The reels of “Yauza” are slowly turning, the deaf voice of my still very vigorous grandfather tells about interesting events during the war. He never tells about fights, and sometimes he breaks through stories about him, mostly after meeting with brother-soldiers, and when there is at least half a liter of 40-degree transparent drink in it. My grandfather received an officer rank after graduation just before the war, and he had to specifically "smell gunpowder." But this story is almost a peaceful period. Nearly...

- ... In the spring of 1943, our division was taken to the rear near Moscow for re-formation and recruitment, after the "successful" assaults by Zhukov of the so-called "Rzhevskoy bulge." No wonder he had the nickname "Butcher", he was ready to fight, as they say - until the last soldier. So there was only one platoon left from my company. I finally got the rank of lieutenant and, as my highly experienced foreman said, now I will go like clockwork. Well, it happened with his light hand, although in general his hand is strong, he “thoughtfully” could explain to many recruits what to do and how. And, no matter how ridiculous, it was here, in the rear, that I was able to earn my first awards and my first prize, earned in almost combat conditions.
One fine spring day, we with my foreman and with the remnants of the fighters of my company dismantled the captured weapon, cleaned it and lubricated, no matter how ridiculous - for putting it into warehouses. Then there were a lot of stupid and idiotic orders for the army, but this one was deputy. Commissar of Defense, a little beyond stupidity. According to this order, it was necessary to deliver all captured weapons to warehouses and in no case use or praise them - the change was under the control of special departments so that there was no “praise of the enemy’s weapons”. This idiocy is mentioned in the novel “The Living and the Dead” - they loaded all the captured weapons on cars and sent them to the rear, while they themselves went to re-form unarmed - the Nazis captured their own weapons, and there were no cartridges for the cash. Zutswang full!

And then one of Guderian’s tank divisions broke through and the Germans were very happy - our brave warriors were just helpless, because you don’t really fight with tobacco pouches! That's how it happened. And you will be taken prisoner thanks to the bungling of the generals, so he himself is to blame! And the order must be carried out! And given the loss of many warehouses with our weapons as a result of a stormy and even panic retreat in the year 41 of our glorious Red Army - the order is doubly idiotic! What difference does it make with what weapon you will smash the enemy - with English Bren, with our RPD or with an accurate shot from the German K98 carbine? But to argue in those days with political directors, transferred to the camp of special forces, and even in those times - just deadly!

So, after a modest breakfast at the rear rate, after which you want to eat even more, we stand with Sergeant Ivanchenko near the improvised weapons table and, explaining the disassembly / assembly system to our veterans and recruits, finished assembling the excellent German MG-34 machine gun. The fighters of my company were already well versed in weapons and were also very quietly wondering why you couldn’t shoot at the fascists from this successful creation of the gloomy German genius - high rate of fire, quick barrel replacement, and convenience when shooting. The foreman even inserted a ribbon out of the box, I was very impatient to shoot, especially since it was a very successful single machine gun of the Wehrmacht - it was possible to shoot from it with hands, and with bipods and from the machine. Yes, and zinc with ribbons full!

True, we with the foreman at the same time, but the guys of our company, were very distracted by our company nurse, a bright blonde and beauty Lidochka. She went to the army after the third year of medical institute, the reason is very prosaic - it was hungry in the rear, and it was time to get married, and in the rear only women and people with disabilities.Lidochka very well shot her beautiful eyes at me and the foreman, it was not without reason that the Voroshilovsky shooter icon lay almost horizontally on her chest. Many gentle men's hearts were “shot through” by the fire of her eyes, but she preferred no one. And how many wanted to stroke this icon!

I admire the beautiful eyes of Lidochka, hardly dodging the arrows of Cupid, and here I see that the wonderful eyes of Lidochka have become very large, almost like a saucer in the dining room. And her mouth with an excitable-puffy lips suddenly became in the form of the letter "O". I turn sharply around - a big ardent greeting from the Reich! The German landing on gliders is why we did not hear them. As I later learned, this was the beginning of the operation of the German General Staff, the so-called OKW, on the eve of the attack on the Kursk Bulge - “Strike on the headquarters”.
Everyone was dumbfounded and I knew for sure - we need a loud, clear order, otherwise panic! As Lidochka told me later, she was shocked and was very surprised that I was not scared at all, but behaved calmly, but roared loudly, so much so that everyone literally started and sharply withdrew from the shock:

- Fire on fascist gangsters! Shoot to kill! Who will miss - under the tribunal! Death to the German invaders!
And to Lidochka, I growled a little more quietly, through clenched teeth, “For my back! Quickly"! Actually, I snarled like that because she had blocked her huge breasts with a sector of shelling for me and strongly interfered with her flicker, but she thought that I, like a real hero-hero, covered her with my chest. She jumped behind my back and, hugging her tightly, pressed to her back.

Here is a scoundrel - so he excites me with his elastic chest, and here the glider flies right at us, sat down about twenty meters in front of us, Lidochka even choked back. We were saved by the fact that I immediately opened fire, and the German paratroopers did not manage to jump out of the glider. They are strong and experienced warriors, but ... we have not left any chances for them, not one! Time seemed to stop, and I myself, marveling that I was so calm, apparently just did not have time to be frightened, brought the trunk of the MG through the airframe of a glider.

I pressed down the fuse key and pressed a comfortable descent. The obedient mechanism worked out, the shutter tightly locked the first 7-caliber cartridge with 92 lugs and the striker’s sharp strong sting pierced the thin copper bottom of the capsule, breaking the tablet of rattling mercury inside. Mercury flashed an evil light, which flew into the belly of the liner, where it was dozing, waiting for its time, strong ground powder. Poroshinki briskly flashed and turned into hot gas, now squeezed in a sleeve, like a genie in a fairy-tale jug. Instantly spit out by an incredible force of hot gas, a German caliber bullet slammed into the rifling rifles and, unwinding, rushed forward faster than the speed of sound, looking for the desired target in mouse-colored uniforms, literally tearing off their powerful bodies with the power of hot lead and my indomitable rage - we are only agreed with Lidochka to walk to the river, and here it is! The lineup almost at close range swept the trained bodies of paratroopers in field uniforms across the cabin with broken dolls.

Nearby, the carbines of my incomplete company rumbled incessantly and German bullets raged angrily towards the second glider. The foreman quickly stuck the second ribbon into the receiver of the machine gun and the iron broom of the hot metal literally swept away the evil in the cabin, and the pilot of the glider literally tore it apart.
The sudden silence literally struck the ears, only crackled softly, cooling down, the trunk of the MG who saved us, all stopped, moving away from much stress. And in this silence we saw two figures with raised arms - “Niht Schissen!”, Well, here are the “tongues” for the intelligence department, and I ordered the two soldiers to bring the prisoners. I stood proud and adamant, like Ilya Muromets, who defeated the enemies, but then the foreman diplomatically advised me to collect trophies quickly before the staff "heroes" flew in and did not take everything away. And then Lidochka confused me a bit, holding her tightly and, clinging tightly to her impressive chest, whispered loudly:
- Saved me! Shut your body! You are my hero! Adore you!

The foreman mocked sarcastically and reported that the trophies had been collected. The most valuable thing turned out that in the containers dropped from the big-bellied “Junkers”, the so-called “Auntie U”, after the gliders were ... Read more →