Tuesday 22 November 2016

Four Days in No Man's Land

"Order to Award
Tank company commander of the 50th Independent Guards Heavy Tank Regiment, Guards Captain Belogub, Nikolai Danilovich
with the Order of the Red Banner
  1. Year of Birth: 1913
  2. Nationality: Ukrainian
  3. Social status: worker
  4. Party affiliation: VKP(b) member since 1940
  5. In the RKKA since: 1934
  6. Participation in the Civil War: No. Participated in the Patriotic War
  7. Wounds, contusions: wounded and contused
  8. Prior award nominations; not nominated
  9. Prior awards or distinctions: not awarded
  10. Service in the White or other bourgeois armies or presence in captivity: did not serve, was not captured.
Brief and specific description of combat heroism or achievements: On March 19th, 1943, during an attack, his tank was disabled by a mine, and comrade Belogub exited the tank in order to render assistance. Another explosion contused him, but he did not leave his tank.

On March 22nd, 1943, he courageously and decisively led his company into battle, broke through the enemy's fortifications, and fought an uneven battle. Under nonstop artillery and mortar fire, he destroyed enemy soldiers and strongholds. His tank was knocked out with a bundle of grenades behind enemy lines.

Comrade Belogub and his crew staunchly and bravely defended their tank for four days from one fierce enemy attack after another, while under artillery and mortar fire. On March 23rd and 24th, having already been wounded, he deflected six enemy counterattacks. He destroyed: two dugouts, three anti-tank rifles, one mortar, 3 AT guns, a warehouse, and dozens of fascists, as well as suppressing two dugouts with his fire.

The enemy showered his tank with a hail of shells, mines, and grenades, pelted it in Molotov cocktails, called on him to surrender and even erected a cross in from of him in the trenches, but comrade Belogub always replied with deadly fire, clearing the way for infantry.

From artillery and anti-tank rifle fire, all hatches of the tank were jammed except for the emergency hatch. The turret optics were shattered, the enemy's fire pinned down the crew inside the tank. 

Without a moment of rest from the fire, comrade Belogub and his crew repaired their tank and on March 26th, left the battlefield.

In this struggle, comrade Belogub displayed courage, tenacity, heroism, and unlimited devotion to the cause of the party of Lenin and Stalin and his socialist motherland. He is worthy of the government award: Order of the Red Star."

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