NewSocialistMan Posted November 12, 2002 Share Posted November 12, 2002 I know the Ruskies didn't do such a good job with record keeping, but is there as source of info I can access for famous Russian tank aces? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
offtaskagain Posted November 12, 2002 Share Posted November 12, 2002 Originally posted by NewSocialistMan: I know the Ruskies didn't do such a good job with record keeping, but is there as source of info I can access for famous Russian tank aces?The only one I really hear of is Dmitriy Loza . Oddly enough he commanded lend-lease Shermans for most of his career. I'm sure there are more out there though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firefly Posted November 12, 2002 Share Posted November 12, 2002 George Forty's Tank Action highlights the following: Lt. D.F. Lavrinienko, Ist Guards Tank Brigade - destroyed 52 enemy tanks in the Battle of Moscow. Junior Technical Lt. G.I. Tulayev - broke into enemy positions at Jaraslaw, Poland, knocking out numerous stongpoints. His tank was KO'ed, but he continued fighting from the blazing wreck until reinforcements arrived. Guards Capt. Konstantin Samokhin, a battalian commander in Ist Guards Tanks Brigade, in 5 months he and his crew destroyed 69 German tanks, 48 pillboxes, 15 prime movers, 3 bowsers and 117 other vehicles. KIA 23rd February 1942. Junior Lt. (later Colonel) Alexander Oskin, knocked out 3 Tigers and captured 3 Panthers in full working order in one action on the Visutla on 12th August 1944. Captain (later Colonel) Alexei Grigovich, destroyed 4 artillery batteries, 5 mortar batteries, 10 APCs and many other weapons while leading his battalion across the River Spree. Later severley wounded in the street fighting in Berlin. Mariya Vasilyevna Okyabrkaya, one of the few female TCs, postuhumously awarded 'Heroine of the Soviet Union'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nippy Posted November 12, 2002 Share Posted November 12, 2002 I don't have the info in front of me, and they weren't "Tank Aces" per-see, but what about the famous 2 man PTRD team at Kursk that knocked out 7 tanks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewSocialistMan Posted November 13, 2002 Author Share Posted November 13, 2002 Thanks folks. Where do I find out more about Mariya Vasilyevna Okyabrkaya? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalin's Organ Posted November 13, 2002 Share Posted November 13, 2002 New Socialist Man is looking for a hot-but-deceased old socialist woman??!! [ November 12, 2002, 06:54 PM: Message edited by: Stalin's Organ ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tripps Posted November 13, 2002 Share Posted November 13, 2002 From another thread, came this link: http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/quarters/4635/tanks/kv1/kv1.htm It mentions this, as to its accuracy, I dont know: "On 19 August 1941, a platoon of four KV-1s of the 1st Tank Division succesfully ambushed a German tank column advancing near the Voiskovitsy collective farm near Leningrad. The platoon leader, Sr. Lt. Zinoviy Kolobanov, knocked out the two lead tanks in the column. The following tanks apparently did not relize what had happened and continued to move forward. Kolobanov's platoon moved into the midst of German battalion and, in the melee that followed, Kolobanov destroyed 22 German tanks, ramming at least one in the process. His tank was hit 135(!) times during the firefight. The other three KVs destroyed a total of 16 other tanks. Kolobanov's feat made him the second highest ranking Soviet tank ace of the war." Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firefly Posted November 13, 2002 Share Posted November 13, 2002 Originally posted by NewSocialistMan: Thanks folks. Where do I find out more about Mariya Vasilyevna Okyabrkaya?Well there's alway Forty's book, but as I picked it up in a remaindered book sale about 5 years ago, it may be hard to find, so I'll summarise. She was a 38 year old housewife, whose husband, a regimental commissar, and two young children were killed in the initial German attack. She started a fund drive in her locality to pay for the construction of a tank and wrote to Stalin asking to be allowed to serve in the tank. Stalin, no doubt seeing the propaganda value of this, consented and she underwent the same training as male tankers and was initially a driver of the tank which was named 'Maria's Tank'. She became something of a mother figure to her crew, who were all substantially younger. She was wounded when attempting to repair a broken track under enemy fire and was awarded the 'Order of the Great Patriotic War'. She was later promoted to Tank Commander and fought on until she was badly wounded after knocking out two guns in an action near Krynka on 18th January 1944, she died from her wounds two months later. She is buried in the 'Wall of Glory' in Smolensk. Her first name seems to be transliterated as both Mariya and Maria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewSocialistMan Posted November 13, 2002 Author Share Posted November 13, 2002 Holy Crap! Loza had to have balls as big as the Kremlin spires. Did you read his solution to dealing with Tigers? One tank shoots the tread, causing the Tiger to go into a turn. The other then shoots the fuel cell. Balls and true combat tactics. I'm impressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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