From the stories of the front

I am not a writer, and it is difficult for me to describe these events. Therefore, I will write on behalf of my father. He told me a little bit. Maybe it will be interesting.

I came to the front in the spring of 1943 in a penal officer's company with a penalty box. With me and another poor fellow, a motorist lieutenant, they took cubes from their buttonholes (epaulets had not yet been issued), issued rifles - and were put into operation.

The company took up positions opposite the notorious Blue Line in the Kuban. The position was flooded, the strongholds were scattered. I and two of my comrades slept in a boat and often woke up with a wet shoulder, because the boat was leaking. But it was spring, and we basked in the sun, until a stray bullet flew between us and killed the third.

After a small artillery preparation, the company was sent on the attack. They walked knee-deep to the waist in the water, and only when I saw that there was no one around me, I lay down for a bump. When it got dark, got out. There are seven people left from the company in 140. And they were all officers. Even the wounded were not drowned.

The company began to receive reinforcements, and they made me a messenger. They gave a small punt. I delivered the reports between strongholds.

Once swam to the open place where the reed was mowed down by an explosion. I did not take into account that the German was on a hill - and got: he fell out of the boat, and the water was boiling around. And only one thought: "Here is mine, here is mine." Out of ammo. While the German was reloading the machine gun, I managed to swim into the reeds. Then he counted more than twenty holes in the boat and several in his overcoat.

Soon my monthly business trip in the penal company ended, they returned the title and sent on to fight.

PS My father always said “punishment company”, although the officers - penal battalions. Maybe someone will fix it, I did not find anything.

Comments

[Flex]

Living memoirs are very interesting and not the propaganda to which they are accustomed and which got even under the Soviet regime. for example, my grandfather flew into the war as a pilot on Li2 — he spoke very little about the war very briefly about injuries in the air flying to besieged Leningrad and to partisans, but he had the most vivid and terrible impression on how they pilots repelled the attack Germans to the airfield

[lankrus]

PS My father always said “punishment company”, although the officers - penal battalions. Maybe someone will fix it, I did not find anything.

Total in 1944 in the Red Army there were 11 penal battalions of 226 people each. in each, and 243 penal companies of 102 people. in each.
Penalty battalion for officers, penal company for soldiers and sergeants.
http://army.armor.kiev.ua/hist/strafniki.shtml

"I approve"
Deputy People's Commissar of Defense
Army General G. Zhukov
26 September 1942g.
REGULATION ON THE PENALTY BATTERONS OF THE EXISTING ARMY
I. General Provisions

1. Penalty battalions are intended to enable individuals of the middle and senior command, political and commanding staff of all military branches who have committed offenses of cowardice or instability to redeem their crimes with a brave fight against the enemy in a more difficult area of ​​combat.

2. The organization, strength and combat strength, as well as the salaries of the permanent composition of the penal battalions are determined by the special staff.

3. Penalty battalions are run by military councils of the fronts. Within each front, one to three penal battalions are created, depending on the situation.

4. The penal battalion is attached to the rifle division (a separate rifle brigade), to which it has been assigned by order of the military council of the front.

II. On the permanent composition of the penal battalions

5. The commanders and military commissars of the battalion and company, the commanders and political leaders of the platoons, as well as the rest of the permanent commanding staff of the penal battalions are appointed to the post by order of the front troops from among the strong-willed and most distinguished commanders and political workers in battle.

Follow the link, everything is there about the penal companies. I posted it, if anyone is too lazy to use it.

[Vadim2013]

I listened to the truth about the Second World War in a queue to the bathhouse as a teenager from veterans in 50. My stepfather sometimes spoke about his war in 1941. In 16 years, he fought in the division of the militia near Tula. Once in intelligence, he fell asleep in a haystack. While sleeping, a horse was stolen from him. When they were fired on with shells and mines for the first time in the trenches, all the militias fled. From the trenches, they first shot rifles over their heads.

[nils]

Starting from 28 on July 1942 and until the end of the war in the Red Army, a total of 65 penal battalions and 1037 penal companies were created. The average monthly number of fines in the indicated period of time ranged from 8 to 11, the average monthly number of fines in them was 225 people. The average monthly number of penal companies in a specified period of time is 243, and the average monthly number of fines in them is 102 people.

The average monthly number of fines in all penal units of the army in the specified period of time is 27326 people, which, with the average monthly number of the army in 6,55 million people, was only 0,42% of the total personnel.

Given the purpose of the penal units and the tasks they performed, the number of losses in them was from 3 to 6 times the level of casualties of ordinary units in offensive operations.

From 28 July 1942 until the end of the war, a total of 427910 people were sent to the penal units, that is, 1,24% of the total number of people who fought during the Great Patriotic War.

The society still holds the erroneous opinion that political and criminal prisoners fought in the penal battalions. In fact, criminals were never sent to serve in penal battalions for officers — only in penal companies, where ordinary soldiers and sergeants fought. The length of stay and the principle of exemption from penal companies was exactly the same as from penal battalions, only decisions were made by the military councils of the armies.

Officers who escaped from the encirclement, escaped or were released from captivity by the advancing units of the Red Army were never sent to either penal companies or penal battalions - exclusively to assault battalions with a strict six-month stay there for everyone. But before that they passed through the “filter” of the NKVD, where they had to prove that they did not voluntarily go over to the side of the enemy.
Political prisoners have never been sent to penal companies or to penal or assault battalions.

The Hitlerite leadership created penalty companies on the Eastern Front of 100. Or, as they were officially named, parts of the probationary period. Dates were given there from six months to five years. Their convicts had to serve “from bell to bell”. Neither wounding nor heroic behavior on the front line were reduced. That is, a German soldier could not atone for his blood, unlike the Soviet "fines". From the hospital, the wounded returned his penal battalion again. Moreover, no orders and medals were given to the German “fines”.

The number of these units on the Eastern Front was strictly defined - 16500 people, which corresponded to the staff of the infantry division. 100 penal mouths were evenly distributed throughout the Soviet-German front. At the same time, the principle of caste was strictly observed: there were officer penal companies, non-commissioned officers and soldiers. Sometimes, for tactical reasons, they were united in a battalion. It is clear that these units were sent to the very inferno, without covering artillery, tanks and aircraft.

There were also penal units in the SS forces. The most famous of them was the battalion of Dirlewanger, "famous" for the atrocities against the civilian population. Dirlewanger himself served a sentence for rape in his youth, and the entourage chose an appropriate one for himself.

[Vend]

But what a conversation with my grandfather I remember from childhood.
- Grandfather?
- What granddaughter?
- Tell me about the war.
- Nothing to tell.
- Well, grandfather, please
- It was scary there. Fearfully.
- Grandfather, have you reached Berlin?
- No granddaughters. I was injured. I met the victory in the hospital.
- Grandfather, tell me more ... well, please
- It was scary there. Fearfully.
That's all he told me.

[Su24]

Grandfather’s demoralizing story)

[Vend]

Quote: Su24

Grandfather’s demoralizing story)

You know, I was not in hot spots, but those of their members of the forum who could say how scary it was or not. You can compare and understand if there is a difference.

[biznaw]

So it is, they were very reluctant to tell. Grandfather only drunk talked a little, or in the process of a film about the war, or suddenly dropped, it was ...
At 16, he went to the front, chose the age so that they would take otherwise he would starve to death
Stalingrad ... they drove the division to the city, day and night under the incessant bombing, only a battalion reached the division, then when I was young I swore that the commies were fools in vain to put people under the bombing in the steppe, now I understand that the war has a different logic and main resource not people but time. My grandfather probably took offense at me, did not speak ... He told me how 17 people held the defense line three kilometers away, the thirst was worse than death, one soldier could not stand it crawling into the neutral zone during the day for water in the flasks of the dead, knowing that the German sniper was working , crawled neatly, did not raise his head, but he blundered at the backpack, slightly raised his head "and only the cap flew up"

[Big den]

at the age of 16-17, the guys in those years often rushed to the front, my grandfather told me how at 43 he had asked for 17 years and helped the military commissar, after a short training in Totsky, Orenburg Region. he was sent to artillery. He always spoke very warmly about artillery, saying that he survived only due to some distance from the front, and there were very large losses in the infantry. He received 2 wounds (both roundabout).
His father, his elder brother and sister (MedSB) fought from his family, only his sister returned in 1945 and my grandfather in 1949 (he remained long-term after the war by a senior company). I rarely spoke about the actual hostilities, I died in 2013. I did not see what was happening in Ukraine, which I walked all over.

[Zhekson]

almost the same and I had a dialogue with my grandfather. Toka, he sometimes laughed at the Germans in Karelia. Runaways are said to be squatted in windings, in lady's jackets with collars. I direct them from 45 matches. Clap! ... From above only one rag is flying ..
- Grandfather, where did you freeze your feet?
- At war..
- Grandfather, where did you injure your hand like that?
-In war, son ..
- Grandfather, where did you meet your grandmother?
-In war, son ...

[navara399]

Two grandfathers fought, but no one said anything. Once, under a fair hop, he let loose (he was a sergeant in reconnaissance) On the Kursk Bulge, they went for their tongue, lie in the snow, a German security company walks by. They walk by, the ones like us, quietly talking, blowing their nose, someone farts on the go, are laughing. We lay quietly. We look back at the crawl, almost all the mortars were covered, as they walked and remained lying on the snow.

[Tuesday]

It is a pity that every year there are fewer and fewer veterans, and yet many could tell how it was.

[Grigorievich]

Quote: tuesday

Two grandfathers fought, but no one said anything.

Yes, they didn’t like to tell, but I slowly asked and my father-in-law told me a little bit behind the bottle (he was a man of heroism, it was a pity he left early in 64) I can’t write, but if I'm interested, I’ll continue.

[Tyumen]

Grigoryevich, interesting ...?

[Appiann]

Grandfather spoke at the beginning of the war as a lieutenant, found himself opposite a German soldier, grabbed his TT - a misfire, a misfire again, and the German goes at him and, taking off his rifle from his shoulder, smiles. Grandfather said that he had never run so fast .... He reached this German and beat him to death with a gun. Then the whole war without a rifle is nowhere.

[Lyton]

My grandfather also fought, he ended the war in Poland, so he told the front-line grandmother of my story, but I couldn’t understand how the boy knew how she knew all this, for example, you won’t be able to kill a person in a dream, you need to wake up first. He also said that our commanders did not spare their soldiers at all, sending them machine guns, only at the end of the war they began to think a little, then there were already no men left 18-year-old boys arrived, that’s how they fought, the Germans were skillful, and we are the number.

[Buran]

I have a story. But only about how the front-line soldiers showed themselves after the war. The story happened in Kazakhstan, in a small village. My grandfather’s brother went into the store and there a young cop (namely a cop and not a policeman) stood and swore a saleswoman for not selling vodka to him. Well, the uncle asked him to shut up, he was behind the gun. Uncle hesitated to break it, and took the gun. I bought what he needed and went home. Soon, the craters came up, the whole house was turned upside down, the uncle was kept in the cell for several days, pressed a little. Uncle in the unconscious. I had to let go. The menthon is waiting for him at home, begs the weapon to be given. Uncle leads him to the store, points to the saleswoman, and says that he would apologize on his knees. He performs everything. And the uncle in the store hid the gun when he left.
But they did not tell about the war, neither his grandfather nor his brothers. Even when we got together, if we were small, he would immediately fall silent, or begin to tinker with us.

[khmer]

father fought, grandfather fought, three brothers of grandfathers fought (one of them was in captivity) - no one said anything other than all kinds of nonsense like when the food came from a belly, or a joke was successfully pinned over an elder (still at school). Although one of the grandfather’s brothers from Moscow to Königsberg from the platoon commander to the battalion commander, all in the orders didn’t tell anything, he only sighed

[figter]

And my grandfather was also very laconic. But once he told how his platoon on the march was ambushed and he was left alone, fell into a ditch and sat there until nightfall. And in the dark he ran to his own (literally said by his grandfather) that even the heels behind his ears sparkled.
I laid out this very story at a matinee in a kindergarten (it was even in the USSR), dedicated to May 9. I also remember the teacher asked: "Children, who will tell about the exploits of your grandfathers?" Just like in the anecdote about Little Johnny it turned out. The whole hall was in a stupor and the teacher too.
When the grandfather found out about this, he neighed until you drop. He hated all these propaganda pomp. That's right, he said, let them know how it really was.
Since then, I found out that the output does not always correspond to reality.

[16112014nk]

My father has several orders, a medal "For Courage", he was wounded, the fragments remained in his body, in the last years of his life he suffered from them. He never said anything about the war.

[Tyumen]

* For courage * The highest soldier's medal. I bow to your father.

[shu1950]

My father, born in 1922, didn’t even tell much about the war box at my adulthood after serving in the army.
He admitted in December 1941 to a submarine textbook in Baku .. In May42, in a submarine of the Baltic Fleet. HIS drugan immediately got into the crew and did not return from the first military campaign.
About the war, Dad said this: in life he was lucky twice — he returned home and on June 24, 1941. I was not at home - there was a Komsomol set and everyone remained under
Smolensk
I didn’t try to talk about everything else.
And cutting his PL-307 by the way on Poklonnitsa Gora in Moscow

[fan1945]

Since they were taciturns, they knew real war veterans. The truth is they left early. Few
I used my pension. And if the storytellers ... then even I (the amateur) caught a lie.
Well, on a fantasy ... I had an uncle, he was lucky. I served in Vladivostok
chauffeur. Laughed. If with the same argue and "begins to take Berlin", it means more
do not pour ...

[Grigorievich]

Quote: fan1945

Since they were taciturns, they knew real war veterans. The truth is they left early. Few
I used my pension. And if the storytellers ... then even I (the amateur) caught a lie.
Well, on a fantasy ... I had an uncle, he was lucky. I served in Vladivostok
chauffeur. Laughed. If with the same argue and "begins to take Berlin", it means more
do not pour ...

As I understood from comets, what my father told me was all fiction and he was not a real front-line soldier, because the real ones were silent. The father never lied and ascribed to himself exploits and all that I wrote and wanted to write about. I collected for many years .

[Vend]

Quote: Grigorievich

[
As I understood from comets, what my father told me was all fiction and he was not a real front-line soldier, because the real ones were silent. The father never lied and ascribed to himself exploits and all that I wrote and wanted to write about. I collected for many years .

Not necessary. Each person grinds war in his own way. Someone is silent, but someone needs to talk. The soul is burning. Maybe your father was one of those. After all, there are also frontline memoirs.

[Tyumen]

You are not angry, people express different thoughts. Please write what you wanted, please ask a second time.

[Lyton]

I agree that the front-line soldiers are laconic, I didn’t find my grandfather alive, everything that I wrote above he mainly told his wife, my grandmother on a drunken bench, and to the men who had a glass, those who did not fight.