Panzer Destroyer by Vasiliy Krysov

Author:Vasiliy Krysov
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Panzer Destroyer
ISBN: 9781844159512
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2010-08-19T04:00:00+00:00

Breaking Through to Our Lines

It grew dark and the self-propelled gun slowly headed north-east towards Fastov along back roads well known to Vasiliy Shimchenko. The wounded men lay behind the superstructure, while the rest were clinging to the brackets attached to the armour for tank riders. Valeriy and I were standing upright in the hatch on the commander’s and gunloader’s seats. He was with the MG-42, while I had the ten remaining grenades handy. We raced through two German-occupied settlements at full speed, firing fiercely from all submachine-guns and the machine gun. Both times the Germans were surprised and slow to react, opening fire only when we were already distant.

Once it grew light, we quietly parked in a patch of woods. We shared whatever food we had with each other. When it became dark again, we resumed our movement. We avoided villages and main roads so as to avoid encounters with enemy tanks. We had virtually nothing left to use against them: we were down to three shells. Nevertheless, no matter how careful we were, as we approached the road between Kozhanka and Dmitrievka, we almost bumped into a large enemy tank column moving across our path. The night saved us – thank God, they didn’t notice us. Hiding in some tall vegetation about 200 metres away, we watched as the long caravan of German vehicles rolled past with switched-on lights - tanks, assault guns, trucks, cars, artillery tractors and armoured personnel carriers. Rearguard units would likely be following the column at a distance of 2-3 kilometres – as a rule they consisted of tanks and motorized infantry, so we would have to slip across the road before their arrival. We had only a little bit of time!

‘Everyone, prepare for action! Driver, push on!’ I issued the command and the self-propelled gun began to converge on the tail-end of the enemy column.

Leaping out onto the high road, the tank destroyer cut into the column, isolating its tail-end vehicles carrying infantry. The Germans had not anticipated any threat. A storm of machine-gun and submachine-gun fire opened up, and with hand grenades and ramming by the self-propelled gun, we quickly over-whelmed the enemy. During these tragic minutes for the enemy, not a single shot was fired on our group! Some of the vehicles moving ahead of the tail stopped, but didn’t turn around or fire on us. Most likely, they couldn’t understand what was happening behind them. Then, however, enemy flares streaked into the sky – it was a signal for action. Too late! Literally within two minutes we had already disappeared into the forest and out of reach of the foe.

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