Feat Nicholas Sirotinina Bashny.Net

Summer 41 th we are not only retreating. 19-year-old boy from the Eagles fought alone with a column of German tanks.
"The Germans came up against him, as in the Brest Fortress»
Cole Sirotinin fell in 19 years to challenge the saying "One man is no man." But he did not become a legend of the Great Patriotic War, Alexander Matrosov Nikolai Gastello or.
The summer of 1941 to the Belarusian town of Krichev broke through 4th Panzer Division Heinz Guderian, one of the most talented German generals-tank. Part of the 13th Soviet army retreated. He departed not only gunner Kohl Sirotinin - a boy, a small, quiet, puny.
If you believe in the Orel essay collection "A good name," it was necessary to cover the withdrawal of troops. "There remain two people with a gun" - said the commander of the battery. Nicholas volunteered. The second was the commander himself.




On the morning of July 17 on the highway seemed a column of German tanks.
 - Nick took up a position on a hill right on the collective farm field. The gun was drowning in high rye, but it was clearly visible and the highway bridge over creek Dobrost - says Natalia Morozova, Director Krichevsky museum.
When the head tank left on the bridge, Kohl's first shot knocked him. The second shell set fire to an armored personnel carrier, bringing up the rear.
Here we have to stop. Because it is not clear so far, why Kohl stayed in one field. But the version is. He probably just had a task - to create a bridge to "plug" knocked out the lead car of the Nazis. Lieutenant at the bridge and adjust fire, and then, apparently, called on the congestion of the other German tanks fire of our artillery. Because of the river. It is known that the lieutenant was wounded and then he went in the direction of our positions. There is an assumption that Kohl had to move to his own, completing the task. But ... he had 60 rounds. And he stayed!
Two tanks tried to pull off the head tank from the bridge, but also were hit. Armored vehicle tried to overcome the river Dobrost not on the bridge. But stuck in the marshes, where it found the next round. Kohl shoot and shoot, kicking tank for tank ...
Guderian's tanks ran into a Kohl Sirotinina as in the Brest Fortress. Already burned 11 tanks and armored personnel carriers 6! The fact that more than half of them burned one Sirotinin - precisely (some got and artillery from across the river). Nearly two hours of this strange fight the Germans could not understand where entrenched Russian battery. And when they came to Colin position, in addition there are only three rounds. Offered to surrender. Kohl said firing on them from a carbine.

This last fight was short-lived ...
"Still, he was Russian, whether such admiration?»
These words of Lieutenant 4th Armored Division Henfeld wrote in his diary: "July 17, 1941. Falconer, near Krychaw. In the evening, an unknown Russian soldier buried. He was alone at the gun, shot the long column of tanks and infantry, and was killed. All were amazed at his courage ... Oberst (Colonel) in front of the tomb said that if all the soldiers fighting the Führer as the Russian, then conquered the whole world. Three times fired volleys of rifle. Still, he was Russian, whether such admiration? »
 - In the afternoon, the Germans gathered at the place where there was a gun. There also was forced to come to us, the locals - recalls Verzhbitskaya. - I like knowing the German language, the main German with orders ordered to translate. He said that since the soldiers must defend their homeland - fatherland. Then from the pocket of his tunic our dead soldier got a locket with a note from someone yes. The main German said to me: "Take and write their native language. Let the mother know what a hero was her son and how he died. " I was afraid to do it ... Then standing in the grave and covered the Soviet cape body Sirotinina German young officer pulled out a piece of paper at me and medallion and something said roughly.
The Nazis long after the funeral stood at the grave in the middle of a gun and the collective farm fields, not without admiration counting shots and hitting.

As Kohl Sirotinin appeared in a mass grave.
Today, in the village of Falconer grave, in which the Germans buried Kohl, no. Three years after the war, the remains of Coley moved into a mass grave, the field plowed and planted, a gun put into rubble. Yes, and it was called a hero just 19 years after the feat. And not even a Hero of the Soviet Union - he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War I level.
Only in 1960, employees of the Central Archive of the Soviet Army explored all the details feat. Monument to the hero also set, but ungainly, with a fake gun and just somewhere to the side.