Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

Soon we reached the eastern outskirts of the city. I am not mistaken – it was the eastern outskirts, as our 4th Tank Army and other mobile units of the front marched from north to south, thus practically cutting off retreat routes for a large group of German troops east of Kamenets-Podolsk. The Brigade and some other units took to the defensive in order to contain the retreating German troops to prevent their breakthrough on good roads with access to west and south to Dniester and direct their retreat on earth roads, full of dirt.

As it turned out later, the front failed to complete the encirclement. Because of significant losses in personnel and hardware, the mobile units of the first Ukrainian front just did not have sufficient strength to do it. It could be seen on the example of our 1st motor rifle battalion and other units of the 49th Motor Rifle Brigade – in that period we suffered irreplaceable losses in personnel. The weather failed us as well.

By the morning of 26 March, 1944, the town of Kamenets-Podolsk was fully liberated from the enemy. We were so happy that we spontaneously organized dinner with German snacks and wines. We sent the guards out, and all gathered in an abandoned house and celebrated victory all night long. I did not really like parties at the front line – I had my meal, had a bit of wine and left to check the outposts, where I found that one machine-gun crewman was dead. It was snowing heavily and I could clearly see footprints of the Germans who fled from the town. I gathered several resting soldiers and we ran along the footprints, but did not catch them and so we came back. Having reinforced the outposts, I gave the order to open fire on any shadow that appeared in the blizzard. The soldiers honestly followed my order and fired at any silhouette. By the morning it was all quiet, and the German exodus from the city was over.

By the morning everyone, except for the guards, slept like a rock. Exhaustion had accumulated during the unceasing day and night battles, when we barely slept for several hours or did not have any sleep at all, falling asleep literally while we walked

In the morning we organized the defence of the outside of the town, in the field in front of a ravine. To the left of us there were some village buildings – the mortar company of the battalion settled there. Further out there was the 3rd company, that had ten to fifteen soldiers left under platoon leader Alexei Belyakov. The 2nd company also had no more than fifteen men, led by platoon leader Nikolai Chernyshov. Our company, which was temporarily under my command, had at least 30 soldiers, almost the same number as the two other companies combined.

Despite this, battalion commander Captain Kozienko, battalion’s chief of staff Captain Belan and deputy battalion commander for political affairs Captain Gerstein decided to merge our 1st company with the 2nd company. The battalion commander called on me and declared this decision to me, as well as the appointment of Chernyshov, platoon leader from the 2nd company, to the post of company commander. I thought that I would stay the commander of my company, as it had more soldiers left than in the 2nd and the 3rd companies combined. Besides this, I had in fact been the company’s commander in the course of all the previous days, receiving orders directly from the battalion commander. Having expressed my dissatisfaction, I asked them to keep me as the commander of our company, and not to merge it with the 2nd company, but merge the 2nd and the 3rd companies instead, appointing Chernyshov as the commander of the combined company. However, my arguments were ignored and the order remained the same. I had to obey the order – one cannot argue in the army, whether the order is wise or not, you have to follow it, especially at the front. What can you do, the commanders should know better, that is why they are commanders! That was the unsuccessful end of my first, but not my last, attempt to get promoted.