On the day of the 85th anniversary of the Airborne Forces, we remember the heroes of the Airborne Forces
"The blue splashed, splashed, spilled over the vests, over the berets." Blue berets, vests, parachutes and blue sky - these are all indispensable attributes of the soldiers of the airborne troops that have already become elite troops.
On August 2, the day of the Airborne Forces is celebrated throughout Russia. This year, the Airborne Forces are celebrating their 85th anniversary. Festive events will be held in all cities of Russia on the day of the Airborne Forces.
In Moscow, the main action will unfold in Gorky Park: concerts, exhibitions, field cuisine, meetings of former colleagues and, of course, the military equipment of the landing. Festive events will begin with a divine liturgy in the temple of Elijah the Prophet at the headquarters of the Airborne Forces and laying a flower at the memorials.
On this day, thousands of men of different ages in blue berets, vests and with turquoise flags will bathe in fountains and remember the army years with their colleagues, and we will remember the immortal feats of Russian paratroopers.
Fight of Pskov paratroopers in the Argun gorge
Speaking about the exploits of the Russian landing, it is impossible not to recall the incredibly tragic and equally heroic battle of the Pskov paratroopers in the Argun gorge in Chechnya. February 29 - March 1, 2000, soldiers of the 6th company of the 2nd battalion of the 104th Guards paratrooper regiment of the Pskov division fought a heavy battle with militants under the command of Khattab at Hill 776 in the vicinity of the city of Argun in the central part of Chechnya. Two and a half thousand militants were opposed by 90 paratroopers, 84 of whom died heroically in the battle. Six soldiers survived. The company blocked the way for Chechen fighters trying to break through from the Argun Gorge to Dagestan. Information about the death of an entire company was kept secret for a long time.
One can only guess what the servicemen had to endure in this terrible battle. The fighters undermined themselves, already wounded, they rushed to the militants, not wanting to surrender. “It’s better to die than to surrender,” said the soldiers of the company.
This follows from the protocol records: "When the ammunition ran out, the paratroopers went into hand-to-hand combat and blew themselves up with grenades in the crowd of militants."
One such example is Senior Lieutenant Alexei Vorobyov, who killed the field commander Idris. Vorobyov's legs were broken by fragments of mines, one bullet hit the stomach, the other - in the chest, but he fought to the last. It is known that when the 1st company broke through on the morning of March 2, the lieutenant's body was still warm.
Our guys paid a great price for the victory, but they managed to stop the enemy, who could not escape from the gorge. Out of 2,500 militants, only 500 survived
22 soldiers of the company received the title of Hero of Russia, 21 of them - posthumously, the rest became holders of the Order of Courage.
Mozhaisk landing
An example of the greatest courage and valor of the Russian landing is the feat of the Siberian soldiers who died in 1941 near Mozhaisk in an unequal battle with the Nazi troops.
It was a cold winter of 1941. On a reconnaissance flight, a Soviet pilot saw that a column of enemy armored vehicles was moving towards Moscow, and there were no obstacle detachments or anti-tank weapons on its way. The Soviet command decided to send troops in front of the tanks.
When the commander came to the landing company of Siberians, who were brought to the nearest airfield, they were asked to jump from planes straight into the snow. Moreover, it was necessary to jump without parachutes on low level flight. It is noteworthy that this was not an order, but a request, but all the servicemen took a step forward.
German soldiers were unpleasantly surprised to see low-flying planes, and then completely succumbed to panic when people in white sheepskin coats rained down one by one from them. And there was no end to this stream. When it seemed that the Germans had already destroyed everyone, new planes with new fighters appeared.
The author of the novel "Prince's Island" Yuri Sergeev describes these events in this way. "The Russians were not visible in the snow, they seemed to grow out of the earth itself: fearless, furious and holy in their retribution, unstoppable by any weapon. The battle was seething and bubbling on the highway. The Germans killed almost everyone and were already rejoicing at the victory when they saw a new column of tanks that overtook them. and motorized infantry, when again a wave of planes crept out of the forest and a white waterfall of fresh fighters gushed out of them, hitting the enemy while still falling …
The German columns were destroyed, only a few armored cars and vehicles escaped from this hell and rushed back, bearing mortal horror and mystical fear of fearlessness, the will and spirit of the Russian soldier. After it turned out that when falling into the snow, only twelve percent of the landing party died.
The rest took an unequal battle."
There is no documentary evidence of this story. Many believe that she, for some reason, is still classified, while others consider her a beautiful legend about the feat of the paratroopers. However, when skeptics asked about this story the famous Soviet spy and paratrooper, the record holder for the number of parachute jumps, Ivan Starchak, he did not question the reality of this story. The fact is that he himself and his fighters also landed near Moscow in order to stop a motorized column of opponents.
On October 5, 1941, our Soviet intelligence discovered a 25-kilometer German motorized convoy, which was moving at full speed along the Warsaw highway in the direction of Yukhnov. 200 tanks, 20 thousand infantry in vehicles, accompanied by aviation and artillery, posed a mortal threat to Moscow, which was 198 kilometers away. There were no Soviet troops on this path. Only in Podolsk there were two military schools: infantry and artillery.
In order to give them time to take up defensive positions, a small airborne assault force was dropped under the command of Captain Starchak. Of the 430 people, only 80 were experienced paratroopers, another 200 were from front-line air units and 150 were the newly arrived replenishment of the Komsomol, and all without guns, machine guns and tanks.
The paratroopers took up defenses on the Ugra River, mined and blew up the roadbed and bridges along the route of the Germans, setting up ambushes. There is a known case when one of the groups attacked an airfield captured by the Germans, burned two TB-3 aircraft, and took the third to Moscow. It was led by paratrooper Pyotr Balashov, who had never flown such aircraft before. He landed safely in Moscow on the fifth try.
But the forces were not equal, reinforcements came to the Germans. Three days later, out of 430 people, only 29 survived, including Ivan Starchak. Later, help came to the Soviet military. Almost everyone was killed, but the Nazis were not allowed to break through to Moscow. All were presented to the Order of the Red Banner, and Starchak - to the Order of Lenin. Budyonny, the front commander, called Starchak "a desperate commander."
Then Starchak repeatedly entered the battle during the Great Patriotic War, was wounded several times, but survived.
When one of his British colleagues asked him why the Russians do not give up even in the face of death, although sometimes it is easier, he replied:
"In your opinion, this is fanaticism, but in our opinion, love for the land on which he grew up and which he magnified through labor. Love for a country where you are a complete master. And the fact that Soviet soldiers are fighting for the Motherland to the last patron, to the last drop of blood, we consider the highest military and civil valor."
Later Starchak wrote an autobiographical story "From Heaven - Into Battle", in which he spoke about these events. Starchak died in 1981 at the age of 76, leaving behind an immortal feat worthy of legends.
Better death than captivity
Another famous episode in the history of the Soviet and Russian landing is the battle in the Old City of Herat during the war in Afghanistan. When on July 11, 1985, a Soviet armored personnel carrier was blown up by a mine, only four people survived, led by junior sergeant V. Shimansky. They took up a perimeter defense and decided not to surrender under any circumstances, while the enemy wanted to capture Soviet soldiers.
The surrounded soldiers took on an unequal battle. They had already run out of cartridges, the enemy was squeezing into a tight ring, but there were still no reinforcements. Then, in order not to fall into the hands of enemies, the commander ordered the soldiers to shoot themselves.
They gathered under a burning armored personnel carrier, hugged, said goodbye and then each shot from a machine gun at himself. The commander fired last. When Soviet reinforcements arrived, four killed servicemen were lying next to the armored personnel carrier, where they were dragged by the enemies. The surprise of the Soviet soldiers was great when they saw that one of them was alive. Machine gunner Teplyuk's four bullets passed several centimeters above his heart. It was he who later told about the last minutes of the life of the heroic crew.
The death of the Maravari company
The death of the so-called Maravara company during the war in Afghanistan on April 21, 1985 is another tragic and heroic episode in the history of the Russian landing party.
The 1st company of the Soviet special forces under the command of Captain Cebruk was surrounded in the Maravara Gorge in the province of Kunar and was destroyed by the enemy.
It is known that the company carried out a training trip to the village of Sangam, located at the beginning of the Maravarsky gorge. There was no enemy in the village, but mujahideen were seen in the depths of the gorge. When the soldiers of the company began to pursue the enemy, they were ambushed. The company split into four groups and began to go deeper into the gorge.
The spooks who saw the enemy entered the rear of the 1st company and blocked the way for the fighters to Daridam, where the 2nd and 3rd companies were located, they set up posts armed with heavy machine guns DShK. The forces were not equal, and the ammunition, which the commandos took with them to the training exit, was only enough for a few minutes of the battle.
At the same time, a detachment was hastily formed in Asadabad, which went to help the ambushed company. Reinforced with armored vehicles, the detachment could not quickly get across the river and he had to go around, which took additional time. Three kilometers on the map turned into 23 in the Afghan land stuffed with mines. Of the entire armored group, only one car broke through in the direction of Maravar. This did not help the 1st company, but saved the 2nd and 3rd companies, which were repelling the attacks of the Mujahideen.
On the afternoon of April 21, when the combined company and the armored group entered the Maravara Gorge, the surviving soldiers marched towards them, taking out and carrying out their wounded comrades. They talked about the terrible massacre of enemies who were enraged by a furious rebuff on those who remained on the battlefield: they ripped open their bellies, gouged out their eyes, burned them alive.
The bodies of the dead soldiers were collected for two days. Many had to be identified by tattoos and clothing details. Some of the bodies had to be transported along with wicker couches on which the fighters were tortured. In the battle in the Maravarsky gorge, 31 Soviet servicemen were killed.
12-hour battle of the 9th company
The feat of domestic paratroopers, immortalized not only by history, but also by cinema, was the battle of the 9th company of the 345th Guards separate paratrooper regiment for the dominant height of 3234 in the city of Khost during the war in Afghanistan.
A company of paratroopers of 39 people entered the battle, trying to keep the mujahideen out of their positions on January 7, 1988. The enemy (according to various sources 200-400 people) intended to bring down the outpost from the dominant height and open access to the Gardez-Khost road.
The adversaries opened fire on the positions of the Soviet troops from recoilless guns, mortars, small arms and grenade launchers. In just the day before three o'clock in the morning, the Mujahideen launched 12 attacks, the last of which was critical. The enemy managed to get as close as possible, but at that time a reconnaissance platoon of the 3rd paratrooper battalion made its way to the aid of the 9th company, which delivered ammunition. This decided the outcome of the battle, the Mujahideen, suffering serious losses, began to retreat. As a result of the twelve-hour battle, it was not possible to capture the height.
In the 9th company, 6 soldiers were killed, 28 were injured.
This story formed the basis of Fyodor Bondarchuk's famous film "9th Company", which tells about the valor of Soviet soldiers.
Vyazemskaya operation of the Soviet landing
Every year in Russia they remember the feat of Soviet front-line paratroopers. Among them is the so-called Vyazemskaya airborne operation. This is an operation of the Red Army to land troops in the rear of German troops during the Rzhev-Vyazemsk offensive operation, which was carried out from January 18 to February 28, 1942 with the aim of assisting the troops of the Kalinin and Western fronts surrounded by part of the forces of the German Army Group Center.
No one conducted airborne operations of this scale during the Great Patriotic War. For this, the 4th Airborne Corps, numbering more than 10 thousand people, was parachuted near Vyazma. The corps was commanded by Major General A. F. Levashov.
On January 27, the forward landing detachment under the command of Captain M. Ya. Karnaukhova was thrown out behind the front line on dozens of aircraft. Then, over the next six days, the 8th Airborne Brigade with a total number of about 2,100 people was parachuted into the rear of the enemy.
However, the general situation at the front for the Soviet troops was difficult. Some of the landed paratroopers merged with the active units, and the landing of the remaining fighters was postponed.
A few weeks later, the 4th battalion of the 8th airborne brigade, as well as parts of the 9th and 214th brigades, landed behind enemy lines. In total, in January-February 1942, over 10 thousand people, 320 mortars, 541 machine guns, 300 anti-tank rifles were landed on the Smolensk land. All this happened with an acute shortage of transport aircraft, in difficult climatic and weather conditions, with strong enemy opposition.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to solve the tasks assigned to the paratroopers, since the enemy was very strong.
The fighters of the 4th Airborne Corps, which had only light weapons and a minimum of food, ammunition, had to fight behind enemy lines for five long months.
After the war, the former Hitlerite officer A. Gove in the book "Attention, paratroopers!" was forced to admit: "The landed Russian paratroopers held the forest in their hands for many days and, lying in a 38-degree frost on pine branches laid directly on the snow, repulsed all German attacks, which at first were of an impromptu nature. Only with the support of those who arrived from Vyazma German self-propelled guns and dive bombers managed to clear the road from the Russians."
These are just a few examples of the exploits of Russian and Soviet paratroopers, which not only arouse pride among compatriots, but also respect the enemies who bow before the courage of "these Russians in vests."
