Koshechkin Boris Kuzmich - Soviet tankman, officer, participant of the Great Patriotic War. In parts of the Red Army since 1940, he retired with the rank of colonel. During the war, he commanded a tank company in the 13th Guards Tank Brigade of the 4th Guards Tank Corps as part of the 60th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front. In 1944 he was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The future Hero of the Soviet Union was born on December 28, 1921 in the village of Beketovka, currently located in the Veshkaimsky district of the Ulyanovsk region into a simple peasant family, Russian by nationality. His father, Koshechkin Kuzma Stepanovich, was a brave man, he took part in the Russo-Japanese War, with which he returned with two St. George's crosses. In the tsarist army, he was a warrant officer, graduated from the Kazan school of warrant officers, in Beketovka he worked as a physical education teacher. Mother - Anisia Dmitrievna Koshechkina was a simple collective farmer.
Koshechkin was born into a large family: he had 6 brothers and a sister. Usually in winter his parents went to work, and in summer they were engaged in agriculture. As a child, Boris was very fond of drawing, but paints and pencils were expensive and rarely got to him. At the same time, he studied quite well at school and was fond of sports. In winter he went skiing and ice skating, in summer he loved to play rounders and towns. He also loved the forest, starting from the age of 5, they took him with them when they drove horses at night. He helped his parents a lot with the housework, but in those years almost the entire harvest was taken from the peasants, so a large family lived quite poorly, sometimes from hand to mouth.
After graduating from the seven-year school, in 1935, Boris Koshechkin entered the Ulyanovsk Industrial Pedagogical College to continue his studies. After college, he graduated from teacher training courses at the Ulyanovsk Pedagogical Institute. In 1938-39 he worked as a teacher at the Novo-Pogorelovskaya incomplete secondary school. After the end of the school year, Koshechkin recruited to work in the Far East of the country, where in 1939-40 he was a worker at the Energomash plant.
Here he successfully graduated from the Khabarovsk flying club, after which he received a referral to the Ulyanovsk flying school, but by the time he got to him from the Far East, the enrollment had already been completed. As a result, in the direction of the local military commissar, he was admitted to the Kazan Infantry School, where he successfully studied, went in for sports, and managed to become a master of sports in gymnastics. After a while, this school was transformed into a tank school. Here he mastered the light tanks T-26 and BT-5. According to his recollections, the T-34 tank, which stood in the garage and was covered with a tarpaulin, was especially secret at the school, there was always a sentry near it.
Boris Koshechkin graduated from the Kazan Tank School in May 1942, received the rank of junior lieutenant and fell under Rzhev. According to his recollections, there was a real hell, the water in the Volga was red from the blood of dead people. There his T-26 burned down, a shell hit the engine, but the crew was lucky, everyone survived. In 1943, he took part in the Battle of Kursk and in the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazi invaders as part of the 13th Guards Order of Lenin Tank Brigade of the 4th Guards Kantemirovsky Tank Corps, commanded by the legendary Fyodor Pavlovich Poluboyarov. In battles in 1943 he was wounded in both hands, was in a hospital in Tambov. During the Battle of Kursk, an amazing story happened to him, which was then written down from his words by Artem Drabkin and published in his book "I fought in the T-34, the third book."
How Boris Koshechkin stole a staff car from under the nose of the Nazis
According to the memoirs of Boris Koshechkin, Canadian infantry tanks "Valentine VII" arrived at their unit before the Battle of Kursk. According to him, it was a fairly good squat tank, which resembled the German PzKpfw III. Taking into account the similarity of the two machines, a daring plan came to the head of Koshechkin, who at that time was already in command of a tank platoon. He put on a German overalls, painted German crosses on his tank and drove to the rear of the enemy.
Boris Koshechkin played into the hands of the fact that he spoke German well enough, nevertheless he grew up among the Volga Germans. In addition, his German teacher at school was a real German. Yes, and Koshechkin himself was fair-haired and outwardly looked like a German. On his "Trojan horse" Koshechkin crossed the front line and found himself in the German rear. As if by accident, his tank crushed two standing guns. Having transferred with calculations in a few phrases in German, the Soviet tankmen drove up to a large staff vehicle, which they began to cling to their tank. At that time Koshechkin himself was sitting on the turret of the tank, embracing the cannon with his legs, and devoured a sandwich.
The Germans came to their senses only when the tank, with a heavy staff vehicle attached to it, headed towards the front line. Suspecting something was wrong, they fired an 88-mm gun at the retreating tank. The shell pierced through the turret of the tank, if Koshechkin had been sitting inside the combat vehicle, he would have died, and so he was only severely stunned, blood began to flow from his nose and ears. Driver-mechanic Pavel Terentyev received a minor shrapnel wound in his shoulder. On a damaged tank, but with a German command vehicle, they returned to their location. As Boris Koshechkin himself noted in his memoirs in Drabkin's book, for this he received the Order of the Red Star, while calling his act hooligan. According to other sources, Koshechkin did not receive any reward for his act. For the documents seized from the staff vehicle, the chief of the brigade's intelligence, Major Shevchuk, was awarded, who received the Order of the Red Banner. The fact that Koshechkin was not awarded the Order of the Red Star in 1943 is confirmed by the award list dated 02.20.1944, according to which he receives his first Order of the Red Star, the award list indicates that Boris Kuzmich Koshechkin did not have any military awards before.
The brave veteran received this first order for the fact that with a sudden blow on January 31, 1944, his company burst into the village of Bolshaya Medvedevka, having captured which destroyed one enemy tank, 4 armored cars and up to 50 Nazis in battle. At the same time, a German headquarters bus was destroyed and II was captured (this is exactly what the document says, most likely, we are talking about two cannons) of serviceable enemy cannons. Most likely, it was this episode that Artem Drabkin described colorfully in his book “I fought in a T-34, the third book”. At least there is a captured gun, and a destroyed staff bus, and the award of the Order of the Red Star.
Later Boris Koshechkin distinguished himself during the battles for Shepetivka and Ternopil in the spring of 1944. The task of liberating Ternopil was set personally by the commander of the 60th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Colonel-General I. D. Chernyakhovsky. The commander of a tank company of the guard, Lieutenant Koshechkin, on March 7, 1944, in the most difficult conditions of the onset of a thaw, conducted reconnaissance behind enemy lines. Leaving with the company on the Zbarazh-Ternopil highway, by his actions he cut off the escape route for enemy tanks and vehicles. Having wedged into a column of German troops, he destroyed a lot of military equipment and manpower of the enemy with fire from a cannon and machine gun, as well as tracks. Koshechkin's tankers destroyed 50 enemy vehicles, 2 armored personnel carriers with 75-mm guns attached to them, and a large number of infantry. In a fire fight, the guards knocked out 6 Nazi tanks (T-3 and T-4) and burned another tank.
After it got dark, the company commander took the combat vehicles to the shelter, and he himself, dressed in civilian clothes, made his way to Ternopil, where he reconnoitred the approaches to the city, according to his award list. Finding the weak and strong points in the enemy's defense, as well as establishing the presence of firing points, Boris Koshechkin personally led the night attack on the city, breaking into it one of the first. At the same time, the tank crushed one anti-tank gun of the enemy along with the crew. In the future, the tank under the control of Boris Koshechkin introduced panic into the ranks of the Nazis, crushing their equipment with tracks and striking them with machine gun fire. Koshechkin personally in this battle for Ternopil destroyed up to 100 Nazis with his tank, an anti-tank gun battery and set fire to two enemy tanks.
For the heroism and courage shown in these battles, skillful company command, resourcefulness and skillful reconnaissance, as well as inflicting serious damage to the enemy in manpower and equipment, Boris Kuzmich Koshechkin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 3676). The brave tankman received the award in the Moscow Kremlin.
Talking about his successes, Koshechkin praised the crew of his tank and the combat vehicles of his company. Also, good shooting from a cannon helped him to solve the assigned combat tasks, very often only two shells were enough for him to hit the target. He also said that he was very well versed in maps, could read them. At the same time, Boris Koshechkin gave preference to German cards, noting that there were a large number of mistakes in the Soviet ones. He usually kept the map in his bosom, but did not carry the tablet at all, since it interfered with the tank.
After being awarded the Golden Star, Boris Koshechkin entered the Military Academy of Armored and Mechanized Forces. After graduating from the academy in 1948, he served as chief of staff of a tank battalion, then was an officer in tank training. Later he was engaged in teaching at the Kiev Higher Military School, served as the commander of a tank battalion in Cherkassy.
Since 1972, Colonel Boris Kuzmich Koshechkin was in reserve. After completing his military career, he lived and worked in Kiev, worked at various enterprises. After retirement, he continued to conduct active social activities, often attended schools, was engaged in the patriotic education of young people. Published in periodicals, was the author of several books. In retirement, he was able to return to the hobby of his youth - painting, drawing oil paintings. As of 2013, he was a member of the Presidium of the International Union of CIS Hero Cities, Chairman of the Kiev Union for the Friendship of Hero Cities. By the decree of the President of Ukraine dated May 5, 2008, he was awarded the rank of Major General.
Currently, Boris Kuzmich Koshechkin is already 95 years old, he is an honorary citizen of Sevastopol, Khabarovsk, Ternopil and Shepetovka.
