EVGENII BESSONOV, Leutenant

One battle: In the burning village I was visible to everyone and as soon as I dove into one of the trenches, the shell exploded on the breastwork. The breastwork was swept off and private Ivanov and I were stunned. The second shell didn't follow. Perhaps, the Germans thought that we were killed.

Battle in Poland: The tank fired two shots from its heavy gun (122 mm), and one assault gun literally fell apart, while the second round penetrated two assault guns at once. I had never seen such a "miracle" before. Our way was free. Battalion advanced a bit further through the forest, enemy was nowhere to be seen. Our tanks caught up with us, we were ordered to get on the tanks, and we went on with our mission.

I LYUDNIKOV, colonel

The First Days of the War: At 3:40 we heard the gradually intensifying sound of aircraft from the west again. It was getting lighter. In five minutes we could define a group of 19 planes 2-3 km to the north. Now we saw that the planes were German. I looked through my field glasses and identified U-88 bombers with yellow and black crosses on them. They passed us by.

DANIIL ZLATKIN, Lieutenant

Part 1: The senior sergeant said: "Before you is the Degtiarev machine gun. In order to shoot you need to push this, depress here, put this on, insert this and shoot".

Part 2: You're going to Solovki for 10 days. When you return, you must know not only the inmates and what they're in for, but also the name of the cook's dog. Is that clear?

IVAN SHELEPOV, Guards Sergeant

Interview: The sounds of explosions drew closer, and it seemed to me that I heard the roar of engines - TANKS!!!

IVAN KOBETS, Captain

The story I remember their leader, an unshaven, sweaty redhead with a submachine gun on his shoulder. Having carefully taken aim, I shot at him at a range of 15-20 meters. Immediately, the entire ambush squalled with automatic fire.

Interview There were always many volunteers among the convicts. Once the convict got distinguished in action, the commander immediately applied for complete acquittal. I probably had five men like that and two of them had 10-year sentences. They were very good men.

NIKOLAI OBRYN'BA, private

In German captivity: The loading took a long time, German and Russian swearing poured, polizeis' whips struck, prisoners moaned, fell from the beam unable to take the shoving, Germans shot those too weak without pity, and so, settling near the wall in the corner, we even felt cozy, since there was no danger of being executed anymore.

VLADIMIR ZIMAKOV, Sergeant

Part I I thought, "It is over, they will smash us." But Malyshev didn't lose his nerve. While she was showing us her side, he pointed the PTR from under the track and hurled 5 bullets into her side, one after another. That was an explosion! Our Ferdinand blew to pieces--its turret, everything!

Part II But there wasn't a German who could escape such wolves as our Fomichev and Alexandrov! Nobody! No way! And it didn't matter how strong the Germans were. How did we bind them? Usual style--hands behind the back, the head taken by the hair and bent backwards, to make the German lose consciousness just for a moment. The main thing was to keep his hands away from his gun and knife.