On a sunny day on July 3, 1941, a Soviet tank slowly entered the city of Minsk, which had been captured by the Nazis for a week. Lonely, already intimidated by the Germans, passers-by hurriedly huddled up to the houses - a huge three-turret armored vehicle crawled along the streets of the city, bristling with four machine guns, slowly waving the barrel of a short cannon.
Hitler's soldiers were not at all afraid of the Soviet tank - in those days there were already a lot of captured armored vehicles in the Verkhrmacht. The cheerful German cyclist even rode in front of the tank for some time, slowly pressing the pedals. The driver-mechanic pressed the gas harder, the tank jerked forward and smeared the hapless cyclist on the pavement - you see, he was just tired of the tankers. But they did not touch several Germans who smoked on the porch - they did not want to open up ahead of time.
Finally we drove up to the distillery. Not in the sense of "finally" to have a drink, but in the sense that they have found a goal. Unhurried, detailed Germans loaded boxes of alcohol into the truck. An armored car was bored nearby. Nikolay could not stand the first in the right tower - from fifty meters he fried a truck from a machine gun. Seryoga in the left, too, pressed the trigger. The major bit his lip - with the first accurate shot he turned the armored car into a heap of metal and turned the fire on the infantry. It was all over in a few minutes. Completing the picture of the defeat, Sergeant Malko led the tank through the remnants of the truck.
Apparently, the Germans did not yet understand what was happening in the city. The tank, not pursued by anyone, neatly crossed the Svisloch River along a wooden bridge - almost 30 tons is not a joke - and crawled towards the market. A column of motorcyclists went to the meeting of the T-28 - exactly the same as they will be shown in films 20 years later - cheerful, forceful, self-confident.
A gray snake flowed around the tank on the left. Having missed several crews behind the tank's hull, the major sharply hit the mechanic on the left shoulder, and he threw the tank directly into the convoy. There was a terrible grinding and screaming. The rear machine gun from the head tower hit the back of the head of the motorcyclists who had managed to slip through, and panic began on the road.
Tower diesel fuel poured fire on the Nazis in the middle and end of the column, pale Malko pressed and pressed on the levers, grinding people and motorcycles with an iron bulk. Sweat trickled from under the helmet and flooded his eyes - two weeks earlier he, having passed Spain, Khalkhin Gol, Poland and Finland, could not even imagine that he would get into such a meat grinder.
The tankers did not spare cartridges - in the morning they filled the tank with cartridges and shells to the eyeballs in an abandoned military town. True, in a hurry they took half of the shells for the divisional guns - and those, although they were of the same caliber, did not fit into the tank gun. But the machine guns did not stop firing. Leaving on the central street of Minsk - Sovetskaya - the tank, walking, fired at the Germans crowded in the park near the theater. Then I turned onto Proletarskaya and stopped there. The faces of the fighters stretched into wolf smiles. The street was simply packed with enemies and equipment - vehicles with weapons, vehicles with ammunition, fuel tanks, field kitchens. And soldiers, soldiers in gray uniforms all around.
Having sustained a pause in the Moscow Art Theater, the T-28 exploded in a tornado of fire. A cannon and three frontal machine guns turned the street into a total hell. Almost immediately, the tanks caught fire, burning gasoline flowed through the streets, the fire spread to vehicles with ammunition, then to houses and trees. No one had a chance to hide from dagger fire. Leaving behind a branch of purgatory, the tankers decided to visit Gorky Park. True, on the way, they came under fire from a 37 mm anti-tank gun.
The major calmed the rowdy with three shots. The Nazis were again waiting for the tankers in the park. These have already heard the shots and explosions of exploding ammunition - but they lifted their heads and looked out at Stalin's falcons. They thought that, besides aviation, they were not in danger in Minsk. Red Star T-28 hastened to dissuade them from this. Everything went on a knurled one - a barking cannon, choking machine guns, a burning tank, black smoke and scattered corpses of enemy soldiers.
The gun ammunition was almost exhausted and it was high time for the tankers to make their legs from Minsk, especially since now it has ceased to be a paradise for the Germans.
They moved to Komarovka - there and not far from the exit, and further - to the Moscow highway - and to their own. Did not work out. Already at the exit from the city, at the old cemetery, the T-28 came under fire from a well-disguised anti-tank battery.
The first shells ricocheted off the turret, but there was no chance - the Fritzes were aiming and at the side, there was practically nothing to answer. At full throttle, the mechanic drove and drove the tank to the outskirts. Only a minute was not enough for them - the shell hit the engine, the tank caught fire and finally stopped after the next hit. However, the crew was still alive and Major Vasechkin ordered to leave the car.
Not everyone managed to leave. After the battle, a local resident Lyubov Kireeva buried two people - a major, who until the last shot back from the Nazis with a revolver and one of the cadets. The second cadet, apparently, either burned down in the tank or was killed trying to get out of it. The fates of the survivors are different.
The vast combat experience of the driver-mechanic, senior sergeant Malko helped him here too - he got out of the city, met the Red Army men leaving the encirclement, crossed the front line, returned to tank units, and went through the whole war with honor to the end. The loader Fyodor Naumov was sheltered by local residents, went into the forest, fought in a partisan detachment, in 1943 he was wounded and taken out of the occupied Belarus to the rear. Nikolai Pedan was taken prisoner by the Nazis, spent four years in concentration camps, was rescued in 1945, returned to serve in the army and was demobilized in 1946.
The destroyed T-28 stood in Minsk for the entire occupation, reminding both the Germans and the citizens of Minsk about the feat of our soldiers.
Thanks to people like these tankers, in the fall of 1941, Hitler's armies did not enter Moscow. It was these people who laid the foundation for the Victory.
The documentary story "The Fire Tank" by P. Bereznyak and the film "Black Birch" are dedicated to the events of July 3.
The crew of the T-28 tank:
Tank commander / turret gunner Major Vasechkin
Driver mechanic Senior Sergeant Dmitry Malko
Charging Cadet Fyodor Naumov
Machine gunner of the right tower Cadet Nikolay Pedan
Machine gunner of the left tower Cadet Sergei (surname unknown)
Machine gunner of the rear machine gun of the head tower Cadet Alexander Rachitsky
Memories of Dmitry Malko
Memories of Fyodor Naumov
