Germans, we returned to our place (the right side of the house) and began to wait for further actions from the enemy. The radio did not answer our callsigns. And I have only fourteen shells left. Of these, one sub-caliber, one armor-piercing and twelve fragmentation, in addition, I and Elsukov each have one incomplete machine-gun disk.
And suddenly, from behind a grove that was to the left of our position, a plane jumped across the road (at the front we called it "caproni" - Italian-made, which dived well). I turned around and at an altitude of 50-70 meters flew along the ravine, which was to the left of the village, on the opposite slope of which I destroyed a group of German officers. The mechanic again brought the car out from behind the house, and I began to observe the plane. Turning around, the plane again flew along the ravine in our direction. The Germans fired green rockets, he also answered them with a green rocket. Turned around again, dropped the big box and flew on. I must say that along the opposite edge of the ravine behind a small bush, apparently, there was a road perpendicular to the one that we blocked, and along it - a telegraph line. The plane cruised along this line and, knowing approximately the distance between the pillars, I calculated its speed. It was small, about 50-60 km / h. When the plane dropped its cargo and flew past us, I decided that if it turned around, I would try to shoot it down. I give the command to Fetisov to unscrew the cap and load it with shrapnel. The plane turns around, I take a lead - a shot. The shell hit him right in the engine, and the plane broke. What was there! Where did so many Germans come from! From all sides, the field was full of enemy figures that came to life in the snow, who rushed to the remains of the aircraft. Forgetting that I had few shells, I fired ten times fragmentation into this running mass of Fritz.
Having put the tank in its place, to the right of the house, I could not calm down. Anything but shoot down a plane?! The radio was still silent, I had ammunition - for two targets and cartridges - to repel one attack by a platoon of enemy machine gunners. As time went. In our area - dead silence, which foreshadowed the denouement. I heard one of the infantrymen shouting to me while lying down, not getting up: “Comrade Lieutenant, a Ferdinand came out of the grove to the left behind the ravine.” I give Peter the command: “Give a little back around the hut, as before.”
Driving out from behind the house, I saw a "Ferdinand" with a cannon aimed at me, but, apparently, he did not have time to take me into sight, and I quickly hid behind the house. However, the escape route was blocked. It is clear that in the next few minutes they will break through.
The attack of the Nazis began directly in the forehead, from the road. There were up to a hundred submachine gunners in camouflage suits, firing in long bursts, being about three hundred or four hundred meters away from me. At first I did not understand where such decisiveness came from. If I had at least a dozen fragmentation shells and four or five machine-gun discs, I would calm them down in a few minutes. Over the roar of automatic bursts, I heard the noise of the engine of a heavy tank: "tiger" or "panther". So that's what determined their determination. They have a heavy tank. I shout to the remaining three or four infantrymen so that one of them looks out from behind the house and see what I have on the left of the road. Nobody responded.
The decision was made instantly: let the "tiger" go two hundred meters and slam into his forehead with the last sub-caliber projectile, jumping out from behind the house. I command the mechanic: "Petya, start the engine and do not turn it off, let the "tiger" come closer, jump out from behind the house and at the count of "four", without waiting for my command, turn back." They gave two short bursts of machine guns with a radio operator, laying down several attacking figures.
The noise of the engine was very close now. Shouted to the mechanic: "Forward!" and, jumping out from behind the house, he saw ahead, about one hundred and fifty meters away, a "tiger" with a landing party, which had just moved forward after a short stop. This is what I needed. Not allowing my tank to extinguish the vibrations from a sudden stop, I take a German car into sight and shoot at the forehead of a German tank. No consequences! Peter sharply jerked the tank back, and I shouted to the loader Fetisov to load it with shrapnel. And then I saw that the German machine gunners stopped. I fired the last fragmentation shell at them point-blank and saw them run. Jumping out from behind the house for a moment, we froze from what we saw. The "Tiger" was slowly engulfed in flames. One of his crew members dangled halfway from the tower. There was an explosion. The Nazi tank was gone. We won again.
Forgetting that I had one armor-piercing projectile left, I ordered to load it and decided to destroy the self-propelled gun in a duel with the "Ferdinand". Instead of calming down, he climbed on the rampage.
Peter, just as he did before in this battle, at my command, moved the tank backwards from behind the house to the left and brought me face to face with the "Ferdinand", who was waiting for me, pointing his gun in advance. He gave me time to take him into sight, but he got ahead of me in the shot, slamming a blank under my turret shoulder strap. The steel blank smashed the cast-iron counterweights of the gun, killed Fetisov and got stuck in the rear wall of the tower. The second shell shattered the gun mantlet and turned the tank's turret, jamming its hatch. I shouted: "Let's jump out," and tried to open the jammed hatch with my head. After the third attempt, he opened it with difficulty and, practically with the third shot of the "Ferdinand", pulling himself up on his hands, he jumped out of the tank, falling to the ground near it. In a field bag right on the side of the tower, I kept English diagonal trousers and a tunic - a gift from the Queen of England Soviet officers. I thought if I had to jump out, I would grab them with my hand. What are the pants! I would like to stay whole myself! I saw my radio operator-machine gunner Sergeant Yelsukov running about fifteen meters ahead. I turned around and saw how the Germans, who had fled earlier, went on the attack again. They were only a hundred and fifty meters away from me.
I rushed after the radio operator to the nearest houses, but, having run a few meters, I heard Petro Doroshenko's cry: "Lieutenant, help!" I turned around and saw Peter hanging in the driver's hatch, squeezed by its cover. Under fire, he returned to him, pulled the hatch up, helped him out, and then, putting him on his shoulders, carried him on himself. There were seven red stains on his sweatshirt, growing in size. In front of the houses ran a ditch, which was shot from the opposite bank of the ravine. I figured that I would jump over it, and I would have jumped, but 2-3 meters before my approach to the ditch, the enemy suddenly stopped firing, apparently changing the tape or disk, and I freely stepped over it, carrying Petr Doroshenko. There were about 20-30 meters left to the extreme huts when I saw how the artillerymen of our SME were rolling out two guns, preparing for battle, and our submachine gunners, deployed in a chain, went on the attack. My eyes darkened and my strength left me. An orderly of the battalion commander Captain Zinoviev and a medical orderly girl ran up to me, picked up Petro Doroshenko. We were taken on a wagon to the village, from where I started this fight yesterday.
The brigade commander came out to meet me on the porch, hugged me, kissed me, said: "Thank you, son," and led me into the hut, where I told about the fulfillment of the order. After listening to me, the brigade commander said that the command introduces me to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, driver Pyotr Doroshenko - to the Order of Lenin, charging sergeant Fetisov - to the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree (posthumously) and radio operator-machine gunner Sergeant Yelsukov - also to the Order Patriotic War I degree. I must say that this was the second performance on the Hero, but I received the Gold Star only in 1992.
Having rendered first medical aid to Petro Doroshenko, the doctors took care of me. With tweezers, the nurse picked up a small fragment, which half entered the neck area. Then she asked me to stand up, but I couldn't. A sharp pain in my right knee forced me to sit up.
They began to take off the boot, but it did not give in due to a sharp pain in the leg. The brigade commander Fyodor Andreevich Zhilin pulled them up: "What are you waiting for, cut the top of your boot." And I'm wearing the same trophy boots that Pyotr Tyurin got me in the wrecked wagon train. I prayed not to spoil such wonderful boots. “Cut,” he ordered, “and to you, son, I give my chrome ones, which they sewed for me and brought this morning.” Having said this, he placed excellent chrome boots near my chair. Having cut open the boot and the right leg and opened the knee, I saw that it was swollen and increased one and a half times. Apparently, several fragments hit the knee. I still can't calm down - I'm shaking all over. The commander ordered me to give vodka. I drank half a glass like water, and soon fell asleep.
By evening, Peter and I were sent to the rear. He was taken to a hospital for the seriously wounded, and I, having passed through a number of front-line hospitals, ended up in the city of Tarashcha in a hospital for the lightly wounded. The hospital was hastily deployed, poorly equipped and dirty. The wounded lay in the emergency room on the dirty floor, and no one took care of them. I immediately decided to get out of there. Having obtained a stick, I hobbled to the house of one of the girls who lived in the suburbs of Lysaya Gora, where we gathered in January, when my tank was hit. They received me very well, and compresses from homemade moonshine put me on my feet within a week. I was already recovering at home, in Arzamas, having received leave from the brigade commander.
In April, I returned to the brigade, whose headquarters was located in the village of Boksha, on the border with Romania. However, it was no longer Zhilin who commanded it, but Lieutenant Colonel Pavlovsky, who, it seemed to me, was more engaged in amateur concerts than in preparing the brigade for battle. The next day after my arrival, he called me to his office and in the presence of the head of the political department, Lieutenant Colonel Molokanov and his field wife, whom he brought with him, after questioning me a little, he announced: "I appoint you as my tank commander and at the same time you will be my adjutant." He had just arrived at the front and my Order of the Red Banner, received instead of the Hero's star for the capture of Kyiv, apparently got on his nerves. I replied that the brigade commander did not have such a position - adjutant, and I already looked like a tank commander for the year of my participation in battles, and if I am not needed in the brigade and not worthy of the position of at least a tank platoon commander, then I ask you to send me to the reserve . "Oh, that's how it is," he exclaimed, "then go." Looking ahead, I will say that this "commander" was removed after the very first battles, but by this time he had practically ruined the brigade. In fact, I was no longer there.
The next morning I was informed that I had to join my former 207th Guards Tank Battalion as a platoon commander. When I joined the battalion, I was not happy either. It turns out that the battalion was commanded by a major, a bent old man with glasses, who also arrived from the rear and had no combat experience. Well, I thought, I got it. I was afraid for the brigade. And suddenly I found out that a third battalion was also being created in the brigade, Dmitry Aleksandrovich Puzyrev, an experienced tankman, was appointed commander. I asked to see him and, thank God, they let me go.
Throughout the summer of 1944, they were preparing for the offensive. We received the equipment. True, we were not given a single T-34-85, but were sent only with a 76-mm cannon.
We stood in caponiers dug on the slope of the vineyard. A kilometer ahead of us was a monastery. Suddenly a "tiger" crawls out from behind the stone wall of the fence. Has stopped. Behind him, another, then another. Ten of them came out. Well, we think - Khan, they will get us. Fear always has big eyes. Out of nowhere, two of our IS-2s are coming. I saw them for the first time. Lined up with us, stood up. Two "Tigers" separate and go a little forward, sort of like a duel. Ours preempted them with a shot, and demolished both towers. The rest - once, once and behind the wall. At this time, I hear on the radio: "Fadina, Fadina, come to the command post to the battalion commander." From the headquarters of the battalion I was sent to the headquarters of the brigade, and from there to the headquarters of the corps, where the Order of Alexander Nevsky was waiting for me and sent to study at the Leningrad Higher Armored School. Molotov, who trained company commanders of heavy IS tanks.
I ended the war in Vienna as a deputy company commander of the 20th Guards Tank Brigade. We no longer had tanks, and we were in reserve. The deputy head of the company, Viktor Tarasovich Chebudalidze, who fought almost from Stalingrad, says: "Lieutenant, I picked up an amphibian with air cooling, it goes 200 km per hour. Let's go to Paris, let's see what kind of girls are there, how, what?" And we fled: there were no tanks anyway, and from childhood I dreamed of seeing Paris. True, we did not really succeed in this - a complete mess, the girls grab, kiss. There is such turmoil everywhere: both the British and the Americans are all fraternizing. We spent the day there and returned to our brigade, having received a scolding for AWOL.
Interview : Artem Drabkin Lit. processing : Artem Drabkin |
Award sheets
Fadin Alexander Mikhailovich
(10.10.1924 - 10.11.2011)
Born on October 10, 1924 in the village of Knyazevka, Arzamas region Nizhny Novgorod region. In 1940 he graduated from incomplete high school and entered the Gorky River College.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, having added two years to himself, he came to the draft board as a volunteer and was enrolled in the 2nd Gorky Automobile and Motorcycle School, in the 9th company of the third motorcycle battalion. After an eight-month training course, the third battalion continued training under the program for commanders of automobile platoons.
At the end of August 1942, the school was renamed the 2nd Gorky Tank School, and Alexander Mikhailovich, among 100 people selected from graduates, continued his studies there. April 25, 1943, after completing the course, he was awarded the rank of lieutenant. Graduates were sent to the 3rd Reserve Tank Regiment at Plant No. 112. Crews were formed there, who were trained in a marching company, received new tanks from the plant and were sent by echelon to the front in the Kursk Bulge region, where they became part of the 207th Battalion of the 22nd Guards Tank Brigade of the 5th Guards Stalingrad Tank Corps of the Voronezh Front. Here Lieutenant Fadin received his baptism of fire. In the very first battles, he, as stated in the combat characteristics, "showed examples of courage and fearlessness."
Alexander Mikhailovich began to fight as a T-34 tank commander. The first battle began with an offensive on July 12 and ended on July 16, when his tank was knocked out. Of the sixty-two graduates of the school who came to the corps, after four days of the offensive, only seven remained, and by the autumn of 1944, only two of them remained. After the first battle, in which Alexander Mikhailovich was able to prove that he knew how to fight, he became a guardsman. Later, Alexander Fadin participated in the Belgorod-Kharkov offensive operation, distinguished himself in the battles for Kyiv in November 1943.
But the war continued. There were new battles, new victories over the enemy, experience was added every day, self-confidence and faith in success, in victory grew. Here are just some examples of how fearlessly and skillfully a graduate of the Gorky Tank School fought.
In December 1943, in the battle for Kamennye Brody in Right-Bank Ukraine, Alexander Fadin personally knocked out a heavy tank "tiger" and provided the main forces of the brigade with favorable conditions for deployment and entry into battle. And four days later in the battle for locality Chernyakhov, his tank, already being hit, repulsed the attack with his fire to the enemy infantry platoon, which was trying to capture the tank. The crew of Alexander Fadin at the same time destroyed up to 20 and captured 13 Nazis.
In the battles for the city of Tarashcha in February 1944, Alexander Fadin on his tank attacked and captured an enemy battery on the move, without even letting it turn around, he was the first to break into the city, in a street battle he destroyed a heavy Ferdinand self-propelled gun and a bus with enemy soldiers and officers .
Heroism and personal courage were also shown by Alexander Fadin during the defeat of the encircled Korsun-Shevchenko enemy grouping in February 1944. His only tank, supported by an infantry platoon, captured the village of Dashukovka in a night attack and held it for more than five hours until the brigade's main forces arrived. In this battle, Fadin's crew destroyed 3 tanks, 1 armored personnel carrier, 2 mortars with crews, 12 machine-gun points of the enemy, and also shot down a German aircraft with the fire of a machine gun turret. Fadin's tank was also hit, all crew members were injured, the turret gunner was killed, but the wounded did not leave the battle until reinforcements arrived.
Then Alexander Fadin participated in the Iasi-Kishinev operation, in the battles to liberate Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Austria, where he was caught by the Victory. Alexander Fadin ended the war on Far East. As commander of a tank company on the Trans-Baikal Front, he participated in the defeat of the Japanese Kwantung Army, successfully overcame on their tested combat vehicles mountain ranges Greater Khingan, smashed the enemy in the vastness of Manchuria and during the capture of Port Arthur.
The brave tank commander twice presented himself for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The first time he was presented to the heroic title in November 1943 for his distinction in the battles for the liberation of Kyiv. The idea reached the Military Council of the 38th Army. The commander and a member of the Army Military Council decided to award A.M. Fadin with the Order of the Red Banner.
The second time he was presented to the heroic title in February 1945 for distinction in the battle for Dashukovka in the Korsun-Shevchenko offensive operation. This time the idea reached the Military Council of the Front. The commander and member of the Military Council of the front did not leave a written decision on the award sheet. The assignment of the heroic title did not take place.
Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of September 6, 1996 "For courage and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" Fadin Alexander Mikhailovich was awarded title of Hero of the Russian Federation with the award of the Gold Star medal (medal No. 346).
After the war, the brave tanker served as commander of a tank battalion, deputy chief of staff and chief of staff of a tank regiment, deputy commander of a tank regiment, officer in the combat training department of the Civil Defense headquarters of the USSR Ministry of Defense. In 1964, Alexander Mikhailovich was transferred to serve in the Military Academy of Armored Forces as the head of the combat department of the academy. In 1967, he was appointed to the post of lecturer in the Department of Tactics, where he worked until 1975, passing on his combat experience to new generations of tank officers. In 1975, he successfully defended his thesis in his specialty with the award degree candidate of military sciences. By the decision of the highest attestation commission in 1981, he was awarded the academic title of associate professor, and then professor of the Academy of Military Sciences.
In 1976-1978. was on a business trip in the Syrian Arab Republic, where he organized the training of tank troops officers.
During his work at the department of tactics, NIG-6 and NIG-4 he was engaged in military scientific research in the field of operational art and tactics, the development of armored vehicles, and the training of scientific personnel. He is the author or co-author of more than 40 military-scientific works.
In 1996, Colonel A.M. Fadin retired. He continued to work at the Military Academy of Armored Forces named after Marshal of the Soviet Union R.Ya. Malinovsky as a researcher of the research teaching and methodological group of the academy. Since 1998 - senior researcher of the Center information technologies Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Actively participated in military-patriotic work.
Lived in Moscow. Died November 10, 2011. He was buried at the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow.
Alexander Mikhailovich was awarded six orders and twenty-three medals. Among the awards of the Order of the Red Banner, Alexander Nevsky, Red Star, Patriotic War 1st and 2nd degree, For service to the Motherland in Armed Forces USSR 3rd degree.
Slovak state awards: Order of the Double White Cross, 2nd class (April 7, 2010).