Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

As far as I remember, there were at least thirteen to fifteen Tiger tanks, but I cannot say how many infantry they had – it was too dark. Just three T-34-85 tanks supported me. The tank crews were green and it was their first battle. They rarely fired on the German tanks, being afraid that the enemy would spot their muzzle flashes, and when the houses caught fire, they tried to retreat as far as possible into the dark shadow. Although they did not retreat far, their retreat had a bad effect on the morale of my soldiers, most of whom were also green, but even the old hands were scared. They held on with their last bit of strength, but kept on firing at the enemy. However, they were all looking back at our tanks – they were afraid that the tanks would just leave us and drive to the rear. So I had to run back and forth – first to the tanks in order to stop them, if they had retreated too far, bring them back or even ask them to fire, then run to see how Guschenkov was doing, and then back to my men. The whole village was on fire, shells were exploding all around, and bullets and shell splinters flew shrieking through the air. Our DP machine-guns and submachine-guns were firing. The Germans tried to attack our flank, but Guschenkov’s machine-guns cut them down almost at point-blank range and they ceased their attacks.

Nevertheless, two or three soldiers abandoned their foxholes and hid behind a hut, which was still on fire. I brought them back to their initial place – back to the trenches. If you do not nip panic in the bud, then your unit becomes uncontrollable. This is why I strictly warned the squad leaders of those two soldiers who ran away from the trenches without order. So, almost all night long I had to run back and forth from trenches to tanks and then back to trenches, all the time under enemy fire. I was steaming, I was constantly thirsty; it was good that there was a well nearby, my orderly scooped water from the well with a canteen and I gulped it down. The whole village was on fire, it was as bright as day. I had to lead almost a company in action in these conditions – two platoons and a machine-gun platoon, plus I had to force our tanks to fire, while the tanks were always trying to retreat to a safe place. This running around almost cost me my life. I could be seen for miles in the burning village, so as soon as I jumped into a foxhole, a shell exploded on its breastwork. The breastwork was smashed, while private Ivanov and me were deafened by the explosion. The worst thing was that the trench was just few metres from a burning house and it was too hot in that foxhole. The foxhole was clearly visible against the glare of the burning house, but the second shot never came, apparently Germans thought we were dead. I quickly moved to another foxhole, permitting Ivanov to go to the first-aid station, as he was slightly shell-shocked.

Before dawn the Germans ceased fire and then altogether disappeared from our sight. Apparently, their mission was not to destroy our battalion and the Brigade, but rather to delay our offensive for as long as possible in order to rescue their units from destruction and encirclement in another sector of the front. Despite the intensity and length of the battle, our losses were insignificant. At dawn Guschenkov and I found company commander Chernyshov and 3rd platoon leader Vyunov. I reported the losses to the company commander and we exchanged our opinions about the engagement. The battalion’s field kitchen had managed to cook breakfast by that time and we sent two or three men from each squad with mess tins to bring the food, just like we always did. My orderly and I had breakfast from the same mess. If we could, we washed our messes after meals or wiped them with grass. If someone was still hungry, it was always possible to get extra food, as they cooked food for the whole battalion and the battalion had losses…