1941

Scouts of the 1st Detachment if the 506th Independent Mortar Regiment of High Command Reserve: A. Smirnov, D. Malikov, N. Malika, M. Zhitelev and I. Chistov who were the first to storm into enemy trenches during the breakthrough of a heavily fortified defensive belt north of Novgorod, capturing 8 enemy soldiers and a Nazi flag. Senior Lieutenant N. Malika was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the 506th Regiment was given the honorific title "Novgorodsky" in the aftermath of the operation. Volkhov front, January 1944 Alexander Shmidke ‎

Two pictures of a rather rare Br-2 152mm gun. On the first photo the Head of Artillery of the Leningrad Front Lieutenant-General G.F. Odintsov stands in front of the gun (center), on the second - the personnel of Captain Amelichev's battery which employed such guns snd served as a counter-battery fire unit on the Leningrad Front. Both pictures were taken in the courtyard of the Siege of Leningrad museum, founded in 1943 and destroyed in 1949-1951 at Stalin's order in the aftermath of the Leningrad Affair. Alexander Shmidke

On December 17, 1941 the pilot On December 17, 1941 the pilot Peter Pilytov set out on a mission to escort 9 Li-2 transport planes which carried women and children from Leningrad to an airfield near Novaya Ladoga. Normally transport planes were protected by several fighter planes, especially when they carried passengers. However, these were unusual circumstances and he had to scrable his P-40 "Kittyhawk" alone... Pilyutov led a wing of 4 fighter planes when he arrived at the Komendantsky airfield in Lenignrad, however a couple of planes were urgently recalled to Kronstadt while another one was damaged during a sudden artillery raid. The shelling might have destroyed the planes with the children who had already boarded them, and this prompted the commanders order the planes to take off immediately. The Li-2's were flying at an extremely low altitude while the escorting fighter flew just under the rim of the clouds. This made it more convenient for the pilots to observ...