Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

We arrived at the Oder on 23 or 24 January, 1945, with only our company and the battalion commander with his deputies. Other companies of the battalion were at that time engaged in battles with German reserves that had arrived. By that time other units of our Corps – the 17th Guards Mechanized Brigade with some units of the 16th Guards Mechanized Brigade had already crossed the river after heavy fighting. As for us, we crossed the river relatively safely, on a small ferry, although under German bombs – finally, the German air force appeared again. The Germans were still putting up resistance on the other side, and the company, assaulting the German strongpoint jointly with units of the 17th Guards Mechanized Brigade, managed to throw the Germans back. By the way, the commander of our 4th Tank Army, General Lelyushenko, was already there at the crossing, and that was just two days after the 15th Guards Brigade had crossed the Oder!

We captured the German town of Keben together with a company from another Brigade. Having reached its western outskirts, we stopped. For some reason battalion commander Kozienko was also there. He was receiving orders for attack first from the commander of the 17th Guards Mechanized Brigade and several days later from the Chief of Staff of the 6th Guards Mechanized Corps, Colonel Koretski. Our company was defending the crossing and other dangerous approaches. We put ourselves in order in Keben, even getting our hair cut by the medic (they never shaved soldiers’ heads at the front), somehow washed ourselves, mostly the upper parts of our bodies. It was a pity that from time to time we were disturbed by the German air force, but apart from that, it was almost paradise, even our kitchen drove up. Both our bodies and souls rested and we could even sleep in warm houses.

The main body of the Brigade caught up with us several days later; the 2nd and the 3rd companies of the battalion also joined us. They arrived quite depleted, but they were immediately thrown into battle to assist the 17th Guards Brigade that was trying to extend the bridgehead before strong German reinforcements arrived.

The battalion commander ordered me to report to the Corps Chief of Staff Colonel Koretski. When I arrived and reported, he looked at me and said: ‘You know what, Bessonov, you have been in the Brigade for a long time. Kozienko sent you here on my order. Your task is to guard the crossing, the Corps staff as well as put out fires in the city. You take the mansion across the street from my Staff, and always be there at hand. Do not let any other units into the mansion.’ This is how I got the mansion for my platoon and the 2nd platoon of the company, a total of not more than 30 men.Vyunov’s and Guschenkov’s platoons, in turn, followed the battalion together with the company commander.

The mansion was rich; it had everything one could imagine! There was enough food and the soldiers cooked it themselves. Soldiers would be cooking all day long, grilling something and drinking tea. We did not drink alcohol, except for some weak wine – anything could be found in the mansion’s cellar. We slept on beds. I had a wide bed with rich linen and a satin blanket. I could take off my clothes before going to bed! We threw away our underwear and replaced it with German silk underwear. Everything would have been just perfect, if only Koretski did not send us to put out fires and on guard duty during air raids against the crossing. Soldiers of our arriving infantry units set the houses on fire as revenge for their houses burnt down by the Germans in the Soviet Union. We did not have any equipment to extinguish the fire, so we would just come and stand at a burning house, watching until it burnt to ashes. That’s why the most effective measure was to send patrols and catch the arsonists. It helped, but not in all cases. Sometimes we were just pretending to be extinguishing the fire, so that Koretski did not rebuke us. I should say that that period was a rest for the platoon. Before that we had travelled at least 600 kilometres in 12 or 13 days from 12 to 25 January, 1945.

ON GERMAN SOIL

We were now on German territory and everything there was different from what we saw in Poland. Highways were covered with asphalt; roads to fields and barns were covered with cobblestone. We saw clean pine woods without any brushwood, rich houses and mansions, small roadside villages and farms with peaked red-tile roofs. However, there was not a single living soul in the city. The population had been evacuated westwards, far across the Oder, leaving all their belongings in the houses, including cattle and poultry. Some guys found two really old women in Keben when searching for German soldiers, but they did not find anyone else.