Combat path. Bobruisk Division Battle of Kursk 624th Rifle Regiment

On June 29, the first echelons of the 771st Infantry Regiment arrived at Orsha station, where they began the defense of the Dnieper. In the following days, units of the 137th Infantry Division continued to arrive.

On July 8, the division received an order to join the army reserve in Sukhari, east of Mogilev. During the day, units of the division covered about 70 kilometers on the Orsha - Gorki stretch.

On July 10, the enemy crossed the Dnieper in the Bykhov area. The division was ordered to destroy the enemy bridgehead.

On July 13, the division entered into a counter battle with units of the enemy’s 4th Tank Division in the area of ​​the villages of Chervony and Pustoy Osovets, southwest of the city of Chausy. This was the first battle of the 137th Infantry Division. After a day of fierce fighting, the division pushed the enemy back 5-7 kilometers. The main result of the battle: the enemy was unable to get into the operational space south of Chausy, suffered heavy losses and lost a whole day. And the 137th Infantry Division was unable to destroy the enemy’s bridgehead, since it was inferior to the enemy in strength and means. By the evening of the same day, the division was surrounded.

July 19 - breakthrough to the Sozh River. Two days later the main forces were on the other side.

July 24. The Nazis destroyed the 497th Gap and the 2nd Battalion of the 771st Regiment. As a result of the Nazi attack, only about 30 people survived, and all material support was destroyed.

At the end of July, units of the 132nd Infantry Division were transferred to the division, which completely restored all rifle battalions.

At the beginning of August, the division was transferred to the right flank with the goal of cutting the Warsaw Highway in the Krichev-Roslavl section.

On August 7, near the village of Miloslavichi, the division went on the offensive against the Nazi 7th Infantry Division. The fighting lasted for three days. Particularly fierce battles took place in the cemetery of the village of Miloslavichi. It was led by the 771st Infantry Regiment. Units of the division captured Kiseleva Buda and Kazkan, but did not complete the main task, since the enemy received large reinforcements.

On August 9, in the morning, the enemy went on the offensive. Because of this, the 624th and 409th joint ventures were surrounded. The strike was in the direction of Rodnya - Kostyukovichi. The 771st joint venture, 277th paw, 497th gap escaped from the attack in the direction of the village of Kostyukovichi. The enemy was resisted at advantageous positions.

On August 16, units of the 137th Rifle Division that were not encircled crossed the Besed River near the town of Belynkovichi. From this city, units began to retreat to the city of Surazh.

Near Surazh, the units were again surrounded. The 278th paw was lost.

On August 28, units emerged from encirclement into the forests south of Trubchevsk. Units defended the city for several days.

By the end of the month, the division had regained combat capability.

On September 30, the Germans launched an attack on Moscow. As a result, the 137th Infantry Division was surrounded in the Trubchevsk area.

In November, parts of the division were transferred from near the city of Shchigrov to the city of Yelets. The number of troops was 806 people.

On November 5, the division was transferred to the city of Efremov. The task was to defend the river and the highway leading to Tula.

On November 20, the Germans managed to find a gap in the city’s defenses. The 137th Infantry Division was forced to retreat to the east.

On December 12, units of the division went on the offensive with the goal of capturing the enemy stronghold in the village of Burelomy.

During the two-week battles, the units advanced more than 80 kilometers and reached the approaches to Mtsensk.

By the end of December, only one and a half thousand people remained in the division, and the division operated on a front 30 kilometers wide.

By the New Year, the 491st joint venture did not reach Mtsensk by only 700 meters.

1942

At the beginning of January, the division was transferred to the village of Kuznetsovo. During the first two weeks, the division received reinforcements, which restored its combat effectiveness.

On January 23, during an unsuccessful reconnaissance operation, the 771st rifle regiment suffered heavy losses; later, on January 30, for the same reason, the 409th rifle regiment suffered losses.

On February 4, the Third Army launched an attack on the city of Bolkhov. The offensive was carried out by five divisions and one tank brigade. The 137th Infantry Division suffered heavy losses at the very beginning of the battle. During four days of unsuccessful battles, the division lost about a thousand people.

At the end of April, the division was sent to capture Mtsensk and directly assault the city. Due to a lack of weapons, only one combined regiment was active. On April 29 this operation began.

The next day, the operation was stopped, since there were not enough weapons and ammunition even for this one combined regiment.

1943

In January, the division was transferred to the 48th Army. This army was supposed to advance in the direction of Pokrovka - Zmievka - Orel.

In 16 days, the division covered more than 80 kilometers, liberating 53 settlements along the way.

The division suffered heavy losses. About 560 people out of one and a half thousand.

In mid-March, the division tried to advance in the same direction, but these attempts were also unsuccessful.

After this, the division continued its journey north all the way to a large enemy defensive point - Almazny.

By August 18, the forces of the Red Army approached the German defensive line "Hagen", but no offensive followed, since the Germans strengthened their resistance and the Red Army did not have enough forces left.

The 137th Infantry Division made a significant contribution to Operation Kutuzov. Zmievka is a key stronghold on the southern approaches to Orel. The division covered more than ninety kilometers, and liberated more than seventy settlements.

On August 26, the 137th Infantry Division was transferred to Sevsk. The first battle began on September 1st. The division was tasked with seizing a bridgehead on the Desna.

In October, the division was transferred to the area southwest of Gomel. The division was ordered to cross the Sozh River and create a bridgehead for the attack on Gomel.

On October 10, the division crossed the Sozh and took a bridgehead near the village of Zherebnaya, but attempts to expand it led nowhere.

On October 16, the division was transferred to the bridgehead of the 65th Army near the city of Loev. The goal was to cross the Dnieper.

On December 4, units of the division took the village of Velikiy Bor and reached the Zhlobin - Kalinkovichi railway at the Mormal station.

Until December 15, the division fought there, but it was not possible to cross the station and the offensive was stopped due to shortages and severe fatigue of personnel.

At the end of 1943, the division consisted of four and a half thousand people.

1944

On January 16, the division was sent into battle in the Parichi direction. In 12 days she advanced more than 20 kilometers.

On February 19, the division was re-entered into battle. There were grueling battles. On February 22 alone, in the village of Velikiy Bor, units of the division repelled more than twenty enemy counterattacks.

From March 1 to 11, the division was in the second echelon of the 48th Army, then it was sent to the 50th Army, which was advancing on Mogilev. The division made a march of 60 kilometers, but due to the failure of the attack on Mogilev, it was not brought into battle and was sent back to the 48th Army.

On April 15, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front went on the defensive by order. According to the Bagration plan, the 1st Belorussian Front was supposed to encircle and destroy the Bobruisk group of enemy forces with the forces of four armies. The 137th SD was part of the 48th Army and stood in the second echelon near Rogachev.

From June 23, from the beginning of the offensive, the division was in the second echelon of armies, but on June 27, after a 20-kilometer march, it was brought into battle.

On June 29, at 5 a.m., two battalions of the 771st Infantry Regiment and the entire 409th Infantry Regiment crossed the Berezina River and began the battle in Bobruisk, near the railway station. Heroism in these battles acquired a massive character.

By the first of July, the enemy's Bobruisk group was completely destroyed. For this battle, the division was given the honorary name "Bobruisk".

In four days, the division covered more than 30 kilometers and liberated 86 settlements.

On August 8, the offensive continued, and the division advanced at the forefront of the main attack of the 48th Army.

On August 21, the offensive was stopped, and the division was withdrawn to the second echelon for replenishment, but the next day the division was again brought into battle.

On August 28, the division reached the State Border of the USSR in the area northeast of the city of Ostrów Mazowiecki.

On October 24, the division crossed the Pelta River near the village of Przemyarovo with the support of two heavy artillery regiments.

In four days the division advanced only 10 kilometers.

In November, enemy activity in this sector decreased, so the division was sent to the second echelon for replenishment.

"If there is war tomorrow,
If the hike is tomorrow…"

August 1939... The events in Spain and Hitler's seizure of Czechoslovakia are still fresh in people's memories, and the world smells of gunpowder again. On Khalkhin Gol there are battles with the Japanese, the Wehrmacht armies are converging on the borders of Poland. The non-aggression pact concluded by the USSR with Germany did not remove the threat of war. The Soviet government is making enormous efforts to strengthen the country's defense. Military factories are being built, designers are developing new types of weapons. In connection with the growing military danger, the Law on General Military Duty was adopted. The formation of dozens of new divisions began. So, according to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated August 9, 1939, the formation of the 137th Rifle Regiment began.

The division was born on Nizhny Novgorod soil. Its “mother” was the 17th Nizhny Novgorod Rifle Division named after the Central Executive Committee of the BSSR. The regiments of the 17th had a fighting tradition dating back to the Civil War. The formation of the new division began on the basis of the 51st Ivanovo-Voznesensky Regiment of the 17th Infantry, which was stationed in Arzamas.

In early September 1939, the first commanders and political workers of the new formation began to arrive in Arzamas. Divisional Commander Danilov was appointed division commander, and Colonel Yamanov was appointed chief of staff. Together with them, division headquarters workers and regiment commanders arrived in Arzamas.

It was necessary to form three rifle regiments, which received numbers: 771st, 624th, 409th, and two artillery regiments - 497th howitzer and 278th light. In addition, several special units and units were to be created: anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery divisions, communications battalions, engineer, reconnaissance, automobile, and medical battalions.

Aleksandrov A. A., political instructor of the company of the 624th Infantry Regiment, later party organizer of the regiment, retired lieutenant colonel:

- When the formation of the 624th regiment began, I worked as the head of the vorgot department and a member of the bureau of the Arzamas district Komsomol committee. The fact that a division would be formed in Arzamas became known to the district party committee at the end of August 1939. Soon the district executive committee and the city military registration and enlistment office, together with the arriving representatives from the Moscow Military District, began to implement the developed action plan. The tasks came to the fore: to ensure the placement of units and their headquarters, to select command personnel from the reserve. It was necessary to ensure a certain party-Komsomol layer in the formed units, and, finally, to allocate housing for the families of command personnel. The Komsomol district committee was also involved in all this work. At the end of August, the premises of the railway technical school, which later housed the 278th light artillery regiment, and the Red Barracks, where the first battalion of the 624th Infantry Regiment was quartered, were vacated. The hotel on Leninskaya Street was vacated as apartments for families of command personnel. At that time, the district Komsomol committee had to work especially hard. According to the instructions of the district party committee, we were obliged to select three hundred Komsomol members from the registered personnel for the two regiments being formed. The Komsomol district committee successfully completed this task. More than three hundred Arzamas Komsomol members were drafted into the 624th regiment alone, and about a hundred more into the 278th artillery regiment. The division's medical battalion was staffed with orderlies and nurses exclusively from the Arzamas Komsomol. In March 1940, I already served in the 624th regiment as a company political instructor. The regiment commander, Major Frolenkov, and Commissar Mikheev greeted me very warmly, like an old acquaintance from working in the district committee. Could I then imagine that I would have to go with the regiment throughout its entire combat path until the end of the war...

On September 7, 1939, the first artillery division of the artillery regiment of the 17th Infantry Division arrived by train from Gorky to Arzamas. The first to get off the train was battalion commissar Makarevich, who was appointed commissar of the regiment. Senior Lieutenant Elesin built a division on the platform and read out the order for the formation of the 278th light artillery regiment, which should be part of the 137th Infantry Division. Soon the village of Vyezdnoye near Arzamas began to turn into a military camp, noisy with the neighing of horses, commands and soldiers’ songs. On September 15, its commander Major Ryabkov, chief of staff Captain Polyantsev, division commanders Lieutenant Lagoisky, Senior Lieutenant Khrushchev and Captain Yakushev arrived at the regiment's location. Soon the regiment began to live a normal army life.

The 497th howitzer artillery regiment was formed in the ancient village of Karacharovo near Murom. The first to arrive at the premises of the Karacharovsky rest house, where the regimental headquarters was supposed to be located, were Major Malykh, appointed commander of the unit, battalion commissar Andreev, regimental commissar, and several middle commanders...

Sviridov V.V., commander of the headquarters battery of the 497th GAP, regiment Komsomol organizer, retired lieutenant colonel:

- I was sent to Murom, to the 497th howitzer artillery regiment after graduating from the Kyiv Military School. Lieutenant Silkin and I arrived in the city at night, where the regiment was located, of course, we did not know. They asked the first military man they came across, who turned out to be the regiment commander himself, Major Malykh. It turned out that the regiment did not exist yet, we arrived first. This is how our service began. But before combat training could begin, a tremendous amount of work had to be done: to overhaul the premises, build workshops, equip a dining room and club, a stable, and prepare firewood for the winter. Soon the first four howitzers and forty horses arrived, then they brought tractors and ammunition. At first there were only 25 of us in the regiment, then 60 more arrived, then a whole train arrived - with Ryazan, Odessa, Siberian, Vinnytsia, Georgian people. At the same time, we settled in and studied the material part. Many of the fighters had never seen artillery pieces before...

The 771st Infantry Regiment began to form at a school on Barrikad Street in Sormovo, then it was transferred to Arzamas. Colonel Malinov was appointed commander of the regiment. Malinov was transferred to the regiment from the post of head of the regimental school of the 17th Infantry Division, and before that he commanded a battalion. Captain Shaposhnikov became the chief of staff of the 771st regiment. Battalion Commissar Vasilchikov was appointed commissar of the regiment. Political instructor Naumov became the party organizer of the regiment.

Companies and battalions were immediately formed from the arriving personnel. Many young workers from Sormovo, the Gorky Automobile Plant, and Murom enterprises came to serve in the 771st Rifle Regiment.

By October 1, the formation of the 409th Infantry Regiment was completed, and Major Kornienko was appointed commander. Previously, he taught tactics at the military school named after the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and trained hundreds of commanders of the Red Army. Artyugin, the regimental commissar, had extensive service experience. He arrived in the regiment from the post of deputy chief of the political department of the 17th Infantry Division. At the same time, Artyugin was a member of the Mordovian regional committee and the Saransk city party committee. The 409th regiment was formed mainly from Cheboksary Komsomol members. After formation, the regiment had to redeploy from Cheboksary to Saransk, and the first test for it was a forced march to this city.

The party and economic bodies of Gorky, Arzamas and Murom provided enormous assistance in the formation of the new unit. The formation of the 137th Rifle Division took place under the personal supervision of the first secretary of the Gorky regional party committee Rodionov and the chairman of the regional executive committee Tretyakov. They knew well the needs of the unit, from the very first days they became acquainted with the command, with whom they were subsequently connected by a strong male friendship.

From the end of September, all units and divisions of the division began combat training. Classes in tactics and political training began, and military weapons were studied. The personnel became more and more involved in army life every day.

In December 1939, the division headquarters moved from Arzamas to Gorky, and the 278th light artillery regiment was also relocated there. The 771st Rifle Regiment, after training, with assigned personnel moved to Cheboksary, but soon returned to Gorky and was located in the Red Barracks under the Kremlin.

On February 23, 1940, the personnel of all regiments of the division took the Oath of Allegiance to the Motherland. And combat training went on as usual...

Sviridov V.V.:

- Finally, live firing began with entry into the field. The first results were encouraging. I remember how after the shooting they built huts, tired but happy, they sang: “My fire shines in the fog...”. Major Malykh treated the commanders to good cigarettes. He and the regimental commissar Andreev knew how to cheer up and treated us, young commanders, in a fatherly way...

In the winter of 1940, the 1st and 6th batteries of the 497th Civil Aviation Regiment were at all-army artillery training. Lieutenant Berezhnykh's battery took first place there, for which the Marshal of the Soviet Union. Budyonny awarded him a personalized gold watch. The platoon commanders of this battery, Lieutenants Sakharov, Zhitkovsky and Frolov, were also awarded personalized watches.

Zhukov S.N., company commander of the 3rd battalion of the 624th Infantry Regiment, retired captain:

- On February 6, 1940, we, graduates of the Ryazan Infantry School, arrived in Arzamas to replenish the regiment. The parts immediately became involved in life, and it was interesting and exciting, as indeed it had been all that time. In addition to combat training, the regiment did a lot of sports. For example, in honor of the anniversary of the Red Army, a ski race was organized along the route Arzamas - Gorky and back. We skied about 250 kilometers, in the bitter cold. The cadets of the regimental school of the 624th regiment won then...

Makarevich Stanislav Matveevich, son of the commissar of the 278th LAP:

- I was a boy then and, of course, I loved everything that had to do with the army. We followed the formation of the Red Army soldiers, crawled into the dining room to taste army food. We were helpers at the stables, tried to get to the shooting range, loved to hold a saber and carbine in our hands, and considered shooting at a shooting range the greatest happiness. I spent days and nights in the regiment. The Red Army soldiers even hid me from my father; he swore that I was always disappearing in the barracks. I often heard fighters talk about their father with respect. He loved people, and the Red Army men reciprocated his love. And what amateur artistic activities there was in the regiment! They had their own theater and staged Ostrovsky’s plays...

They didn’t forget about social work in the division and knew how to relax culturally. Regimental bands and amateur performances were well known not only to the soldiers, but also to local residents. It is characteristic that almost the entire command staff was elected as deputies of city and district councils. The workers of the cities of Gorky, Arzamas, Murom, Saransk knew their deputies well, and they, in turn, found the time to provide all possible assistance to their voters. Back in September 1939, a delegation of workers from the city of Gorky presented the personnel of the 771st regiment with the Red Banner of patronage, evidence of the unity of the army and the people. Thus began a strong friendship between the division’s soldiers and the workers of the Gorky region.

And on the Karelian Isthmus there were battles with the Finns. Groups of the most trained Red Army soldiers and commanders were transferred there several times from the division to replenish the warring units. During this period, there were not enough people in the division, especially commanders, and those who remained had to work with maximum stress.

At the beginning of the summer of 1940, units of the division went to the Gorokhovets camps, where they continued to engage in combat training at training grounds and shooting ranges.

The real test for the division was the summer exercises of 1940. These were maneuvers that were indicative of the entire high command of the Red Army. The exercise was personally conducted by People's Commissar of Defense Marshal of the Soviet Union Timoshenko. Also present at the exercises were Marshals Budyonny and Shaposhnikov, the Chief of the General Staff, Army General Meretskov, the Chief of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army, Mehlis, and a number of other senior commanders.

The maneuvers were prepared by the head of the combat training department of the Moscow Military District, Colonel Grishin. The exercises were as close as possible to combat conditions. After the report on readiness to Marshal Timoshenko, the 771st Infantry Regiment went on the offensive. The 409th and 624th regiments were the defending side. At all stages of the exercise, the morale of the personnel was exceptionally high. The desire to do everything as in war permeated everyone - from the ordinary soldier to the division commander. All units showed excellent combat training during the exercises. The battalion of Captain Gusev from the 771st regiment especially distinguished itself. At the review of the exercises by Marshal Timoshenko, the 1st and 3rd companies of senior lieutenants Ponomarev and Tsabut of this battalion were especially noted for skillfully conducting the maneuver. The machine gunners also performed well, pleasing the command with their accurate shooting. Marshal Timoshenko was pleased with the accurate shooting of the artillerymen. The division's soldiers remembered for a long time their meetings with Marshals Timoshenko, Budyonny, and Shaposhnikov.

After the exercises there was a detailed analysis of them. The entire personnel of the formation was thanked by the People's Commissar of Defense, and Marshal Timoshenko presented the commander of the 624th Infantry Regiment, Major Frolenkov, with an honorary gift - a watch with a dedicatory inscription. Many other commanders and Red Army soldiers of the division were also encouraged by the People's Commissar. The 497th Civil Aviation Regiment took first place among 15 artillery regiments of the Moscow Military District in these exercises. It was not for nothing that the regiment was soon given the honor of becoming the training base of the Red Army Artillery Academy.

For success in combat training, the division, among the 15 best formations of the Red Army, was awarded two challenge Red Banners - from the People's Commissariat of Defense and from the command of the Moscow Military District. Such a high assessment of combat training speaks volumes. In a short time, the division became one of the best formations not only in the district, but also in the Red Army.

Good traditions were laid in the 137th. Even then, the regular fighters had a sense of superiority as the best unit of the Red Army, which subsequently made it possible to have the same feeling over the enemy.

The division was completely put together as a unit, felt like a united team, and received the necessary pre-battle experience and hardening.

After the exercise, Marshal Timoshenko decided that even for such a large city as Gorky, it was too rich to have such a well-trained regiment as the 771st, and ordered its rank and file to be sent to form one of the units of the Moscow garrison. To form the new 771st regiment, only the unit commander, political officer, chief of staff and several middle and junior commanders were left...

Shaposhnikov A.V., chief of staff of the 771st Infantry Regiment, retired colonel:

“It was a pity to part with such excellent soldiers.” We were allowed to leave only rear and special units in Gorky. By hook or by crook, we transferred the best Red Army soldiers and sergeants there in order to preserve the core of the unit. The new regiment was again recruited from Gorky, conscripts from Vyksa, Gorodets, Kulebak, Pavlov, Bogorodsk, Shakhunya. There were a lot of guys, almost all of them were Komsomol members...

Soon the regiment again became the best in the division; it was considered the leading one in the formation. It was not without reason that when in the spring of 1941 the General Staff planned to transfer the division to the airborne states, the 771st regiment was supposed to become a parachute regiment, as the best regiment of the formation.

Lyashko P. A., senior clerk of the 771st regiment, retired colonel:

- We were lucky to have commanders. Colonel Malinov knew his job very well, an experienced methodologist-educator, a very self-possessed, calm person. The chief of staff, Captain Shaposhnikov, enjoyed authority in the regiment. He never raised his voice, he would always figure it out, think about a decision, he never threw words to the wind. Shaposhnikov knew staff work very well and knew how to organize any complex matter well. Commissar Pyotr Aleksandrovich Vasilchikov was also respected in the regiment. A man of Bolshevik temperament, he managed to quickly win the authority and love of the regiment’s personnel...

Soon after the People's Commissar's exercises, division commander Danilov was recalled to Moscow to a new position. It was not easy for him to part with the connection into which he had invested so much work and soul. A difficult fate awaited General Danilov in the first months of the war. While commanding another division, in one of the battles he was wounded and captured. But even in captivity, he courageously fulfilled his duty, and died a true patriot of the Motherland.

Colonel Grishin was appointed the new commander of the 137th Infantry. Colonel Grishin came to the division with solid experience as head of the operational department of the 17th Infantry Division and head of the combat training department of the Moscow Military District. For well-planned and conducted People's Commissar exercises, he was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

Colonel Grishin had a solid and at the same time usual biography behind him for a division commander. Ivan Tikhonovich Grishin was born in 1901 into a peasant family, in the village of Vnukovichi, Roslavl district, Smolensk province. In the Red Army since 1920, he participated in the suppression of Antonovism, and in the 20s he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy. He went through all the levels of military service, starting from platoon commander. The command valued him as a skilled methodologist and educator. Colonel Grishin commanded the 137th Division during the most difficult period of its history, until March 1942. Then he worked as chief of staff of the army, until the end of the war he commanded the 49th Army. For crossing the Dnieper and capturing Mogilev, General Grishin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. One of the streets of Mogilev bears his name. After the end of the war, Colonel General Grishin was on diplomatic work in Albania, then worked as head of the combat training department of the Ground Forces. The life of Ivan Tikhonovich was cut short in 1950.

After the People's Commissar's exercises, the division continued to intensively engage in combat training. There was a war in Europe, everyone understood that it was not far off for our country. The Red Army soldiers and commanders studied intensely in military affairs, who often did not have time to be at home on weekends with their families...

Pokhlebaev G. G., commander of a battery of 76-mm guns of the 771st Infantry Regiment, retired colonel:

“The entire last year before the war remained in my memory as a period of constantly increasing tension at work. In September 1940, the chief of artillery of the regiment, Senior Lieutenant Yegorychev, was transferred to another unit. Without releasing me from the post of battery commander, they left me to work for him. In October 1940, the secretary of the regiment's party bureau, Naumov, left for courses. I, as a member of the bureau, was assigned to carry out its duties. It’s good that my deputy in combat, Lieutenant Boris Tereshchenko, helped me a lot. Colonel Malinov once said: “Comrade Senior Lieutenant, the first half of the day you work with the artillerymen (the battery was located in the Tobolsk barracks), and the second half in the regiment’s party bureau.” Every day I had to make five-kilometer marches along Sverdlov Street. In February 1941, senior lieutenant Merkulov returned from artillery courses. He worked a little at the division artillery headquarters, and then he was transferred to our unit as the chief of regimental artillery, but I still had to teach crew training. In May, Naumov returned from the course, this made my service easier, but it was too early to rejoice: senior lieutenant Tereshchenko was taken from me and transferred to command the battery. And so there is no respite before the start of the war...

The archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense contain Colonel Grishin’s speech at a meeting with the People’s Commissar of Defense in January 1941. This document conveys the peculiar spirit of pre-war times:

“Comrade People's Commissar of Defense! The inspection exercises you conducted in our division and awarding it with a high award - the Red Banner of the Red Army - laid a solid foundation for the training of division units and created conditions for our fruitful work in the future. We have now firmly stood on this foundation. True, I do not have experience in commanding this division in the past such as the commander of the 99th division said. But I have experience in preparing this division for the inspection exercises of the People's Commissar of Defense. Therefore, I will talk about how our studies are going now. We have taken into account all the instructions that you gave during the analysis of the tactical exercises of our division, as well as other divisions, and are rebuilding the entire system of our work according to them.

We started perestroika with questions like these. The question would seem very simple - take your studies to the field. Nothing could be simpler. But it turned out that this is a very difficult matter. This didn’t work out for us right after the camp studies. What have we done to move this matter forward? We took as a basis the instructions that you made during the tactical exercises of our division, as well as other divisions in other districts. Once again we worked through them with the entire command staff - senior, middle and now we are bringing them to the new addition, to each fighter.

Secondly, we rearranged our internal routine in such a way that we study for two hours in the morning before breakfast, then have breakfast and go out into the field for the entire six hours. This gives us the opportunity to rationally use daylight hours and not keep soldiers near the barracks. What are we seeing here? You won't be able to turn this around right away. We are facing great difficulties. The remnants of the past, the pattern, the conventions that existed in this matter are repeated now. Here it is necessary in some cases to resort to individual measures. This is especially true for those commanders who still want to manage combat training issues from the office, from the office. There are such cases.

I must emphasize that in our 137th division we have a large shortage of personnel and, mainly, of the main link - the company commander, the shortage is expressed in 12 people. In addition, in the entire division there is not a single company commander higher in rank than a lieutenant. The bulk are junior lieutenants. We have to work very hard with this group to correct the shortcomings. This creates a great difficulty for us.

We are now finishing our solo training. A number of commanders spoke here about the fact that it remains unfinished. Yes, it remains largely unfinished for us. I would like to report how things are going with us. Reinforcements to our division arrived at the end of October and beginning of November. We were not able to conduct single-person training of a fighter in a month and a half. We have a lot of work ahead of us to refine the individual soldier during the preparation of a squad, platoon and company.

Today, training in the division has begun in all units, but it is proceeding unevenly. Where people have truly understood perestroika, things are moving much faster. We have one such regiment, which fulfills all the tasks that are assigned according to the plan exactly on time. True, the quality is still lacking. We are working on this. We tested the endurance of one regiment's young recruits. The result was excellent.

Along with individual training of a fighter, we adopted a system that is also practiced by the commander of the 99th division. We conducted a 10-kilometer march with the platoon with the theme “Actions of the head outpost.” Today the company’s 15-kilometer march on the same topic ends, and we will end December with a 25-kilometer march of the reinforced battalion. In January, we planned a five- to seven-day exit between the two garrisons with a separation of units of 50-60 kilometers. This will give us the opportunity to involve our troops both in marches and in winter conditions.

Fire training. In terms of fire training, basically now this regiment, which is in front, has completed the first initial exercises and has begun the second. For the remaining shelves, the exercises end. The results are as follows: excellent - 268 out of 647 people, good - 191, mediocre - 145, bad - 43 with a total percentage of 93.5. In some regiments, where there is only talk about perestroika, where they only think about it, this task has been completed by 50 percent.

In order to improve the quality of combat training, this is what we are doing. We are doing the following: Today, our goal is to identify individual commanders who are now teaching soldiers by demonstration. We found such a commander, and several days passed - and in each regiment we have not one, but dozens of such commanders who teach by show. This is a positive phenomenon that ensures the quality of studies. Then they identified the best platoon in the division, popularized it, and now each platoon commander tries to bring his platoon to the level of this demonstration platoon. The same work was carried out in regimental schools.

Then, after the 15th District Party Conference, the secretaries of the party bureaus sharply reorganized their work. There are secretaries of party bureaus such as comrade. Bashmakov and Kazakov, who have a definite plan for when, in which battery, in which company they will attend classes. They not only attend classes, but are also actively involved in their studies. Having returned from the company, they report to the regiment commander and help eliminate shortcomings. Komsomol organizations have also found Komsomol organizers who have truly restructured the work and are carrying out the work by popularizing their models. This pulls others forward.

Working with excellent students. This is an important section of work, especially during the period of solo training. At first we abandoned this matter, abandoned the excellent students who were awarded by the People's Commissar with the badge “Excellent Worker of the Red Army” and awarded with valuable gifts for their studies, etc. Now we have assembled this army of excellent students, carried out the corresponding work, showed them to young soldiers, company commanders and platoons. We have not yet fully carried out this event, but each of the company and platoon commanders was given certain tasks - to have plans for raising these excellent students. Let's say that each company commander must train 2-3 excellent students by a certain date, which will generally lead us to the opportunity to train excellent students in the future. In this way we will raise the quality of combat and political training.

The lieutenant general of the armored forces said that people who do not know Russian should not be sent to tank units. I must say that there are up to 32 nationalities in our division, so there is nowhere to put them. You cannot join the infantry, but we need to put international education at the center of our attention. We decided to do this: in order to quickly teach the Russian language, we distributed the nationals no more than 2 people into departments. Then they prepared Komsomol members and assigned them to these individuals, asking each fighter to memorize five words of the Russian language every day. We had 5 people in the communications battalion, 15 people in the ORB. Some commanders asked me the question: “Remove these people.” I stated that we have many nationalities and there will be no transfers. And what? Now signalmen work perfectly on the key and transmit several dozen words. Moreover, not a single battalion commander asks to take them off. This event helps tremendously. A person sees an object, for example, a hand, which is called a hand until he learns it.

In order to prepare a full-fledged corporal and provide our detached commander with an assistant, we held the following event - we collected a 45-day training camp from old-timers of the 2nd year of service and will complete this training by January 1. This will provide approximately 50-60 instructors for each regiment. I personally attended every meeting. I must say that the quality of the classes is quite high, and we will get full-fledged corporals who will ensure the quality of the classes conducted in the department.

The measures we are carrying out to retrain command staff by order of People's Commissar No. 0259 are of enormous importance. I would like to briefly note one drawback. We have some overload of the division. The district conducts training - it takes leaders from the division, the corps conducts it - it takes leaders from the divisions, or they simply transferred the training of battery commanders to me, and my division artillery chief with his headquarters sits at corps training for more than a month.

There is insufficient control on the part of the management of these training camps, and the quality of training of the company commander turned out to be weaker than the quality of training of the battery commander. We are currently holding a meeting of platoon commanders. There is still a lot of work to be done with company commanders in order to train them into true masters. The company commander is the main person who directly trains the soldier, squad and platoon. This category turned out to be younger in age, less knowledgeable, and the training was somewhat lower than the category of battalion commander and platoon commander.

This is how perestroika is proceeding in our country, this is how we understand the instructions of Comrade People’s Commissar, which were given to us during the analysis of tactical exercises.

Our situation with discipline is not entirely successful. We have not overcome such shameful phenomena as desertion - there was such an incident in December. Absenteeism does occur, there are cases of drunkenness, and at the rank of junior lieutenant. What's the matter? The fact is that we considered him a fully trained commander and stopped working with him, but he had not yet developed as a commander, but we left him to his own devices. Now we have reviewed this matter and have outlined a number of measures in order to raise the category of junior lieutenants.

We understand the regulations of the disciplinary service in the division correctly and carry out disciplinary practices correctly, but some of the command staff ended up with simple administration. Let me give you one such example. There is a deputy commander of the battery, Ilchenko - for November and 10 days of December, he did not give a single encouragement, he gave 53 orders and 15 days of arrest. We have now carried out a thorough check of the state of discipline in this regiment and a number of other units and have given comprehensive instructions to correct this deficiency.

Now we have launched broad socialist competition within ourselves, calling a number of our divisions of the Moscow Military District to compete with us for primacy. We set ourselves the task at all costs to retain the banner of the People’s Commissar, which the division received last year, and we will fight for the primacy of our Moscow Military District in order to make it a leading district in the Red Army.”

Lukyanyuk F. M., commander of the division communications battalion, lieutenant colonel:

- In April 1941, I was at a large meeting at the headquarters of the Moscow Military District. The commander of the Moscow Military District, General Tyulenev, gave us a stern order in his final speech: “There is a thunderstorm in the air, war can break out unexpectedly, so when you arrive at your units, make all the calculations for lifting and loading property and food into wagons, even to the point that appoint senior officers for the carriages...

The summer of 1941 was approaching. Due to the difficult international situation in May, part of the assigned personnel was called up to the division. These were mostly participants in the Finnish campaign, fighters who had been shot at. Immediately after replenishment, the division moved to summer camps to continue combat training. In the evenings, returning from shooting ranges and training grounds, the Red Army soldiers sang: “If tomorrow there is war, if tomorrow there is a campaign...”. The division was ready to fulfill its duty, but still the news of the war came unexpectedly.

Neruch River

By the beginning of the Battle of Kursk, the 137th Rifle Division was part of the 42nd Rifle Division of the 48th A and stood in the second echelon in the area of ​​​​the village of Alekseevka and the Korsun forest. The division received reinforcements and numbered up to 6 thousand personnel. From the beginning of the Battle of Kursk until July 23, the 137th Infantry Division was in the second echelon of the army. The division was brought into battle on July 23, with orders to cross the Neruch River and capture the Zmievka station. Extremely bloody battles broke out for Vasilievka, Nakhlestovo, Bogodukhova, Stepanovka, Pirozhkovo. On July 25, in cooperation with the 170th Infantry Division, the division captured the Zmievka station.

From a letter to the Council of the Museum of the 137th Infantry Division from retired senior lieutenant Alexander Kirillovich Nigruts.

Dear friends! I have a photograph of the best mortar crew of the first platoon of the 120 mm mortar battery of the 624th Infantry Regiment. I had the opportunity to command this platoon from June 1942 to January 1944. The composition of the crew remained almost unchanged. They were photographed by a photojournalist of the divisional newspaper “For the Motherland” in early August 1943, when a large group of soldiers, sergeants and officers of our battery were awarded orders and medals for military exploits. Among those awarded the medal “For Courage” were the crew commander, Sergeant Shchegolev (in the photo he is holding a notebook in his hands and wearing a cap), and the gunner, Corporal Nechaev (standing by the mortar and holding the aiming handle) and Corporal Gubaidullin (he is inserting a mine into the barrel of the mortar). Surnames Unfortunately, I don’t remember three more soldiers who were awarded medals “For Military Merit.” This mortar crew accounted for 4 vehicles with enemy infantry, two armored personnel carriers, two bunkers, 6 machine gun nests, up to a company of fascist soldiers. In the autumn of 1943 We accompanied Corporal Nechaev, who had a general secondary education, to the artillery school. I don’t know the further fate of my dear brothers-in-arms, whom I had the opportunity to command in the hot days of 1943. Former platoon commander of the 120mm mortar battery of the 624th Infantry Regiment, retired senior lieutenant Alexander Kirillovich Nigrutsa. Let this photocopy add to your museum.

In these battles, the following distinguished themselves: the platoon commander of the 624th rifle regiment, Lt. O. Stepanov, posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the Komsomol organizer of the battalion of the 624th regiment, Lt. Yu. Gorchakov, awarded the Order of Lenin, the adjutant of the commander of the 409th regiment. t M. Spivak, posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, as well as hundreds of other soldiers and commanders.

The 137th Infantry Division made a worthy contribution to Operation Kutuzov. Zmievka was a key enemy stronghold on the southern approaches to Orel. The 137th Infantry Division defeated units of the enemy's 299th, 283rd, 92nd and 78th Infantry Divisions. In two weeks of fighting, 90 km were covered in battles, more than 70 settlements were liberated, 4,100 Nazis were destroyed, about 200 were taken prisoner, 20 tanks and self-propelled guns, 30 guns, dozens of mortars, and 142 machine gun emplacements were destroyed. For these battles, only 250 people in the division were awarded the medal “For Courage,” and dozens of soldiers and officers were awarded orders.

The 409th joint venture of Major Grebnev destroyed up to 1 thousand enemy soldiers, 9 tanks, 19 guns, 23 vehicles in these battles. Particularly distinguished in this regiment were the battalions of A. Siryakov, A. Komkin, officers Grishishin (chief of the regiment headquarters), Melnik (chief of the regiment artillery, battery commanders Ratin and Postavnichy, company and platoon commanders Belostotsky, Bobunov, Andreev, Stepanov , Skipochka, Reznik, Povedsky, Chernikov.

The 624th joint venture of Lieutenant Colonel Sushchits destroyed more than 1,350 Nazis and 6 tanks. Major Y. Beshkok (chief of regiment headquarters), battalion commanders N. Uvarov, V. Lagodny, S. Vlasov, officers Kurpas, Sirichenko, Gorchakov, Stepanov, Danshin, regiment party organizer Alekseev, regiment Komsomol organizer Pilipenko, battalion party organizer especially distinguished themselves in battles Aleksandrovsky, battery commander Krylov, company commander Khramov.

The 771st Regiment in this operation destroyed 850 Nazis and 8 guns. Scouts of the 176th Ord Art. Lieutenant P. Kurusya captured 76 “languages” in the first week of the offensive alone. During this operation, communications worked uninterruptedly, the head of which in the division was Major V. Kachkalda.

During the two weeks of the offensive, the 137th Infantry Division lost more than 900 people killed and over 2 thousand wounded.

On August 26, the Central Front launched a new offensive. The 137th Infantry Division, as part of the 48th A, was transferred to the Sevsk area and entered into battle on September 1, with the task of capturing a bridgehead on the Desna River. Pursuing the retreating enemy, Captain Komkin's battalion from the 409th rifle regiment was the first to cross the Desna on the night of September 8 and captured a bridgehead near the village of Rogovka. The 771st rifle division captured a bridgehead near the village of Leskonogi. From September 9 to 17, exceptionally stubborn fighting took place on the bridgehead. Units of the division repelled dozens of enemy attacks. The companies of the 409th infantry regiment especially distinguished themselves in these battles.

For the successful battles to hold the bridgehead and for the fact that the 137th Infantry Division was the first of the troops of the Central Front to cross the Desna, she was thanked by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Hundreds of soldiers and officers were awarded orders and medals. The division commander, Colonel A. Alferov, was awarded the Order of Suvorov, 2nd class, and the Order of Suvorov, 3rd class. the commanders of the 771st and 624th regiments Kadiro and Sushchits, the chief of artillery of the division Yavorsky, the commander of the 17th ap Savchenko, the head of the engineering service Major Danchich were awarded, the Order of the Red Banner was awarded to the party organizer of the battalion of the 624th regiment A. Aleksandrov, the Order of Alexander Nevsky - battalion and company commanders Medvedev, Alimov, Uvarov, Vlasov, Antonov, Kaun, Lisitsyn, Ilchenko, Mikhin, Skulsky. The heroism of the division's soldiers on the Desna was massive. These battles went down in the history of the 137th Infantry Division as the brightest and most heroic page.

From July 23 to December 12, 1943, the 137th Infantry Division lost more than 2.5 thousand people in killed alone. From the beginning of the summer offensive to the end of December 1943, 2,320 people were awarded in the division, including the Order of the Red Banner - 44 people, Alexander Nevsky - 19, the Order of the Patriotic War - 27, the Red Star - 390, about 1,880 people were awarded medals. Six people received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. On New Year's Day 1944, the 137th Infantry Division received 3 wagons of gifts from the Gorky chefs. At the end of 1943, the 137th Infantry Division had 4.5 thousand personnel.

Gorchakov Yu. M.

From the memoirs of veteran Yu. M. Gorchakov, Komsomol organizer of the 1st battalion of the 624th Infantry Regiment, later Komsomol organizer of the regiment, senior lieutenant:

At first we launched the attack together, but the Germans fired so terrible that the closer we got to the river, the more we had to crawl. The Germans hit especially hard on the descent to the river - machine gunners from the trenches, and a self-propelled gun, it’s good that it was quickly knocked out by someone from Senior Lieutenant Yudin’s battery. During this attack, I was in the company of Lieutenant Kodin, together with the Komsomol organizer of the company Danshin, in the platoon of Lieutenant Oleg Stepanov. We had already approached the river, but the fire was so dense that the company lay down... - Everything happened very quickly, and we didn’t even notice what we were doing and how. We burst into the trench - a line of fire left and right, threw a couple of grenades and continued forward. Danshin ran into a machine gun burst - it literally cut him off, Oleg Stepanov threw grenades, destroyed two machine guns with the crew, Azelkhanov threw a grenade into the dugout, Intagaliev immediately fired at the Germans in the trench. Some of them are running, some are hitting us, some are already raising their hands. A German jumped out of the church - I shot him with a machine gun, he also had a sniper rifle and a Parabellum in his belt...

Alexander Petrushin

FROM THE ENVIRONMENT

June 22, 2011 marks 70 years since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. It so happened that in the Red Army formations that were the first to take on the enemy attack, there were many of our fellow countrymen who were called up for military service in 1939, 1940 and the spring of 1941. Many served in the 137th Infantry Division.

The best of the best

This formation was formed in September 1939 in Arzamas on the basis of the 51st Ivanovo-Voznesensky regiment of the 17th Nizhny Novgorod named after the Central Executive Committee of the BSSR rifle division.

This city, according to the writer Arkady Gaidar, who was born there, “was quiet, all in gardens, surrounded by shabby fences. In those gardens grew a great variety of cherries, early apples, thorns and red peonies. The gardens, adjacent to one another, formed continuous green massifs, restlessly ringing with the whistling sounds of tits, goldfinches, bullfinches and robins... Quiet, blooming ponds stretched across the city, past the gardens. The small river Tesha flowed under the mountain.”

The division included three rifle regiments (771st, 624th, 409th) and two artillery regiments - 497th howitzer and 278th light, as well as special units: anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery divisions, communications battalions , sapper, reconnaissance, automobile, medical and sanitary.

All units were staffed by conscripts - Volzhans and Siberians.

The division distinguished itself at the summer maneuvers of 1940, indicative of the high command of the Red Army: Marshals Timoshenko, Budyonny, Shaposhnikov, Army General Meretsky, Army Commissar 1st Rank Mehlis.

For well-planned and conducted People's Commissar exercises, the commander of the 137th Infantry Division, Colonel Grishin, was awarded the Order of the Red Star.*

The archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense contain Colonel Grishin’s speech at a meeting with People’s Commissar of Defense Timoshenko in December 1941:

“... The inspection exercises you carried out in our division laid a solid foundation for the training of units and created conditions for our fruitful work in the future. True, I do not have the same experience in commanding a division as the commander of the 99th division said...”

The front line in the Red Army, the 99th Infantry Division, was commanded by Colonel Vlasov. The same one who on July 12, 1942, already with the rank of lieutenant general, commanding the 2nd Shock Army surrounded in the Novgorod forests and swamps, surrendered and began to collaborate with the invaders “to conduct an armed struggle against Soviet power.”**

Alarmed

The peaceful life of the Gorokhovets camp, where the 137th Infantry Division was located in the summer of 1941, was interrupted by the war. Former head of the operational department of the headquarters of the 20th Rifle Corps, which included the 137th, I.A. Suetin recalled: “On the night of June 22, I was on duty at the corps headquarters. Early in the morning, a message was received from the Moscow Military District that Nazi Germany had attacked our country. So in Gorky I was the first to find out that the war had begun. The commanders were immediately alerted. We just finished the meeting, opened the mobilization package, and Molotov speaks on the radio.”

Signalman of the 771st Infantry Regiment A.M. Samoilenko: “... The general formation of the regiment was scheduled for the morning of June 22. We all stood in a line of two, waiting for a drill review by some big boss. More than an hour passed, but not a single commander, not even a junior lieutenant, appeared. I volunteered to find out what was going on. “Run,” someone in the ranks said, “you are the winner of our regimental and divisional competitions. Indeed, I took first place in the regiment and second in the division in running. I quickly ran to the regimental headquarters and saw silent, preoccupied commanders emerging from it and turning their heads towards the loudspeaker dish. I listened to Molotov’s speech and ran to the battalion. All the fighters stood in formation: discipline was strict then. But when people listened to my confused retelling of what they heard on the radio, where did the discipline go? Everyone began to disperse, and soon small fires appeared near the tents - they burned letters, papers, some things that they could not take to the war, even suitcases.”

Telephone operator of the 246th separate communications battalion of the division A.A. Korobkov: “And at twelve o’clock we ended up in the dining room. When we heard that there was war, we lost spoons...”

After meetings, rallies, party and Komsomol meetings, an order came from the corps headquarters to return to the place of permanent deployment.

Signalman of the 771st Infantry Regiment A.M. Samoilenko: “On the evening of June 22, our regiment from the Gorokhovets camps went on foot to Gorky, to the Red Barracks. At first they marched in an organized manner with the entire regiment, but gradually they spread out. The commanders hurried, but no one reacted: everyone withdrew into themselves, thinking about the outbreak of war.

They walk slowly hour after hour, and fatigue builds up along the way. Some fell asleep while walking, others fell anywhere during short rests, and others began to invent diseases. There were other guys among us - hardy, strong, burning with the desire to get to the front as soon as possible. A village appeared, on its outskirts there was a well. One or two Red Army soldiers rushed to the water, but they were stopped: “Comrades, have restraint, the people are watching us.” Indeed, half the village had gathered at the last house - women and children. Fellow soldiers who were lagging behind appeared in the distance. The closer they came, the more unsightly the picture: many could barely trudge, but such good fellows! Someone had rubbed their feet and was now kicking up dust with their bare heels. And then they rushed to the well - the whole crowd, climbing their heads into the trough. Others approach from behind, pushing even more. The first signs of war, with its difficulties and decline in morals."

From June 26, 1941, echelon after echelon from Gorky, Arzamas, Murom and Saransk sent regiments of the 137th Infantry Division to the west.

Veterinarian of the 624th Infantry Regiment N.A. Nabel: “The tension of the dispatch increased every hour. When loading into the carriages, most of the soldiers and commanders said goodbye to their relatives and friends. There was crying and wailing everywhere. To the command “On the carriages!” Not everyone responded. The locomotive puffed and whistled, calling for landing, but the farewell continued. Finally, the train started moving and moved forward. Women run to the carriages, many are crying bitterly. I have never heard such universal crying before; it seemed to hang in the air for a long time.”

The 137th Infantry Division then numbered over 14 thousand people, about three thousand horses, up to 200 guns and mortars, hundreds of cars, tractors, and carts. To transfer this formation to the front, 36 echelons were required.

First fight

At rare stops, everyone eagerly listened to the reports of the Sovinformburo, and they became more and more alarming. Grodno, Baranovichi, Minsk were abandoned. More and more ambulance trains are coming our way. The front is getting closer.

ON THE. Nabel: “It’s six o’clock in the morning, a fine summer morning, almost everyone is still sleeping. Suddenly a sharp roar shook the train. I jumped out of the car, and, falling to the ground, I noticed two German planes in the sky. One bomb hit a carriage where seventy-five people were traveling, the second hit a horse trailer, the third hit the rail of the second track, so much so that a piece of the rail was torn out and the ends were bent like a sled. Soldiers jump out of the train and run scattered into the forest. When the planes took off, I went to the head of the train where the bombs fell. In the carriage with people, a bomb pierced the roof and floor, with mutilated corpses all around. The horse carriage is a mess of meat and bones. One horse was thrown onto the rails by the explosion, its front leg was missing and its stomach was torn apart. I need to shoot the poor guy, but I can’t. The lieutenant approaches: “Well, look, shoot!” - “Yes, the gun is stuck!” Finally he fired. I still remember the eyes of this horse, full of tears.”

On the evening of June 29, the first echelons with units of the 137th Infantry Division began to arrive at Orsha station.

Chief of Staff of the 771st Infantry Regiment A.V. Shaposhnikov: “Orsha was burning. German planes appeared in the air every now and then. It was necessary to unload the train. It was difficult to find the station commandant. He did not know the situation, where the front was was unknown. The commandant was completely tormented by the military and civilians who surrounded him. He just waved his hand at me: “Unload as you wish.” He returned to the train and reported the situation to the regiment commander. Colonel Malinov ordered to unload.”

Assistant Chief of the Operations Department of the 137th Infantry Division Headquarters V.K. Reutov: “The hassle and tension were terrible. Imagine the situation of Colonel Grishin: the unknown, the front is approaching, you need to gather the division into a fist, and its echelons stretched for hundreds of kilometers - the head was in Orsha, and the tail had just left Saransk.”

The situation on the Western Front was very difficult. In the Orsha-Mogilev sector, General Guderian's 2nd Tank Group, consisting of eight tank and motorized divisions, operated. Having completed operations in the Minsk region on July 3, these formations crossed the Berezina and in five days covered the distance to the Dnieper, approximately 90 kilometers. Here they were opposed by the divisions of the 13th Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Pyotr Filatov, who were retreating in battle from Minsk and suffered heavy losses. He died under enemy bombs on July 8, when Guderian's tanks had already reached the Dnieper. Lieutenant General Fedor Remezov took command of the 13th Army. By his order, the 137th Infantry Division was to withdraw from its positions near Orsha, march on foot to the area of ​​the village of Sukhari, east of Mogilev, and take up defense along the Resta River. Lieutenant Skvortsov, commander of the communications platoon of the 771st Infantry Regiment, wrote in his diary about this transition: “Terrible heat, dust, airplanes. Despite two days of insomnia, the fighters feel cheerful. Oh, and a Russian soldier!”

At 5 a.m. on July 10, the Germans began crossing the Dnieper in the Bykhov area—the countdown to the Battle of Smolensk began. The headquarters of the 13th Army was not ready to repel the enemy crossing. The counterattack of our troops was scheduled for the morning of July 12. Colonel Grishin received the order to move from Sukhari only on the evening of July 11. We had to walk over 30 kilometers. The riders drove teams of horses with guns. The infantry began to run every now and then. All excess property and equipment, even overcoats and duffel bags, were left in Sukhari. There were only a few hours left before the fighting began, and the division could not be assembled into a full-fledged combat unit. Some of the batteries of artillery regiments and rifle battalions unloaded on the Krichev-Orsha stretch were subordinated to the commanders of other divisions. A separate anti-aircraft artillery division was bombed by German aircraft and suffered such losses that it virtually ceased to exist. Even before the war, the sapper battalion was taken for training camp in Maloyaroslavets, and never arrived at the 137th Infantry Division. On the way to the front, the medical battalion got lost - it only got to Roslavl, where it ended up in another army. Disruption of the smooth operation of railways and enemy air raids - all this led to confusion and mixing of military units.

Army Commander-13 Remezov went to personally lead the counterattack. At dawn on July 13, his car was fired upon by German motorcyclists. The wounded general was sent to the rear. Lieutenant General Vasily Gerasimenko, the third commander in a week, took command of the 13th Army.

At the same time, the battalions of the 1st 37th Infantry Division reached the starting line for the attack. There was only the enemy ahead.

Section commander of the 624th Infantry Regiment A.K. Kuchinsky:

“We went to approach the enemy. Through the grove along the road we ran further, and suddenly machine guns hit us. One shell exploded, then another. We lay down, trying to observe, but we can’t see anything, and the German machine gun is firing so hard that we can’t raise our heads. We decided to change position and moved to the rye field. We dug in. So the day passed - dashes, shootouts. I still have a notebook: “First battle. Of the 53 people in our platoon, 19 remained alive...”

Marshal Biryuzov, who commanded the 132nd Rifle Division in those battles, recalled: “It was much more difficult for our left neighbor, the 137th Rifle Division, at the junction with which the enemy struck the main blow. Here the battle reached its highest tension. The entire area seemed to be drenched in blood and engulfed in flames. Everything was burning: villages set on fire by the Germans, destroyed tanks, cars...”

On the day of its first battle - July 13, 1941 - the division repulsed all enemy attacks and did not retreat a single step.

Then the enemy increased pressure on the flanks, on the neighbors to the right and left. By nightfall, the roar of tank engines and the roar of guns could be heard in the rear. Having broken through the defenses of the 13th Army, Guderian's tanks rushed along the dusty roads to Propoisk (now Slavgorod) and Chausy. So the 137th Infantry Division found itself surrounded.

Missing

There was no order to withdraw, and the division continued to occupy its positions. It began to get dark when our fighters captured a German vehicle that drove straight into the battle formations. The Nazis either lost their way, or considered that there could no longer be Soviet troops here. Important passengers were carrying valuable documents.

A.V. Shaposhnikov: “The briefcase also contained a map indicating the frontiers where the Germans were to be, and even dates, right up to Gorky. And, I must say, the Germans adhered to the schedule for moving to the east.”

The historiographer of the 137th Bobruisk Order of Suvorov Rifle Division, Valery Kiselev, visited the site of the first battle near the village of Chervonny Osovets in July 1976: “... Everything was overgrown with weeds. On the outskirts of the village there is a monument: a bronze figure of a soldier, a fence, and inside there are four wide mass graves. How many of our soldiers are lying here? The old-timers count: “There are about two hundred people. But not everything is here, there are many graves in the forest. Like sheaves of them lay on the field, like sheaves.” How many times later did I hear this expression from old women on the long route of the division - “like sheaves.”

On the night of July 14, the 137th Infantry Division received an order to withdraw - in four columns in the general direction of Chausy.

Hitler's command hoped that the Soviet troops encircled to the south of Chaus would begin to quickly disintegrate, and transferred their main forces to the Krichev area, where reserve units of the Red Army were hastily taking up defensive positions along the Sozh River.

Gunner of the 45-mm battery gun of the 409th Infantry Regiment F.E. Petrov: “When they approached Krichev, the battalion commander ordered to take up defense here. Our crew took a position on the main street, on the right side of the roadway, the second gun was installed on another street, as they were waiting for tanks on the road from the Chausy station. Several minutes passed, the shelling began, a semi-truck rushed by, and an unfamiliar commander standing on the running board shouted that German tanks were following him. I saw how the shells hit the guns in front, and how the soldiers fell there. Our platoon commander, seeing this, ordered a retreat. They fired the last shell and ran down the street amid the whistling of bullets. There were three of us, we ran into the yard, from there through the garden into the ravine. I no longer saw the gun commander and platoon commander; I also don’t know what happened to the second gun.

We passed through gardens and in holes in a ravine we met and raised several more fighters. There were seven or eight of us gathered. The sun was setting. We were lying under a linden tree, a woman came up and asked her about the situation in the city. She said that Krichev is full of German cars. Early in the morning one of us went to look for somewhere to drink in the ravine, and he was stopped by a German with a machine gun. We had to get up too. He led us all through the owner’s yard; she still managed to give us a mug of milk. There were about twenty of us, they took us to the river, and forced us to build a pontoon bridge across the river. At first we were kept in the yard of a general store, then they moved us to the territory of a cement plant. At the beginning of August we drove to Mogilev. Before the movement began, the Germans announced that there were five thousand of us here. It took several days to get from Krichev to Mogilev. Those who lost their legs and could not walk were shot by the Germans. In Mogilev we were kept near the Red Army House near the Dnieper. Officers captured in uniform were kept separately. Some junior commanders disguised themselves as privates. After Mogilev - Orsha, Novo-Borisov, then Germany. At the beginning of October we were taken to the south of Germany, to the Black Forest. We worked under the mountain, made a tunnel. Here I was severely beaten, but miraculously I survived. In February 1942, swollen, I was sent to the infirmary. In May, after a correctional camp, he was sent to agricultural work, then ended up in Lorraine, in the coal mines. The Americans liberated us on April 14, 1945..."

Medical instructor of the 497th GAP V.P. Gaev:

“Before the breakout from the encirclement, we had a lot of wounded. It was impossible to evacuate them, so they placed everyone in the forest village of Kamenka, north of the Warsaw highway, six kilometers from the Veremeiki station. They left me and medical instructor Grigory Malichev with the wounded. The regiment went on a breakthrough, and we... hid in the school. The locals helped us in every way they could. In three months, 107 people recovered and went into the forest. Only one political worker died. And on October 14, 1941, 23 seriously wounded people and us doctors were captured by the Germans. First there was a camp in Krichev, on the territory of a cement plant. Horrors and nightmares began. Then the camp in Mogilev, and then the 326th penal camp in Alsace-Lorraine. In December 1944, the Americans liberated us..."

The division continued its journey to the east: it crossed the Pronya River north of the city of Propoisk and on July 18 reached the Warsaw Highway. In anticipation of the remnants of the 132nd, 137th and 160th rifle divisions breaking out from encirclement, enemy ambushes had already been set up there.

Assistant Chief of Logistics of the 20th Rifle Corps I.I. Zwick: *** “According to the plan for breaking through the highway, the 137th Infantry Division was placed in the vanguard of the main forces, the 132nd on the right, and the 160th on the left. I was sent to Colonel Grishin for observation and assistance. Personally, Grishin looked better than other division commanders. It was clear that this man had an iron will...”

A.V. Shaposhnikov:

“At that moment, the corps commander’s car drove up to us. Major General Eremin came to personally check the implementation of the breakthrough plan. He was all dusty, unshaven, mortally tired, so it was difficult to recognize him. I reported the situation. He: “We need to straddle the highway, make a gap to Sozh and take up defense on the other side of the river. If you do it, well done, if you don’t do it, I’ll shoot you.” He sighed and left. I never saw him again."

The entire 771st Infantry Regiment, part of the 278th LAP, a battalion of the 409th Infantry Regiment, and the division command led by Colonel Grishin reached the Sozh River. Other units were unable to cross the Warsaw Highway. The commander of the 20th Rifle Corps, Major General Sergei Illarionovich Eremin, and many staff members were killed.

Commander of the armored vehicle company of the reconnaissance battalion of the 137th Infantry Division V.G. Bakinovsky: “Before the war, our battalion was a serious force: about five hundred people, twenty motorcycles, ten armored vehicles, a company of amphibious tanks. During the first week of the war, they practically did not engage in reconnaissance, having no contact with the intelligence chief, Major Zaitsev. We were the first to cross the Warsaw highway; the regiments were not yet there. We went there in a passenger car, came under machine-gun fire, the car and its entire crew were shot, and we had to return alone. I returned to the battalion - everything was burning there: cars, tanks. "What's the matter?" - I ask. “Battalion commander Solomin ordered to destroy everything and leave.” He himself did not leave the encirclement. A well-groomed officer, he was a cavalryman and did not understand anything about technology. And he didn’t like his horse: he kicks first, and then sits down.

The commander of the 238th OIPTD, Major Makov, also disappeared, but they said that when a German column was walking along the highway, he jumped out and got into their tank. After breaking out of the encirclement, our reconnaissance battalion was disbanded, and I was transferred to the 771st regiment.”

Commander of the communications battalion of the 137th Infantry Division F.M. Lukyanuk: “The commissioner and chief of staff of the reconnaissance battalion were demoted to rank and file by the decision of the tribunal. These were not the only cases of cowardice and betrayal. Then there was talk in the division that the chief of artillery of the division and the deputy head of the political department for the Komsomol were traitors. The division commander had many complaints about intelligence. Its chief, Major Zaitsev, showed himself to be a competent and trained commander in peacetime, but at the front he was a coward and an alarmist. According to intelligence, he did not carry out a single order from Colonel Grishin; moreover, he misled him with his lies. Zaitsev was tried by a tribunal, he crawled on his knees and asked for forgiveness.”

When we crossed the Sozh, it turned out that the headquarters of our corps was almost completely destroyed. The division was left without senior leadership. Then we went to the nearby village council and achieved a direct connection with Moscow. Colonel Grishin spoke, as far as I know, with one of his comrades at the General Staff, reported the situation and received an order, together with the airborne corps, to recapture Propoisk from the Germans. I was instructed to find the commander of this corps and agree with him on joint actions. When I found him, he told me: “I can’t help you with anything, I have nothing but people...”

While covering the crossing of the division's units across the Sozh, the 2nd battalion of the 771st Infantry Regiment was killed.

A.V. Shaposhnikov:

“All the following days, as soon as the wind blew from the Germans, it became impossible to breathe from the stench. No one removed the corpses, and it was hot.

Signalman of the 771st Infantry Regiment A.M. Samoilenko:

“I, wounded, was sent from the battalion command post to the regimental medical center. Having moved 20-30 meters away, I heard that the shooting suddenly stopped. I looked around, and then I was overcome with such shame and horror that I involuntarily screamed: 15-20 people from the second company - I could see - were standing tall in their cells with their hands raised. This is the last thing I saw in the battalion."

All the Red Army soldiers who died in that battle and were captured are still listed as missing. The remains of those who remained forever at the site of the breakthrough from the encirclement lay unburied for decades next to the Warsaw Highway, where the Pobeda and Zhiguli cars rushing past were replaced by Mercedes and Audis.

The fate of the commander of the 771st Infantry Regiment, Colonel Ivan Malinin, remained unclear. Either he died or was captured?.. The answer from the archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense is short: “Missing on July 19, 1941.” That is, on the day the 137th Infantry broke out from encirclement. In the “Book of Memory” of the Nizhny Novgorod region there is another date of “disappearance” - “September 1942”.

Veterans of the division considered the relationship between Malinin and Grishin not just difficult, but hostile. The regiment commander was much older than the division commander, in the same rank as him, and considered himself worthy to command the division. Why did Colonel Grishin appoint Captain Shaposhnikov as acting commander of the 771st Infantry Regiment on the afternoon of July 19, when Malinin was still at the unit’s location? Shaposhnikov himself did not believe that Malinin had gone over to the enemy’s side: “He was very afraid of captivity, because in the First World War he was captured by the Germans. Returning from captivity, warrant officer Malinin went to serve in the Red Army. They also said that Malinin was somehow connected with the NKVD: he quickly rose through the ranks and escaped repression in 1937.”

F.M. Lukyanuk recalled another very strange case: “In the spring of 1941, the division moved to new states that were considered secret. And suddenly, these documents disappeared after one of the meetings at the division headquarters. And they found it from Malinin, who, according to his explanation, took them by mistake...”

After the mysterious disappearance of the commander of the 771st Infantry Regiment, the heads of the special departments of the NKVD and the divisions and regiments, Gorshkov and Potekhin, lost their positions as “not providing operational supervision in the units assigned to them.”

Ten battalion commanders (out of twelve who went to the front from Gorky), many company and platoon commanders, two regiment commanders - 624th and 771st, heads of artillery and the operational department of the division headquarters did not emerge from the encirclement in the basins of the tributaries of the Dnieper, Pronya and Sozh. . In August-September 1941, German patrols and local police caught the encirclement who had lagged behind the main breakthrough forces. The names of Tyumen residents born in 1919-1921, drafted into the 137th Infantry Division before the war and survivors of German captivity can be found in the book “Forbidden Soldiers.” All of them were also considered missing.

The units of the 137th that fought their way out of encirclement received reinforcements from Tyumen residents mobilized for the war, born from 1885 to 1918. Then they did not yet know that they would find themselves in a different environment. Larger and more brutal.

The essay uses documentary materials from the book by V.K. Kiseleva "Fellow Soldiers".

* Grishin Ivan Tikhonovich was born in 1901 into a peasant family in the village of Vnukovichi, Roslavl district, Smolensk province. In the Red Army since 1920, he participated in the suppression of Antonovism. Graduated from the Frunze Military Academy. He commanded the 137th Infantry Division during the most difficult period of its history, until March 1942. Then until the end of the war he headed the 49th Army. For crossing the Dnieper and capturing Mogilev, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war, Colonel General Grishin was on diplomatic work in Albania. His life was cut short in 1950.

** Vlasov served as commander of the 99th Infantry Division (it was stationed in the Kiev Special Military District) for only one year. On January 17, 1941, he was appointed commander of the 4th Mechanized Corps.

*** Before the war, the 20th Rifle Corps included the Gorky 137th and 160th and the Vladimir 144th rifle divisions. But on the way to the front, the 144th ended up in another sector of the defense. Instead, the Poltava 132nd Infantry Division under Major General Biryuzov arrived in Chausy.