The Barbarossa plan, developed by the strategists of the Third Reich, envisioned a lightning-fast capture of the European part Soviet Union, the Germans planned to be in Moscow already in August 1941.
One of the transport arteries that the Nazis used to advance to Moscow was the Warsaw Highway, built in the second half of the 19th century. The highway was of strategic importance, which was noted by Russian autocrats. Now columns of German tanks and armored vehicles were marching along it towards the capital of our Motherland.
To delay the enemy troops and support the retreating Soviet units, the commander of the artillery battery (his last name could not be determined) decided to install one gun on the 476th kilometer of the highway near the bridge over the Dobrost River, which due to an oversight was not blown up.
The calculation included the battalion commander himself and senior sergeant Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin, gunner of the 55th Infantry Regiment. Sirotinin was a native of the city of Orel, he was drafted into the army in the fall of 1940, and served in Polotsk.
Sirotinin volunteered to cover the withdrawal of Soviet units. Near the village of Sokolnichi, in the thick rye, they well camouflaged an anti-tank gun. German intelligence did not notice her and reported to the command that the passage was clear.
In the area of the bridge, the military equipment of the 4th Panzer Division under the command of Willibald von Langerman appeared at dawn on July 17. The first shot of an anti-tank gun knocked out the lead tank of the column, the second shot knocked out an armored personnel carrier bringing up the rear of the column. A traffic jam was created, and the Germans did not manage to eliminate it immediately. Sirotinin, and he remained alone at the gun after the battalion commander’s withdrawal, with a targeted hit he destroyed the vehicles that were trying to clear the jam.
For a long time the Germans could not determine the source of the fire; they were sure that an entire battery was hitting them.
For two and a half hours, until the last shell, senior sergeant Sirotinin fought with the invader; he destroyed 11 tanks, 7 armored personnel carriers, 57 soldiers and officers. When the Germans approached his position, he continued to fire back with his carbine.
This feat became known thanks to an investigation conducted by a library worker in the village of Sokolnichi, Mikhail Melnikov, who collected testimony villagers, who were eyewitnesses of that battle.
One of them, Ekaterina Puzyrevskaya, who spoke German, recalls the words of a German officer who said that every soldier should defend his homeland - the Fatherland.
The memory of it selfless fight preserved an entry in the diary of Chief Lieutenant of the 4th Panzer Division Friedrich Hoenfeld, he reports that the Germans were delighted with the Russian’s act and buried him with honor.
Senior Sergeant Nikolai Sirotinin was twenty-one years old. His feat is comparable to the legendary exploits of Alexander Matrosov, Nikolai Gastello and the feat of 28 Panfilov men.
History of the Great Patriotic War full of dramatic events, as well as examples of amazing dedication Soviet people who sacrificed their lives to defeat fascism. These include the feat of Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin, which aroused sincere admiration even among his enemies, who buried the hero with full military honors.
Biography
Komsomol member Nikolai Sirotinin was born in 1921 in the city of Orel. After graduating from school, the young man worked for some time at the Oryol Tekmash plant, and in 1940 he was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army. Sirotinin served in Polotsk, and already on the first day of the war he was wounded during an enemy air raid. After a short treatment in the hospital, Nikolai was sent to the front in the Krichev area. At the time of his last battle, the young man had the rank of senior sergeant and served as a gunner of the 6th (according to some sources, 17th) rifle division of the 13th Army.
The situation on the defense line near the Dobrost River
In mid-July 1941 Soviet troops continued their retreat along almost the entire length of the front. The division in which Nikolai Sirotinin served reached the defensive line at the Dobrost River and suffered heavy losses, since it did not have enough equipment and military equipment to withstand the onslaught of the 4th Panzer Division under the command of Colonel von Langerman. This Wehrmacht unit was part of the 2nd Panzer Group of Colonel General Heinz Guderian, who distinguished himself during the occupation of France and Poland.
On the day when Sergeant Nikolai Sirotinin’s feat was accomplished (July 17), the commander of the battery in which the hero served decided to organize cover for the retreat of his military unit. For this purpose, one gun was installed at the bridge at the 476th km of the Moscow-Warsaw highway across the Dobrost River. It had to be served by two people, one of whom was the battalion commander himself. Nikolai Sirotinin also volunteered to stay at the crossing. He was supposed to help fire at enemy tanks as soon as they reached the bridge.
in 1941: battle
The gun was camouflaged on a hill in thick rye. From this position the highway and bridge were clearly visible, but it was difficult for the enemy to notice and destroy it.
A column of German armored vehicles appeared at dawn. With his first shot, Nikolai knocked out the lead tank of the column, which had reached the bridge, and with his second, the armored personnel carrier that trailed it. Thus, a traffic jam formed on the road, and the 6th Infantry Division was able to retreat calmly.
When the shock of the sudden artillery attack passed, the Germans began to shoot back and wounded the battalion commander of the Soviet gun. Since the combat mission of detaining the enemy tank column was completed, the commander retreated to the Soviet positions, but Sergeant Sirotinin refused to follow him, saying that the gun had several dozen unspent shells left, and he wanted to disable as many enemy tanks as possible.
The feat of Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin: the death of a hero
The Germans tried to pull the damaged lead tank off the bridge with the help of two other armored vehicles. Then Sirotinin knocked them out too, thereby infuriating the Nazis. An attempt was also made to ford the river, but the first tank got stuck near the shore and was destroyed by Soviet gunfire. The battle lasted about two and a half hours, during which Sirotinin destroyed 11 tanks, 6 armored vehicles, as well as more than fifty enemy soldiers and officers.
Finally, the enemies surrounded the hero and asked him to surrender. But Sirotinin continued the fight, firing back from his carbine until he was killed.
Funeral
The history of wars knows only a few examples when the enemy showed respect to his defeated enemy, bowing before his valor. These are exactly the feelings that Nikolai Sirotinin’s feat evoked among the German command. Moreover, the testimony of several eyewitnesses about the hero’s funeral has been preserved. In particular, one of the residents of the village of Sokolnichi, who spoke German, who was driven by the occupiers along with her fellow villagers to the place where Sirotinin’s gun was located, subsequently said that the “chief German” made a speech before burying the body of the Soviet sergeant. In it, he praised the bravery of the Russian soldier and called on his soldiers to love their Motherland just like the fallen hero. Even more interesting are the memoirs of Oberleutnant Friedrich Henfeld, who in his diary was indignant that Colonel von Langerman ordered German soldiers fire three volleys from rifles in honor of the Russian soldier.
Memory
The feat of Nikolai Sirotinin was not appreciated by the country. The fact is that Kolya’s relatives did not have a single photograph of the boy, so he was not nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The young man's only award was the Order of the Patriotic War, first degree.
In 1948, the hero’s body was reburied in and his name, among others, was indicated on the marble plaque. In 1958, the article “Legend of a Feat” was published in Ogonyok, from which residents of the Soviet Union learned about the events of July 17, 1941, which took place on the bridge over the Dobrost River. The feat of Nikolai Sirotinin shocked hundreds of thousands of people. In 1961, an obelisk was erected in the place where the young man single-handedly held the defense against a column of German tanks. In addition, a commemorative plaque with a short story about Sirotinin’s feat was mounted on the wall of the workshop of the Tekmash plant, where the hero worked before the war.
Opinions
Since more than 70 years have passed since Nikolai Sirotinin’s feat took place, it is almost impossible to find living eyewitnesses of those events. That is why some researchers, in pursuit of sensation, try to present him as a beautiful heroic legend, forgetting that the deceased young man there was a family, and relatives are still alive. In addition, if the story about the feat of Sergeant Sirotinin was a fairy tale, then why was almost no one aware of it for about 20 years? And finally, on the edge of one of the Belarusian villages, even today there are the remains of a 19-year-old boy who died for his Motherland. This circumstance alone allows us to consider him a hero and admire the feat of his comrades who saved the world from the “brown plague.”
Now you know what Nikolai Sirotinin’s feat was. It is very difficult to talk about it briefly and without emotion. After all, this story cannot but touch the soul, because it is an exceptional example of dedication and love for the Motherland of a very young man who, like everyone else, wanted to live...
It was real hell. The tanks caught fire one after another. The infantry hiding behind the armor lay down. The commanders are at a loss and cannot understand the source of the heavy fire. It seems like the whole battery is beating. Aimed fire. There are 59 tanks, dozens of machine gunners and motorcyclists in the German column. And all this power is powerless in the face of Russian fire. Where did this battery come from? Intelligence reported that the way was open. The Nazis did not yet know that there was only one soldier standing in their way, and that there was only one warrior in the field, if he was Russian.
Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin was born in 1921 in the city of Orel. Before the war he worked at the Tekmash plant in Orel. On June 22, 1941, he was wounded during an air raid. The wound was slight, and a few days later he was sent to the front - to the Krichev area, to the 55th Infantry Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division as a gunner.
On the bank of the Dobrost River, which flows near the village of Sokolnichi, the battery where Nikolai Sirotinin served stood for about two weeks. During this time, the fighters managed to get to know the village residents, and Nikolai Sirotinin was remembered by them as a quiet, polite boy. "Nikolai was very polite, he always helped elderly women get water from wells and other hard work"- recalled village resident Olga Verzhbitskaya.
On July 17, 1941, his rifle regiment was retreating. Senior Sergeant Sirotinin volunteered to cover the retreat.
Sirotinin settled down on a hill in the thick rye near the collective farm stable that stood next to Anna Poklad’s house. From this position the highway, river, and bridge were clearly visible. When German tanks appeared at dawn, Nikolai blew up the lead vehicle and the one that trailed the column, creating a traffic jam. Thus, the task was completed, the tank column was delayed. Sirotinin could have gone to his own people, but he stayed - after all, he still had about 60 shells. According to one version, initially two people remained to cover the division's retreat - Sirotinin and the commander of his battery, who stood at the bridge and adjusted the fire. However, then he was wounded, and he went to his own, and Sirotinin was left to fight alone.
Two tanks tried to pull the lead tank off the bridge, but were also hit. The armored vehicle tried to cross the Dobrost River without using a bridge. But she got stuck in the swampy bank, where another shell found her. Nikolai shot and shot, knocking out tank after tank. The Germans had to shoot at random, since they could not determine his location. In 2.5 hours of battle, Nikolai Sirotinin repulsed all enemy attacks, destroying 11 tanks, 7 armored vehicles, 57 soldiers and officers.
When the Nazis finally reached Nikolai Sirotinin’s position, he only had three shells left. They offered to surrender. Nikolai responded by firing at them from a carbine.
Chief Lieutenant of the 4th Panzer Division Henfeld wrote in his diary: “July 17, 1941. Sokolnichi, near Krichev. In the evening, an unknown Russian soldier was buried. He stood alone at the cannon, shot at a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone was surprised at his courage... Oberst (Colonel) said before the grave that if all the Fuhrer's soldiers fought like this Russian, they would conquer the whole world. They fired three times in volleys from rifles. After all, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary?
Olga Verzhbitskaya recalled:
“In the afternoon, the Germans gathered at the place where the cannon stood. They also forced us, the local residents, to come there. To me, as someone who knows German, the chief German with orders ordered the translation. He said that this is how a soldier should defend his homeland - the Fatherland. Then from the pocket of our dead soldier’s tunic they took out a medallion with a note about who and where. The main German told me: “Take it and write to your relatives. Let the mother know what a hero her son was and how he died.” I was afraid to do this... Then a young German officer, standing in the grave and covering Sirotinin’s body with a Soviet raincoat, snatched a piece of paper and a medallion from me and said something rudely.”
For a long time after the funeral, the Nazis stood at the cannon and the grave in the middle of the collective farm field, not without admiration, counting the shots and hits.
This pencil portrait was made from memory only in the 1990s by one of Nikolai Sirotinin’s colleagues.
Sirotinin's family learned about his feat only in 1958 from a publication in Ogonyok.
In 1961, a monument was erected near the highway near the village: “Here at dawn on July 17, 1941, senior sergeant-artilleryman Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin, who gave his life for the freedom and independence of our Motherland."
Monument at the mass grave where Nikolai Sirotinin is buried
After the war, Sirotinin was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. But they were never nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. To complete the paperwork, we needed a photo of Kolya. She wasn't there. Here is what Nikolai Sirotinin’s sister Taisiya Shestakova recalls about this:
- We had his only passport card. But during the evacuation in Mordovia, my mother gave it to me to enlarge it. And the master lost her! He brought completed orders to all our neighbors, but not to us. We were very sad.Did you know that Kolya alone stopped a tank division? And why didn't he get a Hero?
We found out in 1961, when Krichev local historians found Kolya’s grave. We went to Belarus with the whole family. The Krichevites worked hard to nominate Kolya for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But in vain: to complete the paperwork, you definitely needed a photograph of him, at least some kind. But we don’t have it! They never gave Kolya the Hero. In Belarus his feat is known. And it’s a shame that few people know about him in his native Orel. They didn’t even name a small alley after him.
However, there was a more compelling reason for the refusal - the immediate command must apply for the title of hero, which was not done.
A street in Krichev, a school-kindergarten and a pioneer detachment in Sokolnichi are named after Nikolai Sirotinin.
Probably many have heard the story about a lone artilleryman who fought in a mortal duel with a tank column of General Guderian in the early morning of July 17, 1941 on the Warsaw highway near the village of Sokolnichi, not far from the Belarusian city of Krichev. That Russian guy's name was Kolya.
Kolya Sirotinin from the city of Orel. The hero died, but managed to delay the enemy for several hours and inflict serious damage on him in manpower and equipment.
Could hein one battle, alone one soldier destroy 11 tanks , 7 armored vehicles, 57 enemy soldiers and officers from one forty-five?
Could 19-year-old Nikolai Sirotinin, drafted on October 5, 1940, rise to the rank of senior sergeant?
In training in view low level Literacy training took about 9-10 months. How can a soldier grow during this time in peacetime by skipping 3 levels: ml. sergeant, sergeant, senior sergeant
Nikolai served in the 55th Infantry Regiment of the 17th Infantry Division. Who he was is unknown.
There is unverified information (possibly from letters home) that he studied at the regimental school.
If this is so and the school was at the 55th joint venture, then he could have been either an infantryman, a machine gunner, or a mortar man.
At least not as an artillery gunner. Such specialists were not trained in rifle regiments.
What rank did Nikolai have?
The answer here is clear. He, of course, did not have time to finish his studies, since at that time they studied in regimental schools for at least 10 months, and Sirotinin only had 8 months of service behind him.
So, only a private, or rather a Red Army soldier.
The exact geographical location of Sirotinin’s service is known. Until the start of the war, the 55th Infantry Regiment was stationed near Polotsk.
On July 17 the regiment was inKalinkovichi is approximately 250 km south of Krichev.
The regiment commander testifies thatthe combat path of his unit never crossed with Krichev. So Nikolai, as a soldier of the 55th joint venture, could not, under any circumstances, find himself in the village of Sokolnichi, near Krichev, in the period from July 10 to July 17, 1941.
(Let me remind you that it was during this time that, according to “eyewitnesses,” the legendary artilleryman was in Sokolnichi with his battery.)
It is known that Nikolai’s military fate did not end in July 1941.Apparently, Nikolai, together with the remnants of his native 55th regiment, managed to escape from encirclement. And, most likely, he managed to sendthen, i.e. in July some short news home. Two facts speak about this.
The first is a questionnaire dated May 30, 1958 on the search for a missing serviceman, in which, according to Nikolai’s mother, it is stated that written communication with him was interrupted onlyin July 1941
A The Book of Memory for the Oryol Region reports that senior sergeant Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin, born in 1921, a native of the city of Oryol, died on July 16, 1944. He was buried in the Bryansk region in the city of Karachev.
It turns out that Kolya eventually rose to the rank of senior sergeant:
In addition, on the same days, July 16, the 2nd SB 409th Regiment, under the command of Captain Kim, took up defense approximately four kilometers west of Krichev, near the village of Sokolnichi.
The battalion consists of six hundred people, four 45-mm anti-tank guns and twelve machine guns.
In the evening of the same day, a tractor appeared on the highway, dragging a 122-mm howitzer. The tractor's radiator was broken and it was dragging slowly and with difficulty. The artillerymen asked to receive them.
At the end of the day, the last passenger car passed along the empty highway towards the city. The captain sitting in it said that the Germans would be here in the morning. A short summer night has arrived.
In the morning the battalion had to take on its first battle in this war.
The advanced tank groups reached the station and bridges over the Sozh, but the retreating Soviet units managed to blow them up. Two of them apparently blew up units of the 73rd Regiment of the 24th NKVD Division. One was blown up by Captain Kim's battalion during the retreat.
From the memoirs of Larionov S.S., commander of the machine gun company of the 2nd battalion of the 409th Infantry Regiment, retired captain:
-When we left, we blew up the bridge. I remember he went up, and there was still a Red Army soldier with a rifle on him: By this time I had seven machine guns left in my company
Krichev fell. By the evening of July 17, units of the Kampfgruppe advanced north another approximately 20 kilometers and, near the village of Molyavichi, united with units of the 3rd Panzer Division. The Chaussky cauldron slammed shut. Heavy fighting began both inside the cauldron and along the entire line along the Sozh River. But that is another story
Unfortunately, in this story there was no place for the legendary Russian lone artilleryman Nikolai Sirotinin, who allegedly single-handedly stopped a German tank column, inflicting terrible losses on it in manpower and equipment.
German documents do not even contain hints about this case. Casualty lists for the 2nd Panzer Group for July 17, 1941 confirm only one wounded officer and two killed soldiers in the units that were part of Colonel Eberbach's Kampfgruppe.
No lost tanks were recorded either. Yes, this is understandable if you carefully study the very nature of the battle.
Tanks simply did not participate in that battle on the Warsaw Highway.
Everything was decided by artillery and the coordinated interaction of all units of the Kampfgruppe.
In 1941, we still had nothing to oppose this monstrous German blitzkrieg machine. The war had just begun.
As for Nikolai Sirotinin, then, most likely, he is the hero of a folk legend. To date, no truthful documents on his existence, much less on his participation in that battle, have been found.
The same story as “28 Panfilov’s men” and dozens of tanks destroyed by IMI.
But in reality, the 1075th regiment lasted only 45 minutes of battle, knocking out 6 tanks. All they had was two anti-tank guns and four anti-tank rifles.
You will probably be surprised, but the feat of Nikolai Sirotinin is just a legend, a beautiful myth.
Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin during the Great Patriotic War, covering the retreat of his regiment, in one battle single-handedly destroyed 11 tanks, 7 armored vehicles, 57 enemy soldiers and officers. Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin (March 7, 1921, Orel - July 17, 1941, Krichev, Belarusian SSR ) - artillery senior sergeant. During the Great Patriotic War, covering the retreat of his regiment, in one battle he single-handedly destroyed 11 tanks, 7 armored vehicles, 57 enemy soldiers and officers.At the age of 19, Kolya Sirotinin had the chance to challenge the saying “Alone in the field is not a warrior.” But he did not become a legend of the Great Patriotic War, like Alexander Matrosov or Nikolai Gastello. In the summer of 1941, the 4th Panzer Division, one of the divisions of the 2nd Panzer Group of Heinz Guderian, one of the most talented German tank generals, broke through to the Belarusian town of Krichev. Part 13 Soviet army retreated. Only gunner Kolya Sirotinin did not retreat - just a boy, short, quiet, puny. On that day it was necessary to cover the withdrawal of troops. “Two people with a cannon will remain here,” said the battery commander. Nikolai volunteered. The commander himself remained second. On the morning of July 17, a column of German tanks appeared on the highway.
Kolya took up a position on a hill right on the collective farm field. The gun was buried in the tall rye, but he could clearly see the highway and the bridge over the Dobrost River. When the lead tank reached the bridge, Kolya knocked it out with his first shot. The second shell set fire to an armored personnel carrier that brought up the rear of the column. We need to stop here. Because it is still not entirely clear why Kolya was left alone in the field. But there are versions. He, apparently, had precisely the task of creating a “traffic jam” on the bridge by knocking out the lead vehicle of the Nazis. The lieutenant was at the bridge and adjusted the fire, and then, apparently, called fire from our other artillery from German tanks into the jam. Because of the river. It is reliably known that the lieutenant was wounded and then he went towards our positions. There is an assumption that Kolya should have retreated to his own people after completing the task. But... he had 60 shells. And he stayed!
Two tanks tried to pull the lead tank off the bridge, but were also hit. The armored vehicle tried to cross the Dobrost River without using a bridge. But she got stuck in the swampy bank, where another shell found her. Kolya shot and shot, knocking out tank after tank... Guderian’s tanks ran into Kolya Sirotinin as if they were facing the Brest Fortress. 11 tanks and 6 armored personnel carriers were already on fire! For a long time the Germans were unable to determine the location of the well-camouflaged gun; they believed that a whole battery was fighting them. For almost two hours of this strange battle, the Germans could not understand where the Russian battery was dug in. And when we reached Kolya’s position, he only had three shells left. They offered to surrender. Kolya responded by firing at them from a carbine. This last battle was short-lived...
July 17, 1941. Sokolnichi, near Krichev. In the evening, an unknown Russian soldier was buried. He stood alone at the cannon, shot at a column of tanks and infantry for a long time, and died. Everyone was surprised at his courage... Oberst said before his grave that if all the Fuhrer’s soldiers fought like this Russian, they would conquer the whole world. They fired three times in volleys from rifles. After all, he is Russian, is such admiration necessary?
— From the diary of Chief Lieutenant of the 4th Panzer Division Friedrich Hoenfeld
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