Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

We entered the village and the villagers emerged one by one out of their shelters. Some soldiers went into the houses and were given milk and white bread. They brought me some, but I did not drink the milk, just had a piece of bread. For some reason the kitchen had again fallen behind and we did not have any food from the evening of the previous day. When we left the village, none of us were hungry any more. After that village we marched both on foot and on tanks. The German air force did not leave us alone and thus we moved westwards in stages.

Twilight set in, the German air force finally departed and we could continue our march in a normal manner. Later in the evening I and my platoon reached some village, unfortunately, I no longer remember its name. Ahead of us, about one or two kilometres away, lay the city of Lvov. When I reported to the battalion commander, he permitted the soldiers to rest. He gave an order to me to advance on Lvov early in the morning of the next day. It must have been 20 July, 1944, my birthday – I was 21 years old.

Because of platoon leader Petr Shakulo’s light wound, I was put in charge of his platoon as well. Petr’s assistant platoon leader was Sergeant Savkin – a brave man, I knew him well from battles in Kamenets-Podolsk and had a great respect for him. Savkin was a reliable man, soldiers obeyed him and respected him. It was just us two officers that remained in the company.

I should say that only our 1st motor rifle battalion approached Lvov, or, rather, a company and the battalion HQ – Battalion Commander Kozienko, Political Officer Gerstein and Head of Staff Grigoriev, my platoon and Shakulo’s platoon (without Shakulo himself). The 3rd platoon with the company commander Chernyshov was left behind at some road crossing (platoon leader Gavrilov was wounded) in case the Fritzes appeared. Guschenkov was also wounded. The 2nd company (company commander Shtokolov) was also left as a guard at some hill. The 3rd company (under Kostenko) was left to assist the 16th Guards Mechanized Brigade, which was stuck in street fighting in the town of Peremyshlyany, south-east from Lvov. The 2nd and 3rd battalions of our Brigade were somewhere else, while the 56th Tank Regiment left our battalion, fulfilling other missions. Thus, the battalion commander ordered me to capture Lvov with two platoons, which had 30 to 35 men. A huge city and a handful of soldiers.

We approached Lvov from the south, not from the east; the enemy did not expect us there and there were almost no German troops in the area. To be honest, I was afraid to enter the city without armour support. I did not like to assault or advance without tanks. Tanks always meant additional courage for us and additional fear for the enemy. We supported each other in battle, especially in built-up areas and forests. It is hard to fight without tanks, as it is hard for them to fight without us, the tank riders. Both the tank crews and ourselves were used to this co-operation. Without tanks we felt like a naked person in the winter, I cannot find any better comparison. It is bad without armour.

In short, on 20 or 21 July, 1944, I summoned the squad leaders and explained the mission, that had been given to me by Captain Kozienko, battalion commander (one month later he became a Major). At dawn I and two platoons of our company, as well as the machine-gun platoon of the 3rd company of our battalion under Lieutenant Tsikanovski, attacked Lvov. The city was built in the western manner, alongside large apartment houses there were individual mansions, surrounded by iron fences or mesh. There were a lot of small crooked, sometimes steep, streets in the city in addition to the wide boulevards.