Only two and a half months of fighting in World War II turned out to be enough for tank crews under the command of D.F. Lavrinenko to destroy 52 enemy tanks. Until the end of the war, this figure could not be surpassed by any crew of the Red Army.
Favorite teacher
The homeland of the future Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitry Fedorovich Lavrinenko is the Kuban village of Fearless. The father was killed in the civil war, the mother raised her son alone. After graduating from teacher's courses, Dmitry Fedorovich taught at a farm school. According to the memories of the students, the young teacher was a talented teacher, the students loved him.
First a cavalryman, then a tanker
Dmitry Lavrinenko enrolled in the army voluntarily, began serving in the cavalry troops. In the late 30s - early 40s, after graduating from a tank school, he took part in the transfer of troops when the geopolitical situation in the USSR changed, as a result of which Western Ukraine and Bessarabia were annexed to the Soviet Union. Even then, the command distinguished the young tanker for his desire to master the technique and his “sniper eye”.
Retreat and reformation
In the summer of 1941, D. F. Lavrinenko was the commander of a platoon of a tank division of a mechanized corps stationed in one of the Ukrainian cities. The formation, where the future tank ace served, did not take part in the battles for a long time, retreating from the western borders of the USSR. In one of the battles, Lavrinenko's tank was damaged, but the officer managed to convince the authorities not to abandon the combat unit, but to send it to be repaired. The Stalingrad Tractor Plant delivered new KVt T-34 tanks to the brigade, one of the "thirty-fours" went to Lavrinenko's crew.
First victories
The first four German tanks destroyed by the crew of Dmitry Lavrinenko were the fighting vehicles of the Guderian group, our tankers knocked them out in the battles near Mtsensk in October 41st. A group of four “thirty-fours” under the command of Dmitry Fedorovich suddenly attacked an enemy tank formation, in that battle Soviet tankers destroyed fifteen pieces of equipment. In total, the crew of Dmitry Lavrinenko in the battles near Mtsensk knocked out, according to various sources, from seven to nineteen Nazi tanks - then there was no accurate accounting of the knocked out equipment.
How the tankers of Serpukhov defended
When the 4th tank brigade was transferred near Volokolamsk, Lavrinenko's tank was left to guard the headquarters of the 50th army, and he did not arrive at the place of deployment of his formation in time - the retreating transport filled the road. Stopping in Serpukhov, the crew of Lavrinenko's tank decided to shave in a barbershop. This delay later played a decisive role in the city's defense against the Germans. The Nazis took advantage of the fact that the approaches to Serpukhov were practically open, and sent a large reconnaissance formation in the direction of the city. Serpukhov was defended only by the forces of an ineffective combat battalion, consisting of militias. Having learned that a Soviet T-34 was in the city, the command ordered Lavrinenko's crew to take up defense and break up the German column. Having taken a convenient position in the suburbs of Serpukhov, the tankers waited for German reconnaissance and utterly defeated it, shooting at point-blank range. The case was completed by the approaching militia from the exterminator battalion. Tankers collected good trophies on the battlefield - the armament of the Serpukhov garrison was replenished with an anti-tank gun, for which there was a full ammunition load, a dozen motorcycles with sidecars, machine guns and mortars were also captured. Plus, along with the T-34, a German bus arrived at the brigade headquarters, where there were enemy documents and maps. Then Katukov sent all this documentation to the headquarters of the Supreme Commander.
Fighting near Volokolamsk
In the area of the Skirmanovsky bridgehead, the T-34 Lavrinenko was knocked out, the gunner-radio operator was wounded. The brigade, where Dmitry Fedorovich served, suffered many combat losses in these battles. In November of the 41st, three "thirty-fours" of platoon D. Lavrinenko were included in the support unit of the rifle regiment of the division of I.V. Panfilov. Near one of the villages of the Volokolamsk region, Soviet tankers knocked out seven Nazi tanks and liberated the village itself from the Germans. Meanwhile, as a result of the maneuver, German troops entered the rear of the Soviet riflemen. Lavrinenko decided on his own, with one of his tanks, to detain and, if possible, destroy a group of enemy tanks. During that battle, the T-34 crew disabled six out of eight tanks. Then our “thirty-four” quietly retreated, thereby allowing the infantrymen to avoid the encirclement. A day later, a large number of German tanks and motorized infantry began to storm the village of Gusenevo, as a result of a mortar attack, the legendary Major General Panfilov was killed. Shocked by this death, Lavrinenko's tankers destroyed seven fascist tanks in a desperate oncoming battle. But soon ten more units advanced to replace the knocked out ones on the battlefield, and a shell hit Lavrinenko's tank. The entire crew of the T-34, except for the commander, died.
Awarded after half a century
On December 5, 1941, Senior Lieutenant Lavrinenko was presented with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. At that time, the crews of his T-34 already had 37 destroyed enemy tanks. Over the next 13 days, "thirty-four" Lavrinenko knocked out 12 more, and on December 18, the heroic Soviet tank ace died from a mine fragment. D. F. Lavrinenko was posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin. At the end of the 60s, Moscow schoolchildren found the burial place of D.F. Lavrinenko, and the remains of the heroic tankman were solemnly reburied in a mass grave. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union Lavrinenko, after lengthy bureaucratic delays, was awarded only in 1990. A school and a street in his native village, as well as streets in 5 cities, including Moscow, are named after the hero.
Dmitry Lavrinenko - tank ace number 1 in the Red Army.
Tank ace No. 1 in the Red Army is Dmitry Lavrinenko, who fought in the 4th (1st Guards) Tank Brigade. Lieutenant Lavrinenko met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War at the very border as a platoon commander of the 15th Panzer Division, which was stationed in the city of Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk), on the territory of Western Ukraine. Already in the first battles, according to fellow soldier and combat friend of the senior lieutenant Alexander Raftopullo, Lavrinenko destroyed at least 10 German tanks.
Lavrinenko distinguished himself again already in the battle for the city of Mtsensk, when the 4th Tank Brigade of Colonel Mikhail Katukov repelled the fierce attacks of the German 2nd Tank Group of Colonel General Heinz Guderian. In October 1941, during a battle near the village of Pervy Voin, a platoon of tanks under the command of Lavrinenko saved a mortar company from destruction, on whose positions German tanks had already almost burst. From the story of the tank driver senior sergeant Ponomarenko:
“Lavrinenko told us this: “You can’t return alive, but help out the mortar company. Understandably? Forward!"
We jump out on a hillock, and there German tanks, like dogs, snoop. I stopped.
Lavrinenko - blow! On a heavy tank. Then we see a German medium tank between our two burning BT light tanks - they also smashed it. We see another tank - it runs away. Shot! Flame... There are three tanks. Their crews are spreading out.
At 300 meters I see another tank, I show it to Lavrinenko, and he is a real sniper. From the second shell, this one, the fourth in a row, also broke. And Kapotov - well done: he also got three German tanks. And Polyansky ruined one.
So the mortar company was saved. And themselves - without a single loss!
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, General of the Army D. D. Lelyushenko, in his book “Dawn of Victory”, spoke about one of the techniques that Lieutenant Dmitry Lavrinenko used in the battles near Mtsensk:
“I remember how Lieutenant Dmitry Lavrinenko, having carefully disguised his tanks, installed logs in positions that outwardly resembled the barrels of tank guns. And not without success: the Nazis opened fire on false targets. Having allowed the Nazis to a favorable distance, Lavrinenko unleashed destructive fire on them from ambushes and destroyed 9 tanks, 2 guns and many Nazis.
On October 19, 1941, one single Lavrinenko tank defended the city of Serpukhov from the invasion of the invaders. His thirty-four destroyed an enemy motorized column that was advancing along the highway from Maloyaroslavets to Serpukhov. On November 17, 1941, near the village of Lystsevo, a tank group of already senior lieutenant Lavrinenko, consisting of three T-34 tanks and three BT-7 tanks, entered the battle with 18 German tanks. Lavrinenko's group in this battle destroyed 7 enemy tanks, but at the same time she herself irrevocably lost two BT-7s and two T-34s knocked out. The next day, already one Lavrinenko tank, being in an ambush near the highway going to the village of Shishkino, again entered into battle with a German tank column, again consisting of 18 vehicles. In this battle, Lavrinenko destroyed 6 German tanks. On November 19, 1941, in the village of Gusenevo, Lavrinenko witnessed the death of the commander of the 316th Infantry Division, General I.V. Panfilov (According to other sources, D.F. Lavrinenko learned about Panfilov's death a little later. - Approx. Author). At that moment, 8 German tanks appeared on the highway. His thirty-four immediately entered into battle with enemy tanks, and Lavrinenko managed to destroy 7 German combat vehicles with 7 shells, the eighth tank hastily retreated. Almost immediately, another column appeared, consisting of 10 German tanks. This time, Lavrinenko did not have time to shoot: the blank pierced the side of his thirty-four, the driver and radio operator were killed.
Lavrinenko destroyed his last 52nd tank in the battles on the outskirts of Volokolamsk on December 18, 1941. On the same day, the most productive tanker of the Red Army died from a stray fragment of a mine that hit him in the temple.
Lavrinenko had a chance to participate in 28 tank battles, burn three times in a tank, and as a result, 52 tanks were destroyed.
Lavrinenko destroyed his 52 tanks in just 2.5 months of fierce fighting.
The T-34 tank, according to the general opinion of historians and specialists, was the most successful among all those who participated in the Second World War. And if such a car was lucky with a crew, then the enemies trembled. About the legendary tank ace Lavrinenko and his wonderful "thirty-four" - in this material.
Dmitry Fedorovich Lavrinenko was born in 1914 in the Kuban village with the speaking name Fearless. In the Red Army he served in the cavalry, then graduated from a tank school. Already there, fellow students nicknamed him "sniper's eye" for the phenomenal accuracy of shooting.
From September 1941, Lavrinenko was listed in the 4th Guards Tank Brigade of Colonel Katukov, where a month later he "shot" his first four tanks. But in the beginning, the situation did not bode well. So, on October 6, near Mtsensk, German tanks and infantry unexpectedly attacked the positions of Soviet motorized riflemen and mortars. Several anti-tank guns were destroyed, and as a result, the infantry was left practically bare-handed against an entire enemy tank column.
Having learned about the sudden attack of the Germans, Colonel Katukov urgently sent four T-34 tanks to help, Senior Lieutenant Lavrinenko was appointed commander. Four tanks were supposed to cover the retreating infantry and, if possible, stall for time until the main forces arrived, but everything turned out differently. From the memoirs of the driver of the Lavrinenko tank, senior sergeant Ponomarenko:
“Lavrinenko told us this: “You can’t return alive, but help out the mortar company. Understandably? Forward! We jump out on a hillock, and there German tanks, like dogs, snoop. I stopped. Lavrinenko - blow! On a heavy tank. Then we see a German medium tank between our two burning BT light tanks - they also smashed it. We see another tank - it runs away. Shot! Flames... There are three tanks. Their crews are spreading out.
At 300 meters I see another tank, I show it to Lavrinenko, and he is a real sniper. From the second shell, this one, the fourth in a row, also broke. And Kapotov - well done: he also got three German tanks. And Polyansky ruined one. So the mortar company was saved. And themselves - without a single loss!
One of the most common myths about the Great Patriotic War is that Soviet tanks were everywhere weaker and more primitive than German tanks. Indeed, the main fleet of Soviet armored vehicles were light tanks and tankettes, which, due to the weakness of armor and guns, were of little use. But the approaching military threat from the Third Reich forced the country's leadership and designers to think about new promising models of technology. As of June 22, 1941, more than one and a half thousand of the newest T-34 and KV-1 tanks were produced, those same “spellbound” vehicles that German tankers cursed. In the situation with Dmitry Lavrinenko, fast and mobile "thirty-fours" literally tore apart the German column, which was made up of the PzKpfw III and PzKpfw IV tanks. These German tanks - the pride and threat of all conquered Europe - turned out to be absolutely powerless against the latest Soviet tanks. Guns with a caliber of 37 and 75 millimeters stubbornly did not want to harm the armor of the tanks under the command of Lavrinenko, but the 76-mm T-34 guns regularly pierced German steel.
But back to our hero, because the battle near Mtsensk was not the only feat of Lavrinenko's crew. For example, who knows how a visit to a hairdresser can turn into a fight alone against an entire enemy convoy? Very simple! When the battles for Mtsensk were over, the entire 4th tank brigade departed to defend the Volokolamsk direction. Everything, except for the tank of the platoon commander Lavrinenko, who disappeared in an unknown direction. A day passed, two, four, and only then the lost car returned to the comrades along with the entire crew, and not just one, but with a gift - a captured German bus.
The story told by the platoon commander to his excited brother-soldiers was amazing. His tank was left for a day to guard the headquarters by order of Colonel Katukov. At the end of the day, the tank under its own power tried to catch up with the brigade along the highway, but it was overflowing with equipment, and I had to give up any hope of making it in time. Then the crew decided to turn to Serpukhov and look into the hairdresser's there. Already here, in the power of scissors and shaving brushes, our heroes were found by a Red Army soldier. Having run into the barber shop, he asked the tankers to urgently come to the commandant of the city. There it turned out that Serpukhov would be in the hands of the Germans in a few hours, unless, of course, some miracle happened. The crew of the T-34 could turn out to be such a miracle.
"Thirty-four", disguised by branches and fallen leaves, almost completely merged with the surrounding landscape of the forest edge. Therefore, it was easy to lure the German tank column as close as possible, and only then, having started shelling and sowing panic, proceed to destroy the enemy.
Tankers set up in ambush and soon motorcycles and tanks of the enemy appeared on the road. Began. Having knocked out the first and last car in the convoy, the T-34 began to dodge along the road, crushing enemy guns and equipment along the way. To say that the Germans were stunned is to say nothing. In a few minutes, six tanks were knocked out, several guns and vehicles were destroyed, the enemy was put to flight. Lavrinenko's reward for this operation was a German headquarters bus, which he, with the permission of the commandant, brought with him to the unit.
More than once the crew demonstrated their resourcefulness. So, on November 17, in a battle near the village of Shishkino, the T-34 Lavrinenko destroyed six enemy vehicles, taking advantage of the terrain. The tank was prudently painted in white and was completely invisible in the fresh snow. The moving column of enemy tanks suddenly turned into piles of metal, and the "thirty-four" instantly disappeared into the forest. The next day, the lieutenant's tank knocked out seven more tanks, however, it was also damaged, in addition, the driver and radio operator were killed.
During the battle near the village of Goryuny on December 18, 1941, Lavrinenko knocked out his last, 52nd, tank. Immediately after the battle, he ran with a report to his superiors and, by a tragic accident, was killed by a fragment of a mine that exploded nearby.
Dmitry Fedorovich Lavrinenko is the best tank ace of the USSR of the Great Patriotic War. The amount of equipment destroyed by him is simply amazing. If in two and a half months he was able to destroy fifty-two tanks, then how many would he be able to shoot if not for the ridiculous death?
He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union only 49 years later, in 1990.
Private bussiness
Dmitry Fedorovich Lavrinenko (1914 - 1941) Born in the village of Besstrashnaya (now the Otradnensky district of the Krasnodar Territory) in the family of a Kuban Cossack. Father, Fyodor Prokofievich Lavrinenko, a participant in the First World War, was a Red Guard during the Civil War and died in battles with the White Cossacks. Mother - Matryona Prokofievna - after the death of her husband, she raised her son alone.
In 1931, Dmitry Lavrinenko graduated from the school of peasant youth in the village of Voznesenskaya, and then - teacher's courses in Armavir. After that, in 1931-1933, he worked as a teacher at a school on the Sladkiy farm, where his mother was the chairman of the Stansoviet. On his initiative, a drama circle, a string orchestra and sports sections - wrestling, football, volleyball and athletics were created in a rural school.
In 1933-1934 he worked as a statistician at the head office of the state farm "Khutorok", then as a cashier at a savings bank in the village of Novokubanskoye.
In 1934, Lavrinenko signed up as a volunteer in the Red Army, was sent to the cavalry. In May 1938 he graduated from the Ulyanovsk Tank School. He took part in the campaign against Western Ukraine and in the campaign against Bessarabia. After retreating from the western borders of the USSR in August 1941, he arrived in the 4th (from November 11 - 1st Guards) tank brigade of Colonel M. E. Katukov.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Lieutenant Lavrinenko was already the commander of a tank platoon of the 15th Panzer Division of the 16th Mechanized Corps, stationed in the city of Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine). The division did not take part in hostilities for quite a long time. In early July, the 16th Corps was withdrawn from the Southern Front for redeployment to the Mozyr region (Belarus).
On July 7, German troops broke through to Berdichev (Zhytomyr region of Ukraine) and occupied the city. On July 8-11, Soviet units tried to recapture Berdichev, but then they were withdrawn due to the threat of encirclement. During the fighting, the 16th Corps suffered heavy losses, including in the materiel.
In these first battles, Lavrinenko's tank failed, but the commander did not obey the order to destroy the faulty vehicle during the retreat and, following the retreating units of the 15th Panzer Division, handed over his tank for repairs.
On August 14, 1941, the 15th Panzer Division was disbanded, and four days later, in the Stalingrad region, the 4th Tank Brigade under the command of Colonel M. E. Katukov began to form from the evacuated personnel of the 15th and 20th Panzer Divisions. The brigade received new KV and T-34 tanks from the assembly line of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. Senior Lieutenant Lavrinenko was appointed commander of a T-34 tank platoon.
In early October, Dmitry Lavrinenko took part in the battles near Mtsensk with units of the German 2nd Panzer Group, Colonel General Heinz Guderian. On October 6, the positions of the 4th Tank Brigade near the village of Pervy Voin were attacked by superior forces of German tanks and motorized infantry. Having suppressed anti-tank guns, enemy tanks entered the positions of motorized riflemen and began to "iron" the trenches. To help the foot soldiers, Katukov urgently sent a group of four T-34 tanks under the command of Lavrinenko.
Lavrinenko's tanks attacked suddenly, and then repeated the attack from several different directions, creating the impression of superior forces. In this battle, the group knocked out and destroyed, according to Soviet data, a total of 15 enemy tanks, four of which were on account of Lavrinenko's crew.
The total number of enemy armored vehicles knocked out and destroyed by the crew of Dmitry Lavrinenko in the battles near Mtsensk is not known exactly. According to the memoirs of his brother-soldiers and superiors, various information is given: from 7 to 19 tanks.
After the battles near Mtsensk, the 4th tank brigade was transferred near Moscow to the Volokolamsk direction. She defended the line passing through the villages of Moiseevka, Chentsy, Bolshoye Nikolskoye, Teterino, the Dubosekovo junction, together with units of the 316th Infantry Division of I.V. Panfilov and the cavalry group of L.M. Dovator.
Lavrinenko's platoon participated in heavy battles for the Skirmanovsky bridgehead, during which Katukov's brigade suffered heavy losses. After the successful capture of the bridgehead, the Soviet command decided to build on its success and go to the rear of the Volokolamsk group of German troops.
On November 17, 1941, a group of three T-34s and three BT-7 light tanks was detached under the command of Lavrinenko to support the 316th Infantry Division of Major General I.V. Panfilov to attack the village of Lystsevo. Half a kilometer to the target, it turned out that the group was opposed by 18 enemy tanks. In a short-lived battle that lasted only 8 minutes, 7 German tanks were hit, the rest evaded further battle and went deep into the forest. But the attacking group also lost two BT-7s and two T-34s. The remaining T-34s of Lavrinenko and BT-7 of Malikov burst into Lystsevo at high speed. Following them, Soviet infantrymen entered there. However, on the right flank of the Panfilov division, the Germans from the area of the village of Shishkino went to the rear of the 1073rd Infantry Regiment: the enemy tank column was already moving in the rear of the division's combat formations. By the morning of November 17, the 690th Rifle Regiment was already half-encircled, and the 1073rd and 1075th regiments were knocked out of their positions and retreated.
In this situation, Lavrinenko decided to single-handedly attack the German convoy of eight tanks from an ambush, sending BT-7 to headquarters. Leaving through ravines and copses on the highway leading to Shishkino, Lavrinenko stood not far from the road. There were no shelters nearby, but the white color of the T-34 on the fallen snow served as a good camouflage. Having let the column into close range, Lavrinenko opened fire on the sides of the leading German tanks, then shifted fire on the rear ones and finally fired several shots at the center of the column, destroying a total of three medium and three light tanks, after which he escaped pursuit by copses. The crew of Lavrinenko managed to delay the further advance of the German tanks, which allowed the Soviet units to withdraw to new positions, avoiding encirclement.
The next day, November 18, 1941, near the village of Gusenevo, Lavrinenko knocked out seven enemy tanks, but one of the German shells hit the side of his car. Lavrinenko and Fedorov pulled out the mortally wounded radio operator Sharov, and the driver, Sergeant M.I. Poor burned out in the tank when the ammunition detonated.
On December 5, 1941, Guards Senior Lieutenant Lavrinenko was presented with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The award sheet noted: “... performing combat missions of the command from October 4 to the present, he was continuously in battle. During the period of battles near Orel and in the Volokolamsk direction, Lavrinenko's crew destroyed 37 heavy, medium and light enemy tanks ... "
On December 7, 1941, the offensive of the Soviet troops began in the Istra region. By December 18, units of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade reached the approaches to Volokolamsk. The tank company of senior lieutenant Lavrinenko with an attached detachment of sappers, who cleared the routes of movement of tanks from mines, acted in the forward detachment in the Gryada-Chismena area. At dawn, taking the Germans by surprise, the group attacked the village of Gryady. Lavrinenko decided, without waiting for the approach of the main forces, to attack the Germans in the village of Pokrovskoye, a tank company broke into the village and destroyed the German garrison. Then Lavrinenko led his company in an attack on the neighboring village of Goryuny, where German tanks and armored personnel carriers had withdrawn. The German units could not resist the attack from two sides, the main forces of the brigade and Lavrinenko's company approached, were defeated and fled. Immediately after the battle, the village of Goryuny was subjected to heavy artillery and mortar fire from the enemy. Having jumped out of the tank to report to the brigade commander, Dmitry Lavrinenko was killed by a fragment of a mortar mine.
What is famous
Dmitry Lavrinenko became the most productive tanker in the Red Army throughout the Great Patriotic War. In just two and a half months of fighting, he took part in 28 battles and destroyed 52 enemy tanks.
What you need to know
When the 4th tank brigade was transferred near Moscow to the Volokolamsk direction, it arrived at the Chismena station (105 km from Moscow) on the evening of October 19, 1941. However, the T-34 of the platoon commander Lavrinenko arrived at the location of the brigade only by noon on October 20 under its own power; it was followed by a German staff bus.
Four days earlier, Colonel M. E. Katukov left Lavrinenko's tank at the request of the command of the 50th Army to protect its headquarters, and since then there has been no news from the crew. The incident could turn into a tribunal for Lavrinenko and his crew members.
It turned out that the headquarters of the 50th Army released Lavrinenko's tank almost immediately after the departed tank brigade. But he failed to catch up with the brigade along the road clogged with vehicles.
Arriving in Serpukhov, the carriage stopped near a barbershop to shave. There they were found by a Red Army soldier who handed over Lavrinenko to urgently come to the commandant of the city, brigade commander P. A. Firsov (according to other sources, Firsov himself rushed to the hairdresser's in a car).
It turned out that after the retreat of the 17th Infantry Division, which was defending the village of Ugodsky Zavod (now the city of Zhukov, Kaluga Region), the road to Serpukhov was open. The German command sent a large reconnaissance detachment to Serpukhov. About a battalion of Germans on motorcycles and three vehicles with guns, accompanied by a staff car, moved along the road to the city.
At this time, the Serpukhov garrison consisted of one destruction battalion, in which the elderly and teenagers served. The commandant had no other forces at hand to defend the city. By a lucky coincidence, one of the soldiers suggested to Firsov that there was a T-34 tank in the city near the hairdresser's, and the tankers were shaving. Firsov's only hope was for the one and only Lavrinenko tank.
Lavrinenko reported to the commandant that he had both fuel and ammunition. “I am ready to fight the Germans. Show me the way." A lone tank drove through Serpukhov in the direction of the Bolshevik state farm and further towards Vysokinichi. Tankers set up an ambush on a well-visible section of the road in the area of \u200b\u200bnow Protvino, disguising the car at the edge of the forest.
When a German column appeared on the road, Lavrinenko, having let the lead car 150 meters in, shot the column at close range. Two guns were immediately destroyed, and the third German gunners tried to deploy. At this moment, the T-34 went to ram: jumped out onto the road and, crashing into trucks with infantry, crushed the last gun. The fighters of the fighter battalion arrived in time to complete the defeat of the German unit that had broken through.
The crew of Lavrinenko handed over to the commandant of Serpukhov 13 machine guns, 6 mortars, 10 motorcycles with sidecars and an anti-tank gun with full ammunition. Several prisoners were also captured - these were the first prisoners brought to Serpukhov. Firsov handed over an “explanatory note” to Katukov, which stated that “The commander of the vehicle Lavrinenko Dmitry Fedorovich was detained by me. He was given the task of stopping the enemy who had broken through and helping to restore the situation at the front and in the area of the city of Serpukhov. He not only fulfilled this task with honor, but also showed himself heroically.
The commandant also allowed the German staff bus captured by the tankers to be taken to the brigade. He was led under his own power by the driver M. I. Poor, who moved from the T-34. The bus contained documents and maps, which Katukov immediately sent to Moscow.
Direct speech
"Well, now I'll settle accounts with Hitler!", - said Dmitry Lavrinenko, having received a new T-34 car.
“Don't worry about me. I'm not going to die. Write letters urgently, immediately - from a letter from Dmitry Lavrinenko to relatives 11/30/41
“Outwardly, he looked a little like a dashing warrior. By nature, he was a very gentle and good-natured person. In the first days of the war, Dmitry was not lucky - his tank was out of order. During the retreat, we wanted to destroy the defective tanks. And then suddenly our quiet Lavrinenko reared up: “I won’t give the car to death! It will still come in handy after the renovation. And he got his way. No matter how hard it was, I towed the tank and handed it over for repairs, ” fellow soldier Lavrinenko, retired colonel L. Lekhman.
“... Lieutenant Dmitry Lavrinenko, having carefully disguised his tanks, installed logs in positions that outwardly resembled the barrels of tank guns. And not without success: the Nazis opened fire on false targets. Letting the Nazis at an advantageous distance, Lavrinenko unleashed destructive fire on them from ambush and destroyed 9 tanks, 2 guns and many Nazis, ”- Army General D. D. Lelyushenko, Dawn of Victory, 1966
5 facts about Dmitry Lavrinenko
- Lavrinenko fought on T-34-76 tanks of the 1941 model, in which the tank commander simultaneously served as commander and gunner. From the descriptions of the battles involving Lavrinenko, it follows that, before attacking the enemy, he carefully studied the terrain in order to choose the right direction of attack and the type of subsequent maneuver. The secret of his success was a combination of ambush actions with short surprise attacks by a strike group with well-conducted reconnaissance.
- Dmitry Lavrinenko brought his future wife Nina home to his mother right on the tank. They got married in Vinnitsa in the summer of 1941, where, with the outbreak of World War II, Dmitry's military unit retreated with battles. After Lavrinenko and his unit left for Moscow, Nina and her families were evacuated to Central Asia, to Fergana. She studied at the nursing courses, in early August 1942 she was sent to the front. When her echelon passed through Armavir, she asked her mother-in-law Matryona Prokofievna to visit the city and died during the German bombardment of the Armavir railway station.
- Mother Lavrinenko Matryona Prokofievna was not left by his brother-soldiers. After the war, the Katukovites established a constant correspondence with her, she came to the meeting of veterans. Former fellow soldiers accompanied her throughout her son's military path.
- Marshal of the Armored Forces M. E. Katukov, General of the Army D. D. Lelyushenko, as well as Kuban writers Gary Nemchenko, Pyotr Pridius and Stanislav Filippov, sought to award Lavrinenko for a long time. The personnel department of the USSR Ministry of Defense denied them this request, fearing that the hero's relatives would demand privileges for themselves. Only almost half a century after his death, on May 5, 1990, Lavrinenko Dmitry Fedorovich was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
- Initially, Dmitry Lavrinenko was buried at the battle site, near the highway between the village of Pokrovsky and the village of Goryuny (now Anino). In 1967, the burial place was found by a search party of students of the 296th secondary school. After that, the remains of Dmitry Lavrinenko were reburied in a mass grave in the village of Denkovo.
October 6, 1941. Four "thirty-fours" under the command of Lavrinenko went to the aid of a motorized rifle company that was surrounded. Soviet fighters, trying to hold the height in the area of the village of First Warrior, suffered significant losses. The enemy destroyed their anti-tank guns in the first place, and the attack undertaken by the Germans could have turned into a defeat if not for Lavrinenko's tank platoon. T-34s appeared as if from nowhere and opened fire on enemy tanks. One caught fire, the other ... Changing positions, the defenders made several more lightning attacks. Maneuverable "thirty-fours" with well-aimed fire crushed the enemy, being in constant motion.
Deciding that an entire tank division had rushed into the attack, the Germans retreated, leaving 15 tanks on the battlefield.
In this battle, Lieutenant Lavrinenko chalked up four enemy combat vehicles.
Settlements changed, the position of our troops changed, but the fighting continued. In these battles, the skill of a tank ace was honed. Either he acted from cover, skillfully hiding combat vehicles, then he appeared suddenly, making several short attacks.
After the war, Army General D.D. Lyulashenko spoke about the tactics of a brilliant tanker: “... Lieutenant Dmitry Lavrinenko, having carefully disguised his tanks, installed logs in positions that looked like tank gun barrels. And not without success: the Nazis opened fire on false targets. Having allowed the Nazis to a favorable distance, Lavrinenko unleashed destructive fire on them from ambushes and destroyed 9 tanks, 2 guns and many Nazis.
At the end of October 1941, the 4th tank brigade was transferred to Moscow to defend the Volokolamsk direction. By this time, Dmitry Lavrinenko had about 19 enemy tanks on his account.
Soon the crew of the platoon commander distinguished himself again, this time in the battle near Serpukhov, where he organized an ambush on the lead reconnaissance detachment of the Nazis. T-34 Lavrinenko, with the support of the infantry, destroyed three guns and up to two platoons of soldiers, and as a trophy drove a German headquarters bus to the location of the brigade. True, such a brilliant victory almost turned into a tribunal for the tankers. The fact is that a few days before the battle, Colonel Katukov left the “thirty-four” Lavrinenko to guard the headquarters of the 50th Army. It was known that the headquarters command soon released the tankers, but they did not arrive at the location of the brigade. Where the fighters had gone was a mystery.
It turned out that the defenders, not catching up with their tank brigade, drove into Serpukhov to shave, but lingered, having learned that the Germans were advancing on the city, and there were no forces capable of repelling them in the city ...
Thundered fighting near Moscow. Already senior lieutenant Dmitry Lavrinenko participated in the capture of the Skirmanovsky bridgehead, in the battles near the village of Gusenevo, the village of Lystsevo. During this time, the tanker survived the loss of two crew members - radio operator Alexander Sharov and driver Mikhail Bedny died when one of the enemy shells hit the tank.
