This was the highest award for soldiers and officers in Soviet Army.
The star of a hero. Stalin didn't give them away for a song. One had to
do something really outstanding to deserve this. Something like
throwing himself under tank with grenade..
I don't have this award in my museum. No way to dig them. Only 11.270 of such medals have been issued duaring all years of
war.
2.616 of them have been given for battle of liberation of Kiev. This is more then for Stalingrad and even more then for Moskov.
Stalin was generous for a medals because he put million lives at this battle,
but mostly because he wanted Kiev to be liberated to the revolution day
of November 7.
The Soviets have been crossing all along the Dnepr river in 22
different places. The battle-ground spread on a few hundred kms. They
have been climbing up and Germans held defence on the hills. Russian
Katyusha rockets poured everyone with iron from the left bank.
German machine gunners had two directives 1) to be able to reload
cartridges 2) not to go insane of all amount of people they were
killing.
No one was going on battle fields in first ten years after war.
Mines have been removed from surface only in 1954, but not everywhere.
In areas which hard to access, they are still there and locals not a
very enthusiastic about visiting this hills.
Soldiers there too, under leaves, bones, skulls, jaw-bones... teeth
mostly good of young people. In Soviet army of those who were born in
1922 only 3 out of 100 came home from war, the rest 97 on those hills. I
believe, for German army statistic must be similar as young people the
same everywhere, do not know the value of life, have no fear and for
their regimes it was easier to fool young.
next page
|