Heroes of the legendary miner
In early August, 1941, the Nazi troops continued to successfully advance deep into the territory of the Soviet Union. Millions of Soviet people stood shoulder to shoulder trying to protect their country from the attack of the aggressor. Among them were people of various nationalities, ages and professions. The strategic task of the Soviet leadership in this period was to prevent the Germans from industrial areas in the east of the Ukrainian SSR, primarily to the Donbas. 18 August 1941 The State Defense Committee decided (Resolution No. 506 from 18 August 1941) to form the 383 Infantry Division, which was assigned the task of defending Donbass (by the time of the Victory in 1945, it was called “383 Theodosia -Brandenburg Red Banner of the Order of Suvorov 2 Degree Rifle Division ").
Initially, the division began to be staffed by Donetsk miners mobilized for military service. The miners, as you know, have always been a dangerous, ardent, and combat-ready people. Therefore, as it had been expected, the divisions were to become one of the elite formations of the Red Army. It is precisely because of the staffing at the beginning mainly by the miners that the 383-Rifle Division received the popular name “Miner's Division”. Under him she and entered into history World War II, famous for the many feats of his soldiers and officers.
First commander
Two days after the signing of the resolution of the State Defense Committee on the establishment of the 383 th rifle division, Colonel Konstantin Provalov, Hero of the Soviet Union and an experienced commander, a student of the Military Academy named after M. Gorkiy was summoned to the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense. Mv Frunze. It was to him that the Soviet leadership entrusted great responsibility, having appointed the commander of the formed 383 th infantry division. Behind Colonel Provalov, despite the age of thirty-five, was a great military experience. Konstantin Ivanovich was born on June 11 of the year 1906, in the Irkutsk Region, in a simple peasant family. He graduated from the seven years and as a competent guy, became chairman of the Babushkinsky village council in his native village Babushkino of the Cheremkhovsky district. He began his service in the Red Army in the 22 age, in the 1928 year.
Having received training in the regimental school of the 3-Verkhneudinsk regiment, Provalov was sent to study at the Irkutsk infantry commander training courses, then to the Omsk Infantry School. Mv Frunze, from which he graduated in 1933. Over five years, yesterday's cadet managed to make his way to the post of regiment commander. In 1938, the thirty-two-year-old Provalov commanded the 120 rifle regiment as part of the 40 rifle division. He took part in the battles at Lake Hassan July 29 - August 11 1938. The soldiers under the command of Provalov defeated the enemy’s troops at the height of Zaozernaya. At the same time the regiment commander himself was wounded twice, but continued to exercise command of the unit. For his heroism 25 October 1938, Konstantin Ivanovich Provalov was awarded the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. The young and talented commander was sent to study at the Military Academy. Mv Frunze.
For the "Miner's Division" it was difficult to come up with a better commander. Now the case required the recruitment of command and privates. The Directorate for Command and Commanding Personnel of the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense decided to recruit a division with extremely well-trained fighters. The commanding staff was decided to recruit only from the number of personnel commanders of the Red Army, and the entire junior composition — Red Army men, branch commanders, assistant platoon commanders, officers of the company — had not only to have experience of service in the Red Army, but not more than than three years ago. So that the fighting skills did not have time to forget, but physical training still remained on top. Fortunately, among the Donetsk miners of a similar people, there was always enough - especially in those years. Yesterday's Red Army men and junior commanders, being demobilized from military service, went to work in the mines - at that time the miners' work was considered honorable, even romanticized. Well, paid well, of course.
The beginning of the combat path
The process of forming the division took place in the city of Stalin, as it was then called Donetsk. The formation of the division lasted 35 days. The assigned composition sent by the military registration and enlistment offices was distinguished by a high degree of training. In addition, the division included six Komsomol special units for the destruction of tanks. Unlike many other units, the Mining Division did not lack not only trained Red Army men and commanders, but also material and technical support. The fighters were well equipped, there were no interruptions in food. The division became one of the most well-armed formations of the Red Army. Each rifle regiment that was part of it had 54 easel machine guns in service (there were 162 easel machine guns in the division). The anti-aircraft division was armed with 12 anti-aircraft automatic guns. The structure of the division at the time of its formation and entry to the front line was as follows. The division included headquarters, the 149th, 694th and 696th rifle regiments, the 690th separate anti-aircraft artillery division.
At the end of September the formation of the division was completed and 30 of September of 1941 of the year it was incorporated into the 18 of the Southern Front Army. Then she moved to combat positions. At the defensive line of the “Grishino-Solntsevo-Labor” division took up 50 km wide positions. This happened on October 13 1941 of the year, and already on October 14 1941, the division entered its first battle. The Red Army soldiers had to fight with parts of the 4 of the Wehrmacht Mountain Division and the Italian cavalry division "Caesar". And right there, having shown high combat readiness, divisions of the division in combat completely destroyed the regiment of royal musketeers of the Caesar division. Within five days of bloody battles, while the division held the designated positions, the enemy’s losses amounted to 3000 soldiers, which was twice the loss of the Miner's division, which had lost about 1500 people.
October 18 1941, the command ordered the division to withdraw from the position. From 15 to 22 in October, it was the Red Army men and commanders of the 383 division who defended Stalino (Donetsk), during which they managed to destroy more than five thousand Nazis, also causing serious damage to the enemy’s weapons. November 1941 of the year, the division met at Mius-Front, taking up defensive lines in the area of the city of Krasny Luch, and later moved to the Donsk-Bataysk area. It should be noted that the mining division has never retreated from their positions without orders from the command and in general was one of the most valiant units of the active army. After the battles on the Don, the division was redeployed to the Novorossiysk area, where during almost the entire 1943 year it led bloody battles with the Nazi troops, defending the Caucasus. By this time, it was part of the Black Sea Group of the Transcaucasian Front.
Komdiv Gorbachev. Fighting on Taman and Crimea
In June, 1943, Konstantin Provalov, who by then already had the rank of Major General, left the post of division commander - he was soon appointed the commander of the 16 rifle corps. Colonel V.Ya. became a new division commander. Gorbachev.
Veniamin Yakovlevich Gorbachev was no less experienced commander than Provalov. At the time of his appointment as a divisional commander, he was not even thirty years old - he was born on March 24 1915 in the city of Bogotol in the Tomsk province. That is, he, like the first division commander, was a Siberian. Peasant son, finished nine years, then worked as a district inspector for procurement. He was hired by the Red Army in 1932, and graduated from the Tomsk Artillery School in 1936. For several years he passed the path of a platoon commander, battery, commanded a battalion. In 1941 year, after graduating from the Military Academy. Mv Frunze, was sent to the army. His first post was Chief of Staff of the 119 th Infantry Division of the Western Front. When the formation of the 383 Infantry Division began, Gorbachev, a talented man and educated in military affairs, was appointed commander of the infantry regiment as part of the division. In 1941-1943 he went all the way along with the division, and in July 1943 of the year he was appointed as its commander, replacing Provalov who was leaving for a raise.
In the battles for the liberation of the Taman Peninsula, the 383 Division took an active part, for which it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet swept 10 in October 1943 of the year). Taman was followed by battles for the liberation of the Crimean Peninsula. In the night from 7 to 8 in November, the division’s divisions across the Kerch Strait began under shelling of the enemy’s batteries. Part of the division landed in the area of Mayak and Zhukovka, almost immediately engaging in battle with the enemy, seizing and expanding the bridgehead. The beginning of November, 1943, was a period of incessant and bloody battles on the Kerch Peninsula. So, on November 9, by two rifle regiments, which bypassed the village of Voikov from the north-west side, Adzhimushkay was taken. On November 11 divisions of the division ringed more than a thousand German soldiers and officers. Most of them were destroyed, some were captured and only a minority managed to escape. On the same day, the liberation of the village of Voikov, begun a few days earlier, was completed.
During the storming of the village Adzhimushkay, senior sergeant Yury Bykov (1923-1945), who commanded a machine-gun crew, replaced the wounded platoon commander and raised the fighters to attack. By installing a subdivision submachine gun, Bykov managed to destroy the Nazi 10 firing points. 20 November, left alone, with a machine gun destroyed several dozen enemy soldiers, for which he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Feat young lieutenant
It was during the battles on the Kerch Peninsula that the hero of our article, Lieutenant Vladimir Bondarenko, accomplished his feat. When 20 November 1943, the Nazi soldiers approached the hamlet of Bezymyanny, which is now part of the city of Kerch, the unit under the command of Lieutenant Bondarenko engaged in battle with superior enemy forces. Although the Red Army managed to defeat the infantry units of the Nazis, the Nazi tanks went into battle. There was a great risk of re-taking the farm Nameless by the Germans. Moreover, a tank unit of eight tanks was attacking him. And it was in this critical situation that Lieutenant Bondarenko was not the first to lose his head.
Getting up instead of the dead calculation 45-millimeter guns, Bondarenko himself loaded and sent a gun. The third shell was hit by the Nazi lead tank. The Nazis hesitated, but then made a second attempt to attack the Nameless. Bondarenko with his fighters rolled out a gun from the trench and opened fire on the Nazis. The first tank was hit, then the second. The following volleys thinned the chain of German infantry. As a result of the heroic act of Lieutenant Bondarenko, the nazis' attack on the hamlet of Nameless was halted. After this battle, General of the Army I.E. commanded the Separate Maritime Army. Petrov presented Vladimir Bondarenko to the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
At the time of the feat, Vladimir Bondarenko was only 19 years old. Vladimir Pavlovich Bondarenko was born in 1924 year in Rostov-on-Don, in an ordinary family of a Soviet employee. Volodya's childhood was not much different from the childhood of millions of other Soviet boys of that time. Probably, he also dreamed of benefiting his country, of getting the profession needed by society and the allotted time to serve the people and the Soviet state. In the summer of 1941, when the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union, Volodya Bondarenko just finished the ninth grade of high school and went to work at the Rostov Shoe Factory named after. Anastas Mikoyan. When the Germans approached Rostov-on-Don, a seventeen-year-old youth was evacuated to Kislovodsk with his mother. However, by all means he rushed into the army. I went to the military enlistment office, but to no avail - they did not want to take a seventeen-year-old to the front: he was still young. But in the end, perseverance won - the young man managed to get directions to a military school.
In May, 1942, Vladimir Bondarenko became a cadet of the Rostov Artillery School (RAU), more precisely, an accelerated course, on the basis of which commanders were urgently trained for front-line units. In the same year, 1942, Bondarenko was promoted to lieutenant and was assigned to the 383 Infantry Division. For the first time in the fighting, Bondarenko participated under Mozdok and immediately distinguished himself in battle, for which yesterday's schoolboy was awarded the medal "For Courage". Then there were fights for Stavropol. Bondarenko also fought on Taman, including as part of a special reconnaissance group, as a very brave and trained officer. Then Bondarenko, who respected the personnel and command, became the Komsomol of the 3 Infantry Battalion of the 634 Infantry Regiment. In 1943, he joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
When the division forced the Kerch Strait, Lieutenant Vladimir Bondarenko was on the first boat and, together with his fighters, first landed on the Kerch land. By the morning the battalion, in which Bondarenko had fought, was able to gain a foothold at the nearest heights. November 10 Bondarenko participated in the capture of Adzhimushkaya, raising to the attack of the Red Army. Vladimir threw grenades into the nest of the German machine gun, then personally destroyed more than ten German soldiers, captured four prisoners.
Having accomplished his feat, as we wrote above, Bondarenko was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, he personally did not get the Gold Star ... 20 December 1943, Lieutenant Vladimir Bondarenko was seriously wounded in a battle near the village of Bulganak and died the same day. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to him posthumously - by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, signed on May 16 of the year 1944. Fortunately, the name of Vladimir Pavlovich Bondarenko was not forgotten. The memory of the nineteen-year-old lieutenant is immortalized in Rostov-on-Don - in his homeland, as well as in the Crimea. The village of Bulganak, where Lieutenant Bondarenko died, was renamed Bondarenkovo (Leninsky district of the Republic of Crimea) in 1948 year. In Kerch, during the liberation of which a young lieutenant distinguished himself from the Hitlerite invaders, on Mount Mithridates, an obelisk was set in memory of the soldiers of the 383 Infantry Miner's Division. On the obelisk are carved the names of the heroically dead Soviet soldiers, including Vladimir Bondarenko. Also the name of the hero is 28-I high school in the city of Kerch. The hero is not forgotten in his native Rostov-on-Don - one of the streets on the New Settlement is named after him in the Leninsky district of the city. After all, Vladimir Bondarenko worked for some time at the Mikoyan shoe factory in Rostov, which is located at the beginning of the New Settlement.
Way to Berlin
The further path of the renowned 383 th Infantry Division passed through the Crimea. As part of the 16 Infantry Corps, the division liberated Theodosia, for which it received the name of Theodosia, after which it participated in the battles for the liberation of Sudak, Alushta, Yalta. 12 May 1944, the 383 Division participated in the last large-scale battle with the Nazis at Cape Chersonese. The division was liberated and the hero-city of Sevastopol. All three rifle regiments of the 383 th rifle division for the valor shown during the liberation of Sevastopol, received the name of Sevastopol. Titles of the Hero of the Soviet Union were awarded 13 fighters and commanders of the division. One and a half thousand fighters and commanders were awarded various orders and medals. And this is only for the liberation of the Crimea. If we take the Great Patriotic War as a whole, then the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in the division received 33 servicemen. Three soldiers for feats of arms were awarded the Order of Glory of three degrees. In January, the 1945 of the 383-I Infantry Division became part of the 33-th Army of the 1-th Belarusian Front. She fought in Poland and Germany, participated in the battles for Berlin 2 May 1945. For success in the Brandenburg operation, the division received the name of Theodosia-Brandenburg.
No less heroically than during the liberation of their native land, the soldiers and commanders of the division fought in Eastern Europe and Germany. Here at the division, hardened in the battles of the Great Patriotic War, new heroes appeared. So, in April, 1945, the commander of the 3 th rifle company of the 691 Sevastopol regiment, especially distinguished himself, Nikolai Ivanovich Merkuryev. A native of the Vologda Region, Merkuryev managed to take part in the war with Finland in 1939-1940. From July 27 1941 participated in the Great Patriotic War. After being seriously wounded, he was transferred from a tank division to a rifle division, where he commanded a foot reconnaissance platoon as part of the 611 regiment of the 383 rifle division.
Twenty-five year old Lieutenant Merkuriev 16 of April, led by a company, was the first to attack the enemy’s positions. As a result of his decisive actions, the positions were captured, and fifty Nazis were captured. Then it was the Merkuriev company that took the point Markendorf and the Frankfurt-on-Oder-Berlin highway. A new feat of Merkuriev made 18 April - two days after the storming of the trenches of Mercury from the captured one-off grenade launchers "Panzer - Faust" was able to destroy two machine guns of the Nazis and up to thirty German soldiers. On April 24, the lieutenant prevented the enemy’s counterattack by personally destroying about twenty Nazis from a machine gun. 27 On April, a company of Merkuriev was captured by the Nazis on 20, destroyed - 15. The next day, 20 was destroyed and the Wehrmacht soldiers captured 80. At the same time, the company commander himself was wounded, but did not leave the battle. For the totality of these exploits, Nikolai Ivanovich Merkuriev was awarded 31 on May 1945, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was lucky to return from the front alive and from 1946 to 1972. He continued to serve in the fire control authorities. He died in 1981 year.
The commander of the 383 Infantry Division, Major General Veniamin Yakovlevich Gorbachev, was given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on April 6 of the year 1945. After the war, Gorbachev continued command of the division, then the corps. He served as first deputy commander of the army. In 1953, he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. Since 1959, he has been in stock, passed away in 1985.
The first commander of the Miner's Division, Konstantin Ivanovich Provalov, commanded the 16-m rifle corps, then the 113-m and 36-m corps. Participated in battles in East Prussia, liberated Prague and Berlin. The war ended in the rank of colonel-general. After the war, after studying at the Military Academy of the General Staff, he held command posts. In 1962-1969 commanded the southern group of Soviet troops. He died in 1981 year.
The legendary 383-Infantry Division has made a great contribution to the great cause of victory over the Nazi aggressors. Thousands of soldiers and officers of the division died on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, others managed to return from the front alive. But they all became a vivid example of courage and military duty for all subsequent generations. The memory of the fighters of the legendary Miner is preserved not only in the hearts of relatives and friends, whose grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought as part of this compound, but also at the official level. Until recently, Ukraine was honored by surviving veterans of the division. In Donetsk, where the division was staffed, memorial plaques were installed on the buildings of the regiment formation. The names of the Heroes of the Soviet Union, who served in the 383 Infantry Division, named streets and settlements in different regions of the former Soviet Union.
Initially, the division began to be staffed by Donetsk miners mobilized for military service. The miners, as you know, have always been a dangerous, ardent, and combat-ready people. Therefore, as it had been expected, the divisions were to become one of the elite formations of the Red Army. It is precisely because of the staffing at the beginning mainly by the miners that the 383-Rifle Division received the popular name “Miner's Division”. Under him she and entered into history World War II, famous for the many feats of his soldiers and officers.
First commander
Two days after the signing of the resolution of the State Defense Committee on the establishment of the 383 th rifle division, Colonel Konstantin Provalov, Hero of the Soviet Union and an experienced commander, a student of the Military Academy named after M. Gorkiy was summoned to the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense. Mv Frunze. It was to him that the Soviet leadership entrusted great responsibility, having appointed the commander of the formed 383 th infantry division. Behind Colonel Provalov, despite the age of thirty-five, was a great military experience. Konstantin Ivanovich was born on June 11 of the year 1906, in the Irkutsk Region, in a simple peasant family. He graduated from the seven years and as a competent guy, became chairman of the Babushkinsky village council in his native village Babushkino of the Cheremkhovsky district. He began his service in the Red Army in the 22 age, in the 1928 year.
Having received training in the regimental school of the 3-Verkhneudinsk regiment, Provalov was sent to study at the Irkutsk infantry commander training courses, then to the Omsk Infantry School. Mv Frunze, from which he graduated in 1933. Over five years, yesterday's cadet managed to make his way to the post of regiment commander. In 1938, the thirty-two-year-old Provalov commanded the 120 rifle regiment as part of the 40 rifle division. He took part in the battles at Lake Hassan July 29 - August 11 1938. The soldiers under the command of Provalov defeated the enemy’s troops at the height of Zaozernaya. At the same time the regiment commander himself was wounded twice, but continued to exercise command of the unit. For his heroism 25 October 1938, Konstantin Ivanovich Provalov was awarded the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. The young and talented commander was sent to study at the Military Academy. Mv Frunze. For the "Miner's Division" it was difficult to come up with a better commander. Now the case required the recruitment of command and privates. The Directorate for Command and Commanding Personnel of the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense decided to recruit a division with extremely well-trained fighters. The commanding staff was decided to recruit only from the number of personnel commanders of the Red Army, and the entire junior composition — Red Army men, branch commanders, assistant platoon commanders, officers of the company — had not only to have experience of service in the Red Army, but not more than than three years ago. So that the fighting skills did not have time to forget, but physical training still remained on top. Fortunately, among the Donetsk miners of a similar people, there was always enough - especially in those years. Yesterday's Red Army men and junior commanders, being demobilized from military service, went to work in the mines - at that time the miners' work was considered honorable, even romanticized. Well, paid well, of course.
The beginning of the combat path
The process of forming the division took place in the city of Stalin, as it was then called Donetsk. The formation of the division lasted 35 days. The assigned composition sent by the military registration and enlistment offices was distinguished by a high degree of training. In addition, the division included six Komsomol special units for the destruction of tanks. Unlike many other units, the Mining Division did not lack not only trained Red Army men and commanders, but also material and technical support. The fighters were well equipped, there were no interruptions in food. The division became one of the most well-armed formations of the Red Army. Each rifle regiment that was part of it had 54 easel machine guns in service (there were 162 easel machine guns in the division). The anti-aircraft division was armed with 12 anti-aircraft automatic guns. The structure of the division at the time of its formation and entry to the front line was as follows. The division included headquarters, the 149th, 694th and 696th rifle regiments, the 690th separate anti-aircraft artillery division.
At the end of September the formation of the division was completed and 30 of September of 1941 of the year it was incorporated into the 18 of the Southern Front Army. Then she moved to combat positions. At the defensive line of the “Grishino-Solntsevo-Labor” division took up 50 km wide positions. This happened on October 13 1941 of the year, and already on October 14 1941, the division entered its first battle. The Red Army soldiers had to fight with parts of the 4 of the Wehrmacht Mountain Division and the Italian cavalry division "Caesar". And right there, having shown high combat readiness, divisions of the division in combat completely destroyed the regiment of royal musketeers of the Caesar division. Within five days of bloody battles, while the division held the designated positions, the enemy’s losses amounted to 3000 soldiers, which was twice the loss of the Miner's division, which had lost about 1500 people.
October 18 1941, the command ordered the division to withdraw from the position. From 15 to 22 in October, it was the Red Army men and commanders of the 383 division who defended Stalino (Donetsk), during which they managed to destroy more than five thousand Nazis, also causing serious damage to the enemy’s weapons. November 1941 of the year, the division met at Mius-Front, taking up defensive lines in the area of the city of Krasny Luch, and later moved to the Donsk-Bataysk area. It should be noted that the mining division has never retreated from their positions without orders from the command and in general was one of the most valiant units of the active army. After the battles on the Don, the division was redeployed to the Novorossiysk area, where during almost the entire 1943 year it led bloody battles with the Nazi troops, defending the Caucasus. By this time, it was part of the Black Sea Group of the Transcaucasian Front.
Komdiv Gorbachev. Fighting on Taman and Crimea
In June, 1943, Konstantin Provalov, who by then already had the rank of Major General, left the post of division commander - he was soon appointed the commander of the 16 rifle corps. Colonel V.Ya. became a new division commander. Gorbachev.
Veniamin Yakovlevich Gorbachev was no less experienced commander than Provalov. At the time of his appointment as a divisional commander, he was not even thirty years old - he was born on March 24 1915 in the city of Bogotol in the Tomsk province. That is, he, like the first division commander, was a Siberian. Peasant son, finished nine years, then worked as a district inspector for procurement. He was hired by the Red Army in 1932, and graduated from the Tomsk Artillery School in 1936. For several years he passed the path of a platoon commander, battery, commanded a battalion. In 1941 year, after graduating from the Military Academy. Mv Frunze, was sent to the army. His first post was Chief of Staff of the 119 th Infantry Division of the Western Front. When the formation of the 383 Infantry Division began, Gorbachev, a talented man and educated in military affairs, was appointed commander of the infantry regiment as part of the division. In 1941-1943 he went all the way along with the division, and in July 1943 of the year he was appointed as its commander, replacing Provalov who was leaving for a raise. In the battles for the liberation of the Taman Peninsula, the 383 Division took an active part, for which it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet swept 10 in October 1943 of the year). Taman was followed by battles for the liberation of the Crimean Peninsula. In the night from 7 to 8 in November, the division’s divisions across the Kerch Strait began under shelling of the enemy’s batteries. Part of the division landed in the area of Mayak and Zhukovka, almost immediately engaging in battle with the enemy, seizing and expanding the bridgehead. The beginning of November, 1943, was a period of incessant and bloody battles on the Kerch Peninsula. So, on November 9, by two rifle regiments, which bypassed the village of Voikov from the north-west side, Adzhimushkay was taken. On November 11 divisions of the division ringed more than a thousand German soldiers and officers. Most of them were destroyed, some were captured and only a minority managed to escape. On the same day, the liberation of the village of Voikov, begun a few days earlier, was completed.
During the storming of the village Adzhimushkay, senior sergeant Yury Bykov (1923-1945), who commanded a machine-gun crew, replaced the wounded platoon commander and raised the fighters to attack. By installing a subdivision submachine gun, Bykov managed to destroy the Nazi 10 firing points. 20 November, left alone, with a machine gun destroyed several dozen enemy soldiers, for which he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Feat young lieutenant
It was during the battles on the Kerch Peninsula that the hero of our article, Lieutenant Vladimir Bondarenko, accomplished his feat. When 20 November 1943, the Nazi soldiers approached the hamlet of Bezymyanny, which is now part of the city of Kerch, the unit under the command of Lieutenant Bondarenko engaged in battle with superior enemy forces. Although the Red Army managed to defeat the infantry units of the Nazis, the Nazi tanks went into battle. There was a great risk of re-taking the farm Nameless by the Germans. Moreover, a tank unit of eight tanks was attacking him. And it was in this critical situation that Lieutenant Bondarenko was not the first to lose his head.
Getting up instead of the dead calculation 45-millimeter guns, Bondarenko himself loaded and sent a gun. The third shell was hit by the Nazi lead tank. The Nazis hesitated, but then made a second attempt to attack the Nameless. Bondarenko with his fighters rolled out a gun from the trench and opened fire on the Nazis. The first tank was hit, then the second. The following volleys thinned the chain of German infantry. As a result of the heroic act of Lieutenant Bondarenko, the nazis' attack on the hamlet of Nameless was halted. After this battle, General of the Army I.E. commanded the Separate Maritime Army. Petrov presented Vladimir Bondarenko to the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.At the time of the feat, Vladimir Bondarenko was only 19 years old. Vladimir Pavlovich Bondarenko was born in 1924 year in Rostov-on-Don, in an ordinary family of a Soviet employee. Volodya's childhood was not much different from the childhood of millions of other Soviet boys of that time. Probably, he also dreamed of benefiting his country, of getting the profession needed by society and the allotted time to serve the people and the Soviet state. In the summer of 1941, when the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union, Volodya Bondarenko just finished the ninth grade of high school and went to work at the Rostov Shoe Factory named after. Anastas Mikoyan. When the Germans approached Rostov-on-Don, a seventeen-year-old youth was evacuated to Kislovodsk with his mother. However, by all means he rushed into the army. I went to the military enlistment office, but to no avail - they did not want to take a seventeen-year-old to the front: he was still young. But in the end, perseverance won - the young man managed to get directions to a military school.
In May, 1942, Vladimir Bondarenko became a cadet of the Rostov Artillery School (RAU), more precisely, an accelerated course, on the basis of which commanders were urgently trained for front-line units. In the same year, 1942, Bondarenko was promoted to lieutenant and was assigned to the 383 Infantry Division. For the first time in the fighting, Bondarenko participated under Mozdok and immediately distinguished himself in battle, for which yesterday's schoolboy was awarded the medal "For Courage". Then there were fights for Stavropol. Bondarenko also fought on Taman, including as part of a special reconnaissance group, as a very brave and trained officer. Then Bondarenko, who respected the personnel and command, became the Komsomol of the 3 Infantry Battalion of the 634 Infantry Regiment. In 1943, he joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). When the division forced the Kerch Strait, Lieutenant Vladimir Bondarenko was on the first boat and, together with his fighters, first landed on the Kerch land. By the morning the battalion, in which Bondarenko had fought, was able to gain a foothold at the nearest heights. November 10 Bondarenko participated in the capture of Adzhimushkaya, raising to the attack of the Red Army. Vladimir threw grenades into the nest of the German machine gun, then personally destroyed more than ten German soldiers, captured four prisoners.
Having accomplished his feat, as we wrote above, Bondarenko was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, he personally did not get the Gold Star ... 20 December 1943, Lieutenant Vladimir Bondarenko was seriously wounded in a battle near the village of Bulganak and died the same day. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to him posthumously - by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, signed on May 16 of the year 1944. Fortunately, the name of Vladimir Pavlovich Bondarenko was not forgotten. The memory of the nineteen-year-old lieutenant is immortalized in Rostov-on-Don - in his homeland, as well as in the Crimea. The village of Bulganak, where Lieutenant Bondarenko died, was renamed Bondarenkovo (Leninsky district of the Republic of Crimea) in 1948 year. In Kerch, during the liberation of which a young lieutenant distinguished himself from the Hitlerite invaders, on Mount Mithridates, an obelisk was set in memory of the soldiers of the 383 Infantry Miner's Division. On the obelisk are carved the names of the heroically dead Soviet soldiers, including Vladimir Bondarenko. Also the name of the hero is 28-I high school in the city of Kerch. The hero is not forgotten in his native Rostov-on-Don - one of the streets on the New Settlement is named after him in the Leninsky district of the city. After all, Vladimir Bondarenko worked for some time at the Mikoyan shoe factory in Rostov, which is located at the beginning of the New Settlement.
Way to Berlin
The further path of the renowned 383 th Infantry Division passed through the Crimea. As part of the 16 Infantry Corps, the division liberated Theodosia, for which it received the name of Theodosia, after which it participated in the battles for the liberation of Sudak, Alushta, Yalta. 12 May 1944, the 383 Division participated in the last large-scale battle with the Nazis at Cape Chersonese. The division was liberated and the hero-city of Sevastopol. All three rifle regiments of the 383 th rifle division for the valor shown during the liberation of Sevastopol, received the name of Sevastopol. Titles of the Hero of the Soviet Union were awarded 13 fighters and commanders of the division. One and a half thousand fighters and commanders were awarded various orders and medals. And this is only for the liberation of the Crimea. If we take the Great Patriotic War as a whole, then the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in the division received 33 servicemen. Three soldiers for feats of arms were awarded the Order of Glory of three degrees. In January, the 1945 of the 383-I Infantry Division became part of the 33-th Army of the 1-th Belarusian Front. She fought in Poland and Germany, participated in the battles for Berlin 2 May 1945. For success in the Brandenburg operation, the division received the name of Theodosia-Brandenburg.
No less heroically than during the liberation of their native land, the soldiers and commanders of the division fought in Eastern Europe and Germany. Here at the division, hardened in the battles of the Great Patriotic War, new heroes appeared. So, in April, 1945, the commander of the 3 th rifle company of the 691 Sevastopol regiment, especially distinguished himself, Nikolai Ivanovich Merkuryev. A native of the Vologda Region, Merkuryev managed to take part in the war with Finland in 1939-1940. From July 27 1941 participated in the Great Patriotic War. After being seriously wounded, he was transferred from a tank division to a rifle division, where he commanded a foot reconnaissance platoon as part of the 611 regiment of the 383 rifle division.
Twenty-five year old Lieutenant Merkuriev 16 of April, led by a company, was the first to attack the enemy’s positions. As a result of his decisive actions, the positions were captured, and fifty Nazis were captured. Then it was the Merkuriev company that took the point Markendorf and the Frankfurt-on-Oder-Berlin highway. A new feat of Merkuriev made 18 April - two days after the storming of the trenches of Mercury from the captured one-off grenade launchers "Panzer - Faust" was able to destroy two machine guns of the Nazis and up to thirty German soldiers. On April 24, the lieutenant prevented the enemy’s counterattack by personally destroying about twenty Nazis from a machine gun. 27 On April, a company of Merkuriev was captured by the Nazis on 20, destroyed - 15. The next day, 20 was destroyed and the Wehrmacht soldiers captured 80. At the same time, the company commander himself was wounded, but did not leave the battle. For the totality of these exploits, Nikolai Ivanovich Merkuriev was awarded 31 on May 1945, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was lucky to return from the front alive and from 1946 to 1972. He continued to serve in the fire control authorities. He died in 1981 year.The commander of the 383 Infantry Division, Major General Veniamin Yakovlevich Gorbachev, was given the title of Hero of the Soviet Union by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on April 6 of the year 1945. After the war, Gorbachev continued command of the division, then the corps. He served as first deputy commander of the army. In 1953, he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. Since 1959, he has been in stock, passed away in 1985.
The first commander of the Miner's Division, Konstantin Ivanovich Provalov, commanded the 16-m rifle corps, then the 113-m and 36-m corps. Participated in battles in East Prussia, liberated Prague and Berlin. The war ended in the rank of colonel-general. After the war, after studying at the Military Academy of the General Staff, he held command posts. In 1962-1969 commanded the southern group of Soviet troops. He died in 1981 year.
The legendary 383-Infantry Division has made a great contribution to the great cause of victory over the Nazi aggressors. Thousands of soldiers and officers of the division died on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, others managed to return from the front alive. But they all became a vivid example of courage and military duty for all subsequent generations. The memory of the fighters of the legendary Miner is preserved not only in the hearts of relatives and friends, whose grandfathers and great-grandfathers fought as part of this compound, but also at the official level. Until recently, Ukraine was honored by surviving veterans of the division. In Donetsk, where the division was staffed, memorial plaques were installed on the buildings of the regiment formation. The names of the Heroes of the Soviet Union, who served in the 383 Infantry Division, named streets and settlements in different regions of the former Soviet Union.
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