The truth about penalties
There were no non-officer penal battalions.Penalty battalions of the fronts and separate penal companies began to be created in pursuance of the order of the USSR People's Commissar of Defense No. 227 from 28 in July 1942 of the year, which became known as Stalin's order “Not one step back.” Contrary to the popular telecomy, reality does not fit in with the liberal myths.
Order No. 227, in particular, stated:
“1. The military councils of the fronts and, above all, the commanders of the fronts:
a) to unconditionally eliminate the retreat in the army and with an iron hand to stop the propaganda that we can and must supposedly retreat further east, that there will be no harm from such a retreat;
b) unconditionally remove from office and send to the headquarters to bring to the military court the commanders of armies who allowed the unauthorized withdrawal of troops from their positions without the order of the front command;
c) form within the front from one to three (depending on the situation) penal battalions (800 people), where to send middle and senior commanders and relevant political workers of all branches of the military who have been guilty of violation of discipline due to cowardice or instability, and put them on difficult sections of the front to give them the opportunity to atone for their crimes against the Motherland with blood ”.
8-th separate penal battalion
And on August 1 of 1942, Commander of the Stalingrad Front, Lieutenant General Gordov ordered the troops of the 62 Army: “1. To 3.8.42, form two front penal battalions for 800 men in each, where to send middle and senior commanders and corresponding political workers who have been guilty of misconduct due to cowardice or instability. ”
The 1 and 2 battalions formed in the temporary states and the numbers were also temporary, for intra-front use. By the end of September it became clear that the front, now Don, could not complete the two penal battalions.
Order No. 09 / 0125 of 30 of September 1942 of the 2 OSB was disbanded and its command and political personnel (33 man) was directed to retrofit 1.
The penal battalion had number one. On any front where the penalty batts were formed, their numbering began with the number 1. Only much later, on November 25 of 1942, by order of the Head of the Organizational Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Red Army Formation No. Org. / 2 / 78950 penal battalions of all fronts were assigned numbers.
14 December 1942, the order of the battalion number 120, it was announced that the Separate Penal Battalion of the Don Front was assigned the number 8. The OSBB commander and military commissar selected and approved the Front Military Council. Combat had the rights of the division commander. The battalion commander and headquarters were allowed to look for suitable commanders of companies and platoons in the Separate Regiment of the officer reserve (POLL).
Apart from the commander and the commissar, the permanent core of the OSB consisted of the deputy battalion commander (combat unit), staff officers and political apparatuses, commanders and political officers of three rifle companies and companies of anti-tank guns, commanders and political officers of platoons, several quartermasters, military doctor and military feldshrer. In addition to officers in companies, six sergeants and Red Army men (clerk-captenarius, medical orderly and four hospital attendants) served on an ongoing basis. Only from the non-penalties consisted of a supply platoon and later a state-appointed curfew platoon, whose task was to ensure reliable protection of the headquarters with a huge amount of documents for each penalty box.
The term of service for officers in the penal units in accordance with the order of the NCO No. 298 - 42 of the year was calculated 1 a month for 6 when assigning a pension.
Eyewitness testimony
On 15 August 1942, the 1 OSBB of the Stalingrad Front had 95 permanent servicemen (of which 29 was over-the-staff until further notice). These were battle-proven people.
Beginning to fight in 8 OSB since September 1942 as deputy commander of the mortar platoon for political affairs, political instructor Pavel Ilyun Piun talked about his appointment to the permanent composition of the penal battalion. In September 1942, the 27 officer corps of the Stalingrad Front Polling was built to receive assignments to combat units. The representative of the front staffing personnel (or maybe it was someone from the command or headquarters of the OSB) was, apparently, a person who was not without a sense of humor. After declaring that a commanding staff was required in the penal officer’s battalion, he asked if there were any volunteers. Nobody stepped forward. "Then," continued the personnel officer, "such and such volunteers fail." And he named several last names, including the last name Piun. It is not excluded that Piun’s political instructor was chosen for the reason that by that time he was already a fired soldier who was retreating with battles through Belarus, defending Moscow near Naro-Fominsk. But there were other examples. As Aleksandr Vasilyevich Pyltsyn, now well-known for his books about the 8 OSH of the “fine fellow”, now recollects, at the end of December 1943 of the year, looking in the same POLL the young lieutenant’s personal business, Vasiliy Afanasyevich Lozovoi’s chief of staff, Vasily Afanasyevich told him: “Everything to me clear. You will go, Lieutenant, to our penal battalion. "
The major battalion commander was appointed Major Yakov Fedorovich Grigoriev to the guard, and the battalion commissar Pavel Prohorovich Larenok was appointed the commissar, which was just announced by the newly appointed battalion in battalion order No. 1 of 15 of August 1942.
For the battalion, the special operations officer of the special department of the NKVD of the front, Lieutenant Pavel Timofeevich Efimov, was assigned.
You should know that the variable composition of the penal battalion was staffed only from guilty officers. Non-officer penal battalion did not exist. They should not be confused with punitive companies, in which privates and sergeants were sent, who showed cowardice and anxiety in battle, deserters or committed other crimes. In 8, the OSHB of penalty boxers was called “fighter-shifter”. They addressed their commanders, as is customary in the army, for example, Comrade Captain.
An officer could be sent to the penalty battalions without a sentence by a military tribunal, the division commander, equal to him or a higher commander only for cowardice or instability on the battlefield for a period of one to three months. For all other crimes, the fate of the culprit was determined by the military tribunal, guided, as a rule, by such a “norm”: imprisonment for up to ten years - three months of the penal battalion, up to eight years - for two months, and five or less equated to one month. During the time they were in the penal battalion, the penal officers lost their officer rank and the awards they had by that time.
Blood and life
The first serious combat losses of the 1 punishment battalion were incurred by General I. Galanin in the 24 Army’s action zone at 108,4 height near the village of Kotluban, Stalingrad region. There, as stated in the order, showing courage and courage, died the death of the brave 19 "fighters-shifters" and one platoon commander, 28 "fighters-shifters" were injured. All the dead were buried on the southern slopes of the same height.
From a number of reports available in the Central Archive of the Moscow Region in Podolsk, which A. V. Pyltsyn was able to familiarize with, one can get an idea of the then-penal contingent.
For example, over the period from 2 in October 1942 to 1 in January 1943, 154 convicted by military tribunals and 177 sent by orders of division commanders and above — for cowardice and other sins on the battlefield — entered the battalion. Total - 331 people. Over the same time, the losses amounted to 71 killed and 138 injured (209 people!).
They have redeemed their guilt, some with blood, and some with life. But here are some more figures from the same reports.
Released ahead of time for the military differences 54 man, at the end of the term - 15. So, without shedding 69 blood, the penalty box earned the forgiveness of the Motherland. Three penalty boxes were awarded with orders, and five medals (a total of eight).
Losses among permanent officers: ten killed, eight wounded. Awarded orders - two. On 30 December 1942, the composition of the “fighters-shifters” of the 1 OSB of the Don Front was as follows.
Chiefs of staff of divisions, brigades and their peers - 6, commanders of regiments and their peers - 14, commanders of battalions, divisions - 13, company commanders, batteries - 41, platoon commanders, deputy company commanders - 100, commanders tanks - 11, staff officers of the regiment, battalion - 12, political workers of the regiment, battalion - 11, political officers of the company, batteries and their equal - 26, officers of the Air Force - 24, heads of services, warehouses, art and vehicles - 17, employees of district military commissariats , Voentorg - 2, Secretary of the Military Tribunal - 1, operative officer of the Special Department of the NKVD - 1.
By military rank: Colonel and his equal - 1, Lieutenant Colonel and equal - 4, Major and Equal - 5, Captain and Equal - 26, Senior Lieutenant and Equal - 44, Lieutenant, Junior Lieutenant and Equal - 199, State Lieutenant - Y.
The battalion commander of the OSHB DF was changed on November 3 of 1942, the Major Dmitry Yermolovich Burkov joined the command of the troops of the Don Front No. OKF / 1 on the basis of the order of the troops of the Don Front No. OKF / 3010.
At full strength, the 8 OSB was already commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Arkady Alexandrovich Osipov for the first time only at Kursk. By July, the 1943 of the year (the beginning of the Battle of Kursk), the battalion was formed and took up defensive positions in the Ponyri-Maloarkhangelskoe area of the Oryol Region in the sector of the 7 of the Lithuanian rifle division. The battalion at that time had 698 penalty box (769 staff) with 100 full-time full-time officers (31 was missing). From among the fighters, only 39 were under orders from commanders, but 207 were ordered by military tribunals and 452 who were captured and surrounded. The average monthly number of penal officers in the penal battalion was 225 people, not 800, as prescribed by the order, and they were used in combat, as a rule, porotno.
Myths about land patrols
According to A.V. Pyltsyn, in 1943– 1944, the variable composition could already be divided into two categories: the first - the former prisoners of war and those who left the encirclement or the territories liberated from the occupation (“encircled”), and the second - the former officers of the front or rear units convicted by military tribunals or sent to the penal battalion by the decision of division commanders and above.
Of course, everyone had their own wrongdoing. Nearby could be the property that was squandered somewhere in the rear of an elderly lieutenant technician and a young lieutenant dunce who was late from vacation or had a drunken fight. There were, of course, ugly personalities, like Major G., about whom he was a pathological coward, convicted of blackmail and sexual harassment of girl soldiers, Pylitsyn tells in his books.
According to the state, the battalion was supposed to have 435 rifles, 139 machine guns, 27 light machine guns (with a machine gun for each branch of rifle platoons), 16 anti-tank guns, one rotary 50-millimeter mortar. Beginning with the battles on the Kursk Bulge, four other companies were formed in the battalion — machine gunners, a machine-gun, a two-troop force, a company of PTR and a two-troop, armed with 82-millimeter mortars.
Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel A.A. Osipov, the 8 OSB was especially distinguished in February of the 1944 year in the Rogachev-Zhlobin operation, when the penal battalion, covertly breaking the front line, in full force, defiantly acted behind enemy lines for five days. And no detachments (none of the NKVD detachments until 20 in November 1944, nor - from September 12 until the end of 1941 - army. - Ed.)! The commander of the 3 Army, General Gorbatov, released more than 800 from the penalty box almost 600 from further staying in the penal battalion without “spilling blood”, without being wounded. They were all reinstated in the officer rights ahead of time, that is, not yet having passed the prescribed period of punishment, even if only in battles many of them were only these five days.
Following the results of the raid, many of the now former "fighters-traitors" for their accomplishments were awarded military awards: the Order of Glory of the III degree, the medals "For Courage" and "For Military Merit". As Pyltsyn notes, the penalty box was not very happy about the Order of Glory. The fact is that he was not relied on the status of soldiers and officers. Many wanted to hide their stay in the penal battalion as convicted, and such an order was evidence of this.
Orders for the restoration of officers in military ranks were drawn up separately for the dead, the wounded, the liberated for the feats shown on the battlefield, and for those who had served their sentence in the penal battalion.
The rehabilitation procedure was that representatives from the army (front-line) tribunals and the front headquarters considered the characteristics of the exempted penalty box and made preliminary decisions to remove convictions from convicts and restore military ranks, which then entered into force on orders of the front commander. Representatives of senior staffs issued orders for the return of awards and issued the relevant documents.
After Rogachev, there were fights near Zhlobin, for Brest, Vistula, the Narev bridgehead, heavy losses in the capture of the bridgehead on the Oder River, in the region of Königsberg on Oder. In August 1944, the fourth commander of the penalty battalion was Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Nikitovich Baturin. Starting his history from the Stalingrad Front, 8-th OSB, fought on the Don, Central and Byelorussian fronts and ended the war as part of the 1-By of Belarus near Berlin.
Information