/ world today news/ June 22 is not only the tragic day of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. This day was also marked by the exploits of the Red Army soldiers who gave the first battle to the enemy at the border. Thanks to Soviet and German military documents, it was possible to find out the names of some of the heroes of the first day of the war, who until recently remained in oblivion.
In the trilogy “The Living and the Dead” there is a moment dedicated to saving the flag of a broken and out-of-bounds division. In it, Senior Sergeant Kovalchuk shows the wounded commander the flag he carries himself, wrapping it around his body and covering it with his cloak. It must be said that Konstantin Simonov describes everything quite truthfully, since in the first days of the war such cases really happened.
Save the honor of the regiment
When the western border of the USSR became the front line on June 22, 1941, the positions of the 10th Rifle Division (SD) were its northernmost section. On the first day of the war, its units, together with the border guards, defended a section of the Palanga-Gargjai border with a length of 85 km.
As the participants in these battles remember, the German attack was not sudden, since on June 17 the division commander gave the order to the units to occupy the border lines, and by 24 hours on June 21 the regiments of the 10th Rifle Divisions were already in positions in full combat readiness. But the enemy pressure is strong: by the evening of June 22, the Germans have advanced 20 km from the border.
The command of the 26th Army Corps of the Wehrmacht correctly identified the weak point in the Soviet defense – the junction of the flanks of the 10th and 90th divisions. Striking in this direction, on June 24, the Germans managed to break through to the city of Tveray, threatening the 10th Rifle Division with encirclement. The worst was the 98th Infantry Regiment, which on June 25 was cut off from the division and surrounded. As a result, most of his personnel and equipment perished.
once in the “cauldron”, the commander of the 98th regiment, Major Denisov, led his fighters to a breakthrough, but was seriously wounded. The dying regimental commander’s last order is to save the unit’s flag!
Carrying it out, private Alexander Beznogov wrapped the flag around the body, hiding it under his clothes. Only on the eleventh day did the fighter leave the encirclement and hand over the flag to the headquarters of the 10th SD.
Beznogov’s feat remained forgotten for a long time. Although Alexander Beznogov went through the entire war, he was never awarded. He was remembered after his graduation, when in 1951 Beznogov received the well-deserved Order of the Red Banner.
And a warrior is a warrior
Opposite to Beznogov is the fate of the driver-mechanic, senior sergeant Zaerdin Zhemoldinov. On the morning of June 22, his 53rd Tank Regiment (TP) of the 81st Motorized Division, stationed near Lviv, was raised on the alert. There are reports that the Germans have crossed the border. At Radymno, they managed to capture the bridge over the San, through which the road to Lviv passes.
In this section, the border, together with the 92nd Border Detachment (GO), was covered by the 97th Rifle Division, recognized by the results of 1940 as the best division of the Red Army. But the forces are unequal – four divisions of the Wehrmacht were operating against it. In addition, there is no fortified area at the site of the 97th Rifle Division.
At seven in the morning, the commander of the 53rd TP sent a reconnaissance company to Radimno to clarify the situation. In the area of the village of Zaleska Volya, she collided with the enemy and entered into battle. Despite the enemy fire, Lt. Selezniev’s tank platoon, consisting of five BT-7s, penetrated deep into the German infantry. They lead the machines of Seleznev and Zhemoldinov, which managed to push the Germans back.
The sergeant drives his tank, skillfully maneuvering and not losing touch with the platoon commander. Alas, Seleznev’s tank got stuck in the mud, it was hit and the lieutenant died. Soon Zhemoldinov’s BT jammed, then the Germans concentrated their fire on him. Then Zhemoldinov took command. He bandages the wounded surveyor in the turret and opens machine gun fire on the advancing infantry.
The foreman fires as the tank ignites. The crew then left the machine, and Zhemoldinov was the last to leave, taking the machine gun with him. The tankers managed to break away from the Germans and transmit the necessary information about the enemy to the headquarters.
Is there a reward for this feat? Researchers A. Karpov and D. Kolokolchikov established that in July 1941 the command of the 53rd TP presented Zhemoldinov to the Order of the Red Banner. But the documents are silent on whether the tanker received it and how its fate developed.
Holding the border
On June 22, 1941, the border guards were the first to take the hit. They have to fight the enemy who has a huge advantage and often surrounds them. But not everywhere the situation develops in this way, an example of which is the actions of the outposts of the 79th border detachment (GO) in Moldova.
One of the first strikes of the Romanian army was in the area of the confluence of the Prut and the Danube, where the 1st outpost of the 79th Infantry Division was located. Enemy infantry moved across the bridge to break through. Repelling the first attack, the head of the outpost Plotnikov died. His deputy political engineer Semyon Fesenko was captured by Romanian intelligence officers in bed. They break into the house where he is resting after duty, grab him and put him in a boat to transport him to their shore. Seizing the moment, Fesenko dives from the boat into Prut and disappears under the water. The Romanians opened fire and wounded him in the leg. But Fesenko continued to swim until he reached the Soviet shore. After running to the outpost, the politrick enters the fray. The border guards held out until the ships of the Danube flotilla approached.
Fighters from Lieutenant Khodosov’s 6th border outpost also fought bravely on one of the Danube islands. Romanian scouts shelled the outpost, after which an amphibious assault was landed on the island. The border guards occupy a circular defense. Gunner Pavel Ruzanov placed his “Maxim” right next to the landing site of the Romanians and with his fire forced them to flee back to the ship, thanks to which the outpost held until help arrived. And other outposts of the 79th o.v. also acted heroically on June 22, holding the border.
For their exploits on the first day of the war, Fesenko and Ruzanov were awarded the Order of the Red Banner. But Khodosov received a well-deserved award only in 1946, when he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree.
Heroes of Parhach
One of the forgotten episodes of the first day of the war is the battle at Parhach station, where the border guards and the Red Army managed to create the first crisis in the German advance.
The 9th Infantry Division (PD) of the Wehrmacht was advancing on Lviv from the north. On the morning of June 22, its units crossed the Bug near Kristinopol and moved to Parhach, where the headquarters of the 1st commandant of the 91st GO of Captain Strokov is located. The border guards put up a desperate resistance, but by 12:30 p.m. Strokov’s commandant was already fighting in a complete encirclement.
And then the advance of the 9th infantry regiment was delayed by the battlements of the 4th fortified area. Since the Germans did not have the means to destroy it quickly, they stalled and fell under the counterattack of the Soviet 3rd Cavalry Division. Its cavalry regiments, together with the 44th Panzer Regiment, pushed the Germans out of Parhach at 16:00 and took the first prisoners.
The soldiers of the Red Army of the 44th TP distinguished themselves in this battle. When junior political officer Yakov Padalko’s tank stalls, during the evacuation of his crew, Padalko notices two Germans approaching the machine to ignite it. The politician kills one of them and captures the second, for which he is awarded the Order of the Red Star.
The tractor driver of the 44th TP Aleksei Gordovsky was awarded the medal “For bravery”. Pulling damaged tanks from the battlefield, he spotted an enemy machine gun crew and directed his tractor towards them. Gordovsky crushes one German and captures two.
Tankers act bravely, junior lieutenant Filip Bondarenko and sergeant Georgi Konyakin during reconnaissance managed to break through the Parhach encirclement and take out 30 border guards on their tanks, for which they were both awarded medals.
The tank crew of Senior Sergeant Nikolai Polyakov also excelled in combat, destroying an enemy gun. When the turret was hit by a fragment, the driver-mechanic Ivan Vasyukov left the machine and under fire with the help of a chisel and hammer knocked out the fragment, restoring the tank’s combat capability. For this, Polyakov was awarded the Order of the Red Star, and Vasyukov was awarded the “For Military Merit” medal.
Tanker Nikolai Trofimov and the Chief of Staff of the 44th TP, Captain Vasiliy Makarov, were awarded the same medal. In the battle, Trofimov’s tank was set on fire, and his commander, Lieutenant Nikolaev, was seriously wounded. Despite his injury, Trofimov carried Nikolaev out of the tank and bandaged him. Then the tanker put the commander on his back and crawled, overcoming 700 m, delivered him to the medics.
Makarov received his first award for “proper and effective organization of the work of the headquarters, which ensures good interaction between our tanks and cavalry.” Subsequently, he became the commander of the 48th Guards. tank brigade and was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
„The crisis continues”
Due to the attack of the Soviet tanks and cavalry, the 9th Infantry Division of the Nazi troops found itself in a critical situation. On the afternoon of June 22, she reported to command: her 36th regiment was stuck in Soviet fortifications and was forced to repel Soviet tank attacks.
The Germans urgently needed 88 mm anti-aircraft guns to destroy the fortifications. The Chief of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht Halder even intervened in the case, ordering the headquarters of the 6th Army to transfer the 9th Infantry Anti-Aircraft Battery, as well as the corps reserve in the form of an infantry regiment.
But by the evening of June 22, the situation in Parhach did not improve. The headquarters of the 44th Army Corps wrote that the crisis in the 9th Infantry Division continued “because its 36th Regiment was squeezed between the fortifications and a strong opponent with tanks.” He lost contact with other regiments and the front of the 9th Infantry Division was greatly stretched. The German command noted that the division’s “position was difficult” and its right flank was “bare”, as the neighboring 297th Infantry Division had already moved forward and a gap had formed between the German corps.
As a result, in this section of the front, the Germans were forced to delay their advance until the crisis was localized, recognizing the Soviet 3rd Cavalry Division as its author. Alas, the Germans manage to cope. But recognition of the enemy costs a lot.
* * *
As early as June 22, it became clear to many German soldiers and officers that the war with the USSR would become a severe test for Germany. For example, the commander of the 1st Mountain Division, Hubert Lantz, wrote: “The times of France and Yugoslavia are over. Even after the first day of the offensive, there is no doubt what lies ahead…”
The reason for such thoughts among the Germans was the fierce resistance of the Red Army in the first days of the war. Unfortunately, many heroes of June 22, 1941, those who made the enemy think so, are still forgotten. But their memory should be honored on an equal footing with the victorious soldiers of 1945. Still, with their courage and self-sacrifice, they took the first steps towards victory over Nazi Germany.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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