[烛光生存狂]-【卫国战争老兵回忆】阿纳托利·肯杰尔斯基(12.24更新)

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I was almost nineteen when the war started. At that time I was a repair mechanic at a big Moscow motor-transport depot. Soon some fellow-propagandist of the district Komsomol committee came and said: “Guys, you are young, aren’t you? So, you could enlist yourselves in the Red Army as volunteers.” And almost all of us, at the head of our foreman, Ivan Kutuzov went to enlist.

We were enlisted in the Separate Tank Company of the 8th Moscow Rifle Division of People’s Militia of the Krasnaia Presnia District (later the division was renamed to 8th Rifle Division). The company commander was Patsenko Boris Kazimirovich, the former second or third secretary of the Krasnaia Presnia District Communist Party Committee (his wife served with the same company as a medical instructor). The political deputy company commander was Iudovich, a Jew.

我们被编入了红色普列尼区莫斯科民兵第八师独立坦克连（后来该师改名为第8步兵师）。连长叫Patsenko Boris Kazimirovich，之前是红色普列尼区党委第二或是第三书记。（他的妻子也在连里做卫生员）。连副指导员叫尤多维奇，一个犹太人。

The armament of the company consisted of 17 T-27 tankettes (small tanks). The T-27 was rather a true plaything: the weight – only 1.5 metric tons; both the armor and the engine – very weak. The entrance of T-27 was trough a hatch in the roof. With my height, I hardly squeezed myself into the tankette. After entering the tankette you should let the hatch cover sink down to close. (T-40 – Patsenko’s tankette was somewhat roomier).

The T-27 crew consisted of two members – a machine gunner and a driver. The latter was supposed to be the tankette commander, but actually they were as equals. In my crew I was the driver and Yurka Sharf was the machine gunner. Our armament was the DT machine gun with just three magazines. Do you think the ammunition was too scanty? There was even a rifle shortage at that time! I heard that an order was issued: to undress killed soldiers before burying them and to give their uniform to the living ones…

By the beginning of September our division went by train to the front. We were lucky: as soon as our train raced past the Viaz’ma railroad station, the Germans ran a huge bombing raid on the station. Everything was destroyed and mixed with the earth there…

Our initial mission at the front was to liquidate a quite numerous German airborne landing detachment that had landed not far from the city of Viaz’ma. Part of it had scattered, and we annihilated the other part. Then we were shifted to the town of Yel’nia area. Our mission was to liberate the town. Just before the attack Patsenko addressed all of us: “Fellows, we must show our worth! Each of you will be awarded with the Order of the Red Banner!” It was so tempting to all of the young crewmen!

We liberated Yel’nia on 8 October 1941 almost without losses – only one tankette had been put out of action. And on 17 October (I remember this date exactly – it was my 19th birthday) our division was smashed violently. My tankette had been hit. It was a direct hit from the Yurka’s side and a shell fragment ripped open his belly and his bowels tumbled on the engine. Another fragment brushed my head just on the rebound and flowing blood covered my eyes. At first I thought that I was killed but in a moment everything had been changed. I rubbed my eyes and saw Yurka dying. To get out of the tankette I began raising myself a little and suddenly a male voice sounded in Russian: “Rus, surrender!” Through the open space between the roof and the hatch cower I saw that I was at rifle point. And I was unarmed – two grenades were at my feet but to take one I needed to stoop – a perfect signal to the German to pull the trigger. I was in a stalemate position! I still pray for this German… Why did he not fire? I lifted the hatch up and scrambled out of the tankette. So I was taken prisoner. They gathered about 15 of us and drove to the Roslavl’ prisoner-of-war camp.

Ordinary soldiers, not the SS policemen, guarded us in the truck. We saw there a few boxes with Soviet strong papirosses (a kind of cigarettes) “Belomor” and with tinned stewed meat. Of course, these boxes were robbed from somewhere. Our guards were generous: each of us was given a can of stewed meat and five packs of “Belomor.” No brutality, no killing prisoners – I have no claims against how they treated us. And I feel only gratitude to those who took me prisoner. Otherwise I could have been finished off many years ago. That German needed only to press the trigger…

What was the camp? A spacious field enclosed with a barbed wire, a wooden watchtower with a weak searchlight, and a barn – the shelter for the German sentries. And ours, prisoners’ position was just earth, although it was October already with its wet weather and snowfalls. Can you imagine it? All – dead, living, injured – all were gathered at random.

I didn’t see any search for the “commissars” and Jews. Every day an employer came, he tried to hire metal turners, metalworkers and repair mechanics. Standing on an elevated place, he called: “Those who don’t want to kick the bucket, can work for the Reich!”Many prisoners offered themselves and were driven deeper behind the German lines. Since my fellows and I were patriots, none of us did.

许多战俘毛遂自荐，要求将他们送到德军战线后方去。我和我的伙计们没有这样做，因为我们都是爱国者。

How the Germans fed us? Three wagons arrived with a huge tube on each. The food in the tubes was half-cooked potato. The feeders dumped out the potato on the earth and people snatched it away some by hand, others – with empty cans. Don’t wonder at them. If unfed – you’d pounce on the food like a wild animal.

On the fifth day being in the camp seven of us came together: “What would we do, guys? We may kick the bucket here.” Since we were young and fervent, our decision was resolute – to escape. The distance between the camp and the forest was about one kilometer. At night we quietly squeezed under the wire entanglement and continued crawling… Fools! We should have crawled farther but we couldn’t bear it any longer and rose to our full height. In a moment the German machine gun began shooting at us from the watchtower. The runaways scattered in all directions. Three of us reached the forest together. Maybe others reached it, too. However, I didn’t see them anymore.

Since the day when I was captured the German troops advanced almost to the border of Moscow oblast’ (province); they seized the towns of Kozel’sk and Odoev. In short, it meant that we had to beat our long way through their garrisons…

We escaped on 22 October and got out of the encirclement on 22 December. The odyssey lasted two months! I still hardly believe in its reality. How could we survive and be out of the Germans’ eyes?

Our main food was the horseflesh. We found a frozen dead body of a horse and cut off a piece. Then it was boiled in a can for about an hour and a half, while the broth foamed. Anyway, the meal remained almost unchewable. Sometimes we managed to find a village that was free of Germans. The villagers always gave us some food.

We passed Kozel’sk, there was a village of Khoten’ (or maybe Khoten’ka) near the town, and the Germans were situated in it. We lodged in a wooden bathhouse at the bank of a river in some 500 meters from the village.

At night we heard a rifle, machine gun and cannons fire not far off. Before dawn suddenly a hubbub and a sledge’s creak from the road was heard. One of us left the bathhouse to see what is going on around us. In a minute he returned and said: “Guys, it is dark outdoors but it seemed to me that they spoke Russian and used Russian foul language.” We decided to wait until dawn – otherwise we could bump into Germans

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