The feat of Nikolai Sirotinin is a short history of the hero

The history of the Great Patriotic War is full of dramatic events, as well as examples of the amazing selflessness of Soviet people who sacrificed their lives for the sake of crushing fascism. Among them is the feat of the senior sergeant Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin, which aroused sincere admiration even among the enemies who buried the hero with all military honors.

Biography

Komsomol member Nikolai Sirotinin was born in 1921 in the city of Orel. After graduation, the young man worked for some time at the Orlovsk plant "Tekmash", and in 1940 he was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army. Service Sirotinin was held in Polotsk, and already on the first day of the war was wounded during a raid of enemy aircraft. After a short treatment in the hospital, Nicholas was sent to the front in the Krichev district. At the time of his last battle, the young man had the rank of senior sergeant and served as a gunner of the 6th gun (according to some sources, the 17th) infantry division of the 13th Army.

Situation at the line of defense near the river Dobrost

In mid-July 1941, Soviet troops continued to retreat almost throughout the entire front. The division in which Nikolay Sirotinin served, reached the line of defense at the Dobrost River and suffered heavy losses, as 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 unit of the Wehrmacht 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 feared (July 17), the battery commander, in which the hero served, decided to organize a cover for the retreat of his military unit. To this end, at the bridge on the 476th km of the Moscow-Warsaw highway, one gun was installed across the Dobrost River. He was to serve a military calculation of two people, one of which was the battalion commander himself. And Nikolay Sirotinin also stayed on the ferry. He was supposed to help fire on the enemy tanks as soon as they leave the bridge.

The feat of Nikolai Sirotinin in 1941: the battle

The gun was disguised on a hill in thick rye. From such a 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. The first shot Nicholas hit the head tank of the column, which went to the bridge, and the second - the armored personnel carrier closing it. Thus, a traffic jam formed on the road, and the 6th Infantry Division was given an opportunity for a quiet retreat.

When the shock of a sudden artillery attack passed, the Germans began to shoot and wound the battalion commander of the Soviet gun. Since the combat mission to detain the enemy's tank column was carried out, the commander retreated to Soviet positions, but Sergeant Sirotinin refused to follow him, saying that the gun left dozens of unspent shells, and he wants to disable as many enemy tanks as possible.

The feat of Nikolai Vladimirovich Sirotinin: the death of the hero

The Germans tried to steal the battered head tank from the bridge with the help of two other armored cars. Then Sirotinin hit them, thereby bringing the Nazis into a rage. An attempt was also made to ford the river, but the first tank was stuck near the shore and was destroyed by the fire of the Soviet gun. The battle lasted about two and a half hours, during which time Sirotinin destroyed 11 tanks, 6 armored cars, as well as more than fifty soldiers and enemy officers.

Finally, the enemies surrounded the hero and offered him to surrender. But Sirotinin continued the fight, firing back from the carbine, until he was killed.

The funeral

The history of wars knows only a few examples, when the enemy showed respect to its defeated opponent, bowing before his valor. It was these feelings that caused the feat of Nikolai Sirotinin to the German command. And about the funeral of the hero preserved evidence of several eyewitnesses. In particular, one of the residents of the village of Sokolnichi, who spoke German, which the occupants together with her fellow villagers drove to the place where the Sirotinin gun was located, later told that the "main German" before delivering the body of the Soviet sergeant to the ground, said the speech. In it, he praised the bravery of a Russian soldier and urged his soldiers to love the Motherland just like a deceased hero. Even more interesting are the memoirs of Lieutenant-General Frederick Henfeld, who in his diary was indignant that Colonel von Langerman ordered the German soldiers to give three volleys of rifles in honor of the Russian soldier.

Memory

The feat of Nikolai Sirotinin was not appreciated by the country. The fact is that the relatives of Kolya did not have any photos of the boy, so he was not introduced to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The only reward for the young man was the Order of the Patriotic War of the first degree.

In 1948, the body of the hero was reburied in a mass grave, and on his marble plaque, among others, his name was also indicated. In 1958 in "Ogonyok" was published an article "The Legend of the feat", from which the inhabitants of the Soviet Union learned about the events of July 17, 1941, which occurred on the bridge over the Dobrost River. The feat of Nikolai Sirotinin shocked hundreds of thousands of people. In 1961, an obelisk was erected on the site where the youth alone held the defenses against a column of German tanks. In addition, a commemorative plaque with a short story about the feat of Sirotinin mounted on the wall of the workshop shop "Tekmash", where before the war worked as a hero.

Opinions

Since the moment when Nicholas Sirotinin's feat took place, more than 70 years have passed, it is practically impossible to find living eyewitnesses of those events. That's why some researchers in pursuit of sensation try to present it as a beautiful heroic legend, forgetting that the deceased young man had a family, and relatives are still alive. In addition, if the story of Sergeant Sirotinin's feat was a fairy tale, then why about 20 years about this almost no one knew? And, finally, on the edge of one of the Belarusian villages, today there is a mass grave, in which lie the remains of a 19-year-old boy who died for his Motherland. This circumstance alone makes it possible to consider him a hero and to bow before the feat of his comrades, who saved the world from the "brown plague."

Now you know what is the feat of Nikolai Sirotinin. Briefly and without emotions about him it is very difficult to tell. After all, this story can not be taken for a soul, for it is an exceptional example of self-sacrifice and love for the Motherland of a very young man who, like everyone else, wanted to live ...