The first separate experimental rocket artillery battery
- Battle of Smolensk (1941)
Ivan Andreevich Flerov(April 24 - October 7) - Hero of the Russian Federation (), commander of the first separate experimental battery of rocket artillery in the Red Army, captain.
From the first days of the Great Patriotic War he took part in battles. On the Western Front he commanded a separate experimental rocket artillery battery using BM-13 (Katyusha) rocket launchers. The BM-13 mounts were first tested in combat conditions at 10 a.m. on July 14, 1941, when shelling enemy troops and equipment in the city of Rudnya, supporting the defending units of the Red Army. On July 16, they showed high efficiency in destroying unevacuated Soviet trains at the railway junction of the city of Orsha. On October 7, 1941, Captain Flerov, being surrounded and seriously wounded, blew himself up along with the main launcher.
Biography
early years
In the ranks of the Red Army
After the end of hostilities, he returned to study at the academy. Lived in the city of Balashikha, Moscow region.
During the Great Patriotic War
In the first days of the war, Captain Flerov, at the suggestion of the head of the academy, Major General Govorov, was appointed commander of the first special reactive battery in the Red Army. On July 3, the battery, armed with seven experimental NII-3 BM-13 combat vehicles (later called "Katyusha") and one 152-mm howitzer, used as a sighting gun, was sent to the Western Front.
In addition, the battery included 1 passenger car, 44 trucks for transporting 768 M-13 rockets, 100 projectiles for a howitzer, an entrenching tool, three refills of fuel and lubricants, seven daily food allowances and other property. The battery's personnel consisted of 198 people (46 people came out of the encirclement).
On the night of July 3 (4), 1941, from Moscow along the Mozhaisk Highway, the battery of Captain I. A. Flerov went to the front along the route: Moscow-Yartsevo-Smolensk-Orsha. Two days later (July 6), the battery arrived at the site and became part of the front-line units of the Western Front. On July 13, she was at the Orsha front. In the period from July 13 to July 20, she became part of the 20th Army of the Western Front. On August 7, she was again withdrawn to the units of front-line subordination of the Western Front and on the same day was sent to the 24th Army of the Reserve Front at the request of the Reserve Commander Front Zhukov and on the basis of the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Western Direction Timoshenko. During the period August 7-15, 2 experimental installations failed and were sent to Moscow for repairs. By August 21, all the remaining 5 experimental installations were also faulty and by September 1 they were replaced by 4 new, serial ones.
"At 15:00 on July 14, 1941, Captain Flerov gave the command to open fire. Seven BM-13 launchers struck a concentration of fascist manpower and tanks in the Orsha area. In seven to eight seconds, the battery fired 112 rockets. The railway junction was wiped off the face of the earth. At 16:45 a second salvo was fired at the crossing of the Orshitsa River."- With the second salvo, the battery tried to destroy the pontoon bridge across the Dnieper River, which was not blown up by our sappers. The temporary bridge was located between the destroyed road bridge in Orsha and the railway bridge 4 km south of Orsha. The bridge survived.
Another version says that at 10 a.m. on July 14, 1941, Captain Flerov’s battery first covered with fire a concentration of German troops on the Market Square in the city of Rudnya. There were still 5 hours left before the aforementioned salvo at the Orsha railway station and about 140 kilometers to the new position. However, Orsha then had its own Red Army units and its own echelons. After all, before July 16, 1941, not a single German soldier had yet entered the city. (See the publication of the Institute of Military History of the USSR Ministry of Defense and the Central Archive of the USSR Ministry of Defense “Liberation of Cities”, M., Voenizdat, 1985, p. 179) And not a single German train was at the Orsha station, neither 14, nor 15, nor 16 July. After capturing each station, the Germans needed first of all to remake the railway tracks to a narrower European standard. Yes, not on July 14, but on July 16, 1941, two days after the baptism of fire in Rudna, Captain Flerov’s battery really wiped out the Orsha railway station from the face of the earth, but together with Soviet trains, whose cargo, primarily fuel tanks, should not have been get to the enemy. This is the version outlined in more detail by the historian of the Second World War - a witness to the first volleys of Katyushas at 10 a.m. on July 14, 1941 in Rudna - Andrei Sapronov // in the newspaper "Russia" No. 23 dated June 21-27, 2001 and in the "Parliamentary newspaper" No. 80 dated May 5, 2005 //.
On July 19, it fired three salvos into the city of Rudna, when the battalion of the 5th Infantry Division relieved the 12th Panzer Division. The losses of the 5th Infantry Division amounted to 11 people killed and 60 people wounded. On July 20-22, it operated along the Moscow-Minsk highway in the area of Sloboda, Ershi-Nevishche, Ershi-Pustosh, Kuprino. On August 5, the battery left the Smolensk cauldron. The last salvo as part of the Western Front units was fired at 10:00 on August 7 near Pnevo, covering the crossing of Soviet troops. The battery as part of the 42nd separate artillery division took part in the battles near Yelnya and Roslavl.
On October 2, Flerov’s battery found itself semi-surrounded, cut off from the east by Guderian’s tank wedge. On October 7, the Vyazemsky cauldron was closed near the city of Vyazma. The batteries traveled more than 150 kilometers and did everything possible to save the battery and break through to their own. When the fuel ran out, Flerov ordered the installations to be charged and the remaining missiles and most of the transport vehicles to be blown up.
On the night of October 7, a convoy of battery vehicles was ambushed near the village of Bogatyri (Znamensky district, Smolensk region). Finding themselves in a hopeless situation, the battery personnel took up the fight. Under heavy fire they blew up the cars. Many of them died. Being seriously wounded, the commander blew himself up along with the main launcher. He was buried in the Smolensk region, Ugransky district, Bogatyr village.
Awards
- Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (posthumous)
- Medal "Gold Star" of the Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously)
Memory
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Excerpt characterizing Flerov, Ivan Andreevich
- I won’t sleep anyway. What nonsense is it to sleep? Mom, mom, this has never happened to me! - she said with surprise and fear at the feeling that she recognized in herself. – And could we think!...It seemed to Natasha that even when she first saw Prince Andrey in Otradnoye, she fell in love with him. She seemed to be frightened by this strange, unexpected happiness, that the one whom she had chosen back then (she was firmly convinced of this), that the same one had now met her again, and, it seemed, was not indifferent to her. “And he had to come to St. Petersburg on purpose now that we are here. And we had to meet at this ball. It's all fate. It is clear that this is fate, that all this was leading to this. Even then, as soon as I saw him, I felt something special.”
- What else did he tell you? What verses are these? Read... - the mother said thoughtfully, asking about the poems that Prince Andrei wrote in Natasha’s album.
“Mom, isn’t it a shame that he’s a widower?”
- That's enough, Natasha. Pray to God. Les Marieiages se font dans les cieux. [Marriages are made in heaven.]
- Darling, mother, how I love you, how good it makes me feel! – Natasha shouted, crying tears of happiness and excitement and hugging her mother.
At the same time, Prince Andrei was sitting with Pierre and telling him about his love for Natasha and his firm intention to marry her.
On this day, Countess Elena Vasilyevna had a reception, there was a French envoy, there was a prince, who had recently become a frequent visitor to the countess’s house, and many brilliant ladies and men. Pierre was downstairs, walked through the halls, and amazed all the guests with his concentrated, absent-minded and gloomy appearance.
Since the time of the ball, Pierre had felt the approaching attacks of hypochondria and with desperate effort tried to fight against them. From the time the prince became close to his wife, Pierre was unexpectedly granted a chamberlain, and from that time on he began to feel heaviness and shame in large society, and more often the old gloomy thoughts about the futility of everything human began to come to him. At the same time, the feeling he noticed between Natasha, whom he protected, and Prince Andrei, the contrast between his position and the position of his friend, further intensified this gloomy mood. He equally tried to avoid thoughts about his wife and about Natasha and Prince Andrei. Again everything seemed insignificant to him in comparison with eternity, again the question presented itself: “why?” And he forced himself to work day and night on Masonic works, hoping to ward off the approach of the evil spirit. Pierre, at 12 o'clock, having left the countess's chambers, was sitting upstairs in a smoky, low room, in a worn dressing gown in front of the table, copying out authentic Scottish acts, when someone entered his room. It was Prince Andrei.
“Oh, it’s you,” said Pierre with an absent-minded and dissatisfied look. “And I’m working,” he said, pointing to a notebook with that look of salvation from the hardships of life with which unhappy people look at their work.
Prince Andrei, with a radiant, enthusiastic face and renewed life, stopped in front of Pierre and, not noticing his sad face, smiled at him with the egoism of happiness.
“Well, my soul,” he said, “yesterday I wanted to tell you and today I came to you for this.” I've never experienced anything like it. I'm in love, my friend.
Pierre suddenly sighed heavily and collapsed with his heavy body on the sofa, next to Prince Andrei.
- To Natasha Rostova, right? - he said.
- Yes, yes, who? I would never believe it, but this feeling is stronger than me. Yesterday I suffered, I suffered, but I wouldn’t give up this torment for anything in the world. I haven't lived before. Now only I live, but I cannot live without her. But can she love me?... I'm too old for her... What aren't you saying?...
- I? I? “What did I tell you,” Pierre suddenly said, getting up and starting to walk around the room. - I always thought this... This girl is such a treasure, such... This is a rare girl... Dear friend, I ask you, don’t get smart, don’t doubt, get married, get married and get married... And I’m sure that there will be no happier person than you.
- But she!
- She loves you.
“Don’t talk nonsense...” said Prince Andrei, smiling and looking into Pierre’s eyes.
“He loves me, I know,” Pierre shouted angrily.
“No, listen,” said Prince Andrei, stopping him by the hand. – Do you know what situation I’m in? I need to tell everything to someone.
“Well, well, say, I’m very glad,” said Pierre, and indeed his face changed, the wrinkles smoothed out, and he joyfully listened to Prince Andrei. Prince Andrei seemed and was a completely different, new person. Where was his melancholy, his contempt for life, his disappointment? Pierre was the only person to whom he dared to speak; but he expressed to him everything that was in his soul. Either he easily and boldly made plans for a long future, talked about how he could not sacrifice his happiness for the whim of his father, how he would force his father to agree to this marriage and love her or do without his consent, then he was surprised how something strange, alien, independent of him, influenced by the feeling that possessed him.
“I wouldn’t believe anyone who told me that I could love like that,” said Prince Andrei. “This is not at all the feeling that I had before.” The whole world is divided for me into two halves: one - she and there is all the happiness of hope, light; the other half is everything where she is not there, there is all despondency and darkness...
“Darkness and gloom,” Pierre repeated, “yes, yes, I understand that.”
– I can’t help but love the world, it’s not my fault. And I'm very happy. You understand me? I know you're happy for me.
“Yes, yes,” Pierre confirmed, looking at his friend with tender and sad eyes. The brighter the fate of Prince Andrei seemed to him, the darker his own seemed.
To get married, the consent of the father was needed, and for this, the next day, Prince Andrei went to his father.
The father, with outward calm but inner anger, accepted his son’s message. He could not understand that anyone would want to change life, to introduce something new into it, when life was already ending for him. “If only they would let me live the way I want, and then we would do what we wanted,” the old man said to himself. With his son, however, he used the diplomacy that he used on important occasions. Taking a calm tone, he discussed the whole matter.
Firstly, the marriage was not brilliant in terms of kinship, wealth and nobility. Secondly, Prince Andrei was not in his first youth and was in poor health (the old man was especially careful about this), and she was very young. Thirdly, there was a son whom it was a pity to give to the girl. Fourthly, finally,” said the father, looking mockingly at his son, “I ask you, postpone the matter for a year, go abroad, get treatment, find, as you want, a German for Prince Nikolai, and then, if it’s love, passion, stubbornness, whatever you want, so great, then get married.
“And this is my last word, you know, my last...” the prince finished in a tone that showed that nothing would force him to change his decision.
Prince Andrei clearly saw that the old man hoped that the feeling of him or his future bride would not withstand the test of the year, or that he himself, the old prince, would die by this time, and decided to fulfill his father’s will: to propose and postpone the wedding for a year.
Three weeks after his last evening with the Rostovs, Prince Andrei returned to St. Petersburg.
The next day after her explanation with her mother, Natasha waited the whole day for Bolkonsky, but he did not come. The next, third day the same thing happened. Pierre also did not come, and Natasha, not knowing that Prince Andrei had gone to his father, could not explain his absence.
Three weeks passed like this. Natasha did not want to go anywhere and, like a shadow, idle and sad, she walked from room to room, cried secretly from everyone in the evening and did not appear to her mother in the evenings. She was constantly blushing and irritated. It seemed to her that everyone knew about her disappointment, laughed and felt sorry for her. With all the strength of her inner grief, this vain grief intensified her misfortune.
One day she came to the countess, wanted to tell her something, and suddenly began to cry. Her tears were the tears of an offended child who himself does not know why he is being punished.
The Countess began to calm Natasha down. Natasha, who had been listening at first to her mother’s words, suddenly interrupted her:
- Stop it, mom, I don’t think, and I don’t want to think! So, I traveled and stopped, and stopped...
Her voice trembled, she almost cried, but she recovered and calmly continued: “And I don’t want to get married at all.” And I'm afraid of him; I have now completely, completely calmed down...
The next day after this conversation, Natasha put on that old dress, which she was especially famous for the cheerfulness it brought in the morning, and in the morning she began her old way of life, from which she had fallen behind after the ball. After drinking tea, she went to the hall, which she especially loved for its strong resonance, and began to sing her solfeges (singing exercises). Having finished the first lesson, she stopped in the middle of the hall and repeated one musical phrase that she especially liked. She listened joyfully to the (as if unexpected for her) charm with which these shimmering sounds filled the entire emptiness of the hall and slowly froze, and she suddenly felt cheerful. “It’s good to think about it so much,” she said to herself and began to walk back and forth around the hall, not walking with simple steps on the ringing parquet floor, but at every step shifting from heel (she was wearing her new, favorite shoes) to toe, and just as joyfully as I listen to the sounds of my own voice, listening to this measured clatter of a heel and the creaking of a sock. Passing by the mirror, she looked into it. - "Here I am!" as if the expression on her face when she saw herself spoke. - “Well, that’s good. And I don’t need anyone.”
The footman wanted to enter to clean something in the hall, but she did not let him in, again closing the door behind him, and continued her walk. This morning she returned again to her favorite state of self-love and admiration for herself. - “What a charm this Natasha is!” she said again to herself in the words of some third, collective, male person. “She’s good, she has a voice, she’s young, and she doesn’t bother anyone, just leave her alone.” But no matter how much they left her alone, she could no longer be calm and she immediately felt it.
The entrance door opened in the hallway, and someone asked: “Are you at home?” and someone's steps were heard. Natasha looked in the mirror, but she did not see herself. She listened to sounds in the hall. When she saw herself, her face was pale. It was he. She knew this for sure, although she barely heard the sound of his voice from the closed doors.
Natasha, pale and frightened, ran into the living room.
- Mom, Bolkonsky has arrived! - she said. - Mom, this is terrible, this is unbearable! – I don’t want... to suffer! What should I do?…
Before the countess even had time to answer her, Prince Andrei entered the living room with an anxious and serious face. As soon as he saw Natasha, his face lit up. He kissed the hand of the Countess and Natasha and sat down near the sofa.
“We haven’t had the pleasure for a long time...” the countess began, but Prince Andrei interrupted her, answering her question and obviously in a hurry to say what he needed.
“I wasn’t with you all this time because I was with my father: I needed to talk to him about a very important matter.” “I just returned last night,” he said, looking at Natasha. “I need to talk to you, Countess,” he added after a moment of silence.
The Countess, sighing heavily, lowered her eyes.
“I am at your service,” she said.
Natasha knew that she had to leave, but she could not do it: something was squeezing her throat, and she looked discourteously, directly, with open eyes at Prince Andrei.
"Now? This minute!... No, this can’t be!” she thought.
He looked at her again, and this look convinced her that she was not mistaken. “Yes, now, this very minute, her fate was being decided.”
Hero of the Russian Federation, senior lieutenant
Born on April 6, 1905 (March 24, old style) in the village of Dvurechki, Gryazinsky district.
Since 1932, Flerov’s life has been connected with the army. During military operations on the Karelian Isthmus in 1939-1940, Senior Lieutenant Flerov commanded an artillery battery. For heroism and courage he was awarded the Order of the Red Star. During these years, he became a student at the Military Artillery Academy named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky.
On the sixth day of the Great Patriotic War, Flerov was appointed commander of the Separate Experimental Artillery Battery of the RGK. Within a few days, the first battery of field rocket artillery was formed in Moscow under the command of Captain I. A. Flerov. It was armed with seven BM-13 installations. On July 2, the battery left the capital for the front - towards the Smolensk direction.
On July 14, 1941, the first battery of rocket launchers in the Red Army under the command of Captain Flerov struck a concentration of enemy troops and equipment at the Orsha railway station. During his three months at the front, Captain Flerov's battery inflicted enormous damage on the Nazis. “...On the Eastern Front, the Russians acquired unprecedented rocket weapons... At the place where the salvo landed, iron instantly melts and the earth burns...” The battery was transferred to the most critical areas. Its salvoes destroyed the enemy's manpower and equipment near Smolensk, Yartsevo, Yelnya, and Roslavl. Once, finding themselves surrounded, the unit’s personnel, using their last shells, continued to fight the Nazis as best they could. On the night of October 7, 1941, near the village of Bogatyr, fighting off the advancing Nazis with the fire of carbines, machine guns and pistols, the guards blew up the installations and did not allow the enemy to capture the then secret samples of our jet weapons. The wounded I. A. Flerov blew himself up along with the main launcher. No one from the battery was captured. Most died the death of heroes. Those who survived fought their way to their own.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 14, 1963, Flerov was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
For the courage and heroism shown during the Great Patriotic War, Ivan Andreevich Flerov was awarded the title of Hero of Russia by Decree of the President of Russia dated June 21, 1995.
Streets in Lipetsk and Gryazi are named after I. A. Flerov.
In Lipetsk, on a building located on the street. Sovetskaya, 66, a memorial plaque was erected to the Hero of Russia.
In the city of Gryazi, in honor of Flerov, a monument “Guards mortar “KATYUSHA”” and a memorial plaque were erected in the “Alley of Heroes” park.
In the village of Dvurechki it was opened in the name of the famous fellow countryman.
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Ivan Andreevich Flerov(April 24 - October 7) - (1995), commander of the first separate experimental rocket artillery battery in the USSR Armed Forces, captain.
Biography
After the end of hostilities, he returned to study at the academy. Lived in the city of Balashikha, Moscow region.
From the first days of the Great Patriotic War he took part in battles.
On the Western Front he commanded a separate experimental rocket artillery battery using BM-13 (Katyusha) rocket launchers. The BM-13 mounts were first tested in combat conditions at 10 a.m. on July 14, 1941, when shelling enemy troops and equipment in the city of Rudnya, supporting the defending units of the Red Army. And on July 16 they showed high efficiency in destroying unevacuated Soviet trains at the railway junction of the city of Orsha. On October 7, 1941, Captain Flerov, being surrounded, died heroically.
Combat path during the Great Patriotic War
In the first days of the war, Captain Flerov, at the suggestion of the head of the academy, Major General Govorov, was appointed commander of the first separate First Experimental Rocket Artillery Battery in the Red Army. On July 3, the battery, armed with five experimental and two production M-13-16 combat vehicles (later called “Katyusha”) and one 122-mm howitzer, used as a sighting gun, was sent to the Western Front.
In addition, the battery included 44 trucks to transport 600 M-13 rockets, 100 howitzer shells, entrenching tools, three fuel and lubricant refills, seven daily food allowances and other equipment. The battery's personnel consisted of 160 people (46 people came out of the encirclement).
On the night of July 3 (4), 1941, from Moscow along the Mozhaisk Highway, the battery of Captain I. A. Flerov went to the front along the route: Moscow-Yartsevo-Smolensk-Orsha. Two days later (July 6), the battery arrived at the site and became part of the artillery of the 20th Army of the Western Front.
With the second salvo, the battery destroyed a pontoon bridge across the Orshitsa River on the Minsk-Moscow road, built by German sappers at the site of the Western Front blown up by the Foreign Detachment. The 17th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht came under attack. For 3 days, the 17th Panzer Division could not take part in hostilities. On July 15, with three salvos, she helped break the resistance of the German troops who occupied the city of Rudnya. The battery as part of the 42nd division took part in the Elnitsky counter-offensive.
On October 2, Flerov’s battery was surrounded in the Vyazemsky cauldron. The batteries covered more than 150 kilometers behind enemy lines. The captain did everything possible to save the battery and break through to his own. When the fuel ran out, he ordered the installations to be charged and the remaining missiles and most of the transport vehicles to be blown up.
On the night of October 7, a convoy of battery vehicles was ambushed near the village of Bogatyri (Znamensky district, Smolensk region). Finding themselves in a hopeless situation, the battery personnel took up the fight. Under heavy fire they blew up the cars. Many of them died. Being seriously wounded, the commander blew himself up along with the main launcher. Buried in the Smolensk region, Ugransky district, no. Bogatyr.
- From the combat reports of the commander of the first Katyusha battery, Captain I. A. Flerov, July 14 - October 7, 1941:
July 14, 1941 They attacked fascist trains at the Orsha railway junction. The results are excellent. A continuous sea of fire. 7.X.1941 21 hours. We were surrounded near the village of Bogatyr - 50 km from Vyazma. We will hold out until the end. No exit. We are preparing for self-explosion. Goodbye comrades.
| Subdivision | Commander | notes |
|---|---|---|
| Battery commander | Captain Flerov Ivan Andreevich | being surrounded he died in battle on October 7, 1941. |
| deputy battery commander | Lieutenant Serikov Konstantin Konstantinovich | 10/11/1941 near the city of Yukhnov was captured (of flag No. 57), released |
| Assistant Battery Commander for Technical Affairs | military technician 2nd rank I. N. Bobrov | |
| Battery Commissioner | political instructor Zhuravlev Ivan Fedorovich | |
| battery party organizer | Sergeant Nesterov Ivan Yakovlevich (driver of the M-13 installation) | (went out to his people) |
| Komsomol battery | Sergeant Zakharov Alexey Anisimovich (radio operator) | (went out to his people) |
| Park platoon commander | Senior Lieutenant A.V. Kuzmin | (went out to his people) |
| Automotive battery | military technician 2nd rank I. E. Skigin | |
| Battery electrician | military technician 2nd rank A. K. Polyakov | |
| representative of the research institute | military engineer 2nd rank Dmitry Shatov | left the battery after a week |
| representative of the research institute | design engineer Alexey Popov | left the battery a week later and subsequently trained the personnel of the 2nd battery of Lieutenant A.M. Kun |
| Platoon control | Lieutenant P.K. Vetryak | |
| Sighting platoon | Lieutenant M. I. Naumenko | |
| 1 fire platoon | Lieutenant I. F. Kostyukov | |
| 2nd fire platoon | Lieutenant N. A. Malyshkin | |
| 3rd fire platoon | Lieutenant M. A. Podgorny | |
| Commanders/drivers of combat crews of launchers: Sergeant Ovsov Valentin Sergeant Gavrilov Ivan / Sergeant Nesterov I. Ya. (went to their own) Sergeant Yessenov Sergeant Konnov Ivan Nikolaevich (joined a partisan detachment) Sergeant Kurganov Alexander Sergeant Rushev Sergeant Nayaglov Konstantin |
||
| ammunition platoon | Lieutenant A.V. Kuzmin | |
| economic department | ||
| department of fuels and lubricants | ||
| sanitary unit | military paramedic Avtonomova Yulia Vladimirovna | (went out to her team) |
Awards
- Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (posthumous)
- Medal "Gold Star" of the Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously)
Memory
In the fall of 1995, a group of Vyazma search engines found artillerymen killed along with the Katyushas 250 meters west of the village of Bogatyr. The remains of 7 rocket men were found. Among them, the remains of Captain Flerov were identified. On October 6, 1995, all the remains were reburied next to the obelisk near the village of Bogatyr, erected in memory of the feat of the rocket scientists.
, Russian empire
Ivan Andreevich Flerov(April 24 - October 6) - Hero of the Russian Federation (), commander of the first separate experimental battery of rocket artillery in the Red Army, captain.
From the first days of the Great Patriotic War he took part in battles. On the Western Front he commanded a separate experimental rocket artillery battery using BM-13 (Katyusha) rocket launchers. For the first time, BM-13 installations were tested in combat conditions at about 15:00 on July 13, 1941, during the shelling of the Orsha-Tsentralnaya station and a temporary pontoon crossing across the Dnieper River. On October 6, 1941, Captain Flerov, being surrounded, died near the village of Bogatyr.
Biography
early years
In the ranks of the Red Army
After the end of hostilities, he returned to study at the academy. Lived in the city of Balashikha, Moscow region.
During the Great Patriotic War
In the first days of the war, Captain Flerov, at the suggestion of the head of the academy, Major General Govorov, was appointed commander of the first special reactive battery in the Red Army. On July 3, the battery, armed with seven experimental NII-3 M-13 combat vehicles based on the ZIS-6 (later called “Katyusha”) and one 152-mm howitzer, used as a sighting gun, was sent to the Western Front.
In addition, the battery included 1 passenger car, 44 trucks for transporting 768 M-13 rockets, 100 projectiles for a howitzer, an entrenching tool, three refills of fuel and lubricants, seven daily food allowances and other property. The battery's personnel consisted of 198 people (46 people came out of the encirclement).
On the night of July 3 (4), 1941, from Moscow along the Mozhaisk Highway, the battery of Captain I. A. Flerov went to the front along the route: Moscow-Yartsevo-Smolensk-Orsha. Two days later (July 6), the battery arrived at the site and became part of the front-line units of the Western Front. Until July 12, she was in position in the Borisov area and only miraculously managed to withdraw before the bridges were blown up. On July 13, she was at the Orsha front. In the period from July 13 to July 20, she became part of the 20th Army of the Western Front. On August 7, she was again withdrawn to the units of front-line subordination of the Western Front and on the same day was sent to the 24th Army of the Reserve Front at the request of the Reserve Commander Front Zhukov and on the basis of the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Western Direction Timoshenko. During the period August 7-15, 2 experimental installations failed and were sent to Moscow for repairs. By August 21, all the remaining 5 experimental installations were also faulty and by September 1 they were replaced by 4 new, serial ones.
"At 15:00 on July 14, 1941, Captain Flerov gave the command to open fire. Seven BM-13 launchers struck a concentration of fascist manpower and tanks in the Orsha area. In seven to eight seconds, the battery fired 96 rockets. One installation did not fire due to a burnt cable. Due to inaccurate aiming (new technology) and the specific nature of the dispersion of RS at such a range, the main blow fell on the railway workers’ village. 4-5 RS fell on the station. At 16:45 a second salvo was fired at the crossing of the Orshitsa River."
Another version says that at 10 a.m. on July 14, 1941, Captain Flerov’s battery first covered with fire a concentration of German troops on the Market Square in the city of Rudnya. Before the mentioned salvo at the Orsha railway station there were still 5 hours and about 140 kilometers of travel to the new position. However, Orsha then had its own Red Army units and its own echelons. After all, before July 16, 1941, not a single German soldier had yet entered the city. (See the publication of the Institute of Military History of the USSR Ministry of Defense and the Central Archive of the USSR Ministry of Defense “Liberation of Cities”, M., Voenizdat, 1985, p. 179) And not a single German train was at the Orsha station, neither 14, nor 15, nor 16 July. After capturing each station, the Germans needed first of all to remake the railway tracks to a narrower European standard. Yes, not on July 14, but on July 16, 1941, two days after the baptism of fire in Rudna, Captain Flerov’s battery really wiped out the Orsha railway station from the face of the earth, but together with Soviet trains, whose cargo, primarily fuel tanks, should not have been get to the enemy. This is the version outlined in more detail by the historian of the Second World War - a witness to the first volleys of Katyushas at 10 a.m. on July 14, 1941 in Rudna - Andrei Sapronov // in the newspaper "Russia" No. 23 dated June 21-27, 2001 and in the "Parliamentary newspaper" No. 80 dated May 5, 2005 //.
The version is more truthful. The Germans entered Orsha on the morning of July 14. On the night of July 13-14, the station buildings and infrastructure were blown up by demolitionists of the 26th railway brigade. (TsAMO RF 208, d. 20, l. 17,47) There were no Soviet trains at the station - the last one left on July 12 (EP Yushkevich "1418 days Belarusian railway worker") There were no German ones either - ALL railway bridges were blown up, and the Germans already had a narrower track.
A version supported by operational documents from both sides.
The 1st Motorized Rifle Division and the 115th Tank Regiment of the 57th Tank Division were ordered to withdraw to the eastern bank of the river. Orshitsy with subsequent direction to the Kopysi area on the Dnieper on the night of July 11-12. Already on July 12, on the eastern bank of the Dnieper east of the 18th Infantry Division at the line Elizavetino, Morozova, Chernoe, the 1st Motorized Rifle Division and the 115th Tank Regiment deployed in readiness to launch a counterattack in the direction of Stepkov, Zubov.
The 73rd Infantry Division was tasked with withdrawing beyond the Orshitsa River on the night of July 12-13. On the night of July 12-13, the division withdrew and at 3:50 on July 13 occupied the defensive line along the river. Orshitsa from Selecta, Lipka to Gatkovshchina on the Dnieper, covering the road leading from Orsha to the highway. Thus, all our units left Orsha on the night of July 12-13, blowing up a railway bridge 4 km south of Orsha and a road bridge in Orsha. The temporary crossing of the Dnieper between these bridges remained undamaged.
On July 13 at 15:00 (Moscow time), units of the 17th TD entered Orsha, and by 20:00 (Moscow time) they occupied the western part of Orsha, as reported by the 47th Army Corps. The city was already burning. The temporary crossing was captured by 23:00 on July 13.
The German 17th TD did not record any salvos of Katyushas on Orsha either on July 13 or 14. At the same time, almost all salvos of the first batteries were recorded - Flerov in Rudna, Kuna with nine installations in the Pechenicheno area, Denisenko with two installations in the 7th TD and others. Where it clearly follows that Flerov’s battery fired volleys at Orsha before the Germans entered Orsha, i.e. until 15:00 July 13. On July 12, the battery could not fire at Orsha, because Our troops were still in the city, and on July 14 the battery was physically unable to fire at Orsha, because in the area 11 km north of Orsha to the Annibalovs there were no longer our troops, but there was reconnaissance from the enemy’s 17th TD.
Thus, Flerov’s battery fired its first salvo at Orsha before 15:00 on July 13. With the second salvo, the battery tried to destroy a temporary pontoon bridge across the Dnieper River, which was not blown up by our sappers. The bridge survived.
On July 19, Flerov's battery fired three salvos into the town of Rudnya, as a battalion of the 5th Infantry Division relieved the 12th Panzer Division. The losses of the 5th Infantry Division amounted to 11 people killed and 60 people wounded from all types of weapons. On July 20-22, it operated along the Moscow-Minsk highway in the area of Sloboda, Ershi-Nevishche, Ershi-Pustosh, Kuprino. On August 5, the battery left the Smolensk cauldron. The last salvo as part of the Western Front units was fired at 10:00 on August 7 near Pnevo, covering the crossing of Soviet troops.
The battery, as part of the 42nd separate artillery division, took part in the battles near Yelnya and Roslavl in August and September.
The battery took its last battle at 11:30-11:50 on October 6 in the area of the village of Bogatyri against the motorcycle battalion of the 2nd Tank Division.
Flerov died in this battle. Buried in the Smolensk region, Ugransky district, Bogatyri village.
Awards
- Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree (posthumous)
- Medal “Gold Star” of the Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously)
| Bogatyr village, memorial sign | ||
| Balashikha, memorial plaque | ||
| Balashikha, school | ||
| Grave, general view | ||
| Tombstone | ||
| Memorial plaque in Lipetsk | ||
| Bust in the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps | ||
| In the museum in Smolensk |
F Lerov Ivan Andreevich - commander of a separate experimental battery of rocket artillery of the Reserve of the High Command, captain.
Born in 1905 in the village of Dvurechki, now Gryazinsky district, Lipetsk region, in the family of an employee. After graduating from the zemstvo school, he worked first in the village, then as a mechanic’s apprentice at the Borinsky sugar factory. In 1926 he graduated from the factory apprenticeship school (FZU) at the iron foundry in the city of Lipetsk. Here, as one of the best graduates of the school, he worked for some time as a master of industrial training.
In 1927-1928 he served in the Red Army, in artillery units, and completed one-year commander courses at the 9th Corps Artillery Regiment. In 1933, he was called up for a 45-day reserve officer course and remained in the army from then on. In 1939, he was enrolled as a student at the Artillery Academy of the Red Army named after F.E. Dzerzhinsky.
Participant in the war with Finland 1939-1940. As the battery commander of the 94th howitzer artillery regiment, Senior Lieutenant Flerov distinguished himself in battles during the breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line. For his heroism in the battles near Lake Saunojärvi he was awarded the Order of the Red Star. After the end of hostilities, he returned to study at the academy. Lived in the city of Balashikha, Moscow region.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Captain Flerov, at the suggestion of the head of the academy, Major General L.A. Govorova, on June 28, 1941, was appointed commander of the first separate experimental battery of rocket artillery in the Red Army. On July 2, the battery, armed with seven experimental BM-13 combat installations (later called “Katyusha”), departed for the Western Front.
Flerov’s battery fired the first salvos against the enemy near the city of Orsha. The battery's combat log records: "July 14, 1941, 15 hours 15 minutes. We struck fascist trains at the Orsha railway junction. The results were excellent. A continuous sea of fire." "July 14, 1941, 16 hours 45 minutes. A salvo at the crossing of fascist troops through Orshitsa. Large enemy losses in manpower and military equipment, panic. All Nazis who survived on the eastern bank were taken prisoner by our units...". This first blow was so effective and crushing that the Nazis, according to the reports of Marshal Timoshenko to Stalin, "... took out the wounded and dead all day, stopping the offensive for a day."
After the volleys in the Orsha area, attacks followed on the invaders near Yelnya, Roslavl, Spas-Demensk. During three months of hostilities, Flerov’s battery not only inflicted considerable material damage on the Germans, it also contributed to raising the morale of our soldiers and officers, exhausted by continuous retreats.
The Nazis staged a real hunt for new weapons. As soon as they managed to pinpoint its location, they immediately sent tanks and aircraft there. But the battery did not stay long in one place - after firing a salvo, it immediately changed position. The combat experience of Flerov's battery was adopted. The tactical technique - salvo - change of position - was widely used by Katyusha units during the war.
At the beginning of October, Flerov’s battery, along with other units, was surrounded in the Spas-Demensky cauldron. The batteries covered more than 150 kilometers behind enemy lines. The captain did everything possible to save the battery and break through to his own. When the fuel ran out, he ordered the installations to be charged and the remaining missiles and most of the transport vehicles to be blown up. On the night of October 7, a convoy of battery vehicles was ambushed near the village of Bogatyr (Znamensky district, Smolensk region). Finding themselves in a hopeless situation, the battery personnel took up the fight. While some repelled enemy attacks, others rushed to the combat installations. Under heavy fire they blew up the cars. Many of them died. Being seriously wounded, the commander blew himself up along with the main launcher. The survivors fought away from the Nazis. Only 46 soldiers managed to escape from the encirclement. The legendary battalion commander and the rest of the soldiers, who had fulfilled their duty to the end with honor, were considered “missing in action.”
For many years, nothing was known about the fate of the commander of the first Katyusha battery. Ridiculous rumors surfaced that Flerov had deliberately led the battery into an ambush. And only when it was possible to discover documents from one of the Wehrmacht army headquarters, where with German scrupulousness it was reported what actually happened on the night of October 6-7, 1941, near the Smolensk village of Bogatyr, doubts were dispelled. It became known that none of the participants in the last battle were captured. Captain Flerov was removed from the list of missing persons.
In 1960, he was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously, the submission was signed by the commander of the Rocket Forces and Artillery of the Ground Forces, Marshal of Artillery K.P. Kazakov). However, after long delays, I.A. Flerov was posthumously awarded only the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. It took another 30 years for the battalion commander’s feat to be adequately appreciated.
Z and the courage and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of June 21, 1995 N 619 to captain Flerov Ivan Andreevich awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation posthumously.
Awarded the Order of the Red Star (1940), the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree (11/14/1963, posthumously).
Captain Flerov and the dead batteries were buried at the battle site by local residents back in 1941. Until the mid-1980s, the grave in the field was monitored and looked after. Veterans and former colleagues came. Over time, the burial site was forgotten, the fence and monument collapsed, and eventually the site was plowed up. Only in 1995, after a presidential decree, a special search group found the grave site. The remains of Captain Flerov and six soldiers were reburied in the village of Bogatyr, Smolensk region, near the Vyazma-Yukhnov highway.
By order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation No. 111 of March 5, 1998, Hero of the Russian Federation Captain Ivan Andreevich Flerov was forever included in the lists of the command faculty of the Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces (Strategic Missile Forces) named after Peter the Great.
In honor of the battery’s feat, monuments were built in the city of Orsha and an obelisk in the city of Rudnya. Monuments were also erected in the city of Balashikha (in 2003) and near the village of Bogatyr. Streets in Lipetsk, Gryazi, Orsha, Balashikha, a state farm in the Smolensk region, and the central square of the village of Dvurechki, where the Hero was born and raised, are named after Flerov. On May 9, 1975, a memorial museum to I.A. was opened here. Flerov. In 2001, secondary school No. 3 in the city of Balashikha was named after I.A. Flerov, a museum of military glory has been created at the school. Memorial plaques were installed: in Moscow, on house number 7, on Polikarpov Street, where Captain Flerov’s battery was formed; in the city of Balashikha, Moscow region, on house number 5, on Fedorov Street, in which Hero lived.