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Viktor Leonov

I spoke to the Germans in Russian

- Our unit, operating behind the enemy lines, was always outnumbered, and enemy always had an edge over us in hardware - Leonov says, - but we always won hand-to hand fights. Neither Germans nor Japanese acted as decisively as we did... The law of psychology is - in a fight one of the opponents eventually gives up.

One of the most celebrated operations of Leonov�s unit is taking 3500 Japanese soldiers and officers prisoners in Korean port of Vonsan.

- We were 140 fighters. Unexpectedly for the enemy we landed on the Japanese airfield and started talks. 10 of us, reresentaives, were taken to a Japanese colonel�s headquarters - a commander to the Japanese air force unit, who wanted to take us hostages. I joined conversation when I felt that the captain 3rd rank Kulebyakin, representative of our command, was, as they say, driven into a corner. Looking the Japanese straight into eyes I said that we�ve been fighting in the West throughout the whole war and had enough experience to evaluate the situation, and that we were not going to be hostages. We would rather die - not alone, but with all those in the HQ building, I said. The only difference, I said, is that you would die like rats, and we would try to break out of here. Mitya Sokolov, a Hero of Soviet Union, right away stood behind the Japanese colonel�s chair, the other guys also knew what to do. Andrey Pshenichnych locked the door, put the key in his pocket and sat on a chair, and Volodya Olyashin (professional sportsman after the war) lifted Andrey together with the chair and put him right in front of the colonel. Ivan Guzenkov walked to the window and reported that we were not too high, and the Hero of Soviet Union Semen Agafonov, standing at the door, started to toss up an anti-tank grenade in the air. The Japanese, however, did not know the grenade was missing a fuse. The colonel, having forgotten the handkerchief, started to wipe off sweat from his forehead with hand, and after a while has signed an order for the garrison to surrender.

- We formed the 3500 prisoners up in a column, eight people in a line. At that point they were running to fulfill my orders. We didn�t have anybody to escort such a large formation, so I had the colonel and his chief of staff in my car. I said: "If a single soldier tries to escape, you will only have yourselves to blame..." By the time we�ve encountered friendly troops, there were almost 5,000 Japanese soldiers in the column.

Senior seaman Viktor Leonov was awarded with the medal "For Bravery" after the fighting in summer 1941, in which he was heavily wounded by a mine fragment. After the very first fight, when his friend (they joined the unit together) was killed, Leonov started to think - how to go on in the war?

In fall of 1942 our raid against German garrison on cape Mogilny, which was spotting our planes and ships, started very unsuccessfully. Both commanding and the political officers of the supporting infantry unit have been later court-martialed and executed for sloppiness and negligence. Petty officer 2nd grade Leonov led the assault of a small group of scouts. The assault was successful, the German strong point was destroyed, but 15 marines ended up pinned down on a small spot (the widest part of the cape was less than 150 metres). German Gebirgsjaegers surrounded them by a double ring, cutting off the retreat routs by 2 machine guns; the rocks were cracking from mortar shelling.

The Germans were in a hurry to finish the job before darkness, as one of the marines, which knew German, heard. Marines were running out of ammo. One of them, shouting, "That�s it! We can�t make it out of here!" - blew himself up with a hand grenade. Another one wanted to do the same... "You coward! Drop the grenade or I shoot you!" - Leonov ordered.

- We were pinned down by those two machine guns, which were firing all the time. I had to do something. I jumped up and fired the last bullets at the rock, which the machine-gunners were using for cover. I wanted them to duck for cover, stop firing. And one of our best men, Semen Agafonov rushed towards the rock, which was some 20 metres away. He managed to jump on the rock and from the rock he crushed on Germans. When I, wounded in a leg, made it to the scene, one machine-gunner was already dead, and Semen was rolling on the ground wrestling with the other two. I hit the Germans in the heads one after another with a butt-stock. We seized those machine guns and broke out.

Agafonov was believed to be fearless. When asked about this episode, he would say with laughter that when he saw from the stone, that the Germans' hands were shaking, he realized that they would miss if they shot. But when talking to his close friends, he confessed that the moment he received the order from Leonov, he thought that his career in the war was over... everybody was experiencing fear, but one had to act promptly.

- After that Yuri Micheev blew up a German bunker with an amazingly precise, long-range grenade-pack throw at some 20 metres range. That was the last grenade pack we had. The grenades were still in the air, and Yuri was already dead, cut down by a machine gun. But we broke through the second line and proceeded to the shore through a canyon. Heavy snowfall hid our footprints. Agafonov was covering the retreat, he had three bullets in his pistol, and I had few also... We hid ourselves in bushes at the shore, several times a line of German Gebirgsjaegers was passing right by us, and we were hiding and holding hands on knives� hilts. We were waiting for ships to pick us up for a long time, eventually two vessels have arrived, noticed our signs and picked us up from Mogilny.

Leonov was promoted to the rank of junior lieutenant, was appointed the unit�s political officer and later the commander of the unit. He received his first Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union for the unit�s largest operation carried out in November 1944. Prior to the beginning of the major offensive in the North, the unit was ordered to destroy German strong point of strategic importance on cape Krestovy.

- That time we didn�t manage to catch the enemy napping. The very last moment, when we were in some 30 or 40 metres from German bunkers, their alarm system went off, Germans spotted us and opened fire on us from machine guns and cannons. The whole scene was illuminated, and we had a strong barbed wire obstacle in front of us. I gave the order: do what you can in this situation, operate in small groups, but in one minute I want you all on that battery.

- Ivan Lysenko, from Urals, a wrestling champion, the strongest man in the unit was the one who saved us from heavy losses. He tore the hedgehog that was holding the barbed wire out of the ground and lifted it on his shoulders. We rushed into the passage that he made. When Lysenko could no longer stand - more than twenty bullets hit him - our medic Alexey Lupov helped him (don�t look for any cynical irony - he helped to hold the hedgehog). They both died, but we made it to the covering battery and, having captured the guns, opened fire on the enemy, as we knew German hardware pretty well.

- The enemy sensed our power. I remember, in the very beginning of the war we captured a German officer. I had already changed my clothes. And I saw our intelligence officer running out of the room, where they were interrogating the German, and he said to me: "What a jerk! He doesn�t say a thing, he�s just laughing at us". I answered: "He�s gonna talk..." I went and changed back to the uniforms that I had on when capturing the guy. I walked into the room and saw the German sitting with his legs crossed and smoking. I told the translator: "tell this bastard (I think he actually used a stronger word - Valera), that these admirals are leaving soon, and it�s OK if they don�t find out what they want, but he�s gonna stay alone with me." Then I just turned around and walked out of the room. And the German started to speak... I spoke to Germans in Russian, and they could understand me better than they could understand others in German.

- Admiral Golovko has issued an order - "The unit commander has a right to select his own scouts". So they couldn�t appoint anyone into my unit. I had good connections with personnel department, and they were sending guys that kind of fit. I interviewed them, and observed, how they reacted to my questions. The most crucial thing for me was an interviewee�s hands and eyes. When you look at person�s hands, you have insight into his psychological condition, his personality. I wanted guys with hands not grabbing anything, being ready for action and calm at the same time...

- And my first order after I became the unit�s commander, was to keep the representative of Special Department (NKVD officer) out of the unit. Because otherwise it would be like this: we come back from a raid, and he sits in the office, and starts scrutinizing all the guys one by one, how the others behaved during the raid... If you want to find out - just join us, in the fight everyone is transparent. After that came the second order. By that time I have known almost all the informers in the unit, because they were recruiting me too and I said "no" to the deal. I gathered them all, and told them: "Write whatever you want, think up of any possible illnesses, but I want all of you out of here in 24 hours". This is how I got rid of them. After that the member of the Military Council told me: "They arrest you any time soon". I answered: "And what are you here for?" He said: "They can make decisions over my head." And I knew - this is how these guys put Lunin, later a famous submarine captain, to jail. I said: "I don�t need you to protect me, just tell me when it�s about time and drop me in Norway, I can command my unit from there - let them try to get me out there..." He just laughed and said: "Wow, you�re quite an adventurist." But when the unit needed help, he did his best.

- Actually, we were all one family. Like we carried Lieutenant Fedor Shelavin from cape Mogilny...He was the reason why we stayed there; he had both of his legs wounded. He wanted to shoot himself to loosen our hands. But I knew - if we abandoned Shelavin, the next raid someone would have had a thought: "that�s it, if we�ve abandoned a wounded commanding officer, I would be abandoned for sure." If this thought gets into soldier�s head, he can�t fight, he�s not a real fighter anymore. This thought will persecute and depress you, whether you want it or not.

From the day Leonov became a commander and till the end of the war the unit had 9 KIA�s, seven of them - at the barbed wire obstacle on cape Krestovy.

- I always hated to lose people. Ask anyone: they all knew I would fight for every person�s life till the end.