Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army

We started to check the casualties. Casualties were significant, both in personnel and equipment: over ten trucks were burnt out, and several tanks were destroyed. A bomb exploded next to a T-34 tank, the tank was lifted up and crashed down with all its weight on the men that were hiding under it, while the main gun was almost torn away from the turret. After the explosion it stood vertically up from the turret. It must have been a large bomb if it had enough explosive energy to lift and move a 30-ton tank. There were dead and wounded among the tank riders, truck drivers and tank crews, and we searched the forest for the remaining dead and wounded. Luckily, in our company and in the battalion just a few were killed. Wounded were gathered next to the medical truck in order to send them to the rear – there were more wounded than dead. When we put ourselves in order and could continue the march, the column left the ill-fated forest. There was an open field in front of us, and we tried to drive across it as quickly as possible, fearing another air raid. Indeed, three Messerschmidt fighters appeared. However, the 37 mm anti-aircraft automatic gun crew set an example of courage and bravery in that situation. The crew quickly prepared the gun for fire, and when the Germans started to dive on us, they opened fire with tracer shells. The first Messer could not stand the fire and turned to the side, the other two planes also ceased their attacks. I was standing behind a Studebaker truck and saw the tracer shells flying accurately towards their target. Fighters tried to dive two or three more times, but could not take the fire from the anti-aircraft gun and flew away. Our guys did a great job; they were not afraid of the air raid and forced the German pilots to cease their attacks on the column. I should mention that during that assault the tank riders did not scatter, but stood behind the tanks and trucks, observing the duel. It was the Germans that did not have nerves or courage against our anti-aircraft crew. When the planes left, we moved forward, as we had to catch up with the schedule. I was not in the vanguard with my platoon or rather company. Sometimes the battalion commander Major Kozienko would order: ‘Bessonov – forward!’ and show me the route of advance on the map, pointing at the place for a stop and where I should wait for the main body of the battalion and the Brigade, but it happened more rarely than before.

That time company commander Nikolai Chernyshov again was absent from the company. The battalion commander called me up and gave me an order to move forward on three tanks with the company and Fedor Popov’s machine-gun platoon from battalion’s machinegun company. Tank regiment commander Stolyarov and the Brigade’s commander Colonel Turkin were also there – Turkin was back from the hospital after being wounded in February 1945 when a Panzerfaust team destroyed his APC. I really did not want to go first: I had only few soldiers let and I wanted to spare at least them till the end of the war, but I had my orders and I had to fulfil them.

We were moving forward successfully, everything was quiet, and as always ‘all of a sudden’ we were caught by enemy fire before we could reach the forest. Our tanks stopped, the tank riders dismounted. Everyone stood behind the tanks – we had to find out what was going on. The enemy was firing, mostly from small arms, from the forest on the right of the highway. We had to drive the enemy out of his positions, as the whole Brigade was about to arrive. Lieutenant Popov also dismounted his platoon, took his two Maxim machineguns from the tanks and we prepared to assault the Germans, but their positions could not be seen in the forest. We made a deal with the tank crews that they would slowly move forward, while the tank riders would use them for cover. Two soldiers were to sit on each tank in order to have a better view of the terrain and guard the tanks from Panzerfaust teams.