Feats of War: Two soldiers spent 13 days in a tank without food or medicine, firing back at the Nazis

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

The feats of the war years today often seem incredible, because in confronting the enemy, Soviet soldiers often demonstrated amazing stamina and endurance. Among such cases, it is worth recalling one - the defense of a stalled tank near the village of Demeshkovo in the Pskov region. For 13 days the shooter and the driver fought off the Germans surrounding them, fought to the last bullet, despite hunger and serious wounds, and … withstood until the arrival of their own.

The feat of Viktor Chernyshenko and Alexei Sokolov has long been the talk of the town. The events, which will be discussed below, unfolded in the last weeks of the outgoing 1943. On these frosty days, the tank brigade received an order to take the next hill. The offensive ran into fire from the enemy. The tank, in the crew of which was Viktor Chernyshenko, was able to break forward, but was firmly stuck in the swamp. It was decided to give battle to the Germans and not leave the combat vehicle under any circumstances. On December 17, the siege of the T-34 began, which lasted until December 30.

In the tank, of the entire crew, Chernyshenko remained, the radio operator fought back as best he could, as soon as the opponents tried to get close to him. An experienced mechanic Aleksey Sokolov made his way to help, he hoped to pull the tank out of the swamp. Unfortunately, the efforts were in vain, the car did not go, and the fighters made the only correct, as it seemed to them, decision - to keep the defense.

The situation was extremely difficult. It was very cold in the tank, there was not enough food (several cans of canned food, crackers and lard from the dry ration ran out quickly), they had to drink swamp water, the one that seeped through the bottom. In addition, Alexei Sokolov, making his way to his friend, was wounded, and all this time did not receive the necessary medical care.

Viktor Chernyshenko recalled in subsequent years that Alexei supported him as best he could, without complaining about pain or difficult conditions. So they held out from 17 to 29 December, by that time they ran out of ammunition, since the Germans regularly attacked the tank, there was no food for several days either. The weakened fighters had only grenades, they were planned to be used in the last battle. Miraculously, they stretched out another day and suddenly heard that Soviet troops were drawn to the place of the battle, a desperate struggle ensued, the village was recaptured. When everything calmed down, to give a signal to his own, Victor rolled out a hand grenade, and soldiers ran to the tank to blast.

Chernyshenko and Sokolov were pulled out of the tank with difficulty and transferred to the medical unit. Both were with severe frostbite of the limbs, emaciated and worn out by sleepless nights. Alexey Sokolov did not survive, died the next day, the doctors were powerless. Viktor Chernyshenko began gangrene, both legs had to be amputated, he spent more than a year in hospitals, where he was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR (his brother received it posthumously). After treatment, he was demobilized and returned to a peaceful life.

Demobilization took place two months after the end of the war, Victor was then in Sverdlovsk, there he decided to enter a law institute, to master a peaceful profession. This decision turned out to be successful, after graduating from distribution he began to work as a judge, got married, left for Chelyabinsk, where he lived a long peaceful life and died at the age of 72.

The path to victory in the war was long and thorny, these 30 black and white photographs from the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War.