Women tankers of World War II. Maria Oktyabrskaya
Maria Vasilyevna Oktyabrskaya (maiden name Gargulya) - Soviet tanker, Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). During the Great Patriotic War, Maria Oktyabrskaya built her own medium tank T-34, which was called “Fighting Girlfriend” at her own expense. The woman not only built a tank for her savings, but also became its driver-mechanic.
Maria Vasilievna was born 3 (16) on August 1905 of the year (according to other data, 8 (21) of July 1902 of the year) in the village of Kiyat (today it is the village of Krasnogvardeisky district of Crimea). She was born in a simple peasant family, like the first heroine of our cycle, Ekaterina Petlyuk, a Ukrainian by nationality. A former tanker woman spent her childhood and youth in Sevastopol. In 1921, Maria moved first to Dzhankoy, where she graduated from 6 classes, and then to Simferopol. The parents of the girl in the 1930-ies were expropriated and sent to the Urals in the Sverdlovsk region.
After completing her studies, she worked at a canning factory in the city of Simferopol, also worked as a telephone operator at a city telephone exchange. In 1925, she married a cadet of the cavalry school, Ilya Fedotovich Ryadnenko, and the couple took a new surname October. Being the wife of a military man, she moved after her husband to various settlements of Ukraine, was elected to various women's councils of parts. Before the war, she managed to finish the courses of chauffeurs, medical aid, and mastered the shooting with a machine gun. It was said that Maria Oktyabrskaya was distinguished by her exquisite taste in clothes, and was also a skilled needlewoman.
After Bessarabia was annexed to the USSR in 1940, along with her husband Ilya Fedotovich Oktyabrskiy, who at that time was Commissioner of the 134 Howitzer Artillery Regiment, she moved to live in Chisinau, where her husband’s regiment was stationed. On the morning of June 22, 1941, the residents of Chisinau woke up from a terrible hum. The Germans bombed the capital of Moldova. The very next morning, Maria Vasilyeva, along with her sister and other members of the families of the commanders, was evacuated eastward, inland. So Maria was in Siberia in Tomsk. Here, for her, the hard rear days of work began, with which then all the citizens of the country lived, daily working for the benefit of approaching victory. At first, Maria Oktyabrskaya worked on the construction site, but her long-standing disease — tuberculosis of the cervical spine — made her change her occupation. She went to work as a telephonist in a military school.
At the end of the summer 1941, she received a funeral for her husband. It said that the regimental commissar Ilya Fedotovich Oktyabrsky died a brave man’s death in one of the battles on the territory of Ukraine, which took place on August 9 1941. At the same time, Maria Vasilyevna appealed to the local military enlistment office with a request to send her to the front, but she was not taken, denying it several times. The military office referred to her illness and her age (after all, 36 years).
But Maria Vasilievna was not going to give up. Having decided simply to change the path to achieving your goal. At that time, the country was collecting funds for the defense fund. Therefore, Maria Oktyabrskaya had the idea to buy a tank, but how was it to get the money? Together with her sister, the woman sold all her things on the market that she managed to amass and take with her to evacuation to Tomsk. But this amount was not enough. Then Maria Oktyabrskaya decided to do what she knew how to do very well. She began to sell her own embroidery and, through her own labor, accumulated the amount she lacked. For months, day after day, the stubborn woman worked painstakingly and hard. Even during the war years, the inhabitants of Tomsk willingly bought up tablecloths, scarves, pillowcases, napkins, embroidered by a skilled craftswoman. As a result, required for construction tank The amount has been collected.
In total, she donated 50 thousand rubles for the construction of a combat vehicle - a very large sum of money for that time. After that, she turned with a personal letter to Stalin, in which she asked to appoint her as a mechanic-driver of the tank, which will be built with the money collected by her, she offered to name the tank "Fighting Friend". Thus, she wanted to avenge the death of her husband and other residents of the country. The combat vehicle, which was built with the money of Maria Oktyabrskaya, entered history just under that name.
Since 3 May 1943, Maria Vasilyevna began to learn how to drive a tank at the Omsk Tank School, while the woman passed all the exams for “excellent”, having received a driver's certificate. Already in October 1943, she fought on her tank on the Western Front. Maria Vasilyevna became a guard sergeant, driver-mechanic of the T-34 tank from the 2 battalion of the 26 Guards "Elninskaya" tank brigade, which is part of the 2 Guards Tank Corps. In addition to Maria Oktyabrskaya, the first crew of the “Fighting Girlfriend” tank included: tank commander junior lieutenant Peter Chebotko, radio operator and gunner Mikhail Galkin, and turret gunner sergeant Gennady Yasko.
Maria Oktyabrskaya received her baptism of fire on October 21, 1943. The command assigned the tankers the task of breaking through the German defenses and capturing the important stronghold of Novoye Selo, located in the Sennsky district of the Vitebsk region. This is how the battle was described in the combat log: units of the brigade destroyed up to 100 Nazis, up to two batteries of 75-mm guns, 15 machine guns, as well as one Ferdinand tank. The battalion lost 2 tanks in the battle, the Fighting Girlfriend tank was knocked out. The Nazis pre-shot the area and, when the Soviet tanks went on the offensive, met them with heavy fire.
On the account of the crew of the tank “Fighting Girlfriend” there were several dozen enemy soldiers and officers killed and one weapon destroyed. During the battle, a shell hit the tank track, knocking out the 3 track immediately. The inertia combat vehicle traveled some more distance, rolling down into a small ravine that hid the tank from enemy artillery fire. At the same time, the Nazis continued to conduct mortar fire at the tank, preventing tankmen on the spot to repair the damage to the car. The attempts to pull out the wrecked tank and drag it to the rear were also unsuccessful. The enemy vigilantly followed him and fiercely fired at all the approaches to the tank. In these difficult moments, the crew of the “Battle Girlfriend” decided not to leave the tank. Several times the fascists attempted to approach the tank and destroy it with grenades, but all their attempts ended in failure. The battle for the tank lasted two days. During the day, the machine guns and guns of the “Fighting Girlfriend” fired at the enemy, and at night the tank crews were engaged in repairing it. October 23 tank was brought into working condition and was able to continue the battle for the New Village.
In her first battle, Maria Oktyabrskaya was able to personally verify the excellent qualities of her tank. The battalion commander even thanked the crew of the “Fighting Girlfriend” over the radio communication, congratulating the tank crew on the successful fulfillment of the combat mission. Already on November 14, the tankers were transferred to a new direction of impact and again the “Fighting Girlfriend” was in the front ranks of the attackers. The work of male tankmen was dangerous and harsh, but women had to do many times more difficult, but the guard Sergeant Oktyabrskaya fulfilled her military duty with honor.
Unfortunately, the battle way of Maria Vasilyevna Oktyabrskaya was short. Her last battle took place on 18 on January 1944 of the year near the state farm Krynki, Vitebsk Region. In this battle, the October tank destroyed up to 20 enemy soldiers and officers and crushed 3 machine-gun points. In the same battle, the tank was hit again, the shell was smashed by the left sloth, and the caterpillar was killed. Tankers under enemy fire began to repair damage. At this time, a mine exploded nearby, which seriously wounded Maria, a fragment entered her right in the eye.
From the battlefield, she was carried out on a stretcher, in the field hospital No. XXUMX Maria had an operation, after which she was transported by plane to the front hospital located in Smolensk. At the same time, the woman’s state of health deteriorated as a shard, after piercing the eye, touched the cerebral hemisphere. In the hospital, a brave woman tanker was visited by a member of the military council of the front, L. Z. Mehlis, who ordered her to be sent to the capital. However, the state of health of the wounded only worsened, she was not transportable, and the periods of her stay in consciousness were less and less. The last to visit her was Major Topk, who presented her with the Order of the Patriotic War, I Degree (represented on January 478, 28), and also handed her letters and gifts from fellow soldiers. 1944 March 15, Maria Vasilyevna died in a front-line hospital in Smolensk. She was buried in the same city in the Heroes' Square. 1944 August 2 year of Maria Vasilyevna Oktyabrskaya was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).
However, the tank “Fighting friend” continued its combat path without its owner, reaching the Konigsberg with the brigade. The tank that bore this name, beat 3 times, but tankers always assigned the name “Fighting Friend” to new cars in memory of their “mother,” as they called Maria Vasilyevna. The second tank with the same name was put in repair after the liberation of Minsk, the third car was destroyed in Prussia near the city of Gumbinen, the fourth, led by the crew of P. I. Chebotko, completed its combat path near Konigsberg.
In memory of the fearless Krymian, school №24 in the city of Tomsk bears her name. Before entering this educational institution, a monument was erected, which was made by sculptor Sergey Danilin, and a few materials and relics about this brave woman who sacrificed her life for the freedom and independence of our Motherland are carefully preserved in the school museum. The streets in Smolensk, Dzhankoy and Liozno were named in honor of Maria Oktyabrskaya. Also on the site of her last battle a monument was erected at the railway station Krynki in the Vitebsk region.
Information sources:
http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=358
http://www.militarists.ru/?p=3995
http://www.people.su/82354
http://feldgrau.info/index.php/other/525-2010-11-23-08-32-59
Maria Vasilievna was born 3 (16) on August 1905 of the year (according to other data, 8 (21) of July 1902 of the year) in the village of Kiyat (today it is the village of Krasnogvardeisky district of Crimea). She was born in a simple peasant family, like the first heroine of our cycle, Ekaterina Petlyuk, a Ukrainian by nationality. A former tanker woman spent her childhood and youth in Sevastopol. In 1921, Maria moved first to Dzhankoy, where she graduated from 6 classes, and then to Simferopol. The parents of the girl in the 1930-ies were expropriated and sent to the Urals in the Sverdlovsk region.
After completing her studies, she worked at a canning factory in the city of Simferopol, also worked as a telephone operator at a city telephone exchange. In 1925, she married a cadet of the cavalry school, Ilya Fedotovich Ryadnenko, and the couple took a new surname October. Being the wife of a military man, she moved after her husband to various settlements of Ukraine, was elected to various women's councils of parts. Before the war, she managed to finish the courses of chauffeurs, medical aid, and mastered the shooting with a machine gun. It was said that Maria Oktyabrskaya was distinguished by her exquisite taste in clothes, and was also a skilled needlewoman.
After Bessarabia was annexed to the USSR in 1940, along with her husband Ilya Fedotovich Oktyabrskiy, who at that time was Commissioner of the 134 Howitzer Artillery Regiment, she moved to live in Chisinau, where her husband’s regiment was stationed. On the morning of June 22, 1941, the residents of Chisinau woke up from a terrible hum. The Germans bombed the capital of Moldova. The very next morning, Maria Vasilyeva, along with her sister and other members of the families of the commanders, was evacuated eastward, inland. So Maria was in Siberia in Tomsk. Here, for her, the hard rear days of work began, with which then all the citizens of the country lived, daily working for the benefit of approaching victory. At first, Maria Oktyabrskaya worked on the construction site, but her long-standing disease — tuberculosis of the cervical spine — made her change her occupation. She went to work as a telephonist in a military school.
At the end of the summer 1941, she received a funeral for her husband. It said that the regimental commissar Ilya Fedotovich Oktyabrsky died a brave man’s death in one of the battles on the territory of Ukraine, which took place on August 9 1941. At the same time, Maria Vasilyevna appealed to the local military enlistment office with a request to send her to the front, but she was not taken, denying it several times. The military office referred to her illness and her age (after all, 36 years).
But Maria Vasilievna was not going to give up. Having decided simply to change the path to achieving your goal. At that time, the country was collecting funds for the defense fund. Therefore, Maria Oktyabrskaya had the idea to buy a tank, but how was it to get the money? Together with her sister, the woman sold all her things on the market that she managed to amass and take with her to evacuation to Tomsk. But this amount was not enough. Then Maria Oktyabrskaya decided to do what she knew how to do very well. She began to sell her own embroidery and, through her own labor, accumulated the amount she lacked. For months, day after day, the stubborn woman worked painstakingly and hard. Even during the war years, the inhabitants of Tomsk willingly bought up tablecloths, scarves, pillowcases, napkins, embroidered by a skilled craftswoman. As a result, required for construction tank The amount has been collected.
In total, she donated 50 thousand rubles for the construction of a combat vehicle - a very large sum of money for that time. After that, she turned with a personal letter to Stalin, in which she asked to appoint her as a mechanic-driver of the tank, which will be built with the money collected by her, she offered to name the tank "Fighting Friend". Thus, she wanted to avenge the death of her husband and other residents of the country. The combat vehicle, which was built with the money of Maria Oktyabrskaya, entered history just under that name.
Since 3 May 1943, Maria Vasilyevna began to learn how to drive a tank at the Omsk Tank School, while the woman passed all the exams for “excellent”, having received a driver's certificate. Already in October 1943, she fought on her tank on the Western Front. Maria Vasilyevna became a guard sergeant, driver-mechanic of the T-34 tank from the 2 battalion of the 26 Guards "Elninskaya" tank brigade, which is part of the 2 Guards Tank Corps. In addition to Maria Oktyabrskaya, the first crew of the “Fighting Girlfriend” tank included: tank commander junior lieutenant Peter Chebotko, radio operator and gunner Mikhail Galkin, and turret gunner sergeant Gennady Yasko.
Maria Oktyabrskaya received her baptism of fire on October 21, 1943. The command assigned the tankers the task of breaking through the German defenses and capturing the important stronghold of Novoye Selo, located in the Sennsky district of the Vitebsk region. This is how the battle was described in the combat log: units of the brigade destroyed up to 100 Nazis, up to two batteries of 75-mm guns, 15 machine guns, as well as one Ferdinand tank. The battalion lost 2 tanks in the battle, the Fighting Girlfriend tank was knocked out. The Nazis pre-shot the area and, when the Soviet tanks went on the offensive, met them with heavy fire.
On the account of the crew of the tank “Fighting Girlfriend” there were several dozen enemy soldiers and officers killed and one weapon destroyed. During the battle, a shell hit the tank track, knocking out the 3 track immediately. The inertia combat vehicle traveled some more distance, rolling down into a small ravine that hid the tank from enemy artillery fire. At the same time, the Nazis continued to conduct mortar fire at the tank, preventing tankmen on the spot to repair the damage to the car. The attempts to pull out the wrecked tank and drag it to the rear were also unsuccessful. The enemy vigilantly followed him and fiercely fired at all the approaches to the tank. In these difficult moments, the crew of the “Battle Girlfriend” decided not to leave the tank. Several times the fascists attempted to approach the tank and destroy it with grenades, but all their attempts ended in failure. The battle for the tank lasted two days. During the day, the machine guns and guns of the “Fighting Girlfriend” fired at the enemy, and at night the tank crews were engaged in repairing it. October 23 tank was brought into working condition and was able to continue the battle for the New Village.
In her first battle, Maria Oktyabrskaya was able to personally verify the excellent qualities of her tank. The battalion commander even thanked the crew of the “Fighting Girlfriend” over the radio communication, congratulating the tank crew on the successful fulfillment of the combat mission. Already on November 14, the tankers were transferred to a new direction of impact and again the “Fighting Girlfriend” was in the front ranks of the attackers. The work of male tankmen was dangerous and harsh, but women had to do many times more difficult, but the guard Sergeant Oktyabrskaya fulfilled her military duty with honor.
Unfortunately, the battle way of Maria Vasilyevna Oktyabrskaya was short. Her last battle took place on 18 on January 1944 of the year near the state farm Krynki, Vitebsk Region. In this battle, the October tank destroyed up to 20 enemy soldiers and officers and crushed 3 machine-gun points. In the same battle, the tank was hit again, the shell was smashed by the left sloth, and the caterpillar was killed. Tankers under enemy fire began to repair damage. At this time, a mine exploded nearby, which seriously wounded Maria, a fragment entered her right in the eye.
From the battlefield, she was carried out on a stretcher, in the field hospital No. XXUMX Maria had an operation, after which she was transported by plane to the front hospital located in Smolensk. At the same time, the woman’s state of health deteriorated as a shard, after piercing the eye, touched the cerebral hemisphere. In the hospital, a brave woman tanker was visited by a member of the military council of the front, L. Z. Mehlis, who ordered her to be sent to the capital. However, the state of health of the wounded only worsened, she was not transportable, and the periods of her stay in consciousness were less and less. The last to visit her was Major Topk, who presented her with the Order of the Patriotic War, I Degree (represented on January 478, 28), and also handed her letters and gifts from fellow soldiers. 1944 March 15, Maria Vasilyevna died in a front-line hospital in Smolensk. She was buried in the same city in the Heroes' Square. 1944 August 2 year of Maria Vasilyevna Oktyabrskaya was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).
However, the tank “Fighting friend” continued its combat path without its owner, reaching the Konigsberg with the brigade. The tank that bore this name, beat 3 times, but tankers always assigned the name “Fighting Friend” to new cars in memory of their “mother,” as they called Maria Vasilyevna. The second tank with the same name was put in repair after the liberation of Minsk, the third car was destroyed in Prussia near the city of Gumbinen, the fourth, led by the crew of P. I. Chebotko, completed its combat path near Konigsberg.
In memory of the fearless Krymian, school №24 in the city of Tomsk bears her name. Before entering this educational institution, a monument was erected, which was made by sculptor Sergey Danilin, and a few materials and relics about this brave woman who sacrificed her life for the freedom and independence of our Motherland are carefully preserved in the school museum. The streets in Smolensk, Dzhankoy and Liozno were named in honor of Maria Oktyabrskaya. Also on the site of her last battle a monument was erected at the railway station Krynki in the Vitebsk region.
Information sources:
http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=358
http://www.militarists.ru/?p=3995
http://www.people.su/82354
http://feldgrau.info/index.php/other/525-2010-11-23-08-32-59
Information