Most of the bright pages in the history of the airborne troops are closely connected with the name of Vasily Filippovich Margelov, who was a talented military leader and army general. For a quarter century, he led the “winged guard” of Russia. His selfless service to the Fatherland and his personal courage have become an excellent example for many generations of blue berets.
Even during his lifetime, he was already called the legendary man and paratrooper No. 1. His biography is amazing.
Birth and youth
The birthplace of the hero is Dnepropetrovsk - the city where Margelov Vasily Filippovich was born on December 27, 1908. His family was large enough, and consisted of three sons and a daughter. Father was a simple worker in a hot foundry, so the future famous military leader Margelov Vasily Filippovich was forced to be in great misery from time to time. Sons, on the other hand, actively helped her mother do the housework.
Vasily's career began in his early youth - he first studied leather crafts, and then began working in a coal mine. Here he was busy pushing coal trolleys.
Biography of Margelov Vasily Filippovich continues with the fact that in 1928 he was drafted into the Red Army and sent to study in Minsk. It was the United Belarusian School, which over time was renamed the Minsk Military Infantry School. M.I. Kalinina. There, cadet Margelov was an excellent student in many subjects, taking into account fire, tactical and physical training. Upon completion of his studies, he began to command a machine-gun platoon.
From commander to captain
The young commander’s abilities that he showed from the very beginning of the service did not go unnoticed for the chiefs. Even with the naked eye it was clear that he works well with people and transfers his knowledge to them.
In 1931 he was appointed platoon commander of a regimental school, which specialized in the training of commanders of the Red Army. And in early 1933, Vasily began to command in his own school. His military career in his native walls began with the platoon commander and ended with the rank of captain.
When the Soviet-Finnish campaign was carried out, he commanded a ski reconnaissance and sabotage battalion, the location of which was the harsh Arctic. The number of raids on the rear of the Finnish army is in the tens.
In one of the similar operations, he was captured by officers of the General Staff of Sweden. This caused dissatisfaction with the Soviet government, since the supposedly neutral Scandinavian state actually participated in the hostilities and supported the Finns. The diplomatic demarche of the Soviet government took place, which affected the King of Sweden and his cabinet. As a result, he did not send his army to Karelia.
The appearance of vests in paratroopers
The experience that Major Vasily Margelov (nationality testified to the presence of Belarusian roots) gained at that time was of great benefit in the fall of 1941, when Leningrad was besieged. He was then appointed to dominate the First Special Ski Regiment of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, formed from volunteers. At the same time, rumors spread that he would not be able to take root there, since the sailors are a kind of people and do not accept any of their land brothers into their ranks. But this prophecy was not destined to come true. Thanks to his intelligence and quick wit, from the first days he won the favor of his wards. As a result, a lot of glorious feats were accomplished by sailor-skiers, commanded by Major Margelov. They fulfilled the tasks and instructions of the Baltic Fleet Commander, Vice Admiral Tributs himself.
Skiers with their deep daring raids that took place on German rear in the winter of 1941-1942 were for the German command as an unceasing headache. One of the striking examples of their history is the landing on the territory of the Ladoga coast in the Lipkinsky and Shlisselburg direction, which was so able to alarm the Hitler command that Field Marshal von Leeb removed troops from Pulkovo to carry out its liquidation. The main mission of these German troops at that time was to tighten the loop of the siege of Leningrad.
About 20 years later, Army General Margelov, commander of the Airborne Forces , won the right to wear vests for paratroopers. He wanted them to adopt the tradition of their older brothers, the Marines. Only the strips on their clothes were a little different color - blue, like the sky.
Striped Death
The biography of Margelov, Vasily Filippovich and his subordinates has many facts indicating that the "marines" under his command fought very famously. This is evidenced by numerous examples. Here is one of them. It so happened that enemy infantrymen of 200 men broke through the defenses of a neighboring regiment and were located in the rear of the "Margelovites". It was May 1942, when the marines were not far from Vinyaglovo, near which the Sinyavsky heights were located. Vasily Filippovich quickly gave the necessary orders. He himself was armed with a Maxim machine gun. Then 79 Nazi soldiers died at his hands, and the rest were destroyed by the time of reinforcements.
Very interesting is the fact that the biography of Margelov Vasily Filippovich has that during the defense of Leningrad he constantly kept an easel machine gun nearby. In the morning, a peculiar shooting charge was performed from it: the captain “cut” the trees with him. After that, he felled with a checker, while sitting on his horse.
On the offensive, he more than once personally raised his regiment in the attack and was among the front ranks of his subordinates. And in hand-to-hand combat, he had no equal. In connection with such terrible battles, the Marines were nicknamed the "striped death" by the German military.
The ration of the officer - in the cauldron of a soldier
The biography of Margelov Vasily Filippovich and the history of those long-standing events say that he always and everywhere cared about the nutrition of his soldiers. It was almost paramount to him in the war. After he began commanding the 13th Guards Regiment in 1942, he began to increase the combat effectiveness of his combat personnel. For this, Vasily Filippovich improved the catering of his fighters.
Then the food was divided: the soldiers and sergeants ate separately from the officers of the regiment. At the same time, the latter received reinforced rations, in which the food-block norm was supplemented with animal oil, canned fish, biscuits or cookies, tobacco, and for non-smokers with chocolate. And, of course, some of the food for the soldiers also went to the officers desk. The regiment commander found out about this, bypassing the units. At first he checked the battalion kitchens and tasted the soldiers' food.
Literally immediately after the arrival of Lieutenant Colonel Margelov, absolutely all officers began to eat the same as the soldiers. He also ordered his food to be given to the general mass. Over time, such actions began to be committed by other officers.
In addition, he very carefully monitored the condition of the shoes and clothes of the fighters. The regiment manager was very afraid of his boss, because in case of improper performance of his duties, he promised to transfer him to the front line.
Also, Vasily Filippovich was very strict about cowards, weak-willed and lazy people. And for the theft, he punished very cruelly, so during his command it was absolutely absent.
“Hot Snow” - a film about Vasily Margelov
In the fall of 1942, the guard of Colonel Margelov was appointed commander of the 13th Guards Rifle Regiment. This regiment was part of the 2nd Guards Army, commanded by Lieutenant General R. Ya. Malinovsky. It was specially formed in order to complete the rout of the enemy that broke through in the steppes of the Volga region. At a time when the regiment was in reserve for two months, there were serious preparations for the soldiers to battle. Vasily Filippovich himself led them.
Ever since the defense of Leningrad, Vasily Filippovich was well acquainted with the weaknesses of fascist tanks. Therefore, now he independently conducted training for tank destroyers. He personally torn off a trench in full profile, used an anti-tank gun and metal grenades. He did all this in order to train his fighters in the proper conduct of battle.
When his army defended the border of the Myshkovka River, he was hit by a group of tanks "Goth". But neither the newest Tiger tanks nor their number scared the Margelovites. For five days, a battle took place, during which many of our soldiers died. But the regiment survived and retained its combat effectiveness. In addition, his fighters destroyed almost all enemy tanks, although at the cost of this there were numerous casualties. Not everyone knows that it was these events that became the basis for the script for the film “Hot Snow”.
Despite the concussion received during this battle, Vasily Filippovich did not leave the battle. Margelov met the new year 1943 with his subordinates, storming the Kotelnikovsky farm. This was the end of the Leningrad epic. Margelov’s division owned thirteen thanks from the Supreme Commander. The final chord was the capture in 1945 of the SS Panzer Corps.
June 24, 1945 during the Victory Parade, General Margelov commanded the front consolidated regiment.
The beginning of a career in the Airborne Forces
In 1948, Margelov graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. After that, the 76th Guards Chernihiv Red Banner Airborne Division, which was located in the city of Pskov, was at its disposal. He well understood that, despite his already quite solid age, he had to start all over again. He, as a beginner, must understand all landing science from scratch.
The first parachute jump took place when the general was already 40 years old.
The composition of the airborne Margelov, which he received, was mainly infantry, with light weapons and limited landing capabilities. At that time, they could not be taken for the solution of major tasks in military operations. He did a great job: the airborne troops of Russia received at their disposal modern equipment, weapons, and airborne landing equipment. He was able to convey to everyone that only highly mobile troops, which can at any moment land in any place and quickly begin active hostilities immediately after their landing, can be entrusted with completing missions behind enemy lines.
This is also the main topic of many scientific works of Margelov. He also defended her thesis. Quotes Margelov Vasily Filippovich, taken from these works, are still very popular among military scientists.
It is thanks to V.F. Margelov that every modern officer of the Airborne Forces can proudly carry the main attributes of a kind of troops: a blue beret and a white-blue vest.
Brilliant work results
In 1950, he became commander of the airborne corps in the Far East. And four years later he began to lead the airborne troops.
Vasily Margelov - "paratrooper number 1", which did not take a lot of time for everyone to begin to perceive him not as a simple servant, but as a person who can see all the prospects of the airborne forces, and who wants to make them the elite of all Armed Forces. To achieve this goal, he broke stereotypes and inertia, won the trust of active people and involved them in joint work. After some time, he was already surrounded by carefully fostered like-minded people.
In 1970, an operational-strategic exercise called “Dvina” took place, during which 22 minutes about 8 thousand paratroopers and 150 pieces of military equipment managed to land behind the back of an imaginary enemy. After that, the airborne troops of Russia were picked up and thrown away in a completely unfamiliar area.
Over time, Margelov realized that it was necessary to somehow improve the operation of the landing troops after landing. Because sometimes from a landing combat vehicle, paratroopers were separated by several kilometers of a not always flat earth surface. Therefore, it was necessary to develop such a scheme, in which it would be possible to avoid significant loss of time for soldiers to search for their cars. Subsequently, Vasily Filippovich put forward his candidacy for the first test of this kind.
Foreign experience
This is very difficult to believe, but in the late 80s, well-known professionals from America did not own equipment that would be similar to Soviet. They did not know all the secrets of how to land military vehicles with their soldiers inside. Although in the Soviet Union this practice was carried out as far back as the 70s.
This became known only after the failure of one of the demonstration training of the parachute battalion "Devil's Regiment". During its conduct, a large number of soldiers inside the vehicle were injured. And there were those who died. In addition, most cars remained standing where they landed. They could not move.
Trials of the Centaur
In the Soviet Union, it all started with the fact that General Margelov made a courageous decision to shoulder the responsibility of a pioneer. In 1972, in the midst of testing were a completely new Centaur system, the main purpose of which was to conduct landing of people inside their combat vehicles using parachute platforms. Not everything was smooth - there were ruptures of the canopy of the parachute, and failures in the operation of active braking engines. Given the high degree of riskiness of such experiments, dogs were used to conduct them. During one of them, the dog Buran died.
Western countries also tested such systems. Only there for this purpose live people who were sentenced to death got into cars. When the first prisoner died, such development work was deemed inappropriate.
Magerlov realized the full degree of riskiness of these operations, but continued to insist on their implementation. Since over time jumping with dogs began to go well, he tried to get the fighters to take part in this.
January 5, 1973 the legendary jump of the Airborne Forces Margelova took place. For the first time in the history of mankind, using BMD-1, a BMD-1 was dropped, with soldiers inside. They were Major L. Zuev and Lieutenant A. Margelov, who was the eldest son of the commander in chief. Only a very courageous person would be able to send his own son to perform such a complex and unpredictable experiment.
Vasily Filippovich was awarded the USSR State Prize for this heroic innovation.
The Centaur soon changed to Reactaurus. Its main feature was four times the high rate of decline, which significantly reduced the vulnerability to shelling the enemy. All the time, work was carried out to improve this system.
Margelov Vasily Filippovich, whose statements are passed from mouth to mouth, with great love and respect for the soldiers. He believed that it was these simple workers who forged victory with their own hands. He often came to them in the barracks, the dining room, visited at the training ground and in the hospital. It felt boundless faith in their paratroopers, and they responded to him with love and devotion.
March 4, 1990 the heart of the hero stopped. The place where Margelov Vasily Filippovich is buried is the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow. But the memory of him and his heroic life is still alive. This is evidenced not only by the monument to Margelov. It is stored by the airborne troops and veterans of the Great Patriotic War.