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 to the front in an echelon Kursk Bulge, 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 Gorky fought tank school.
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 the settlement of Chernyakhov, his tank, already being hit, repulsed the attack with its 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 the 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 turret machine gun. 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 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.
Presidential Decree Russian Federation dated 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 dissertation in his specialty and was awarded the degree of 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).
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 travels 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 of the Soviet Union. True, he was not awarded for unknown reasons, and only in 1996 he received the title of Hero of the Russian Federation.
True, the Germans did not know that only an infantry battalion of machine gunners and one tank remained from the entire brigade at that time. Only one tank of Lieutenant Fadin per three-kilometer front section. It was this single tank that the command left to plug the gap. The task was set deadly and actually suicidal: to seize Dashukovka, reach its northern outskirts, hold out as long as possible until the corps reserves approached and prevent the enemy from breaking through the encirclement.
The thirty-four were loaded with a double ammunition load of shells, one hundred and fifty pieces instead of the regular seventy-seven. It was this number of shells that allowed the crew to withstand the German breakthrough in the future and enter the history of the Second World War. They began to enter History with the fact that in a night attack, with the support of an infantry company, they captured the village, while gun fire destroyed more than a dozen machine-gun points, dispersed the enemy and crushed a six-barreled mortar with caterpillars.
The strategic importance of the small village of Dashukovka was that the only road possible for a breakthrough passed through it, since the entire area in the district was pitted with deep ravines. And along this road, late at night, the Germans tried to get out of the encirclement. Fadin was surprised by the bright stream of headlights - a long column of motor vehicles with infantry moved along the road. Our tankers did not expect such a gift from the enemy! From the first projectile, the lead truck turned into a fireball. From the second landmine, the trailing car shattered into pieces. And then the nightmare began for the Germans. Like tin figures in the dash of the city park of culture and recreation, lieutenant Alexander Fadin shot enemy equipment - cars and armored personnel carriers. They, as then calculated, will be 11 units.
It got to the point that the driver Petr Doroshenko asked his commander: “Lieutenant, don’t shoot all the cars, we need to collect trophies” . The whole district was lit up by the bright light of fires. In the reflections of the flames, running figures were clearly visible, several more fragmentation shells were fired at them and the disk of the turret machine gun was completely discharged.
After that, until the morning, the enemy no longer tried to break through Dashukovka. The Germans simply did not know that their advance was holding back only one Russian tank. At dawn, two T-4 panzers crawled out for reconnaissance, received their portion of shells from our tankers, died out and stopped. Their unsuccessful sortie did not reveal Fadin's disguised thirty-four. He very successfully set up his car with the left side to a large hut on the outskirts of the village. In order to understand what Russian forces are preventing them from passing, German officers came out to a distant hillock and began to examine the village through binoculars. And it was theirs fatal mistake. Lieutenant Fadin, through his binoculars, saw that one of the officers had a greatcoat collar trimmed with red fox fur, and this, by the way, is the hallmark of a general. Looks like some very important bird with his staff retinue has climbed the hill. You understand, there was no way to ask the honored guests from Alexander Fadin, and therefore he, without any ceremonies and curtsies, so to speak, in a simple way, took and slammed a fragmentation shell in their direction. The mine hit exactly in the middle of a group of curious invaders. Panic and fuss arose on the other side, about fifty figures in white camouflage coats rushed to save their general and pull out his wounded staff officers from all sides. To calm this turmoil, Alexander Fadin fired fifteen more fragmentation shells. After that, the restless running of the enemy on that hillock stopped.
After the execution of the general with his staff officers, the Germans found out the location of our tank, and most likely guessed that it was the only one. The radio in the thirty-four was silent and did not answer call signs. Where help is, and how soon it will come - is unknown ... Only 14 shells remained in the ammunition load. Let me remind you that they are at the very beginning was 150. The crew of Fadin did not even guess what these remaining ammunition would be spent on.
On the morning of February 19, 1944, an Italian-made transport aircraft from Caproni flew to the aid of the hungry German encirclement. He flew low over the ground, threw some large box (most likely with provisions) on the ground, turned around and began to enter the second circle for the next drop. "Caproni" flew directly over the road, strictly along the telegraph line, and the distance between the telegraph poles - it's standard - as a rule, 50 meters. Knowing this interval, Lieutenant Alexander Fadin estimated the distance, calculated the speed of the aircraft, took lead, fired fragmentation ... and for the first time in the history of the Second World War shot down an aircraft from a tank gun!
The land mine hit the Caproni right in the engine, the plane broke in the air and crashed to the ground. What started here! Where did so many Germans come from! From all sides, the field was full of enemy figures coming to life in the snow! They rushed to the remains of the aircraft. Looks like superhumans were very hungry during the encirclement near Korsun. So they rushed to pick up the food scattered on the field. Forgetting that they had few shells, Fadin fired ten times with shrapnel at this running mass of Fritz.
Let me remind you that Fadin's tank was covered by the wall of the house, he stood with the left side to him. The commander's decision was immediate. He told the driver, Petro Doroshenko: “Petya, start the engine and don’t turn it off, let the Tiger come closer, jump out from behind the hut and at the count of four, without waiting for my command, turn back.”
And so they did. They jumped out from behind the house, Fadin fired an armor-piercing Tiger in the forehead right on the move, and the driver immediately switched on the reverse gear and hid the car in a shelter. For everything - about everything - a few seconds. Shooting on the move in the forehead of a heavy tank - a chance for success mi-ni-mal-nei-shey! However, the "Tiger" caught fire and exploded. A few seconds later, the last fragmentation projectile was sent to the German machine gunners, and only one charge remained in the tank's ammunition - sub-caliber.
The heat of battle and numerous successes turned Lieutenant Fadin's head, and when the Ferdinand self-propelled gun came out against him, he climbed on the rampage. Alexander decided to duel with this monster. And absolutely in vain. The armor of this German beast is painfully thick.
Let's sum up this heroic battle. The crew of only one tank, the only one thrown to hold the village of Dashukovka, destroyed in half a day: 18 machine-gun points, two mortars with crews, one of which was a six-barreled mortar, a column of vehicles of 11 vehicles and armored personnel carriers, two medium T-4 tanks, the heavy tank "Tiger", and what is most incredible and surprising - the transport aircraft "Caproni". Think about it! Shooting down a plane from a tank gun is like hitting an apple on your head with an arrow, and shooting on the run with your eyes closed! A lot of enemy infantry forces were destroyed by high-explosive shells and machine-gun fire. The entire field on the outskirts of the village was strewn with the bodies of enemies. The number of confirmed enemy losses was then entered into the award list - 50 soldiers and officers.
Video about Fadina - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttaWhox6GNY
Video about the Korsun-Shevchenko operation No. 1- (reconstruction) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jzv_qND6og
Video about the Korsun-Shevchenko operation No. 2 (chronicle in color) -
›| Fadin Alexander Mikhailovich | |
| Date of Birth | |
|---|---|
| Place of Birth | Knyazevka village, Arzamas district, Nizhny Novgorod province, USSR |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | Moscow, Russia |
| Affiliation | USSR USSR→Russia Russia |
| Type of army | tank forces |
| Years of service | |
| Rank | colonel |
| Part | 22nd Guards Tank Brigade |
| commanded | tank T-34 |
| Awards and prizes | Alexander Mikhailovich Fadin(October 10, 1924 - November 10, 2011) - Soviet and Russian officer, during the Great Patriotic War - commander of the T-34 tank of the 207th tank battalion of the 22nd guards tank brigade of the 5th guards tank corps, retired guard colonel. Hero of the Russian Federation. Candidate of Military Sciences, Professor of the Academy of Military Sciences, Researcher at the Military Academy of Armored Forces named after R. Ya. Malinovsky, Senior Researcher at the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. BiographyChildhood, education Born on October 10, 1924 in the village of Knyazevka (now the Arzamas district of the Nizhny Novgorod region) in the family of a tailor. Russian. Father - Mikhail Alexandrovich Fadin, tailor. Mother - Maria Antonovna Fadina. In 1940 he graduated from an incomplete secondary school in the city of Arzamas and entered the Gorky River College. During the Great Patriotic WarWith the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, A. M. Fadin volunteered to go to the front, but he was not taken because of his childhood. He graduated from the tank school in the city of Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) and the Leningrad Higher Officer Armored School. At the front since 1943. He fought on the Voronezh, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts. Participated in Battle of Kursk and the Belgorod-Kharkov offensive operation. The crew of A. M. Fadin especially distinguished himself during the “Battle for the Dnieper” in the Kyiv offensive operation, carried out in the first half of November 1943. Its goal was to defeat the grouping of Nazi troops in the Kyiv region and liberate the capital of Ukraine. At the end of September, bridgeheads were captured on the right bank of the Dnieper north and south of Kyiv, attempts were made to liberate the city twice, but these operations did not achieve the desired result. A high patriotic enthusiasm reigned in the troops, everyone was burning with the desire to throw the enemy out of Kyiv. The time limit for the liberation of the city was determined - by November 7, the anniversary of the October Revolution. The 22nd Guards Tank Brigade of the 5th Guards Tank Corps, in which A. M. Fadin fought, on November 5, having completed the breakthrough of enemy defenses together with other troops, cut the Kyiv-Zhitomir highway. By the morning of November 6, the capital of Ukraine was liberated. Lieutenant A. M. Fadin, having overcome a hard-to-reach area of wooded and swampy terrain on his tank, was one of the first to break into Kyiv, destroying two tanks, a self-propelled gun, several heavy machine guns and exterminating more than a dozen enemy soldiers with his fire. The battle was on the outskirts of the city. At the intersection of two streets, a smoking enemy assault gun suddenly “came to life” and opened fire. The self-propelled gun set fire to a nearby tank, which was led by Lieutenant Golubev. A. M. Fadin turned the turret of his tank and destroyed the self-propelled gun with a direct hit on the side. In December 1943, in the battle for Kamenye Brody in Right-Bank Ukraine, A. M. 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 the settlement of Chernyakhov, his tank, already being hit, repulsed the attack with its fire to an infantry platoon trying to capture the tank. The crew of A. M. Fadin destroyed up to 20 and captured 13 enemy soldiers. In the battles for the city of Tarashcha in February 1944, A. M. Fadin on his tank attacked and captured an artillery battery on the move, not even allowing it to turn around. He was the first to break into the city, in a street battle he destroyed the Ferdinand heavy self-propelled gun and a bus with enemy soldiers and officers. A. M. Fadin also showed heroism and personal courage during the defeat of the encircled Korsun-Shevchenkovsky enemy grouping in February 1944. His only tank, supported by 30 infantrymen, 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 (according to the award list), the crew of A. M. Fadin destroyed 1 tank, 1 self-propelled gun, up to 18 machine-gun points of the enemy, and a German plane was shot down from the main gun of the tank, cruising low above the ground along telegraph poles. A. M. Fadin's tank was also hit, all crew members were injured, the turret gunner died, but the surviving wounded tankers did not leave the battle until reinforcements arrived. Then he participated in the Iasi-Kishinev operation, in the battles to liberate Romania, Hungary, Austria and Czechoslovakia. A. M. Fadin 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. Commander K. S. Moskalenko and member of the Military Council A. A. Epishev 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 1944 for distinction in the battle for Dashukovka in the Korsun-Shevchenko operation. The submission reached the Military Council of the Front, but the commander and member of the Military Council of the Front did not leave a written decision on the award list, and the assignment of the heroic title did not take place then. Was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky. End of the warA. M. Fadin ended the war in the 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 the mountain ranges of the Greater Khingan on his tested combat vehicles, smashed the enemy in the vast expanses of Manchuria and in capturing Port Arthur. post-war periodAfter the war, he 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 he 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. In 1975 he defended his dissertation for the degree of candidate of military sciences. By the decision of the highest attestation commission in 1981, he was awarded the title of associate professor, and then professor of the Academy of Military Sciences. He was the author or co-author of more than 40 military-scientific works. In 1976-1978 he was on a business trip in the Syrian Arab Republic, organized the training of tank troops officers. Since 1996, Colonel A. M. Fadin has been retired. By the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of September 6, 1996 "for the courage and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", Fadin Alexander Mikhailovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation with the award of a special distinction - the Gold medal. Star" (No. 346). He continued to work at the Military Academy of Armored Forces named after R. Ya. Malinovsky as a researcher in the research teaching and methodological group of the academy. Since 1998 - senior researcher at the Information Technology Center of the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Actively participated in military-patriotic work. Awards and titlesSoviet state awards:
Russian state awards and titles:
Slovak state awards:
In computer games In the computer game World of Tanks (“World of Tanks”), one of the awards is called the Fadin Medal. Awarded to the player who destroyed the last enemy vehicle with the last shell in their ammo load. Notes
Partially used materials from the site http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/ |
Hero of the Russian Federation, Professor, Candidate of Military Sciences, Guards Colonel
Born on October 10, 1924 in the village of Knyazevka (now the Arzamas district of the Nizhny Novgorod region) of the Nizhny Novgorod province in the family of a tailor. Father - Fadin Mikhail Alexandrovich. Mother - Fadina Maria Antonovna. Wife - Fadina Tamara Ivanovna (born in 1932). Son - Fadin Gennady Alexandrovich. Daughter - Fadina Irina Alexandrovna.
In the family of Mikhail Alexandrovich and Maria Antonovna Fadin, a copy of Arzamasskaya Pravda dated February 1944 was carefully kept for half a century. And not just kept, but from time to time removed from the cherished box and re-read. And then a place of honor was found for him in the family album of their son Alexander Mikhailovich. Here is the text of the note, which became a precious relic for the Fadins:
“There was a fight. It depended on its outcome whether we would encircle the enemy grouping in the encirclement ring or he would be able to break through. In one of the sectors it was necessary at all costs to delay the counterattacking enemy until our reinforcements arrived. This task was assigned to the crew of the tank, the commander of which was Guards Lieutenant Fadin. Exactly at 6 o'clock in the morning the tank went on a combat mission. The foot soldiers followed him. Skillfully maneuvering on the ground, the tankers suppressed 12 machine-gun emplacements, removed the enemy machine gunner, who had settled in the mill, and defeated two mortar crews. The enemy trembled. The infantry went on the attack. The tank, spewing fire, burst into the village. Two German medium tanks tried to save the day. The commander of the thirty-four fired one of them with the first shot. The second, not accepting the fight, withdrew. Now the whole village was in the power of the tankers. A column of German vehicles was stretched out onto the road - it was shot. An armored personnel carrier met on the way - it was crushed by caterpillars. A transport plane jumped out from behind the forest, apparently going to the rescue of those surrounded, it was shot down by a direct hit from a tank gun when it was turning around to land.
The village is deserted. The tank cruised on its outskirts, calling the enemy into the field, firing at the edge of the forest. The battle lasted for the third hour. Another victory was won by a Soviet tank. The Germans put up two "tigers" against him, and one tank went around. Even in this unequal battle, the commander of the thirty-four acted with the cold restraint of an experienced warrior. The head "tiger" was nailed to the spot with a well-aimed shot. After the first shell, three more went to the target so that the beast would not leave.
The "Tiger" is on fire, and the Soviet tank is on fire. His motor is broken. A coaxial machine gun was torn out by a direct hit. The turret gunner was killed. Three other crew members were injured. Supporting each other, they leave the battlefield. In a neighboring village, the tank commander hands over the wounded to the medical battalion and moves on. “The order has been executed,” he reports at the command post.
This information of the war correspondent Major Kashin was reprinted by "Arzamasskaya Pravda" (under the heading "Our glorious countryman") from the newspaper "Red Army" of the 1st Ukrainian front. It was on this front that most of the combat biography of Lieutenant A.M. Fadina.
In 1940, Alexander graduated from an incomplete secondary school in the city of Arzamas and entered the Gorky River College. He received his baptism of fire on the Voronezh front in the summer of 1943, having arrived there after graduating from the tank school in Gorky. He was torn to the front from the very beginning of the war, which found him a student of the 2nd year of the river technical school. He immediately submitted an application to the military registration and enlistment office with a request to be sent to the front, but was sent to the school.
“We need competent commanders,” he was told in the military registration and enlistment office. - And in general, it is not customary to argue in the army. Go where we send." And he went.
He stayed at the school for almost two years. Prepared thoroughly. At the tankodrome, they were engaged, as they say, from "twenteen" to "twelve". But he arrived at the front as a fully trained tanker. In the very first battles, as stated in the combat characteristics, "he showed examples of courage and fearlessness." And then every day experience was added, self-confidence and faith in success, in victory grew.
The crew of Alexander Fadin especially distinguished himself in the Kyiv offensive operation, carried out in the first half of November 1943. Its purpose was to defeat the grouping of Nazi troops in the Kyiv region and liberate the capital of Ukraine. At the end of September, bridgeheads were captured on the right bank of the Dnieper north and south of Kyiv, attempts were made to liberate the city twice, but these operations did not achieve the desired result. A high patriotic enthusiasm reigned in the troops, everyone was burning with the desire to throw the enemy out of the capital of Ukraine. As if by itself, the time limit for the liberation of the city emerged and was determined - by November 7th. The 22nd Guards Tank Brigade of the 5th Guards Tank Corps, in which Fadin fought, on November 5, having completed the breakthrough of the enemy defenses together with other troops, cut the Kyiv-Zhytomyr highway. By the morning of November 6, the capital of Ukraine was liberated. Lieutenant Fadin, having crossed a hard-to-reach area of wooded and swampy terrain on his tank, destroyed two enemy tanks, a self-propelled gun, several heavy machine guns with his fire and exterminated more than a dozen Nazis, he was one of the first to break into Kyiv. The battle was on the outskirts of the city. At the intersection of two streets, a smoking enemy self-propelled gun suddenly came to life and opened fire. She set fire to the tank driven by Lieutenant Golubev. A. Fadin turned the turret of his tank and put a shell into the side of the self-propelled gun. For the rest of his life, Alexander Mikhailovich remembered how, victoriously paving the way for his company, he passed on his tank along the broken and smoky Khreshchatyk.
In December 1943, in the battle for Kamenny Brody in Right-Bank Ukraine, A.M. Fadin personally knocked out the 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 infantry platoon, which was trying to capture the tank. At the same time, Fadin's crew 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 artillery 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 shown by A.M. Fadin and during the defeat of the encircled Korsun-Shevchenkovsky enemy grouping in February 1944. His tank in a night attack captured the village of Dashukovka and held it for more than five hours, until the arrival of the main forces of the brigade.
Alexander Mikhailovich ended the war in the Far East. As commander of a tank company, he participated in the defeat of the Japanese Kwantung Army, successfully overcame the mountain ranges of the Greater Khingan on his tested combat vehicles, smashed the enemy in the vast expanses of Manchuria and in capturing Port Arthur.
After the war, A.M. Fadin remained in the army, served as 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 he was transferred to serve in the Military Academy of Armored Forces named after R.Ya. Malinovsky to the post of 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.
In 1975, Alexander Mikhailovich defended his thesis for the degree candidate of military sciences. By the decision of the highest attestation commission in 1981, he was awarded the title of associate professor, and then professor of the Academy of Military Sciences. A.M. Fadin is the author and co-author of more than 40 military scientific papers.
In 1976-1978, he was on a business trip to the Syrian Arab Republic, organizing the training of tank troops officers. In 1996 he retired with the rank of colonel.
Until a certain time, the combat biography of Alexander Fadin was little known. And he returned from the war with three orders - the Red Banner, Alexander Nevsky, World War II degree, medals "For Military Merit", "For the Capture of Budapest", "For the Liberation of Prague", "For the Capture of Vienna". “High awards, what can I say. It’s a sin to complain, ”Alexander Mikhailovich himself thought so, reassuring himself. But he knew that twice during the war he was presented by the command to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union!
The first time he was presented to the heroic title in 1943 for his distinction in the battles for the liberation of Kyiv. The idea reached the Military Council of the 38th Army. Commander K.S. Moskalenko and member of the Military Council A.A. Epishev decided to award A.M. Fadin with the Order of the Red Banner.
The second time - for distinction in the battle for Dashukovka in the Korsun-Shevchenko operation. 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 then.
Through the efforts of the Council of Veterans of the 6th Guards Tank Army, a petition was initiated to assign retired colonel A.M. Fadin for personal courage and heroism shown in the battles for the Motherland, the title of Hero of the Russian Federation. The petition passed all the required instances, and not one of them doubted the existence of legal grounds for such a decision. And so, it happened. Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of September 6, 1996 A.M. Fadin was awarded the title of Hero of Russia. What a great event this was in his life could be judged by the veteran's sincere confession: "I feel fifteen years younger."
Alexander Mikhailovich continued to work at the Military Academy of Armored Forces named after R.Ya. Malinovsky as a researcher of the research teaching and methodological group of the academy. Since 1998, he has been a senior researcher at the Information Technology Center of the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Actively participated in military-patriotic work.
In addition to the awards received at the front, over the years, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the Red Star, "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" of the 3rd degree, and medals were added.
In 2010 A.M. Fadin was awarded the highest state award The Republic of Slovakia - the Order of the Double White Cross 2nd class as a participant in the battles for the liberation of Slovakia.
In the computer game World of Tanks, one of the awards is called the Fadin Medal, which is awarded to the player who destroyed the last enemy vehicle with the last shell in the ammunition load.