Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

The enemy’s air force rarely raided our column any more. The Red Army captured most of their airfields, and only a few airfields or highway strips remained in German hands. We mostly had to fight the ground troops of the enemy, but on 23 April the German air force did deliver a horrible strike on the Brigade’s column. Apparently, it was the Luftwaffe’s last strike, their swan song. We thought that the Germans could not employ their air force any more, but it did happen, and we suffered significant losses. The entire Brigade’s column was on the move in daytime, some companies were on tanks, others were on Studebaker trucks. The Brigade’s staff with the Brigade’s commander Colonel Turkin and his deputy (political officer) Lieutenant Colonel Skryago were also there in the column. As soon as the column entered a small forest, enemy aircraft appeared in the air. These were fighter-bombers, some ten or twelve aircraft. The planes dived, dropped their bombs and prepared for the second dive. Even before the planes appeared, an air raid alarm sounded, but it was a bit too late. The tank column stopped and we quickly dismounted the tanks, but almost no one made it away from the road. We were lucky that the Germans dropped their bombs without aiming; the bombs fell far from the road way over their target.

I had time to run just several metres from the road, when I bumped into Lieutenant-Colonel Skryago. He was also running from the road, but he apparently got exhausted and was short of breath, as he was a fat guy with a big belly. He asked me: ‘Help me, Bessonov, I do not know where my orderly is.’ Before we could make a step, a Fritz plane appeared. It flew along the road at extremely low altitude, almost hitting the treetops, and fired its machine-guns. Skryago and I just froze, we were standing there as if we were dumbstruck. We were just standing and looking at the bullets kicking up mud, and we saw those bullets hitting the dust closer and closer to us. We both thought that this was the end for us, as the fire was very dense, but a miracle happened again – the burst stopped just a few metres short. The plane soared upwards to take another dive. Yes, we were extremely lucky just before the end of the war! The Lieutenant-Colonel and I regained our senses and ran further from the road. I literally had to pull him, as he could barely move his feet. I saw two or three more or less thick trees and we lay down behind them. The air raid ended soon, but the battalion had losses. Lieutenant Colonel Skryago went to the staff, while I went to my battalion. It was good that my company did not have losses. As soon as we were about to mount the tanks, another air-raid warning sounded in the air, and numerous enemy aircraft appeared in the air. Soldiers scattered running in the forest, while I with Senior Lieutenant Anatoly Kashintsev, commander of the mortar company of the battalion, jumped into a trench right on the road. Then we ran in short rushes further and hid in another trench (apparently, the Germans had dug them even before our arrival). Suddenly a big bullet fell from the breastwork to the bottom of the trench. When I picked it up, it was still hot. We were again lucky that the bullet did not hit us; because of the noise of the air raid we had not even heard the bullet’s whistling. We decided to leave that trench as well, ran further from the road and lay down behind a tree. The soldiers also scattered in the forest. I lost my men from sight; everyone saved their lives by themselves. The air raid was awful. The planes continued their assault, dropping bombs and firing incendiary shells at tanks. German pilots dived almost to the very ground and fired their machine-guns. They fired not only at the highway, but also at the forest at the road. Planes dived in groups of three and five, firing long machine-gun bursts not only at the tanks, but also at the pinned-down infantry. I had not seen such an air raid since the Lvov battles. It is hard to say how long the raid was, but apparently it lasted at least two or three hours. Our fighters were not there, we only had one 37 mm anti-aircraft gun, but it did not help much. After the air raid we went back to our units. Both Kashintsev and I and the soldiers went to the road. We saw people standing around the bomb crater, which was on the trench where we had previously hidden and heard them talking about us. We arrived at the scene, both safe and sound. Then they started to guess who had been killed in that trench and decided that it was a truck driver. I was again lucky – intuition and luck saved my life.