Soviet tank aces … Nikolai Rodionovich Andreev - one of the representatives of the Soviet tank aces during the Great Patriotic War. Nikolai Andreev was at the front from the first day of the war. With his service and demonstrated skills in combat, he paved his way to the first officer rank, becoming a junior lieutenant in March 1942. Particularly distinguished himself during the Battle of Stalingrad in the battle in the Abganerovo area, for which he was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Pre-war life of Nikolai Andreev
Nikolai Rodionovich Andreev was born on August 7, 1921 in the small village of Kuropleshevo. Today it is part of the settlement of Kologrivo, located on the territory of the Slantsevsky district of the Leningrad region. The future Soviet ace tanker was born into a simple peasant family, so he joined rural labor early. Some sources claim that from childhood he loved horses, and also often went to the night. It used to be called grazing of horses in the dark, when there were no more flies, horseflies and midges in the air, which prevented pets from grazing calmly.
Like many peers, Nikolai Andreev graduated from only a seven-year school in his native village, but the young man was drawn to knowledge, had talent, an inquiring mind and wanted to continue his studies. In 1935, at the age of 14, he entered the Leningrad Road and Bridge Technical School. The received engineering education in the future will be useful to him in the army, especially in the tank forces. The knowledge gained by Andreev before the war made him stand out from the rest of the draftees, since not even all the commanders of those years could boast of such training. In 1939, after completing his studies, he went on a Komsomol ticket to the Far East. Here, the future tanker worked as a technician of the road-machine detachment as part of the 39th machine-road station, located in the city of Kuibyshevka-Vostochnaya (today the city of Belogorsk) in the Amur Region.
In the Far East, Nikolai Andreev did not work for long, already in 1940 he was drafted into the army for active military service in the ranks of the Red Army. It is worth noting that on September 1, 1939, a law on universal military service was passed in the USSR. The country's leadership increased the composition and size of the armed forces, anticipating future conflicts, the situation in Europe and the world was already very turbulent, so the country returned to compulsory conscription. Initially, Nikolai Andreev was in the training company of the 375th separate tank battalion from the 38th rifle division. Part of it was stationed in the city of Bikin in the Khabarovsk Territory. The definition of a conscript as a tanker was directly related to Andreev's education and work experience.
After graduating from the training process in a training company, before the war itself in April 1941, Nikolai Andreev arrived for further service at the other end of the country - in the Kiev Special Military District. With such a level of training, Andreev could not remain a private for a long time, while he could enter a military school, but at that time he simply did not think about a military career. The war found Nikolai Andreev in the 64th Panzer Regiment of the 32nd Panzer Division of the 4th Mechanized Corps, commanded by the notorious General Andrei Vlasov.
The 4th mechanized corps was one of the most equipped in the entire Red Army. At the start of the war, it consisted of 979 tanks (95 percent of the staff), including 414 modern T-34 and KV tanks. The corps's problems were that 55 percent of the staff provided it with vehicles, and 78 percent with personnel. For example, the 32nd Panzer Division (primarily mid-level commanders and junior commanders) had a serious shortage of personnel. A serious problem was the fact that the overwhelming majority of the personnel of the division had poor training, most of the servicemen of the division graduated from 3-6 grades of school. This was not enough for such a technically complex type of troops. In addition, modern tanks, the same T-34, which was to be mastered by Nikolai Andreev, acted unevenly in units, by the beginning of the war, the new machines did not have time to properly study and master, which also led in the future to notorious consequences. Considering the level of education, Andreev's authority in the company was already quite high at that time. During the exercises, the company commander consulted with him to clarify whether the tanks would pass over this or that bridge. Andreev's knowledge in the field of building bridges and roads turned out to be useful in both peaceful and military life.
Two Orders of the Red Star of Nikolai Andreev
Nikolai Andreev found the beginning of the war with Nazi Germany on the western borders of the USSR. The corps in which he served began to participate in hostilities in the first days of the battle, operating in the areas of the settlements of Nemyriv, Magerov, Yavorov, Radzekhov. The main enemy of the Soviet tankers in this direction were the German infantry divisions, including the 1st Mountain Jaeger Division. In battles with enemy infantry, Soviet tankers achieved some tactical successes, crushing and destroying a number of enemy batteries on the march, as well as suppressing them in battle, but they could not achieve serious successes for many reasons, including the lack of infantry that could consolidate success and help tankers; insufficient interaction with artillery; general weakness in the preparation and training of units, poor knowledge of the new materiel entering the troops.
In the border battle, units of the Red Army suffered serious losses, especially the mechanized corps, which were actively involved in counterblowing the enemy and became a steel shield on the way of Hitler's troops, allowing infantry and artillery to retreat. At the beginning of July 1941, the 32nd Panzer Division, in which Andreev served, managed to take part in the defense of Berdichev, and at the end of the month it was surrounded near Uman, not everyone managed to break through to their own, while the material part was finally lost. Already on August 10, the division was disbanded, and at the expense of the existing fighters and commanders, the 1st and 8th tank brigades began to be formed. Nikolai Andreev turned out to be a tank commander in the 1st Tank Brigade, which operated as part of the Southwestern Front.
In December 1941, Nikolai Andreev was presented to the first military order. On December 7, 1941, the brave tankman was awarded the Order of the Red Star. The award list indicated that the tanker had repeatedly demonstrated courage and courage in a combat situation. Together with the crew, he took part in 12 attacks by enemy troops, destroying three 105-mm guns in battle, up to two anti-tank artillery batteries, a battery of mortars, up to 25 different enemy vehicles, as well as one heavy enemy tank and up to two platoons of enemy infantry.
In the battle on October 20, 1941, near Belgorod, Andreev acted as the tank commander. The tanker entered the battle with three heavy enemy tanks (as in the award documents, most likely, we are talking about PzKpfw IV). Despite enemy fire, Nikolai Andreev destroyed one tank with well-aimed shots, and forced the other two to retreat. During the battle, Andreyev's tank was hit by a German shell, which damaged the radio operator's ball machine-gun mount, the radio operator and Andreyev himself were wounded by shrapnel, and his hand was wounded. Despite the injury, Andreev continued the battle and led the tank entrusted to him until the enemy was thrown back, and our infantry did not gain a foothold on the defensive line.
Andreev, already a senior sergeant, received his second Order of the Red Star in February 1942. The award list indicated that Nikolai Andreev, together with his tank, participated in battles in the area of the settlements Panskoye, Pokrovskoye, Petrishchevo, Morozovo on the territory of the Kursk region. For four days of fighting, Andreyev's tank knocked out a medium enemy tank and one armored vehicle, destroyed two cars, suppressed 6 artillery pieces, destroyed up to a company of infantry, captured up to 4 thousand artillery shells.
By February 1942, the 1st Tank Brigade was transformed into the 6th Guards Tank Brigade for successes in battles with the enemy. And already on March 17, 1942, Nikolai Andreev was awarded the first officer rank, he became a junior lieutenant. In the description of the newly minted commander, it was indicated that in the battles in the area of the Rubezhnoye settlement of the Kharkov region, Nikolai Andreev, during a tank counterattack, managed to destroy 5 enemy tanks, and the Nazis were forced to abandon two more tanks on the battlefield. This was largely due to the courage of the Soviet tanker. Also in the village of Dvurechnoye, Andreev's crew burned two enemy tanks and destroyed before a platoon of machine gunners. In the same battles, Andreev received a second wound, was wounded in the lower back.
Battle at the 74th kilometer junction
The summer of 1942, which again, like the summer of 1941, turned out to be full of defeats and disappointments for the Red Army, the commander of a tank platoon of the guard, Lieutenant Andreyev, met already on the Stalingrad front, the Southwestern Front was disbanded on July 12 of the same year. It was near Stalingrad that Nikolai Rodionovich took part in the battle, for which in November 1942 he was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. By that time, the young officer was already in good standing with the command, which noted him as a master of sniper tank shooting, a well-trained commander, a brave officer who could inspire his subordinates by his example.
The award documents indicated that on August 6, 1942, the Germans, with up to 70 tanks, an infantry regiment and several self-propelled and conventional artillery battalions, wedged into the location of Soviet troops, capturing the 74th kilometer of the Stalingrad region (today Abganerovo station). The task of attacking German troops and knocking them out of the captured lines was also assigned to the 1st tank battalion of the 6th Guards Tank Brigade. During the attack, Andreyev's tank was the first to break into the territory of the crossing together with its platoon, where it collided with a column of enemy tanks - 20 pieces. Not being confused and not shy, Nikolai Andreev entered the battle with the enemy. Having accelerated to maximum speed, the T-34 proceeded along the column of enemy tanks, firing at the enemy point-blank from a 76-mm gun. In this battle, Andreyev's tank burned five enemy tanks and knocked out two more, crushing also two enemy guns.
In battle, the thirty-four received minor damage, which was eliminated by the crew after the end of the battle. Separately, it was indicated that the tank was still in the ranks and under the control of Lieutenant Andreev, inflicting serious losses on the enemy. Also in the award list it was indicated that in total, Lieutenant Andreev's guard had up to 27 destroyed enemy tanks, several dozen guns and a significant number of enemy infantry.
In August 1942, Nikolai Rodionovich was promoted to Guard Senior Lieutenant, leading a tank company as part of the 6th Guards Tank Brigade. And already at the end of 1942, the officer was recalled from the front. By this time, Andreev was twice wounded, received a shell shock, and his tank burned four times. In total, Andreev, as indicated in the award documents for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, had up to 27 destroyed enemy tanks. In the rear, the ace tanker became a student of the Military Academy of Armored and Mechanized Forces, from which he graduated in March 1945. After completing his training, he served as a senior assistant for tactical training of the chief of the 1st unit of the headquarters of the 8th training tank brigade in the Ural military district. He met the end of the war as a captain. The experience that Andreev gained from the battles with Hitler's troops in the most difficult time for the country and the army, 1941-1942, had to be passed on to future tankers.
The entire further career of the Soviet ace tanker was associated with military service. Nikolai Rodionovich made a successful military career. For more than 20 years he served in the Ural Military District in various positions, after which in 1968 he was recalled to the Main Personnel Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Defense. He retired in 1988 with the rank of lieutenant general. Nikolai Andreev lived a long life, which ended on April 5, 2000 (78 years old). The brave tanker was buried in Moscow at the Troekurovsky cemetery.
