Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

I was summoned to the battalion commander in the night. I entered the hut, where, in addition to battalion commander Kozienko, there were head of brigade staff Grigori Vasilievich Starovoit and some other staff officers. The mission that I was given was to advance forward on the road and locate the enemy – identifying in which buildings he had set up a defence, whether he had armour and what type of armour it was. I stated that I had already been in the city together with Shakulo’s platoon the day before and had not seen any enemy, not to mention tanks. Nevertheless, I was ordered to check the city one more time. I woke my platoon up, explained the mission to the soldiers, and briefed the squad leaders separately. We quietly started our advance to the town centre along the road. In front of the platoon, at some distance, I had a squad in the vanguard for security and reconnaissance – I did everything by the book. Quite soon, on their signal, we halted and lay down on the road. It turned out that we had run into soldiers from the Brigade’s scout company. They did not meet the enemy, did not see any tanks, but had heard voices from the building in front of us, and even said that they had seen a lit cigarette. When we reached the building at the crossroads of the two streets, I ordered a quiet search of the building. There was no enemy in the building; the scouts had made a mistake. It was war, it happened a lot. We did not advance any further, as the soldiers drew my attention to the sound of engines, and we recognized that tanks were advancing towards us, in fact, two Tiger tanks, which must have arrived shortly before to reinforce the infantry. Upon my return, I reported exactly what I saw – that the enemy had no infantry, even if he had, it was stationed in isolated strongpoints in some buildings (later this turned out to be true), as well as two tanks, which had not been in the city the day before. The commanders did not tell me anything and let me go to rest. I thought that I completed my mission. I do not know if they believed me after the report from the scout company. However, I can only say that if we had attacked the enemy in the city on the first day, we would not have suffered such unnecessary losses, being stuck in street fighting for almost a week from 14 to 20 March.

At dawn the battalions formed an attacking line in front of the city, in an open field, just as if it were a training session. The enemy was silent and did not open fire on us, although we were like sitting ducks for them. Why did we have to lie in the field? The battalion commander summoned us all for briefing. We, a group of officers, gathered in a group at the roadside, which did not even have ditches – not to mention any shelters, and all this was in the war! In the meantime, at least ten or twelve enemy aircraft appeared. They first dropped bombs on the tank regiment, which immediately suffered losses in tanks and personnel. After this the planes flew towards our battalion and opened fire on the soldiers, who had no time to dig in and were lying in the open. We were rescued by the fact that the planes had already dropped their bombs on the tank regiment.

Officers, before they could be briefed, dispersed in all directions, seeking cover. I also tried to find a shelter, but it was an open field, there was nowhere to hide. The battalion commander and several other officers dived into a drainpipe under the road surface. I couldn’t think of anything better than running back to my foxhole. A German pilot noticed me and opened fire on me. Bullets were kicking up spurts of mud all around me. The pilot dived five times, trying to kill me. He opened the cockpit and I saw the bastard laughing at me. Still, I made it safely to my foxhole, his bullets missed. I jumped into my foxhole, and the pilot ceased fire. Planes strafed the battalion several more times, firing at people, then gathered in a formation and left. Some guy in desperation opened fire from an anti-tank rifle, but quickly stopped firing, there was no point – it was not an anti-aircraft gun, after all.