Morning of the Hero of the Fatherland Day, 144th kilometer of the Volokolamsk highway. The monument, which is called "Explosion" on the Internet, as it symbolizes a German self-propelled gun that was blown up by a mine. The site of another unparalleled feat of the fighters of Panfilov's division, which, unfortunately, remained in some shadow of Dubosekov.
Our story is dedicated to the heroes from the 316th division of General Panfilov. Only we will not talk about 28 soldiers, but about 11 sappers of the 1077th regiment under the command of Lieutenant Firstov.
In November 1941, 11 sappers were able to delay the advance of two dozen German tanks and hundreds of Nazi soldiers to Moscow for five hours. Than they made it possible for their regiment to retreat to reserve positions and continue the battle.
The retreat of the regiment was to be provided by three cover groups. In the central direction, a platoon of sappers of junior lieutenant Pyotr Firstov was assigned to cover the retreat. Apparently, 11 people were all that remained of the platoon at that time.
Firstov's group included:
junior political instructor Alexei Pavlov;
assistant platoon commander Alexei Zubkov.
Red Army men:
Pavel Sinegovsky;
Gleb Ulchenko;
Vasily Semyonov;
Prokofy Kalyuzhny;
Erofey Dovzhuk;
Vasily Manyushin;
Peter Genievsky;
Daniil Materkin.
Photos of the fighters have come down to our time. Let not all of them, but we got there.
They had no heavy anti-tank weapons at their disposal - only mines, grenades and bottles with a combustible mixture. And the combat task: to hold back the onslaught as long as possible, so that the regiment had time to prepare for the defense of the new line.
At about 10 a.m. on November 18, 1941, the Nazis, with a total strength of up to an infantry battalion, with the support of two dozen tanks, moved to the positions of the soldiers of Junior Lieutenant Firstov.
The battle of a dozen Red Army men against the enemy battalion lasted for five hours. During this time, the soldiers of Lieutenant Firstov killed and wounded several dozen Germans, burned two tanks and seriously damaged five more.
The last onslaught of the Germans was met by three: Lieutenant Firstov and Red Army soldiers Semyonov and Genievsky. The rest were either killed or seriously wounded by that time.
At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the Nazis captured the sappers' positions near the village of Strokovo.
Eleven people. No anti-tank guns and rifles. Without artillery support. Five hours.
Five hours of life for the beaten 1077th regiment. Five hours to retreat to reserve positions, to prepare to repel new attacks.
Five hours and eleven people …
The fate of the sappers of Lieutenant Firstov in November 1941 was never learned in the 1077th regiment. Only one thing was clear - they completed the assigned combat mission, delaying the enemy for a sufficient time.
The feat became known in June 1942, after the offensive, when a burial place was opened near the village of Strokovo in May, in which the bodies of 10 Soviet soldiers were found, and the villagers told about the details of the battle.
On June 3, 1942, 10 Panfilov sappers were buried in a mass grave on the outskirts of Strokovo.
Why 10, if 11 participated in the battle? It turns out that one of the sappers, Gleb Ulchenko, still managed to survive. Local residents hid it and went out. When the Soviet counteroffensive began and Strokovo was liberated, the Red Army soldier Ulchenko returned to the active army.
Unfortunately, he did not live to see victory - in March 1943, after another serious injury, Gleb Ulchenko died in the hospital.
In the summer of 1942, the command presented all participants in the battle near the village of Strokovo for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). "Upstairs", however, decided to award the dead sappers with the Order of Lenin. This is the only case in the Great Patriotic War when a whole platoon of sappers was immediately awarded a high government award.
Today, this memorial, just like Dubosekov's one, is being attacked by non-humans from among the detractors of our history. And the self-propelled gun, they say, did not take part in the attack on Strokovo, and not so many tanks were knocked out. Although the self-propelled gun was retrieved by the search engines from the swamp just in these places, this is not the point.
The same claims as against 28 Panfilovites. And it was not so, and not here.
But the Panfilov heroes did not die for awards and memorials. The main reward for their courage was the opportunity for their comrades to continue the battle for Moscow, the battle for the country.
And if someone benefits from expressing doubts about the feat of General Panfilov's fighters, then this is the problem of those whom it is difficult to call people. But it was not their ancestors who firmly clung to the ground from Leningrad to Rostov that terrible autumn.
Firstov's sappers knew that there would be no help. There will be no counterattacks, there will be no reinforcements. They knew this was their last fight.
So let the scum and scoundrels judge from history, we just bowed to the heroes.
Glory and eternal memory!
