Wandering Warriors Of The Red Army. Collapse Of The Army In 1941. History Of The Soviet Veteran.

Video Statistics and Information

Video
Captions Word Cloud
Reddit Comments
Captions
Hello my dear friends! Today we will learn about  the remarkable memoirs of a captain of the Red   Army. We have already learned many stories of  German soldiers and officers about the beginning   of the war with the USSR, about their rapid march  through the territories of the Soviet Union...   Thanks to the memoirs of Captain Piskunov we can  look at those days with the eyes of an officer of   the Red Army. He gives a comprehensive description  of the mayhem and confusion that engulfed the   troops. The soldiers and officers were not  aware of the events happening around them,   had no communication with the higher command.  All the decisions were made by intuition.  When his division was defeated, he and  other survivors began a retreat inland.   So did a lot of people at that time. To have  less problems for the soldiers and officers,   they tended to retreat not only with  small arms, but they also brought guns,   machine guns, mortars and other  equipment with them. Afterwards,   they joined already formed divisions or they  were organized into separate units and sent   into battle again. That's his story. You can  experience all the horror of the hopelessness   of the soldiers and officers of the Red Army  at the beginning of the war with Germany....  Now let's start. When we crossed the Minsk-Slutsk Road,   we encountered a newly formed unit that had  occupied the line of defense. I was very   glad to see them. My thoughts told me that my  ordeal of obscurity was over. It was the 210th   Motorized Division, which was commanded by Brigade  Commander Parkhomenko. Parkhomenko was a close   relative of the legendary Civil War division  commander Parkhomenko Alexander Yakovlevich.  After a brief conversation I was directed to  the commander of the artillery regiment Major   Fimitov. I assumed that the artillery regiment  had the equipment and means of management,   and I would finally be assigned.  However, I was to be sorely disappointed.  The commander of the regiment explained that the  division was only named a motorized division,   but in fact, except for small arms has  got nothing, and even small arms were   not available for everyone. Major Frolov mentioned  that they had orders to take weapons and artillery   equipment from withdrawing scattered groups  and to reinforce the division's units with it.  Legally I was given a verbal order to be  assigned as commander of the artillery division,   and the division should be formed of the  retreating artillery units. It was good,   I had a senior commander, who would give me  all the necessary orders on the organization   and conducting of combat operations, and  I would get the men I needed among the   retreating soldiers and commanders. The most  important was that the uncertainty was over.  Nevertheless, my happiness and dream were not  destined to last for long. Since the afternoon   of June 28 or 29, 1941 we gathered more guns  together with the crews, though partial,   than we needed. The calibers of the guns were  76-mm of regimental and divisional guns and   122-mm howitzers and there were some 45-mm guns. I divided them accordingly into batteries,   into platoons, and appointed platoon  and battery commanders - and here the   organizational aspect was over. There were men  to complete the command-and-control platoons,   but there were no means of communication. So, the  only way to conduct the artillery firing without   means of communication was by direct fire.  I chose places for the batteries to fire and   reported to the regiment commander. The regiment  commander confirmed the disposition of the battle   order of the batteries and ordered to prevent the  tanks breaking through from the Slutsk highway.  At dawn I decided to once again inspect their  knowledge of the tasks and their preparedness to   open fire. How surprised I was when, during the  inspection, it turned out that as many as half   of the gathered guns were removed unauthorized  from their firing positions and the crews left!  The following day the situation in front of the  division front was quiet, and we were replenished   again with retreating units. In the afternoon  we decided to do a reconnaissance. The regiment   commander ordered the reconnaissance to be  taken over by me. I took two trucks of soldiers,   put a hand-held machine gun in each truck  body. When we passed the front edge,   I informed the commander of the unit that defended  the area about the fact that we would return   by the same route and possibly at night. Suddenly we came out to the Slutsk-Minsk   highway and found ourselves in front of  a moving column of German motorcyclists,   bicyclists and vehicles with infantry. The  Germans at first had no idea that it was a   Red Army reconnaissance and obviously assumed  it was German. I commanded to rapidly deploy   the vehicles and open fire with machine guns and  rifles against the enemy. The Germans deployed   quickly along the road and opened heavy fire on us  with tracer bullets from large-caliber weapons. We   had time to pull back quite far, so the small  arms firing at us was already not effective.  We had a junior commander wounded.  I sent the vehicles to a shelter,   and we positioned ourselves on a height and could  observe the activities of the enemy. We thought   that the Germans would pursue us, but they quickly  regrouped into a column and continued their march   in the direction of Minsk. The column of infantry  was followed by tanks and armored vehicles. The   task was fulfilled, we determined the direction  of movement and which enemy forces were moving.  On our way back we almost faced a tragic accident.  The commander, with whom I had agreed on alarm,   didn't inform his subordinates at the front line.  We were almost shot by our own soldiers, thinking   we were the enemy. Everything went off almost  safely. Only one driver was shot, and I was in   his cabin. Obviously, being killed by the bullets  of your own soldiers is a more regrettable and   unforgivable loss, but what should we do in war?  It is impossible to foresee all the things. There   may be all kinds of unexpected situations.... The division command either by order of higher   command, or made an independent decision  to withdraw units to the crossing over the   Berezina. I had a group of artillery guns of  various caliber, including even mortars. I was   ordered to cover the flanks of the division  with fire until the river crossing was over.  Before nightfall we continued to perform the  assigned task and, it should be said, successfully   handled it, prevented the enemy from attacking the  flanks of the withdrawing units of the division.  At night we were expecting an order to  withdraw from the combat positions and move   to the crossing, but, unfortunately,  we never received such an order.  The command of the formation and unit behaved,  at least, tactlessly towards our artillery   group. After the crossing, they forgot about us. There was nothing to do. We needed to decide what   to do next. At this time two 45mm guns  led by a captain approached our group   from the north. The guns were pulled  by light tankettes with 20-mm guns.  Before I and the captain had a chance to exchange  ideas about further steps, the enemy from the   northern direction opened heavy machine-gun fire  on us. To cut a long story short, the enemy had   predetermined our steps. There was only one thing  left for us to do - to withdraw south along the   Berezina until we could choose a suitable position  to get into battle order and take the fight. We   moved back only 1.5 kilometers and on the northern  outskirts of the village we got into combat order   and prepared to repel the enemy's attack. For some reason, surprisingly, the enemy never   attacked us, though their reconnaissance made  an attempt to move in our direction, but, facing   strong firing resistance, moved back to the north. The crossing took us only about three hours. We   were joined at the crossing by quite many men from  various defeated and scattered units and about ten   women and children - the wives of the commanders.  After the crossing we headed through the woods   to the road that led from Bykhov to Mogilev. In the first settlement, in the village council,   we tried to communicate by telephone  with other settlements east of us,   seeking to clear up the situation, but we  received no reply and decided to move on.  While moving through the woods we met a group of  generals and several senior officers with them   and suggested to them to join us, but received  a negative reply. Upon their request we handed   over to them a ZIS-101 automobile, which  we found on the right bank of the Berezina   River and ferried for ourselves. Unfortunately, I don't know who   were those generals, but my comrade, the  battalion commissar, said that they were   generals and officers of the headquarters  of the Western Special Military District.  It was getting dark when we reached the wood edge  on a road through the forest. About 500 meters in   front of us was the same highway Bykhov-Mogilev,  along which vehicles, wagons and infantry units   were moving in a continuous column. At first, we thought that it was our   troops withdrawing, but when we looked around,  we realized that it was German units moving.   Of course, they couldn't help but notice  our column. A motorcycle with a sidecar   turned in our direction from the column. Probably, the Germans recognized us as   their units too, otherwise they wouldn't have  sent one motorcyclist in our direction. At   150-200 meters distance two motorcyclists  were shot dead by a machine gun burst, and   the motorcycle was captured by our soldiers. The  situation was such that we had no time to think.  I commanded "To the fight!" The crews  promptly deployed the guns and opened   fire on the German column. Beforehand,  I gave the order that women and children   should be taken away to the woods away from  the country road along which we were moving.  The Germans, obviously, didn't expect such  a twist and at first were perplexed by such   a bold attack. Several vehicles in the  German column caught fire, the abandoned   horses were rushing empty wagons across the rye. They soon realized that they were facing a small   artillery unit. They requested aircraft,  which started bombarding our column from   the air and at the same time opened fire on us  with machine guns and mortars. Our troops were   getting smaller, our ammunition was running out. In this fiery fight, we hadn't thought of at least   minimal cover from the side of the forest, which  was fatal in our fight. I was wounded, despite   the fact that I didn't leave the battlefield,  and there was nowhere to go before nightfall.  The Germans, shooting at us from the front,  bypassed us with their tanks from the rear,   from the side of the forest, which finally  determined the outcome of our battle. There   was nothing we could do to change the situation.  The Germans began to crush our guns and men with   their tracks. Some soldiers and officers, who  were slightly wounded, taking the opportunity   of nightfall, managed to hide in the woods  near the village of Starye Maksimovichi.  Our comrades paid a heavy price in this  battle: they sacrificed their lives. But   the Germans also suffered huge losses  from our unexpected and daring attack.   The road for 600-800 meters was covered with  burning vehicles, wagons and human bodies.  My comrades helped me to shelter with them.  My wound turned out to be not so serious,   but due to loss of blood and high air  temperature I was very weak and couldn't   avoid the tracks of enemy tanks on my own. We moved only at night and rested during   the day. In two days, at the end of June, we  crossed the front line and reached our troops,   who were defending the city of Mogilev.  It should be mentioned that at that time   the Germans had no solid front line, so it  was pretty easy to cross the front line.  There were a lot of our soldiers in Mogilev,  but there was no strict organization of   control of these units and subdivisions.  All the canteens, food stores and other   food service served the troops for free. I  didn't see a well-defined system of defense   and construction of defensive fortifications. At first impression it was noticeable that   each unit or subdivision acted independently  in accordance with the proverb "every man is   himself an agronomist". May be, my fleeting  impressions were mistaken, because I didn't   have to stay in Mogilev, which I regretted very  much later. In the town I had my wound treated,   and I felt almost quite well. We didn't find the unit we had   joined earlier. While we were looking for  the 210th motorized division, the Germans   had already occupied Chavusy. The road to the  east in this direction appeared to be cut off.  We still could have broken back to Mogilev,  but unfortunately, we had no information   about the situation in Mogilev, and the  withdrawing units that came across us on   the way couldn't tell us anything clear about  the situation. We assumed that our troops had   evidently abandoned Mogilev, since the Germans  were 50-60 kilometers to the east of Mogilev. Again, we turned out to be stray warriors.  We joined the general movement of scattered   units and civilians retreating to the East,  expecting to find at a certain point a solid,   stable defensive line of our troops, beyond which  the Germans wouldn't be able to break through.  I remember the settlements we passed  by - Zhuravichi, Seltso-Khopeevo - and   reached our troops at the Dnieper River to the  northwest of Udovsk. When we met our troops,   the joy was boundless. We believed  that our ordeal was finally over.  They greeted us warmly, provided us  with food and allowed us to rest.   When we had rested and consented to use us  according to our specialty in this unit,   our proposal wasn't accepted. The privates were  left in the unit, and the commanders were sent   to Novobelitsa through the city of Gomel. There  the reserve of the command staff was located.  In Novobelitsa I have met my comrades  on joint service in the 17th division,   in the further 20th artillery regiment and on  war in Finland: lieutenants Volodya Kozhepikshev,   Nikolay Sokolov, political instructor Veselov, the  commander of the 17th division General Batsanov   and many other commanders I knew. The guys told  me that many of my friends had died at Lida.  General Botsanov informed me that a new division  was to be formed under his command and that he   would take all the commanders of the former 17th  division out of the reserve to his Division.  That is all for today! Captain Piskunov  survived the war. After it was over,   he continued to serve in the Red  Army. If you enjoyed the video,   please like it and support the channel by  subscribing. Goodbye, and see you all again!
Info
Channel: MILITARY CLUB
Views: 10,990
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: audiobook, mark, felton, productions, dark, tech, Eastern, front, skies, seas, ww, ww2, wwll, world war II, war, wehrmacht, ss, ss troops, red, army, tanks, world of tanks, Ukraine, fighting in ukraine, Russia, Russia and Ukraine, history, military, club, TV, radio, news, education, interesting, storming berlin, battle of Kursk, second, world, wwii, historical, division, Germany, Soviet, union, stalin, hitler, infantry, panzer, 1936, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, invasion, operation, barbarossa, blau, stalingrad, Moscow
Id: FqeiOaSYXDU
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 13min 58sec (838 seconds)
Published: Mon Feb 12 2024
Related Videos
Note
Please note that this website is currently a work in progress! Lots of interesting data and statistics to come.