![]() ![]() On January 15, the Germans sent Polovchenya’s T-34 to Andreapol, while the crew inside continued to keep dead silence.Īt 5am the next morning, the Soviet tank attempted a breakthrough. ![]() Polovchenya ordered his crew not to make a sound, although that was very hard to do in such cold in the completely frozen T-34.Īlthough the Germans couldn’t open the hatch, they decided the tank had been abandoned and dragged it out of the water. The crew was waiting for support when the Germans arrived and surrounded the tank. A surprise breakthroughĭuring the harsh winter of 1942, a T-34 led by Captain Gavriil Polovchenya got stuck in a river near the town of Andreapol. To reach his own troops, he drove his tank under heavy fire right across the city center, full of Germans, smashing an artillery gun and ramming an enemy tank along the way.įinally, the burning T-34, full of holes made by enemy shells, with a broken gun, reached the positions of the surprised Soviet soldiers, who greeted the crew as heroes. There, the tank commander realized he was alone, and no support from other tanks would come. Stunned by the audacity of the lone Soviet tank, the Germans, bewitched, watched how the T-34 destroyed two Junkers 87 planes and fuel supplies, and then moved on towards Kalinin. Due to a radio failure, the tank crew had no idea that their brigade had been stopped by an air attack and that Gorobets was moving towards the enemy positions absolutely alone.Īfter Gorobets’ T-34 had destroyed a motorcycle column on its way, it suddenly appeared on the German airfield. The tanks were ordered to make a raid in the enemy rear, circumvent the city and reach their own troops.ĭuring the raid, one T-34 tank commanded by Sergeant Stepan Gorobets lost the main group. On October 17, 1941, the Soviet 21st Tank Brigade appeared on the outskirts of Kalinin (Tver), occupied by the Wehrmacht. ![]()
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