Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

Shakulo, some other officers and I were awarded with the Order of the Red Star. That was my first decoration of the War. Many soldiers from the company were awarded as well. Lieutenant Zaitsev was appointed deputy battalion commander for logistics, Lieutenant Volkov was appointed commander of battalion’s machine-gun company, Lieutenant Chernyshov was appointed the 1st company commander. Newly arrived officers were appointed commanders of the 2nd and 3rd companies, although, from my point of view, I and Belyakov and Shakulo deserved to become commanders of our companies. We had all had secondary school education, graduated the six-month course in a military academy, had been in the battalion for a long time and had a two-year record of service as officers, but we remained just platoon leaders. I just do not know why it happened that way. Later I was also not lucky in my career and decorations, but we somehow did not pay attention to that – you survive and that’s enough, what else can you desire? Commanders in higher offices, however, reacted quite sensitively about the unfair distribution of decorations. There was a rumour that battalion commander Kozienko beat up politruk Gerstein, as in his opinion, Gerstein had been awarded with a higher order than Kozienko himself for the Kamenets-Podolsk operation – Kozienko was awarded with the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitski, while Gerstein received the Order of Great Patriotic War 1st degree. Kozienko was temporarily suspended from the office of battalion commander for that fight, but before the next Lvov operation he was re-appointed. As it turned out later, a Lieutenant Colonel, a teacher from the Military Academy of Armoured Troops, entered the battalion for an internship during the period of Kozienko’s dismissal. He started to require us to learn and know the field manual of the armoured troops instead of the infantry field manual. Although we were not tankers and never led tanks, we even had to pass some exams, but he quickly left and returned to the Academy.

THE LVOV–SANDOMIR OPERATION

^{Map to show the Lvov-Sandomir operation, July to August 1944.}

Our ‘vacation’ and training for the battles to come was about to end. In early July 1944 our battalion along with the other battalions of the 49th Kamenets-Podolsk Mechanized Brigade, marched on foot towards the front line, to the concentration area, from which we were supposed to go over to the offensive. Intensive fighting was ahead of us.

We only marched in darkness and till dawn; in daytime we stayed in forests and groves, taking camouflage measures. By night the road to the front turned into a mighty stream of troops of all branches of service: infantry, artillery of all calibres, armoured personnel carriers. Tanks drove on other roads in order to confuse the enemy. Camouflage and concealment requirements were strictly followed, all soldiers understood its necessity – otherwise we would have been bombed. Regardless of how hard it was to find a good place for daytime rest, battalion commander Kozienko tried to position the battalion near some water, by a small river for example. It was of great significance in the hot summer days in Ukraine – one could wash or cool down tired feet, or wash their foot wrappings after exhausting night march in huge clouds of dust. All movement died out in daytime – we feared air raids.

We arrived at the concentration area after several days. We stayed for some five days in a copse, waiting for further orders. After this, on one summer evening, Studebakers drove up to us, all personnel of the battalion climbed aboard those trucks and we moved closer to the front by a forced march. The problem was that the drivers did not have sufficient driving experience, and sometimes made mistakes when advancing in columns, but all worked out well. In the morning we dismounted from the trucks and dispersed in the forest in case of artillery strike.