Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

The losses of the battalion were insignificant: several soldiers were wounded, as well as company commander Lieutenant Yu. A. Grigoriev and Sergeant-major Vasily Blokhin, formerly Sergeant Major in our company, of the 3rd company. After the air strike we were briefed and quickly advanced forward. The Germans opened fire only after we went into the city and captured several buildings. Our tanks tried to support us, but after the Germans knocked out three T-34 tanks, with their crews being burnt alive, the rest of our armour did not advance any further and hid behind the buildings. It was two Tigers that delivered most of the fire on our infantry and tanks; they had a very convenient firing position behind the buildings, where they could not be seen. Shakulo and I advanced forward with our platoons, hiding behind the buildings. We had to drive the Germans out of some buildings, while other buildings they abandoned without a fight. Advancing in this way, we captured the building in front of the square with a church, ending up in the centre of the town on the right side of the street. However, by the wall of that building there was a German tank. It fired for some time but ceased fire soon – apparently to conserve ammo. We did not have petrol bombs or anti-tank grenades to knock it out, we were running out of ammo ourselves. The battalion’s ammo depot had not arrived yet, and it would not arrive till the very end of Kamenets-Podolsk operation.

Twilight set in and firing ceased from both sides. It was just about time to get some food. War was war, but we were hungry anyway. Soldiers were sent out to look for food and they found a small warehouse with supplies and vodka. We had a nice meal: we had a little vodka and finished off all the canned food. Shortly before morning a liaison arrived from company commander Titov with a note. In the note he gave us an order to move along the left side of the street and to join the third platoon of the company, which was leaderless, as Gavrilov was wounded. An order was order, and under cover of darkness Shakulo and I crossed the street and joined the third platoon. The machine-gun platoon of the company accompanied us, under Lieutenant Kolosov. Soldiers from Gavrilov’s platoon were distributed between our two companies on the order of the company commander. We tried to advance during the night, but in the dark we ran into the area of responsibility of the 2nd company of our battalion, so we had to move to the side of them. We ran into some Germans in the process, and the leader of the vanguard squad was wounded in the stomach. Our advance halted. It was good that the whole thing happened in darkness and the enemy could not deliver well-directed fire. However, we suffered casualties and were forced to stop and consolidate our lines. We did not dare to attack further – a German tank arrived and opened fire with machine-guns.

In the morning an orderly soldier passed on the order from the company commander to abandon the area, make way for the 2nd company, consolidate defences at the previous position and to continue attacking under cover of darkness, advancing to the outskirts of the town. It was a hard day for us – a Tiger was methodically firing its main gun at the building where we were stationed.

German snipers arrived on the scene. My soldiers tracked down one of them – he was firing from a window of a high house. Shakulo’s platoon had a Soviet-made sniper rifle. I got a commission to get the guy (I used to train snipers in both male and female companies). I was looking out for him for a long time and when his head popped up in the window, fired a round. Soldiers, who were observing our duel through binoculars, told me that I got him. The German never popped up again.

Besides this, the Germans tried to counterattack, but were thrown back with casualties from machine-gun fire. During the night Shakulo and I bypassed the church square without encountering the enemy and consolidated our positions in wooden barns and huts in the outskirts. In the morning the Germans spotted us and opened machine-gun fire. Snipers were also there, setting the huts with soldiers on fire. We had to move to a safer place. In the daytime the enemy tried to attack again, but our riflemen repelled that assault as well. As twilight descended, we left the charred ruins and took up position in a strong brick building, also in the town’s outskirts. As we learned later, Gestapo secret police had been stationed in that building during the occupation. In the cellar of the building we found honey, spirits and some other food staples.