Feat tanker Gregory Naydin
Grigory Nikolaevich Naidin was born on November 18 of 1917 in a simple Russian peasant family. He spent his childhood in the Stary Oskol district in the village of Saltykovo, which has now become a microdistrict of the city of Gubkin. Naidin received his education at a local high school, having completed nine compulsory classes and additional mechanics courses. Then the young guy got a job in his native state farm as a tractor driver and turner, and after a while he left to work as a mechanic at the Skorodnyansky machine-tractor station. From 1936 to 1938, Grigory Nikolayevich was trained at the Yutanovsk Specialized School of Machine Operators, eventually receiving the specialty of a senior mechanic. In the fall of 1938, he was called to serve in the army. After the distribution, he found himself in a tank unit, where he passed the regimental school. In 1940, Gregory became a member of the CPSU (b). The Great Patriotic War found Naidin in the Lithuanian border garrison. By that time he was already the commander of the light tank BT-7, which was part of the fifth tank division of the Red Army.
This division was formed in June 1940-th year and is staffed with personnel soldiers and commanders. On 18 June 1941, it was deployed in the Lithuanian city of Alytus, having mainly BT-7 tanks in service. In addition, there were (in descending order of quantity): BA-10, T-34, T-28, T-26 and BA-20. It was the fifth tank division that had the honor to repel the first and most terrible blows of the German fascist invaders. The forces of the thirty-ninth motorized corps of the Goth group were thrown against the Soviet units in the areas they occupied. The goal of Hitler’s command was obvious - to quickly force the Neman and break through to Vilnius. In the first hours of the war, border guards from the 128 and 188 divisions fought stubbornly against the enemies who had entered Soviet territory. Using superiority in technology and manpower, the Nazis managed to get through to Kalvariya by noon. And then, by order of the command, the Fifth Panzer Division advanced to the western bank of the Neman in order to occupy the bridge positions. However, she did not have time to turn around completely. 22 June 1941-th year near Alytus tank battle unfolded. Unfortunately, in the literature there is very little information about this, one of the first large-scale tank battles, in which, in particular, tank rams were committed.
At the positions occupied by Soviet troops, the Germans brought down artillery fire and bombing strikes. Russian tankers suffered terrible losses. Enemy tanks managed to break through to the east coast south of Alytus, where they were immediately counterattacked by division troops. The outcome of the battle was decided by the German aviationthat dominated the air and constantly striking at our units. With heavy losses, the Soviet units managed to retreat to the east coast and defended themselves at the bridge until nightfall, after which the whole division moved in the direction of Vilnius. Throughout the next day (June 23) there were continuous battles with the Nazis. Having lost the organization, lacking ammunition and fuel, Soviet tankers tried to stop the advance of motorized units of the thirty-ninth corps of the Germans. The front command, not imagining the prevailing situation, tried to get the division to fulfill the tasks set before the war, which it could no longer fulfill, just as well as to restrain the onslaught of many times superior enemy forces. By the end of the day, having lost dead and wounded about seventy percent of the personnel and fifty percent of the armored vehicles, the fifth tank division was in Vilnius. The chief of staff of the twenty-ninth rifle corps, Colonel Tishchenko recalled that "from the side of Alytus, the approaches to Vilnius were littered with corpses and destroyed tanks, both by the fascist and our glorious fifth division." And further from his words: “On the southern outskirts of Vilnius I met a tower gunner from the fifth tank. Barely moving his legs, he stubbornly wandered forward with a tank machine gun on his shoulder. The tankman said that the division fought heroically while there were ammunition and fuel. Then his crew was forced to blow up the tank ... "
It took time to prepare the defense of the city and regroup the retreating units of the Red Army. In order to win it, the Soviet command decided to launch a series of counterstrikes on the advancing Wehrmacht forces. The commander of the ninth tank regiment (part of the fifth tank division) offered to perform this task to the volunteers. One of them turned out to be a sergeant, an extra term officer, Grigory Naidin. A day earlier, on June 22, he participated in the battle of Alytus, where he opened the scoring for his victories, knocking out the first enemy tank. The order he received was extremely simple - to keep the Nazis moving stubbornly eastward near the Lithuanian village of Rudishkiai, located twenty kilometers south-west of Vilnius, as long as possible. Arriving 25 June, the first to the place of the future fight, Grigory Nikolayevich managed to thoroughly study the area, having come to the conclusion that the swamped meadow, which ran along both sides of the road, could perfectly serve its purposes. There was no opportunity to drive around the equipment stuck on the road in this place without getting stuck in the swamp. Sergeant Naidin carefully masked his car among the trees that grew near the highway, and, waiting for the fascists, tried to calculate the various options for the upcoming battle.
The first operation of the BT-7 in the army revealed a number of flaws, some of which were soon eliminated during the production process, while others related to the wheel-track principle of movement were unavoidable. Also left to be desired is the M-17 aircraft engines, designed for tanks after working off the flight resource in one hundred hours and the subsequent overhaul. BT-7 received baptism of fire at Khalkhin-Gol as part of the sixth and eleventh tank brigades. In general, the new model deserved good reviews, but it was noted the complexity of management, insufficient armor protection and poor equipment with communication facilities. All this was later confirmed in the war with Finland. And yet for their time, these tanks had no equal in maneuverability. In the prewar years, they became a well-deserved symbol and pride of the armored troops of the Red Army. Their counterpart and future enemy in the class of "light-medium" tanks is the German Pz. III, having traditionally high-quality radio station and optics. Yielding in armor protection, the BT-7 had significantly higher speed, maneuverability and power of weapons. In addition, the crew of the German car consisted of five people.
The Nineteenth Panzer Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Otto von Knobelsdorf, advanced on Vilnius with fresh forces. Unlike the twentieth division, licking its wounds after the battle for Alytus, the nineteenth did not participate in previous battles, moving in the second echelon. Convinced that there were no longer any battle-worthy Russian units ahead of them, the Germans moved without head guard. The first on the road appeared an incomplete tank company consisting of PzKpfw II and PzKpfw III with attached artillery pieces. When the distance between them and the Soviet tank standing in ambush was reduced to four hundred meters, Grigory Nikolayevich opened aimed fire. The very first shots turned out to be shot down by the fascist head tank, then Naidin brought down the tank that closed the convoy. His calculation was correct, the entire enemy column was in the sector of the shelling of the gun BT-7. The traffic jam on the road deprived the fascists of the ability to maneuver. The German tankers, who had seen the views, were confused, and Grigory Naidin continued methodically and mercilessly to shoot a string of cars. Of course, the German tanks were shot, but either the position of the Soviet tank was too successful, or the burning technique prevented the gunners from aiming, but there was no organized resistance, the shooting of the fascists was indiscriminate, and not a single projectile hit the BT-7. For half an hour, a Soviet tanker turned twelve German tanks and ten artillery shells into scrap metal, after which he disappeared from view. BT-7 quickly returned to its unit on a wheeled course, and the Germans could not continue on this road for a long time. The battle message of the front headquarters sent by 24 June to 22: 45 to the USSR People's Commissar for Defense said: "The Fifth Panzer Division of 23.06.41 in 14: 00 in the area of Rodzishki fought with the enemy." The fact that this battle led only one Soviet tank was not mentioned in the report. And just a few hours later, in the next battle that took place on the outskirts of Vilnius, Grigory Nikolayevich destroyed three more German cars.
The remnants of the fifth tank division held Vilnius all day on 24 June, but the superiority of the enemy and irrecoverable losses (only fifteen tanks remained on the move) forced the Soviet soldiers to begin a quick and unorganized withdrawal. Vilnius was occupied by fascists in 17 hours of the evening. By the end of the day, the remnants of the unit were in the vicinity of the city of Molodechno, and on June XN, they had already redeployed to Borisov in an organized manner, where they again clashed with parts of the third Goth tank group. At the end of the month, the remaining armored vehicles (26 BA and 4 BT-2) became part of the Borisov group of troops, and the surviving personnel went to Kaluga until the end of their military duty.
Gregory for the shown skill and courage presented to the title of Hero, but the award did not find him immediately. The chaos of those days, the defeat and retreat of the Soviet units left Naydin’s feat unnoticed, and the performance was lost. Grigory Nikolaevich fought until the end of the 1941 year. After being wounded, he ended up in the hospital, and after being discharged, he was sent by his superiors for advanced training at the Chelyabinsk Tank School. Ironically, the head of the school was the former commander of Naydin. Having learned the story of his subordinate, he again made all the documents and even found witnesses for the memorable battle. However, only on 3 on June 1944, when Soviet soldiers drove the Nazi trash back to the West through the same places where the fifth tank division fought, the heavy tank commander, Lieutenant Grigory Naydin, was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal "(Under the number 3685). In the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the date of the feat was incorrectly indicated on June 25 of the 1941 year, which is impossible, since at that time the remains of the fifth tank division were near the Belarusian city of Molodechno.
Chelyabinsk Tank School Grigory Naidin graduated in 1942, then returned to the front. He fought in the 103 tank battalion, which is part of the eleventh army of the North-Western Front. Fought valiantly, was wounded twice. After the war, Grigory Nikolayevich continued to serve in the Soviet Army. In the 1949 year, an ace tanker graduated from the Military Academy of Mechanized and Armored Forces and was sent to a military unit stationed in the city of Berdichev (Zhytomyr Region) for further service. He retired in the 1966 year with the rank of colonel, remaining to live in Berdichev. Grigory Naidin 10 died on December 1977 at the age of sixty and was buried in the city cemetery.
In just two and a half months of battles in the 1941 year, in the most tragic and critical period for our country, Lavrinenko personally destroyed fifty-two Nazi tanks in twenty-eight battles. Almost every kilometer of the combat route of the first Guards Tank Brigade is connected with his name; he did not miss a single serious combat operation. The legendary tanker fought on T-34-76, a tank in which the commanders served as the gunners. According to the testimony of his comrades, Lavrinenko shot very accurately, but at the same time he tried at maximum speed to get very close to the enemy in order to strike for sure. According to experts, Dmitry Fedorovich was an excellent and cold-blooded tactician, preferring short surprise strikes from ambush. It is known that before attacking the enemy, Lavrinenko carefully studied the surrounding terrain, choosing the direction of attack and subsequent maneuvers. He was actively taking advantage of the T-34 in off-road capability, hiding behind the folds of the terrain, constantly changing position and immediately attacking again, giving the Germans the impression of the presence of several Soviet tanks at once. Three times Dmitri's combat vehicle burned, but the tank ace went out unscathed from the most difficult situations. His life ended 18 December 1941 year near Volokolamsk. Dmitry Fyodorovich was killed after the battle by a fragment of a mine exploded next to him. The tankman was only twenty-seven years old. After the war, Lavrinenko was awarded by Marshal of the Armored Forces Mikhail Katukov, and Army General Dmitry Lelyushenko, and many Kuban local historians and writers. However, he was given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, posthumously, only on 5 of May 1990 of the year.
Many years have passed since that moment when, from the lips of all those who fought for the Russian land, such a welcome word sounded: “Victory!”. But the fate of historical memory is tragic. We do not know where the remains of the many heroes of the tank are, and the search work that went before, now stopped. In Soviet times, the exploits of the soldiers of the fifth tank division did not say anything, not wanting to recall the failures of the first days of the war and focusing on the merits of the liberators. And today, when ever less veterans who fought in the distant 1941 year remain alive, all attention is paid to the tragedy of the Soviet Army - the victim of Stalinism. For official Lithuania, Russian warriors are worse than the fascist invaders.
For the victory over Nazi Germany, Soviet tankers paid a huge price, for each of them it was expensive and important to understand that their descendants would live in peace. Their memory should be preserved and cleared of political distortions, historical justice should be restored. After all, they are our heroes who gave the future.
Information sources:
http://www.anaga.ru/najdin.html
http://pomnipro.ru/memorypage/biography/2210
http://www.wio.ru/tank/ww2aceru.htm
http://www.nnre.ru/voennaja_istorija/sovetskie_tankovye_asy/p4.php
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