How Soviet scouts covered almost 100 km behind enemy lines unnoticed: Captain Galuza's daring raid

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the middle of the summer of 1944, General Kreiser's 51st Army was advancing in the Baltic States. To pave a safe path along the enemy's rear for the advancement of a large strike grouping of the Red Army - this was precisely the task faced by the group of scouts of the Guard of Captain Grigory Galuza. The order was carried out. In a daring raid, army scouts of only 25 people successfully passed 80 km through fortified enemy positions.

Summer scenario 1944 and a bold decision of the command

The Kreiser Red Army, recently regrouped to the Baltic Front from the south, advanced through the Shavel district, just outside the border with Kurland. As part of the Guards Mechanized Corps, which represented the front-line vanguard, the Molodechno Mechanized Brigade of the Guard of Lieutenant Colonel S. V. Stardubtsev operated. The latter decided to send a group of scouts under the command of the experienced captain G. Galuza to the German rear. At first glance, the task seemed clear and simple: to reconnoiter the road and, as far as possible, prepare it for the subsequent advance of the main army. Galuza's reconnaissance group consisted of only 25 people, but they were trained at the highest level. The pioneers had at their disposal three domestic armored vehicles, the same number of captured German armored vehicles, and 2 light tanks.

German drivers in the Soviet operation

It is noteworthy that the three German armored personnel carriers involved in the operation were driven by German drivers, who, together with the vehicles, were captured the day before in the Belarusian town of Molodechno, for which the ninth brigade became known as Molodechno. The prisoners came just in time in the light of the upcoming raid. After the capture, they unanimously chanted "Hitler - kaput!" and even claimed that they never shared the views of the leader, being in fact ardent anti-fascists.

Taking advantage of this forced position of a demoralized enemy, the Soviet commanders decided to postpone the camps. The Germans were temporarily left in their former places as the drivers of the Sonderkraftfarzeig. The experienced commander Grigory Galuza undoubtedly took a risk, deciding to entrust the control of the machines to fascist prisoners. But the hostage drivers were strictly warned that each of them would be assigned an accompanying person who knew perfectly the Finnish language. And the slightest wrong move will be followed by a fatal blow.

Costumed "Wehrmacht soldiers" and enemy panic

Before the start of the advance, all army scouts were dressed in German uniforms. Corresponding markings were also applied to the vehicles. Galuza's masked group on tanks and armored personnel carriers launched into the enemy rear on July 27 along the Šiauliai-Riga highway, boldly destroying fascist cars and motorcycles along the way. The first serious obstacle was the river bridge over Musa. It was here that German sappers were stationed, ready to blow up the crossing in case of the approach of Soviet units. But the Germans miraculously mistook the Soviet group of scouts for the retreating colleagues and let them through the crossing without any questions. As soon as Galuza reached the opposite bank, the sappers were eliminated.

So the detachment wedged 40 kilometers into the territories still controlled by the enemy, finding themselves near the Lithuanian city of Janishki. Here there were German parts more serious than coastal ones. 25 Galuza scouts approached the location of the SS Panzer-Grenadier Brigade, an infantry battalion, a sapper company, two artillery and three mortar batteries with a total strength of five thousand people. The city command belonged to General Friedrich Ekkeln, who was actively involved in the 1943 Belarusian anti-partisan action called "Winter Magic". Then, in a few months, the Germans and their accomplices killed tens of thousands of partisans and civilians.

The Germans, being in the 40-kilometer rear, did not expect an attack. The guards, having contacted obvious compatriot drivers, asked for a password. The prisoners explained that they had just broken out of the encirclement, so they did not have information. The unsuspecting guard raised the barrier, and the army scouts drove into the city occupied by the Germans. Literally on the move, having removed the sentries near the heavy German "Tigers", Galuza's charges started the cars and turned the muzzle towards the enemy. By crushing small equipment and firing direct fire, they crushed the five thousandth garrison in a matter of minutes. Suitable forces of Starodubtsev could only occupy the tanks and pursue the fascists who fled in panic.

Armored train attack and severe injury

Without stopping, the reconnaissance group continued to move. But early in the morning, the Red Army came under fire from a German armored train. The first armored personnel carrier managed to slip through, and the second, in which Captain Galuza was located, was shot at point-blank, thrown into a ditch. From an accurate hit, the commander of the armored vehicle st. Sergeant Pogodin and the German driver died on the spot. Captain Galuse was more fortunate, but he was also seriously wounded, having lost his combat effectiveness. Then the command of the reconnaissance group was entrusted to the technician-lieutenant Ivan Chechulin.

Under his leadership, the reconnaissance group pursuing the retreating Germans caught up with an infantry detachment with a column of vehicles. Having rounded the detachment, they set up an ambush, destroying up to two dozen cars and over fifty Germans with their Lithuanian-Latvian accomplices with machine-gun fire and grenades. Chechulin personally destroyed three German cars with explosives. There were some trophies here too - the Red Army men captured tractors, guns and motorcycles. And already by 5.30 the group approached Mitava (today's Jelgava), where, by order of the command, it went on the defensive until the main forces arrived. In total, the scouts of Grigory Galuza passed at least 80 kilometers along the enemy's rear lines. Commanders Galuza and Chechulin were awarded hero titles on the eve of the victorious May. True, the latter did not live to receive the award, having died the death of the brave near the town of Priekuli in February 1945. And Grigory Galuza happily met the victory, having lived until 2006.

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