In January 1923, the Hero of the Soviet Union - Vladimir Goryachev was born in Izhevsk. The family was working, simple, loving their homeland and selfless work. Six years after the birth of the son, the parents moved to Omsk, where the boy graduated from secondary school No. 6. And in June 1941, Vladimir Goryachev was already in the ranks of the Red Army.
To the front
The future hero did not immediately come from the Stalin RVC in Omsk, but was sent to Novosibirsk, to the infantry school, which he graduated a year later. Already in August 1942, as part of the Tenth Separate Guards Battalion of Miners, the young man was sent to the rear of the enemy, where he was waiting for sabotage and reconnaissance work. Most of the time he spent far beyond the front line, in territories occupied by enemies, on the instructions of the command, carrying out dangerous and complex missions.
The ministers of the squad, which was initially commanded by Vladimir Goryachev, blew up the railway track, derailing trains with the Nazis, tanks and other weapons. They disabled bridges, suddenly attacked enemy headquarters, capturing prisoners and important documentation, and also conducted reconnaissance, including engineering. For such activities, Goryachev received the first awards: the medal "For Courage" and the Order of the Patriotic War were the encouragement of perfectly completed combat missions.
Sabotage work
Vladimir Goryachev distinguished himself immediately as soon as he got into the sabotage battalion, where one hundred and fifty people, brave and fearless, fought. In winter (1942-1943), only on the railroad of the Vitebsk-Orsha-Smolensk highway they blew up nine trains. The guys completely disabled nine steam locomotives, as well as destroyed the locomotive, six railway platforms. The enemy lost a lot of people killed and wounded. Most often, Vladimir Goryachev participated in these events.
How did this happen? A group of six gathered, who were armed with machine guns, grenades and Finnish knives. Only two discs of ammunition relied on firearms. But in the backpacks were packed mines and explosives in sufficient quantities. Scouts took food for a week and a half and went over the front line. They returned only after the complete completion of the trusted task. This continued until April 1943.
Ammunition depot
Then Vladimir Goryachev, whose biography every day was filled with unfading glory, fought in the 43rd Army on the Kalinin Front, where his group of intelligence saboteurs consisted of twenty-nine people. She was commanded by Senior Lieutenant Dubovitsky.
On April 22, six people, among whom was Vladimir Goryachev, were abandoned on a section of the railway near Smolensk in the Rudnyansky district. Communication was quickly established with the Vishnev partisans, from whom information was received about a large ammunition depot near the village of Savostye. The warehouse was vigilantly guarded, despite the fact that it was densely surrounded by barbed wire.
Newspaper "Work land"
This episode is one of the many legendary moments of the war in which Vladimir Goryachev is a participant. Soviet Union defender, desperate courage, a man committed a valiant act, which was written by the newspaper "Work land". The publication analyzed in detail the operation lasting a matter of minutes: how Goryachev removed the sentry with a knife, how his comrades, covering each other, cut the barbed wire and laid explosives.
Hiding in the predawn dusk, the scouts managed to retreat into the forest when a whole series of deafening explosions thundered. The bombers themselves did not expect such power - many enemy shells will not fly to their destination, saving the lives of hundreds of Soviet soldiers. After some time, the headquarters read a report from ZhKM-23 about the discovery and destruction of a large ammunition depot and the continuation of the task. On the page of the newspaper there is also an image on which Vladimir Goryachev flaunts. The photo, of course, is earlier, not from this battle.
May 1943
On May 8, the group receives a new order. It is necessary to destroy the enemy echelon with armament, going to the front on the railway line between Golynki and Lelekvinskaya, and also to scout the situation on the highway from Vitebsk to Smolensk, where heavy traffic was observed from the air. If the opportunity presents itself, it is necessary to blow up the bridge on this highway.
The enemy overlaid the places of secret redeployment of his troops with numerous ambushes. But the group of senior lieutenant Kolosov, which included Vladimir Goryachev, safely passed them. For three days, the reconnaissance officers went around all the preserved villages and clearings, the intersections on the roads and, finally, reached the place of the combat mission intact. On May 11, they settled in a forest near the village of Knyazhino. The Germans seemed to sense danger - the scouts were forced to constantly evade the pursuit.
The fight
After a day, they were still tracked down, discovered and surrounded. Nikolai Kolosov took the group to a height of 207.8. He knew that it was there that the cache was arranged by the partisans, in which a large amount of TNT and finished mines were stored. After some time, it became clear that the battle could not be avoided - the environment was dense. But the fighters took a very favorable position. They quickly dug trenches, mined the approaches to the height. More than a thousand Nazis surrounded six of our scouts.
Knowing about the small number of the Soviet group, the Germans almost did not hide - they moved on the attack. Ours were silent until the last. Having let the enemy almost close, they unanimously hit with lead from six machine guns. The Nazis and the second attack failed to crush the miners. The shootout lasted for more than three hours, then the enemy artillery pulled up, and a "frame" - a reconnaissance aircraft - circled over the forest. And only six heroes lurked on the skyscraper.
Six brave
And smart! When the skyscraper began to be carried by shells and mines, our scouts were no longer there. Kolesov took the group more than a hundred meters from the height. They disguised themselves and prepared to go on a breakthrough. After the artillery preparation, the enemies rose to a height in thick chains. And then the partisan cave rushed, because it laid TNT blocks in the trenches of Kolesov. There was a huge explosion - at the same time more than three hundred Nazis died. Bloody shreds per kilometer flew in all directions.
However, the breakthrough failed. The forces were too unequal - more than a hundred Germans per one of our scouts. Our miners literally fought to the last drop of blood, greater heroism and it is impossible to imagine. And all died. The punishers were brutalized because of the losses so much that they mocked the bodies of the soldiers for a long time: they gouged out their eyes, cut off their ears, and pricked with bayonets. A few days later, old Trofim brought a dozen surviving old women, women and children to the scene of the battle, who mourned the dead defenders and buried everyone in a common grave.
Medallion
Smolensk was soon released. And then everyone found out about the exploit of the scouts. The huge losses in this battle of the German invaders were able to confirm both the partisans of Vishnev and the locals. The reconnaissance party also managed to help the partisans - they broke away from the persecution, since the punishers were detained in battle. Philip Bezrukov left his medallion on the battlefield, where he put a note. It was from here that people learned about the composition of the reconnaissance group and the magnitude of the feat. This note was written on May 12, 1943. With farewell and wish for a peaceful life.
The last battle with the Nazis was conducted by Nikolai Vasilievich Kolosov from Furmanov, a turner of twenty-four years old, Volodya Goryachev from Omsk, yesterday’s schoolboy of nineteen years old, Slava Efimov from Kalinin, a student of nineteen years old, Vanya Bazylev from the Boltutinsky collective farm, twenty-one-year-old Komsomol of Bezrusk, Bezruk. , a twenty-two-year-old worker, Misha Myagky from Belgorod, serving twenty-one years.
What happened then?
So the country heroically fought, giving the youngest, strongest and best, noting them with more than deserved honors - alas! - posthumously. The names of the heroes named the streets in their hometowns, schools. And Vladimir Goryachev received awards even before his last battle: a medal and two orders. His courage was initially noticed and noted. In 1944, all six fighters of his intelligence group of miners were posthumously awarded the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union: Senior Lieutenant N. V. Kolosov, Senior Sergeant V. P. Goryachev, Junior Sergeant V. B. Efimov, Private M. V. Myagky, F. I. Bezrukov and I.K. Bazalev.
In 1946, their remains were reburied in the village of Mikulino, where the famous monument was erected. Six Heroes of the Soviet Union rest in one grave, they are worthy of the most magnificent monument with their names carved in stone. Bulat Okudzhava specifically about this "Our tenth airborne battalion" wrote his song. It was these names that inspired him (the film "Belorussky Station"). And it was precisely them back in 1943 that they began to respectfully call paratroopers - the first of their kind.