The feat of the crew of the Gorobets. Legendary tank crew of Stepan Gorobets: "Courage exceeds quantity." Number "03"

Even the first months of the Great Patriotic War, the most terrible for the Red Army, showed us a large number of exploits of Soviet soldiers and officers. These feats will forever be inscribed in the history of our country. If we talk about tankers, then a considerable share of the merit in their exploits was also in their combat vehicles. For example, the famous battle of the commander of a tank company, Senior Lieutenant Kolobanov, ended with the destruction of a German tank column of 22 enemy vehicles, not only because of the professional choice of the ambush site and the well-coordinated work of the entire tank crew, but also due to the outstanding characteristics of the KV-1 heavy tank. who did not disappoint his crew in that battle. All the Germans could do to him was to break the observation devices and jam the turret turning mechanism. But not all battles were decided only by the superiority of firepower and record armor of Soviet tanks of those years. As the Polish writer Stanislav Jerzy Lec rightly noted: "Often courage alone is not enough, you also need arrogance." During the war years, this aphorism has justified itself more than once. From the military impudence of Russian soldiers and the atypical nature of their actions and behavior in combat conditions, the soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht often experienced, as they would say now, "a break in the template." After the war, many officers lamented in their memoirs that they could not understand how the enemy could attack an infantry battalion on the march from an ambush with only five soldiers, or how it was possible to attack the enemy in the city with just one tank. It was the latter in October 1941 that was committed by the crew of the T-34 tank by Stepan Gorobets, who single-handedly broke into Kalinin (now Tver). The life of the Hero of the Soviet Union Stepan Gorobets turned out to be inextricably linked with the Tver region, it was here, during the defense of Kalinin, that the tank crew under his leadership made a successful single tank breakthrough through the entire city. Here on this land, during the offensive battles near Rzhev, this tanker laid down his head in 1942. Stepan Khristoforovich Gorobets was born in the small village of Dolinskoye on February 8, 1913. He grew up in the Kirovograd region, was a Ukrainian by nationality. An ordinary Soviet guy from a peasant family before the war worked as a gas turbine operator at a nitrogen fertilizer plant. He met the war as an ordinary senior sergeant, a tanker who had just finished his training. He took part in the battles since September 1941. By the time the tank raid took place, which made his name immortal, Gorobets's entire combat experience was only one month. The battle, which took place on October 17, 1941, would later be called an example of real courage, military arrogance and resourcefulness.

On October 17, 1941, the 21st separate tank brigade was given a difficult task: to carry out a deep raid behind enemy lines along the Bolshoye Selishche - Lebedevo route, defeating the German forces in Krivtsevo, Nikulino, Mamulino, and also to capture the city of Kalinin, freeing it from the invaders. The brigade had to carry out reconnaissance in force, breaking through the city and uniting with the units that took up defenses on the Moscow highway. The tank battalion of the brigade under the command of Major Agibalov goes to the Volokolamskoe highway. In the vanguard of the battalion are two T-34 medium tanks: the tank of senior sergeant Gorobets and his platoon commander Kireev. Their task is to identify and suppress the detected firing points of the Nazis. On the highway, two of our tanks overtake a German column of vehicles with infantry and armored vehicles. The Germans, noticing Soviet tanks, manage to deploy anti-tank guns and engage in battle. During the battle, Kireev's T-34 tank was hit and slid off the highway into a ditch, and Gorobets's tank managed to slip forward and crush the positions of German guns, after which, without slowing down, he enters the village of Efremovo, where he engages in battle with a retreating column. Having fired at the tanks of the Germans, crushed three trucks, the tank numbered "03" flew through the village and again went out onto the highway, the way to Kalinin was open. However, at the same time, Agibalov's tank battalion, following the vanguard of two T-34s, fell under an air strike by the enemy's Junkers, several tanks were knocked out and the commander stopped the column's advance. At the same time, after the battle in the village on the tank of senior sergeant Gorobets, the radio went out of order, there is no communication with him. Having broken away from the main column of the battalion by more than 500 meters, the tank crew does not know that the column has already stopped. Not knowing that he was alone, the senior sergeant continues to carry out the assigned task, continues reconnaissance in force in the direction of Kalinin. On the highway to the city, the T-34 overtakes a column of German motorcyclists and destroys it. Just imagine the situation: the defensive battles for Kalinin had already been completed by that time, the Germans were able to occupy the city and entrenched in it. They drove back the Soviet troops and took up defenses around the city. The task assigned to the Soviet tank brigade - conducting reconnaissance in force - is actually a tank raid in the German rear from Volokolamskoye to Moscow highway. Break through to the rear, make noise there, try to recapture Kalinin from the enemy and link up with other Soviet units in another sector of the front. However, instead of a tank column, a single tank is going to the city - the "troika" of senior sergeant Stepan Gorobets. Leaving the village of Lebedevo, on the right side of the highway, the crew of the tank discovered a German airfield, which housed aircraft and petrol tankers. Gorobets's tank entered the battle here, destroying two Ju-87 aircraft with fire and blowing up a fuel tank. After a while, the Germans came to their senses, they began to deploy anti-aircraft guns in order to open fire on the tank with direct fire. At the same time, the senior sergeant, realizing that his attack was not supported by other tanks of his battalion, which were already supposed to catch up with the detached vanguard and simply sweep the discovered airfield, makes a non-standard, bold and somewhat impudent decision. The radio station on the tank is silent, Gorobets knows nothing about the fate of the battalion's column, just as he does not know how far he has separated from the main forces. In these conditions, when the Germans are already hitting the tank with anti-aircraft guns, the vehicle commander decides to withdraw from the battle and break into Kalinin alone. Having escaped from the shelling of German anti-aircraft guns, our tank on the way to Kalinin again meets a column of German troops. Thirty-four rams three German vehicles and shoots down the fleeing infantry. Without reducing its speed, the medium tank rushes into the city occupied by the enemy. In Kalinin, on Lermontov Street, the tank turns left and rushes with shooting down Traktornaya Street, and then along 1st Zalineinaya Street. In the area of Tekstilshchikov Park, T-34 makes a right turn under the viaduct and enters the Proletarka courtyard: the workshops of the plant No. 510 and the cotton mill are on fire, here the defense was held by local workers. At this moment, Gorobets notices that a German anti-tank gun is aiming at his combat vehicle, but does not have time to react. The Germans shoot first, a fire breaks out in the tank. Despite the flames, the driver of the T-34 tank Fyodor Litovchenko drives the car into a ram and presses the anti-tank gun with tracks, while three other crew members are fighting the fire using fire extinguishers, quilted jackets, duffel bags and other improvised means. Thanks to their well-coordinated actions, the fire was extinguished, and the enemy's firing position was destroyed. However, from a direct hit into the turret of the tank, the gun jammed, and only machine guns remain from the weapon in the formidable vehicle. Further, Gorobets's tank follows along Bolshevikov Street, then drives along the right bank of the Tmaka River past the women's monastery located here. Tankers immediately cross the river across a dilapidated bridge, risking to bring down a 30-ton vehicle into the river, but nothing happened and they went to the left bank of the river. Tank with number three on the armor enters the target of the Golovinsky shaft, from where it tries to enter Sofia Perovskaya Street, but encounters an unexpected obstacle. Here are installed rails deeply dug into the ground, greetings from the workers who defended the city. At the risk of being discovered by the enemy, tankers have to use their combat vehicle as a tractor, loosening the installed rails. As a result, they managed to move to the side, freeing the passage. After that, the tank enters the tram tracks, going along the wide street. The tank continues on its way through the city occupied by the enemy, but now it is black, sooty from a recent fire. On it, you can hardly see either the star or the tank number. The Germans do not even react to the tank, mistaking it for theirs. At this moment, on the left side of the street, the tank crew sees a column of captured trucks, GAZ and ZIS trucks with infantry, the cars are repainted, the Germans are sitting in them. Keeping in mind that firing from a gun is impossible, Stepan Gorobets orders the driver to crush the convoy. Having made a sharp turn, the tank crashes into the trucks, and the gunner-radio operator Ivan Pastushin pours the Germans with a machine gun. Then the Germans began to hastily radio about the Soviet tanks that burst into the city, not knowing that only one thirty-four entered the city.

Leaving on Sovetskaya Street, the T-34 meets a German tank. Taking advantage of the surprise effect, Gorobets bypasses the enemy and rams the German into the side, throwing him off the street onto the sidewalk. After hitting the thirtieth four died out. The Germans, leaning out of the hatches of their car, yell "Rus, surrender", and the crew of the Soviet tank is trying to start the engine. This was not successful the first time, but at that moment very good news appeared: the loader Grigory Kolomiets was able to revive the gun. Leaving the rammed enemy tank behind it, the T-34 jumps out onto Lenin Square. Here, a semicircular building opens to the eyes of the tankers, on which huge fascist flags are installed, and sentries are located at the entrance. The building did not go unnoticed, the tank fired high-explosive shells at it, a fire started in the building. Having completed the next task, the tank moves on and meets an impromptu barricade. On the street, the Germans overturned a tram, from behind which grenades are flying into the tank. Thirty-four managed to bypass this obstacle on a pile of stones (a blockage from a collapsed residential building), pushing away the tram with the Germans who sat down behind it, and continues to move further along Vagzhanov Street to the Moscow highway. Here Stepan Gorobets discovered a disguised artillery battery of the Germans, the guns of which were deployed towards Moscow. The tank rushes into the position from the rear, rams it destroys the guns and dugouts, ironing out the trenches and goes out onto the Moscow highway, breaking out of the city. A few kilometers later, near the burning elevator, the tank begins to fire heavily from almost all directions. Here were the positions of one of the regiments of the 5th Infantry Division. At first, Gorobets's car was mistaken for the Germans, but in time they dealt with the accessory and stopped firing at the tank, meeting the tankers with shouts of "Hurray!" Later, Major General Khomenko, commander of the 30th Army, personally met with the crew of the T-34. Without waiting for the award documents, he removed the Order of the Red Banner from his tunic and presented it to Senior Sergeant Stepan Gorobets. Later Gorobets was able to rise to the rank of junior lieutenant, was awarded the Order of Lenin. Tellingly, the Order of the Red Banner did not officially appear in the award documents, since it passed after General Khomenko. Later, on May 5, 1942, for the courage and heroism shown in battles, Junior Lieutenant Stepan Khristoforovich Gorobets was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but already posthumously. During the offensive on February 8, 1942, in a battle near the village of Petelino in the Rzhevsky district of the Kalinin (now Tver) region, operating in the combat formations of the advancing infantry, the crew of the T-34 tank of junior lieutenant Stepan Gorobets managed to destroy 3 enemy guns, suppress more than 20 machine-gun points and 12 enemy mortars, destroy up to 70 enemy soldiers and officers. In this battle, on the day of his 29th birthday, Stepan Gorobets was killed. He was buried in the village of Bratkovo, Staritskiy district, Tver region, in a mass grave not far from the church, 10 meters from the Staritsa-Bernovo highway, on the Pushkin ring. In total, for the entire time of the fighting, the crew of the tank of Stepan Gorobets had 7 knocked out and destroyed German tanks.

A few days before the death of Gorobets, the turret sergeant Grigory Kolomiets was wounded, his further fate is unknown. And the tank driver, senior sergeant Fyodor Litovchenko, and the Red Army gunner-radio operator Ivan Pastushin went through the whole war and lived to see victory. Subsequently, they met with each other at the sites of past battles, including in the city of Kalinin, which is memorable for them. Later it became known that in the last days of the war near Berlin in Potsdam, an archive of the German General Staff of the Ground Forces was found. In this archive, among other documents, the order of the commander of the 9th German army, Colonel-General Strauss, dated November 2, 1941, was found. On behalf of the Fuehrer, by this order, Colonel von Kestner, the commandant of the occupied Kalinin, was awarded the first degree iron cross. The award was presented "for valor, courage and energetic leadership of the garrison in the elimination of a Soviet tank detachment, which, taking advantage of the snowfall, was able to break into the city." In fairness, it should be noted that 8 tanks of the 21st brigade were able to break through to Kalinin, which slipped through to the city under constant bombing. However, having reached the southern outskirts of the city, the surviving vehicles moved to Pokrovskoe along the Turginovskoe highway, the tank of senior sergeant Gorobets was the only one that passed through the entire city in battle. After the war, the memory of Gorobets and his tank crews was immortalized. One of the streets of Tver now bears the name of the commander of the legendary thirty-four with the tail number "03". On house No. 54 on Sovetskaya Street in Tver, a memorial plaque was erected in memory of the legendary tank crew. And 70 years after the events described, in November 2011, a monument was unveiled in the city in memory of the feat of the crew of the T-34 medium tank from the 1st separate tank battalion of the 21st tank brigade of the 30th army of the Kalinin Front. A memorial meeting was organized here at the monument to the heroes-tankers on the 100th anniversary of Stepan Gorobets. Also, one of the streets in his native village was named after the hero-tanker. Based on materials from open sources Author Yuferev Sergey

The story will focus on the legendary Soviet tank crew, on whose side there was neither a record reservation guaranteeing protection, nor firepower superior to the enemy, like the KV crews ...
Only reckless courage, resourcefulness and healthy military impudence.

On October 17, 1941, a separate 21st tank brigade was tasked with making a deep raid along the Bolshoye Selishche-Lebedevo route, crushing the enemy in Krivtsovo, Nikulino, Mamulino, capturing the city of Kalinin (Tver), freeing it from the Germans. In short, to conduct reconnaissance in force, break through the city and link up with the defenses on the Moscow highway.

The tank battalion of Major Agibalov goes to the Volokolamskoe highway. In the vanguard of the column are T-34s: tanks of senior sergeant Gorobets and platoon commander Kireev with the task of identifying and suppressing enemy firing points. On the highway, tanks are catching up with a German column of armored vehicles and vehicles with infantry. The Germans notice the pursuit, deploy anti-tank guns and the battle begins. Kireev's tank is hit and slides into a ditch. Gorobets's tank rushes forward, ironing out the German anti-tank battery, and then, without slowing down, breaks into the village of Efremovo, where it engages in battle with the rest of the forces of the German column. Having fired at German tanks at speed, crushed three trucks and thinned out the infantry of 34 senior sergeant Stepan Gorobets with tail number "03" with machine-gun fire, rushes through the village and jumps back onto the highway: The path to Kalinin (Tver) is open ...

At the same time, the tank battalion of Major Agibalov, following the vanguard of two T-34s, falls under a Junkers air raid, several vehicles are knocked out and the commander stops the column. But after the attack on the Germans entrenched in the village, the radio communication of the Gorobets tank was damaged. The crew of the T-34, separated from the main convoy by more than 500 meters, does not know that the convoy has stopped! Gorobets, not yet knowing that he was left alone, continues to fulfill the task of the vanguard: without slowing down to conduct reconnaissance in force, and moves to the city of Kalinin (Tver). Right on the highway, a convoy of German motorcyclists overtakes and destroys it ...

Now imagine the situation: October 1941, the early snow is already breaking down, the Germans are advancing on Moscow. The main defensive battles for Kalinin (Tver) have already died down, the Germans occupied the city and fortified in it, pushing back the Soviet troops and taking up defensive positions on the outskirts of the city. The task assigned to the tank brigade - reconnaissance in force - is actually a tank raid along the rear from Volokolamskoe highway to Moscow highway: break through, make noise, try to recapture the city and connect with the front in another sector. But instead of a tank column, one tank breaks through to the city - the "troika" of Art. Sergeant Gorobets.

When leaving the village of Lebedevo to the right of the highway, the tankers find a German airfield with planes and petrol tankers. 34 enters the battle, shells the airfield, destroys two Junkers Ju-87s and blows up the fuel tank. And when the German anti-aircraft guns are deployed to fire direct fire at an impudent Soviet tank ... At this moment, senior sergeant Gorobets realizes that his attack is not supported by the battalion's tanks, which, in theory, should have already caught up with the vanguard involved in the battle, supporting them with fire and maneuver, and roll out this whole German airfield, anti-aircraft guns and other protection like a tortoise god. The radio is silent, there is no connection. Nothing is known about the fate of the column, just as the distance separating Gorobets' troika from the tank battalion is unknown ...

And since anti-aircraft guns are already beginning to hit the tank with direct fire, Gorobets makes a bold and somewhat impudent decision: leaving from under the shelling, break through to Kalinin alone. From such military impudence of the Russians, German soldiers and officers always tore the template into small pieces, and so much so that even after many years they lamented in their memoirs that they could not understand how, for example, an infantry battalion could be attacked on the march from an ambush by the forces of five riflemen? ...

How can you attack an enemy who has taken up defense in a city with one tank?

And here's how: leaving under anti-aircraft gunfire in the direction of Kalinin, Gorobets's car again meets a German convoy, rams three cars and shoots the infantry. Without slowing down, the tank rushes into the city, turns left on Lermontov Street and rushes with a whistling and whooping roar and firing along Traktornaya Street, then along 1st Zalineinaya Street ... In the area of Tekstilshchikov Park, Gorobets's tank turns to the right under the viaduct and flies into the Proletarka courtyard ": The workshops of the cotton mill and factory # 510 are on fire, the workers were on the defensive here ... The crew notices that a German anti-tank gun is aiming at the tank. Gorobets aims at the enemy, but the German cannon fires first, a fire starts in the tank from a shell hit ...

Fedor Litovchenko, mechanic of 34 Gorobets leads the tank into a ram and crushes the enemy with tracks, while the remaining three crew members are fighting the fire using fire extinguishers, rugs, quilted jackets, duffel bags ... The fire is extinguished, the enemy's firing position is destroyed, but from a direct hit the turret is jammed by the gun: shooting is impossible. Only machine guns are now active from weapons.

Gorobets's car moves further along Bolshevikov Street, then along the right bank of the Tmaka River, past the nunnery, then immediately crosses the river across a dilapidated bridge, risking collapsing a ferry that was not designed for a 30-ton weight of the tank, and flies to the left bank of the Tmaka. The tank enters the target of the Golovinsky shaft, but when trying to go out onto Sofia Perovskaya Street, it meets an unexpected obstacle: the installed rails, which are deeply dug into the ground, are another greetings from the factory workers who held the defenses here. At the risk of being discovered, the tankers use the tank as a tractor and loosen the rails dug into the ground, pushing them aside and thereby clearing the passage. Gorobets's car enters the tram lines laid along the wide street ...

A black tank, soaked from a fire, is walking along a wide street in the city occupied by the Germans, kicking up fresh snow with its tracks. Not a star or a number on the side of the tank is simply not visible. The Germans do not react to him - I take it for my own. Suddenly the crew notices a column of captured ZISs and GAZ trucks with infantry moving towards them on the left side of the street: the cars are repainted, German soldiers are sitting in the bodies. Remembering the inactive gun of the tank, Gorobets gives the order to the mechanic: "Fedya, let's go straight to them." A sharp turn and the tank crashes into the convoy at full speed: roar, crackling, the Germans jump out of their cars in panic, radio operator Ivan Pastushin begins to pour fire on them from a machine gun ... The tank ironed the entire convoy without leaving a single whole car. The Germans began to hastily radio that "Russian tanks are in the city", not knowing that this is the only vehicle.

Flying out onto Sovetskaya Street, 34 stumbles upon a German tank. Using the surprise effect, Gorobets's tank bypasses the German and rams the enemy tank into the side, throwing it from the street onto the sidewalk and stalling. The atmosphere is nowhere better: the Germans leaning out of the hatches yell "Rus, surrendering", the 34's crew is trying to start the engine ... This is not successful on the first try, and suddenly - good news: the loader Grigory Kolomiets was able to revive the gun! ..

Leaving the rammed and knocked out German tank behind, Gorobets's car takes off on Lenin Square. The crew sees a semicircular building on which huge flags with a swastika hang, and there are sentries at the entrance ... How can this be ignored? Gorobets bombards the building with land mines: the sentries are swept away like a wind, explosions are heard in the premises, a fire starts. Gorobets's car moves on, bumping into an impromptu barricade: grenades are flying into the tank from behind the overturned tram. 34 bypasses the barricade on a pile of stones - a blockage from a destroyed house - touches the tram with its side and, throwing it aside along with the Germans, moves further along Vagzhanov Street to the Moscow Highway. The tank commander discovers a camouflaged artillery battery, the guns of which are deployed towards Moscow. The tank smashes guns with a ram, destroys dugouts, destroys German trenches and goes out onto the Moscow highway, breaking out of the city occupied by the Germans. A few kilometers later, near the burning elevator, a powerful shelling begins on the tank from almost all directions: these are the positions of the 11th motorcycle regiment of the 5th Infantry Division - Gorobets's tank is initially mistaken for the attacking Germans, but fortunately, they are recognized in time as “their own” and are greeted with shouts of “Hurray ! "...

A little later, the commander of the 30th Army, Major General Khomenko, meets with the crew of the tank: without waiting for the award documents, he takes off his own Order of the Red Banner from his tunic and presents it to Senior Sergeant Stepan Gorobets ... Major General! Senior Sergeant !!! Presenting his order !!!

Stepan Khristoforovich Gorobets is an ordinary rural guy from a peasant family, before the war he worked as a gas turbine operator at a nitrogen fertilizer plant ... An ordinary senior sergeant, just from school. In battles since September 1941: at the time of the tank raid in the town of Kalinin (Tver), he has been at war for only a month. Senior Sergeant Gorobets is only 28 years old ...

Crew members of the T-34 # 03 tank Fedor Litovchenko (mechanized driver), Grigory Kolomiets (loader), Ivan Pastushin (radio operator) went with the tank throughout the war, and later met at the battlefield, including in the memorable city of Kalinin-Tver.

And the tank commander, Stepan Gorobets, rose to the rank of junior lieutenant and was awarded the Order of Lenin. Tellingly, the Order of the Red Banner does not appear in the award documents and official summaries: after all, according to the documents and the number of the award badge, it officially passes for Major General Khomenko ...

... And also by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 5, 1942 for courage and heroism shown in battles with the Nazi invaders, junior lieutenant Gorobets Stepan Khristoforovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union ... Posthumously.

In the offensive on February 8, 1942, near the village of Petelino, Rzhevsky district, Kalinin (now Tver) region, operating in the combat formations of rifle units, the crew of the T-34 tank of junior lieutenant Stepan Gorobets destroyed three cannons, more than twenty machine-gun points and twelve enemy mortars ... " acting in the battle formations of rifle subunits "- goes out on foot, already without armor. In this battle, the brave and brave tank officer Stepan Khristoforovich Gorobets died a heroic death. February 8 ...

On the day of its 29th birthday ...

Eternal glory to the heroes!

P.S. Many years later it became known that in the last days of the war, the archive of the German General Staff of the Ground Forces was discovered in Potsdam. Among the documents, an order was found by the commander of the 9th Army, Colonel-General Strauss, dated November 2, 1941. On behalf of the Fuhrer, he awarded Colonel von Kestner, the commandant of the occupied city of Kalinin, with the iron cross of the first degree. It was a reward "for courage, valor and energetic leadership of the garrison in the liquidation of a Soviet tank detachment, which, taking advantage of the heavy snowfall, broke through directly into the city."

Stepan Gorobets was buried in the village of Bratkovo, Staritskiy district, Tver region.

How can you attack an enemy who has taken up defense in a city with one tank?

On the day of its 29th birthday ...

Eternal glory to the heroes!

Stepan Gorobets was buried in the village of Bratkovo, Staritskiy district, Tver region.

An excellent artistic presentation of the epic feat of the tank crew of Stepan Gorobets, who hurricaneed in his tank in the German rear in the spirit of the famous episode with KV near Raseiniai. The case when the best qualities of a Soviet tank were not burdened by its shortcomings.

Legendary tank crew of Stepan Gorobets

"Courage exceeds quantity" - these words belong to the ancient Greek named Vegetius. But they have not lost their relevance even during tank battles.

Very often, stories about the exploits of Soviet heroes-tankers during the Great Patriotic War are associated with the KV machine. Especially when it comes to the first year of the war: the KV-1 tank, even without additional modifications, surpassed the German military equipment both in firepower and in armor. For example, the well-known feat of senior lieutenant, commander of a tank company Kolobanov, under whose command the KV-1 tank from an ambush during more than an hour's "duel" with the enemy destroyed a German tank column (22 tanks), fired more than 98 shots from a stationary position, he himself received more 100 direct hits on armor, but what is typical - not a single penetration at the same time. All damage to Kolobanov's KV-1 was limited to a "broken" triplex and a jammed turret rotation mechanism. And there are a lot of similar stories, when tankers in KV-shkakh simply crushed the enemy with power ...

I want to tell you about another legendary Soviet tank crew, on the side of which there was neither a record reservation guaranteeing protection, nor firepower superior to the enemy, as in the KV crews ...

Only reckless courage, resourcefulness and healthy military impudence.

The tank battalion of Major Agibalov goes to the Volokolamskoe highway. In the vanguard of the column are T-34s: tanks of senior sergeant Gorobets and platoon commander Kireev with the task of identifying and suppressing enemy firing points. On the highway, tanks are catching up with a German column of armored vehicles and vehicles with infantry. The Germans notice the pursuit, deploy anti-tank guns and the battle begins. Kireev's tank is hit and slides into a ditch. Gorobets's tank rushes forward, ironing out the German anti-tank battery, and then, without slowing down, breaks into the village of Efremovo, where it engages in battle with the rest of the forces of the German column. Having fired at German tanks at speed, crushed three trucks and thinned out the infantry of 34 senior sergeant Stepan Gorobets with tail number "03" with machine-gun fire, sweeps through the village and jumps back onto the highway: The path to Kalinin (Tver) is open ...

And since anti-aircraft guns are already beginning to hit the tank with direct fire, Gorobets makes a bold and somewhat impudent decision: leaving from under the shelling, break through to Kalinin alone. From such military impudence of the Russians, German soldiers and officers always tore the template into small pieces, and so much so that even after many years in their memoirs they lamented that they could not understand how, for example, an infantry battalion could be attacked on the march from an ambush forces of five riflemen? ...

(In the very first days of the war, after the breakthrough of the border strip, the 3rd battalion of the 18th infantry regiment of Army Group Center, numbering 800 people, was fired upon by a unit of 5 Soviet soldiers. “I did not expect anything like this,” the battalion commander, Major Neuhof to his battalion doctor. - It's sheer suicide to attack the forces of the battalion with five fighters ")

And here's how: leaving under anti-aircraft gunfire in the direction of Kalinin, Gorobets's car again meets a German convoy, rams three cars and shoots the infantry. Without slowing down, the tank rushes into the city, turns left on Lermontov Street and sweeps fromwhistle and whoop/ roar and fire along Traktornaya Street, then along 1st Zalineinaya Street ... In the area of Tekstilshchikov Park, Gorobets' tank turns to the right under the viaduct and flies into the Proletarka courtyard: the workshops of the cotton mill and plant No. 510 are on fire, the workers were holding the defenses here. .. The crew notices that a German anti-tank gun is aiming at the tank. Gorobets aims at the enemy, but the German cannon fires first, a fire starts in the tank from a shell hit ...

Fedor Litovchenko, mechanic of 34 Gorobets leads the tank to ram and crushes the enemy with tracks, while the remaining three crew members are fighting the fire using fire extinguishers, rugs, quilted jackets, duffel bags ... The fire is extinguished, the enemy's firing position is destroyed, but from direct hitting the turret jammed the gun: shooting is impossible. Only machine guns are now active from weapons.

A black tank, soaked from a fire, is walking along a wide street in the city occupied by the Germans, kicking up fresh snow with its tracks. Not a star or a number on the side of the tank is simply not visible. The Germans do not react to him - I take it for my own. Suddenly the crew notices a column of captured ZISs and GAZ trucks with infantry moving towards them on the left side of the street: the cars are repainted, German soldiers are sitting in the bodies. Remembering the inactive gun of the tank, Gorobets gives the order to the mechanic: "Fedya, let's go straight to them." A sharp turn and the tank at full speed crashes into the convoy: roar, crackling, the Germans jump out of their cars in panic, radio operator Ivan Pastushin begins to pour fire on them from a machine gun ... The tank ironed the entire convoy without leaving a single whole car. The Germans began to hastily radio that "Russian tanks are in the city", not knowing that this is the only vehicle.

Leaving the rammed and knocked out German tank behind, Gorobets's car takes off on Lenin Square. The crew sees a semicircular building on which huge flags with a swastika hang, and there are sentries at the entrance ... How can you get around this? Gorobets bombards the building with land mines: the sentries are swept away like a wind, explosions are heard in the premises, a fire starts. Gorobets's car moves on, bumping into an impromptu barricade: grenades are flying into the tank from behind the overturned tram. 34 bypasses the barricade on a pile of stones - a blockage from a destroyed house - touches the tram with its side and, throwing it aside along with the Germans, moves further along Vagzhanov Street to the Moscow Highway. The tank commander discovers a camouflaged artillery battery, the guns of which are deployed towards Moscow. The tank smashes guns with a ram, destroys dugouts, destroys German trenches and goes out onto the Moscow highway, breaking out of the city occupied by the Germans. A few kilometers later, near the burning elevator, a powerful shelling begins on the tank from almost all directions: these are already the positions of the 11th motorcycle regiment of the 5th rifle division - Gorobets's tank is initially mistaken for the attacking Germans, but fortunately, they are recognized in time as "their own" and are greeted with shouts of "Hurray. ! "...

And the tank commander, Stepan Gorobets, rose to the rank of junior lieutenant and was awarded the Order of Lenin. Tellingly, the Order of the Red Banner does not appear in the award documents and official reports: after all, according to the documents and the number of the award badge, it officially passes for Major General Khomenko ...

And also by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 5, 1942 for courage and heroism shown in battles with the Nazi invaders, junior lieutenant Gorobets Stepan Khristoforovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union ... Posthumously.

In the offensive on February 8, 1942, near the village of Petelino, Rzhevsky district, Kalinin (now Tver) region, operating in the combat formations of rifle units, the crew of the T-34 tank of junior lieutenant Stepan Gorobets destroyed three cannons, more than twenty machine-gun points and twelve enemy mortars .. . "Acting in the battle formations of rifle subunits" - goes out on foot, already without armor. In this battle, the brave and brave tank officer Stepan Khristoforovich Gorobets died a heroic death. February 8 ...

On the day of its 29th birthday ...

Eternal glory to the heroes!

Stepan Gorobets was buried in the village of Bratkovo, Staritskiy district, Tver region.

And in the city of Kalinin-Tver, with which the military destinies of tankers so closely matched, this monument was erected:

And one of the streets of Tver bears the name of the commander 34 with the tail number "03".

Date of death Affiliation

USSR USSR

Type of army Years of service Rank

: incorrect or missing image

Part Battles / wars Awards and prizes

Stepan Khristoforovich Gorobets(1913-1942) - Soviet officer, during the Great Patriotic War, tank commander of the 21st tank regiment of the 21st tank brigade of the 30th Army of the Kalinin Front, Hero of the Soviet Union (1942), junior lieutenant.

Biography

He was buried in the village of Bratkovo, Staritskiy district, Kalinin (now Tver) region.

Awards

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 5, 1942, Junior Lieutenant Gorobets Stepan Khristoforovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for his courage and heroism in battles against the Nazi invaders.

Memory

In memory of the legendary raid carried out by the crew of the Soviet T-34 tank of the 21st Tank Brigade
Stepan Gorobets
Fedor Litovchenko
Ivan Pastushin
Grigory Kolomiets
October 17, 1941 along the streets of Kalinin, occupied by the Nazi invaders. Eternal glory to the Heroes!

On November 28, 2011, a monument to the "Legendary crew of Stepan Gorobets" was erected on Komsomolskaya Square in the city of Tver.

Write a review on the article "Gorobets, Stepan Khristoforovich"

Notes (edit)

Literature

Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. Collegium I. N. Shkadov. - M .: Military Publishing, 1987. - T. 1 / Abaev - Lyubichev /. - 911 p. - 100,000 copies - ISBN ot., Reg. No. in the RCP 87-95382.

The documents

An excerpt characterizing Gorobets, Stepan Khristoforovich

On Pratsenskaya Hill, in the very place where he fell with the flagstaff in his hands, prince Andrei Bolkonsky lay, bleeding, and, without knowing it, moaned with a quiet, pitiful and childish groan.
By evening, he stopped moaning and completely calmed down. He did not know how long his oblivion lasted. Suddenly he again felt alive and suffering from a burning and tearing pain in his head.
"Where is it, this high sky, which I did not know until now and saw today?" was his first thought. Nor did I know the suffering, he thought. - Yes, I didn’t know anything until now. But where am I? "
He began to listen and heard the sounds of the approaching trampling of horses and the sounds of voices speaking French. He opened his eyes. Above him was again the same high sky with floating clouds rising even higher, through which the blue infinity could be seen. He did not turn his head and did not see those who, judging by the sound of hooves and voices, drove up to him and stopped.
The horsemen who had arrived were Napoleon, accompanied by two adjutants. Bonaparte, circling the battlefield, gave the last orders to strengthen the batteries firing at the Augesta dam and examined the dead and wounded who remained on the battlefield.
- De beaux hommes! [Handsome!] - said Napoleon, looking at the murdered Russian grenadier, who, with his face buried in the ground and the blackened back of his head, was lying on his stomach, throwing one already numb hand far away.
- Les munitions des pieces de position sont epuisees, sire! [There are no more battery charges, your majesty!] - said at this time the adjutant, who had come from the batteries that fired at Augest.
- Faites avancer celles de la reserve, [Tell me to bring it from the reserves,] - Napoleon said, and, having driven off a few steps, he stopped over Prince Andrew, who was lying on his back with the flagstaff thrown beside him (the banner had already been taken as a trophy by the French) ...
- Voila une belle mort, [Here is a beautiful death,] - said Napoleon, looking at Bolkonsky.
Prince Andrew understood that this was said about him, and that Napoleon was speaking. He heard the name of the sire of the one who said these words. But he heard these words, as if he heard the buzzing of a fly. He not only was not interested in them, but he did not notice, and immediately forgot them. His head burned; he felt that he was emanating blood, and he saw above him the distant, high and eternal sky. He knew that it was Napoleon - his hero, but at that moment Napoleon seemed to him such a small, insignificant person in comparison with what was happening now between his soul and this high, endless sky with clouds running over it. He was absolutely all the same at that moment, whoever stood over him, whatever said about him; he was glad only that people stopped over him, and wished only that these people would help him and bring him back to life, which seemed so beautiful to him, because he understood it differently now. He gathered all his strength to move and make some sound. He feebly moved his leg and made a weak, painful groan, which had pity him, too.
- A! he is alive, - said Napoleon. - Pick up this young man, ce jeune homme, and take him to the dressing station!
Having said this, Napoleon drove on to meet Marshal Lan, who, taking off his hat, smiling and congratulating him on his victory, drove up to the emperor.
Prince Andrew did not remember anything further: he lost consciousness from the terrible pain that caused him to be put on a stretcher, tremors during movement and sounding of the wound at the dressing station. He woke up only at the end of the day, when he was connected with other Russian wounded and captured officers and carried to the hospital. On this movement, he felt somewhat refreshed and could look around and even speak.
The first words he heard when he woke up were the words of a French escort officer, who hastily said:
- We must stop here: the emperor will pass now; it will give him pleasure to see these captive masters.
“Today there are so many prisoners, almost the entire Russian army, that he is probably bored with it,” said another officer.
- Well, however! This, they say, is the commander of all the guards of Emperor Alexander, - said the first, pointing to a wounded Russian officer in a white cavalry guard uniform.
Bolkonsky recognized Prince Repnin, whom he met in the Petersburg world. Next to him stood another 19-year-old boy, also a wounded cavalry officer.
Bonaparte, rode up at a gallop, stopped the horse.
- Who is the senior? - he said when he saw the prisoners.
Colonel, Prince Repnin was named.
- Are you the commander of the cavalry regiment of Emperor Alexander? Asked Napoleon.
- I commanded a squadron, - Repnin answered.
“Your regiment has done its duty honestly,” Napoleon said.
“The praise of a great commander is the best reward for a soldier,” said Repnin.
“I will give it to you with pleasure,” Napoleon said. - Who is this young man beside you?
Prince Repnin named Lieutenant Sukhtelen.
Looking at him, Napoleon said, smiling:
- II est venu bien jeune se frotter a nous. [He appeared young to compete with us.]
“Youth doesn’t interfere with being brave,” said Sukhtelen in a broken voice.
“An excellent answer,” Napoleon said. - Young man, you will go far!

The feat of the crew of the Gorobets. Legendary tank crew of Stepan Gorobets: "Courage exceeds quantity." Number "03"

Biography

Awards

Memory

see also

Write a review on the article "Gorobets, Stepan Khristoforovich"

Notes (edit)

Literature

The documents

Links

An excerpt characterizing Gorobets, Stepan Khristoforovich