Comrades who saved the day!
In December 1943, huge Soviet operation was on-going. Entire north part of SSSR was liberated.
However, there were still some difficulties. One of a kind story goes for T-34 that was commanded
by Lieutenant Stepan Tkachenko, who got stuck with his tank in a half-frozen swamp close to Pskov
(not far from Estonian and Latvian border).
After several German attacks, the entire crew, except radio operator Viktor Chernyshenko, was
killed. During the night he was joined by another tank driver and a mechanic Alexey Sokolov, who
secretly reached the tank from the Soviet positions. But, he couldn’t pull the tank out off the swamp
and save his colleague.
Nevertheless, Chernyshenko and Sokolov decided not to abandon the T-34 but to fight, and for 13
days they resisted fierce attacks from German positions. With just several cans of meat, a bit of
sugar, several biscuits and just the water which dripped into the tank from the swamp.
Frozen, hungry and sleepless, the two Soviet soldiers fended off the continuous barrage of German
attacks until on December 30 th the Soviet troops broke through the enemy lines towards the lonely T-
34.
In the end, Alexey Sokolov died the next day after the rescue. Chernyshenko managed to survive
the battle, but unfortunately his both feet were amputated. Both of them received the title of Hero of
the Soviet Union.
Link: https://www.rbth.com/history/329862-3-greatest-victories-t-34
Image: https://66.media.tumblr.com/17bd54b845dd4de960eaf69bc1eb9def/tumblr_ox2tm7PKUw1w636mro1_1280.jpg
Recent Comments