Reports of the Soviet Information Bureau for July 10, 1941 of the Great Patriotic War
News & Events
07/10/1944 Reports of the Soviet Information Bureau for July 10, 1944 of the Great Patriotic War
07/10/1943 Reports of the Soviet Information Bureau for July 10, 1943 of the Great Patriotic War
07/10/1942 Reports of the Soviet Information Bureau for July 10, 1942 of the Great Patriotic War
07/10/1941 Reports of the Soviet Information Bureau for July 10, 1941 of the Great Patriotic War
During the day on July 9 and on the night of July 10, major battles continued in the Polotsk and Novograd-Volyn directions.
On the Ostrovsky direction, our troops repelled all enemy attacks with heavy losses for him.
Stubborn battles continued in the Polotsk direction. Our troops are conducting decisive counterattacks.
In the battles in the Lepel direction, our troops destroyed a motorized division of German troops, up to 40 guns, a large number of transport and special vehicles.
In the Borisov direction, our units inflicted a serious defeat on one of the enemy divisions.
In the Bobruisk direction, our troops are firmly holding their positions.
In the Novograd-Volynsk direction, our troops are holding back the offensive of large enemy forces.
On the Bessarabian sector of the front, the enemy offensive is met with strong opposition from our troops.
There were no major hostilities in other directions and sectors of the front.
Our aviation destroyed up to 100 enemy tanks in the afternoon of July 9 and on the night of July 10 continued combat operations against enemy troops in the Ostrovsky and Novograd-Volynsky directions.
On the night of July 9, the German "Junkers-88", accompanied by "Messerschmitts", flew out to prepare the offensive of their units on the Ensky sector of the front. Soviet pilots met the Nazis on the way to the bombing site and rushed to the German planes from a great height. At the first attack, the formation of the bombers and the fighters accompanying them was upset. Taking advantage of the darkness, the commander of the German bomber formation tried to change course. The ploy failed. All enemy planes were destroyed. Some time later, the second and third echelons of German aircraft appeared. Air combat flared up with renewed vigor. Courageously attacking the enemy, Soviet pilots shot down one German plane after another. Trying to get away from the fire of our fighters, many fascist pilots used the old method. They staged a fall, so that after exiting the dive, they would flee at low level. But many of them failed to do so. The battle ended with the complete defeat of the enemy. 33 enemy aircraft were destroyed. Soviet pilots lost five aircraft. Their crews escaped by parachute.
On one of the sections of the Soviet-Finnish border, the White Finns tried to bypass and surround a group of Red Army soldiers. The brave machine gunners Corporal Doshmatov and the Red Army soldier Osechkin repelled the onslaught of the enemy for several hours. The enraged fascists, in order to break the resistance of the red fighters, set fire to the forest near our firing point with a flamethrower and began to accumulate for the attack. The Soviet fighters did not allow the White Finns to approach the line of attack and boldly moved to the counterattack. The counterattack was supported by the commander of the neighboring unit, Lieutenant Ryzhov. The White Finns, having lost 12 officers and about 50 soldiers killed, were driven back.
Corporal of the Ensky Infantry Regiment Kvashin acted heroically in battle. Under heavy shelling, he broke the enemy's connection. With the departure of the company from the battle, Kvashin with well-aimed machine-gun fire held back the onslaught of the Nazis. The last to leave the battlefield, the fearless corporal carried the wounded company commander, Lieutenant Avakov, on his back.
The battery changed its firing position. Junior sergeants Breev and Popeyko and corporals Tereshchenko and Kachaev were filming the telephone line. At this time, they were attacked at a strafing flight by two fascist aircraft. The soldiers took cover and opened fire on the enemy with rifles. One plane was shot down, the second escaped.
The outpost of Lieutenant Demin successfully repulsed the enemy's sortie. The enemy suffered heavy losses and was driven back. The shooting stopped, but the Red Army vigilantly followed every movement in the camp of the enemy. The observer reported that three enemy soldiers were crawling towards the wire fence. The commander ordered to let them in and be ready. One German soldier, who reached the fence, put a piece of paper on the wire and immediately crawled back. On the sheet was an inscription in German: “Down with the bloody Hitler! The German people do not want to fight the Soviet Union!
From the observation post of the Ensky unit at 18 o'clock on July 8, a small group of Finnish soldiers was seen. The detachment of junior sergeant Verov sent forward delayed the approaching Finns. Toivo P., who led the Finnish soldiers, announced the desire of their company to go over to the side of the Red Army. At 2 o'clock in the morning on July 9, the Finnish company in full strength voluntarily crossed over to Soviet territory. The company handed over all the rifles, ten machine guns and mortars, a large amount of ammunition, as well as four associated shutskors, including one lieutenant and three non-commissioned officers. The soldiers spoke about the plight of the Finnish people. “The last crumbs are taken from the Finnish people,” says Toivo P., “we have already forgotten when we ate our fill. The entire population of Finland is starving. The miserable remnants of grain and cattle have been taken away for the German army.”
Every day of the Patriotic War brings wonderful examples of labor prowess and new labor exploits. At one Leningrad plant, the site of the senior master of the mechanical shop, comrade. Shakhnovich received the task to make critical parts. In peacetime, this work took about 8 days. Through the joint efforts of all workers, a complex and urgent order was completed in 15 hours. Turner of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant comrade. Wartkin completes the daily task by 500 percent. Driller of the container shop of the Gomel timber processing plant comrade. Petrenko gives 800 or more parts per shift at a rate of 510.
At the station N., the foreman of the locomotives comrade. Vershilov noticed a man dressed in a paramilitary uniform. The questions that he asked the passengers seemed suspicious to the foreman. The stranger was arrested. He turned out to be a fascist saboteur. Among various documents, three Soviet passports were found on him. The vigilance of Soviet patriots helps to expose all the tricks of the insidious enemy.
During the day, our aircraft attacked enemy motorized units in the Ostrovsky and Novograd-Volynsky directions, destroyed enemy troops at crossings across the river. Zap. Dvina and attacked enemy aircraft at its airfields.
In air battles and actions on airfields, our aviation destroyed 28 German aircraft, losing 6 of its aircraft.
Large enemy tank forces launched a fierce attack on the right flank of the Ensk formation. Immediately put into action, our artillery opened heavy fire on enemy tanks. Unable to withstand heavy fire, the enemy retreated, leaving up to 70 broken tanks on the field. Embittered by the failure, the enemy, after shelling our positions, went on the attack a second time. From the fire of artillery and Soviet bombers, the enemy lost several dozen more tanks, but the rest managed to form a breakthrough and push our units a little. An infantry division of the German troops rushed into the gap that had formed. Our tanks and motorized units, which arrived in time, surrounded the fascist division, preventing it from turning around. After the battle, in which our air forces took part, the German division was defeated. Our units captured 28 serviceable guns, 8 powerful anti-aircraft guns, many machine guns and automatic weapons, 30 vehicles and 54 motorcycles. Over 3,500 killed and wounded German soldiers remained on the battlefield. About 2,400 German soldiers and officers were captured.
The well-camouflaged tank of senior sergeant G. Naidin stood at the edge of the forest: Soviet tankers were tracking down the enemy. A column of fascist tanks appeared on the road. Letting them get closer, Naidin knocked out the front tank with the first shot. The engine of the enemy vehicle stopped working, and the tank blocked the narrow road. The German drivers tried to turn back, but Naidin also knocked out a German tank coming from behind. 10 out of 12 tanks were squeezed into a ring: tanks were burning in front and behind, and there was a deep swamp on the sides. Taking advantage of the confusion of the German tankers, Comrade Naidin and the turret gunner Kopytov sent shell after shell at the enemy. So one Soviet tank destroyed 12 fascist tanks.
The White Finns were preparing a landing force against our troops. On one of the islands of the bay, they began to accumulate their forces. The soldiers and commanders of the Ensk coastal part of the Baltic Sea were ordered to prevent the landing and destroy the White Finns. Without a road, through boulders and rocks, the Soviet soldiers dragged the guns to a new firing position. The White Finns were destroyed by the artillery fire of the Baltics: more than 350 were killed and wounded on the island, the rest fled.
The heroic resistance of the Red Army arouses the frenzied anger of the German fascists. They are trying to take out their anger on the wounded Red Army soldiers. German fighters, like kites, hunt even for individual orderlies picking up the wounded on the battlefield. In the mountains Postavy, a fascist light bomber shot from a machine gun the orderlies who carried out the wounded Red Army soldiers on a stretcher, despite the fact that the German pilot clearly saw the clear identification marks of the Red Cross on the orderlies. The fascists deal especially cruelly with the wounded Red Army soldiers captured. Sergeant I. Karasev, who escaped from Nazi captivity, witnessed the savage massacre of the Nazis over four seriously wounded captured Red Army soldiers. One wounded soldier, who categorically refused to answer questions of a military nature, had his hands cut off and his eyes gouged out by order of an officer. The remaining three Red Army soldiers, exhausted from loss of blood, were scalded by the executioners with boiling water, and then stabbed with bayonets.
80 kilometers northwest of the city of N., a partisan detachment crept up at night to a village occupied by the Germans. Silently removing sentries, the detachment attacked the soldiers of the motorcycle unit that was spending the night in the village. Only 12 German motorcyclists managed to escape. 74 soldiers and 2 officers were killed. Having destroyed 62 motorcycles, the partisans left the village.
On July 9, after a counterattack by our troops against large enemy formations in the Ensky direction, the orderlies picked up more than 100 wounded Germans on the battlefield. Among the wounded was a group of soldiers of the German engineering units. After the soldiers were fed and given medical care, they said that their unit was on the northern coast of France, where last year they were preparing for the landing of German troops in England. “Two weeks before the start of the war on the eastern front,” says soldier Peter K., “we, along with other troops, were transferred to the eastern front. In the first days of the war, officers assured the soldiers that the Germans would deal with the Bolsheviks in ten days, and then in August they would dine in London. However, the calculations of our officers shattered into dust. Not only our units arrived on the eastern front, but also large engineering units from Saint-Omer. And the end of the war is not even in sight.
According to reliable data received, the German command removed all troops from the German-Swiss border, replacing them with the elderly and the disabled.
The multimillion-strong Soviet intelligentsia rose to the defense of the motherland. On the initiative of the doctor of technical sciences comrade Filonenko, professors and teachers of the Ivanovo Energy Institute decided to work at the industrial enterprises of the region during their vacation time. The Kharkov Medical Society, the oldest in the Soviet Union, in response to Comrade Stalin's speech, sends many qualified specialists to the infirmaries and hospitals of the Red Army. Prominent scientists address the Board of the Society every day with proposals to use their knowledge. Among these patriotic scientists are professors Shevandin, Yudin, Marzeev, Gofung, Gasparyan and others. Over a thousand students of the Moscow Timiryazev Academy work on collective farms as agronomists, combine and tractor drivers. In the Kazakh Republic, 80 thousand students and secondary school students went to agricultural work.
Young patriots help the NKVD to catch Nazi spies and saboteurs. The city of K. was plunged into darkness. Only in one window of the local hotel and in the windows of two other houses located in different parts of the city, light appeared. Students from Vladimir Kosinsky's platoon tracked down the enemies who were signaling and informed the police. Three enemy posts were immediately eliminated. When walking around the site on the outskirts of the city, two combatants of this platoon noticed a man hiding in the bushes and reported to the policeman. The stranger, who turned out to be a saboteur, was arrested.
... read more >Sergei Varshavchik, RIA Novosti columnist.
July 1941 is the 23rd month of World War II. With the attack of the Wehrmacht on the Soviet Union, the scale and severity of the battles increased dramatically, and the Eastern Front became the main one for Nazi Germany until the end of the war. The Third Reich for the first time since September 1939 met such a serious and stubborn enemy. But the final victory of the Red Army was still very far away.
Brothers, sisters and commissioners
In July, the German armed forces continued their strategic offensive in all directions, delivering the main blow with the forces of Army Group Center in the Western Front.
The country's leadership recovered from the initial shock caused by the defeats of the Red Army in the border battles and realized the scale of the impending catastrophe. The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Chairman of the State Defense Committee I.V. Stalin broke his silence, which had dragged on for a week and a half after the start of the war, by speaking with some new, unusual for the country, incredibly penetrating intonations. The famous speech on July 3, 1945 began like this: "Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters! Soldiers of our army and navy! I am addressing you, my friends!"
Earlier, Stalin authorized the arrest of the leadership of the Western Front. In July 1941, by decision of the military tribunal on charges of negligence and failure to fulfill their duties, the former front commander, General of the Army Pavlov, his chief of staff, Major General Klimovskikh, the head of communications, Major General Grigoriev, the chief of artillery, Lieutenant General Klich, and several other senior officers. Soon after Stalin's death, they were all rehabilitated.
On the same day, July 3, 1941, Colonel-General Franz Halder, Chief of the General Staff of the German Land Forces, wrote in his diary: "It would not be an exaggeration to say that the campaign against Russia was won within 14 days."
One of the measures to strengthen discipline in the army was the revival in the Red Army on July 16 of the institution of military commissars, which was liquidated in 1940 after the Soviet-Finnish war. Another was the appointment of Stalin as People's Commissar of Defense.
Leapfrog in the Western direction
The former People's Commissar, Marshal of the Soviet Union Timoshenko, was instructed to lead the Western Front. However, the situation in this area continued to develop according to the worst-case scenario. By the beginning of July, the Germans in two "cauldrons", Belostok and Minsk, had captured more than 300 thousand people (including several generals) and, having only scattered Soviet units in front of them, were rapidly moving deep into the territory of the USSR. The fact that the Center group (unlike the South and North) had two tank groups at once, under the command of Generals Guderian and Goth, played a role in this powerful onslaught.
Did not contribute to the improvement of affairs and leapfrog with the commanders of the front. Having burned himself with Pavlov, Stalin "tried" various appointees in the most important strategic direction. From July 2 to July 19, Timoshenko led the front, from July 19 to 30 - Lieutenant General Eremenko, from July 30 - again Timoshenko.
On July 10, the bloody battle of Smolensk began, which lasted until September 1941. After six days of the offensive, on July 16, the 29th motorized division from the Guderian group broke into Smolensk, where stubborn street battles began. Three days later, the Wehrmacht's 10th Panzer Division advanced southeast of Smolensk and occupied the town of Yelnya. As a result, 20 rifle divisions that were part of the 16th, 19th and 20th Soviet armies fell into the operational environment.
The Soviet command tried to turn the tide. South of Smolensk, on July 13, the 21st Army launched a counterattack, the purpose of which was to capture the cities of Bykhov and Bobruisk and go to the rear of the advancing enemy. At first, the offensive developed successfully, but a few days later the command of Army Group Center, hastily transferring infantry formations to the threatened direction, stopped the offensive of the Red Army.
But in general, the blitzkrieg began to slow down. The city of Velikie Luki, which the Germans occupied on July 19, they had to leave on July 21.
However, according to Halder, the Fuhrer was optimistic, believing that by autumn he would reach the Volga and enter the Caucasus. The course of events seemed to confirm his plans. On July 26, after fierce fighting, our troops left Mogilev, and on the 28th - Smolensk. The enemy was still very strong.
First of all, in aviation: the Luftwaffe established complete air supremacy, regularly subjecting the ground units of the Soviet troops to the most severe bombardments. A month after the start of the war, on July 22, German aviation launched its first massive raid on Moscow, which was successfully repelled by fighters and anti-aircraft artillery of the Moscow air defense zone.
From the Black to the White Seas
On the Southern Front in July, a defensive battle unfolded in Moldova, during which the Soviet side steadfastly repelled the blows of the German-Romanian troops, periodically turning into counterattacks. But there were not enough forces - by order of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, three corps and several divisions were transferred to the Southwestern Front.
On July 16, Chisinau was abandoned, on July 21 - Balti, by the end of July, units of the Red Army left Moldova and Northern Bukovina. However, at the cost of heroic efforts, they managed to prevent a breakthrough of the front, which in an organized manner was assigned to the Dniester. The total losses of the Soviet troops amounted to more than 17 thousand people, the Romanian - about 23 thousand (German unknown).
On the Southwestern Front (after the largest oncoming tank battle near Lutsk-Rivne-Brody in June), the battle for Kyiv began on July 7th. On July 19, in Directive No. 33 to the Wehrmacht High Command, Hitler ordered the southern flank of Army Group Center to turn to Ukraine in order, in cooperation with the northern flank of Army Group South, to encircle and defeat the 12th and 6th Soviet armies, preventing their departure for the Dnieper. However, in the next directive, dated July 30, the Fuhrer actually reversed his decision, ordering the tank groups of Guderian and Goth, which were pretty battered in battles, to rest and replenish with personnel and equipment. The strike to the south was temporarily postponed.
In the zone of Army Group North, the Germans, using the forces of the 41st and 56th motorized corps, developed an offensive against Leningrad. Having occupied Pskov on July 9, the next day the 41st Corps ran into stubborn resistance from the Soviet troops near the city of Luga.
On July 14, the 11th Soviet Army launched an unexpectedly strong counterattack, as a result of which the main forces of the German 8th Panzer Division and part of the 3rd Motorized Division, which were part of the 56th Corps, were surrounded.
The situation was restored by the SS division "Totenkopf", which helped most of the personnel of the 56th Corps to escape from the deadly "embrace" of the enemy. However, having buried themselves in the Luga defensive line, on July 19 the command of the "North" group suspended the offensive for three weeks until the main forces approached. Thus, giving the necessary respite to the defenders of Leningrad.
The most favorable situation for the Red Army developed on the Northern Front, where in the conditions of the Far North the Germans could not massively use armored forces. After fierce fighting, the German offensive against Murmansk was halted at the turn of the Western Litsa River. The German troops and their allies, the Finns, also failed to reach the Murmansk railway in the Kondalaksha and Loukh directions. Until September 1941, there was an operational pause here.
Subsequently, the writer Konstantin Simonov in the novel The Living and the Dead wrote: "The generals of the German army, which was still victoriously advancing on Moscow, Leningrad and Kyiv, in fifteen years will call this July of the forty-first year the month of deceived expectations, successes that did not become a victory."
The State Defense Committee adopted a resolution on the formation of the High Commands of the Troops:
Northwest Direction(unified the troops of the Northern and North-Western fronts, the Northern and Baltic fleets. Abolished on 27.8.1941). Commander-in-Chief - Marshal of the Soviet Union K.E. Voroshilov;
Western direction(led the operations of the Western Front and the Pinsk Flotilla, then the Western, Central and Reserve Fronts. Abolished on September 10, 1941, re-created on February 1, 1942 and existed until May 5, 1942 on the basis of the Western and Kalinin Fronts). Commanders-in-chief: Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K., Timoshenko (July - September 1941); Army General G.K. Zhukov (February - May 1942);
southwestern direction(led the actions of the Southwestern Front - the entire period, the Southern Front - from July 10 to September 26, 1941 and from October 16, 1941 to June 21, 1942, the Bryansk Front - from December 24, 1941 to April 1, 1942 fronts The Black Sea Fleet was subordinate to him until April 1942. Abolished on 2/6/1942). Commanders-in-Chief: Marshals of the Soviet Union S.M. Budyonny (July - September 1941), S.K. Timoshenko (September 1941 - June 1942);
North Caucasian direction(directed the actions of the Crimean Front, the Sevastopol defensive region, the North Caucasian military district, the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov military flotilla. Abolished on May 19, 1942). Commander-in-Chief - Marshal of the Soviet Union S.M. Budyonny.
The State Defense Committee adopted a resolution on the transformation of the Headquarters of the High Command into the Headquarters of the High Command, headed by I.V. Stalin.
The Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted the Decree "On the organization of local air defense in cities and towns of the RSFSR." Responsibility for organizing the MPVO was assigned to the regional and regional executive committees, the councils of people's commissars of the autonomous republics, and in the cities - to the city executive committees.
The troops of the 14th Army of the Northern Front, with the support of the ships and aviation of the Northern Fleet, fought stubborn defensive battles against the enemy troops, who launched an offensive in the area of the river. Big Face.
The defensive operations of the troops of the 7th Army began in the Olonets and Petrozavodsk directions against the "Karelian" armies of the Finns.
The battle for Leningrad began. Defensive and offensive operations of the troops of the Northern, Northwestern, Leningrad, Volkhov, Karelian and 2nd Baltic fronts, the Baltic Fleet, the Ladoga and Onega military flotillas lasted 900 days. The fighting covered both distant and near approaches to the city, frustrated the plans of the German command to capture Leningrad on the move, pulled back large forces of German troops and the entire Finnish army. They ended by the end of January 1944 with a breakthrough and the lifting of the blockade of the city, became a legendary page in the heroic history of the Great Patriotic War.
The Battle of Smolensk began - a two-month battle of Soviet and German troops in the Western direction, which included defensive and offensive operations of the troops of the Western, Reserve, Central and Bryansk fronts. In the course of fierce battles, covering a space of up to 650 km along the front and up to 250 km in depth, the Soviet troops disrupted the calculations of the Nazi command for a non-stop movement towards Moscow, for the first time forced the enemy to stop the offensive in the main direction and go on the defensive, which allowed the Soviet command to gain time to prepare for the defense of Moscow and the subsequent defeat of the enemy in the battle for the capital.
The troops of the 22nd Army of the Western Front fought defensive battles on the front of Idritsa, Drissa, Vitebsk. Units of the 11th Army continued to retreat across the front of the 22nd Army, having suffered significant losses in previous battles.
The troops of the 5th Army of the Southwestern Front launched a counterattack from the southern sector of the Korostensky fortified region in the direction of Novograd-Volynsky and Chervonoarmeysk.
The landing force of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet occupied the islands of Horsen, Kugholm, Starkern, Elmholm.
Under the High Command of the Western Direction, an Operational Training Center was created and operated until 15.7.1942 - the school of the Central Committee of the CP (b) B for training personnel for reconnaissance, sabotage and underground work in the occupied territory of Belarus.
German troops occupied the cities of Valga and Vyru in Estonia; in Belarus - Gorodok, Luninets; in Ukraine - Lisichansk.
From the Decree of the State Defense Committee on the Headquarters of the High Command
The State Defense Committee decided: ... to transform the Headquarters of the High Command into the Headquarters of the High Command and determine it as part of: Chairman of the State Defense Committee Comrade Stalin, Deputy Chairman of the State Defense Committee Comrade Molotov, Marshals Timoshenko, Budyonny, Voroshilov, Shaposhnikov, Chief of the General Staff Army General Zhukov.
Chronicle of events in Leningrad
For more operational management of the fronts, the State Defense Committee formed three Main Commands of strategic directions: North-Western, Western and South-Western. Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov was appointed Commander of the North-Western Direction, to which the troops of the Northern and North-Western Fronts, the Baltic and Northern Fleets are now subordinate. The very next day he arrived in Leningrad.
Parts of the 4th Panzer Group of the enemy resumed the offensive today in the direction of Luga and Novgorod. It is still quiet on the Luga frontier itself, but fierce battles are going on in the air. Only the pilots of the 154th Fighter Aviation Regiment shot down 16 Nazi aircraft that day. Lieutenant Sergei Titovka, having used up ammunition, still did not leave the battle. In a heavy, unequal battle over the village of Gorodets, Titovka rushed to the leading Junkers and crashed into him with his plane. Destroying the enemy, the hero himself died ...
The 1st division of the people's militia, went to the front. Seeing off the militias resulted in a crowded rally, at which the division was handed the banner of the Kirov District Party Committee. The division has more than 12 thousand people, every fifth volunteer is a communist or Komsomol member.
They left the city to take their places in the fortified areas, and 10 machine-gun and artillery battalions formed from volunteers.
Those leaving for the front face heavy fighting. Those who remain in the city will have to work for themselves and for those who have taken up arms. At the shipbuilding plant named after A.A. Zhdanov, after the volunteer regiment formed here went to the front, the turner A. Goosenok did not leave the shop for a whole day. Turner P. Skorodumov blocked the daily norm by two and a half times.
On July 10, Leningrad enterprises received a difficult task - in the near future to produce 100,000 anti-tank grenades and daily supply troops with 9,000 bottles of combustible mixture to set fire to enemy tanks. On the same day, mass production of these glass grenades began at enterprises and in a number of workshops of educational institutions of the city - in particular, at Leningrad University, the Textile Institute, the Herzen Pedagogical Institute, and the Institute of Communications.
Schoolchildren also took part in this work. At the call of the city committee of the Komsomol, they collected more than a million empty bottles in a short time.
Memoirs of David Iosifovich Ortenberg, editor-in-chief of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper
A note about the rare success of military scouts under the command of junior lieutenant Melashchenko is printed in bold type. They received an order to get the "language". Returning, Melashchenko reported:
- The task was completed and even exceeded: instead of one “language”, twelve were captured.
Here is another message, which now, after decades, may seem implausible to some. Returning from the rear to the firing positions of his battery, the tractor driver Fedyunin found that she was surrounded by German machine gunners. Without thinking, he moved his "Komsomolets" to the lying fascists, began to crush them with heavy tractor tracks. Fedyunin was wounded three times, but continued to distract the enemy until help arrived. What doesn't happen in war?
Another example: Lieutenant Slonov, on a single-seat fighter, took out his wingman from the enemy rear, shot down in an air battle.
At other times, such cases would be called sensational. But then none of us used this word. What kind of "sensation" is there when blood is shed, people die?
Then there was a different concept in use - “weekdays of war”. Therefore, probably, in the newspaper, many of the brightest heroic deeds are sometimes presented too casually.
However, this is not the only reason.
I remember that at Khalkhin Gol, when we learned about the feat of Sergei Gritsevets, the first to receive the second star of the Hero of the Soviet Union, three writers rushed to him at once - Lev Slavin, Boris Lapin and Zakhar Khatsrevin. Now there are no such opportunities - the scale of the war is different. About Slonov, who repeated the feat of Gritsevets in more difficult conditions, there are only a dozen lines.
During the Patriotic War, especially in its initial period, which was notable for the changeable situation on the fronts, it was difficult, and sometimes completely impossible, to keep up with events. They floated, layered one on top of the other. And besides, the number of heroes increased. In order to somehow brighten up the meager information about them, we increasingly resorted to the help of poets. Whatever the poems, some are better, others are worse, their emotional impact on the hearts and souls of a front-line soldier is invaluable.
A short message about the feat of Senior Lieutenant Kuzmin was supplemented and strengthened by the ballad of Mikhail Svetlov:
The cartridges were shot, Kuzmin was wounded,
The red falcon has only one way out:
Our homeland is larger than life, the road -
Kuzmin decided to ram the enemy...
And the Soviet city from enemy forces
He shielded his chest with his life.
And as he fell, he heard above him
Distant air raid alert.
And the message about the tank destroyer Dolgov was reinforced by the poems of Semyon Kirsanov:
Shells dig the ground
our batteries...
Gives birth to the battle of heroes,
creates rich people.
In a hot whirlwind of steel
the hills sway
ordinary people have become
powerful people!
With a rattle and a clang
the tank of enemies rushes,
to him with a grenade bundle
crawling fighter Dolgov.
Threw. Shard Volcano!
Donkey fascist tank...
Dolgov thought only:
"Everyone will be like this!"
From the leading article of the Red Navy newspaper "Krasny Chernomorets" about the heroic deeds of pilots in the first days of the war
The pilots of the Black Sea Fleet already in the first days of the war wrote more than one heroic page in the history of the struggle of the Russian people against the fascist aggressors. Everyone knows the exploits of the fearless falcon Captain Korobitsyn and the pilots he trained Maksimov, Shalov, Khomutov, Gogmachadze and Borisov. Air fighters mercilessly beat the fascist vultures in the air, on the ground and on the water. Day and night, in the beams of searchlights, under the fire of fascist anti-aircraft guns, brave falcons confidently fly combat aircraft to targets and destroy enemy wasp nests. More than once, pupils of Korobitsyn met in air battles face to face with a strong and vicious enemy and always came out victorious. Enemy "Heinkels", hit by well-aimed bullets of air fighters, fell to the ground or ingloriously fled from the Soviet pilots attacking them.
From the well-aimed fire of Korobitsyn and his fighting friends, 6 enemy "Heinkels", a fascist monitor and more than one hundred enraged fascists who tried to set foot on the sacred Soviet soil with their dirty bloody paws were killed.
Black Sea falcons suddenly fall on the enemy. The fascist bandits did not expect the Soviet bombers to attack on one of the rainy nights. The sky was covered with thick clouds and it was raining. But difficult meteorological conditions did not prevent the experienced pilot Sovin and navigator Libanidze from bringing the formidable combat vehicles to enemy territory and dropping tons of deadly cargo on the heads of the Nazis.
The fascist vultures, who the other day tried to fly into Soviet territory and accomplish their vile deed, hiding in the clouds, could not carry out their bloody plans. Lieutenant Lebedev, having risen as part of a link towards enemy aircraft, entered the clouds and with a keen eye found fascist predators. Gaining a favorable height above them, he, imperceptibly crept up to the vultures, rushed at the enemy, and shot down the leading aircraft. "Heinkel-111" caught fire and flew down. With well-aimed sniper fire, Lebedev quickly dealt with the second fascist aircraft.
In a battle with four fascist predators, Lebedev emerged victorious. Seeing the assertiveness and invulnerability of the Soviet pilot, the 2 fascist aircraft that remained intact quickly fled from the Soviet shores.
Under the most difficult conditions, Soviet pilots show composure, resourcefulness, courage, and heroism, and come out of battle victorious.
Recently, the crew of Lieutenant Abasov, having perfectly completed a combat mission, could not continue flying on a wrecked fascist plane. The damaged aircraft splashed down at sea 50 miles from the enemy border. The pilots, under the guidance of their commander, managed to pull out everything they needed from the sinking plane, inflated the rubber boat and went on it to their native shores.
The brave pilots sailed in the open sea for a long time. Nothing broke the morale of the brave falcons, they safely returned to their unit and again smash the enemy.
Twice an order bearer with rich combat experience, pilot Lobazov, repulsing numerous attacks of fascist fighters, brought his plane to the target and destroyed it with well-aimed fire. Gunner-radio operator Lavrov was seriously wounded, but did not stop firing at the enemy. In battle, he shot down a fascist fighter and drove more than one vulture away from his plane, saving the pilot's life. From the hurricane of enemy fire, the plane of Lobazov's plane caught fire. To save the lives of the crew, the pilot entered the combat vehicle into the clouds, knocked out the flames and safely reached his airfield on one engine.
Many times the senior political officer, pilot Kostkin, flew aircraft on a combat mission. Day and night, in any weather, he leads air fighters in an attack on enemy military installations and returns unharmed to his territory. Fighting heroically against enemies, Kostkin finds time to carry out educational work with young pilots...
Morning message 10 July
During the day on July 9 and on the night of July 10, large booms continued in the Polotsk and Novograd-Volynsk directions.
On the Ostrovsky direction, our troops repelled all enemy attacks with heavy losses for him.
Stubborn battles continued in the Polotsk direction. Our troops are conducting decisive counterattacks.
In the battles in the Lepel direction, our troops destroyed a motorized division of German troops, up to 40 guns, a large number of transport and special vehicles.
In the Borisov direction, our units inflicted a serious defeat on one of the enemy divisions.
In the Bobruisk direction, our troops are firmly holding their positions.
In the Novograd-Volynsk direction, our troops are holding back the offensive of large enemy forces.
On the Bessarabian sector of the front, the enemy offensive is met with strong opposition from our troops.
There were no major hostilities in other directions and sectors of the front.
Our aviation destroyed up to 100 enemy tanks in the afternoon of July 9 and on the night of July 30 continued combat operations against enemy troops in the Ostrovsky and Novograd-Volynsky directions.
On the night of July 9, the German "Junkers-88", accompanied by "Messerschmitts", flew out to prepare the offensive of their units on the Ensky sector of the front. Soviet pilots met the Nazis on the way to the bombing site and rushed to the German planes from a great height. At the first attack, the formation of the bombers and the fighters accompanying them was upset. Taking advantage of the darkness, the commander of the German bomber formation tried to change course. The ploy failed. All enemy planes were destroyed. Some time later, the second and third echelons of German aircraft appeared. Air combat flared up with renewed vigor. Courageously attacking the enemy, Soviet pilots shot down one German plane after another. Trying to get away from the fire of our fighters, many fascist pilots used the old method. They staged a fall, so that after exiting the dive, they would flee at low level. But many of them failed to do so. The battle ended with the complete defeat of the enemy. 33 enemy aircraft were destroyed. Soviet pilots lost five aircraft. Their crews escaped by parachute.
On one of the sections of the Soviet-Finnish border, the White Finns tried to bypass and surround a group of Red Army soldiers. The brave machine gunners Corporal Doshmatov and the Red Army soldier Osechkin repelled the onslaught of the enemy for several hours. The enraged fascists, in order to break the resistance of the red fighters, laid a forest near our firing point with a flamethrower and began to accumulate for an attack. The Soviet fighters did not allow the White Finns to approach the line of attack and boldly moved to the counterattack. The counterattack was supported by the commander of the neighboring unit, Lieutenant Ryzhov. The White Finns, having lost 12 officers and about 50 soldiers killed, were driven back.
Corporal of the Ensky Infantry Regiment Kvashin acted heroically in battle. Under heavy shelling, he broke the enemy's connection. With the departure of the company from the battle, Kvashin with well-aimed machine-gun fire held back the onslaught of the Nazis. The last to leave the battlefield, the fearless corporal carried the wounded company commander, Lieutenant Avakov, on his back.
The battery changed its firing position. Junior sergeants Breev and Popeyko and corporals Tereshchenko and Kachaev were filming the telephone line. At this time, they were attacked at a strafing flight by two fascist aircraft. The soldiers took cover and opened fire on the enemy with rifles. One plane was shot down, the second escaped.
The outpost of Lieutenant Demin successfully repulsed the enemy's sortie. The enemy suffered heavy losses and was driven back. The shooting stopped, but the Red Army vigilantly followed every movement in the camp of the enemy. The observer reported that three enemy soldiers were crawling towards the wire fence. The commander ordered to let them in and be ready. One German soldier, who reached the fence, fastened a piece of paper to the wire and immediately crawled back. On the sheet was an inscription in German: “Down with the bloody Hitler! The German people do not want to fight the Soviet Union!
From the observation post of the Ensky unit at 18 o'clock on July 8, a small group of Finnish soldiers was seen. The detachment of junior sergeant Verov sent forward delayed the approaching Finns. Toivo P., who led the Finnish soldiers, announced the desire of their company to go over to the side of the Red Army. At 2 o'clock in the morning on July 9, the Finnish company in full strength voluntarily crossed over to Soviet territory. The company handed over all the rifles, ten machine guns and mortars, a large amount of ammunition, as well as four associated shutskors, including one lieutenant and three non-commissioned officers. The soldiers spoke about the plight of the Finnish people. “The last crumbs are taken from the Finnish people,” Toivo P. says, “we have already forgotten when we ate our fill. The entire population of Finland is starving. The miserable remnants of grain and cattle have been taken away for the German army.”
Every day of the Patriotic War brings wonderful examples of labor prowess and new labor exploits. At one Leningrad plant, the site of the senior master of the mechanical shop, comrade. Shakhnovich received the task to make critical parts. In peacetime, this work took about 8 days. Through the joint efforts of all workers, a complex and urgent order was completed in 15 hours. Turner of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant comrade. Wartkin completes the daily task by 500 percent. Driller of the container shop of the Gomel timber processing plant comrade. Petrenko gives 800 or more parts per shift at a rate of 510.
At the station N., the foreman of the locomotives comrade. Vershilov noticed a man dressed in a paramilitary uniform. The questions that he asked the passengers seemed suspicious to the foreman. The stranger was arrested. He turned out to be a fascist saboteur. Among various documents, three Soviet passports were found on him. The vigilance of Soviet patriots helps to expose all the tricks of the insidious enemy.
Evening message 10 July
During the day, our aircraft attacked enemy motorized units in the Ostrovsky and Novograd-Volynsky directions, destroyed enemy troops at crossings across the river. Zap. Dvina and attacked enemy aircraft at its airfields.
In air battles and actions on airfields, our aviation destroyed 28 German aircraft, losing 6 of its aircraft.
Large enemy tank forces launched a fierce attack on the right flank of the Ensk formation. Immediately put into action, our artillery opened heavy fire on enemy tanks. Unable to withstand heavy fire, the enemy retreated, leaving up to 70 broken tanks on the field. Embittered by the failure, the enemy, after shelling our positions, went on the attack a second time. From the fire of artillery and Soviet bombers, the enemy lost several dozen more tanks, but the rest managed to form a breakthrough and push our units a little. An infantry division of the German troops rushed into the gap that had formed. Our tanks and motorized units, which arrived in time, surrounded the fascist division, preventing it from turning around. After the battle, in which our air forces took part, the German division was defeated. Our units captured 28 serviceable guns. 8 powerful anti-aircraft guns, many machine guns and automatic weapons, 30 cars and 54 motorcycles. Over 3,500 killed and wounded German soldiers remained on the battlefield. About 2,400 German soldiers and officers were captured.
The well-camouflaged tank of senior sergeant G. Naidin stood at the edge of the forest: Soviet tankers were tracking down the enemy. A column of fascist tanks appeared on the road. Letting them get closer, Naidin knocked out the front tank with the first shot. The engine of the enemy vehicle stopped working, and the tank blocked the narrow road. The German drivers tried to turn back, but Naidin also knocked out a German tank coming from behind. 10 out of 12 tanks were squeezed into a ring: tanks were burning in front and behind, and there was a deep swamp on the sides. Taking advantage of the confusion of the German tankers, Comrade Naidin and the turret gunner Kopytov sent shell after shell at the enemy. So one Soviet tank destroyed 12 fascist tanks.
The White Finns were preparing a landing force against our troops. On one of the islands of the bay, they began to accumulate their forces. The soldiers and commanders of the Ensk coastal part of the Baltic Sea were ordered to prevent the landing and destroy the White Finns. Without a road, through boulders and rocks, the Soviet soldiers dragged the guns to a new firing position. The White Finns were destroyed by the artillery fire of the Baltics: more than 350 were killed and wounded on the island, the rest fled.
The heroic resistance of the Red Army arouses the frenzied anger of the German fascists. They are trying to take out their anger on the wounded Red Army soldiers. German fighters, like kites, hunt even for individual orderlies picking up the wounded on the battlefield. In the mountains Postavy, a fascist light bomber shot from a machine gun the orderlies who carried out the wounded Red Army soldiers on a stretcher, despite the fact that the German pilot clearly saw the clear identification marks of the Red Cross on the orderlies. The fascists deal especially cruelly with the wounded Red Army soldiers captured. Sergeant I. Karasev, who escaped from the nightmarish Nazi captivity, witnessed the savage massacre of the Nazis over four seriously wounded captured Red Army soldiers. One wounded soldier, who categorically refused to answer questions of a military nature, had his hands cut off and his eyes gouged out by order of an officer. The remaining three Red Army soldiers, exhausted from loss of blood, were scalded by the executioners with boiling water, and then stabbed with bayonets.
80 kilometers northwest of the city of N., a partisan detachment crept up at night to a village occupied by the Germans. Silently removing sentries, the detachment attacked the soldiers of the motorcycle unit that was spending the night in the village. Only 12 German motorcyclists managed to escape. 74 soldiers and 2 officers were killed. Having destroyed 62 motorcycles, the partisans left the village.
On July 9, after a counterattack by our troops against large enemy formations in the Ensky direction, the orderlies picked up more than 100 wounded Germans on the battlefield. Among the wounded was a group of soldiers of the German engineering units. After the soldiers were fed and given medical care, they said that their unit was on the northern coast of France, where last year they were preparing for the landing of German troops in England. “Two weeks before the start of the war on the eastern front,” says soldier Peter K., “we, along with other troops, were transferred to the eastern front. In the first days of the war, officers assured the soldiers that the Germans would deal with the Bolsheviks in ten days, and then in August they would dine in London. However, the calculations of our officers shattered into dust. Not only our units arrived on the eastern front, but also large engineering units from Saint-Omer. And the end of the war is not even in sight.
According to reliable data received, the German command removed all troops from the German-Swiss border, replacing them with the elderly and the disabled.
The multimillion-strong Soviet intelligentsia rose to the defense of the motherland. But on the initiative of the doctor of technical sciences comrade Filonenko, professors and teachers of the Ivanovo Energy Institute decided to work at the industrial enterprises of the region during their vacation time. The Kharkov Medical Society, the oldest in the Soviet Union, in response to Comrade Stalin's speech, sends many qualified specialists to the infirmaries and hospitals of the Red Army. Prominent scientists address the Board of the Society every day with proposals to use their knowledge. Among these patriotic scientists are professors Shevandin, Yudin, Marzeev, Gofung, Gasparyan and others. Over a thousand students of the Moscow Timiryazev Academy work on collective farms as agronomists, combine and tractor drivers. In the Kazakh Republic, 80 thousand students and secondary school students went to agricultural work.
Young patriots help the NKVD to catch Nazi spies and saboteurs. The city of K. was plunged into darkness. Only in one window of the local hotel and in the windows of two other houses located in different parts of the city, light appeared. Students from Vladimir Kosinsky's platoon tracked down the enemies who were signaling and informed the police. Three enemy posts were immediately eliminated. When walking around the site on the outskirts of the city, two combatants of this platoon noticed a man hiding in the bushes and reported to the policeman. The stranger, who turned out to be a saboteur, was arrested.
We offer entries from the diaries of Lieutenant Hans Scheufler, made in July 1941 during the Eastern Company.
Artillery opened fire from all barrels. A deafening roar resounded in the woods behind us. We all crouched down on the ground. A few minutes later, a howl was heard - first intensifying, and then fading - blocking all other sounds of war.
Sheaves of flame and thick clouds of smoke shot up into the sky on the other side of the river. For the first time, we have witnessed the use of a new weapon, the heavy 6-barreled Nebelwerfer rocket launchers. Rocket mines exploded with a dull crack on the opposite bank in the middle of enemy positions. Black mushroom-shaped explosions shot up into the sky.
We set up a radio station right next to the river. From there, Colonel von Saucken led the attack on Stalin's line and the crossing. Gradually, he became more and more impatient, because contact with the advanced units that fought in the forest on the opposite bank was practically lost.
Machine-gun fire was directed at us at an angle from the tops of the trees in the forest. The situation was unclear. Our brigade commander wanted to know what to do next. He jumped on a small ferry with his operations staff and crossed the river.
Unfortunately, we couldn't take our radios with us. We made our way through an open swampy area and went out to the forest, after which we suddenly found ourselves in the thick of the Russian troops.
Oberleutnant Liebe and I opened fire with pistols, but the machine-gun fire was so strong that we had no choice but to seek cover, escape, crawling back along the slight slope to the sandbank, and then retreat along a narrow forest path.
The commander stood motionless in the shade of a tree. Instead of chasing us, a look so eloquent was thrown at us that everything was expressed in it. - Don't shoot when you're facing an enemy so vastly outnumbered! At least that's what I read in that look.
Then the commander ordered us to try to get through the forest occupied by the enemy back to the crossing, report our observations and bring a portable radio. I made my way back from tree to tree. Russian voices were heard everywhere.
Suddenly I was fired upon from under the trees. I lay down and lay behind a thin oak tree on a slight slope until I could determine my location. Then I jumped into the freshly dug trench. But the Russians were already in it.
Unlucky so unlucky! Like a rabbit from hunters, I rushed to run among the stubby bushes. Bullets whistled around me from all sides. Machine-gun bursts swept over my head, muffled into the tree trunks. With my lungs bursting from running fast, I rolled down a small slope at the side of the path to catch my breath.
However, the Russians soon found me there too. In front of me across the path lay some fallen trees. I thought I could hide there. Quickly finding shelter in the foliage, I crawled into it. Sweat rolled down my body.
Then I noticed a thin shiny wire right in front of my nose. Involuntarily, I almost pulled her away with my hands. But still looked where she was coming from. And I saw that it leads to some kind of black box. My blood immediately froze in my veins. Mines!
For a moment I lay still and pictured in my mind the terrible situation in which I found myself. Mortar bombs began to explode around me. And damn close. If one of these things hit that damned roadblock - in the middle of which I was lying - then I would never have to suffer from a toothache again in my life.
I tried to slowly crawl back. I could not move forward; there was a wire. But who knew what was behind me? My nerves were on edge. I began to move back, centimeter by centimeter. It seemed like an eternity before I got out of the branches - or did I just imagine it?
For a moment, the shooting stopped. "Stukas" (Yu-87) appeared in the air and began to look for a target. I decided to take advantage of the situation, ran as fast as I could through the swamp and jumped into the reeds. A moment later, the shooting from the forest resumed.
Then the three "Things" turned around and rushed to the edge of the forest. I let out a sigh of relief. I realized too late that I was only a few hundred meters from the edge of the forest. When a giant "suitcase" fell in the swamp not far from me and literally doused me with mud, but did not explode, I realized that I was lucky again.
While the Russians were busy with our Stukas, I ran to the nearest meadow. Then my comrades in the air came to my rescue, dropping bombs on the forest.
Completely exhausted, I reached the machine-gun position of the German defense line. The guys gave me a drink. I dictated my report to one of them, and they helped me get to the crossing, since I could not take a step. In addition to everything on the right thigh, I had a wound from a bullet that grazed my leg at a tangent.
On July 13, starting at 08:30, the Russians continuously attacked the 1st Battalion at Ryzhkovka. The enemy broke into the village. In the end, he managed to get out of there. The battalion captured 28 guns, 26 anti-tank guns, 3 armored vehicles, 10 armored tractors and 30 trucks. The fierceness of the battle is evidenced even by the fact that by the evening only 24 combat-ready tanks remained in the battalion.
The tank of the commander of the 2nd company, Lieutenant Rakhfall, ran into a mine in the thick of the enemy. Oberfunkmeister (chief sergeant-major radio operator) Kraut was seriously wounded. Rachfall ordered the rest of the crew to turn back. He stayed next to the seriously wounded Kraut. As a result, both of them were beaten to death by Russian soldiers.
The enemy began shelling the orchard where our radio communications center was located. The shells landed only 30-50 meters from us. Bad news came from all departments. We were fighting with superior enemy forces, who fought desperately.
Suddenly there was a dull roar, and the artillery observer was thrown so that he described a wide arc over the roof of the barn. A black column of smoke from a long-range shell burst rose up 50 meters from us. Colonel von Saucken called his commanders. He kept on giving orders.
There was a short low whistle, felt more by the whole body than by hearing, and I threw myself to the ground. However, I did not manage to jump far. I was shaken up a lot. The horrendous noise nearly ruptured my eardrums.
I, along with the driver, were thrown over the "Kubel". I felt a sharp pain above my eye and in my chin. Reflexively, I ran my hand over my face. Everything seems to be intact, but the hand was covered in blood.
Doctor! shouted several voices near me. The scream was so piercing that it seemed to reverberate through the spinal cord. My driver Heinrich was badly wounded. His arm hung unnaturally and was visible through the torn sleeve of his uniform. This is the first thing I noticed. I grabbed Heinrich and dragged him to the medical station, which was only a hundred meters away.
Behind me again I heard a piercing cry: - Doctor! Doctor! Turning around, I saw a large pile of human bodies randomly piled on top of each other. I immediately returned with two doctors. It was a direct hit from a large-caliber artillery shell that exploded in the middle of the brigade headquarters in the thick of the commanders gathered there.
Chief Corporal Lissitzky, Chief Corporal Hendel and Senior Private Reichel were killed. Brigadier adjutant Ober-Lieutenant Liebe was seriously wounded. The leg was torn off; a large piece of shrapnel stuck in the back. The head of communications of the brigade, Lieutenant Beltz, received a deep wound in the upper part of the thigh. He clamped his own artery to avoid blood loss.
Colonel von Saucken was sitting on the ground. The shard hit him in the knee. With no visible emotion on his face, he cut off his boots and bandaged the heavily bleeding wound. Not looking up from this occupation, he continued to give orders in a calm voice and dictate a report to the division headquarters.
Von Saucken said goodbye to the brigade adjutant as if he were his son. We all understood that Liebe would not survive such a severe injury. Oberleutnant Liebe asked von Saucken to convey his last wish to his parents; it was already difficult for him to speak. He gave us a strange look and fell into unconsciousness. He was in terrible pain, but he didn't make a sound."
In connection with the unfavorable course of border battles, from the end of June, the Soviet command began to deploy troops of the 2nd strategic echelon along the middle course of the Western Dvina and Dnieper in a 450 km strip with the task of firmly holding this line and preventing the enemy from breaking through to Moscow. In addition to the troops already in it, the 22nd, 19th, 20th, 16th and 21st armies were allocated to the Western Front (commanded by Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko). By the beginning of the battle, they did not have time to fully turn around and create a stable defense.
The German command set the Army Group Center (commanded by Field Marshal F. Bock), advancing in the Moscow direction, the task of encircling the Soviet troops defending the line of the Western Dvina and the Dnieper, capturing the Orsha district, Smolensk, Vitebsk and opening the shortest route to Moscow . By July 10, the mobile troops of Army Group Center, the divisions of the 2nd and 3rd tank groups and advanced formations of the 9th and 2nd field armies, entered the Dnieper and the Western Dvina.
Fierce fighting in the Smolensk region, the growing counterattacks of the Soviet formations disrupted the enemy's calculations. The strongest grouping of German troops, Army Group Center, was forced to go on the defensive and postpone the offensive in the Moscow direction for two months. Its losses from the beginning of the war until the end of September 1941 amounted to 229 thousand people. dead, wounded and missing. In the period from August 30 to September 8, the 24th Army of Major General K.I. Rakutin, who was part of the Reserve Front, which was headed by General of the Army G.K. Zhukov, defeated a large enemy group near Yelnya and forced it to retreat from the operational ledge. The Soviet Guard was born near Yelnya. On September 18, for massive heroism and military prowess in the battles near this city, the first in the Red Army were awarded the title of Guards to two formations of the 24th Army - the 100th and 127th Rifle Divisions, becoming respectively the 1st2nd Guards Rifle Divisions. By the same order, the 153rd and 161st Rifle Divisions were transformed into the 3rd and 4th Guards Divisions.
The battle of Smolensk delayed the enemy, but the Red Army paid for this success with great bloodshed. The total human losses of the Soviet troops in these battles amounted to almost 760 thousand people, of which 485,711 (64%) were irretrievable losses. During the battle, the Headquarters issued one of the toughest orders to start the war - No. 270, which today causes an ambiguous interpretation.
173
No publication
Not only friends recognize, but our enemies are also forced to admit that in our war of liberation against the Nazi invaders, units of the Red Army, their vast majority, their commanders and commissars behave impeccably, courageously, and sometimes downright heroically. Even those parts of our army that accidentally broke away from the army and were surrounded, retain the spirit of stamina and courage, do not surrender, try to inflict more damage on the enemy and leave the encirclement. It is known that individual units of our army, once surrounded by the enemy, use every opportunity to inflict defeat on the enemy and break out of the encirclement.
Deputy commander of the troops of the Western Front, Lieutenant General Boldin, being in the area of the 10th Army near Bialystok, surrounded by Nazi troops, organized detachments from the units of the Red Army remaining behind enemy lines, which fought for 45 days behind enemy lines and made their way to the main forces of the Western Front. They destroyed the headquarters of two German regiments, 26 tanks, 1049 cars, transport and staff vehicles, 147 motorcycles, 5 artillery batteries, 4 mortars, 15 heavy machine guns, 8 light machine guns, 1 aircraft at the airfield and a depot of bombs. Over a thousand German soldiers and officers were killed. On August 11, Lieutenant General Boldin hit the Germans from the rear, broke through the German front and, having joined with our troops, led 1654 armed Red Army soldiers and commanders out of the encirclement, of which 103 were wounded.
The commissar of the 8th Mechanized Corps, Brigadier Commissar Popel, and the commander of the 406th Rifle Regiment, Colonel Novikov, fought 1,778 armed men out of the encirclement. In stubborn battles with the Germans, the Novikov-Popel group traveled 650 kilometers, inflicting huge losses on the rear of the enemy.
The commander of the 3rd Army, Lieutenant General Kuznetsov, and a member of the Military Council, Army Commissar 2nd Rank Biryukov, with battles, led 498 armed Red Army soldiers and commanders of units of the 3rd Army out of the encirclement and organized the exit from the encirclement of the 108th and 64th rifle divisions.
All these and numerous other similar facts testify to the steadfastness of our troops, the high morale of our fighters, commanders and commissars.
But we cannot hide the fact that several shameful facts of surrender have taken place lately. Some generals set a bad example for our troops.
The commander of the 28th Army, Lieutenant General Kachalov, being surrounded with the headquarters of a group of troops, showed cowardice and surrendered to the non-German fascists. The headquarters of the Kachalov group came out of the encirclement, parts of the Kachalov group made their way out of the encirclement, and Lieutenant General Kachalov preferred to surrender, preferred to desert to the enemy.
Lieutenant General [Major General] - ed.] Ponedelin, who commanded the 12th Army, once surrounded by the enemy, had every opportunity to break through to his own, as did the vast majority of parts of his army. But Ponedelin did not show the necessary perseverance and will to win, succumbed to panic, chickened out and surrendered to the enemy, deserted to the enemy, thus committing a crime before the Motherland, as a violator of the military oath.
The commander of the 13th Rifle Corps, Major General Kirillov, who found himself surrounded by Nazi troops, instead of fulfilling his duty to the Motherland, organizing the units entrusted to him for a staunch rebuff to the enemy and getting out of the encirclement, deserted from battlefield and surrendered to the enemy. As a result, parts of the 13th Rifle Corps were defeated, and some of them surrendered without serious resistance.
It should be noted that with all the above facts of surrendering to the enemy, members of the military councils of the armies, commanders, political workers, special detachments who were surrounded, showed unacceptable confusion, shameful cowardice and did not even try to interfere with the cowardly Kachalov, Ponedelin, Kirillov and others to surrender to the enemy.
These shameful facts of surrender to our sworn enemy testify to the fact that in the ranks of the Red Army, which staunchly and selflessly defends its Soviet Motherland from vile invaders, there are unstable, cowardly, cowardly elements. And these cowardly elements exist not only among the Red Army soldiers, but also among the commanding staff. As you know, some commanders and political workers, by their behavior at the front, not only do not show the Red Army men an example of courage, stamina and love for the Motherland, but, on the contrary, they hide in the cracks, fiddle around in the offices, do not see and do not observe the battlefield, but when the first serious difficulties in battle, they give in to the enemy, tear off their insignia, desert from the battlefield.
Is it possible to tolerate in the ranks of the Red Army cowards who desert to the enemy and surrender to him, or such cowardly commanders who, at the first hitch at the front, tear off their insignia and desert to the rear? No! If we give free rein to these cowards and deserters, they will quickly decompose our army and ruin our Motherland. Cowards and deserters must be destroyed.
Is it possible to consider as commanders of battalions or regiments such commanders who hide in cracks during the battle, do not see the battlefield, do not observe the progress of the battle on the field, and still imagine themselves to be commanders of regiments and battalions? No! These are not commanders of regiments and battalions, but impostors. If we give free rein to such impostors, they will in a short time turn our army into a continuous office. Such impostors must be immediately removed from their posts, demoted, transferred to the rank and file, and, if necessary, shot on the spot, putting forward in their place brave and courageous people from the ranks of the junior command staff or from the Red Army. I order:
Commanders and political workers who, during a battle, tear off their insignia and desert to the rear or surrender to the enemy, are considered malicious deserters, whose families are subject to arrest as the families of deserters who violated the oath and betrayed their homeland.
To oblige all higher commanders and commissars to shoot such deserters from the command staff on the spot.
Units and subunits that are surrounded by the enemy selflessly fight to the last opportunity, protect the materiel as the apple of their eye, break through to their rear of the enemy troops, inflicting defeat on the fascist dogs.
To oblige each serviceman, regardless of his official position, to demand from a higher commander, if part of him is surrounded, to fight to the last opportunity in order to break through to his own, and if such a commander or part of the Red Army, instead of organizing a rebuff to the enemy, prefer to surrender to him - destroy them by all means, both ground and air, and deprive the families of Red Army soldiers who have surrendered from state benefits and assistance.
To oblige the commanders and commissars of divisions to immediately remove from their posts the commanders of battalions and regiments who hide in crevices during the battle and are afraid to direct the course of the battle on the battlefield, demote them as impostors, transfer them to privates, and, if necessary, shoot them on the spot , putting forward in their place brave and courageous people from the junior command staff or from the ranks of distinguished Red Army soldiers.
Read the order in all companies, squadrons, batteries, squadrons, commands and headquarters.
Headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the Red Army
Chairman of the State Defense Committee, Deputy. Chairman of the State Defense Committee V. MOLOTOV, Marshal of the Soviet Union S. BUDENNY, Marshal of the Soviet Union K. VOROSHILOV, Marshal of the Soviet Union S. TIMOSHENKO, Marshal of the Soviet Union B. SHAPOSHNIKOV, General of the Army G. ZHUKOV
1941: in 2 books. Book 2. M., 1998.
THE LAST LETTER OF THE RED ARMY E.M. ZLOBIN TO HIS PARENTS, JULY 20, 1941
Good afternoon, hello, dear parents, father and mother, and brothers Petya and Vasya and sister Tanya. And all other friends and comrades.
In the first lines of my letter I want to inform you that I am alive and well and that I wish you all the best if you were not beaten by a German there, no matter how far he was from you in the Smolensk region.
Dad and mom, you know that a German attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, and I have been in combat since June 22 at 5 am. The German crossed the border, and we were no more than 20 kilometers from him in the camps, and from these days, dad and mom, I saw fear. As from the first days the German began to beat us, we will not find a place. We were surrounded by him. He thrashed us. About 50 people remained from the regiment, otherwise they were beaten or taken prisoner. Well, I forcibly jumped out of his greedy paws and fled. We were attached to another regiment, and we began to retreat to Kaunas. Passed 100 kilometers. On June 23 we approach Kaunas. How the planes, cannons, German machine guns met us there, how they began to hit us - we don’t know where to go ...
Dad and mom, the bridges across the Neman River were all destroyed, and we had one outcome - to cross the river in all combat. A lot of flooding, a lot of beating. I was still alive and stomped, and then I remained alive by force. The German is all behind us, we retreated, scattered everything - tanks, guns, machine guns, mortars. Well, in general, they fled without pants, retreated to Dvinsk. Cross the Vilyuya River again. The river is big, there are no bridges, again many died, and the German beats and beats. We approach Dvinsk, the whole city is busy. We are in Minsk - also busy and broken, we are in Polotsk - also busy. Here again the river - the Western Dvina, again many died. And he is chasing us, and we all retreat and retreat, he beats and beats us ... Hungry, barefoot, all rubbed legs (...)
We got out of the way. They began to feed us well: plenty of butter, cheese, sugar, crackers. The kitchen began to cook. Now we are in the rear for now. I don't know where it will take us.
And the German was met by new units of the Red Army. As they began to beat him, only feathers fly, and he began to suffer heavy losses and retreat.
Everyone, mom and dad. I remain alive and well. Zlobin E.M.
Last letters from the front. 1941. Collection. T.1. M., military publishing house. 1991
** Ponedelin P.G. (1893-1950), major general. In Aug. 1941 near Uman was taken prisoner; released from captivity in 1945. Shot by verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court in 1950. Rehabilitated in 1956.
*** Kirillov N.K. (1897-1950), major general. In Aug. 1941 near Uman was taken prisoner; released from captivity in 1945. Shot by verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court in 1950. Rehabilitated in 1956.
