Photos WW2 Soviet Forces

Soviet citizens shot by the Germans

Soviet tankers who died in battle. They died, but did not surrender. In the background, the destroyed Soviet tank KV-2. Presumably, the photo was taken in the city of Ostrov.

Captured Soviet soldiers. Summer 1941

37 mm 61-k anti-aircraft machine gun on the ZiS-6 chassis. Extremely rare unit

Red Army soldiers who died in the region of Staraya Rusa. German soldiers have already searched the corpses and removed their boots. Somewhere near Staraya Russa in the fall of 1941, my paternal great-grandfather fought. Perhaps later I will tell his biography. In one of the battles, he received seven bullet wounds when their unit broke out of the encirclement. For the battles near Staraya Russa, he received a medal "For Courage", quite rare and honorable for 1941.

76-mm divisional gun model 1936 (F-22) and the dead gunners. From the album Pz.Jäg.Abt. 17. Judging by the fact that the gun is in an open field, the soldiers had to take the battle urgently - perhaps to eliminate the enemy's breakthrough. 12.8.41

T-28, blown up by its own crew. According to the characteristic features of the T-28 with the L-10 cannon of the 1938 release

I remembered one story ...

Early morning on June 26, 1941, the war has been going on for the fifth day. Senior sergeant of the long-term service Malko Dmitry Ivanovich, who was in charge of the storage of spare parts for auto-armored vehicles at the warehouse of the People's Commissariat of Defense, drove to Minsk in an armored car. Assignment: inquire at the headquarters of the Western Front about the future fate of the warehouse.
Only by mid-afternoon did the senior sergeant manage to reach Minsk, since the Mogilev highway was packed with troops heading for the front line and refugees hurrying to escape to the east, away from the war. The city was on fire, the streets were littered with heaps of broken bricks. A bonfire was burning in the courtyard of the headquarters - the Red Army men burned documents, in the premises - not a soul. The headquarters was now in a different place. By evening, Dmitry returned to his military town, on the territory of which there was a warehouse serving the troops of the Western Special Military District (previously the 21st mechanized brigade was stationed in this town). Malko reported the results of the trip to the head of the warehouse, Major Deniskovsky, and learned from him about the evacuation.

On the morning of June 27, Deniskovsky gathered the personnel and gave the necessary orders. All day the Red Army soldiers were preparing the warehouse property for evacuation, stopping cars traveling along the highway to the east, loading the most scarce spare parts and rubber. The families of the servicemen and children went in ambulances.
Malko asked permission to remove the T-28 stored in the warehouse, which came from the overhaul. Despite the objections of the head of the warehouse, the senior sergeant persuades him to take the tank out of the warehouse. It was the fifth war of Sergeant Malko, behind him there were battles in Spain, the conflict at Khalkhin Gol, the 39-year campaign in Poland and the Soviet-Finnish war. All night the senior sergeant prepared the tank for the road.

On the morning of June 28, a column with the property of the warehouse lined up the gate. It was closed by the tank of Dmitry Malko. On the same day, the convoy on the Mogilev highway was bombed - from a close explosion of an aerial bomb at the T-28, the engine stalled, and it was not possible to start the tank. Major Deniskovsky demanded to blow up the combat vehicle, but Malko said that he would stay with the tank and would try to repair it. Under his responsibility, the sergeant was allowed to repair. Dmitry Ivanovich fussed about for several hours until he managed to start the tank. He never saw his convoy anymore, but when he reached the Berezina he nailed to one of the units, where he finally found a crew for the T-28. Major-tanker Vasechkin and three cadets of the artillery school: Nikolai Pedan, Alexander Rachitsky and Fyodor Naumov joined the driver-mechanic.

The unit commander was tasked with pulling 3 T-26 tanks out of the swamp. But the tanks could not be found, the crew of the T-28 stayed overnight in the forest, and in the morning it turned out that the Soviet troops had withdrawn and the Germans were all around. It was necessary to break through to our own, but the Mogilev highway has already been cut by the enemy. Nikolai Pedan proposes a non-standard move - to break through the occupied Minsk. Malko supports him - he knows the city very well and is confident that he will be able to guide the tank over it. It was decided to replenish ammunition and fuel at the warehouse where Malko served. The tank reached the abandoned warehouse safely. The crew loaded more than 70 shells, 7000 rounds of ammunition and the tank moved towards Minsk. At noon on July 3, the T-28 approached the outskirts of the capital of Belarus in the area of the city power plant.


Subsequently, Dmitry Ivanovich Malko said:
“We passed the railway crossing, the tracks of the tram ring and ended up on Voroshilov Street. There were many factories here, but all their buildings were now dilapidated, with dark openings of doors and windows. Then our car drew level with the long, crimson distillery building. Here we saw the first fascists. There were about two dozen of them. German soldiers loaded boxes of bottles into the car and did not pay any attention to the sudden appearance of a lonely tank.
When the Germans huddled at the truck were about fifty meters away, the right turret of the tank started working. Nikolai hit the Nazis with a machine gun. I saw through the peephole how the Nazis fell by the car. In just a few minutes, the group of enemies was finished. I aimed the tank at the truck and crushed it along with crates of vodka and wine.
Then we crossed a wooden bridge over the Svisloch and turned right into Garbarnaya, now Ulyanovskaya street. We passed the market (there is now a stadium) and suddenly a column of motorcyclists jumped out from around the corner of Lenin Street. The major did not immediately give the command to open fire. But then I felt his hand on my left shoulder - and threw the tank to the left. The first rows of motorcyclists crashed into the frontal armor of the tank, and the car crushed them. Those who followed them turned to the right, and immediately I received a new signal from the major and turned the tank to the right. The swerving motorcyclists suffered the same fate. I saw through the viewing hole the faces of the Nazis, twisted with horror. Only for a moment did they appear before my eyes and immediately disappeared under the hull of the tank. Those of the motorcyclists who walked in the middle and tail of the column tried to turn back, but they were overtaken by machine-gun fire from the tank. In a matter of minutes, the column was completely defeated.

A steep climb began on Engels Street. The houses were on fire, the smoke of conflagrations was spreading around. They caught up with the park near the Yanka Kupala Theater and fired at a group of Germans who had accumulated there. Firing on the move, we burst out onto the central, Sovetskaya Street. Turning to the right, I led the tank forward along a narrow street pitted with craters, strewn with debris and broken bricks. When we went downstairs, near the district House of the Red Army, I received a command from the major to turn right. I turned onto Proletarskaya Street, which now bears the name of Yanka Kupala, and had to stop. The entire street turned out to be clogged with enemy equipment: cars with weapons and ammunition, tank trucks stood along it. On the left, by the river, piled up some boxes, field kitchens, soldiers were swimming in the Svisloch. And across the river, in Gorky Park, tanks and self-propelled guns took refuge under the trees. T-28 opened fire on the enemy from all its means. I saw through the viewing slot how enemy vehicles flared up, how tankers exploded. The flames engulfed not only the convoy of cars, but also neighboring houses, spread across the Svisloch to the trees of the park.

The fascists went mad. They ran along the river bank, hiding behind trees, behind the ruins of buildings. Everywhere enemies were overtaken by the fire of our tonka. Machine-gun bursts mowed down the Nazis, not giving them the opportunity to come to their senses, to come to their senses.

Almost the entire enemy column that had blocked Proletarskaya Street was scattered as if a tornado had passed through it. Burning wrecks of cars and broken up tank trucks were scattered everywhere. And the corpses of fascist soldiers and officers.
The major gave the order to turn around, I again drove onto Sovetskaya Street and turned to the right. We passed the bridge over the Svisloch, past the power plant. Here on the right, in the Gorky Park, a new concentration of the enemy was noticed. Under the dense canopy of trees stood a dozen vehicles, several tanks and self-propelled guns. The Nazis crowded around them. They anxiously threw up their heads, expecting a raid by Soviet planes: from the direction of Proletarskaya Street, dull explosions of exploding ammunition were still heard, which could be mistaken for a bombing. But the danger lay in wait for the Nazis not from the sky, but from the ground. Just like on Proletarskaya, the cannon of our tank was the first to speak, followed by the machine guns of the central and right towers.
- There are six shells left! - shouted the loader.
- Cease fire, full speed ahead! - commanded the major.
I put in fourth gear and the tank rushed down the street. We drove through the Round Square, overcame the rise. We caught up with Dolgobrodskaya. Covered with armor, we could not see how the townspeople watched the actions of our tank. But we felt in our hearts that the raid meant a lot for the Soviet people who had fallen into captivity. The tank climbed to the ridge of the street, and I saw Komarovka ahead - wooden houses, a market, a fork in the road. I was delighted: after all, it is only two or three kilometers from Komarovka to the city outskirts. "Maybe it will be possible to break through?" But failed! In the area of the old cemetery, I squinted my eyes to the side and at the same moment noticed a flash of a shot near the cast-iron fence. After her, almost at the very side of the car, an explosion was heard. Another shell hit the tower, but ricocheted. I tried to squeeze everything out of the car that it was capable of. And at that moment of incredible power, the blow shook the tank. Someone screamed desperately. The shell hit the engine compartment, pierced the stern plate and caused a fire. However, the tank, engulfed in flames and smoke, continued to move until a new blow forced it to stop completely. I was hurt.
- Leave the car! - ordered the major.
I climbed out through the driver's hatch and looked around. Our T-28, raising a column of black smoke, stood at the very fork in Komarov.
- Lively in the gardens ...
I saw the major crawling away from the tank and firing back from the pistol. Two cadets got out of the tower, but one was immediately killed, and the other crawled to the fence. I also ran across the street, jumped into the courtyard of a red brick house, noticing the sign “Minsk Law School” on it. I caught my breath in the yard and sat down. The blood was still running down my face, I wiped it off with a handkerchief and squeezed the wound. The last thing that remained in my memory was a strong roar in the direction where our tank was left - the last shells exploded...”.

Senior Sergeant Malko was incredibly lucky, he hid for two days in basements and abandoned houses, met a group of people like him surrounded by people, and 23 days later he went out with them from his home near the town of Roslavl, Smolensk region. Shortly thereafter, he is assigned to the 17th Panzer Brigade. He fights on the T-34 near Moscow, Stalingrad, Kharkov. In the summer of 1943, after being discharged from the hospital, Dmitry was again at the front. From that time until the end of the war, he was to serve in the 2nd Guards Tatsinskiy Red Banner Order of Suvorov Tank Corps. In June 1944, Operation Bagration begins. On June 26, when the enemy's defense between Vitebsk and Orsha was broken, the 2nd Guards Tank Corps rushed into the breakthrough. With a powerful blow northwest of Orsha, he cut the highway and railways Moscow - Minsk and, together with other formations, liberated the capital of Soviet Belarus. In one day, on July 2, 1944, the Tatsinsky Tank Corps made an almost 60-kilometer dash and in the evening reached the approaches to Minsk. A fierce battle went on all night. At 3 o'clock in the morning the people of Tatsin burst into the city outskirts, and two hours later they went deep into the interweaving of streets from the northeast. Comrade Malko also took part in the liberation of Minsk.

In April 1945, Dmitry Malko, senior lieutenant of the guards, deputy commander of a tank company, took part in the assault on Konigsberg. A month later, here, on the territory of East Prussia, Dmitry Malko heard the long-awaited news of the Victory. The war was over. But the inhabitants of Minsk remembered about the T-28 tank alone trying to break through the entire city. This fight has become a legend. The participation of the T-28 driver-mechanic in that battle was noted only 25 years later: by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 24, 1966 D.I. Malko was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

In 1967, Dmitry Ivanovich tracked down one of the former cadets from his crew - Nikolai Pedan worked on a state farm in the city of Krivoy Rog in Ukraine. Memoirs of Dmitry Malko were published in 1986 in one of the books of the series "On earth, in heaven and at sea."

The deceased driver of ZiS-5, Bolshaya Sergachevka, 09/21/1941
I can assume that there was a passenger in the car who was wounded during the shelling of the car - traces of blood and bullet holes are clearly visible on the second door.

The Red Army soldiers surrender. Smolensk region, press photo. 11.8.1941

BT-7 and the deceased tankman. Radekhov, 23 June 1941

BT-7 tanks from the 10th Panzer Division of the 15th Mechanized Corps, knocked out on June 23, 1941 on the outskirts of Radekhov, Lviv Region. They were hit by German anti-tank guns and tanks from the 11th Panzer Division, which occupied the area of the Radekhov railway station.

Interesting attempt to stop the train

Tank BT and the dead Red Army soldiers