Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

We moved at high speed, overtaking the German units that were retreating on other roads; we were also travelling at a significant distance from our infantry units. The situation called for a lightning speed advance, in order to deprive the Germans of the chance to man the defendable and sometimes already fortified areas, especially the ones along the Oder. On the night of 23 January we rushed into Ostruv and after a short but stubborn battle we captured the town. It was in that town that the Germans used Panzerfausts for the first time against our tanks, but they missed. We did not stay in that city for long, although the city had warehouses stuffed full of food, while we were already out of it and we should have picked it up from there – our field kitchen fell behind, as usual. Having quickly left the city, we moved on. I made myself very comfortable behind the turret of a JS tank, as the space over the tank’s engine was much larger than that of a T-34, and fell asleep. I slept so well that I did not even notice that our column had stopped.

As it happened, the Brigade commander with his staff had travelled with our battalion that night. They woke me up, and I jumped off the tank and walked forward. There I saw a JS-2 tank lying on its side on the ice of the frozen river. One could hear groaning and desperate pleas from under the tank. For some reason no one was brave enough to assist the suffering men. I did not think long, and crawled under the tank and pulled four soldiers one by one from under the tank. It turned out that they were safe and sound, but a bit squashed and really scared. There were three or four soldiers more under the tank, but they had been crushed by the tank. As it turned out, the first JS-2 tank safely drove across the bridge, but the bridge could not stand the weight of the second tank and it fell on its right side, pressing against the ice those who sat on the right side, as well as the tank commander. Those soldiers who sat on the left side of the tank, were thrown to the sides and they got off with some bruises. I was on the third tank. One of the soldiers that I pulled out later became my orderly – it was Andrey Ulianovich Drozd. I went through the rest of the war with him.

My soldiers wandered off to the huts in order to warm themselves and have a snack. An orderly found me at the capsized tank and informed me that Brigade commander Turkin had called me. I ran up to the Colonel and reported with all due ceremony. Majors Skryago, Kozienko, Stolyarov and someone else was there. Turkin told me: ‘Bessonov, order your soldiers not to execute any of the Germans who are in the village houses.’ I said, ‘Yes’ and ran to fulfil the order.

There were indeed Germans in the village. My guys were kicking them out of the houses, taking away their weapons. If a German resisted, they would finish him off, but in other cases they did not harm them at all. However, they confiscated all the Germans’ watches. I ordered them to draw all the German soldiers up in column of two, but not to harm them. ‘We were not going to execute them,’ squad leaders told me, ‘we just took their weapons.’ I came back to the Brigade commander and reported that his order had been fulfilled: all prisoners had been gathered from the huts and formed up. No one was planning to execute them. I noticed that in front of Turkin there was a tall guy standing at ‘attention’ in German uniform. The guy was holding a garrison cap on the bend of his arm and was reporting to Turkin clearly in Russian. It turned out that the man was an Uzbek. According to him, in 1941 he had graduated from Tashkent infantry academy as a Lieutenant and was taken prisoner by the Germans in 1942. Then he was a commander of a construction or security company with a rank of Ober-Leutenant (A Senior Lieutenant in our rank system). His company included almost every nationality of Europe: Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Belorussians, Frenchmen, Czech and others, some 60 to 80 men. According to him, there was a German battalion staff and two companies of German soldiers in the nearby village. That village was not on the main route of our advance and we did not go there.

Colonel Turkin ordered the Ober-Leutenant to lead all his soldiers eastwards, into captivity, but did not order any security to escort them. I have no idea where they went. In my opinion they most likely just scattered.

No matter how hard the tank crews tried, they could not put the tank back on its tracks, and we had to leave it there. The Brigade in the meantime moved on, sometimes engaging the enemy in short clashes. We were held up with the capsized tank anyway.