The Great Patriotic War was marked by mass heroism of Soviet soldiers unparalleled in history. Privates, commanders and generals - all, without distinction of rank and rank, tried to defend their homeland, albeit at the cost of their own lives. This was especially important in the first, most difficult and terrible months, when an armored wave of Wehrmacht troops rolled to the East. It seemed to be rolling inevitably, but as a result, it crashed on the reefs, which became the Brest Fortress and Odessa, Kiev and Sevastopol, Moscow and Stalingrad … residents. Then the whole country became aware of him.
Fearless division commander - Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov (far left). According to some reports, the picture was taken on the day of his death.
Not long before this, at the end of October, the first stage of the offensive operation called Typhoon, the purpose of which was to capture Moscow, was completed. The Germans reached the near approaches to the capital, defeating parts of three Soviet fronts near Vyazma. The tactical victory was won, and the Hitlerite generals decided to take a break - the battered units had to wait for replenishment. By November 2, in the Volokolamsk direction, the front line had stabilized, the Wehrmacht troops temporarily went on the defensive, but this circumstance did not particularly bother the Berlin strategists, because Moscow was really, if you look at the map, just a stone's throw away. Another throw, another blow of a tank "fist" - like dozens inflicted throughout Europe …
After a two-week lull, the Germans again launched an offensive, striving by all means to complete another campaign in 1941. The new blitzkrieg was as close as ever, for the Red Army's defensive line was dangerously stretched out. But the role was played by what no headquarters could have foreseen.
In the Volokolamsk direction, the 41-kilometer front was defended by the 316th Infantry Division under the command of Major General Panfilov, the flanks of which were covered by the 126th Infantry Division on the right, and the 50th Cavalry Division from the Dovator corps on the left. It was at these "junctions" on November 16 that the main blow of two German tank divisions was directed, one of which went directly to the Dubosekovo area, at the position of the 2nd battalion of the 1975th rifle regiment of the 316th division.
This unit had previously suffered significant losses, but replenishment had time to approach. He had at his disposal both anti-tank guns (although most of them were not powerful enough), and a novelty - anti-tank guns of the PTRD. They were transferred to a special group of tank destroyers in the amount of about 30 people under the command of 30-year-old political instructor Vasily Klochkov, formed from among the most persistent and well-aimed fighters of the 4th company of the 1975 regiment. They became the famous Panfilovites who thwarted the rapid advance of the tank armada. Of the 54 tanks, being under constant shelling and bombing, a handful of soldiers destroyed 18 vehicles during the battle that lasted 4 hours. The Germans considered these losses unacceptable and turned from the Volokolamsk direction. The enemy was stopped at the cost of the lives of daredevils who did not surrender the last line.
Already on November 27, the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda first reported this feat, indicating that there were 29 Red Army soldiers guarding the patrol, but one turned out to be a traitor and the others were shot. During the years of "perestroika", it was this figure that became the reason for an attempt to "cancel" the battle at Dubosekovo, or at least to play down its significance. Indeed, a list of fighters a few days after the events, at the request of the Krivitsky correspondent, was compiled by the company commander, Captain Gundilovich, who later honestly admitted that he could not remember someone or be mistaken, because the special group of "fighters" included not only his subordinates, but also volunteers from other divisions of the regiment. But later, already in 1942, when the participants in the battle were nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, all the circumstances were established. Only the turmoil of the war years did not allow the timely presentation of awards to all the Panfilovites, of whom, as it turned out, 6 people survived - two were wounded or shell-shocked, two went through German captivity …
To this day, there are disputes about whether the political instructor Klochkov, who during the battle threw himself with a bunch of grenades under the tank during the battle, actually spoke the famous phrase "Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!" But this is exactly how, with their backs to their capital and facing towards where the enemy tanks were advancing, there are 6 soldiers at the memorial to those who fell in that battle - representatives of 6 nationalities who were united in the face of death by love for the great Motherland. Their act then, in 1941, played a huge mobilizing role. The Germans did not break through in Moscow, the battle for which became one of the decisive events during the entire Great Patriotic War and the most important event of its first year, when Hitler's Typhoon never gained full strength. And the memory of the courage of the Panfilovites remained alive decades later.
