Surely, any historical event will be associated with a mass of rumors, mystical cases and signs, and the Great Patriotic War was no exception in this regard. In this article, we will present some of these stories about the mysterious episodes of the most terrible of wars in the history of mankind.
At times former USSR a myth was spread that Germany attacked us treacherously, without declaring war, and the country's leadership was "neither a dream nor a spirit" about this. However, this was not the case at all: even ordinary citizens of our vast Motherland often saw prophetic dreams, and also had rather strange forebodings.
People knew that there would be a war
Alexander Portnov studies anomalous phenomena, and in his memoirs he writes how his own mother predicted war. One day, in the winter of 1941, she had a very strange and terrible dream. Thousands, millions of people fell into a huge black river, barely covered by a thin layer of ice. They all died. At the same time, terrible groans and cries were heard. In a dream, a man told Alexander's mother not to go anywhere, but to stay in the place where she is now. So the mother of Alexander Portnov knew for sure that there would definitely be a war, and the media only reassure people.
The famous prediction of Lev Fedotov
A prime example predictions about the Great Patriotic War are the records of Lev Fedotov that have survived to this day. Having left as a volunteer at the very beginning of the war, he dies in 1943 near Tula. Interestingly, Leo absolutely accurately indicated the date of the attack on the USSR 17 days before! In his notes, he accurately described how the hostilities would develop and who would win the war. In Fedotov's notes, the researchers found a description of the blockade of Leningrad, a mention of the capture by German troops of large Ukrainian cities - Odessa and Kyiv. Lev also mentioned the failure of the capture of Moscow by the Germans.
How Intuition Saved a Life
In a state of stress, hidden abilities wake up in a person, he begins to see the future. And the stories of those who returned from the front only confirm this. So, Alexei from St. Petersburg knew that he would go through the whole war and not be killed, he would live, although he would receive a severe wound in the head. And this really happened on February 26, 1944, when a shell detonated next to a soldier.
After being wounded, Alexei was heading to his division. Having stopped the truck, he asked to be given a lift to the nearest village - he wanted to spend the night there, and later continue his journey. Before the car had time to drive even a few meters, Alexei asked to get out - he was seized by a strange feeling of anxiety and anxiety. After 20 meters, the truck exploded - the investigation showed that he ran into a mine. The driver and the foreman who was riding in the cab died.
Ghosts in shape
about the Second World War, a lot of the inexplicable and paranormal is connected. For example, the places of past battles today are anomalous zones. A striking example of such a zone is Myasnoy Bor, located just 30 km from Veliky Novgorod. This area is a forest swampy valley. In 1942, when the Soviet command carried out the Luban operation, about 300 thousand of our soldiers died here. Of course, the enemy also suffered huge losses - the Second Shock Army "thinned" significantly, the Spanish "Blue Division", as well as other German units and formations, ceased to exist.
It is interesting that even dogs are well aware of the bad energy of these places. This is not surprising - thousands of human remains are buried here, which animals are looking for. Birds do not build nests here, at night you can hear extraneous voices and see a light of incomprehensible origin. Quite often, ghosts in the form of Red Army soldiers come across here - it was thanks to their tips that most of all the burials were found.
Doors to the past
Once the searchers found the remains of 4 German soldiers in a dugout. They left the skeletons near the dug hole, and they themselves went to the clearing. At night, the search engines woke up from a very strange and incomprehensible noise - the sounds of a German march, the clanging of panther caterpillars, the cries of German soldiers. Frightened, the researchers ran down the river for 500 meters.
When everyone returned to the excavation site in the morning, the skeletons lay in their place, but on the other hand, fresh traces of ... tank tracks were visible a little further. One gets the impression that the panthers cruised along the coast all night. Scientists believe that at the site of large burials and battles there are energy funnels that temporarily blur the line between the present and the past. It is very likely that in this area, located 30 km from Veliky Novgorod, there is also a door to the past.
The rats are running from the ship
During the war, Soviet ships cruised from Murmansk to Great Britain for weapons and food. Naturally, German submarines and aircraft created for us huge problems- only a few ships came with humanitarian aid.
The sailors noticed that before the ship goes down, rats run from it. The command became aware of the spread of such a rumor - and some of the sailors were shot. Rumors no longer spread, and the rats continued to run away from obviously troubled ships. What can you do, officials who were atheists could not normally perceive information that did not fit into the Marxist-Leninist philosophy.
Incredible cases in the war
A German mine, describing an invisible arc in the sky, landed on our position with a terrible whistle. She landed right in the trench. And not just hit a narrow trench, but crashed into a soldier who was running along the trench, basking in the cold. Mina, as if specially guarded the Red Army, fell into the trench at the moment when he ran under it. There is nothing left of the man. The body, torn to shreds, was thrown out of the trench and scattered for tens of meters around, on the parapet lay only the bayonet from the carbine that hung behind him. I can't talk about it without emotion, because exactly the same thing happened to my signalman. We walked with him along the trench into the anti-tank ditch, I had already stepped into the ditch and turned around the clay corner, and he still remained in the trench, literally two steps behind me. Mina hit him, but I was not injured. If the mine had not flown just one meter, it would have hit me, and the signalman around the corner would have survived. The undershoot of a mine could happen for various reasons: a grain of gunpowder was not poured into the charge, or a barely noticeable headwind slowed it down. Yes, and we could go a little faster - both would have survived. And a little slower - both would have died.
On another occasion, everything happened exactly as described at the beginning: a German mine, having described an invisible arc in the sky, landed on our position with a terrible whistle. She landed right in the trench. And not just fell into a narrow trench, but crashed into a soldier ... But this time the mine did not explode. It pierced the soldier's shoulder and half poked out under his arm. Accident? Yes. As many as three. The first two were detrimental to the soldier, and the third was saving. The man stayed alive. He was saved by a lucky chance: the mine did not explode!
Here they are, pure coincidence. Happy and unhappy, good and bad, and the price for them is a human life.
Oh, how rarely did this welcome guest appear on the front line - Mr. Happy Chance! Only a few were lucky for thousands of deaths. Why this particular soldier was lucky is a special question. Whether chance catered to a person or a person to a chance - no one knows. However, we can safely say that every survivor on the front line fighter can remember more than one case when he was inevitably to be killed, but by a lucky chance he survived. Maybe God intervened? Who knows.
All of us from childhood were brought up as atheists, most of us did not believe in God. But as soon as it happened to press: whether a bomb, a shell or a mine explodes, or even a machine gun scratches, and you are ready to fall through the ground, just to survive, right here - where is it, that atheism ?! - you pray to God: “Lord, help me! Lord, help! .. ”He helped some. But rarely.
In terms of their manifestations, happy accidents in the war were surprisingly diverse, unusual, rare, unique, unpredictable, unexpected and capricious. And they did not appear at all out of plea or compassion, not even for the sake of asserting justice or accomplishing retribution. We at the front knew that there were happy occasions, secretly and ourselves counted on them, but we spoke about them with spiritual trepidation, with superstitious delicacy, reluctantly, quietly, so as not to inadvertently frighten us away. And many superstitious people - and in the war almost everyone was superstitious - in a conversation generally tried not to touch on this topic. They were afraid.
Death often punished not only cowardice, sluggishness, but also overcaution, and even defiant reckless heroism. And vice versa, for the most part, courage, bravery, self-sacrifice, prudence spared. An experienced, experienced warrior, going to a dangerous business, as if to an ordinary job, death often bypassed. Another person was sent to certain death, and he, having done an extremely risky business, returned alive. Here, of course, played a role and experience. But it depended more on chance - the German would turn in your direction or pass by without attention.
There were cases when the most ordinary stupidity, tyranny, and even greed of the boss brought salvation from imminent death.
I, like some others, was lucky in the war. During the three years of being on the front line with constant shelling, bombing, attacks, sorties to the Germans in the rear, I was only wounded three times. True, many times shell-shocked. But it didn't kill. And there were plenty of cases when it was inevitable for me or us to be killed. But for some strange, sometimes unnatural coincidence, it did not kill.
The commander of our division, an avid campaigner, Gordienko, was distinguished by martial arts. He also demanded from us, comfrey, that our battered, newly introduced shoulder straps should not be crumpled and frayed, but stick out to the sides, like the wings of archangels. My scouts inserted plywood into their shoulder straps, and I - steel plates from a downed German aircraft, although this interfered with us in battle. Soon we came under blasting fire: the shells burst over our heads, and there was nowhere to hide from the steel shower. They sat down on the ground in "pots" - with their legs tucked up to their stomachs to reduce the susceptibility. A shrapnel hit my left shoulder and knocked me to the ground. I thought my hand was torn off. They took off my tunic: my entire shoulder was black and swollen. It turned out that a small fragment flew with such force that it pierced the steel plate and got tangled in the “tongue” of the shoulder strap. If not for the plate, he would have pierced my shoulder and heart. So the boss's stupidity saved my life.
Or another case. My only signalman was killed, and I was forced to pull the cable further and carry the telephone and cable reels. It was a pity to leave the signalman and his carbine together with the dead. I had to throw it behind my back. It was hard for me to drag all this property on myself under the cold autumn rain and German fire. However, the carbine saved my life. A shell exploded nearby, and one of the fragments hit me in the back. Without a carbine, a fragment would pierce my heart. But he hit the carbine. And not just into a round barrel, from which he could easily slip into my back, but into the flat edge of the chamber. The speed of the fragment was so great that it crashed a full centimeter into the steel chamber. I had a long bruise from a carbine on my back. If I didn’t have a carbine on my back, I wouldn’t live. Again a happy accident came to the rescue.
And what is more surprising: some salutary accidents, as, by the way, tragic ones, were repeated exactly with different people. A similar situation with the carbine later saved the life of my signalman Shtansky: a fragment hit the chamber of his carbine.
On the other hand, thousands of fragments in thousands of other cases bypassed the saving cigarette case or folding knife and hit people to death. And others saved the life of an order on the chest or an asterisk on the cap.
During the entire war, I counted twenty-nine such accidents that saved me. Probably, the Almighty in those moments remembered me and gave the guilty man life.
Here is a riddle for the reader. In this story, I described three incredible cases that happened to me personally. Nazdite in this-book another 26.
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Everything historical events associated with legends about predictions and mysterious incidents. And during wars, their number increases dramatically: after all, people who are constantly close to death need faith in a miracle no less than bread or cartridges. Eyewitness stories about mysterious, incredible incidents associated with the Great Patriotic War have been preserved in people's memory and are still passed from mouth to mouth. At first glance, they do not fit into the framework of common sense - but how can we talk about common sense in relation to the most terrible war?
Pre-War Signs and Prophecies
It is generally accepted that the war for the Soviet people began suddenly. But just a few days before it began, many observed unusual events or had strange premonitions.
The famous singer Alla Bayanova said that shortly before the start of the war she saw an omen. In the middle of the night, a creature about two meters tall, covered with hair, with burning red eyes, appeared in her apartment. The creature lashed out and disappeared. A few days later, Germany attacked the Soviet Union.
It is known that shortly before the start of World War II, three comets could be observed in the sky over the territory of the USSR at once: on January 17, February 25 and June 12. But according to folk omens, the appearance of a comet brings disaster.
1941, spring - in Leningrad region something strange happened a natural phenomenon: a mass death of swifts was recorded. Dead birds lay in the fields and meadows. The newspaper "Leningradskaya Pravda" explained the death of birds by a lack of food due to the small number of insects. But these explanations did not convince the population, many believed that the death of birds would lead to big trouble.
In August-September 1945, a folklore expedition of the Institute of Ethnography of the USSR Academy of Sciences worked in the Bryansk region. The materials she collected are stored in the archives of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, they reflect the stories that existed in the Bryansk region about unusual signs of an impending war.
So, in the Pogarsky district they talked about an oblique cross that appeared in the sky on the night before the start of the war. In the city of Seltso, a week before the start of the war, people saw a gate of stars in the sky. Throughout the territory of the Bryansk region, there was a story about how in the spring hunters met an old man in the forest who said: "Do not be afraid, they will not kill you in the war, you will return home."
1941, May - residents of the Oktyabrsky district Chelyabinsk region observed in the sky two boundary pillars, and between them - a soldier's boot. No one had any doubts - this is a bad sign and the war will begin soon.
In the Yaruzhsky district Kursk region Folklorists recorded a legend: in the premises of the former church, where grain was stored, at the end of May 1941, fires suddenly began to burn at night. People went there and saw an old man who led them to the altar and showed them three coffins - as a symbol of an impending great disaster.
Do not disturb the ancient tomb
On June 21, in Samarkand, under the guidance of professors Kary-Niyazov, Zaripov and Semenov, the great conqueror of the Middle Ages (Timur) passed. Scientists were not stopped by the old legend about the curse that the disturbed ashes of the conqueror would bring great grief and innumerable troubles.
This night, an eerie blood-red moon rose over Samarkand. Near the tomb, according to the members of the archaeological expedition, three elders appeared and asked to stop excavations, because they could lead to war. Frightened archaeologists immediately reported this to the members of the government commission, but they were ridiculed.
1943 - Marshal Zhukov learned about this event - and told Stalin about it. The Supreme Commander decided to urgently rebury the relics of Tamerlane. Later a short time Soviet troops won a victory at Stalingrad. And after the Tamerlane burial ground was completely restored, the victory at the Kursk Bulge followed.
The ability to foresee the future
The researchers are sure that extreme situations people's intuition sharply sharpens and the ability to foresee the future appears.
Thousands of soldiers in their memoirs noted that at some moments they felt a possible death - and miraculously managed to avoid it.
Political instructor of the 328th Infantry Regiment Alexander Tyushev recalled that on November 21, 1941, some unknown force forced him to leave the regiment's command post. A few minutes later, a landmine hit there, as a result of the explosion, everyone who was there died.
Senior Sergeant Vasily Krasnov from the Gorky region, after being wounded, was heading to his division on a ride. Suddenly, Vasily had a strange anxiety. He jumped out of the lorry and went on foot. Literally immediately after that, the truck ran over a mine.
Many front-line stories are devoted to the so-called - when before the battle one of the soldiers predicts the death of one of his comrades. The soldiers tried not to communicate with such "harbingers", and sometimes after the battle they themselves could be found shot in the back.
In various places of hostilities, stories were popular that a tall woman in long dark clothes appeared on the battlefield at night - and mourned the dead Russian soldiers. This was regarded as the appearance of the Virgin and a sign that victory would be for the Soviet troops.
Shifts in time
Many of the soldiers after the battle noticed that their watches were behind. The nurse of the Volga military flotilla, Elena Zaitseva, who was taking the wounded out of Stalingrad, said that when the ambulance ship came under fire, the clocks of all the doctors stopped.
Several documented cases of time shift also seem inexplicable.
1942, January - under besieged Leningrad Soviet soldiers met a group of French soldiers of Napoleonic times, and in 1944, on the territory of present-day Belarus, local residents were frightened by a small detachment of German knights. In order to stop incomprehensible rumors, all eyewitnesses of these events were interviewed and sent to camps or penal battalions, and their testimonies were placed in archives marked "Top Secret".
April 1945 - Soviet troops entered the fortress city of Koenigsberg, now Kaliningrad. The city was liberated in just four days, while the Germans offered no resistance.
Immediately after the capture of Koenigsberg, a group of NKVD officers arrived there, investigating the activities of a fascist organization called "" ("Heritage of the Ancestors"), whose main task was to study everything unidentified and inexplicable. In particular, the Germans were engaged in researching methods for - and, according to historians, they built an installation for such research in the catacombs under the city.
A month after the end of the war, a strange story happened in Koenigsberg, which could be somehow connected with the activities of this organization. It is not known where a column of German soldiers appeared from where they passed through the city, shooting everyone who got in their way. It was not a mass hallucination - after all, the bullets were real. When the Soviet soldiers surrounded the Germans, they disappeared as mysteriously as they appeared.
Ghosts in Red Army uniform
Anomalous phenomena marked the places of bloody battles and mass graves during the Great Patriotic War. Something mysterious happens here regularly.
One of such places is the forest valley Myasnoy Bor, 30 km from Veliky Novgorod. During the Luban operation of 1942, about 400,000 Soviet and German soldiers died there as a result of the fighting, tens of thousands of them still remain unburied. As the search engines say, birds do not settle in this forest, but sometimes distinct male voices are heard, the smell of shag is clearly felt, you can hear the crackling of branches under boots and automatic bursts. Some diggers met at dusk mysterious silhouettes in Red Army uniforms.
In the Bryansk region, in the area of the Zhizdra River, where the Bryansk Front passed from the winter of 1942 to the end of the summer of 1943, a group of search engines found a dugout of Germans with the remains of bodies. At night, the diggers, who set up camp 200 meters from the find, heard German speech and the noise of engines. And in the morning in front of the dugout they found fresh tracks of tank tracks.
On the Khoper river in the Voronezh region near the city of Novokhopersk there is a famous one - Zheltoyar. In those days, the front line passed here. And now the ghosts of the Great Patriotic War appear in these places - soldiers and military equipment. Members of the expedition of the Voronezh Committee for the Study anomalous phenomena under the guidance of the famous researcher Genrikh Silanov, they managed to film people in soldier's uniform near the tents. According to Silanov, such phenomena are due to the ability of the area to remember the events that took place here decades ago, and the anomaly of this zone is associated with a unique magnetic field created by underground ore deposits.
In the already mentioned Kaliningrad, near the Royal Castle, a ghost sometimes appears, which was identified as the Nazi art doctor Alfred Rode, the custodian of the Amber Room, taken out of Tsarskoye Selo. Maybe she herself is hidden somewhere here, near Kaliningrad, and she is guarded by wartime phantoms?
Similar oral stories, inexplicable with scientific point view, many. Individually, you can believe or not believe them - but together they say that any event of that war was not accidental and had its own magical meaning.
Zombie back from the dead
Each soldier had his own path to victory. Private Sergey Shustov tells the readers about what his military road was like.
I was supposed to be drafted in 1940, but I had a reprieve. Therefore, he got into the Red Army only in May 1941. From the regional center we were immediately brought to the "new" Polish border to the construction battalion. There was an awful lot of people there. And all of us, right before the eyes of the Germans, built fortifications and a large airfield for heavy bombers.
I must say that the then "construction battalion" was not like the current one. We were thoroughly trained in sapper and explosives. Not to mention the fact that the shooting took place constantly. I, as a city guy, knew the rifle "in and out." Back in school, we shot from a heavy combat rifle, we knew how to assemble and disassemble it “for a while”. The guys from the village, in this regard, of course, had a harder time.
From the first days in battle
When the war began - and on June 22 at four o'clock in the morning our battalion was already in battle - we were very lucky with the commanders. All of them, from the company commander to the divisional commander, fought in the Civil War, they did not fall under the repressions. Apparently, that's why we retreated competently, we did not get into the environment. Although they retreated with battles.
By the way, we were well armed: each fighter was literally hung with pouches with cartridges, grenades ... Another thing is that from the very border to Kyiv, we did not see a single Soviet aircraft in the sky. When we, retreating, passed by our frontier airfield, it was full of burnt planes. And there we got only one pilot. To the question: “What happened, why didn’t they take off ?!” - he replied: “Yes, we are still without fuel! Therefore, half of the people went on vacation for the weekend.”
First big loss
So we retreated to the old Polish border, where, finally, we “hooked”. Although the guns and machine guns had already been dismantled and the ammunition taken out, excellent fortifications remained there - huge concrete pillboxes, into which the train freely entered. For defense then used all improvised means.
For example, from high thick pillars, around which hops curled before the war, they made anti-tank gouges ... This place was called the Novograd-Volynsky fortified area. And there we detained the Germans for eleven days. At the time, that was considered a lot. True, most of our battalion perished in the same place.
But we were still lucky that we were not in the direction of the main attack: German tank wedges were moving along the roads. And when we had already retreated to Kiev, we were told that while we were sitting in Novograd-Volynsk, the Germans bypassed us to the south and were already on the outskirts of the capital of Ukraine.
But there was such a general Vlasov (the same one - author), who stopped them. Near Kiev, I was surprised: for the first time in our entire service, we were loaded onto cars and taken somewhere. As it turned out - to urgently plug holes in the defense. It was in July, and a little later I was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Kyiv".
In Kyiv, we built bunkers, bunkers in the lower and basement floors of houses. We mined everything that was possible - we had mines in abundance. But we did not fully participate in the defense of the city - we were transferred down the Dnieper. Because they guessed: the Germans could force the river there.
Certificate
From the very border to Kyiv, we did not see a single Soviet aircraft in the sky. The pilot was met at the airport. To the question: “Why didn’t they take off ?!” - he replied: “Yes, we are still without fuel!”
Timeline of the Great Patriotic War
As soon as I arrived at the unit, I was armed with a Polish carbine - apparently, during the hostilities of 1939, the trophy warehouses were captured. It was the same our "three-ruler" model of 1891, but shortened. And not with an ordinary bayonet, but with a bayonet-knife similar to a modern one.
The accuracy and combat range of this carbine was almost the same, but it was much lighter than the "progenitor". The bayonet-knife was generally suitable for all occasions: they could cut bread, people, cans. And in construction work, it is generally indispensable.
Already in Kyiv, I was given a brand new 10-shot SVT rifle. At first I was delighted: five or ten rounds in a clip - this means a lot in battle. But I fired it a couple of times - and my clip jammed. Moreover, the bullets flew anywhere, but not at the target. So I went to the foreman and said, "Give me back my carbine."
From near Kyiv, we were transferred to the city of Kremenchug, which was on fire. They set the task: to dig a command post in the coastal steep overnight, disguise it and give communication there. We did it, and suddenly the order was: straight along the impassability, along the corn field - to retreat.
Through Poltava near Kharkov
We went, and all - already replenished - the battalion went to some station. We were loaded onto a train and taken inland from the Dnieper. And suddenly we heard an incredible cannonade to the north of us. The sky is on fire, all enemy planes are flying there, we have zero attention.
So in September the Germans broke through the front, went on the attack. And we, it turns out, were again taken out in time, and we did not get into the encirclement. Through Poltava we were transferred to Kharkov.
Before reaching it 75 kilometers, we saw what was happening above the city: the fire of anti-aircraft guns "lined" the entire horizon. In this city, for the first time, we came under heavy bombing: women, children rushed about and died before our eyes.
In the same place we were introduced to the engineer-colonel Starinov, who was considered one of the main specialists in the Red Army for laying mines. Later, after the war, I corresponded with him. I managed to congratulate him on his centenary and get an answer. And he died a week later...
From the wooded area north of Kharkov, we were thrown into one of the first serious counteroffensives in that war. There were heavy rains, it was to our advantage: aviation could rarely rise into the air. And when it rose, the Germans dropped bombs anywhere: visibility was almost zero.
Offensive near Kharkov - 1942
Near Kharkov, I saw a terrible picture. Several hundred German cars and tanks were stuck in the soggy black soil. The Germans simply had nowhere to go. And when they ran out of ammunition, our horsemen cut them down. All to one.
October 5 has already hit frost. And we were all in summer uniforms. And the garrison caps had to be turned over their ears - this is how the prisoners were then portrayed.
Again, less than half of our battalion remained - we were sent to the rear for reorganization. And we walked from Ukraine to Saratov, where we ended up on New Year's Eve.
Then, in general, there was a “tradition” like this: from the front to the rear they moved exclusively on foot, and back to the front - in echelons and in cars. By the way, we almost never saw the legendary "one and a half" at the front: the main army vehicle was the ZIS-5.
Near Saratov, we were reorganized and in February 1942 were transferred to Voronezh region- no longer as a construction, but as a sapper battalion.
First wound
And we again participated in the attack on Kharkov - the infamous one, when our troops fell into the cauldron. We, however, again passed.
I then ended up in the hospital with a wound. And a soldier ran up to me right there and said: “Get dressed urgently and run to the unit - the order of the commander! We're leaving". And I went. Because we were all terribly afraid of falling behind our unit: everything is familiar there, everyone is friends. And if you fall behind, God knows where you'll end up.
In addition, German aircraft often hit red crosses on purpose. And in the forest there were even more chances to survive.
It turned out that the Germans had broken through the front with tanks. We were given the order to mine all bridges. And if German tanks show up, blow them up immediately. Even if our troops did not have time to withdraw. That is, to throw their surrounded.
Crossing the Don
On July 10, we approached the village of Veshenskaya, took up defensive positions on the shore and received a strict order: “Do not let the Germans into the Don!”. And we haven't seen them yet. Then we realized that they were not following us. And they spun across the steppe at great speed in a completely different direction.
Nevertheless, a real nightmare reigned at the crossing of the Don: she physically could not let all the troops through. And then, as ordered, they came German troops and from the first call they smashed the crossing.
We had hundreds of boats, but there were not enough of them. What to do? Crossing on improvised means. The wood there was all thin and was not suitable for rafts. Therefore, we began to break down gates in houses and make rafts out of them.
A cable was pulled across the river, and improvised ferries were built along it. Another thing that struck me. The entire river was littered with muted fish. And the local Cossacks caught this fish under bombardment, under fire. Although, it would seem, it is necessary to hide in the cellar and not show your nose from there.
In the homeland of Sholokhov
In the same place, in Veshenskaya, we saw the bombed-out house of Sholokhov. They asked the locals: “Is he dead?” We were told: “No, just before the bombing, he loaded the car with children and took them to the farm. But his mother stayed behind and died.”
Then many wrote that the whole courtyard was littered with manuscripts. But personally, I did not notice any papers.
As soon as we crossed, they took us to the forest and began to prepare ... back to the crossing to the other side. We say: “Why?!” The commanders replied: "We will attack elsewhere." And they also received an order: if the Germans are sent to reconnaissance, do not shoot at them - only cut them so as not to make a fuss.
In the same place, we met guys from a familiar unit and were surprised: hundreds of fighters have the same order. It turned out that it was a badge of the guards: they were among the first to receive such badges.
Then we crossed between Veshenskaya and the city of Serafimovich and occupied a bridgehead, which the Germans could not take until November 19, when our offensive near Stalingrad began from there. Many troops, including tanks, were transported to this bridgehead.
Moreover, the tanks were very different: from the brand new "thirty-fours" to the ancient ones, it is not known how the surviving "machine-gun" vehicles of the production of the thirties.
By the way, I saw the first "thirty-fours", it seems, already on the second day of the war and at the same time I first heard the name "Rokossovsky".
Several dozen cars were parked in the forest. The tankers were all like a match: young, cheerful, well-equipped. And we all immediately believed: now they are going to be fucked up - and that's it, we will defeat the Germans.
Certificate
At the crossing over the Don, a real nightmare reigned: she physically could not let all the troops through. And then, as if by order, German troops appeared and smashed the crossing from the first approach
Hunger is not an aunt
Then we were loaded onto barges and taken along the Don. We had to eat somehow, and we began to burn fires right on the barges, boil potatoes. The boatswain ran and screamed, but we didn't care - we wouldn't die of hunger. Yes and a chance to burn away german bomb was much more than from a fire.
Then the food ran out, the soldiers began to get on boats and sail away for provisions to the villages, past which we sailed. The commander again ran with a revolver, but could not do anything: hunger is not an aunt.
And so we sailed all the way to Saratov. There we were placed in the middle of the river and surrounded by barriers. True, they brought dry rations for the past time and all our "fugitives" back. After all, they were not stupid - they understood that the case smells of desertion - a firing squad. And, “feeding up” a little, they appeared at the nearest military registration and enlistment office: they say, I fell behind the unit, I ask you to return it back.
The new life of "Capital" by Karl Marx
And then a real flea market formed on our barges. From tin cans they made bowlers, they changed, as they say, "an awl for soap." And the greatest value was considered "Capital" by Karl Marx - his good paper was used for cigarettes. I have never seen such a popularity of this book before or since…
The main difficulty in the summer was to dig in - this virgin soil could only be taken with a pickaxe. Well, if the trench could be dug at least half a height.
Once a tank passed through my trench, and I only thought: will it touch my helmet or not? Didn't hurt...
I also remember then that German tanks completely "did not take" our anti-tank rifles - only sparks sparkled on the armor. This is how I fought in my unit, and I did not think that I would leave it, but ...
Fate decreed otherwise
Then I was sent to study as a radio operator. The selection was tough: those who did not have an ear for music were rejected immediately.
The commander said: “Well, to hell with them, these walkie-talkies! The Germans spot them and hit us right.” So I had to pick up a coil of wire - and go! And the wire there was not twisted, but solid, steel. While you twist it once, you will peel off all your fingers! I immediately have a question: how to cut it, how to clean it? And they say to me: “You have a carbine. Open and lower the aiming frame - and cut off. She also cleans up."
We were outfitted in winter, but I didn’t get boots. And how ferocious she was - a lot has been written.
Among us were Uzbeks who literally froze to death. I froze my fingers without boots, and then they amputated them without any anesthesia. Although I kept kicking my feet all the time, it didn't help. January 14 I was wounded again, and on this my Battle of Stalingrad ended...
Certificate
Karl Marx's "Capital" was considered the greatest value - his good paper was used for cigarettes. I have never seen this book so popular before or since.
Awards found a hero
The reluctance to go to the hospital "backfired" on many front-line soldiers after the war. No documents about their injuries have been preserved, and even getting a disability was a big problem.
I had to collect evidence from fellow soldiers, who were then checked through the military registration and enlistment offices: “Did Private Ivanov serve at that time together with Private Petrov?”
For his military work Sergey Vasilyevich Shustov awarded the order Red Star, Order of the Patriotic War of the first degree, medals "For the Defense of Kyiv", "For the Defense of Stalingrad" and many others.
But one of the most expensive awards, he considers the badge "Front-line soldier", which began to be issued recently. Although, as the former "Stalingrader" thinks, now these badges are issued to "everyone who is not lazy."
DKREMLEVRU
Incredible cases in the war
Despite all the horrors of the war, the most memorable episode in his epic was the case when there was no bombing or shooting. Sergei Vasilievich tells about him carefully, looking into his eyes and, apparently, suspecting that they will not believe him after all.
But I believed. Although this story is both strange and scary.
— I have already told about Novograd-Volynsky. It was there that we fought terrible battles, and that is where most of our battalion was killed. Somehow, in between battles, we ended up in a small village near Novograd-Volynsky. The Ukrainian village is just a few huts, on the banks of the Sluch River.
We spent the night in one of the houses. The owner lived there with her son. He was ten or eleven years old. Such a thin, eternally dirty boy. He kept asking the soldiers to give him a rifle, to shoot.
We lived there for only two days. On the second night we were awakened by some noise. Anxiety for the soldiers is a common thing, so everyone woke up at once. There were four of us.
A woman with a candle stood in the middle of the hut and wept. We got excited and asked what happened? It turned out that her son was missing. We reassured mother as best we could, said we would help, got dressed and went out to look.
It was already light. We walked through the village, shouting: "Petya ..." - that was the name of the boy, but he was nowhere to be found. We returned back.
The woman was sitting on a bench near the house. We approached, lit a cigarette, said that it was not worth worrying and worrying yet, it was not known where this tomboy could have run away.
When I lit a cigarette, I turned away from the wind, and noticed an open hole in the back of the yard. It was a well. But the log house disappeared somewhere, most likely, went for firewood, and the boards with which the pit was covered turned out to be shifted.
With a bad feeling, I went to the well. I looked. At a depth of five meters, the boy's body floated.
Why he went to the courtyard at night, what he needed near the well, is unknown. Maybe he got some ammo and went to bury it to keep his childhood secret.
While we were thinking about how to get the body, while we were looking for a rope, tying it around the lightest of us, while we were lifting the body, at least two hours passed. The boy's body was twisted, stiff, and it was very difficult to straighten his arms and legs.
The water in the well was very cold. The boy had been dead for several hours. I saw many, many corpses and I had no doubts. We carried him into the room. The neighbors came and said that they would prepare everything for the funeral.
In the evening, the heartbroken mother sat next to the coffin, which had already been made by a carpenter neighbor. At night, when we went to bed, behind the screen I saw her silhouette near the coffin, trembling against the background of a flickering candle.
Certificate
Despite all the horrors of the war, the most memorable episode in my epic was the case when there was no bombing or shooting.
Scary unexplained facts
Later, I was awakened by a whisper. Two people spoke. One voice was female and belonged to the mother, the other childish, boyish. I do not know Ukrainian language but the meaning was still clear.
The boy said:
- I'll leave now, they shouldn't see me, and then, when everyone leaves, I'll be back.
- When? - Female voice.
- The night after tomorrow.
Are you really coming?
- I'll be sure to.
I thought that one of the boy's friends had visited the hostess. I got up. I was heard and the voices were silent. I walked over and pulled back the curtain. There were no strangers there. The mother was still sitting, the candle burned dimly, and the body of the child lay in the coffin.
Only for some reason it lay on its side, and not on its back, as it should be. I stood in a daze and could not think of anything. Some kind of sticky fear seemed to wrap around me like a cobweb.
Me, who went under every day, could die every minute, who tomorrow had to repel the attacks of the enemy, who outnumbered us several times. I looked at the woman, she turned to me.
“You were talking to someone,” I heard that my voice was hoarse, as if I had just smoked a whole pack of cigarettes.
- I ... - She somehow awkwardly ran her hand over her face ... - Yes ... with herself ... I imagined that Petya was still alive ...
I stood a little longer, turned around and went to bed. All night I listened to the sounds behind the curtain, but everything was quiet there. In the morning, fatigue still took its toll and I fell asleep.
In the morning there was an urgent formation, we were again sent to the front line. I went to say goodbye. The hostess was still sitting on a stool ... in front of an empty coffin. I again experienced horror, I even forgot that in a few hours the battle.
- Where is Petya?
- Relatives from a neighboring village took him at night, they are closer to the cemetery, we will bury him there.
I did not hear any relatives at night, although, perhaps, I simply did not wake up. But why didn't they take the coffin then? They called me from the street. I put my arm around her shoulders and left the house.
What happened next, I don't know. We never returned to this village. But the more time passes, the more often I remember this story. After all, I didn't get it. And then I recognized Petya's voice. Mother could not imitate him like that.
What was it then? Until now, I have never told anyone anything. Why, anyway, they won’t believe or they will decide that in their old age they have gone crazy.
He finished the story. I looked at him. What could I say, I just shrugged my shoulders ... We sat for a long time, drinking tea, he refused alcohol, although I offered to drive for vodka. Then we said goodbye and I went home. It was already night, the lanterns shone dimly, and the reflections of the headlights of passing cars flickered in the puddles.
Certificate
With a bad feeling, I went to the well. I looked. At a depth of five meters the boy's body floated
During the Great Patriotic War there were cases of Russian psychic attack. Here is how eyewitnesses tell about it: “The regiment rose to its full height. An accordion player walked from one flank, playing either the Vologda busts “Under the fight”, or the Tver “Buza”. Another harmonist walked from the other flank, playing the Ural “Mom”. young beautiful nurses walked to the center, waving handkerchiefs, and the whole regiment emitted the traditional lowing or croaking, which dancers usually emit when things are moving towards a fight, to intimidate the enemy.After such a psychic attack, the Germans could be taken in the trenches with their bare hands, they were on the verge of mental insanity.
History 1.
My grandfather fought from the first days of the war, finished it near Keninsberg.
The story that happened to my grandfather happened after another injury. Having received another bullet in the leg during the battle, the grandfather ended up in the hospital. Despite the level of medicine of that time, but thanks to the professionalism of military doctors (which the Russian army has always been famous for), the wound healed successfully, and my grandfather was going back to the front. And then one evening, after lights out, he felt a severe pain in the lower abdomen. I got out of bed and went to the doctor. And the doctor was an old Russian grandfather who healed, I suppose, back in the First World War. Grandfather complained to him of pain and asked for some pill. The doctor felt his stomach, climbed into his closet and took out a large bottle of alcohol. I took two glasses and filled them to the brim. "Drink," said the doctor. Grandpa drank. Another glass the doctor waved himself! "Lie down," the doctor commanded. Grandfather lay down on the table. From such an amount of alcohol drunk on an empty stomach (war!), the grandfather immediately passed out ... I woke up in the ward. No appendix. But with a headache .. These are the people who defeated fascism!
History 2.
My grandfather had a friend Misha, a terrible gouging, but at the same time an artillery lieutenant.
This friend commanded a volley fire machine (as it is now called) called "Katyusha". It’s good, whether he commanded badly, but the machine ran, dutifully scuffed at the Germans.
It was the summer of 1942. A Katyusha division was relocated near Stalingrad, one of the cars on the road simply died out (the car industry is the car industry - both in 1942 and in 2010). They dug, repaired, as best they could, with improvised means. Rolled, of course for a successful repair. Well, they drove to catch up with their own. According to the Russian authenticity of the maps, of course, they got lost ...
The steppe, the road is not clear where, and then suddenly they see a column of dust in the steppe. They slow down. Binoculars to the eyes - a German tank column. Rushing - like at home - brazenly, as in a parade, over the tower hatches, the sleek muzzles of the Fritz.
Uncle Misha, either out of fright, or out of arrogance after alcohol, turns the car with the front wheels into a ditch ("Katyusha" is a terrible weapon, but the aiming is almost zero, and it only hits with a canopy in squares) and almost direct fire gives a volley. They set fire to the first rows - the Germans are in a panic. Such a hit -8 tanks in a junk moment ..
Well, "Katyusha" on the sly - "my legs are my legs" ... They gave Uncle Misha the Hero (the crew - Glory), but they just took him away immediately for being late from vacation to the train for 20 minutes (immediately after the award, well, they didn’t write down in the penalty box ). The special officer turned out to be a bastard, the echelon stood in Moscow for another day. It looks like a fairy tale, but General Paulus stopped the offensive for a day. These days, German intelligence frantically searched for the positions of our troops. Well, they could not believe in one - the only "Katyusha", which shot back from a drunken fright ...
History 3.
Once, one Soviet unit on the march went too far ahead, and the field kitchen was left somewhere behind. The commander of the unit sends two Kyrgyz soldiers to find her - they don’t speak Russian, there’s little use in battle, in short, bring it, give it. They left, and no news from them for two days. Finally, they arrive with backpacks stuffed with German sweets, schnapps, and the like. One of them has a note. Written (in Russian): "Comrade Stalin! For us they are not languages, but for you they are not soldiers. Send them home."
History 4.
In August 1941, in the Daugavpils region, Ivan Sereda was preparing dinner for the Red Army. At this time he saw german tank moving towards the field kitchen. Armed only with a carbine and an ax, Ivan Sereda hid behind her, and the tank, having driven up to the kitchen, stopped and the crew began to get out of it. At that moment, Ivan Sereda jumped out from behind the kitchen and rushed to the tank. The crew immediately took cover in the tank, and Ivan Sereda jumped onto the armor. When the tankers opened fire from a machine gun, Ivan Sereda bent the machine gun barrel with ax blows, and then closed the viewing slots of the tank with a piece of tarpaulin. Then he began to knock on the armor with the butt of an ax, while giving orders to the Red Army soldiers, who were not around, to throw grenades at the tank. The crew of the tank surrendered, and Ivan Sereda forced them to tie each other's hands at gunpoint. When the Red Army arrived in time, they saw a tank and a bound crew.
History 5.
My grandfather served in aviation. There was a toilet at the field airfield in the distance ... Sitting there, so my grandfather, doing his own thing ... It was getting dark. Knots were knocked out in the wall of the toilet in the boards. So my grandfather noticed three German intelligence officers coming out of the forest. Well, when they approached, he filled them up with a pistol. Received the Order of the Red Star.
The dudes obviously did not expect that they would open fire on them from the toilet ...
History 6.
Memoirs of one of the veterans
At the beginning of December of the same year, 1942, we were on the defensive in the area of the Round Grove. Soon I again had a chance to meet with the foreman. It was so. He comes up to me and says:
- At the direction of the platoon commander, they singled out three soldiers for me. We need to bring a hot lunch and vodka from the field kitchen. It is two kilometers from our front line, in the forest.
I carried out the order. The foreman with three fighters took empty canisters and went to the company kitchen. To reach it, they had to go through the forest, then go through a small clearing in which there was not a single tree, and then go back into the forest, where the kitchen was.
The unexpected happened (although can you call it unexpected in a war?). When leaving the forest, one of the fighters was killed. Fortunately for the survivors, this happened when leaving the forest for a clearing.
The fact is that tanks had previously passed through this clearing, which had made a deep rut. One fighter lay down in it, and the foreman and the other fighter quickly returned to the forest and disguised themselves.
Lying in a rut was in relative safety. He tried to move slowly, crawling across the clearing, but heard the whistle of bullets next to him. However, the soldier was not taken aback.
He quietly took a stick, took off his helmet, put it on a stick and raised it above him. Continuing to move in this position, I heard that the shooting was coming at the helmet. It lasted over an hour. Finally the shooting ended. From fatigue and stress, the fighter dozed off right in the rut ...
The foreman and the fighter, who were in the forest, realized that the German “cuckoo” sniper, who was firing and hiding in a tree, had run out of ammunition. They began to slowly approach this very tree. Approaching the pine tree, they saw the "cuckoo".
The foreman shouted: “Hyundai hoh!” - and began to aim at the German from the machine gun. A rustle was heard. From above flew a rifle with an optical sight. Then the shooter himself went down.
The foreman and the fighter searched him, took away his weapon, lighter and smoking pipe. The German was sorry to part with the pipe. Mumbling incomprehensible words, he began to cry. The tube was really great. It depicted a dog's head with glassy eyes. When the smoker drew in the smoke, the dog's eyes began to glow.
After making sure that the former sniper was disarmed, the foreman pointed his finger at him - they say, go where you shot, there Russian Ivan lies in a tank track, bring him to us.
The German understood and approached the sleeping soldier.
“Rus Ivan, com,” said the fascist. The fighter woke up and saw a German in front of him. The foreman with the second fighter, having observed what was happening, laughed. Those two were not laughing. The foreman patted the shoulder of the man lying in the tank rut and said:
- Instead of a hundred grams, you get half a liter and a can of American stew. Thus ended this tragic and at the same time funny story.
Unfortunately, due to the age of the surname actors forgotten by me. Not a single meeting of brother-soldiers of the 80th Guards Luban Order of Kutuzov Rifle Division took place without memories of this curious incident.
