Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

After a day or two, fresh and rested, we left this hospitable village and continued our march in the same dirt and mud. Our offensive was almost 24 hours a day. During short night rests we could not always recover, and the catering during the offensive was quite bad. The local population in the Eastern Ukraine was not rich, bread was especially scarce, but as I have mentioned, they were very well disposed towards us. Once our battalion passed a village and stopped for a short rest at a more or less dry spot not far from the village. Apparently, there were no Germans in the village. We saw peasants coming form the village, mostly women. A local priest headed the procession; people carried banners and other church paraphernalia. We all stood up, honouring them. Women ran up to us, weeping, kissing and hugging us. The priest addressed the battalion commander Kozienko and on behalf of the villagers invited us to the village to celebrate the joy of liberation from the Germans. Kozienko thanked him for the invitation and said that we had no time to party – we had to move on, chasing the Germans further – not only from their village, but also from other villages and from our land. We thanked all the villagers and the battalion marched on. In another place, when we were really hungry, we encountered a column of former partisans, who had fresh bread and lard. The partisans shared these riches with us, and all the personnel were fed – it became a nicer walk.

Despite all difficulties, the battalion stubbornly pressed forward, mostly on foot. The 2nd and 3rd battalions of the Brigade were somewhere on their own missions, while the tank regiment had not caught up with us yet – it was delayed during unloading at Polonnoe railway station. Trucks and tanks arrived later and the speed of our advance increased. Our battalion liberated Podvolochinsk, and then Volochinsk, the 2nd battalion with the tank regiment captured Manachin and Golshintsy on 5 March, while the 3rd battalion occupied Voitovtsy. Heavy fighting took place for those settlements; the young soldiers did an excellent job in these battles. At first I doubted the abilities of some of the soldiers because of their shortness; I considered them not fit for war, but they turned out to be able to take hard physical pressures and go into battle right after a march. They turned out to be the right kind of soldier – fast, smart and brave, skilful in handling their weapons. I relied on them and they relied on me, as they knew that there would be no unnecessary losses among them. The main thing for a soldier is to trust his commander, be provided with all necesseties and know what he is fighting for. That is it!

Artillery, armour and trucks – mostly Studebaker trucks that had been stuck on the roads – gradually caught up with us, and for some time the battalion had an opportunity to advance on Studebaker trucks. These trucks replaced our Soviet-made ZIS-5 trucks, which had been the main truck of the country before the war and were already somewhat obsolete. We had a break from the unceasing marching on foot.

THE BATTLES FOR THE TOWN OF SKALAT

On 14 or 15 March, 1944, we approached the town of Skalat through rocky hills and started fighting for its liberation. The arrival of our battalion was quite unexpected for the German forces. They did not expect us to travel such a distance so quickly. However, the leadership of the Brigade for some reason did not use this element of surprise. As a result, all three battalions of the Brigade were stuck in street fighting. When our battalion arrived at the city in daytime, we – Shakulo, Kolosov and I (Gavrilov was wounded) – received an order from company commander Titov to advance along the left side of the road and go as deep as possible into the city. We did not encounter enemy resistance on the outskirts and advanced from house to house. The enemy was nowhere to be seen. We got a bit braver and realized that either there were no Germans in the city or they were retreating without a fight. Probably we were right. All of a sudden an orderly ran up to us with the order from the company commander to go back. We came back and reported that there were no Germans, but the company commander Titov told us that the sector where we were in was not our area of responsibility, it belonged to another unit and we were given the sector to the right side of the road. Other companies were also stopped. There was some confusion, we had not received the order to advance before darkness. We found a small house, abandoned by the occupiers, and the company occupied it. While the commanders were consulting, we laid down for a nap.