How 23-year-old twice Hero Vasily Petrov went through the whole war without both hands

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

The fate of Colonel-General Petrov has no confirmed analogues in the world. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union went through the entire Great Patriotic War, being left without arms in 1943. After a long course of treatment, the Hero of the Soviet Union returned to duty as the commander of a fighter anti-tank artillery regiment. And he ended the war on the Oder as a lieutenant colonel with two Hero stars on his chest. By that time, he was barely 23.

Zaporozhye boy and escape from the orphanage

Vasya Petrov is from the Zaporozhye region (now Ukraine). The childhood of the future hero can be safely called bleak and even tragic. At the age of three, the child was left without a mother, and by his 10th birthday, his father was repressed for his support in the white civil war. In times of famine, Vasily and his brother made an attempt to find his father's second wife in a neighboring village, who moved, unable to feed their adopted children. Having lost their way, the emaciated guys went out to the coastal settlements a few days later. Vasya miraculously survived, but his brother could not be saved. The boy was assigned to an orphanage, from where he again fled to his stepmother. Having graduated from high school in 1939, Petrov decides to link his life path with military affairs and enters an artillery school.

First day at the front and repelling powerful attacks

A young artillery officer, who had just graduated from college, arrived at the military unit a few days before the start of the Great Patriotic War. On June 22, 1941, the then lieutenant in the position of deputy battery commander of the artillery battalion met in the Vladimir-Volynsky fortified area. On the first day of war, his battery provided fire support to the defending Red Army soldiers, and by evening it was attacked by the Germans. Inexperienced gunners repulsed the attack and eliminated 2 enemy tanks. In the battles, the division lost people, the Nazis captured the warehouses, leaving the Red Army men without shells. Once surrounded, the units were ordered to destroy the surviving guns and retreat to their own on foot. This is how Vasily Petrov's military path began.

And then there were heavy battles near Kovel, Lutsk, near Chernobyl and a breakthrough from the Kiev encirclement. Soon Petrov was assigned to a fighter anti-tank artillery regiment. Anti-tank crews always went first, conducting fire duels with enemy armored vehicles. In the first months of 1942, Vasily Stepanovich took part in long battles near Kharkov, near Lozova and Stary Oskol. Thanks to his innate courage and operational ingenuity, Petrov withdrew all the personnel and heavy equipment from the Kharkov boiler. Legends about the battalion commander sounded everywhere after his unit crossed the burning and bombed bridge on the Don with a parallel reflection of a tank attack.

Petrov also distinguished himself when crossing under bombardment through Sula, where most of the attacking tanks were destroyed by cunning, followed by the disruption of the enemy offensive. In this battle, the commander was wounded, but continued to carry out his duties. On October 1, 1943, during the next tank offensive of the Germans, almost the entire personnel of commander Vasily Petrov was put out of action. He had to personally stand at the gun, continuing to repulse the attack. Seriously wounded in both hands, he was active for some time, inspiring brothers in arms and holding out 4 German counterattacks.

Alive among the piles of the dead and operation at gunpoint

The comrades dragged the seriously wounded Petrov to the nearest medical battalion, where he, as hopeless, was thrown among the pile of lifeless bodies. After the information about the death of Petrov reached the brigade commander, he gave the order to deliver the body for a civilian burial. After a day of searching, a living Petrov was found among the dead. The officers who carried out the order of the brigade commander, threatening with weapons, forced the surgeon of the medical battalion to carry out the operation and save the life of the dying Vasily. The doctor immediately warned that the likelihood of undergoing surgery in this state is close to zero. But Petrov survived, although he was left without both hands. By the end of November, he was sent by plane to the capital for prosthetics.

And in December, Captain Petrov was awarded the first title of Hero of the Soviet Union for crossing the Dnieper River, courageously holding the bridgehead, courage and resilience. The time spent in the hospital was very difficult for Vasily Stepanovich. Doctors recalled him as a difficult and hot-tempered patient. First of all, Petrov suffered from terrible pain. Trying to drown out physical pain and emotional distress, he smoked up to a hundred cigarettes a day. When the pains calmed down, it was the turn of the psychological tragedy. The disabled commander did not understand the meaning of his further existence. He doubted that the armless officer could still be useful to someone. But over time, Vasily Petrov pulled himself together and made an important decision.

Leaving a comfortable position and returning to the front

Petrov was recommended to stay in the rear, offered the chair of the 2nd secretary of a Moscow district committee. Vasily Stepanovich flatly refused, and by the spring of 1944 he returned to his native unit at the front. In the regiment, the combat commander was greeted warmly and ceremoniously, as a dear and important person. In 1945, when the Soviet army confidently marched across German territory, legends about the armless Hero-artilleryman were walking along the front. Petrov's wards knocked out dozens of tanks, leaving warped enemy pieces of iron along the way. In the battle near Dresden, the artillerymen of the legendary major occupied the dominant height with their own forces, which the infantry had not been able to take until that moment. Breaking a gap in the enemy wall, they made it possible for Soviet troops to advance towards Berlin.

In the same year, Vasily Stepanovich became a Hero for the second time. Petrov did not leave military service even after the end of the war, by 1977 he had already risen to the rank of lieutenant general. In recent years, he replaced the commander of the Missile Forces and Artillery, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Ground Forces. Vasily Stepanovich was seriously fond of scientific and military activities and demonstrated an active civil position. The famous veteran of the Great Patriotic War passed away at 81 and was buried in the Ukrainian capital.

Heroes of the times of war and in a peaceful life show themselves with a strong side. It doesn't matter how old they are. Recently it became known that 100-year-old veteran hit the Guinness Book of Records, and twice