And One soldier in the field, when in Russian tailored!
The name is Nikolai. Middle name - Vladimirovich. Surname - Sirotinin. Height - One hundred sixty four centimeters. Weight - fifty four kilograms. Rank - Senior Sergeant. Russian. Military profession - gunner, gun commander. Age is twenty years. Rustic. 55th Infantry Regiment, 6th Infantry Division. The same division, parts of which were in the Brest Fortress and near it. Anti-tank gun, caliber - 76 millimeters, weight in the firing position one and a half tons. Sixty shells. Carabiner, cartridges. The weight of the projectile is nine kilograms. The most valid fire on armored targets is 600 meters, direct fire. The direction of defense is simple - for the homeland. Opponent: second tank Fuhrer Guderian’s favorite group. Wehrmacht Fourth Panzer Division, vanguard. A column of 59 German tanks. The main German battle tank T-III: weight - 20 tons, Maybach engine with a capacity of 250 hp, speed 32 km / h. The crew is 5 people. Dimensions: 5,69x2,81x2,335m. Armament: 37 mm cannon and three MG34 machine guns. Two hundred tankers, 150 machine guns, 59 guns, 1200 tons of German iron. The tank battalion covered the company of infantry in trucks, on foot and on horseback with bicycles. Namely: four officers, 26 non-commissioned officers, 161 soldiers. Armament: 47 pistols, 16 Schmeissers, 132 carbines, 12 light machine guns, 3 anti-tank rifles, three 50-mm mortars. 22 horses, 9 steam carts, 1 field kitchen, 9 bicycles. Tracked-wheeled armored vehicles. Motorcyclists. The direction of movement, you can’t imagine more important - Moscow. July 17, 1941. The small Belarusian village of Sokolnichi. The bridge across the narrow river Dobryst. Swampy shores. Across the river, in the greenery of the second month of summer, the only gun and soldier were lost in disguise. Rear guard of the artillery battery of a rifle regiment. In front of the bridge, on the other side of the river, the road clogged by German tanks is Warsaw. Behind, frantically hurrying to a new line of defense, the Sozh River, the native rifle regiment. The main thing is time, so that they manage to occupy the line and dig in. “I think they won’t give you a shot more than thirty times,” said the battery commander, “shut the bridge and go.” The lock from the gun is with you in a duffel bag. The horse behind the shed. Catch up. “Nothing, Comrade Senior Lieutenant, I’ll do everything.” I’m a countryman, you still have to leave more shells, and it will be easier for the horses to ride and not harder for you - the little sergeant looked up and down calmly and confidently, as if before doing the usual and hard rural work on his land in the village in Oryol. From the village of Sokolnichi to the district center of Krichev - five kilometers. A few minutes drive. But July 17, 1941, to overcome this distance, the Nazis took two and a half hours. Eyewitnesses say that the commander at the beginning of the battle was somewhere nearby - corrected, but as soon as Sirotinin hit the lead tank with the first shot before entering the bridge, and then the last one that fell into the cannon fire sector on the road, he left for the battery. The bridge was blocked. Mission accomplished. But the second half of the commander’s order to withdraw Sirotinini did not comply. He had sixty shells. And ten German tanks stuck in a swamp while trying to get off the road. And more tanks are coming. And armored vehicles. And the infantry, the Nazi arrogance, the invaders, the invaders in gray uniforms in the gunfire sector. And the battle began. And when in your hands weapon, full of ammunition, and in front of the enemy, and behind ..., and they ride, like a parade, like at home, and retreat is not a joy, I don’t give a damn about which side of the cannon the mechanisms of vertical and horizontal guidance. Turned inside out, but turned. There would be a desire. He aimed, shot, spotted, brought a projectile, aimed, shot, projectile ... A civilized, orderly, correct Europe, which had fallen to the feet of the fascists almost without a fight, was over in Brest, but so far they have not understood it. And the senior sergeant explained this truth to them diligently, in a language understandable to them and not sparing himself. The teacher poured his audience with iron arguments on the spot, only regretted that he could not have time to bring this truth to every soldier in the German convoy and to those who follow them. The disciples, the senior sergeant, got caught unimportant, the topic was never learned. In addition to those very zealous, who stayed with him to study educational material forever. And even the Germans appreciated the perfection and simplicity of the presentation of the material performed by the sergeant and his combat training manual. Ober-lieutenant Friedrich Hönfeld. Quote from the diary: "In the evening, buried an unknown Russian soldier. He fought alone. Beat from a cannon on our tanks and infantry. There seemed to be no end to the battle. His courage was astounding. It was a real hell. The tanks caught fire one by one. The infantry, hiding behind the armor, lay down. Commanders at a loss. They can not understand the source of heavy fire. Seems to beat the whole battery. Fire aimed. Where did this battery come from? In the column 59 tanks, infantry company, armored vehicles. And all our power is powerless before the Russian fire. Intelligence reported that the path is clear. Most of all, we were amazed at the fact that only one fighter fought against us. And we thought a whole artillery battery was shooting at us. " Realizing that the attack on the forehead, they Russian gunners will not break the Nazis went around. Surrounding the position of Sirotinin, they opened hurricane fire. And only after that the gun fell silent, and stopped hitting the carbine. Most of all the Germans were amazed at the fact that only one fighter fought against them. "Everyone was amazed that the hero was a youth, almost a boy. In the ranks of German soldiers, he would stand last on the right flank. He fired at us fifty-seven shots from a cannon and then, still beat and beat at us from a carbine. Scattered a frontal infantry attack. Destroyed ten tanks and armored vehicles. An entire cemetery of our soldiers remained near his grave. " The colonel was wiser than his junior officer. And it is also known: the Germans were so amazed at the courage of the Russian soldier that they buried him with military honors. "Everyone was amazed at his courage. The colonel before the grave said: "If all the soldiers of the Führer were like him, they would conquer the whole world. Three times they fired volleys from rifles. Still, he is Russian. Do I need such a bow? " Chief Lieutenant Hönfeld did not understand what kind of war and with whom Germany got involved. Ober-Lieutenant Hönfeld was killed near Tula in the summer of 1942. Soviet soldiers discovered his diary and handed over to military journalist Fyodor Selivanov. Name - Nicholas. Patronymic - Vladimirovich. Surname - Sirotinin. Height - One hundred sixty four centimeters. Weight - fifty four kilograms. Title - Senior Sergeant. Russian. Military profession - artillery, gun commander. Age - twenty years. Rustic. 55 Rifle Regiment, 6 Rifle Division. And, five hundred fascists, two hundred machine guns, fifty nine guns. Thousand two hundred tons of German iron. Senior Sergeant Sirotinin Nikolai Vladimirovich, the commander of an anti-tank battery cannon was buried with all military honors by soldiers and officers of the fourth tank division of the Wehrmacht on the bank of the Dobryst river, near the village of Sokolchichi. Unknown feat of nine hundred and forty-one.
Information