Tell me, uncle, it’s not for nothing...
M. Lermontov, “Borodino”.
I knew Pyotr Grigorievich Zdorovets well, it seemed to me, well. I remember him clearly even now. And how can I not know and remember if he was my relative, my relatives. He was the uncle of my wife Ekaterina Vasilievna, and was the older brother of my mother-in-law Maria Grigorievna Beda, nee Zdorovets. Broad-faced, dark-haired, with full cheeks and chin. Attentive, penetrating gaze. Reasonable, taciturn, but not a single word of his seemed to be released just like that, without some hidden meaning. Apparently, nature worked for a long time to create such a beautiful, southern Russian, truly Kuban appearance. It is unknown from what fields and floodplains such an integral, charming human character was gathered.
What I knew about him was that he was a participant in the Great Patriotic War and disabled. Without the right leg, above the knee. Therefore, he walked on a prosthesis, which caused him a lot of trouble.
I remember him on a bench in front of the house he built after the war. I remember his three sons, my peers, with whom we studied at the same school.
Pyotr Grigorievich was a literate person, although he completed only six years of school. While there were several collective farms in the village, he worked as an accountant at the Red Army collective farm. Then, when all the collective farms were united, he was a bookkeeper, an accountant in a brigade. Apparently, it was not easy for him to get to the headquarters every day, to the center of the village.
Many years later, I once saw a post-war photograph of him. A photograph of a Great War soldier, the winner of 1945! In a tunic with sergeant's shoulder straps. He was sitting at a small table with a bouquet of flowers. There is an open book on the table. Full awareness of the full significance of the moment. Filled with some amazing dignity. And on the chest - the Order of the Red Banner and the medal "For Courage". I was quite surprised by this and could not help but wonder: for what feat was he, the sergeant, awarded such a high award?
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the life of Pyotr Grigorievich, like all village residents, instantly changed. He, a nineteen-year-old boy, was mobilized into a brigade for the construction of an airfield near the village of Krymskaya. The remains of this airfield with hangars and shelters for aircraft can still be seen today.
On January 9, 1942 he was drafted into the Red Army. And on January 15, as it appears in his documents and award lists, he is already participating in battles. How threatening the situation in the Kuban was becoming can be judged by the fact that the newly drafted, completely untrained recruits were thrown into battle on the sixth day... And what kind of battles were these, when the armored enemy armada moved, seemingly unstoppably, leveling hastily dug trenches and scattering people rushing across the fields. The survivors made their way to their own people or were captured.
German troops entered Krasnodar on August 9, 1942. By mid-August, the entire flat part of the region and the foothills were captured by the enemy. And in Krasnodar, the invaders established new occupation orders. An ominous sign was the camps for our prisoners of war set up in the city. There were, I think, eight of them. Behind a high double fence of barbed wire, in the dirt and dust, there are thousands of prisoners. Each person had less than a meter of native land, less than what was needed for a grave... The camp was guarded by policemen, Romanians and Wehrmacht soldiers. From morning to evening, women crowded at the entrance to the camp, trying to find their relatives among the prisoners. Looking at the sad columns of prisoners, at the dirty, grimy and tattered Red Army soldiers, sent every day to work to restore roads, bridges and factories, everyone thought: has everything been lost and will it always be like this now?.. Is nothing in the whole world able to overcome this dark, dull force that appeared here by some permission?..
As you know, at first the Germans flirted with the Kuban people, naively believing that in the Cossack region they would be greeted as “liberators.” And indeed, there were many degenerates who ran into the service of the conquerors, into the police. And in some places they met the invaders with bread and salt. The Germans even opened Orthodox churches that had been closed under Soviet rule. But most people greeted the uninvited guests gloomily, with the hope that someday this hell would end. And the invaders soon became convinced of this. Apparently, it is no coincidence that it was in the Kuban that the Germans first used the infernal invention for the mass extermination of people - gas machines - gas chambers...
The entrance to prisoner of war camp No. 132 was located at the corner of Krasnaya and Hakurate streets. The Red Army soldier Pyotr Grigorievich Zdorovets ended up here somewhere at the end of August. He couldn’t come to terms with his captivity, but he didn’t yet know what to do. And yet he managed to deliver a note to the public.
Some stranger came to his mother Anna Efimovna in the village of Staronizhesteblievskaya and handed over this note. In it, Pyotr Grigorievich reported that he was in a prisoner-of-war camp in Krasnodar and asked for bread and at least some food products. Anna Efimovna equipped her youngest daughter, Pyotr Grigorievich’s sister, Marusya, for the journey. And she went to Krasnodar on foot to look for and save her brother. A regular bus now covers this distance of seventy kilometers from the village to the city in almost an hour and a half. It’s hard to imagine how Marusya overcame this path, how a seventeen-year-old girl was not at all afraid to go to a city captured by the enemy... And she, having found her brother in a concentration camp, went to see him from the village several times...
One day Pyotr Grigorievich told his sister to bring him clothes and hide them in an appointed place.
I saw photographs of this prisoner of war camp on the Internet. High double barbed wire fence. It is difficult to imagine where and how the clothes could have been hidden. And yet Marusya managed to give her brother civilian clothes. And he, having changed his clothes in a wooden toilet, under the guise of serving the camp, went out into the street...
There was nowhere to go except to my native Staronizhesteblievskaya. At the end of September he was already in the village. No one gave him away, no one informed the Germans or Romanians that he was a Red Army soldier. Although the village had its own policemen who served the enemy, whose names are still remembered...
Pyotr Grigorievich escaped from the prisoner of war camp on time, since with the onset of cold weather the situation of the prisoners of war sharply worsened and became essentially unbearable. Or perhaps their situation worsened because the Germans were finally convinced that they were not considered “liberators.”
And when, under the pressure of our troops, on February 11, 1943, the Germans began to leave Krasnodar, terrible fires broke out in the city and in many of its places. The city was essentially set on fire. At the camp, prisoners of war were locked in wooden sheds and set on fire. Three hundred people were burned alive in the basements. During the six months of occupation, about seven thousand civilians were killed in the city. And how many prisoners of war died is not known exactly to this day...
The village of Staronizhesteblievskaya at the beginning of March 1943 was liberated by units of the 58th and 50th Armies, the 19th and 131st brigades and the 140th tank brigade. During the liberation of the village, 184 soldiers died. In total, about three thousand village residents went to the front from the village. Of these, 816 died, 200 went missing, that is, in most cases they also died, the death of which turned out to be unconfirmed.
When our units entered the village, Pyotr Grigorievich went to headquarters and introduced himself that he was a Red Army soldier, a rifleman of the OA 37th Rifle Brigade.
Due to the severity of wartime, as punishment for captivity, he was sent to a separate army penal company, which was thrown near the village of Krymskaya, in the area of the village of Moldavanskoye, where the fighting was of terrible cruelty. According to the conditions of that time, a soldier remained in a penal unit “until first blood.” That is, those who survived but were wounded were transferred to regular units.
From a separate army penal company near the village of Moldavanskoye, only two people survived, including Pyotr Grigorievich. He was saved by the fact that a fragment pierced his right shoulder blade and the wound turned out to be non-fatal. It must be assumed that Pyotr Grigorievich fought selflessly, since for the battle near the village of Moldavanskoye he was not only pardoned, but also awarded the medal “For Courage”. My wife Ekaterina Vasilievna managed to find this document in the archives, as well as other important documents testifying to how her uncle, Pyotr Grigorievich Zdorovets, fought. And in particular, this order No. 09/n for the 696th Infantry Regiment of the 383rd Infantry Division dated June 17, 1943. On behalf of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, award the medal “For Courage” to: “The liaison officer of a separate army penal company, Red Army soldier Peter Grigoryevich Zdorovets, for the dedication and courage shown during the fighting north-west of the village of Krymskaya in the area of the village of Moldavanskoye. Comrade The big man, regardless of the intense enemy fire, maintained contact. Day and night, he delivered combat orders to the units and thereby contributed to the successful control of the battle... The commander of the 696th Infantry Regiment, Major Kordyukov. Chief of Staff of the 696th SP, Major Artyushenko.”
The Germans’ hopes for a loyal attitude towards them from the residents of Kuban, supposedly languishing under the Soviet “yoke,” were not justified. I will refer to evidence from the diary of a German officer, lieutenant, which Army General Ivan Vladimirovich Tyulenev cites in his book: “The Kuban Cossacks are against us. My father once talked about them, but his terrible stories are far from what I see. You can't take them with anything. They are burning our tanks... Today my company was sent to help a rifle regiment that found itself in a very difficult situation. And I returned from the battlefield with four soldiers. What was there! How did I remain unharmed?! It's a miracle that I'm alive and can write. They attacked us on horseback. The soldiers fled. I tried to stop them, but was knocked down and bruised my knee so much that I crawled back to the river. They say that our brigade has ceased to exist. Judging by my company, this is true.” It must be assumed that for some time Pyotr Grigorievich was undergoing treatment in the medical battalion. In October 1943, as can be seen from the documents, he was the commander of a section of the 10th Infantry Corps, 953th Infantry Regiment, 257th Infantry Division, which later received the honorary name Sivash...
During the Melitopol offensive operation, troops of the 51st Army (commanded by Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General Y.K. Kreiser), together with the 4th Guards Kuban Cossack Cavalry Corps, Lieutenant General N.Ya. Kirichenko quickly went to Perekop. Oh, this impregnable Perekop, known since the seemingly very recent Civil War: “Beautiful, oh, beautiful is the dogwood on the hump of Perekop!” (M. Tsvetaeva). Oh, this rotten Sivash, who again presented himself as an insurmountable obstacle, just like before the Red Army in 1920...
10th Rifle Corps under the command of Major General K.P. Neverov, 257th Infantry Division under the command of Hero of the Soviet Union General A.M. Pykhtin went to Sivash. It became absolutely clear that there was nothing else left to do but to conduct reconnaissance, look for fords, cross this rotten Sivash in order to seize a bridgehead on the Crimean coast.
Imagine our surprise, delight, and then sadness when we managed to find in the archives an award sheet signed on November 11, 1943. According to this sheet, Zdorovets Pyotr Grigorievich, sergeant, commander of a rifle squad, 953 rifle regiment, 257 Red Banner rifle division, born in 1922, Russian, non-partisan, in the ranks of the Red Army from January 9, 1942, in the Patriotic War from January 15, 1942, earlier awarded the medal "For Courage", for crossing Sivash, is nominated for the title of HERO OF THE SOVIET UNION...
In the column “Brief specific statement of personal feat or merit,” the description of the feat was really brief: “Comrade. He's a brave, fearless sergeant, an energetic squad leader. On the night of November 2, 1943, by order of the command, together with his squad, he successfully crossed the ford of Sivash, carrying a box of rifle cartridges, while helping the lagging soldiers carry ammunition and thereby inspiring the remaining soldiers to successfully cross the Sivash.
On November 4, 1943, when the enemy launched a counterattack, Comrade. The big man, at the head of his squad, was the first to attack the enemy and threw the enemy back to his line.
For courage, courage and personal heroism shown during the crossing of Sivash and for steadfastness during an enemy counterattack, he is worthy of being awarded the title “Hero of the Soviet Union.”
The award sheet was signed by: commander of the 953rd Infantry Regiment, Major B.V. Grigoriev-Slanevsky November 11, 1943 : “Worthy to be awarded the title “Hero of the Soviet Union.” Commander of the 257th Red Banner Rifle Division, General Pykhtin, November 11, 1943. Conclusion of higher commanders: “Worthy of being awarded the title of “Hero of the Soviet Union,” commander of the 10th Guards Rifle Corps, Major General K.P. Neverov, November 11, 1943, conclusion of the Military Council of the Army: “Worthy of being awarded the title of “Hero of the Soviet Union.” Commander of the 51st Army, Hero of the Soviet Union Guard, Lieutenant General Ya.G. Kreizer, member of the Military Council, Chief of Army Staff, Major General A. E. Khalezov. November 12, 1943
Conclusion of the Front Military Council. Commander, member of the Military Council (inaudible); Conclusion of the NPO Award Commission (inaudible). In the column “Note on awarding” it says: “By Order of the Troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front No. 37/n dated December 7, 1943, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.”
The commander of the 4th Ukrainian Front was General F.I. Tolbukhin. Why he did not approve the unanimous submission of all previous authorities is unknown...
Later, Ekaterina Vasilievna’s niece will remember how, in the circle of relatives, among their peers and front-line soldiers, Uncle Petya, Pyotr Grigorievich excitedly and resentfully proved something, and then this hissing word Sivash would certainly appear...
Mass heroism was demonstrated during the crossing of Sivash. As the head of the political department of the 51st Army, S.M., recalled. Sarkisyan, details of the entry of the 51st Army into Crimea became known to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin, who gave instructions for particularly distinguished participants in this operation to be nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
But among those nominated for the highest award was not only Sergeant P.G. A healthy man, but also the head of intelligence of the 10th Rifle Corps, Lieutenant Colonel Polikarp Efimovich Kuznetsov (1904-1944), the father of the outstanding Russian poet, our contemporary Yuri Kuznetsov (1941-2003).
On October 31, 1943, the chief of intelligence of the 10th Rifle Corps, Lieutenant Colonel P.E. Kuznetsov, corps commander General K.P. Neverov was given a combat mission: to select a detachment of hunters, cross Sivash, seize a bridgehead on the Crimean coast, and ensure the crossing of the main forces of 257 and 216 rifle divisions across Sivash.
On the morning of November 1, 1943, P.E. Kuznetsov, having selected thirty fighters, began crossing Sivash at 10 o’clock. At 11.45 the detachment was already on the Crimean coast. Kuznetsov signaled this with a fire. On the same day, units of rifle divisions began to cross Sivash.
Detachment P.E. Kuznetsov was tasked with conducting reconnaissance on the Crimean coast in the direction of Armyansk. Having attacked the enemy's advanced units, 18 German soldiers and officers were captured. And also a passenger car with two officers, from whom information was received about the enemy grouping, as well as the fact that the German command was hastily advancing a division reinforced with tanks and artillery to Sivash. It was from this Sivash bridgehead that the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front began the Crimean offensive operation. For this operation to force the Sivash and the courage and heroism shown, Lieutenant Colonel P.E. Kuznetsov was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. November 20, 1943 P.E. Kuznetsov wrote to his wife that he was waiting for “the result of approval for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.” However, the proposal was not approved. Of course, he was worried that he was passed over for a high award. On February 6, 1944, he wrote to his wife: “Still know that I will go down in history. No one can dispute who was the first to show and lead troops into Crimea.” P.E. Kuznetsov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. About Yuri Kuznetsov’s father and his front-line letters to his wife Raisa, see Vyacheslav Ogryzko “A cart of tears passed through the military ring...” (“Literary studies”, No. 1, 2010).
It is difficult to say why the heroes of Sivash did not become heroes. They said that personnel officers had received an unspoken order for heroes to register soldiers and sergeants, not officers. Well, it was not the personnel officers who decided this, and in our case, equally, the ranks of heroes were not approved for sergeant and lieutenant colonel. This means that the reasons for this lie in something else.
For the same Sivash operation, the head of the intelligence department of the headquarters of the 346th Debaltsevo division, captain, later lieutenant colonel Kartoev Dzhabrail Dabievich (1907-1981), was also nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The title of Hero was also not approved for him and he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. This is the only case when an Ingush warrior was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War.
Ingush researchers and historians believe that the approval did not take place for well-known political reasons, since at that time the eviction of the Ingush to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan was being prepared, and therefore, they say, the commander of the 4th Ukrainian Front, General F.I. Tolbukhin was not free in his decision, he took into account the political situation... And therefore, it is necessary to petition the country’s leadership for the representation of D.D. Kartoev. to the title of Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously). Moreover, there was already a precedent when, for services during the war in 1995, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation B.N. Yeltsin awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation to three participants of the Great Patriotic War - M.A. Ozdoev, Sh.U. Kostoev, A.T. Malsagov. The last two - posthumously. In addition, the memory of D.D. Kartoev revered in the republic. One of the streets of Nazran bears his name. By decree of the President of the Republic M.M. Zyazikov dated September 12, 2002 D.D. Kartoev was awarded (posthumously) the highest award of the republic - the Order of Merit. By the decision of the Volgograd City Duma of December 25, 2016, one of the new streets in the Dzerzhinsky district of Volgograd was named after D.D. Kartoev, as a participant in the Battle of Stalingrad.
We can only guess why the titles of Hero have not been approved. Pyotr Grigoryevich Zdorovets’ father Grigory Fedotovich was repressed in 1937. Rehabilitated in 1989. And they were from the Kuban Cossacks. P.E. Kuznetsov was from the Terek Cossacks. They could have reminded the heroes that they belonged to the Cossacks. A P.E. Kuznetsov could remember his pre-war disgrace. After all, he was the head of the border post on the Bessarabian border. But one of the fellow Stavropol residents of the village of Aleksandrovskoye, apparently out of envy of the successful border guard officer, wrote a completely ridiculous denunciation, accusing him of belonging to the kulaks... He was fired from the border troops. But with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he was sent to study at the Academy named after M.V. Frunze.
Apparently, this difficult situation needs to be corrected, regardless of how the fate of the heroes turned out in the future. Lieutenant Colonel P.E. Kuznetsov died on May 8, 1944 on the outskirts of Sevastopol, near Sapun Mountain, coming under mortar fire. Buried in the village. Shuli, Balaklava district in Crimea. At the brotherly cemetery, near the school, in the first row from the street, grave No. 7, from left to right (V. Ogryzko). His son, the poet Yuri Kuznetsov, was there and thought a lot about his father. One of his most poignant poems is “Return.” These poems are set to music by V.G. Zakharchenko. The song is performed by the State Academic Kuban Cossack Choir.
The father walked, the father walked unharmed
Through a minefield.
Turned into billowing smoke -
No grave, no pain.
Mom, mom, the war won’t bring me back...
Don't look at the road.
A column of swirling dust is coming
Across the field to the threshold.
It’s like a hand waving from the dust,
Living eyes shine.
The postcards are moving at the bottom of the chest -
Frontline.
Whenever his mother is waiting for him,
Through the field and arable land
A column of swirling dust wanders,
Lonely and scary.
And Pyotr Grigorievich Zdorovets was wounded near Lithuanian Siauliai, where terrible battles took place, on August 12, 1944. In the archival certificate dated November 7, 2016, received in the name of Tkachenko E.V. it is written: “The commander of the gun of the 953rd Infantry Regiment of the 257th Infantry Division, Sergeant Zdorovets Pyotr Grigorievich, born in 1922, on the front of the Great Patriotic War on August 12, 1944, received a shrapnel wound to the right knee joint, for which he was treated in the SEG 1822 from September 18, 1944 ...Operation (date not specified): amputation of the right thigh in the middle third... Head of the storage department I. Trukhanov."
I believe that in the village cemetery, on the tombstone of the Hero, located two dozen steps from the grave of the sister who once saved him, Maria Grigorievna Beda (1924-1998), the star of the Hero of Russia will be knocked out. And Zapadnaya Street in the village of Staronizhesteblievskaya, Krasnoarmeysky District, Krasnodar Territory, on which he lived, the name of which does not say anything except its geographical location, will bear the name of Hero Peter Grigorievich Zdorovets.
The point is not only that he lived his difficult, not so long life with some resentment. And the fact is that based on the exploits he accomplished at the front, he is a Hero, regardless of whether this is finally approved or not. It’s just a pity that his peers and contemporaries didn’t know about this. And this was prevented by this official non-approval...
As if truly preserved by God, he remained alive where it seemed impossible to survive - near the village of Moldavanskoe near the village of Krymskaya, and on Sivash, and at Sapun Mountain, and in Lithuanian Shauliai. I hope that he will survive in our grateful memory...
Perhaps only now, when time has passed and we, the generation of their children, are already older than them, their feat appears in all its significance and greatness. It’s no longer just the suffering and torment they endured and not just compassion for them. It is no longer just everyday life, but being. What a dramatic change in people took place in this generation. They came out of this war completely different than they entered it... Throughout their lives, they taught us a precious lesson and example of how to overcome adversity, which is different in every generation. How in this overcoming the human soul focuses and grows, how it hardens and becomes invulnerable to any new adversity and universal winds.
That’s why now we value and need every detail of their lives, which is filled with new meanings over time. And, of course, the memory of them should not and cannot be overshadowed by any of their grievances... They can no longer answer anything. Their feat, the memory of them now entirely depends on us. Now they can only rely on us...
My last meeting with Pyotr Grigorievich turned out to be memorable and even symbolic. The fact is that when I came to my native village, at that time I was an employee of the literature department of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper, I would certainly record folk songs. The old ladies of the folklore group of the village choir were always waiting for me. They were waiting for us to gather either in the House of Culture, or at someone’s home, in a hut, at a table laden with all kinds of dishes. I turned on my simple tape recorder, and stories, memories and songs began. Although, what old women they were, the same age as my parents, just old women who seemed to always be there.
Apparently, this folklore activity of mine was quite active. To which my mother-in-law Maria Grigorievna once said with resentment: “You are signing everyone up, but you still haven’t signed us up...”. And she had the right to this insult, since her family was known in the village as songful and melodious. I answered, embarrassed, something to the effect that I was always ready to write if only my relatives would gather.
And so they decided to gather with Maria Grigorievna’s younger sister, Vera Grigorievna Fomenko, in her hut. All relatives were notified. Vera Grigorievna prepared the table. Everyone gathered, but for some reason Pyotr Grigorievich was not there. He persisted and did not want to go to this meeting. Then they sent a car for him. Finally, he appeared with his wife Maria Stepanovna. I didn’t understand then why he persisted. Maybe he didn't feel well. Or maybe, with some intuitive instinct inherent in him, he guessed that this meeting would be the last. That's how it all turned out. In the fall of the same 1985, he passed away. He left without having time to turn gray, at the age of 63, “and went into eternal sleep, without having matured with gray hair...”.
And then, after a pause, looking at each other and without saying a word, they sang exactly this song: “All the barge haulers were going bald to the ridden hut. Here we get soap, here we love to wash our stomachs...” Only later, years later, when their voices had echoed on this earth, and when they no longer remained anywhere except on my tape cassettes, I published a disc of folk songs from my native village “Cossack Share”. And now, remembering them, listening to their voices, sad and cheerful, I clearly distinguish the dull, as if offended bass of the Hero - Pyotr Grigorievich Zdorovets - preserved and not lost.
Peter TKACHENKO, literary critic, publicist, prose writer
OCR, editing: Andrey Myatishkin ( [email protected])
Additional processing: Hoaxer ( [email protected])
Battles for Crimea
The Crimean peninsula has witnessed numerous battles in the centuries-old history of the Russian people. The geographical position of the peninsula makes it a key hub for the entire southern Russia and Transcaucasia. Its bays, forts and heights are covered with resounding military glory. More than once campaigns against Russia began and ended there from Crimea. Because of Crimea, which has enormous military and strategic importance, many bloody battles took place over the centuries. Crimea was the last refuge for the White Guard generals, defeated by the Soviet Army in 1920.
Trying to implement their aggressive plans, Hitler's military command attached great importance to the Crimean Peninsula. Overcoming stubborn resistance and suffering heavy losses, the Nazis captured the peninsula in 1942. The Soviet Army and the Black Sea Fleet heroically fought against vastly superior enemy forces and only after nine months of siege, in July 1942, by order of the Supreme High Command, they left Sevastopol, the last fortress on the peninsula.
After breaking through the German defenses on the Molochnaya River and liberating Melitopol, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front launched a rapid offensive to the west and on November 5 reached the lower reaches of the Dnieper and the Perekop Isthmus. The Crimean group of Germans found themselves cut off from the rest of the forces of the Nazi army. The only narrow strip of land connecting the peninsula with the mainland was the Perekop Isthmus. Units of the 2nd Guards Army under the command of General Zakharov rushed towards it, but they encountered a well-organized multi-lane and deeply echeloned enemy defense and were stopped at the positions of the Turkish Wall.
To the left of the 2nd Guards Army the 51st Army was advancing. She reached the northern shore of the Sivash in the area of Cape Dzhangar, Russky Island.
The advanced units of the army, with the help of the assault units of our brigade, crossed the “rotten sea” of Sivash and captured a small bridgehead on its southern shore. Thus, the legendary feat of the Red Army troops, who crossed Sivash in the same area in 1920 under the command of M.V. Frunze, was repeated.
The advancing Red Army soldiers had to overcome water obstacles more than once, but crossing the bitter-salty Sivash Bay with battle required a great test of moral and physical strength. In the area of Cape Dzhangar and Russky Island, where the crossing took place, Sivash is very inconvenient for this. Its both banks are very rugged, and the distance between them is about three kilometers. The coastline is not always solid ground. For tens and hundreds of meters the shore is covered with a layer of silt up to waist depth. The bottom in these places is also muddy and viscous. It takes at least two hours to wade through these incredibly difficult three kilometers of Sivash Bay, and then only in good weather and without enemy influence.
The soldiers and commanders of the 51st Army and our assault battalions, pursuing the Germans, crossed the Sivash Bay in the battle formations in the area of Cape Dzhangar and captured a bridgehead on the northern coast of the Crimean Peninsula with a depth of 6 kilometers and a front length of 8–9 kilometers. The brigade's sappers showed miracles of heroism, providing the ammunition and equipment necessary for the landing force. The Nazis immediately launched fierce counterattacks against the landing force. Maintaining and expanding the bridgehead was of utmost importance, and therefore, at the cost of any effort, it was necessary to deliver everything necessary for the battle to the units that had landed on the northern shore. Tensions increased to such an extent that U-2 aircraft were used to transport ammunition.
Deputy commander of the 57th assault battalion, Captain Volynsky, said: “The Germans considered Sivash impassable, but this turned out not to be the case. A Russian soldier will pass even where a deer cannot always pass. On the night of October 30, 1943, one of our divisions, pursuing the enemy, immediately crossed Sivash and reached the Crimean coast. The task was difficult - the troops had to hold this piece of land at the cost of their lives. Naturally, the division overcame such an obstacle only with light weapons and a minimum amount of ammunition.
The transfer of weapons and military equipment of the division and its reinforcement units was entrusted to the 57th battalion. I was appointed head of the crossing point and arrived at the place on the night of November 1st. My first thought was: “The battalion will die!” Yes, that's what I thought. Two or three days of work in the water - a cold, a hospital - and the end. Even though it’s Crimea here, it’s winter! However, it turned out, as in the saying: “The eyes are afraid, but the hands do.” Already in the morning, our ferries with guns, howitzers, tractors, ammunition and even Katyushas moved to the Crimean coast. We were shelled and bombed, but the crossing worked day and night. The enemy was close. The crossing was in the zone of artillery fire of all calibers. The enemy's blows hindered us, but they could not cause much harm. We were saved by the Russian land, Sivash and our anti-aircraft and field artillery. The soldiers dug in well on the shore, where there was already solid ground. For me, six days, and for the battalion, ten were hot fighting days. The bridgehead grew and gained strength. The Germans were forced to go on the defensive.
Having gained a foothold in the bridgehead, Soviet troops launched a large battle for the liberation of the Crimean Peninsula, which took place in extremely difficult conditions. The greatest difficulties were created by Sivash, through which it was necessary to transport troops and a huge amount of cargo and military equipment.
Under these conditions, the question arose about creating a more reliable crossing for troops across the Sivash. This question also occupied the front command. Colonel R. G. Umansky in his book “On Combat Lines” cites a conversation between the front commander, General Tolbukhin, and the chief of the engineering troops, Lieutenant General Petrov:
“We need a bridge across the Sivash,” said F.I. Tolbukhin. - I know it will be difficult to build it, but what to do? You see, we are suffocating. - Tolbukhin went to the wall where a topographic map of the Crimean Peninsula hung.
- Allow me to ask, Comrade Commander, what kind of load is the bridge needed?
Tolbukhin, who was always tormented by thirst, drank a glass of cold kvass from the decanter standing on his table in one gulp and returned to Petrov again.
- A bridge, general, is needed for any load. I just don't think you can handle it right away. At first, at least make sure that vehicles with ammunition and small guns pass across the bridge. Do you agree?
This whole conversation became known to me that same night from the lips of the general himself” (15).
In the period from October 30 to November 6, all battalions of the brigade were on the banks of the Sivash. On boats and ferries we transported guns, camp kitchens, food, carts and horses for the troops on the bridgehead, whose numbers were constantly growing. He said “transported”, or rather, they dragged it, because both shores of the bay at a distance of 100–200 meters from the water were liquid mud. Then a small strip of water stretched, and only then did the depth necessary for swimming begin. It was through this coastal mud, drowning waist-deep in liquid, salty and cold mud, that the soldiers pulled heavy ferries.
In such difficult conditions, the 57th battalion of Major Bulatov and the 84th light transport park of Captain Zikrach from November 2 to 12 transferred 143 76-mm guns, 15 57-mm guns, 75 45-mm guns, 15 howitzers, 31 machine gun, 15 mortars, 42 vehicles, 84 gun charging boxes, 16,535 boxes of ammunition, 3,400 anti-tank mines, 106 boxes of Molotov cocktails, 2 horses, 1 tractor, 74 tons of food and transported 416 wounded from the southern coast. During this time, units of the 10th and 67th Rifle Corps were transferred to the southern coast.
The difficult situation at Sivash urgently required the construction of a bridge across the “rotten sea,” and the front command made such a decision.
Bridge over Sivash
On November 5, the chief of the engineering troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front, Lieutenant General Petrov, arrived at the brigade command post in the village of Zentyub and informed me of the order of the front commander to immediately begin construction of a bridge across the Sivash. I was appointed construction manager.
We met Ivan Andreevich Petrov back in 1931. He took part in the civil war and had rich combat experience. At the academy he was the head of our study group. A cheerful and cheerful person, he at the same time knew how to be a strict and demanding commander. We all respected him very much.
I asked Ivan Andreevich what tonnage the bridge should withstand, where to get materials and labor, what the construction timeframe is. General Petrov answered briefly:
- The bridge must withstand an average load of up to sixteen tons.
- What about the labor force?
- In addition to your brigade, the sixty-third engineer brigade of Lieutenant Colonel Poplavsky, which will arrive tomorrow, will take part in the construction.
- What about the materials?
- There is none of them. Organize reconnaissance and look for local materials.
I instructed my guys to look for building materials near Melitopol: they said there was an oak forest there.
After the departure of Lieutenant General Petrov, I gathered the staff officers, informed them about the task received and instructed the technical department to develop the project, and the chief of staff to organize the search for local materials.
On the same day, on a small rubber boat, accompanied by Lieutenant Glukhov, I crossed the Sivash along the route of the future bridge: to Russky Island and from it to the northern shore of the peninsula. We walked most of the three-kilometer-wide strait, drowning waist-deep in mud. When we returned from reconnaissance late in the evening, the chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Sergeevich Borisov, had already given the necessary orders for the concentration of units, and we began to discuss the design of the bridge.
The task was extremely difficult: none of the structures known in military and civilian bridge construction were suitable for the conditions of Sivash.
The chief construction engineer, Major Duplevsky, sent from the front headquarters, and the head of the technical department of the brigade, Captain Zhadovich, made inquiries and reported to me that before the war, a special commission studied this issue and concluded that the construction of a bridge across the Sivash was impossible.
I did not have time to verify the accuracy of this information. I answered the specialist officers that we were ordered to build a bridge and we will build it. He said that he had checked the place where the bridge would go, and that I had some ideas regarding its design. I proposed to make frames as supports for the bridge, but to prevent them from sinking in the mud, a hard cushion should be placed under the supporting beam of the frame. I thought about solid support even when Glukhov and I walked through Sivash and sank waist-deep in its mud. We could make this cushion by fastening a row of logs under the support timber of the frame. Logs were the only material we had. Everyone approved the idea. The most important and most difficult issue has been resolved. All that remained was to make the necessary calculations about the dimensions of the flat log support, which the engineers called a “wooden slab.” Major Duplevsky and Captain Zhadovnch, together with officers from the technical department, prepared all the technical documentation for this grandiose structure until the morning.
“On November 6, I was called to the brigade command post,” says Captain Volynsky. - An evening dedicated to the 26th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution took place here. The order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was read out to assign the name “Melitopol” to the brigade. Awards were presented to the personnel. I received the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree. It was great joy. However, we gathered not only for the sake of the holiday. After the ceremonial part, the brigade commander, Colonel Pavlov (Panchevsky), convened an official meeting of the brigade leadership. Also present were officers from the Army Engineering Department and the entire staff of the brigade headquarters departments. One issue was discussed - the construction of a bridge across the Sivash!
An unprecedented case in military construction! According to science, it is impossible to build a bridge on the Sivash bottom without an artificial foundation. Engineering geological studies indicate that the thickness of the silt layer is 15 meters, the bearing capacity of the soil is zero.
However, we decided to take a risk. The basis was our six-day observations of the Sivash bottom from a pontoon crossing. The design was entrusted to Captain Igor Semenovich Zemlyansky and me.
On the evening of November 7, the project was ready. In the morning we started organizing the “construction house”, and the assembly of the bridge began on November 10th. Construction was carried out day and night. Traffic on the bridge was opened on November 27, 1943.
The soldiers showed unprecedented heroism: winter, work in icy water, shelling, bombing. The Germans bombed us several times a day with high-explosive and fragmentation bombs. We have lived through terrible days. There were days when direct hits destroyed three or four spans, that is, 12–16 meters of the finished bridge. The artillery also got to us, but Sivash saved us from it: the shells went deep into the muddy bottom and only covered us from head to toe with mud. During the raids, no one left the bridge: they still didn’t have time to get to the shelters. And there was no time. What else can I say? I heard about the healing properties of Sivash mud, but did not believe it. And what? We swam in Sivash until December 20th.
The brigade headquarters officers celebrated the 26th anniversary of the Great October Revolution with a sense of duty. Already on November 7, 1943, units of the brigade began building a bridge on a wide front and storming the “rotten sea” of Sivash.
The front command allowed the use of the rails of the narrow-gauge railway Kherson - Dzhankoy, and thus the issue of longitudinal fastening of the bridge was resolved. It was allowed to use logs from household and even residential buildings in nearby settlements as building materials. The front headquarters allocated a significant number of vehicles, which, already on November 7, began to transport logs cut down in the forests near Melitopol.
The local population also provided us with invaluable assistance in searching and preparing building materials.
The next day, extraordinary devices floated across the huge water surface of Sivash. These were frame bridge abutments cut down on the bank, firmly attached to a “wooden slab.” The soldiers, up to their waists in bitterly salty water, falling into the mud, pulled the frame abutments assembled on the shore and installed them in a line along the axis of the bridge.
The frame abutments installed on the bridge line were supposed to remain motionless at the bottom, but they floated to the surface. What was needed was a force that could force them into submission. The soldiers, splashing through the mud, carried bags of earth from the shore, placed them on a “wooden slab,” which slowly sank and lay in its place. The bags were prepared by local residents.
The great revival on both banks of the Sivash and on Russky Island did not go unnoticed. The enemy began intensively shelling the builders with machine gun and artillery fire. The machine gun fire stopped only after the troops of the 51st Army pushed back the Germans and expanded the bridgehead, but artillery fire and bombing continued until the end of construction and beyond.
The command of the 4th Ukrainian Front took countermeasures, strengthening air defense, and special artillery units conducted counter-battery combat with enemy artillery.
We used camouflage extensively. Simultaneously with the start of construction of the bridge, construction of a false bridge made of reeds and reeds was underway 2.5 kilometers east of it. Enemy artillery intensively fired at the false bridge, and aircraft rained bombs on it.
The constant concern of the command of the 4th Ukrainian Front for fire cover for the construction of the bridge and good camouflage did not allow the Nazis to figure out that a bridge was being built across the Sivash. The enemy directed air and artillery fire mainly at structures being built for crossing to the peninsula.
The enemy did not cause much damage to the dam being built between Russky Island and the Crimean coast, and the damage was quickly repaired. In the area of the embankment, work was carried out mainly at night, and only one company of the captain was occupied there. Rostovtsev from the 7th engineering brigade. Two engineering teams worked on the construction of the bridge. During the raids, the enemy bombed mainly the southern part of the construction (embankment), and in the northern part he dropped the bomb load on the false bridge. Our air ambush of eight fighters located near the construction site turned out to be effective air cover from enemy aircraft.
For 20 days and nights, drowning in the mud of Sivash, several thousand sappers worked almost without rest under enemy aviation and artillery fire and completed the combat mission with honor.
When the construction of the bridge was completed, Professor Colonel Eliseevich, head of the department of military bridge construction at the V.V. Kuibyshev Military Engineering Academy, arrived from Moscow. Having assessed the work of the bridge builders, he was satisfied. We passed the test on the most important thing - the bridge we built ensured the transfer of the necessary forces to the Crimean coast to defeat the enemy.
On November 27, the bridge was opened to traffic. Later, after appropriate reinforcement, T-34 tanks also moved along it.
It was only thanks to the labor heroism and dedication of the sappers that this extremely important structure for the defeat of the enemy in Crimea was built so quickly. Of course, this required a clear organization of work, and it was skillfully carried out by many officers from the brigade headquarters, battalion and company commands.
The construction of the bridge was guided by several basic principles.
At the construction site, only the assembly of manufactured and transported elements was carried out. The work on assembling the bridge was carried out on a wide front, while all construction took place in sections where work was simultaneously carried out on the construction of supports and laying of girders.
The flow method of work was widely used at all stages of the production process with the division of complex work into individual operations, which ensured the sequence of their implementation.
For each type of work, separate teams were created, which were staffed depending on the complexity of the operations.
The construction process was carried out in three stages.
The first stage is exploration and supply of building materials, preparation and construction of individual elements - frames and cushions for them.
The second stage is the delivery of manufactured elements to individual sections of the bridge and the transfer of necessary materials across Sivash to Russky Island for the construction of an embankment to the Crimean coast.
The third stage is the work of assembling the bridge. At this stage, each battalion carried out work in its own area. Regardless of the different working conditions at each individual site, the general principles of construction mentioned above remained valid.
Despite the tight deadline and harsh conditions, the bridge was technically sound and designed to withstand heavy loads.
We began testing the bridge by sending a tank across it without a turret. Then, at a certain distance, two tanks moved one after the other, and then tanks in full combat gear walked across the bridge. The results were good and the bridge was used at full capacity 24 hours a day.
By the end of December, on the initiative of the chief of the engineering troops of the 51st Army, Major General Bozhenov, construction of a second crossing began, four kilometers west of the bridge, which was mainly an earthen dam over 2600 meters long.
This gigantic earthen structure was erected by the 7th Engineer Brigade. Parts of our brigade were also involved in work on the dam, as they were freed from bridge construction.
The design of the dam was simple: the earth, which was taken first from the northern shore and then from the southern one, was transported in wheelbarrows and poured to the bottom of the sea along the axis of the dam. A gap formed in the middle of the dam and was blocked by a pontoon bridge. By the end of January, this huge structure was ready and acted as a second crossing over the Sivash. It consisted of two dams (northern - 700 meters long, southern - 600 meters long) and a pontoon bridge about 1350 meters long
Sivash secrets covered with silt
/NATALYA YAKIMOVA/
For four years now, on November 7, Sergei has been coming to the same place - the Litovsky Peninsula, surrounded on three sides by the muddy lead waters of Sivash. He spends a lot of time there in the summer, but November 7 is a special day, it is “not for work.” Sergei just stands on the shore and seems to lose the sense of time: 2 - 3 hours in the piercing wind pass unnoticed. He thinks that somewhere here, under the sticky black silt, lies his great-uncle Fyodor Sushkov, who went missing in 1920. And his own grandfather, Fyodor’s younger brother, Grigory Sushkov, probably also stayed somewhere with Sivash during the Great Patriotic War .
"You can call me a marauder"
It is difficult to find the right words for the activity to which Sergei devotes all his free time. A hefty thirty-five-year-old man begins to make forays into the Rotten Sea in the spring, digs up something near the shore, and several times makes crazy fords from shore to shore. Crazy - this is because there are still unexploded ordnance from the times of the Civil and Great Patriotic Wars at the bottom. Because a careless step is enough to fall into an underwater pit with sticky mud - and you will be sucked in, swallowed, and there is no one nearby to lend a hand...
Several years ago, we, three enthusiastic journalists, had an idea to cross the Sivash in the area of the Lithuanian Peninsula - like the Red Army soldiers of the 15th and 52nd armies in 1920, but it withered on the vine. We did not dare to venture into the water, not knowing the ford. And then they decided there was no need. No matter how they do it, we can’t do it. They walked on a frosty November night, loaded with ammunition, waist-deep in icy water in some places, waiting for the shore to approach - and were afraid of it. Because they were already firing from the shore, and not everyone was destined to set foot on Crimean soil. This terrible path was very sparingly described in memoirs, and now there are no survivors in this world. “At first, the bottom was hard near the shore. Then it began to creep more and more underfoot. Often there were holes that were difficult to pass even with markers. Splashing and horse snoring could be heard. The people did not make a single sound: not a groan, not a cry for help,” this is how Alexandra Yanysheva, who walked with the lead detachment, recalled the crossing.
Sergei walks through Sivash. Both from Litovsky and in the area of the Russian Peninsula (where soldiers of the Soviet Army crossed the gulf in 1944). “If you really want, you can call me a looter,” he prompts when he takes out boxes with his trophies. Well, yes, a marauder - like adults who hire teams of teenagers to rummage through the Perekop steppe, where the remains of thousands of unburied soldiers still lie. Sergei is tightly bound only to the contents of his boxes; all this is not for sale. And it is unlikely that this fantastic collection, which seems to connect two generations of those who died fighting for Crimea, has any commercial value even among history buffs. Here is a fragile, brittle piece. It turns out - from the top of the boot. Sergei hooked it with a probe during one of his transitions. On the lapel you can feel with your fingers the mark carved by the owner: “Metropolitan...” The buttons from the overcoat are from the Great Patriotic War. Spoon. Cigarette case with date of issue: 1913. A piece of binoculars. Rust-eaten round glasses without lenses.
The soldiers did not reach Crimea
Sergei came to the Lithuanian Peninsula for the first time on a school excursion when he was 12 years old. Then he came several times himself - his family lived in the Dzhankoy district, his parents moved here from the Kursk region in the 60s. My mother insisted on moving; she remembered that somewhere in these places her father, Grigory Sushkov, went missing. He went to the front in September 1941, leaving behind his wife and one-year-old daughter. The last letter was dated April 8, 1944, he wrote: “I can’t believe that in a few days I will be back where you and I spent an unforgettable summer, a year before we got married.” So, with hints, the soldiers let their loved ones know about the place where they were. He spent the summer that Grigory mentions in Crimea, in a sanatorium. I met my future wife on the train.
So the relatives understood: Gregory is very close to Crimea.
On April 11, 1944, Stalin declared gratitude to the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front for the successful breakthrough of the enemy’s defenses in Crimea and the liberation of Dzhankoy and Armyansk. And there were no more letters from Grigory Sushkov. A few months later, a notification came: he was missing. Back then they were afraid of this piece of paper even more than the funeral, although they consoled themselves with wonderful stories about those who had returned. Indeed, in most cases, “missing” meant “killed and unknown where he was buried.” The family did not receive a pension, since the breadwinner was not officially listed among the dead. Sergei is sure: his grandfather died in the battle of Sivash. It is possible that he lies in one of the mass graves, or maybe he remained somewhere at the bottom, near the shore. Here’s a coincidence: during the Civil War, during the crossing of Sivash, my grandfather’s older brother went missing; they were nine years apart. The album contains an old photograph of the large peasant family of the Sushkovs. A great-grandmother with sternly compressed lips, a great-grandfather in a constricting “ceremonial” jacket, and their children, lined up by height: three brothers and four sisters. Teenager Fyodor stands near a stool, supporting four-year-old Grisha. Who would have thought then that the eldest had six years to live, and the youngest would repeat his fate 32 years later?
Sergei buried the remains on the shore
I tell Sergei a story I heard from a friend, how a friend of a friend, wandering in Sivash not far from the shore - I don’t remember for what reason, came across a mummified body in a military overcoat. I hastily crumple up the details, until this time the story seemed to me nothing more than a scary fiction. "And what? - Sergei shrugs. - There are still a lot of them there. Hundreds? Thousands? Nobody knows how much. The commanders never took into account the losses of the rank and file. Most of the soldiers had no names left. Not everyone is as lucky as Prokhor...” Yes, Prokhor Ivanov’s name returned fifteen years later.
In the summer of 1935, a blacksmith from the Red Peninsula collective farm near Sivash went out on an unusual trade: in the shallowed Sivash he collected buckshot and shell fragments. Newspapers later wrote that the blacksmith showed conscientiousness in finding scarce metal for the collective farm. Old-timers said that many craftsmen made money this way by selling “left-handed” shovels, knives and other things needed in the household. Prying up another layer of mud, the blacksmith turned out... a human body. Sivash has well preserved the man who died 15 years ago; even the documents have been partially preserved. Based on them, it was possible to establish that the remains belonged to a 19-year-old native of the Kazan province, Prokhor Ivanov, “by order of the Soviet government, mobilized for military service in the ranks of the Red Army.” Prokhor Ivanov was buried in Armyansk with military honors. In a separate grave. Others got fraternal ones. Or none at all.
Sergei carefully unfolds the piece of paper, releasing another copy of his collection - a fragment about the size of a palm. “Before I set off through Sivash for the first time, I spent several years plotting the route and looking for fords. Well, of course, he rummaged, like that blacksmith, in shallow places. I even came up with a tool for myself: a metal mesh on a long pole. You walk and carefully drag it along the bottom with you. There is almost always some kind of “catch”. So, my net got stuck at the bottom. I dug around with a probe and picked it up - it seemed like something soft. On the shore I began to examine it: the rag is rigid, it does not fall apart in my hands, but breaks. I guessed it was a sleeve from an overcoat, and something heavy was tangled in it. Here is this fragment and... a piece of a human palm. With three fingers. Salted, hard, like wood. I buried him on the shore."
Sergei encountered the remains in Sivash again, rolling out a skull from the mud with his net. He then searched in this place for a long time, found several bones and buried them away from the water. Apparently, the dead soldier was buried on the shore without even making a mark, and then Sivash gnawed at the shore, washing out the remains.
What does he gain from his campaigns?
One day, several guys, a little younger than him, approached Sergei, who was getting ready for another trip from shore to shore. They didn’t beat around the bush for long. They asked what he got from his campaigns. That is, what kind of trophies can be found in Sivash. Sergei guessed: “colleagues”, looters. But he showed the finds. They were disappointed - indeed, you can’t sell it. What's the point of taking such risks then?
Sergei himself cannot answer this question. His wife didn’t understand him for a long time either: other men pull fish out of water, but this one is a piece of iron. Once I even went fishing with him. I stood for a long time near the monument to those killed on the Lithuanian Peninsula, held a rusty cartridge case stuck in the mesh in my palm, and, apparently, also felt something.
Sergei has collected several shelves of books with at least a line about the crossing of the Sivash during the Civil and Great Patriotic Wars, and corresponds with his hobby colleagues. He, who crossed Sivash more than once, never stayed there on the night of November 7-8. Not because it’s already cold in the tent and you can’t even walk along the shore with your tools. He says it's scary. Several times, while staying overnight on the shore, Sergei felt that the quiet splash of the small waves of the bay suddenly disappeared. The calm silence gives way to a wary silence. And you can hear the slurping of dirt. It’s as if many feet are kneading the sticky mud of Sivash.
| Created March 19, 2009 | |||||||||
Comment by legendaryw8forit
From Anshlun's guide:"Nether Disruptor
The Nether Disruptor unlocks the Epic Hunter perk, which provides the following:
Four new World Bosses unlock on the Broken Shore: Si"vash, Apocron, Malificus, Brutallus. These bosses drop ilvl 890 loot.
Unstable Nether Portals spawn across the Broken Shore; use a Nether Portal Disruptor to summon the elite.
Crafters earn Armorcrafter "s Commendation which are related to the new crafted legendaries."
TLDR: the Nether Disruptor needs to be up (this is one of the 3 buildings that you can contribute to) to fight against this boss
Comment by JackLenY
Feel the Velvet.damn that bis relic mmm
Comment by JackLenY
This is Chivas Life.damn that bis relic mmm
Comment by antoniofari
Um dos 4 world bosses que aparece quando o disruptor esta ativo.Vi dois deles no mapa mas nao duraram nem 10 minutos qd olhei novamente ja tinham sumido. E depois nao vi mais infelizmente.
Comment by zeitgeist99
Defeating her grants 500 rep with the Armies of LegionfallComment by lucidfox
Interesting that this boss is a naga wearing an armor set available to players – specifically, .Testing the waters for playable naga in the future, perhaps?
Brutallus /way Broken Shore 59.1, 28.4 Brutallus
Apocron /way Broken Shore 60.0, 62.7 Apocron
Malificus /way Broken Shore 59.3, 28.5 Malificus
Note that this boss, like the other Broken Shore World Bosses, only spawn while the Nether Disruptor is active.
For defeating Si"vash , you also receive 500 Armies of Legionfall reputation.
Comment by Cheatndeath
Got my first legendary from this NPc last night (Sephuz’s Secret) - prot spec’d!Comment by Pangolin
The drops are not guaranteed. I never got any drop from her, only reputation points. However everytime I did kill her I was in a LFG raid and a legendary dropped for someone, among epic quality items for others. All the items of epic quality had an item level of at least 900.On November 1, 1943, the operation to cross Sivash began. The battles to hold the bridgehead continued until April 8, 1944. In incredibly difficult conditions, manpower, heavy military equipment, ammunition, food... and even drinking water were transferred from the mainland to the peninsula. In 158 days, the entire 51st Army and the 19th Tank Corps attached to it were transported through Sivash.
Repeated the feat
From the Sivash bridgehead, the Soviet command planned to deliver the main blow to the enemy, aimed at liberating Crimea. Marshal of the Soviet Union Alexander Vasilevsky later wrote: “The enemy clung to Crimea until the last opportunity. Owning it, the Nazis could keep the entire Black Sea coast under constant threat and put pressure on the policies of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey.”
The Sivash bridgehead was of strategic importance. In this regard, the commander of the 4th Ukrainian Front, Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbukhin, gave the order to keep the upcoming operation to force the Sivash secret.
The Nazis considered Sivash impassable. But it was not so.
On November 1, 1943, the advanced units of the 51st Army, led by Yakov Grigorievich Kreiser, began crossing the Rotten Sea, the muddy and viscous bottom of which made the task several times more difficult. Noticing the advance of the Soviet troops, the German command urgently began to transfer new forces from the reserve: 11 different battalions, up to 50 tanks and assault guns, and increasingly intensified artillery strikes.
However, having overcome water barriers, Soviet soldiers still managed to seize a bridgehead on the northern coast of the Crimean Peninsula, 8–9 kilometers long. They literally repeated the legendary feat of the Red Army soldiers who crossed the Sivash in 1920 under the command of Mikhail Vasilyevich Frunze.
Meter by meter, biting into the frozen ground, the soldiers dug trenches and moved towards the enemy. The formation of the main forces had to be carried out only thanks to the infantry and special forces of divisions and regiments, which were armed with portable weapons and light equipment. All artillery remained on the mainland, beyond Sivash. It was necessary to transport 45 and 76 mm guns. Therefore, immediately after crossing the bay, the crossing of weapons and food began.
The soldiers, waist-deep in icy water, spent 10-15 hours a day dragging loaded watercraft. My legs were numb and the salt was corroding my skin.
Thus, from November 1 to November 9, 1943, 248 mortars, 15 howitzers, 45 vehicles, 189 horses, 165 boxes of ammunition and 20 tons of food were delivered to the peninsula. 12 engineer brigades carried 10 thousand mines and 100 guided landmines. A kilometer and a half of field water pipeline was laid along the bottom of Sivash.
The artery operated for 30 days to provide the Sivash bridgehead. But the difficult situation urgently required more powerful weapons. To transport heavy artillery and tanks, it was necessary to build a bridge. And the front command made this decision.
Glory to the heroes of Sivash!
On November 5, the chief of the engineering troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front, Lieutenant General Petrov, arrived and announced the order of the front commander to immediately begin construction of a bridge across the Sivash.
Assembly of the bridge began on November 10th. They worked both day and night. The soldiers showed unprecedented heroism. Water temperature 7-8°C, constant bombing, shelling. If the weather was bad, the planes did not fly, but the shelling continued.
The front command allowed the use of the rails of the narrow-gauge railway Kherson - Dzhankoy. Thus, the issue of longitudinal fastening of the bridge was resolved. It was allowed to use logs from household and even residential buildings in nearby settlements as building materials.
Red Army soldiers could work in icy water for no more than 30 minutes. After which they went ashore, took off their overcoats and rested for an hour and a half in the dugout, where there was a red-hot barrel. After drying our things, we jumped out of the bunks and again into the water. After 20 days the bridge was ready.
