Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

I moved the platoon and company forward, ordered them to dig in, appointed observers and we had a chance to ‘listen to the grass growing’ for a couple of hours, that is, to have a nap. At dawn an orderly ran to me from company commander Chernyshov with an order ‘to attack the hill’. We had neither tanks nor artillery support. The Brigade had suffered heavy casualties in tanks, the artillery battalion must have also been hit hard. As often happened at the front, we did not have the slightest idea about the enemy – how strong he was, where the positions were and whether he had tanks.

The sun started to warm us; it was quiet, one could hear only birds singing from the nearest forest, which was not yet occupied by our troops. I replied to the runner that I was about to start the attack; he left, and I again fell asleep. The runner from the company commander ran up again, with the same order and with threats from the company commander. I again replied that we would commence the attack any time soon and fell asleep again – such things had never happened to me before. The runner woke me up and again reminded me of the attack – this time, the company commander ordered him not to leave me before I started the attack. I slept under a bush on soft grass (I did not dig a trench), I had been dreaming about something peaceful and I really did not feel like dying in that quiet hour… I tried to think of death as little as possible, but at that moment I was merely overwhelmed by exhaustion and quietness and I really wanted to sleep.

I feared a German attack from the left, from the forest – we were on the leftmost flank of the battalion, but I had to fulfil the order. I got the company up and we advanced in short rushes. The enemy did not open fire and we advanced some 100 or 150 metres ahead. So far everything was all right and I already had hopes that we would quietly capture the hill without shooting and soldiers dying, but my dreams did not come true.

The enemy opened a storm of rifle and machine-gun fire. A German self-propelled gun, the so-called ‘assault gun’ (Sturmgeschütz) with 75 mm barrel, appeared on the hill and opened fire. Soldiers lay down, using all folds of the earth, every little hillock, to hide from the bullets. As I could not find a better place, I also lay down in the shade of a bush, a small creek with steep shores behind me. My soldiers also opened fire on the enemy, but we did not even have heavy machineguns – the machine-gun platoon had ceased to exist a long time before that battle; we only had submachine-guns and light machineguns. The German assault gun opened fire with its main gun even on individual soldiers, and very soon all fire from our side ceased. It did not matter how hard I shouted, soldiers did not shoot – no one wanted to die hit by a 75 mm shell. Apparently, the Germans saw me waving my hands, demanding soldiers to open fire and generally making a show. Next to me, not far away, a soldier was lying and the assault gun went right after us. The shell exploded next to the soldier, he was thrown into the air and dropped dead on the ground. I quickly jumped into the creek, and hid under its bank, bending down. The creek was not deep at all, so I did not even get any water in my long boots. The second shell exploded next to the bank, but it did not get me again, and I quickly ran away and threw myself down behind a tree. I was fine, just with some strong ringing in my head. The assault gun ceased fire and stood peacefully on the hill.

While I was thinking what to do, our ground attack planes flew in, Il-2 Shturmoviks, approximately twelve or fifteen planes. They first dropped their bombs and then started to plough up the enemy’s defences with missiles and fire from their guns and machine-guns. The assault gun disappeared from our sight, the enemy ceased fire, and under cover of the air attack I got the company up. We rushed forward as fast as we could, while we still had energy and while the enemy was depressed, and we tried to reach the top of the hill as quickly as possible. After we reached to top of the hill, the Shturmoviks ceased their attacks, assumed formation, waved their wings to us and flew away. I was very happy, it was for the first time that I saw such a successful cooperation of infantry and air force. I wish we had had it all the time! We also waved our hands to the pilots, shouting ‘Hurrah!’, thanking them for assistance. Apparently, it was the Brigade staff that organized the air support, as the hill was of great significance.