It was at the beginning of the war. German then huge forces lane. Our retreated. The fighting was fiercest. The battalion, in which Corporal Ivan Sereda served as a cook, fought then in the Baltic. Well fought. The Nazis missed many, but our battalion also suffered losses. On that day, the Germans fell especially hard, tanks and self-propelled guns pulled up. There was a threat of encirclement. A liaison officer ran to the economic platoon, which was standing in the hollow, and gave the order of the battalion commander to advance to combat positions and repulse the attack on the left flank. The platoon commander led the fighters to carry out a combat mission, ordering Ivan to provide security and food for the personnel. Ivan cooks porridge, listens to distant shooting. I would like to help my comrades, but the order in war is the law. Ivan Sereda was completely sad, he began to remember his native places: his parents, the house on the banks of the Amur, school, his long-haired love ... And then something seemed to push him in the side. Looked back and froze. From the road crawling in his direction three fascist tanks. And where did they come from? There is no time to think - it is necessary to save the good. But how to save if there are already two hundred meters left to the front tank? Ivan quickly unharnessed the horses and directed them to the fishing line nearby, and he himself hid behind the field kitchen - maybe the Fritz would not notice. Maybe the number would have passed, but one tank had gone straight to the kitchen and rolled out. He stopped nearby, huge with white crosses. The tankers noticed the kitchen and were delighted. They decided that the Russians had abandoned her. The hatch cover opened and the tanker leaned out. Healthy, red. He turned his head and how he cackled triumphantly. Here Ivan could not stand it, where did the fear go. He grabbed an ax that fell under his arm and jumped on the tank. The redhead, as he saw him, jumped into the hatch and slammed the lid. And Ivan is already knocking on the armor with an ax: “Hyundai hoch, hansiki! Fly in guys, surround, destroy the Fritz. The Germans began to shoot, and Ivan, without thinking twice, bent the trunk with an ax - there is no reception against scrap. And so that the Fritz would not especially swagger, he closed the viewing slot with his dressing gown. Shouts: "Hitler kaput, surround them, guys ..." With an ax, like a sledgehammer, he wields armor. I don't know what the Germans thought. As soon as the hatch opens, and with raised hands, the old familiar red-haired big man shows up. Ivan Sereda remembered here about the carbine behind his back, instantly sent it to the fascist. And then the second tanker climbs, the third. Ivan yells even louder, commands non-existent fighters to "surround" and "keep the Fritz at gunpoint." And he himself lined up the prisoners near the kitchen, forced each other's hands to be tied. When, after completing a combat mission, the soldiers of his platoon returned and saw a German tank next to the kitchen, captured Nazis and Ivan Sereda with a carbine at the ready, they did not believe their eyes. Laughter was to tears! Only the Germans stood gloomy, not understanding anything. Guard corporal Ivan Sereda became a Hero Soviet Union, and his ax was kept in part as a military relic. In war, this is how: the chest is in crosses or the head is in the bushes.

Awards and prizes

Ivan Pavlovich Sereda (1919-1950) - Soviet officer, participant of the Great Patriotic War, Hero of the Soviet Union (1941). Guards senior lieutenant of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army.

In August 1941, the cook of the 91st tank regiment The 46th Panzer Division of the 21st Mechanized Corps, the Red Army soldier I.P. Sereda, especially distinguished himself in the Daugavpils region (now Latvia). Armed only with a rifle and an ax, he disarmed a German tank that drove up to the Soviet field kitchen and captured four tankers.

In August 1941, near the city of Dvinsk (now Daugavpils, Latvia), he was preparing dinner for the Red Army. At this time, he saw a German tank moving towards the field kitchen. Being armed only with a rifle and an ax, Ivan Sereda took cover behind the kitchen, 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, at gunpoint, forced them to tie each other's hands. When the fighters of the rifle unit arrived, they saw a tank and four German tankers tied up. According to the commander of the 21st mechanized corps, Major General D. D. Lelyushenko, “his brave act showed an exceptional example of heroism.

Later, the Red Army soldier I.P. Sereda distinguished himself in reconnaissance behind enemy lines, when German soldiers discovered Soviet observers and tried to capture them, he crawled up to a German tank and blew it up with a bunch of grenades. Then he replaced the killed machine gunner and with well-aimed fire destroyed more than ten German motorcyclists. The reconnaissance group fought off the advancing German soldiers and returned to their unit with trophies and 3 prisoners.

In July and August 1941 he was wounded (the second time - seriously).

The award to I.P. Sereda was solemnly presented in October 1941 on the North-Western Front. According to the memoirs of fellow soldier I.P. Sereda V. Bezvitelnov, his ax was kept in part as a military relic. The feat of Ivan Sereda was widely popularized during the war years, and was reflected on Soviet propaganda posters. Subsequently, this led to the fact that many began to believe that the "cook Sereda" is a myth, but the reality of Ivan Sereda and his feat is documented.

From October 10 to November 23, 1941, I. P. Sereda commanded a platoon of the 4th Infantry Regiment of the 46th Infantry Division of the 1st Shock Army, participated in the defense of Leningrad. Then, from November 27 to January 5, 1942, he took part in the Battle of Moscow, commanded a company of the 7th Infantry Regiment of the 185th Infantry Division of the 30th Army.

In February 1942 he was seriously wounded. In 1942, I. P. Sereda graduated from advanced training courses commanders, and in 1944 - the Novocherkassk Cavalry School. Guards Senior Lieutenant I.P. Sereda served as assistant chief of food and economic allowances of the 8th Guards Cavalry Regiment of the 2nd Guards Cavalry Division.

In the period from April 14 to May 3, 1945, despite the separation of cavalrymen from supply bases and the complexity of the combat situation, it reliably provided personnel with food and ammunition. This allowed the regiment to successfully fight, which was noted by the regiment commander: on May 21, 1945, I.P. Sereda was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree.

Awards and titles

Soviet state awards and titles:

Memory

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Notes

1. Ufarkin N.V. Heroes of the Country".
2. in the electronic bank of documents "Feat of the People" (archival materials of TsAMO, f. 33, op. 690306, file 1969, l. 124)
3. in the electronic bank of documents "Feat of the People" (archival materials of TsAMO, f. 33, op. 793756, d. 43, l. 181-182)
4. B. Afanasiev, I. Denenberg// Dawn of the East. - Tbilisi, October 8, 1941. - No. 238.
5. (October 1941).
6. . Victory Calendar. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
7. Andrei Sidorchik.
8. in the electronic bank of documents "Feat of the People" (archival materials of TsAMO
9. in the electronic bank of documents "Feat of the People" (archival materials of TsAMO, f. 135, op. 12761, d. 738)
10. . Beltsy Online. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
11. Ufarkin N.V.. Site "Heroes of the Country".

Literature

• // Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. collegium I. N. Shkadov. - M .: Military Publishing, 1988. - T. 2 / Lyubov - Yashchuk /. - 863 p. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN 5-203-00536-2.
• Cavaliers of the Golden Star: essays on the Heroes of the Soviet Union / ed. A. A. Trokaev. - Donetsk: Donbass, 1976. - S. 377-378. - 478 p.
• Trokaev A. A. Heroes of fiery years: essays on the Heroes of the Soviet Union - natives of the Donetsk region / [intro. article by K. S. Moskalenko]. - Donetsk: Donbass, 1985. - S. 460-463. - 575 p. - (Heroes of the Soviet Union).
• Semyonov N. S. Time has no power. - M .: DOSAAF, 1988. - S. 24-27. - 416 p.
• Bortakovskiy T.V. Stay alive! Unknown pages of the Great Patriotic War. M .: "Veche", 2015. - ISBN 978-5-4444-3590-8.

Links

Ufarkin N.V.. Site "Heroes of the Country".

• Andrei Sidorchik.. Arguments and Facts (October 2, 2014). Retrieved 3 July 2015.
• V. Bezvitelnov.. Amurskaya Pravda (April 7, 2005). Retrieved 3 July 2015.

An excerpt characterizing Sereda, Ivan Pavlovich

At that moment, a new face entered the living room. The new face was the young Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, the husband of the little princess. Prince Bolkonsky was short, a very handsome young man with definite and dry features. Everything in his figure, from the tired, bored look to the quiet measured step, represented the sharpest contrast with his small, lively wife. He, apparently, was not only familiar with everyone in the drawing room, but he was so tired of it that it was very boring for him to look at them and listen to them. Of all the faces that bored him, the face of his pretty wife seemed to bore him the most. With a grimace that ruined his handsome face, he turned away from her. He kissed Anna Pavlovna's hand and, screwing up his eyes, looked around the whole company.
Vous vous enrolez pour la guerre, mon prince? [Are you going to war, prince?] said Anna Pavlovna.
- Le general Koutouzoff, - said Bolkonsky, striking on the last syllable zoff, like a Frenchman, - a bien voulu de moi pour aide de camp ... [General Kutuzov wants me to be his adjutant.]
– Et Lise, votre femme? [And Lisa, your wife?]
She will go to the village.
“How is it not a sin for you to deprive us of your lovely wife?”
- Andre, [Andrei,] - said his wife, addressing her husband in the same coquettish tone that she addressed to outsiders, - what a story the viscount told us about m lle Georges and Bonaparte!
Prince Andrei closed his eyes and turned away. Pierre, who had not taken his joyful, friendly eyes from the moment Prince Andrei entered the living room, went up to him and took his hand. Prince Andrei, without looking back, wrinkled his face into a grimace, expressing annoyance at the one who touched his hand, but, seeing Pierre's smiling face, he smiled an unexpectedly kind and pleasant smile.
- That's how! ... And you are in the big world! he said to Pierre.
“I knew you would,” Pierre answered. “I will come to you for supper,” he added quietly, so as not to disturb the viscount, who continued his story. - Can?
“No, you can’t,” said Prince Andrei, laughing, shaking hands letting Pierre know that there was no need to ask.
He wanted to say something else, but at that time Prince Vasily and his daughter got up, and two young men got up to give them way.
“Excuse me, my dear viscount,” said Prince Vasily to the Frenchman, gently pulling him by the sleeve down to the chair so that he would not get up. “This unfortunate feast at the Messenger’s is depriving me of my pleasure and interrupting you. I am very sad to leave your delightful evening,” he said to Anna Pavlovna.
His daughter, Princess Helen, lightly holding the folds of her dress, went between the chairs, and the smile shone even brighter on her beautiful face. Pierre looked with almost frightened, enthusiastic eyes at this beauty when she passed him.
“Very good,” said Prince Andrei.
“Very,” said Pierre.
Passing by, Prince Vasily grabbed Pierre by the hand and turned to Anna Pavlovna.
“Educate me this bear,” he said. - Here he lives with me for a month, and for the first time I see him in the light. Nothing is needed young man as a society of smart women.

Anna Pavlovna smiled and promised to take care of Pierre, who, she knew, was a paternal relative of Prince Vasily. The elderly lady, who had previously been sitting with ma tante, hastily got up and overtook Prince Vasily in the hall. All the old pretense of interest was gone from her face. Her kind, weepy face expressed only anxiety and fear.
- What will you tell me, prince, about my Boris? she said, catching up with him in the front. (She pronounced the name Boris with a special emphasis on o). – I cannot stay longer in Petersburg. Tell me, what news can I bring to my poor boy?
Despite the fact that Prince Vasily listened reluctantly and almost impolitely to the elderly lady and even showed impatience, she smiled affectionately and touchingly at him and, so that he would not leave, took his hand.
“That you should say a word to the sovereign, and he will be directly transferred to the guards,” she asked.
“Believe me that I will do everything I can, princess,” answered Prince Vasily, “but it’s hard for me to ask the sovereign; I would advise you to turn to Rumyantsev, through Prince Golitsyn: that would be smarter.
The elderly lady bore the name of Princess Drubetskaya, one of the best families in Russia, but she was poor, long gone from the world and lost her former connections. She has come now to secure a position in the guards for her only son. Only then, in order to see Prince Vasily, did she name herself and come to Anna Pavlovna's for the evening, only then did she listen to the history of the viscount. She was frightened by the words of Prince Vasily; once her beautiful face expressed anger, but this lasted only a minute. She smiled again and gripped Prince Vasili more firmly by the arm.
“Listen, prince,” she said, “I never asked you, I will never ask, I never reminded you of my father’s friendship for you. But now, I conjure you by God, do this for my son, and I will consider you a benefactor,” she added hastily. - No, you are not angry, but you promise me. I asked Golitsyn, he refused. Soyez le bon enfant que vous avez ete, [Be a good fellow, as you were,] she said, trying to smile, while there were tears in her eyes.
“Papa, we will be late,” said Princess Helene, turning her beautiful head on antique shoulders, who was waiting at the door.
But influence in the world is a capital that must be protected so that it does not disappear. Prince Vasily knew this, and once he realized that if he began to ask for everyone who asks him, then soon he would not be able to ask for himself, he rarely used his influence. In the case of Princess Drubetskaya, however, after her new call, he felt something like a reproach of conscience. She reminded him of the truth: he owed his first steps in the service to her father. In addition, he saw from her methods that she was one of those women, especially mothers, who, once taking something into their heads, will not lag behind until they fulfill their desires, otherwise they are ready for daily, every minute pestering and even on the stage. This last consideration shook him.
“Chere Anna Mikhailovna,” he said with his usual familiarity and boredom in his voice, “it is almost impossible for me to do what you want; but in order to prove to you how much I love you and honor the memory of your late father, I will do the impossible: your son will be transferred to the guards, here is my hand to you. Are you satisfied?
- My dear, you are a benefactor! I did not expect anything else from you; I knew how kind you are.
He wanted to leave.
- Wait, two words. Une fois passe aux gardes ... [Once he goes to the guards ...] - She hesitated: - You are good with Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov, recommend Boris to him as adjutant. Then I would be calm, and then I would...
Prince Vasily smiled.
- I don't promise that. You do not know how Kutuzov has been besieged since he was appointed commander in chief. He himself told me that all the Moscow ladies conspired to give him all their children as adjutants.
“No, promise me, I won’t let you in, dear, my benefactor…
- Dad! - the beauty repeated again in the same tone, - we will be late.
- Well, au revoir, [goodbye,] goodbye. See?
- So tomorrow you will report to the sovereign?
- Certainly, but I do not promise Kutuzov.
- No, promise, promise, Basile, [Vasily,] - Anna Mikhailovna said after him, with a smile of a young coquette, which once must have been characteristic of her, but now did not go so well to her emaciated face.
She apparently forgot her years and used, out of habit, all the old women's means. But as soon as he left, her face again assumed the same cold, feigned expression that had been on it before. She returned to the circle, in which the viscount continued to talk, and again pretended to be listening, waiting for the time to leave, since her business was done.
“But how do you find all this latest comedy du sacre de Milan?” [Milanese anointing?] – said Anna Pavlovna. Et la nouvelle comedie des peuples de Genes et de Lucques, qui viennent presenter leurs voeux a M. Buonaparte assis sur un trone, et exaucant les voeux des nations! Adorable! Non, mais c "est a en devenir folle! On dirait, que le monde entier a perdu la tete. [And here is a new comedy: the peoples of Genoa and Lucca express their desires to Mr. Bonaparte. And Mr. Bonaparte sits on the throne and fulfills the wishes of the peoples. 0! It's amazing! No, it's crazy. You'll think the whole world has lost its head.]
Prince Andrei grinned, looking directly into the face of Anna Pavlovna.
- “Dieu me la donne, gare a qui la touche,” he said (the words of Bonaparte, spoken at the laying of the crown). - On dit qu "il a ete tres beau en prononcant ces paroles, [God gave me the crown. Trouble for the one who touches it. - They say he was very good pronouncing these words,] - he added and repeated these words again in Italian: "Dio mi la dona, guai a chi la tocca".
- J "espere enfin," continued Anna Pavlovna, "que ca a ete la goutte d" eau qui fera deborder le verre. Les souverains ne peuvent plus supporter cet homme, qui menace tout. [I hope that it was finally the drop that would overflow the glass. Sovereigns can no longer tolerate this man who threatens everything.]
– Les souverains? Je ne parle pas de la Russie,” said the viscount politely and hopelessly: “Les souverains, madame!” Qu "ont ils fait pour Louis XVII, pour la reine, pour madame Elisabeth? Rien," he continued animatedly. - Et croyez moi, ils subissent la punition pour leur trahison de la cause des Bourbons. Les souverains? Ils envoient des ambassadeurs complimenter l "usurpateur. [Sovereigns! I'm not talking about Russia. Sovereigns! But what did they do for Louis XVII, for the queen, for Elizabeth? Nothing. And believe me, they are punished for their betrayal of the Bourbon cause. Sovereigns! They send envoys to greet the stealer of the throne.]
And he, with a contemptuous sigh, changed his position again. Prince Hippolyte, who had been looking at the viscount through a lorgnette for a long time, suddenly, at these words, turned his whole body to the little princess and, asking her for a needle, began to show her, drawing with a needle on the table, the coat of arms of Condé. He explained this coat of arms to her with such a significant air, as if the princess asked him about it.
- Baton de gueules, engrele de gueules d "azur - maison Conde, [A phrase that cannot be translated literally, as it consists of conditional heraldic terms that are not quite accurately used. The general meaning is this: The coat of arms of Conde represents a shield with red and blue narrow jagged stripes ,] he said.
The princess, smiling, listened.
“If Bonaparte remains on the throne of France for another year,” the viscount continued the conversation that had begun, with the air of a man who does not listen to others, but in a matter that he knows best of all, following only the course of his thoughts, “then things will go too far. By intrigue, violence, expulsions, executions, society, I mean a good society, French, will be destroyed forever, and then ...

The more thoroughly I study the history of the Great Patriotic War, the more I truly understand what a huge price and dedication of each Soviet man this great victory was won.
On June 30, 1941, Corporal Ivan Sereda, armed with only one ax, defeated a German tank and forcedhis crewto surrender.

It was the second week of the war. The 21st mechanized corps of Major General Lelyushenko, which was part of the North-Western Front, after an unsuccessful attempt to recapture Dvinsk, occupied by the enemy, firmly held defensive positions east of the city, preventing Manstein's 56th Corps from breaking through the front and breaking into the operational space.
June 30, 1941 the cook of the 91st tank regiment of the 46th tank division Corporal Ivan Pavlovich Sereda was preparing dinner.

Ivan Pavlovich Sereda was born on July 1, 1919 in the village of Aleksandrovka in the Donetsk region. In 1939, he graduated from the Donetsk Food Training Plant, and when in September 39 he was drafted into the Red Army, he was immediately assigned as a cook according to his specialty.
At the kitchen at that hour he was alone - the command had to involve the entire personnel of the household platoon in the battle that was going on nearby.

Seeing the armored monster, Sereda at first decided to bury himself in the woods, but when the tank drove up directly to the field kitchen, and the impudent red face of a German non-commissioned officer leaned out of the hatch, greedily licking his lips at the bubbling cauldron, Sereda took such anger that he, having lost the remnants of fear of vaunted German technology, rushed to the tank with an ax.

Oshalev from such impudence, the non-commissioned officer dived into the hatch and closed it from the inside. With an ax blow, Sereda bent the machine-gun barrel, and then, covering the viewing slots with a tarpaulin, prudently fixed on the armor by the Germans, began to drum on the tank hatches with a butt. When the soldiers of the neighboring unit, attracted by the noise, came running to the rescue, four German tankers who had surrendered were already lying on the ground, whom Sereda kept under the machine gun - to save space in the tank, regular MP-40s were also mounted on the outside on the armor, and inside the tankers had only one Parabellum of the crew commander.

From the memoirs of fellow soldier Ivan Sereda V. Bezvitelnov:

"
It was at the beginning of the war. German then huge forces lane. Our retreated. The fighting was fiercest. The battalion, in which Corporal Ivan Sereda served as a cook, fought then in the Baltic. Well fought. The Nazis missed many, but our battalion also suffered losses.
On that day, the Germans fell especially hard, tanks and self-propelled guns pulled up. There was a threat of encirclement. A liaison officer ran to the economic platoon, which was stationed in a hollow, and transmitted the order of the battalion commander to advance to combat positions and repulse the attack on the left flank. The platoon commander led the fighters to carry out a combat mission, ordering Ivan to provide security and food for the personnel.

Ivan cooks porridge, listens to distant shooting. I would like to help my comrades, but the order in war is the law. Ivan Sereda became completely sad, he began to remember his native places: his parents, the house on the banks of the Amur, school, his long-haired love ...

And then something pushed him to the side. Looked back and froze. Three fascist tanks are crawling from the road in his direction. And where did they come from? There is no time to think - it is necessary to save the good. But how to save if there are already two hundred meters left to the front tank? Ivan quickly unharnessed the horses and directed them to the fishing line that was nearby, and he himself hid behind the field kitchen - maybe the Fritz would not notice.

Maybe the number would have passed, but one tank had gone straight to the kitchen and rolled out. He stopped nearby, huge with white crosses. The tankers noticed the kitchen and were delighted. They decided that the Russians had abandoned her. The hatch cover opened and the tanker leaned out. Healthy, red. He turned his head and how he cackled triumphantly. Here Ivan could not stand it, where did the fear go.
He grabbed an ax that fell under his arm and jumped on the tank. The redhead, as he saw him, jumped into the hatch and slammed the lid. And Ivan is already knocking on the armor with an ax: “Hyundai hoch, hansiki! Fly in guys, surround, destroy the Fritz. The Germans began to shoot, and Ivan, without thinking twice, bent the trunk with an ax - there is no reception against scrap. And so that the Fritz would not especially swagger, he closed the viewing slot with his dressing gown.

Shouts: "Hitler kaput, surround them, guys ..." With an ax, like a sledgehammer, he wields armor. I don't know what the Germans thought. As soon as the hatch opens, and with raised hands, the old familiar red-haired big man shows up. Ivan Sereda remembered here about the carbine behind his back, instantly sent it to the fascist. And then the second tanker climbs, the third. Ivan yells even louder, commands non-existent fighters to "surround" and "keep the Fritz at gunpoint." And he himself lined up the prisoners near the kitchen, forced each other's hands to be tied.

When, after completing a combat mission, the soldiers of his platoon returned and saw a German tank next to the kitchen, captured Nazis and Ivan Sereda with a carbine at the ready, they did not believe their eyes. Laughter was to tears! Only the Germans stood gloomy, not understanding anything.
Guard corporal Ivan Sereda became a Hero of the Soviet Union, and his ax was kept in the unit as a military relic. In war it is like this: the chest in crosses or the head in the bushes.

Having learned about the heroism of the corporal-cook, the commander of the reconnaissance unit offered Sereda to become a scout, and literally a few days later Sereda again had to show heroism.
Being in reconnaissance behind enemy lines, a group of our scouts, which included Ivan Sereda, was discovered by the enemy and attacked.
Corporal Sereda with a bunch of RGD-33 grenades crawled up to a German tank and blew it up. Then he replaced the killed machine gunner and with well-aimed fire from the DP-27 destroyed about a dozen German motorcyclists. The reconnaissance group fended off the persecution and returned to their unit on captured BMW R75 motorcycles, bringing with them rich trophies and bringing three prisoners.

Today, July 1, marks the 95th anniversary of the birth of one of the forgotten Russian heroes - a native of Kramatorsk Ivan Pavlovich Sereda - a cook who managed to neutralize a Nazi tank and capture its crew with an ax and a piece of canvas.

Ivan Sereda was born on July 1, 1919 in the village of Aleksandrovka (now part of the city of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region) in peasant family. Having spent his childhood and youth in the village of Galitsinovka, Maryinsky District, Ivan graduated from the local food technical school and in 1939 was drafted into the Red Army. He was assigned to the 91st tank regiment of the 46th tank division of the 21st mechanized corps of the North-Western Front, but not as a tanker, but as a cook. However, it was he, the regimental cook, who in the first months of the Great Patriotic War had the opportunity to accomplish a heroic deed, striking his contemporaries with resourcefulness and courage.

On one of the August days of 1941, Ivan Sereda was doing his usual thing - he was preparing dinner for the Red Army soldiers who were stationed in the Dvinsk (Daugavpils) region. The commander led the fighters to carry out a combat mission, ordering Ivan to provide security and food for the personnel. Suddenly, a German tank appeared before his eyes, moving towards the field kitchen. Having at his disposal only a carbine and an ax, with which there was no way to stop the enemy car, Sereda hid behind the kitchen and began to watch the enemy.

Fellow soldier Ivan Sereda V. Bezvitelnov later said: “Three fascist tanks are crawling from the road in his direction. And where did they come from? There is no time to think - it is necessary to save the good. But how to save if there are already two hundred meters left to the front tank? Ivan quickly unharnessed the horses and directed them to the fishing line that was nearby, and he himself hid behind the field kitchen - maybe the Fritz would not notice. Maybe the number would have passed, but one tank had gone straight to the kitchen and rolled out. He stopped nearby, huge with white crosses. The tankers noticed the kitchen and were delighted. They decided that the Russians had abandoned her. The hatch cover opened and the tanker leaned out. Healthy, red. He turned his head and how he cackled triumphantly. Here Ivan could not stand it, where did the fear go. He grabbed an ax that fell under his arm and jumped on the tank. The redhead, as he saw him, jumped into the hatch and slammed the lid. And Ivan is already knocking on the armor with an ax: “Hyundai hoch, Hansiki! Fly in guys, surround, destroy the Fritz” ”.

Climbing onto the armor, Ivan Sereda bent the barrel of an enemy machine gun with ax blows, from which the Germans began to shoot back from an invisible enemy, and then closed the viewing slots of the tank with a piece of tarpaulin, thereby depriving the enemy of the opportunity to observe. Taking advantage of the fact that the crew of the tank was stunned by surprise, the Russian cook began to clobber the armor with the butt of an ax, while giving orders to the Red Army men who allegedly pulled themselves up behind him to throw grenades at the enemy vehicle.

“I don’t know what the Germans thought,” said his fellow soldier. - As soon as the hatch opens, and with raised hands, the old familiar red-haired bruiser is shown. Ivan Sereda remembered here about the carbine behind his back, instantly sent it to the fascist. And then the second tanker climbs, the third. Ivan yells even louder, commands non-existent fighters to "surround" and "keep the Fritz at gunpoint." And he himself lined up the prisoners near the kitchen, forced each other's hands to tie..

What was the surprise of our fighters from the rifle division who arrived in time for the breakthrough of the German tank when they saw the neutralized tank and the associated crew! “Laughter was to tears! - said V. Bezvitelnov. “Only the Germans stood gloomy, not understanding anything.” For this feat, the Red Army soldier Ivan Sereda was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on August 31, 1941, which was so rare in the most difficult initial period of the war. And the ax with which Ivan neutralized an enemy tank was kept in the unit as a military relic.

But the exploits of the brave fighter did not end there. Later, the hero-cook was transferred to reconnaissance, where he also distinguished himself by knocking out an enemy tank with a bunch of grenades and, replacing the killed machine gunner, destroyed more than 10 German motorcyclists with well-aimed fire. Having repulsed with his group from the pressing Nazis, Ivan Sereda safely returned to the location of the unit with trophies and three prisoners.

In 1942, Sereda completed advanced training courses for command personnel, and in 1944, the Novocherkassk Cavalry School. Through the whole Great Patriotic War to the end, I. Sereda in 1945 with the rank of senior lieutenant went to the reserve. But civilian peaceful life turned out to be short-lived for him, having worked for five years as the chairman of the village council in the village of Aleksandrovka, Ivan Pavlovich Sereda died at the age of 32 on November 8, 1950. Streets in the city of Daugavpils and in the village of Galitsinovka were named after the hero.

Prepared Andrey Ivanov