Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

Lieutenant Shakulo gave a scolding to the guard for his negligence. We had some sleep until dawn, put our clothes and shoes on and in the morning found the company and battalion commanders. Other companies of the battalion arrived, we had a snack with what God sent us and marched forward on foot. It was quiet, the enemy was nowhere to be seen. Apparently, they had been straggling Germans, remains of destroyed units that ran into us during the night. Anything could happen in that war. For example, when our battalions left the town, all kinds of supply and support units of the battalion and brigade stopped there. They forgot about security, as they knew that the city was liberated from the Germans. German tanks rushed into town in the evening and held a St Bartholomew’s Day massacre – breaking, burning, destroying and squashing everything that was in the streets, as there was no one who could put up resistance. The Germans burnt our battalion’s field kitchen and several cooks were killed. A few eyewitnesses, who made it alive out of Gusyatin, including deputy battalion commander for logistics Zadiran, told us the sad story. On 24 March, 1944, other tank units of our Tank Army arrived at Gusyatin and after some heavy fighting the Germans were once more forced to leave it. So, Gusyatin was liberated twice, and all the merit for the liberation of the town went to the other units, which had liberated the city for the second time, not to our brigade.

I recall a march on foot in the spring of 1944. We would walk in the dirt, barely moving our feet, our greatcoats weighed a ton because of the rain, and I would think: ‘It would be nice to get into a hut, have a hot soup or schi and have a nap for some twenty-five hours’. All kinds of thoughts could be in one’s head during marches, both good and bad ones.

We were happy when tanks from our Brigade’s tank regiment caught up with our battalion and we moved on as tank riders. We had just one objective – to capture Kamenets-Podolsk. Running a bit ahead, I would say that it took the Brigade two or three days to arrive at the town. Both people and tanks were tired; the vehicles couldn’t take such stress either. Tanks stopped more and more often because of small technical breakdowns, especially broken tracks. Of course we tank riders assisted in tank repairs, so as not to fall behind the battalion.

The battalion’s march continued from Gusyatin, the enemy was not putting up serious resistance. Our tanks and the tank-riding infantry crushed separate pockets of resistance. In other cases the Germans did not put up a fight and abandoned villages, sometimes leaving an insignificant delaying force behind. We stopped in a village in order to refuel our tanks and load them with ammo, as well as to make some small repairs. I have already mentioned that the march was very hard and halts were necessary.Villagers gave us food and we lay down for a nap in their houses. As far as I remember, the day was sunny. We were afraid of an air raid, and camouflaged all vehicles well. Indeed, enemy bombers did arrive and bomb the village, but for some reason chose the part which had no tanks or soldiers stationed in it. Evidently, the German pilots did not notice us. After the planes left, we heard women weeping – there were casualties among the civilian population.

At the same halt the following incident took place. A tank driver, apparently after a liberal dose of moonshine, started his tank, but selected reverse gear instead of first gear. The tank broke through the wall of a hut, moving the table to the other wall of the hut while some officers and hosts of the house were having lunch at the table. The driver realized that he was going in the wrong direction and stopped the tank just in time. It was amazing that no one was hurt, but everyone was covered in clay and plaster and the wall of the house was destroyed. Those who were sitting at the table in the hut got off lightly. One of the officers jumped up from the table and with a gun in his hand ran to the driver’s hatch. The driver was scared to death, closed all hatches and sat quietly in the tank, while the others calmed down the officer, who was threatening to shoot the driver. As the result the tank was driven away, and the tank regiment commanders decided to leave the ‘horseless’ tankers (those, who had lost their vehicles) to repair the house.

Later in the day we started to gather for a march and the commanders decided to continue the advance during the night because of the enemy’s air force. In the twilight we started our night-march on tanks. We rushed through villages and towns with lights on the tanks. There were supply vehicles with us, and Studebaker trucks, and this all gave the impression of a huge tank column moving on the road.