"To deceive the Germans put plywood tanks"
Colossal support to Soviet intelligence officers in the war provided the local population.Boyko Ivan Akimovich, retired colonel. Born March 19, 1924 in the village of Podvorki Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky district of the Kiev region. Member of the hostilities in the 1st Ukrainian Front of the 3rd Guards tank army of the 182nd mechanized battalion. Scout, foreman of a platoon of intelligence. He took part in the hostilities during the liberation of Ukraine, Kiev, at the Bukrinsky and Lyutezhsky bridgeheads, freed Vasilkov, Fastov, Khmelnitsky, Vinnitsa, Warsaw, Poland. He was wounded near Krakow.
- I was born March 19, 1924 in the village of Podvorki Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky district of the Kiev region in a peasant family. Father before the war was a collective farmer, but he also carpentry, made barrels, cobbled. When the war began, he and fifteen of my uncles from the paternal and maternal lines went to the front. The uncles died, and the father, after 72-day defense of Kiev, was captured by the wounded. My mother had a sore heart, but she was able to find him and take him home, local Germans were allowed to go home. If not for his mother, he would have died in captivity. When I went to the front, my father told me: “Son, in no case do not think to be captured. Leave in your weapons last cartridge. Use it. Because you see how I came? ”
Before the war, I finished nine classes. Our school in Pereyaslav was considered exemplary, and we also had a technical station in Pereyaslav. The girls were engaged in their handicrafts there, and we were engaged in our own - aircraft modeling, radio engineering, photography. We made detector receivers, and then lamp receivers. I must say that in the villages then there was no radio everywhere, and so I came up with it - I took a Makitra, it was such a big clay jug, put headphones there, and 4-5 people could listen to the radio.
When the war began, it was useful to me. I had friends - Levchenko, Sedegey, who were also interested in radio business. When the war began, we hid our successors so that no one would know. In my hut that is covered with straw, on the crossbars, an antenna was placed on the beams and I listened to Sovinformburo reports. Levchenko and Sedegey also listened, but after two months the Germans arrested them. Besides Zedegei, in addition to the receiver, they also found the banner of the regiment, which was retreating through us, and the lads were taken away. Sent to Germany. Levchenko returned after the war, but Sedegei did not.
I got scared and the tube receivers I had drowned. And then I thought: “And if I relocate to the village of Demyantsy, which is 7 kilometers from us ...”. My aunt lived there, and the village itself was deaf. And there, my friends and I listened to the Soviet Information Bureau, wrote reports and distributed them to the public. And in 43, as soon as we reached Pereyaslav, I voluntarily joined the army.
September 22 I hit the Bukrin bridgehead. I forced the Dnieper against Zarubinets, I had Kryachko partisan with me, from the Chapaev detachment. The squad had a 600 man, and Lomaco commanded it. The detachment prepared transport means to assist in the crossing of the regular army. They say that before the crossing of the Dnieper, the commanders of partisan detachments were assembled in Moscow, where they were instructed to render all possible assistance to the troops in the crossing of the Dnieper, and the commanders of units and subunits received instructions from the Supreme Commander that they have the right to independently force the Dnieper, wherever they can. As a result, the Dnieper was forced into 25 locations, and here I was on the Bukrin bridgehead.
On September 22, I crossed the Dnieper on a boat, and Alekseev's division from the 3 Guards Tank Army crossed with me. On the right bank, we found a flooded pontoon and were able to raise it, repair it and send it to the left bank, as a result of which we were able to transport an entire battalion.
By this time, the Germans had transferred help to the Dnieper, but the partisans tied them up with fire. And on September 9, the Belyaev battalion from the 23 Guards Tank Army crossed the right bank of the 3 and began to expand the bridgehead. But due to the fact that the transfer means for tanks and heavy artillery were not ready, only the 2 of the tank was shipped. And there Sergeant Sikorsky, a tankman, and his crew acted against the Germans. The Germans launched their three tanks. Sikorsky hit 2 tank. And the third tank was shot down with an anti-tank gun. Sikorsky, poor fellow, died, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
At this time it was necessary to think about how to still transport the tanks that stand on the left bank. General Rybalko met with residents of Kozinets, with partisans, with old men, fishermen who knew the Dnieper in these places. And he consulted, and the old people prompted him: “Let's build a bridge across the Dnieper”.
The Germans had already deployed reinforcements, when someone tried to cross the Dnieper, there was such a terrible fire - 25-meter-high water columns were rising. And then he decided to build a bridge. And on October 1, construction began on a bridge in order to transport equipment across the Dnieper.
How was the bridge built? The population voluntarily left Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky district to assist in the construction of the bridge. They were preparing the forest in the rear, cooking horses and bulls. Tighten timber, treated on piles. And then the same piles were picked up by machines, military tractors. Over the course of 5 kilometers, timber was pulled up. And Zagati, as the tract was called, was the headquarters of the 182-th battalion, from which I am.
And from Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky district who went? Children, women and old people. Imagine? I’m going, and there, near this battalion, they put 4 circulars and sawmills, which treated the forest. Flooring, railings, all-all-all. And then delivered right there. Children ten, twelve years old - how proud they were! And the women? It really was the Patriotic War!
The bridge was built, our reconnaissance platoon took part in building the bridge, we checked the depth, and then we brought up the piles - big trees. A scaffold is made, a pile is put, a “woman” is taken, a wooden pig with three handles and a weight of 80 kg.
And so, it means that there are three soldiers on the platform and 300 strikes with their hands. Come ashore to rest. The second batch. And all this is done under fire. The bridge was built very quickly, and collapsed even faster. That day, per day 20, 30, even 50 meters had time to beat, because it was not only our battalion. And then the planes will fly and smash everything into wood chips. War is war.
5-th number was a terrible raid. On the right side, I was sent to the report of a survey of the fortifications of the Germans, which were set up with us. And I swam up to this bridge on a punt, there were two of us, twirled behind the pile tenacious. And there, then, he stopped when the planes flew. And there you stand, the bombing goes, and you stand.
Our soldiers troubled. When we went ashore, we look, and there the corpses lie. "Brother, finish, kill ...". 5 October to a half thousand dead and wounded was. Onuchin, the deputy commander of the 3 Guards Tank Army, died there, our platoon commanders and companies were killed in the same place. They were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. They are buried in Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky district.
But despite this, the bridge was built from the first to the twelfth of October. 12-th number went our tanks, food on the right bank of the Dnieper, and began a large-scale offensive. There was no such artillery preparation anywhere, as those old men said who had already passed the war.
I personally walked through the territory. There were two roads there that the Germans shot through so that ours would not go further. And the Germans mined them, so we German mines and had to be removed.
In the battle of 12, 20 tanks were shot down, of which German 11 and 9 tanks were ours. In a word, this offensive did nothing. The Germans retreated to Bukranov, Small and Large, There they had a fortification. The second attempt was October 15. More was the offensive. 200 000 people died on the Bukrin bridgehead, this is what historians write. And how many of them still remain in different cool? Now the trackers are. October 15 also failed, and here came the order to redeploy the 3 Guards Tank Army to the Lyutezhsky bridgehead - this is 200 kilometers to the north. And to deceive the Germans to put plywood tanks, plywood planes on these conquered bridgeheads. That was done. On the 200 km, our 3-I tank army redeployed to the Lyutezhsky bridgehead and again crossed the Dnieper in Novo-Petrovtsy. A command post was already built there, and on November 4 the attack on Kiev began.
The Germans made debris on the roads, and put minefields under the rubble. And not in one place, but in a dozen places. And our task as intelligence was to scout where these minefields were. We succeeded thanks to the local population, which provided assistance. They already knew where the Germans laid mines - well, not completely, but at least approximately ... And there we discovered these minefields.
Then for the first time, minesweepers appeared at the base of tanks; Our lot there died. On the 4, when the German stopped advancing to the second fortified line, the 3-th Guards Tank Army was given command. The third tank army turned on the sirens at night, turned on the headlights and went on the offensive with a psychic attack. We crossed the road Kiev - Zhytomyr and left the Germans in the cell. There were a lot of German tanks and cars.
6 November the city of Kiev was cleared. Our flag was set on the building of the Central Committee. And the rally was organized. There at that time were Khrushchev, Sukhov. And we went to Cornflowers, Fastov. Fastov - this was the main railway on which the Germans could deploy reinforcements, so Fastov should have been immediately released.
In Fastov, then the fierce battles were.
After the release of Fastov, we went to Zhytomyr. Zhytomyr was liberated by the 3 Guards Tank Army, but the Germans left tanks with alcohol, and in separate units the tank crew got drunk. And at night in some places the Germans cut our tankers with knives and decided to go on the offensive against Kiev. But it was just my unit, and others ... We immediately put up minefields, tank units were raised, and the German advance was stopped. After Zhytomyr, we went to Vinnitsa, from Vinnitsa to Khmelnitsky, from Khmelnitsky to Volochysk. Then to Lviv, Sandomierz direction, liberated Lviv.
Yes, there was another case before Lviv, it was on the river Buzok. It turned out that our army, which is avant-garde, we went ahead, and the infantry units in the trenches dug in. At this point, the river Buzok is small, but swampy. And through it was built bridge 300 meters. Big such a concrete bridge. And they instructed me to check this reinforced concrete bridge, because German tanks were behind it. And they gave the command to mine and wait for the patron, who should say - to undermine the bridge or not. We approached this bridge, 15 man. Each carried two mines to Jan-5. This is 2,5 kilogram in one mine and in another.
We reached the bridge, it was such a march about 2,5 kilometers, and on a neutral point. We got there, mined this bridge. And in my division there were Tatars, Uzbeks, Russians, Ukrainians. But there was one such good friend, on whom I absolutely relied. I relied on everyone, but this one was special. I sent him: "Go, see what is there, and give a sign." We had a conventional sign. And he signs that 10 tanks are really there. Immediately before mining the bridge, we set up our sentry, a Tatar, who was supposed to sit there and, if suddenly, to give a sign that tanks were moving. We mined the bridge. And we already had the experience - where and how to mine. Summed up the German fuck cable. And he 80 centimeters, and then the Tatar signaled that the tanks are coming. Tree sticks! But the messenger is not, there is no order. Blow up the bridge - the tribunal, do not blow it up - also a tribunal. And here we, the 15 man, stand there and advise: “How to be?” Nobody knows, and I don't know. However, our squadron, "Elah." And so, it means that they are circling around these tanks and from the "Katyushas" with which they are armed, shelling. We all have a good mood, were delighted, there are witnesses. We decided that the bridge should be undermined. And here comes last year’s ochert, it’s such reed beds, which means we decided to leave after the bridge was blown up.
And so, it means that the first tank went from there, we installed the fuses in four places, we retreated ourselves, and the bridge does not explode. Christmas trees are green! Already there is a tank on the bridge soon. And then there was a loud explosion - undermined the bridge. The tank went halfway up the bridge and was blown up there. We quietly did our work and quietly, in order to save our soldiers, through ocheret began to retreat from the bridge. As soon as we began to retreat from the bridge, and there the shed stood, and from this shed we were fired upon with tracer bullets. This is to show the enemy where to fire. I do not know what kind of God saved us, but the enemy did not open fire. But he didn’t open, apparently, just because he didn’t find his firing points, so that our people would not crush them. But during this period we had no firing points. If we had not undermined the bridge, this is our line, the forward infantry unit of this dozen tanks would have been crushed.
Then we liberated Warsaw. Began to free other cities. And here about Krakow I was wounded.
The Germans Krakow mined, and our scout Bereznyak saved him. But he only cut his wires, which were connected, and we had to look around the city for enterprises that were mined, and there were many of them, and we needed to neutralize the charges. And the Germans began to fire Krakow from guns. And I was wounded in the thigh, buttocks, and to the bone.
I went to the hospital of the 3 Guards Tank Army, stayed there for a month or two, and then I was sent to Opalikha, to a military school. But the medical commission refused to accept me for study, I still have fragments near my nerves, I cannot operate.
In March-April, 1945 was sent to the ground in Nakhabino, in a separate engineering battalion at the Land Research Institute. I served there for two years, participated with a platoon in mine clearance in the Moscow region. At this institute I met my future wife, she herself lived at the Dubosekovo passport before the war, and her father was the chairman of a collective farm and they evacuated her and her mother so that they would not get into the hands of the Germans. In 1947, we signed and demobilized me as a guard foreman. I returned to Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky, went about a month without work, and then I was offered to become chairman of the urban consumer society, which restored the economy destroyed by the Germans - shops, catering establishments, warehouses and other objects. There I externally finished 10 classes. Then I was sent to study at the Chernihiv school of the Tsentrosoyuz, and after it was finished, I was offered a job in the Stavishchensky district of the Kiev region. I was the chairman of the regional consumer union of the Stavishchensky district of the Kiev region, I was restoring a destroyed, or rather, destroyed by the Germans national economy. During the six years of my work in Stavischich and in the area, more than 30 shops and catering establishments were built. In 1961, the regional party committee, I was transferred to work as head of the trade department of the Kiev region, at the same time I was given the title of economist of the highest category.
In 1982, the head of the department of vehicles of the Ministry of Trade of the USSR, and in 1984, I was offered the job of vice-rector of the Institute for Advanced Studies of Executives and Trade Specialists of the USSR, where I worked until 1991.
Eight times I was elected a deputy of the district, city and regional councils. And then about 20 years I gave work in the veteran organizations of the city of Kiev. Awarded four orders, medals "For Courage", "For Military Merit" and all the anniversary.
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