Monday 14 December 2015

PTR vs Panther

"Award Order
  1. Name: Oboldin, Saveliy Savelyevich
  2. Rank: Sergeant
  3. Position, unit: AT rifle crew commander, 2nd Battalion, 32nd Korsun, Order of the Red Banner Motorized Infantry Brigade, 18th Znamensk, Order of the Red Banner Tank Brigade, 3rd Ukrainian Front
    is nominated for the state award of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
  4. Year of birth: 1922
  5. Nationality: Russian
  6. Party affiliation: VLSKM member since July 1943
  7. Participation in the Civil War, subsequent actions in defense of the USSR, Patriotic War (where, when): October 15th, 1943 through November 1st, 1944: 2nd Ukrainian Front, 3rd Ukrainian Front since November 1944.
  8. Wounds or concussions in the Patriotic War: lightly wounded on January 10th, 1944
  9. In the Red Army since: September 1st, 1943
  10. Recruited by: Olkhov recruitment office, Kurgansk oblast
  11. Prior awards: none
Brief and specific description of heroism or achievements: Sergeant Oboldin walked the warpath with his battalion. During action to surround and liquidate the Budapest group and liquidate the German offensive north-west of Budapest, he served as an anti-tank rifle crew commander, demonstrated heroism, skill, and bravery.

In battles for Vertishacha (Hungary), on the night of December 22nd to 23rd, 1944, Sergeant Oboldin asked for permission to form a tank destroyer squad, and then took command of it. After discovering 8 enemy tanks at the north-western outskirts of the village, Sergeant Oboldin set objectives for every group member and headed to the lead tank. He stealthily approached the tank and threw an anti-tank grenade. The tank was destroyed. On the Sergeant's signal, the rest of the group threw grenades and opened suppressing fire from rifles and machineguns. These actions caused panic among the enemy. Tank crews located in houses ran out and were gunned down by Oboldin's group. Only a small number managed to get away. As a result of Sergeant Oboldin's swift action, 3 PzV tanks were knocked out and 4 captured intact. Sergeant Oboldin was instrumental in achieving this objective.

On January 3rd, 1945, in battle for the Baina settlement, with Private Azizov was wounded, Sergeant Obodin took has AT rifle and knocked out a PzV tank that was moving along the central road towards the church. After that, he also destroyed an enemy APC.

Seeing the support of the famous AT rifleman, the infantry rushed into an attack yelling "Ura!" and the village was taken.

The rifleman was seriously injured in this battle, but without leaving the battlefield he encouraged his soldiers to "Kill the bastards, destroy them completely!"

He is worthy of the state award of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union."

CAMD RF 33-793756-35

4 comments:

  1. Correct name of transcribed (from Cyrillic?) settlement names: Vértesacsa and Bajna.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, it's always a massive pain to figure out the place based on 70 year old transliterations.

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  2. And that, ladies and gents, is why the Panther II project was a thing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...although they went with the skirts in the end. (That project contributed a much more robust final drive to the Jagdpanther however.) Damn things tended not stay on in obstructed terrain though...

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