Miracles in war. Incredible stories of the Patriotic War: Three tanks - with one shell, a pilot on a submarine, a family found a soldier Mysterious incidents in the war 1941 1945

In fact, all Soviet historiography about the war of 1941-1945 is part of Soviet propaganda. It was so often mythologized and changed that the real facts about the war began to be perceived as a threat to the existing system.

The saddest thing is that today's Russia has inherited this approach to history. The authorities prefer to present the history of the Great Patriotic War as it is beneficial to them.

Here are 10 facts about the Great Patriotic War that are not beneficial to anyone. Because these are just facts.

1. The fate of 2 million people who died in this war is still unknown. It is incorrect to compare, but to understand the situation: in the United States the fate of no more than a dozen people is unknown.

Most recently, through the efforts of the Ministry of Defense, the Memorial website was launched, thanks to which information about those who died or went missing has now become publicly available.

However, the state spends billions on “patriotic education”, Russians wear ribbons, every second car on the street goes “to Berlin”, the authorities are fighting “counterfeiters”, etc. And, against this background, there are two million fighters whose fate is unknown.

2. Stalin really did not want to believe that Germany would attack the USSR on June 22. There were many reports on this matter, but Stalin ignored them.

A document has been declassified - a report to Joseph Stalin, which was sent to him by the People's Commissar of State Security Vsevolod Merkulov. The People's Commissar named the date, citing a message from an informant - our agent at Luftwaffe headquarters. And Stalin himself imposes a resolution: “You can send your source to your *** mother. This is not a source, but a disinformer.”

3. For Stalin, the start of the war was a disaster. And when Minsk fell on June 28, he fell into complete prostration. This is documented. Stalin even thought that he would be arrested in the first days of the war.

There is a log of visitors to Stalin’s Kremlin office, where it is noted that the leader is not in the Kremlin for a day, and not for the second, that is, June 28. Stalin, as it became known from the memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, Anastas Mikoyan, as well as the manager of the Council of People's Commissars Chadayev (later the State Defense Committee), was at the “nearby dacha,” but it was impossible to contact him.

And then his closest associates - Klim Voroshilov, Malenkov, Bulganin - decide to take a completely extraordinary step: to go to the “nearby dacha”, which was absolutely impossible to do without calling the “owner”. They found Stalin pale, depressed and heard wonderful words from him: “Lenin left us great power, and we screwed it up.” He thought they had come to arrest him. When he realized that he was called to lead the fight, he perked up. And the next day it was created State Committee defense

4. But there were also opposite moments. In October 1941, which was terrible for Moscow, Stalin remained in Moscow and behaved courageously.

Speech by I.V. Stalin at the parade Soviet army on Red Square in Moscow on November 7, 1941.

October 16, 1941 - on the day of panic in Moscow, all barrage detachments were removed, and Muscovites left the city on foot. Ashes flew through the streets: secret documents and departmental archives were burned.

The People's Commissariat of Education hastily burned even Nadezhda Krupskaya's archive. At the Kazansky station there was a train under steam for the evacuation of the government to Samara (then Kuibyshev). But

5. In the famous toast “to the Russian people,” said in 1945 at a reception on the occasion of the Victory, Stalin also said: “Some other people could say: you did not live up to our hopes, we will install another government, but the Russian people will not accept this.” did not go".

Painting by Mikhail Khmelko. "For the great Russian people." 1947

6. Sexual violence in defeated Germany.

Historian Antony Beevor, while researching for his 2002 book Berlin: The Fall, found reports in the Russian state archives of an epidemic of sexual violence in Germany. These reports were sent by NKVD officers to Lavrentiy Beria at the end of 1944.

“They were passed on to Stalin,” says Beevor. - You can see by the marks whether they were read or not. They report mass rapes in East Prussia and how German women tried to kill themselves and their children to avoid this fate.”

And rape was not just a problem for the Red Army. Bob Lilly, a historian at Northern Kentucky University, was able to gain access to US military court records.

His book (Taken by Force) caused so much controversy that at first no American publisher dared to publish it, and the first edition appeared in France. Lilly estimates that about 14,000 rapes were committed by American soldiers in England, France and Germany from 1942 to 1945.

What was real scale rape? The most often cited figures are 100 thousand women in Berlin and two million throughout Germany. These figures, hotly disputed, were extrapolated from the scant medical records that survive to this day. ()

7. The war for the USSR began with the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939.

The Soviet Union de facto took part in World War II from September 17, 1939, and not from June 22, 1941. Moreover, in alliance with the Third Reich. And this pact is a strategic mistake, if not a crime, of the Soviet leadership and Comrade Stalin personally.

In accordance with the secret protocol to the non-aggression pact between the Third Reich and the USSR (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), after the outbreak of World War II, the USSR invaded Poland on September 17, 1939. On September 22, 1939, a joint parade of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army was held in Brest, dedicated to the signing of an agreement on the demarcation line.

Also in 1939-1940, according to the same Pact, the Baltic states and other territories in present-day Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus were occupied. Among other things, this led to a common border between the USSR and Germany, which allowed the Germans to carry out a “surprise attack.”

By fulfilling the agreement, the USSR strengthened the army of its enemy. Having created an army, Germany began to conquer European countries, increasing its power, including new military factories. And most importantly: by June 22, 1941, the Germans had gained combat experience. The Red Army learned to fight as the war progressed and finally got used to it only towards the end of 1942 - beginning of 1943.

8. In the first months of the war, the Red Army did not retreat, but fled in panic.

By September 1941, the number of soldiers trapped in German captivity, equaled the entire pre-war regular army. MILLIONS of rifles were reportedly abandoned in the flight.

Retreat is a maneuver without which there can be no war. But our troops fled. Not all, of course, there were those who fought to the last. And there were a lot of them. But the pace of the German advance was staggering.

9. Many “heroes” of the war were invented by Soviet propaganda. So, for example, there were no Panfilov heroes.

The memory of 28 Panfilov men was immortalized by the installation of a monument in the village of Nelidovo, Moscow region.

The feat of 28 Panfilov guardsmen and the words “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind » was attributed to the political instructor by employees of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, in which the essay “About 28 Fallen Heroes” was published on January 22, 1942.

“The feat of the 28 Panfilov guardsmen, covered in the press, is the invention of the correspondent Koroteev, the editor of the Red Star Ortenberg, and especially the literary secretary of the newspaper Krivitsky. This fiction was repeated in the works of writers N. Tikhonov, V. Stavsky, A. Bek, N. Kuznetsov, V. Lipko, Svetlov and others and was widely popularized among the population of the Soviet Union.”

Photo of the monument in honor of the feat of the Panfilov guards in Alma-Ata.

This is information from a certificate-report, which was prepared based on the investigation materials and signed on May 10, 1948 by the chief military prosecutor of the USSR armed forces, Nikolai Afanasyev. The authorities launched a whole investigation into the “feat of Panfilov’s men,” because already in 1942, fighters from the same 28 Panfilov men who were on the list of those buried began to appear among the living.

10. Stalin in 1947 canceled the celebration (day off) of Victory Day on May 9. Until 1965, this day was a regular working day in the USSR.

Joseph Stalin and his comrades knew very well who won this war - the people. And this surge of popular activity frightened them. Many, especially front-line soldiers, who lived for four years in constant proximity to death, stopped, tired of being afraid. In addition, the war violated the complete self-isolation of the Stalinist state.

Many hundreds of thousands Soviet people(soldiers, prisoners, “Ostarbeiters”) visited abroad, having the opportunity to compare life in the USSR and in Europe and draw conclusions. It was a deep shock for the collective farmer soldiers to see how Bulgarian or Romanian (not to mention German or Austrian) peasants lived.

Orthodoxy, which had been destroyed before the war, revived for a time. In addition, military leaders acquired a completely different status in the eyes of society than they had before the war. Stalin feared them too. In 1946, Stalin sent Zhukov to Odessa, in 1947 he canceled the celebration of Victory Day, and in 1948 he stopped paying for awards and wounds.

Because not thanks to, but despite the actions of the dictator, having paid an exorbitant price, he won this war. And I felt like a people - and there was and is nothing more terrible for tyrants.

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The history of the Great Patriotic War, so familiar to many of us, is full of mystical stories, signs and visions that remain in the background. Stories about miracles cannot be found on the pages of textbooks, and not in every book devoted to the history of the war can one find references to mystical events, the participants of which were soldiers of the warring parties. The article that you are reading contains only a small part of what remains to be told about that terrible and inhuman war, from the mystical, other side of history. But to believe in the stories of direct participants in the events or to attribute everything to fantasy is a matter for each of us, and a purely individual one.

Prayer on the battlefield

Ours occupied a strategically significant nameless height and dug in. Rumors immediately spread in the unit that the place was somehow special, unusual - I could feel it in my gut. That battle was especially brutal, the entire neutral zone was covered with the bodies of our and German soldiers. The battle died down only in the evening. Suddenly one of the fighters stuck his head out from behind the parapet and began to peer intently towards the German fortifications. The comrades immediately shouted a warning about the possibility of being noticed by a sniper, but the warning went unheeded. The careless fighter only said that some woman was walking around in “neutral” and sobbing bitterly! And when the Germans’ agitation and music, calling for surrender, suddenly died down, everyone heard the cry. The soldiers looked out of the trenches and saw a woman walking through the no man's land in the fog, wearing dark and long clothes, and her height was twice as tall as a human. She bowed down to the bodies of the dead and cried loudly, she looked like the Mother of God! The Germans also saw all this, their helmets stuck out over the trenches. While the soldiers of the warring sides looked at the vision, a strange fog covered most of the fallen, as if covering them with a shroud. And the woman suddenly stopped crying, turned towards the Russian trenches, bowed and disappeared. They interpreted this sign as the mercy of the Mother of God, which means that Victory will be ours, said one of the fighters.

Heavenly signs

From time immemorial, people have characterized mysterious celestial actions as a harbinger of trouble or joy, both for an individual person and for humanity as a whole. So before the war, signs were again sent to humanity. Of course, much of what people called a miracle can be easily interpreted from the point of view of science, but you must admit that somehow these ordinary physical and optical phenomena were formed, as if really warning about something.

On June 22, 1941, in Kotelnich (Kirov region) the following happened: after an announcement from the Soviet Information Bureau, a white cloud appeared over the city spire, which gradually began to stretch out and smooth out, and eventually became like a saucer, and not empty, but with a surprise. According to eyewitnesses, the severed head of Adolf Hitler was on the saucer; this is how the people interpreted the vision. A few minutes later, the image dissolved, taking on the previous form of a cloud, and then completely disappeared. On the August morning of forty-first, a sign in the form of a cross appeared over Moscow. The cross shone in the rays of the rising sun, as if its surface were made of aluminum. People who observed the phenomenon thought that these were the machinations of the fascists, who had already put an end to Moscow, but the Muscovites were mistaken, the end was put over fascism. As you know, it was after the battles for Moscow that the countdown of time to Nazi Germany began. May 1941 was marked for residents of the Oktyabrsky district ( Chelyabinsk region) unusual phenomenon, they saw two border pillars in the sky, and between them a soldier’s boot. No one had any doubts - this was a bad sign, and a month later the war began. And one day Adolf Hitler himself became one of the eyewitnesses of the “heavenly signs”; according to the recollections of those close to him, this happened at the Eagle's Nest headquarters, located in the Alps. The sky above “Hitler's nest” was covered with red and black clouds. The Fuhrer and the entire headquarters poured out into the street to look at the mysterious phenomenon; among the service personnel there was a Bulgarian woman, she warned Hitler that this was a bad sign that foreshadowed death. This happened on August 23, 1939, on this day a treacherous pact was signed in Moscow between Molotov and Ribbentrop on Germany’s non-aggression against the USSR.

Ghosts of war.

Most often, you can encounter a ghost where a person has suffered a violent death. For example, you can encounter ghosts in the vicinity of the village of Myasnoy Bor, located in the Novgorod region. It seems that the name itself speaks of the events that took place here during the war. In 1942, the 2nd Shock Army of General Vlasov was destroyed here. Having been captured near Myasny Bor, the general went over to the side of Germany, swore allegiance to Hitler and led the Russian Liberation Army, known for its punitive actions against the civilian population of the occupied territories. According to some reports, on one day, about 27,000 thousand soldiers from both sides died in the forest. The scale of the tragedy is also indicated by the fact that since the 60s, search teams have been working in the forest, digging up soldiers and burying their ashes in the earth, as it should be, burying them in mass graves. But so far, according to preliminary estimates, tens of thousands of soldiers from both armies remain unburied. According to the stories of the diggers, some kind of devilry is going on in the forest, for example, if you just stay alone, the forest seems to come to life, you can hear rustling sounds and someone’s speech, and sometimes even shouts: “Hurray!”, as if someone is still walking attack.

One evening, the battle began again in the forest, so the “white diggers” (officially operating search teams) thought when they heard the crackle of machine gun fire coming from the camp of the “black diggers” (search engines engaged in looting). The weapons in the forest are in excellent condition thanks to the peat bogs, which create the effect of a thermos, which attracts a significant number of “blacks”, because the trophies found can be sold profitably on the black market. In the morning, the leadership of the “white” search party decided to go to the scene of the night shooting and find out what happened, whether everyone was safe and whether anyone needed help. Arriving at the camp, it was not possible to find anyone on the spot. The “Blacks” left their place of deployment, hastily abandoning all their trophies and even personal belongings. Returning back to their camp, the “white” diggers were surprised to find that two of those who had shot at night were visiting them. The guests behaved strangely, they were clearly frightened by something and even asked for a deal, they needed personal belongings, and in exchange they were offered the coordinates of the remains of Russian soldiers. When asked about what happened, the “would-be-diggers” said that at night, near their camp, a string of whitish, translucent figures passed, supposedly emerging from the fog. The guys got scared and opened fire from the cleaned captured weapons, but the ghostly figures moved on, completely not noticing them. The next night, a similar incident happened at the “white searchers” camp. Somewhere around eleven, when fog fell on the sleeping camp, the orderlies noticed a chain of ghostly figures slowly approaching from the night forest. The night was clear, so the fog covered the ground and glowed slightly in the moonlight, this highlighted a chain of figures from the darkness of the night. I was struck by the complete unnaturalness of the movement and some kind of bewitching strangeness in their gait. And then the dog of one of the searchers, dozing by the fire, suddenly woke up, threw up its muzzle, pricked up its ears, as if sensing something, howled, whined and hid under the tent, from where it was removed only early in the morning. The orderlies raised the alarm, everyone, without exception, huddled around the fires, into which they threw the stored brushwood every minute, no longer caring at all whether there would be enough until the morning. Everyone, without exception, was frightened, looking at the line of white figures floating in front of them, some of the searchers even prayed incoherently.

Fast news today

This happened on the Kursk Bulge, when the target of an armor-piercing projectile fired by our 76-mm cannon was the Borgward mine carrier tankette, which at that moment was on a German medium carrier tank. Primitive “combat robots” “Borgward” were used by the Nazis to clear mines or blow up pillboxes. One way or another, the wedge, filled with a large volume of explosives, detonated from a direct hit from a shell, also provoking the detonation of the ammunition of the tank itself. This entire pile of metal, engulfed in flames, flew into the air and fell on the Ferdinand heavy self-propelled artillery unit standing next door. Result: one shell irretrievably destroyed three enemy combat vehicles.

Another case of such luck in combat conditions occurred at the beginning of the war, when the Soviet heavy KV-1, which had gone on the offensive, stood right in the middle of the battlefield not far from the German positions: the engine stalled. This sometimes happened: our crews did not always have time to master well the material part of the new military equipment entrusted to them. There was not enough knowledge, time and, accordingly, experience. Having lost speed and control, the tankers decided to give the last battle, opening fire on the Nazis with cannons and machine guns. But they soon ran out of ammunition.

Realizing that the Red Army soldiers had fallen into a trap and had nowhere to go, the Germans invited the crew to surrender. Our tankers responded with a categorical refusal. Having come close to the now harmless heavy tank, the Nazis, in turn, admired the miracle of Russian technology, praising and tapping on all parts of the armor. At the same time, they, of course, did not want to get into trouble, trying to open the hatch. No one was going to destroy the KV-1 either: the Nazis, on the contrary, always tried, as far as possible, to replenish the collection of Wehrmacht trophies with another new product or simply a well-preserved copy of enemy equipment.

In a word, the Nazis decided to transport the KV-1 to their positions by attaching two of their light Panzerkampfwagens (T-2) to it with cables. The engines roared, the clutches tightened... And then (lo and behold!) the unexpected happened. It turns out through my own efforts German tanks We started our KV-1. And then everything was a matter of technique: having received such timely help from the enemy, the driver engaged the reverse gear and accelerated properly. Well, what are two German 9-ton "bugs" against an almost 50-ton Soviet giant!

The heavyweight, like two toys, pulled the enemy equipment towards its own positions. The fascist crews could only quickly leave their vehicles in panic and retreat. Thus, the potential victim himself acquired a good batch of trophies.

During the Novorossiysk-Maikop offensive operation, Nikolai Averkin’s plane was shot down. The pilot had to “land” on the lead waves of the Black Sea, then already as warm as those days with which we always associate this sunny region, because it was the winter of 1943. And the downed pilot did not have any available means of fighting the waves, the wind, or the cold. Even according to the state, this was not allowed, since Nikolai’s flight unit did not belong to naval aviation.

Having plunged into the icy waves, the pilot felt the full horror of his unenviable position: he would not have long to flounder in the icy water, if only a miracle had not happened... And it happened! Fighting the wind and cold waves, he suddenly saw a submarine floating a few meters away from him. There was still a danger that it would turn out to be an enemy submarine, which sometimes happened: the “valiant wolves” of the Kriegsmarine sometimes did not disdain to seek out and select (take prisoner) enemy sailors and pilots. But then Nikolai heard such a welcome Russian speech: “It’s good to swim there, catch the end!” Having caught the lifebuoy, he quickly reached the boat. And within a few minutes, having climbed aboard the Soviet submarine, he was finally saved.

It is difficult to imagine that this could happen in the Black Sea in broad daylight (and this is exactly what happened). After all, in 1943, enemy troops still reigned on land and sea: German ships and submarines reigned supreme on the water, and the Luftwaffe reigned supreme in the air. Everything that appeared on the surface was simply drowned. Therefore, Soviet submariners behaved quietly and below the grass. If our submarines surfaced to charge batteries, it was only at night and far from their native shores. What happened in the case of Nikolai was purely an accident: the boat was simply forced to make an emergency ascent. And this had to happen - precisely at that time and in the place where, it would seem, Nikolai Averkin was already saying goodbye to life. But fate, apparently, was favorable to the Soviet pilot.

The Red Army soldier was saved by a guardian angel

She also kept Red Army soldier Dmitry Palchikov, the driver of the Studebaker. During the Battle of Moscow, he ran into an anti-tank mine in his Lend-Lease truck. At that time, Dmitry Grigorievich drove the soldiers to the front line, in addition, the Studebaker itself was used as a tractor for the heavy gun. After the explosion, nothing remained of the Red Army soldiers sitting in the back, nor of the gun, nor of the truck itself. The cabin in which Dmitry was sitting was torn off and thrown far forward, and he himself... escaped with light scratches. The problem was that there was a terrible frost outside, and everyone who operated equipment (no matter what - tanks, trucks, tractors) was forbidden to leave it until their own arrived.

The Red Army soldier was saved by a guardian angel

There are even cases when our tank crews had to spend hours next to their tank destroyed in battle (sitting, say, somewhere nearby in a shell crater) until the “technician” (repair service) arrived on the battlefield. So this time Dmitry was lucky: for two and a half weeks (!) he had to be on duty next to the remains of the truck. He lit a fire, slept only in fits and starts, but did not leave his post. Red Army soldiers driving and passing by helped him escape from the severe frost, feeding and encouraging the soldier. As a result, he remained alive, did not get frostbite and did not get sick. In such cases, people say: a guardian angel saved.

The family found their husband and father themselves

The war, as we know, led to the fact that millions of people found themselves separated from their families over a vast territory. Finding your loved ones in such conditions was also real luck. It happened that a soldier fighting at the front lost contact with his wife and children only because the train in which they were being evacuated was bombed while on the move. Imagine that the soldier was transferred to another unit, and the family, on the other hand, completely lost the thread of correspondence. In such cases, only a miracle could help.

Often anonymous parcels arrived at the front, titled, for example: “To the bravest fighter.” One of these came at the end of 1944 to one of the artillery regiments. After consulting, the fighters decided to give it to their comrade Grigory Turyanchik, who had confirmed such a high rank more than once in battle. His relatives were evacuated from the blockade while the fighter himself lay seriously wounded in the hospital. He hasn't heard anything about them since then. Having received the parcel, Grigory opened it and the first thing he saw was a letter lying on top of the gifts, which conveyed greetings to him from the rear. And at the end of the letter he read: “Dear fighter, if there is such an opportunity, write if you have met my husband Grigory Turyanchik somewhere on the front line. With deep respect, his wife Elena.”

Zombie back from the dead

Each soldier had his own path to Victory. Guard Private Sergei Shustov tells readers about what his military path was like.

I was supposed to be drafted in 1940, but I had a deferment. Therefore, he joined the Red Army only in May 1941. From the regional center we were immediately taken to the “new” Polish border to a construction battalion. There were an awful lot of people there. And right before the eyes of the Germans, we all built fortifications and a large airfield for heavy bombers.

It must be said that the “construction battalion” of that time was no match for the current one. We were thoroughly trained in sapper and explosives. Not to mention the fact that shooting took place constantly. As a city guy, I knew the rifle inside and out. Back in school, we shot a heavy combat rifle and knew how to assemble and disassemble it “for a while.” The guys from the village, of course, had it more difficult in this regard.

From the first days in battle

When the war began - and on June 22 at four o'clock in the morning our battalion was already in battle - we were very lucky with our commanders. All of them, from company commander to division commander, fought during the Civil War and did not suffer repression. Apparently, that’s why we retreated competently and didn’t get surrounded. Although they retreated fighting.

By the way, we were well armed: each fighter was literally hung with pouches with cartridges, grenades... Another thing is that from the very border to Kyiv we did not see a single Soviet aircraft in the sky. When we, retreating, passed by our border airfield, it was completely filled with burnt planes. And there we came across only one pilot. To the question: “What happened, why didn’t they take off?!” - he replied: “Yes, we are still without fuel! That’s why half the people went on leave over the weekend.”

First big losses

So we retreated to the old Polish border, where we finally got hooked. Although the guns and machine guns had already been dismantled and the ammunition removed, excellent fortifications remained there - huge concrete pillboxes into which the train could freely enter. For defense then they used all available means.

For example, anti-tank posts were made from tall thick pillars around which hops curled before the war... This place was called Novograd-Volynsky fortified area. And there we detained the Germans for eleven days. At that time this was considered a lot. True, most of our battalion died there.

But we were lucky that we were not in the direction of the main attack: German tank wedges were moving along the roads. And when we had already retreated to Kyiv, we were told that while we were sitting in Novograd-Volynsk, the Germans had bypassed us further south and were already on the outskirts of the capital of Ukraine.

But there was a General Vlasov (the same one - author) who stopped them. Near Kiev, I was surprised: for the first time in our entire service, we were loaded onto cars and driven somewhere. As it turned out, it was urgent to plug the holes in the defense. This was in July, and a little later I was awarded the medal “For the Defense of Kyiv.”

In Kyiv, we built pillboxes and bunkers in the lower and basement floors of houses. We mined everything we could - we had mines in abundance. But we did not fully participate in the defense of the city - we were transferred down the Dnieper. Because they guessed: the Germans could cross the river there.

Certificate

From the very border to Kyiv we did not see a single Soviet aircraft in the sky. We met the pilot at the airport. To the question: “Why didn’t they take off?!” - he replied: “Yes, we are still without fuel!”

Timeline of the Great Patriotic War

As soon as I arrived at the unit, I was armed with a Polish carbine - apparently, during the hostilities of 1939, the trophy warehouses were captured. It was our same “three-line” model of 1891, but shortened. And not with an ordinary bayonet, but with a bayonet-knife, similar to a modern one.

The accuracy and range of this carbine was almost the same, but it was much lighter than its “ancestor”. The bayonet-knife was generally suitable for all occasions: it could be used to cut bread, people, and cans. And during construction work it is generally indispensable.

Already in Kyiv I was given a brand new 10-round SVT rifle. At first I was happy: five or ten rounds in a clip - that means a lot in battle. But I fired it a couple of times and my clip jammed. Moreover, the bullets flew anywhere but to the target. So I went to the foreman and said: “Give me back my carbine.”

From near Kyiv we were transferred to the city of Kremenchug, which was completely on fire. We set a task: to dig a command post in a coastal cliff overnight, camouflage it and provide communications there. We did this, and suddenly there was an order: straight off-road, through a corn field - to retreat.

Through Poltava to Kharkov

We went, and the entire - already replenished - battalion went to some station. We were loaded onto a train and driven inland from the Dnieper. And suddenly we heard an incredible cannonade to the north of us. The sky is on fire, all the enemy planes are flying there, but there is zero attention to us.

So in September the Germans broke through the front and went on the attack. But it turns out that we were taken out on time again, and we didn’t get surrounded. We were transferred through Poltava to Kharkov.

Before reaching it 75 kilometers, we saw what was happening above the city: anti-aircraft fire “lined” the entire horizon. In this city, for the first time, we came under heavy bombing: women and children rushed about and died before our eyes.

There we were introduced to engineer-Colonel Starinov, who was considered one of the main specialists in the Red Army in laying mines. Later, after the war, I corresponded with him. I managed to congratulate him on his centenary and receive an answer. And a week later he died...

From the wooded area north of Kharkov we were thrown into one of the first serious counter-offensives in that war. There were heavy rains, which was to our advantage: aircraft could rarely take off. And when it rose, the Germans dropped bombs anywhere: visibility was almost zero.

Offensive near Kharkov - 1942

Near Kharkov, I saw a terrible picture. Several hundred German cars and tanks were stuck tightly in the soggy black soil. The Germans simply had nowhere to go. And when they ran out of ammunition, our cavalry cut them down. Every single one of them.

On October 5 the frost had already hit. And we were all in summer uniform. And they had to turn their caps inside their ears - that’s how they later portrayed prisoners.

Less than half of our battalion was left again - we were sent to the rear for reorganization. And we walked from Ukraine to Saratov, where we arrived on New Year’s Eve.

Then, in general, there was a “tradition”: from the front to the rear they moved exclusively on foot, and back to the front - in trains and in cars. By the way, we almost never saw the legendary “one and a half” at the front: the main army vehicle was the ZIS-5.

We were reorganized near Saratov and in February 1942 we were transferred to Voronezh region- no longer as a construction battalion, but as a sapper battalion.

First wound

And we again took part in the offensive on Kharkov - that infamous one, when our troops fell into a cauldron. However, we were missed again.

I was then wounded in the hospital. And a soldier came running to me right there and said: “Get dressed urgently and run to the unit - the commander’s order! We are leaving". And so I went. Because we were all terribly afraid of falling behind our unit: everything was familiar there, everyone was friends. And if you fall behind, God knows where you’ll end up.

In addition, German planes often targeted red crosses specifically. And in the forest there was even more chance of survival.

It turned out that the Germans had broken through the front with tanks. We were given an order: to mine all bridges. And if German tanks appear, immediately blow them up. Even if our troops did not have time to retreat. That is, leaving your own people surrounded.

Crossing the Don

On July 10, we approached the village of Veshenskaya, took up defensive positions on the shore and received a strict order: “Don’t let the Germans cross the Don!” And we haven't seen them yet. Then we realized that they weren’t following us. And they scampered across the steppe at great speed in a completely different direction.

However, a real nightmare reigned at the crossing of the Don: she physically could not let all the troops through. And then, as if ordered, German troops arrived and destroyed the crossing on the first pass.

We had hundreds of boats, but they were not enough. What to do? Cross with available means. The forest there was all thin and not suitable for rafts. Therefore, we began to break down gates in houses and make rafts from them.

A cable was stretched across the river, and improvised ferries were built along it. Another thing that struck me was this. The entire river was strewn with caught fish. And local Cossack women caught this fish under bombing and shelling. Although, it would seem, you need to hide in the cellar and not show your nose from there.

In Sholokhov's homeland

There, in Veshenskaya, we saw Sholokhov’s bombed house. They asked the locals: “Is he dead?” They answered us: “No, just before the bombing he loaded the car with children and took them to the farm. But his mother remained and died.”

Then many wrote that the entire yard was strewn with manuscripts. But personally, I didn’t notice any papers.

As soon as we crossed, they took us into the woods and began to prepare us... back for the crossing to the other side. We say: “Why?!” The commanders replied: “We will attack in another place.” And they also received an order: if the Germans were crossing over for reconnaissance, do not shoot at them - only cut them, so as not to make a noise.

There we met guys from a familiar unit and were surprised: hundreds of fighters had the same order. It turned out that it was a guards badge: they were one of the first to receive such badges.

Then we crossed between Veshenskaya and the city of Serafimovich and occupied a bridgehead, which the Germans could not take until November 19, when our offensive near Stalingrad began from there. Many troops, including tanks, were transported to this bridgehead.

Moreover, the tanks were very different: from brand new “thirty-fours” to ancient, unknown how surviving “machine gun” vehicles produced in the thirties.

By the way, I saw the first “thirty-four”, it seems, already on the second day of the war, and then I first heard the name “Rokossovsky”.

There were several dozen cars parked in the forest. The tankers were all perfect: young, cheerful, perfectly equipped. And we all immediately believed: they’re about to go crazy and that’s it, we’ll defeat the Germans.

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A real nightmare reigned at the crossing of the Don: she physically could not let all the troops through. And then, as if ordered, German troops arrived and destroyed the crossing on the first pass.

Hunger is not a thing

Then we were loaded onto barges and taken along the Don. We had to eat somehow, so we started lighting fires on the barges and boiling potatoes. The boatswain ran and shouted, but we didn’t care - we wouldn’t die of hunger. And the chance of burning from a German bomb was much greater than from a fire.

Then the food ran out, the soldiers began to board boats and sail away for provisions to the villages we were sailing past. The commander again ran with a revolver, but could not do anything: hunger was no problem.

And so we sailed all the way to Saratov. There we were placed in the middle of the river and surrounded by barriers. True, they brought packed rations for the past time and all our “fugitives” back. After all, they were not stupid - they understood that the matter smelled of desertion - an execution case. And, having “fed up” a little, they showed up at the nearest military registration and enlistment office: they say, I fell behind the unit, I ask you to return it back.

New life of Karl Marx's Capital

And then a real flea market formed on our barges. They made pots out of tin cans and exchanged, as they say, “sewn for soap.” And Karl Marx’s “Capital” was considered the greatest value - its good paper was used for cigarettes. I have never seen such popularity of this book before or since...

The main difficulty in the summer was to dig in - this virgin soil could only be taken with a pickaxe. It’s good if you managed to dig a trench at least half its height.

One day a tank passed through my trench, and I was just thinking: will it hit my helmet or not? Didn't hit...

I also remember back then that the German tanks didn’t “take” our anti-tank rifles at all - only sparks sparkled across the armor. That’s how I fought in my unit, and I didn’t think that I would leave it, but...

Fate decreed differently

Then I was sent to study to become a radio operator. The selection was strict: those who did not have an ear for music were rejected immediately.

The commander said: “Well, to hell with them, these walkie-talkies! The Germans spot them and hit us directly.” So I had to pick up a spool of wire and off I went! And the wire there was not twisted, but solid, steel. By the time you twist it once, you’ll rip off all your fingers! I immediately have a question: how to cut it, how to clean it? And they say to me: “You have a carbine. Open and lower the aiming frame - that's how you cut it. It’s up to her to clean it up.”

We were dressed in winter uniform, but I didn’t get felt boots. And how ferocious she was - a lot has been written.

There were Uzbeks among us who literally froze to death. I froze my fingers without felt boots, and then they amputated them without any anesthesia. Although I kicked my feet all the time, it didn’t help. On January 14th I was wounded again, and that was my Battle of Stalingrad ended...

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Karl Marx's "Capital" was considered the greatest value - its good paper was used for cigarettes. I have never seen such popularity of this book before or since.

Awards have found a hero

The reluctance to go to the hospital came back to haunt many front-line soldiers after the war. No documents have been preserved about their injuries, and even getting disability was a big problem.

We had to collect testimonies from fellow soldiers, who were then checked through the military registration and enlistment offices: “Did Private Ivanov serve at that time together with Private Petrov?”

For his military work, Sergei Vasilyevich Shustov was awarded the Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War of the first degree, medals “For the Defense of Kyiv”, “For the Defense of Stalingrad” and many others.

But he considers one of the most expensive awards to be the “Front-line Soldier” badge, which began to be issued recently. Although, as the former “Stalingrader” thinks, now these badges are issued to “everyone who is not too lazy.”

DKREMLEVRU

Incredible incidents in war

Despite all the horrors of the war, the most memorable episode in his epic was the incident when there was no bombing or shooting. Sergei Vasilyevich talks about him carefully, looking into his eyes and, apparently, suspecting that they still won’t believe him.

But I believed it. Although this story is both strange and scary.

— I already told you about Novograd-Volynsky. It was there that we fought terrible battles, and most of our battalion died there. Somehow, during breaks between battles, we found ourselves in a small village near Novograd-Volynsky. The Ukrainian village is just a few huts, on the banks of the Sluch River.

We spent the night in one of the houses. The owner lived there with her son. He was ten or eleven years old. Such a skinny, always dirty boy. He kept asking the soldiers to give him a rifle and shoot.

We only lived there for two days. On the second night we were awakened by some noise. Anxiety is a common thing for soldiers, so everyone woke up at once. There were four of us.

A woman with a candle stood in the middle of the hut and cried. We were alarmed and asked what happened? It turned out that her son was missing. We calmed the mother down as best we could, said that we would help, got dressed and went out to look.

It was already dawn. We walked through the village, shouting: “Petya...” - that was the boy’s name, but he was nowhere to be found. We returned back.

The woman was sitting on a bench near the house. We approached, lit a cigarette, and said that there was no need to worry or worry yet, it was unknown where this urchin could have run away.

When I was lighting a cigarette, I turned away from the wind and noticed an open hole in the back of the yard. It was a well. But the log house disappeared somewhere, most likely, it was used for firewood, and the boards that covered the hole were moved.

With a bad feeling, I approached the well. I looked in. The body of a boy was floating at a depth of about five meters.

Why he went into the yard at night, what he needed near the well, is unknown. Maybe he took out some ammunition and went to bury it to keep his childhood secret.

While we were thinking about how to get the body, while we were looking for a rope, we tied it around the lightest of us, while we were raising the body, at least two hours passed. The boy's body was twisted and stiff, and it was very difficult to straighten his arms and legs.

The water in the well was very cold. The boy had been dead for several hours. I saw many, many corpses and I had no doubt. We brought him into the room. Neighbors came and said that everything would be prepared for the funeral.

In the evening, the grief-stricken mother sat next to the coffin, which a neighbor carpenter had already managed to make. At night, when we went to bed, behind the screen I saw her silhouette near the coffin, trembling against the backdrop of a flickering candle.

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Despite all the horrors of the war, the most memorable episode in my epic was the incident when there was no bombing or shooting

Scary unexplained facts

Later I woke up to whispers. Two people spoke. One voice was female and belonged to the mother, the other was childish, boyish. I don't know Ukrainian language, but the meaning was still clear.
The boy said:
“I’ll leave now, they shouldn’t see me, and then, when everyone has left, I’ll come back.”
- When? - Female voice.
- The day after tomorrow night.
-Are you really coming?
- I’ll come, definitely.
I thought that one of the boy’s friends had visited the hostess. I got up. They heard me and the voices died down. I walked over and pulled back the curtain. There were no strangers there. The mother was still sitting, the candle was dimly burning, and the child’s body lay in the coffin.

Only for some reason it was lying on its side, and not on its back, as it should be. I stood there in a daze and couldn’t figure anything out. Some kind of sticky fear seemed to envelop me like a cobweb.

I, who walked under it every day, could die every minute, who tomorrow would again have to repel the attacks of an enemy who was several times superior to us. I looked at the woman, she turned to me.
“You were talking to someone,” I heard my voice hoarse, as if I had just smoked a whole pack of cigarettes.
- I... - She somehow awkwardly ran her hand over her face... - Yes... With herself... I imagined that Petya was still alive...
I stood there a little longer, turned around and went to bed. All night I listened to sounds behind the curtain, but everything was quiet there. In the morning, fatigue finally took its toll and I fell asleep.

In the morning there was an urgent formation, we were again sent to the front line. I came in to say goodbye. The hostess was still sitting on the stool... in front of the empty coffin. I again experienced horror, I even forgot that there was a battle in a few hours.
-Where is Petya?
- Relatives from a neighboring village took him at night, they are closer to the cemetery, we will bury him there.

I didn’t hear any relatives at night, although maybe I just didn’t wake up. But why didn’t they take the coffin then? They called me from the street. I put my arm around her shoulders and left the hut.

What happened next, I don’t know. We never returned to this village. But the more time passes, the more often I remember this story. After all, I didn’t dream it. And then I recognized Petya’s voice. His mother couldn't imitate him like that.

What was it then? Until now, I have never told anyone anything. Why, it doesn’t matter, either they won’t believe it or they’ll decide that in his old age he’s gone crazy.

He finished the story. I looked at him. What could I say, I just shrugged my shoulders... We sat for a long time, drinking tea, he refused alcohol, although I suggested going for vodka. Then they said goodbye and I went home. It was already night, the lanterns were dimly shining, and the reflections of the headlights of passing cars flashed in the puddles.

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With a bad feeling, I approached the well. I looked in. A boy's body was floating at a depth of about five meters.

Any war is a serious matter, however fighting cannot do without entertaining, curious and interesting cases. Everyone should be original and even perform feats. And almost all entertaining and curious cases occur due to human stupidity or resourcefulness. Below are some interesting facts about the Second World War.

Memoirs of Eisenhower

Eisenhower wrote that the Germans created a powerful obstacle to the rapid advance of the American army. One day he had a chance to talk with Marshal Zhukov. The latter shared Soviet practice, saying that the infantry attacked directly across the field, onto mines. And the losses of soldiers were equal to those that could have happened if the Germans had defended this area with artillery and machine guns.

This story from Zhukov shocked Eisenhower. If any American or European general thought this way, he could immediately be demoted. We do not undertake to judge whether he acted correctly or not; in any case, only he could know what motivated such decisions. However, this tactic is rightfully included in the interesting facts of the Second World War of 1941-1945.

Taking a bridgehead

Strange incidents occurred not only with infantrymen. Interesting Facts about the Second World War are replete with incidents involving pilots. One day, a squadron of attack aircraft received an order to drop bombs on a bridgehead occupied by the Germans. The enemy anti-aircraft guns fired so densely that they could knock out all the planes before approaching the target. The commander felt sorry for his subordinates and violated the order. On his instructions, the attack aircraft dropped bombs into the forest, which was located near the bridgehead, and returned safely.

Of course, the German units did not receive any damage and continued to defend staunchly. The next morning a miracle happened. Our troops were able to take a bridgehead almost without a fight. It turned out that the headquarters of the enemy troops was located in that forest, and the pilots completely destroyed it. The authorities were looking for those who distinguished themselves to present the award, but the one who did it was never found. The pilots were silent, as it was reported that they had bombed the enemy’s bridgehead in accordance with orders.

Ram

She was rich in exploits. Interesting facts include the heroic behavior of individual pilots. For example, pilot Boris Kovzan was once returning from a combat mission. Suddenly he was attacked by six German aces. The pilot shot through all the ammunition and was wounded in the head. Then he radioed that he was leaving the car and opened the hatch. At the last moment, he noticed that an enemy plane was rushing towards him. Boris leveled his car and aimed it at the ram. Both planes exploded.

Kovzan was saved by the fact that he opened the hatch in front of the ram. The unconscious pilot fell out of the cockpit, the automated parachute opened, and Boris landed safely on the ground, where he was picked up and sent to the hospital. Kovzan was twice awarded the honorary title “Hero of the Soviet Union.”

Camels

Interesting facts from the history of the Second World War include cases of military domestication of wild camels. In 1942, the 28th Reserve Army was formed in Astrakhan. There was not enough draft power for the guns. For this reason, the military was forced to catch wild camels in the vicinity of Astrakhan and domesticate them.

In total, 350 “ships of the desert” were used for the needs of the 28th Army. Most of them died in battle. The surviving animals were gradually transferred to economic units, and then transferred to zoos. One camel named Yashka reached Berlin with the soldiers.

Hitler

Interesting facts about WWII include the story of Hitler. But not about the one who was in Berlin, but about his namesake, a Jew. Semyon Hitler was a machine gunner and showed himself bravely in battle. The archives preserved the award sheet, where it is written that Hitler was nominated for the medal “For Military Merit.” However, an error was made in another award list for the medal “For Courage”. Instead of Hitler they wrote Gitlev. Whether this was done by accident or intentionally is unknown.

Tractors

Unknown facts about the war tell of a case where they tried to convert tractors into tanks. During the fighting near Odessa, there was an acute shortage of equipment. The command ordered 20 tractors to be covered with armor sheets and dummies of guns to be installed on them. The emphasis was placed on the psychological effect. The attack took place at night, and in the darkness, tractors with headlights and dummy guns on caused panic in the ranks of the Romanian units besieging Odessa. The soldiers nicknamed these vehicles NI-1, which means “For Fright.”

Feat of Dmitry Ovcharenko

What other interesting facts of the Second World War are known? Heroic deeds Soviet soldiers occupy far from the last place in them. In 1941, private Dmitry Ovcharenko was awarded the honorary title “Hero of the USSR.” On July 13, a soldier was transporting ammunition to his company on a cart. Suddenly he was surrounded by a German detachment of 50 people.

Ovcharenko hesitated, and the Germans took his rifle away. But the fighter was not at a loss and grabbed an ax from the cart, with which he cut off his head. to a German officer, standing nearby. Then he grabbed three grenades from the cart and threw them at the soldiers, who managed to relax and move away a little. 20 people died on the spot, the rest fled in horror. Ovcharenko caught up with another officer and cut off his head too.

Leonid Gaidai

What else is unusual about the Great Patriotic War? Interesting facts include a story that happened to a famous film director. He was drafted into the army in 1942. He did not go to the front, as he was sent to Mongolia to break horses for military needs. One day a military commissar arrived to them, recruiting volunteers to join the active army. He asked: “Who’s in the cavalry?” The director replied: “I am.” The military commissar asked a number of similar questions about the infantry, navy, intelligence - Gaidai was called everywhere. The boss got angry and said: “Don’t rush, I’ll announce the whole list first.” A few years later, Gaidai used this dialogue in his film comedy “Operation “Y” and other adventures of Shurik.”

And finally, a few other interesting cases: