Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

So, I got infuriated after the execution warning. I ordered the squad leaders to get the soldiers up to attack – I was also in the line. The soldiers did not get up – they lay on the ground, no one wanted to die. I also did not want to die, I was just 21 years old, but I had received an order, I could not just wait for the enemy to leave the village. I jumped up from the ground under heavy fire from the enemy and shouted the command: ‘Get up! For the Motherland, for Stalin! Follow me, attack, forward!’ Just a few men got up, it was mostly squad leaders, the rest remained on the ground; fear chained them to the ground. I ran a few metres forward and noticed that it was just several men in the attacking line. I had to come back, run along the line of soldiers and get them up from the ground by force, literally pulling them up from the ground by their waist belts. This was all under the enemy’s machine-gun fire. My orderly ran behind me and shouted to me: ‘Comrade Lieutenant, get down! Get down, comrade Lieutenant, or they’ll kill you!’ I just ran forward, getting the soldiers up. All of a sudden I noticed that wheat ears in front of me were falling off their stems, as if they were cut down by scissors. They were cut by machine-gun fire that the Germans were aiming at me. I had not seen such concentrated fire before. I got in a terrible rage, forgot that I could be killed and started to kick the lying soldiers with my feet and the handle of my entrenching tool, getting them to move. Eventually, everything ended well for my soldiers and me – I was not even wounded, I got the soldiers up and the platoon ran down from the hill into a depression at the outskirts of Bobrka. At the same time Petr Shakulo’s and Gavrilov’s platoons assaulted the enemy. The Germans fled, leaving a Panther tank behind – apparently, it was out of fuel. When we ran up to the tank, it was still warm from the working engine. It took me a long time to come to my senses after that assault, I sat on the ground behind a house and thought of nothing. They called for me, but I did not answer. It was a miracle that the Germans did not kill my orderly and me as we ran along the line of soldiers, getting the soldiers up.

When everyone calmed down and we came to our senses, I heard laughter, jokes, we started to recall the recent engagement. In order to relax we all took a shot of vodka. There were a lot of jokers in the war, we called them hohmach (a Russian slang word for comedian – translator’s comment). They started to joke about me: ‘Bessonov, why did you run along the front, not forward, during the attack?’ Another hohmach answered: ‘Lads, he was so scared that he forgot the direction of the attack.’ The third one: ‘No, he drew German fire on himself, to make it easier for the Slavs (this is what we called soldiers on the front) to attack the Fritzes.’ This was all accompanied by the roar of comrades. ‘He is a real hohmach, he knows how to deceive the Fritzes!’ Those big lads thought it was funny, they laughed like horses, and did not have the slightest idea why I had run along the front, not forward. I still get scared when I recall that incident, but that time I was really lucky that I remained safe and sound. I never forgot that town of Bobrka.