Table of contents:
- 1. Daring sorties ahead of the penal battalion
- SS surrendered to "Uncle Vasya" without a fight
- Reform of the rifle division and the first parachute jump at 40
- Margelov's experience in innovations in the military-industrial complex and experiments on his own son
Video: How the paratrooper "Uncle Vasya" experimented on his own son, and why the SS soldiers surrendered to him without a fight
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Probably, there are not so many tales and legends about which army unit in Russia there are so many tales and legends as about "Uncle Vasya's troops." And let the pilots of strategic aviation rise above everyone else, the chased step of the presidential regiment is not inferior in accuracy to robots, and the GRU special forces are the worst of all. But no one undertakes to argue with the fact that "there are no impossible tasks, there are landing troops." Many commanders of the Russian Airborne Forces are known, but there was only one Margelov. Legend, role model, mentor and support. The one who made the paratroopers as we know them today.
1. Daring sorties ahead of the penal battalion
Vasily Margelov is from Ukraine. After the family moved to Belarus, the young man graduated from a military school in Minsk, and in 1932 he became a cadet in a pilot school, from which he was expelled a year later due to "politically illiterate" statements. He began his career as an apprentice in a tannery, worked in a mine, a stud farm, was a forester, and chaired a labor committee and a tax commission. He entered the army after reaching 20 years of age.
Step by step moving up the career ladder, he participated in the Polish campaign of the Red Army, distinguished himself during the Soviet-Finnish war. The commander of the reconnaissance ski battalion, Vasily Margelov, made very daring raids on the rear of the enemy. The scouts of his battalion made the most difficult marches over impassable terrain, knocking the enemy out of fortified positions with unexpected blows and discovering camouflaged firing points.
In 1941, the "land commander" became the helm of a marine regiment in the Baltic Fleet. Markelov quickly became one of his own among the sailors, enjoying deep authority and respect. The regiment was the personal guard of Admiral Tributs, which he sent to the blockade of Leningrad where he did not even send the penal battalion. So, during the storming of the Pulkovo Heights by the Germans, the Margelov battalion, which was parachuted into the enemy rear, managed to divert the main forces to itself, disrupting the offensive operation. Then Margelov miraculously managed to survive after a severe injury.
SS surrendered to "Uncle Vasya" without a fight
In the rank of divisional commander, Margelov stormed the "Saur-Mogila", liberated Kherson, participated in many decisive offensive operations of the Ukrainian Front. The Margelov division distinguished itself during the Belgrade, Jassy-Kishinev, Budapest, Prague, Vienna operations, liberated Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria. In every step taken, the commander's readiness to go to the bitter end was invariably traced.
Especially vividly, the brave heroism of Margelov was revealed during an amazing episode with his direct participation. In May 1945, elite SS Panzer Divisions, which were trying to break into the American zone of responsibility, surrendered to him without a fight. The high command was tasked with capturing or destroying. Without much thought, Margelov took a decisive step. With a group of officers armed with machine guns and grenades, the division commander came to the grouping headquarters, ordering to fire direct fire from pre-installed guns, if he did not come out to his own ten minutes later. Margelov put forward an ultimatum to the discouraged Germans: to surrender and save their lives, or to be completely destroyed by the aimed firepower of the Soviet division. He gave little time to think - until his cigarette burns out. And the Germans could not stand it. The surrender looked amazing: two generals, more than 800 officers, thousands of non-commissioned officers, 77 self-propelled guns with tanks, almost 6 thousand trucks, fifty mortars and almost 400 carriages with 16 steam locomotives were among the Soviet trophies.
Reform of the rifle division and the first parachute jump at 40
In 1950, the airborne troops meant something like a penal battalion. And the abbreviation itself was tacitly deciphered as "you are unlikely to come back home." Everything changed in 1954, after the veteran soldier Margelov came to the post of commander of the paratroopers. Believe it or not, in just a few months, the Airborne Forces turned into an elite unit of the ground forces.
In the Great Patriotic Division, it fought as a rifle division, and now it only had to "attach wings." At that time, the Soviet military strategy assigned the paratroopers, in case of large-scale hostilities, to accompany a massive offensive when using nuclear missiles. For this reason, the Airborne Forces needed appropriate aviation and armored equipment. Margelov saw the tasks of the winged infantry in the highest combat capability and fire efficiency. When preparing paratroopers, Margelov paid maximum attention to parachute jumps. He himself first visited under the "umbrella" only at the age of 40 and in the rank of general. Despite his considerable age, he performed about 60 jumps, the last of which was 65 years old.
Margelov's experience in innovations in the military-industrial complex and experiments on his own son
In the 1960s, after the Gagarin flight and an emergency landing by parachute, Margelov, with the support of his winged guard, had the opportunity to prove himself in daring aerial experiments. Parachutists of the USSR set absolute records by jumping from the stratosphere (23 km altitude) with instant parachute deployment and subsequent landing on the Pamir and Caucasian mountains. It was under Vasily Margelov that the Airborne Forces began to drop equipment with crews inside.
It is noteworthy that in the most serious and dangerous trials, the first was the son of "Uncle Vasya" Alexander, who, as an example to his father, chose the landing troops as his business. In 1973, he landed inside the BMD-1 with the An-12, which at that time had not been tried by anyone in the world. Father led the dangerous release, and colleagues later said that the entire operation Margelov kept a pistol on edge. In case the son dies through his fault. After a successful landing, the general proved to the Minister of Defense of the USSR Grechko the sufficient reliability and safety of landing equipment together with people.
Actively and competently cooperating with the military-industrial complex, the commander put into service the Airborne Forces An-22 and Il-76 winged aircraft, and today they are releasing paratroopers into the sky. The paratroopers were sent not only the latest developments in small arms, but also grenade launchers, portable anti-aircraft systems, innovative communication systems, and engineering equipment. The paratroopers received the most reliable parachutes, parachute-jet and multi-dome landing systems.
Margelov commanded the Airborne Forces until 1979. Under his leadership, they turned into an independent branch of the military and an elite combat-ready military formation, enjoying authority throughout the world. The best traditions of paratroopers appeared and became stronger under "Uncle Vasya". Even the obligatory attributes of the paratroopers - blue berets and vests - are his handiwork. Margelov died at 81, several months before the collapse of the USSR. Four out of five of his sons have linked their lives with the Russian army.
And today the Yakut paratroopers sometimes celebrate the day of the Airborne Forces in a special way.
Recommended:
Queen Tamara: Why she had to fight with her own husband, and how she began the golden age of Georgia
Sometimes the personality of the Georgian Queen Tamara is difficult to distinguish from the collective epic image. In terms of legend, it will overtake any other ruler of Georgia since the beginning of the history of the state. In every somewhat self-respecting Georgian settlement there is a street named after Queen Tamara. Historically, all architectural delights in the country are attributed to her merits. Tamara, who led Georgia in the difficult and alarming 12th century, remains, perhaps, the only woman who bore the title of tsar
Ilya Oleinikov and Denis Klyaver: Why did the son hide his relationship with his father and abandoned his surname
The children of famous parents use the chances given to them by fate in different ways: someone is proud of his loud surname and does not hide the fact that it helps to build a successful career, and someone does not advertise kinship in order to avoid comparisons and achieve success on their own. The son of the famous artist Ilya Oleinikov bore a different surname, and only after he left he told about their difficult relationship and why for many years no one knew who his father was
Why Viktor Tsoi's first wife could not forgive him, and why did the musician introduce his women
Viktor Tsoi became a unique phenomenon in Soviet culture in the 1980s. And what to tell, and now the songs of the leader of the group "Kino" do not lose their relevance, and the image of the musician himself has become cult. Being an informal person, the artist did not differ in his usual approach in his personal life and, for example, did not see anything bad in introducing his wives - the former, with whom he had not even filed a divorce, and the new one. True, each of them understood such frankness in their own way
How many duels did Pushkin have, and why did the great poet shoot himself even with his own uncle?
Pushkin often described duels in his works. He took many details from his personal experience, as he was an avid duelist. Everyone knows that the great poet fought with Dantes. This was his last duel, but not the first. During this showdown, common in the old days, at the hands of Pushkin, no one died. Read what kind of shooter Alexander Sergeevich was, why he called his own uncle to the barrier and what saved Georges Dantes from death
Why Repin's son took his own life, and his grandson was shot for his dream of becoming an artist
There is such a concept: “in children is our continuation” and, of course, every parent wants it, this continuation, to be worthy and far-reaching. About how the fate of the heirs of the master of Russian painting Ilya Repin developed, namely the only son of Yuri, who became an artist, and one of the grandchildren, who had only dreamed of becoming one all his short life, further in the review