History of the Great Patriotic War is full of dramatic events, as well as examples of the amazing dedication of the Soviet people, who sacrificed their lives to crush fascism.Among them is a feat, and Senior Sergeant Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinina that caused admiration even among the enemies that the hero was buried with full military honors.
biography
Komsomol member Nikolai Sirotinin was born in 1921 in the city of Orel.After graduation, the young man spent some time in the Orel plant "TEKMASH" and in 1940 he was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army.Service Sirotinin held in Polotsk, and the first day of the war he was wounded during a raid by enemy aircraft.After a brief treatment in hospital Nicholas sent to the front in the area of Krichev.At the time of his last fight of a young man held the rank of senior sergeant and served as a gunner guns 6th (according to some sources, 17 th) Infantry Division of the 13th Army.
situation on the line of defense on the river Dobrost
In mid-July 1941, Soviet troops continued to retreat across virtually the entire length of the front.The division, which served Nikolai Sirotinin reached the defensive line the river Dobrost and suffered heavy losses, as did not have enough equipment and military equipment to withstand the onslaught of the 4th Armored Division under the command of Colonel von Langerman.That Wehrmacht unit was part of the 2nd Panzer Group Colonel-General Heinz Guderian, distinguished himself during the occupation of France and Poland.
the day when the deed was committed Sergeant Nicholas Sirotinina (July 17), the commander of the battery, which served as a hero, decided to organize cover the retreat of their military unit.To this end, the bridge on the 476th km of the highway "Moscow - Warsaw" across the river Dobrost one gun has been found.It was supposed to serve a crew of two people, one of whom was the battalion commander himself.Staying in midstream and offered Nicholas Sirotinin.He had to help to fire at enemy tanks, as they will leave the bridge.
Feat Nicholas Sirotinina in 1941: the fight
gun camouflaged on a hill in the thick rye.With such a position easily visible highway and bridge, but the enemy was difficult to notice it, and destroy it.
column of German armored vehicles appeared at dawn.First shot Nicholas knocked the head tank columns left on the bridge, and the second - the closing of its armored personnel carrier.Thus, a traffic jam on the road, and the 6th Infantry Division had an opportunity for a relaxing retreat.
When the shock of the sudden artillery attack took place, the Germans began to shoot and wounded battalion commander of the Soviet guns.Since the combat mission to apprehend the armored columns of the enemy has been executed, the commander stepped to the Soviet position, but the sergeant Sirotinin refused to follow him, saying that the gun is a few tens of unspent shells, and he wants to destroy the possible greater number of enemy tanks.
feat Sirotinina Nikolai Vladimirovich: the death of the hero
Germans tried to sneak lined head tank from the bridge with the help of two other armored vehicles.Then Sirotinin knocked out and, thereby bringing the Nazis into a rage.Also, there was an attempt to overcome the river ford, but the first tank got stuck near the shore, and was destroyed by the fire of Soviet weapons.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 surrounded the enemy hero and asked him to surrender.But Sirotinin continued battle, firing a rifle, until he was killed.
Funeral
history of wars knows few examples where the enemy showed respect for his defeated enemy, bowing to his valor.These are the feelings aroused German command feat Nicholas Sirotinina.And about the funeral of the hero preserved testimony of several eyewitnesses.In particular, one of the residents of the village Falconer, who owned the German language, which the invaders along with the villagers drove to a place where there was a gun Sirotinina later said that "the main German" before you bring the body of Sergeant of the Soviet land, it said.In it, he praised the courage of the Russian soldier and urged his soldiers to love their homeland as well as the deceased hero.Even more interesting memories lieutenant Henfelda Frederick, who in his diary resented the fact that Colonel von langerman ordered German soldiers to give three rifle volleys in honor of the Russian soldiers.
Memory
Feat Nicholas Sirotinina country has not been evaluated highly.The fact that the family has not been preserved Coli any photos boy, so it did not provide for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.The only reward the young man became the Order of the Patriotic War of the first degree.
In 1948, the hero's body was reburied in a mass grave, and a marble slab, among others, and indicated his name.In 1958, in the "Ogonyok" was published article "The legend of heroism", from which the inhabitants of the Soviet Union learned about the events of July 17, 1941, took place on a bridge over the river Dobrost.Feat Nicholas Sirotinina shook hundreds of thousands of people.In 1961 on the spot where the young man single-handedly kept the defense against a column of German tanks was the obelisk.In addition, a commemorative plaque with a brief story about the heroism Sirotinina mounted on the wall of the factory shop "TEKMASH", where he worked before the war hero.
Opinions
As from the time when there was a feat Nicholas Sirotinina, after more than 70 years, found the living eyewitnesses of the events is almost impossible.That is why some researchers in pursuit of sensation are trying to present it as a beautiful heroic legend, oblivious to the fact that the deceased young man was the family and relatives are still alive.In addition, if the story about the heroism of Sergeant Sirotinina was a fairy tale, why some 20 years of almost no one knew?And finally, on the edge of one of the Belarusian villages and today is a mass grave, in which lie the remains of 19-year-old boy, who died for their homeland.This fact alone already allows to consider him a hero, and bow before the feat of his comrades, who saved the world from the "brown plague".
Now you know what is a feat Nicholas Sirotinina.Briefly, and without emotion about him is very difficult.After all, this story can not take the soul, for an exceptional example of dedication and love for the country is still quite a young man who, like everyone else, wanted to live ...
