Bravery on the verge of madness: The exploits of ordinary Soviet soldiers who did not gain widespread fame

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

German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck warned that one should never fight the Russians. Because their military cunning borders on stupidity. Only because of his lack of understanding, stupidity, he called courage and heroism, bordering on self-sacrifice. The great feat of the Soviet people during the Second World War sometimes surprised even the fascists, who were not at all ready for such fierce resistance. History remembers many examples of the heroism of ordinary Soviet soldiers. And how many were those who were not heard …

German troops, who quickly conquered Europe, hoped to take Russia in the same way. No wonder that Barbarossa's plan was aimed at lightning-fast capture. But from the very first days of the war, it became clear that the USSR was not Europe and an easy victory should not be expected. The Germans were surprised by the qualities of Soviet soldiers, even when they were surrounded, they fought to the end, demonstrating such fortitude and fortitude that even the Fritzes were penetrated.

Save the children at any cost

The Nazis used concentration camp prisoners and residents of the occupied territories for their scientific experiments. This is a historically proven fact. Therefore, when the children from the Polotsk orphanage, located in the occupied territory, suddenly began to feed carefully, the townspeople became wary. The wounded soldiers needed blood, and the children left without parents seemed to them to be excellent donors. True, they are thin. Needless to say, the Nazis were not interested in the further fate of donors. They were just planning to squeeze out to the last drop of blood.

The director of the orphanage, Mikhail Forinko, convinced the Germans that the quality of blood from poor and emaciated donors is unlikely to improve the health of the soldiers. And the children were actually thin and pale from constant malnutrition. Does blood without the right level of hemoglobin and vitamins help the wounded? In addition, children are constantly sick, since there are no windows in the building, no firewood for heating. So, they are also not suitable for this role.

Forinko was convincing and the German leadership agreed with him. It was decided to transfer the children to another German garrison, where there was a strong economy. For the Germans, everything was logical, in fact, this was the first step towards saving the children. It was planned to take the guys out to the partisans, and then evacuate them by plane.

154 children from an orphanage, about 40 of their educators, several members of an underground group and partisans moved out of the city on the night of February 19, 1944. The children were 3-14 years old. There was deathly silence. Boys and girls have long forgotten how to laugh and play around like an ordinary child, and on that day everyone understood that what was happening was mortally dangerous.

Partisans were on duty in the forest in case the Germans uncovered a conspiracy and rushed in pursuit. There was also a sleigh train waiting - more than thirty runners. It was a real military operation: Soviet planes circled in the sky. Their task was to divert the attention of the Germans so that they would not miss the missing children.

The guys were warned that if an illumination rocket suddenly fires, they must freeze. The column stopped several times to go unnoticed. All these measures helped to bring the children to the partisan rear safe and sound.

But it was still far from the end of the operation. The Germans, of course, discovered the loss the next morning. The fact that they were being circled around the finger pissed them off. A chase and interception plan was organized. The partisan rear was not at all safe, and it was an impossible task to hide one hundred and fifty small children in the forest in winter.

Two planes, which supplied the partisans of this detachment with ammunition and food, took the children with them on the way back. To increase the number of passenger seats, special cradles were attached under the wings. In addition, the pilots flew out without navigators, so as not to take up the much-needed space.

In total, during this operation, more than five hundred people were taken out to the rear, in addition to the inmates of the orphanage. But one of the flights, the very last one, became historic. It was already April, with Lieutenant Alexander Mamkin at the helm. Despite the fact that at the time of the events he was only 28 years old, he was already an experienced pilot. His combat experience included more than seven dozen flights to the German rear.

Mamkin flew this route for the ninth time, that is, he has already taken out passengers nine times. The plane landed on the lake, it was also necessary to hurry up because it was getting warmer every day and the ice was already unreliable.

Operation Zvezdochka, the name given to the campaign to remove children from the partisan rear, was coming to an end. Ten children, their teacher and two wounded partisans were seated in Mamkin's plane. At first the flight was calm, and then the plane was shot down …

Mamkin had already taken the plane out of the front line, but the fire on board was just flaring up. An experienced pilot would have to climb and jump with a parachute to save his life. If there was one. But he had passengers. Those whose lives he was not going to give. Boys and girls did not go through such a difficult path in order to die like this, half a step away from salvation.

Mamkin drove the plane on. The cockpit had already started to burn, his glasses had melted, literally grown into his skin, clothes, a helmet melted and smoldered, he could hardly see because of the smoke and endless pain. But he doesn't care. Just. Conducted. Airplane.

The pilot's legs were practically charred, he could hear children crying behind him. Frightened guys, so desperately fighting for life, could not come to terms with such a fate. But between them and death stood Mamkin. On the shore of the lake, he managed to find a site suitable for landing, by this time the partition between the pilot and the passengers was already burning, the fire was reaching the children, the pilot was already burning completely. But Mamkin's iron will did not allow him to perish without completing the work he had begun. And he won. He won at the cost of his own life, but saved the lives of his passengers.

He even got out of the cockpit and asked if the children were alive. After receiving an affirmative answer, he passed out. Doctors who later examined the body could not understand how he, with such burns and virtually completely burnt legs, could fly the plane? Where did such an iron will come from in the pilot, which helped him to maintain clarity of consciousness, overcoming the painful shock?

The name Mamkin became salutary both for the guys whom he took out and for his comrades in arms, becoming the personification of a hero who simply could not do otherwise.

Soviet Jeanne d'Arc

1942 year. The mobilization of the population is in full swing in the Soviet Union. The doctor who carried out the medical examination of the recruits was taken aback when he realized that the short-haired and thin Sashka Rashchupkin was not Sashka at all, but the real Alexandra! He was eager to report this to the command, but the girl was able to convince him not to betray her secret. On that and agreed.

Alexandra, who was already a fully grown 27-year-old woman, first tried to get to the front officially. She came to various military registration and enlistment offices, tried to convince the commission that she would be suitable for the role of … a tanker. But she only chuckled in response. Meanwhile, Alexandra confidently drove a tractor and rushed to the front, where her legal husband had already fought.

The fate of Alexandra initially does not resemble typical women's stories. She was born in Uzbekistan, worked as a tractor driver. After marriage, she moved to Tashkent. But it was not possible to achieve maternal happiness: her two babies died in infancy. She saw her vocation in helping the front and wanted to bring Victory closer with her own hands.

Even though she was deceived, she still got to the front. She graduated from the driver's courses and went to the front as a driver. And she continued to impersonate a guy, because in the role of a girl they would have taken her as a nurse, a signalman, and would definitely not have been entrusted with anything serious. She carried ammunition to the front line, took away the wounded, sharing army everyday life on an equal footing with men.

In 1942, when the need for tankers increased sharply, drivers were sent to a tank school. But many, including Alexander, did not manage to finish it due to the fact that the territory where the school was located was under enemy occupation. They were selected from the enemy territory in small groups. I had to crawl more often than go. But even here Alexandra managed not to reveal her secret.

The girl was still able to fulfill her dream and was part of a tank group. Fighting comrades called her a tomboy, because he was distinguished by a thin boyish figure, she was daring and fearless. Often it was her risky ideas, bordering on insanity, that led to victory in battles.

She participated in the Battle of Stalingrad, in the liberation of Poland. In his circles, "Sashka" was a well-known person, he skillfully repaired engines, in battle he was courageous and hardy, did not let down his comrades and did not show weakness of spirit.

The fact that Sashka and not Sashka at all, fellow soldiers learned only in 1945. Soviet tanks went on the offensive and broke into the city of Bunulau, where they stumbled upon a German ambush. The tank, where Alexandra was, rushed into battle, but the shell hit right inside the tower, and a fire started. Sashka, until the last, did not turn off the equipment, until a shell hit him.

Seeing that Sashka was wounded in the thigh, one of the comrades began to bandage the wound to stop the bleeding. It was then that the secret that Alexandra so carefully kept was revealed. The girl was taken to the hospital, and the comrade could not hide this news and told everyone about it. Considering that Sashka was a well-known and respected person, everyone was simply stunned by this news.

This story reached the command, they wanted to send Sasha to the rear, they say, there is no place for young ladies in the ranks. But General Vasily Chuikov stood up for her, he noticed that such personnel were not scattered. Sashka's documents were changed to a woman's name, and she herself was left in the regiment, which she served.

No man is an island

In the summer of 1941, the Soviet defense now and then surrenders, giving the Germans the opportunity to make their way into the interior of the country. So it happened near Mogilev, where they managed to capture an intact bridge over the river. The enemy's military equipment entered the last settlement in front of the city of Krichev, which the German side sought to take. The Nazis planned to encircle the Soviet troops and prevent them from occupying a new line of defense.

The Red Army decided to retreat, but to leave an ambush at the bridge. Artillerymen with anti-tank guns and ammunition took up convenient positions. One trench and two niches of shells were erected in a field with thick rye, not far from the stable. The road, the bridge and the river were clearly visible from here. Only three soldiers remained, including Sergeant Nikolai Sirotinin.

As soon as the German equipment drove up to the bridge, aimed fire was opened. They managed to knock out the main tank and the armored vehicle in the middle of the column. While the other two tanks tried to remove the disabled equipment from the path, these tanks were also knocked out from an ambush. The fascists were forced to take a defensive position. Due to the chaotic fire and thick rye, they could not determine exactly where the fire was coming from. But with chaotic shots they managed to wound the group commander. And he decides to go to the retreating comrades. In addition, the task has already been completed.

Only Sirotinin refused to go with them. Most likely, he did not want to leave unused shells to the enemy, therefore, continue firing at the German column. The Nazis sent motorcyclists across the field in order to more accurately find out the place from where the shelling was being conducted. They succeeded, and aimed fire was opened at him. By this time, Sirotinin had almost no ammunition.

From the motorcyclists who circled around him, he fired back with a carbine. All participants in these events understood that what the Soviet soldier was doing was madness and that he had no chance of leaving alive. But the shooting with one soldier in the field lasted three hours! This gave the regiment time to build a new line of defense and be ready for a new enemy strike.

The Nazis were so enthusiastic about the bravery of a Soviet soldier, bordering on insanity, that they gave him a funeral with honors. It was a propaganda action for our own soldiers, an example of how to fight for an idea. Only the German soldiers still did not understand the meaning of Sirotinin's act, apparently simply because they are people of a different kind.

During the funeral, the German commander made a fiery speech, noting that if all German soldiers fought like this Russian, then Moscow would have long been taken. Local residents were also invited to the ceremony, so some evidence remained. It so happened that during the war Sirotinin received more honors from the Nazis than from the Soviet side.

While the war was going on, no one was looking for Sirotinin's relatives, and after that his documents were lost. This story was made public by Konstantin Simonov, journalists and ethnographers, who got hold of Friedrich Henfeld's diary. They wrote about the military feat of a simple Soviet soldier in a magazine, but, despite the fact that the country learned about the hero, they were in no hurry to present him with an award.

In Sirotinin's homeland, his name is remembered and honored, a school bears his name, a museum operates, and there is a street named after him.

Most of these heroic stories are released by accident. Thanks to the care of people who study the history of the Great Patriotic War. But it is precisely from such scattered fragments that the face of Victory is formed, the face of a heroic people, which the most terrible enemy could not break.