Chapter 17 7.the bravest and most determined man

Since the evening, it has been raining endlessly.The dirt road finally became muddy.Luckily we were on the road paved with large cobblestones.Although the car bumped a lot on it, it was able to move after all.It was only when Proskurov approached the ground that the road was washed away in several places.I will remember this road all my life.The road follows deep valleys with many steep slopes and twists and turns on high hillsides.The driver stepped up the accelerator to drive the Jis-101 uphill.The heavy car roared with difficulty, swayed from side to side, and splashed mud far away.At the turn near the top of the mountain, the engine let out a muffled sound and then stopped.The car backed off the road and slid faster and faster down the steep slope.The driver turned pale, turned around and looked behind, and turned the steering wheel nimbly.I remembered the important combat paperwork I carried with me.He grabbed the file box, opened the car door and prepared to jump out.But the car, driven by the expert, slid to a flat and stopped.The driver slowly wiped the sweat off his face with trembling hands and said:

"Looks like the disaster is over..." Instructing my lieutenant, Lieutenant Bokhorov, to try to pull the Gies out of the ditch, I grabbed the precious suitcase, scrambled to the road, and got into the first car that came.After a while we reached the plain, and then drove on the streets of Proskurov (now Khmelnytsky). Proskurov is located on the banks of the South Bug River and is an important junction of roads that meander to Ternopil, Shepetovka, Vinnytsia, Kamenets Podolsky.Therefore, I feel that the choice of location for the new command post is a little less than ideal.The Fascist aviation never gave peace to the great junctions of roads.However, it is more convenient to command the army here, because there are to some extent permanent lines of communication and extensive lines of communication.

I saw my comrades working hard.Communications with the various armies have been smooth.Our deputies have returned from the troops to report that the order to fight has been delivered and that the commanders of the armies have proceeded to carry it out. For the first time in the days since the war broke out, we had a very clear idea of ​​the situation on our northern flank.After Fejuninsky's army withdrew from the Kovel area in an organized manner, it held firm on the right bank of the Stohod River and successfully resisted the enemy's impact.The 31st Infantry Corps took up defense along the banks of the Sterry on its left.Kirponos ordered the army's 195th Infantry Division to be withdrawn to the Czartoresk area and incorporated into his reserve.

On the nearly fifty-kilometer front along the Lutsk-Rovne highway, the tank divisions of the 9th Mechanized Army are struggling to fight the enemy. General C. C. Rokossovsky, unable to establish a continuous line of defense, organized his motorized division into the second echelon, so that he could use it to attack and repel the enemy who penetrated here and there. Army fast cluster. The corps of the 19th Mechanized Army of General H. B. Feklenko stopped the enemy at the Goren River east of Rovno, firmly controlled the Rovno-Volynsky New Town Highway, and stubbornly resisted the fascist tanks. and the impact of motorized troops.South of Feklenko's corps, General Lukin's group continued to fight heroically.The ancient Ukrainian city of Ostrog has changed hands several times.Now, the troops that our army withdrew from the city the day before launched a counterattack against the enemy again, trying to regain their original position.Between the left flank of Lukin's group and the right flank of Sixth Army (the latter interrupted somewhere southeast of Dubno) there was a huge gap, controlled only by a few reconnaissance detachments.

The commander of the 5th Army, Potapov, tried his best to establish an assault group to carry out a new counter-assault under such difficult conditions, so he organized the units of the 22nd Mechanized Army into the second echelon and concentrated them in the 40th northeast of Lutsk. km.He also withdrew the 27th Infantry Corps, which was effectively reduced to one regiment of the 135th Infantry Division and the 87th Infantry Division. (We have not yet had information on other regiments of the division and elements of the 124th Infantry Division which continue to operate in the enemy's rear. All attempts to communicate with them have been unsuccessful.)

The 6th, 26th, and 12th Army Group executed the order of the commander of the Front Army to retreat in order to hold on to the front lines of Zolochev, Borshov, Bobulka, Kalush, and Nadvarna. The army retreated slowly while fighting tenaciously.The soldiers fought the enemy with the same rage as before.In the face of enemy tanks, they rarely retreat.If you don't have enough artillery, hit them with cluster grenades.Unfortunately, even grenades are not always enough.So everyone remembered the experience of the supporters of the Spanish Republic and began to collect glass bottles and fill them with gasoline.

When the first news came from the armies that enemy tanks were being burned with petrol bottles, Pulkayev had General H.C. Petukhov, chief of chemical services, rush to study the matter.Our resolute front army chemist immediately got in touch with many famous Ukrainian scientists.Chemists enthusiastically participated in this work.Before long, many wineries in the Republic switched to new products.Tens of thousands of Molotov cocktails were shipped to the front.Weapons are common, but very effective in the hands of the brave and able.Every successful fight against the Panzer Demon was reported in the newspapers and leaflets of the Front, Army Group, and Division and became known to every soldier.These short reports have huge impact and can inspire people to do new feats.

Education with paragons of heroism is on an ever-increasing scale.Political workers and party and regiment activists took every appropriate opportunity to introduce to the soldiers the glorious fighting deeds of their comrades.Everyone scrambled to circulate the handwritten leaflet "Lightning".Combat bulletins and wall posters introducing military achievements are hung on the walls of the bunker and on the display boards taken out during short breaks.When a soldier reads the deeds of his comrades, he can't help thinking: "Why am I worse than them? Am I not as patriotic as them?" So after the next battle, a group of new heroes will be added next to the names of the already familiar heroes. .

The soldiers saw that many of the bravest and most determined were Communists.So people have a strong desire to win the lofty title of party members.Everyone thinks that joining the party is the obligation to fight bravely in the battle.The outstanding characteristics of a Communist Party member - a deep understanding of one's obligations to the people, and a desire to contribute all one's strength and even one's life (if necessary) to the cause of revolution and the socialist motherland have become the code of conduct of commanders and fighters.People found a note in the identity card of Sergeant Serizov who died heroically, which read: "I am going to fight, and my wish is to meet my death like the Bolsheviks." Two days before that, Xie Lizov Lizov submitted an application for membership in the party.

There is a great strength in understanding the divine purpose of war.This power is growing.Party and government work has become a powerful weapon that makes our fighters invincible.Heroism has become more and more popular.This is in line with the law, because it is a matter of defending the achievements of the October Revolution and of the life and death of the Soviet people. It is a pity that victory or defeat on the battlefield depends not only on the morale of the army.It depends on many factors.It also depends on the balance of power.The advantage is still on the enemy's side.It overwhelmed us with hordes of tanks and bombers, and brought all its new reserves into battle.In order to preserve the dwindling army, we had no choice but to withdraw these troops.However, even when the Soviet commanders retreated to the new area under the order of the chief, they were not thinking about how to save their own lives, but how to cause greater losses to the enemy.

While fighting bitterly, we withdrew the corps of the 6th and 26th armies from the border to the new area east of Lvov.Some of the toughest troops were responsible for covering the retreat.In the 15th Mechanized Corps, this task was undertaken by the 669th Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 212th Motorized Division.When the enemy approached, Colonel B. B. Baldakin ordered the whole regiment to counterattack.The warriors fought fiercely against the enemy.The strength of the troops is very different.During the battle, some units often fell into the enemy's encirclement.But these detachments resolutely broke out of the encirclement every time, opening the way to the main force of the regiment.The fascists surrounded the 6th company of the motorized infantry and had already broken into the position of the company.It looked as if it was coming to an end.But at this moment, the platoon leader, Lieutenant C.A. Alaklian, rushed forward to fight hand-to-hand.The spirit of the platoon leader infected the soldiers.Arachlian was wounded, but went on.The soldiers opened the enemy's wall with bayonets, rifle butts, and grenades, and joined our regiment. Fighting side by side with the units of the 15th Mechanized Army in the Kremenets area was the 14th Cavalry Division of Major General B.J. Kryuchongkin.Bulletins from the division were also sent to the headquarters of the Front, and every single one of them was tempted to be published in the newspapers. A platoon of the 29th Tank Regiment of the division was commanded by Lieutenant H. O. Kravets, a communist.Tank soldiers often drove bravely to the places where the battle was fiercest to rescue their cavalry comrades.It's the same this time. Kravets led his platoon towards the assaulting fascist tanks.The enemy diverted all firepower to the Soviet tanks.Kravets and his men were mobile, striking the enemy with precise cannon fire and bursts of machine gun fire.There was a sudden explosion and a shell fell on Kravets' tank.The driver and shooter died.The platoon leader was injured by the shock and his ears were deaf. He struggled to get to the observation hole.Enemy tanks are approaching.With all his might, Kravets loaded and took aim.One shot, two shots, three shots... Two enemy tanks caught fire.But the third aimed at the Soviet tank.The turret was bombarded and couldn't turn.It was impossible to continue shooting.So Kravitz pushed away the driver who was killed, held the joystick, drove full power, and slammed into the enemy tank with all his strength. In this way, it is not only the pilots of our army who carry out the collision, but the tank soldiers often do the same, as long as they can destroy the enemy. In this battle, the cavalry machine gunner and corporal Manukichang, the former Baku oil worker, also performed very well.While covering the retreat of his cavalry company, he was wounded in six places, but continued firing until his comrades established themselves in the new area. Soldiers follow their example. The units of the 76th Cavalry Regiment retreated rapidly under the onslaught of the enemy.This puts the Neighborhood in a difficult position - the fascists may penetrate deep into the rear of the regiment.Seeing that the cavalry had lost hope of stopping the enemy, at this moment a rider came with a saber in his hand.The soldiers heard him shout: "Follow me!" Everyone recognized the rider as J. C. Dobrushin, the political commissar of the 1st Battalion.The cavalry launched a swift and violent charge.From this came strength: the regiment, which had just retreated, drove back the enemy with a violent column shock. In the Lviv area, where the 4th Mechanized Army fought, the main task of rearguard combat fell on the 8th Tank Division.The division troops often have to fight in the enemy's encirclement.But once they broke out, they went to block the way of the fascist army. The battalions of the 8th Motorized Rifle Regiment fought away from the main force for several hours.Captain Muglajan delivered charge after charge, but his battalion was met with heavy blocking fire everywhere. Mu Lajiang once again collected the remaining troops of each company and led them to break through.The soldiers advanced without shouting and shooting, repelling the enemy's skirmishers.The heroes carried the wounded back to their own people.The battalion's retreat was covered by the tanks of Corporal E. A. Voronov.After the last batch of infantry disappeared into the forest, the Soviet tank fired back and followed the infantry, but it drove into the swamp.The fascists surrounded the tank, which was stuck in the mud.The tank crews kept the fascists at bay with accurate machine gun and submachine gun fire.The Hitler bandits brought in a cannon, but only fired one shot in total, because Voronov had already taken a position next to the gun and knocked it out with one shot.During the night, the tank crews managed to drive their tanks onto hard ground to catch up with their own team.They took in four wounded Red Army soldiers on the way. In the 81st Motorized Rifle Division, the tank companies were the last to retreat.At the height of the battle, two mortally wounded infantrymen climbed up to the tank of the Muscovite C. E. Borisov.The tank crew took them in.The two Red Army soldiers said that they saw a wounded colonel on the road, still lying in the field, because they had no strength to lift him.Without thinking twice, Borisov rushed the tank towards the enemy.The intensive shooting did not stop him.Soldiers of Borisov and his crew crushed two machine guns, wiped out a mortar company, routed almost an infantry company, and finally found the wounded.The tank soldier carefully lifted the colonel onto the tank and returned to his own people.The commander's life was saved. When our army abandoned the city of Zhurkiv (now Nesterov), there were still several large armories there.Major M. E. Irzhevsky, representative of the Artillery Command of the 6th Army, was ordered to blow it up and prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy.The major led the engineering team assigned to him to carry out the mission.But no sooner had they approached the warehouse than the fascists stormed the city.The Irzhevsky group was cut off.How to do it?Go back to your own people without carrying out the order?The major sent warehouse guards (who remained at their posts) and some engineers to counter the fascist onslaught, while he and others planted mines under the ordnance piles.After the operation was over, Irzhevsky ordered his subordinates to break out of the siege, while he stayed with an engineer.Some of the fighters who came back to their own people said later that they saw the Hitlerites storming into the warehouse district, and at that very moment everything was buried in fireworks.Major Irzhevsky completed the task at the cost of his life. A similar feat took place near Peremyshli.Sixteen wagons of explosives remained in an area occupied by the fascists.These explosives cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of the enemy.An engineering team headed by Lieutenant Grigoriev sneaked into the warehouse and blew up the warehouse under the noses of the fascists. We also had reports of the bravery of many units and detachments covering the retreat of the 26th Army. In the 8th Infantry Corps, some soldiers of the 233rd Army Artillery Regiment led by Lieutenant Koftan sneaked into the enemy's rear, captured three large-caliber artillery pieces, and opened fire on the fascists.This attack panicked the enemy and thus helped the regiment break away from the enemy. In the rear of the 72nd Division of the Mountain Infantry there was a platoon headed by the captain political instructor Kordbantsev.The soldiers of the platoon hit the last bullet while fighting against the onslaught of fascists.They were all killed, but kept the enemy at bay for hours. Our airmen began to support ground forces more effectively.The 4th Long-Range Aviation Corps operating in the southwest attacked enemy reserves and important rear targets.The front air force concentrated its forces on attacking the advancing fascist groups and countering enemy air strikes. Commanding the 4th Army of the Long-range Air Force is B·A·Sujieci, a good rusher A thin colonel in motion, tenacious and tireless in the execution of combat missions. Long-range bombers fly without reliable cover.Every time it was attacked by fascist fighter planes and anti-aircraft artillery.Although the army suffered losses, heavy aircraft continued to fly westward. Fascist aviation continued to hold air supremacy.These conditions require a great deal of courage from our pilots.Often we saw three or four fighters with red stars fighting ten or twenty fascist planes. E. C. Sa, the captain of the 164th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 15th Aviation Division While escorting the bomber, Captain Msonov fought alone with eight fascist fighters over Lava, Russia.No one believed that he would survive this battle.But not only was he unharmed, but he also shot down an enemy plane. The pilots of the 17th Aviation Division bombing a brigade of the 224th Regiment withstood severe test.They went to bomb the enemy columns without fighter cover.This brigade was headed by T. E. Koshmyakov.The bombers came under heavy anti-aircraft fire over Dubno.Koshmyakov led the team out of the shooting range.But the brigade was immediately attacked by fighter planes again.Three of the enemy planes rushed towards the main engine, and one of them had circled behind it.But the fascists were thankful that it was too early: communications shooter Praksunov shot it down with a well-placed point shot.The other fighter planes began to restrain themselves, not daring to approach.Our planes threw off the enemy planes and dropped bombs on the target.When the brigade flew back to the airport, it was found that Koshmyakov's plane had a total of 112 bullet holes. The division bombed four bombers led by Lieutenant C. D. Asholov of the 48th Regiment, which had been attacked by sixteen Messerschmitts.My pilot flew the plane to fight.Then something unbelievable happened: my bomber shot down four enemy fighter planes and drove away other enemy planes, completing the mission. Pilot Katayev and communications shooter Mitrofanov of the 62nd Aviation Division bombing the 94th Regiment were attacked by three fascist fighter planes on their way back from the bombing.Katayev and Mitrofanov performed clever maneuvers and accurate shots, not only saving their own plane, but also shooting down a "Messerschmitt".The air battle was watched with excitement and astonishment from the airfield.As soon as the bomber landed, the comrades rushed up to congratulate the heroes.The pilot was wounded, but still had the strength to climb out of the cockpit, while communications shooter Mitrofanov was lifted out by hand.It turned out that he was seriously wounded in the fight. The division bombed the comrades of the pilot of the 226th regiment, Captain C. A. Prusenko How disturbed we were to watch him duel with enemy fighters.Bombers fly through the air, avoiding attacks while engaging fighters with well-placed bursts.Finally, the Soviet plane landed at the airport.When people ran up to him, they saw the pilot unconscious.His face was covered with blood, and even his eyes were covered with blood.How could he fight and land the plane in such conditions? I could cite many more examples of that.Our people truly display a boundless spirit of heroism.Among the bravest, Communists stand at the forefront.In battle, everyone looks up to them. Due to the collective heroism of the commanders and fighters, the army can suffer less losses when it retreats.People even evacuated almost all the valuables to the rear in time.In carrying out the evacuation of the city, great efforts were made by local party and soviet organisations.They work closely with military agencies.The evacuations were carried out under unimaginably difficult conditions: railway lines were regularly bombed by enemy aviation and their sabotaging paratroopers.With boundless perseverance and bravery, railroad workers repaired roads and steered trains under constant bombardment.The railway soldiers of our army have provided them with great help.Local comrades especially appreciated Colonel E. A. Kabanov's railway brigade commanders and fighters.The battalions of the brigade not only had to quickly repair the damaged road sections, but also often fought fiercely with the enemy's sabotage teams.