What WWII trophies do you have at home. Famous trophies of the Great Patriotic War

They have always accompanied wars as symbolic and material results of victory over the enemy. In the modern era (according to international laws and customs of war), it is customary to understand trophies captured from the enemy as weapons, military property, food, military-industrial equipment, stocks of raw materials and finished products intended to meet the needs of the armed forces of a belligerent state.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Army did not have an independent trophy service. The collection and sale of trophy property was carried out by trophy commissions created from representatives of the content services. Only after a radical restructuring of the rear system Soviet army(August 1941) the first attempt was made to unite the trophy business in the hands of a single body. In the center, the evacuation department of the Logistics Headquarters of the Soviet Army, formed from the economic department of the General Staff, became such an organ, and in the fronts - evacuation departments in the rear departments and authorized to collect trophy and unusable property under the commanders of the military branches and heads of content services. In the armies, evacuation departments were created in the rear departments, authorized officers were appointed to collect trophy and unusable property, there were army warehouses of unusable property. Trophy-evacuation departments were introduced directly into the troops at the headquarters of divisions and authorized to collect trophy and unusable property in the regiments. At the end of September 1941, working teams began to be created in the rifle and artillery units to collect military equipment.

The adopted structure corresponded to the tasks of evacuating military bases from threatened areas and, especially, assisting civil authorities in relocating industry to the east. The fulfillment of this task, as the English historian A. Werth testifies, “should be attributed to the most amazing organizational and human feats of the Soviet Union during the war” 460.

However, the structure of trophy-evacuation bodies that had developed at this stage, suitable for evacuation, turned out to be not adapted to solving such problems as collecting captured weapons, property and scrap metal. This was especially revealed after the defeat of the Nazi troops near Moscow. Suffice it to recall that in the period from November 16 to December 10, 1941 alone, the enemy lost 870 vehicles, 1434 tanks, 575 guns, 339 mortars, 5416 machine guns and tens of thousands of machine guns and 461 rifles.

The order of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR dated December 18, 1941 stated that "in the rear of the Western Front there is no organized collection trophy property is not produced ... The absence of any protection of property abandoned by the enemy leads to the fact that the population freely takes this property.

The greatest weakness of the trophy-evacuation organs was the lack of their own forces and means. Regimental trophy teams often turned out to be understaffed, and in some cases even unformed. Meanwhile, the number of trophies grew. There was a need to create a specialized service with governing bodies, parts and technical means. An important step in this direction was the GKO resolution in March 1942 "On the organization of the collection and export of trophy property and scrap of ferrous and non-ferrous metals."

In accordance with this resolution, two permanent commissions were created under the State Defense Committee - the Central Commission for the collection of captured weapons and property, chaired by Marshal of the Soviet Union S. M. Budyonny and the Central Commission for the collection of ferrous and non-ferrous metals in the front line, chaired by N. M. Shvernik . As part of the Main Directorate of Logistics of the Soviet Army, a Directorate for the collection and use of captured weapons, property and scrap metal was formed, and similar departments were formed in the fronts and combined arms armies. In divisions, trophy-evacuation departments were reorganized into departments for the collection of trophy property and scrap metal, subordinate to the division commander. Representatives remained in the regiments. Of particular importance was the decision to form, as needed, for each combined arms army one trophy company of up to 200 people. Army warehouses of worthless property were converted into warehouses for the acceptance and dispatch of trophy property and scrap metal. Civilian organizations - Glavvtorchermet and Glavvtortsvetmet were instructed to allocate sorting and cutting bases for accepting various scrap metal from the fronts.

In April 1942, instructions were issued for the collection, cutting and removal of captured weapons, property and scrap metal. In it, the main tasks of the trophy service were determined by the identification, collection and sale of captured weapons, property and scrap metal.

The expansion of the scope of work with captured weapons, ammunition and explosives has necessitated special measures to prevent explosions. By order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR of June 3, 1942, there was a case of gross violation of the rules of explosiveness when sending captured ammunition. The same order introduced “explosive certificates” signed by a pyrotechnic specialist. More serious attention began to be paid to staffing the service with relevant specialists, as well as combat and technical training of personnel of the trophy service.

Despite organizational difficulties, understaffing of units, insufficient technical equipment, the work of the trophy service has improved significantly. In May 1942, 105,525 tons of ferrous scrap metal were collected and removed, while the target was 70,000 tons, that is, 150 percent of the plan; of non-ferrous scrap metal, with a target of 2000 tons, 4209 tons were collected - twice the planned target of 462. At the same time, the service was engaged in identifying, accounting, protecting and evacuating ownerless military and civilian property, repairing vehicles, collecting and sending the skins of fallen animals, scrap rubber, steel helmets, cartridge cases and special closures, collection of the most scarce materials, spare parts and details.

New tasks arose before the trophy service after the defeat of the Nazi troops near Stalingrad and the subsequent winter offensive of the Soviet Army. To clear the battlefields of huge amount military equipment and weapons on the basis of the trophy department of the former Don Front (headed by Lieutenant Colonel Pletnitsky), a special reinforced trophy department was created. The department was given seven army trophy companies, five army battalions, a front-line trophy brigade, an evacuation brigade, seven army trophy depots, three separate work battalions, an evacuation and evacuation diving detachment 463.

The increased scope and pace of offensive operations required further strengthening of captured organs and increasing their maneuverability. Indeed, only during the period of the winter offensive of the Soviet Army (November 1942 - March 31, 1943) our troops captured 1490 aircraft, 4679 tanks, 15 860 guns different caliber, 9,835 mortars, 30,705 machine guns, over 500,000 rifles, 17 million shells, 123,000 vehicles, 890 locomotives, 22,000 wagons, 1,825 warehouses, a large number of radio stations, motorcycles and many other military equipment 464.

Mass liberation of Soviet lands, unfolding restoration National economy in the liberated territories put forward tasks of national economic importance for the trophy service. It was necessary to ensure the protection of enterprises before they were accepted by local Soviet authorities. Especially importance acquired the need to clean railway stations, roads, enterprises and fields from explosive objects and substances. In order not to distract engineering troops from their tasks to ensure combat operations, all these activities were assigned to the trophy service. New forces and means, special training, courage and initiative of the personnel were required.

Simultaneously with the trophies, our troops recaptured equipment, valuable metals, various national economic property, food, works of art, cultural values, etc., stolen from the enemy on Soviet soil. and warehouses, in troop transports. All this had to be identified, concentrated, preserved and transferred to the relevant organizations. The trophy service was actively involved in helping local authorities and the population of the liberated areas in providing food, restoring enterprises, housing, hospitals, schools, repairing agricultural equipment, etc. All this urgently demanded that the system of captured organs, their structure, forces and means be brought into line with the increased tasks.

In order to improve the trophy service under the GKO, instead of the two existing commissions, the Trophy Committee was created, headed by Marshal of the Soviet Union K. E. Voroshilov. The Directorate for the collection and use of captured weapons, property and scrap metal, headed by Lieutenant General F. I. Vakhitov, was reorganized into the Main Trophy Directorate and subordinated to this committee. Front trophy departments, later reorganized into directorates, were administratively reassigned to the Main Trophy Directorate of the GKO, and operationally - to the military councils of the fronts. Trophy departments of armies and trophy departments of divisions ( separate brigades) were reassigned to the respective commander(s). Trophy departments were also formed in the buildings. The commanders of formations and units were allowed to form, as necessary, additional temporary non-standard teams.

Along with the reorganization of the control bodies of the trophy service, the formation of new trophy units began. The army link was strengthened by creating army trophy battalions and special dismantling platoons at army trophy warehouses. The air armies were given special technical trophy companies. Front-line trophy brigades were created for the front-line link. The southwestern, Don and Voronezh fronts, in addition, were given one evacuation detachment each to evacuate stuck and sunken captured tanks and other heavyweights. By order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated January 5, 1943, the institute of commandant posts was introduced with the task of timely detection, accounting, collection, storage and export of captured and abandoned domestic weapons, property, food forage and scrap metal in settlements liberated from the enemy. An important step towards building up the forces and means of the trophy service was the formation of five railway evacuation trains. Each train had a team of 200 people and up to 20 powerful tractors. In addition, they were equipped with lifting and rigging and diving equipment for the evacuation of heavyweights.

All this significantly strengthened the trophy service and had a positive effect on the results of its work. In 1943, 133,799 wagons of cargo were sent to the deep rear, of which 21,114 wagons of weapons and property and 112,685 wagons of scrap metal 465.

However, by the end of 1943, there were still shortcomings in the work of the trophy service. Captured units and subunits, as well as their operational groups, in a number of cases lagged behind the combat units, reached the captured objects late. The main reason is the lack of efficiency in the leadership of the trophy organs, as well as the weakness of the military unit of the trophy service. Meanwhile, the situation, nature and scale of offensive operations in 1944 put forward new tasks for the trophy service, which required a significant increase in its efficiency and mobility. For this purpose, tank, mechanized and cavalry formations, which, as a rule, were the first to go behind enemy lines and discover trophy objects before other troops, were given trophy companies, dismantling platoons and trophy warehouses. In addition, three separate evacuation rigging detachments were additionally formed to perform complex lifting and rigging work during the evacuation of heavyweights, especially to retrieve sunken or stuck military equipment.

In 1944, using the experience of clearing the Stalingrad rear area, two special trophy directorates (Ukrainian and Belorussian) were created, subordinate to the Main Trophy Directorate. Their task was to clear the areas beyond the rear borders of the active fronts from broken equipment, weapons, explosives and scrap metal. In February 1944, the State Defense Committee assigned responsibility for the final clearance of these areas from explosive substances and remnants of trophy and domestic weapons and property to the voluntary organization Osoaviakhim.

A very important role in the further strengthening of the trophy service was played by the new Regulations on trophy organs, units and institutions of the Soviet Army, approved by the chairman of the Trophy Committee of the State Defense Committee and announced in the order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR. In this Regulation, summarizing the experience of trophy organs, the most comprehensive formulation of the tasks of the trophy service was given: “Trophy organs, units and institutions of the Soviet Army ensure the collection, protection, accounting, export and delivery of captured weapons, ammunition, military equipment, food forage, fuel and other military and national economic values captured by the Soviet Army from the enemy.

The further they moved fighting to the west, the more our troops seized from the enemy Soviet equipment, national economic property and cultural property, which were destined for export to fascist Germany, from the enemy. In Odessa alone, the trophy organs of the 3rd Ukrainian Front discovered 1,900 wagons loaded with property looted by the Nazis in Ukraine. On the Danube, as well as in the ports of Romania and Bulgaria, more than 109 barges with various national economic goods (equipment, food, etc.) were returned. And if local economic objects (factories, warehouses, etc.) were enough to take into account, protect, and then transfer to local authorities, then in relation to the mentioned property, it was still necessary to establish its ownership and organize shipment to its destination.

The scale of economic work increased especially after the entry of our troops into East Prussia. Here at first there was a difficult situation. The population was completely forcibly taken out by the Nazi command, all areas of the economy were inactive. Meanwhile, among the huge number of abandoned enterprises and household property, more and more Soviet industrial and power equipment, agricultural machinery, cultural and other valuables, taken out by fascist robbers from the USSR, turned out to be more and more. The trophy organs of the 3rd Belorussian Front found: machine tools of the Minsk plant named after S. M. Kirov, scales of the Minsk weight plant "Drummer", furniture and theatrical costumes of the Belarusian Opera and Ballet Theater and the Vitebsk State Drama Theater, furniture of the Government House of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic etc. In total, in a small area (25-30 km along the front and 12-15 km in depth) there were 3200 wagons of various equipment and property.

Along with the solution of national economic tasks, the trophy service took an active part in helping the population liberated from fascist enslavement, in providing food, restoring the activities of enterprises, communal and cultural institutions, schools, transport, etc. So, in accordance with the government decision, the Soviet command issued two million shillings for the restoration of the Vienna Opera building, destroyed by American aircraft, and also provided building materials, transferred and brought up by the trophy service. In addition, the trophy service on the instructions of the command provided assistance partisan detachments and allied formations. For example, the trophy department of the 3rd Ukrainian Front delivered fuel and ammunition to the Bulgarian and Yugoslav armies directly to combat positions.

In June 1944, the trophy agencies were given the task of clearing the most important railway stations and ports that were part of the army and front rear areas of trophies and explosive objects. By August 17, 1944, 1433 railway stations were cleared and about 8 million explosive shells, mines, bombs, etc. were destroyed. By January 1, 1945, 3574 railway stations and 12 ports 466 had already been completely cleared.

Despite the large diversion of forces and resources to work in national economic facilities, the trophy service also coped with its most important task - the collection, sale and shipment of weapons, military equipment and scrap metal. The volume of this work in 1944 increased significantly in comparison with all previous periods. The government plan for the collection and shipment of scrap metal was fulfilled by 126 percent for black scrap, and by 220.8 percent for non-ferrous scrap. The volume of evacuation work of the trophy service in 1944 is evidenced by the following data: 130,344 wagons were shipped with weapons and scrap metal alone. The chairman of the Trophy Committee, Marshal of the Soviet Union K. E. Voroshilov, wrote: “In the offensive operations of the Soviet Army, captured units ensured the timely collection and removal of captured and domestic weapons, ammunition, military equipment, taking their place in the combat formations of the active troops. Trophy units in 1944 successfully completed the tasks assigned to them. In 1944, 3674 officers, sergeants and soldiers of the trophy service were awarded orders and medals.

Quite characteristic of the third period of the Great Patriotic War was the increasing role of trophy service in solving military-economic problems in preparation for and during operations. So, in preparation Vienna operation When the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front were to advance through the oil-bearing region of Nagykanizsa (Hungary), the Military Council of the front took into account in advance not only the special importance for the enemy of this region with adjacent oil refineries, but also its importance for the subsequent supply of our troops with fuel. The trophy and fuel supply departments of the front were instructed to clarify the location and condition of the plants, determine the direction of the oil pipeline to the Danube, the places of its control joints and pumping stations, and also provide for measures for the protection and timely organization of the operation of the oil-bearing region. The air army was instructed by the front command not to bomb these objects. The oil-industrial region of Nagykanizsa was liberated by the Soviet troops without serious damage and in the future could provide a significant part of the fuel demand of the front. The Hungarian people received this region, vital for the country's economy, in working order.

As the Soviet troops advanced deep into Nazi Germany, the number of captured military-economic facilities increased - bases and warehouses for weapons, food and fodder, fuels and lubricants, strategic raw materials, military enterprises, etc. In the order of the Supreme Commander of February 23, 1945, among trophies that our troops got during the 40 days of the offensive, military factories producing tanks, aircraft, weapons and ammunition are indicated. All these trophies had to be taken into account and protected, which caused the dispersal of forces and means of trophy organs.

On the 1st Ukrainian Front, for example, during Vistula-Oder operation trophy parts in short term so dispersed all the personnel to guard bases, warehouses and other objects that the trophy artillery depot in Valya-Visnava, which had a perimeter of 14 km, was guarded by only 36 soldiers 467. Dozens and hundreds of small warehouses were left unguarded, not to mention the scattered trophy national economic property. At the same time, the volume of tasks for the collection and evacuation of captured military equipment, weapons, ammunition and other property has also increased. Only during the period of the Berlin operation in the bands of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, according to far from complete data, 4510 aircraft, 1550 tanks and self-propelled guns, 565 armored vehicles and armored personnel carriers, 8613 guns, 2304 mortars, 19 393 machine guns, 179 071 rifles and machine guns, 876 tractors and tractors, 9,340 motorcycles, 25,289 bicycles, 8,261 wagons, 363 locomotives, 22,659 wagons, 34,000 shells, 360,000 screw cartridges, 34,886 faust cartridges, etc. Given the lack of forces and means of the trophy service, the command of the fronts provided it with possible assistance. For example, the commander of the 1st Belorussian Front, in a directive dated January 20, 1945, ordered that in addition to the captured teams, one rifle company be allocated in each division, providing them with transport and tractors.

One of important tasks trophy service at the final stage of the war was the concern for the protection of historical and cultural values (museums, art galleries, etc.) in the territory liberated from the enemy. This was one of the manifestations of the liberation mission of the Soviet Army. For example, during the February battles in East Prussia, museum and archival materials relating to the life and work of the great Polish astronomer N. Copernicus were saved from destruction, subsequently transferred to the Polish state 468. It is widely known about the role played by the Soviet Army in saving the world famous Dresden Art Gallery. Together with the workers of the trophy service, a group of Moscow specialists, headed by an art critic, now a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Arts, N. Sokolova, took an active part in the search for paintings.

The new tasks that arose before the trophy service in this period of the war necessitated its further strengthening. In April 1944, quartermaster trophy departments were established in the Main and front trophy directorates, and departments in the trophy departments of the armies. By order of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR dated January 19, 1945, the position of deputy chief of logistics for trophies was introduced in the fronts and armies, departments for accounting and use of trophy national economic property were organized in the rear headquarters, and assistants to military commandants for economic questions. To provide the newly created bodies with the necessary forces and means, in February 1945 five central bases of trophy national economic property were formed, one worker battalion and one autor for each of them. On the fronts operating outside the USSR, one front-line autobattalion was formed, and in each army - one - three working battalions, a trophy base with a service company, an automobile company and three - five herds of cattle.

However, the measures taken did not give the desired results. At that time, there were, as it were, two trophy services in parallel with their units and institutions. And although total their forces and means increased sharply, their use was ineffective. In this regard, the Trophy Committee under the State Defense Committee was abolished, and the Main Trophy Directorate, by order of the NPO dated February 28, 1945, was transferred to the direct subordination of the head of the Logistics of the Soviet Army. The trophy organs of the fronts and armies were also reassigned to the chiefs of the rear. The departments for recording and using trophy property at the headquarters of the rear were disbanded, the institute of assistant military commandants for economic issues became the territorial link of the trophy service. Somewhat later, a special committee under the Council of Ministers of the USSR was created to lead the elimination of the military-economic potential of fascist Germany.

Organizational changes dramatically increased the effectiveness of the trophy service. Despite the increased volume of work on the collection of weapons and military equipment, in 1945 more than six times more food was collected and transferred to the supply services than in 1944.

At the end of the war in Europe, a special period began for trophy service. Along with the completion of work on cleaning up the theater of operations, the evacuation and sale of the remnants of captured property, it was entrusted with the solution of tasks for the military and economic disarmament of fascist Germany, carried out in accordance with the decisions of the Potsdam Conference. In this regard, in June 1945, on the basis of the trophy departments of the fronts, separate trophy departments were created. After the creation of the military command and control system, the trophy departments were strengthened and became part of the groups of troops with subordination to the commanders.

The work of the trophy service during the military campaign in the Far East was organized taking into account the experience of the third period of the Great Patriotic War. Due to the extremely limited time frame for preparing this campaign for the beginning of the operation, not all armies created trophy organs, and the tasks of trophy service fell on the corresponding organs.

Drawing conclusions about the work of the trophy service in the Great Patriotic War in the West, and later in the East, it should be emphasized that, despite the enormous difficulties and a number of shortcomings, the trophy service during the war years successfully coped with large and diverse tasks. The following summary data testify to the enormous military and economic significance of her work. The trophy organs collected 24,615 tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts. They would have been enough to equip 120 German tank divisions of that time. 72,204 captured guns make up the artillery armament of almost 300 infantry, 100 artillery, 30 anti-aircraft divisions and 35 heavy artillery units. 122,199,556 trophy shells collected and evacuated by trophy service during the war years are three times the total number of shells in the German army by the end of the First World War 469. A lot of captured weapons and equipment were used to assist partisan movement behind enemy lines and allied formations, and also transferred to the national economy of Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany. All captured weapons and military equipment, military enterprises seized by the Soviet Army during the defeat of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria and North Korea, the Soviet government handed over to the Chinese and Korean peoples. Some of the captured vehicles and tractors were used to supply our troops.

Exceptionally large economic importance had the collection and shipment of scrap metal for the needs of the national economy. "Pravda" March 15, 1942 in the advanced "Collection scrap metal- a great state affair ”wrote:“ A tank, an airplane, a cannon, a projectile - this is metal. The Red Army needs more tanks, planes, cannons, shells... Scrap metal recycling allows us to rapidly increase steel production, and we need steel like bread, like air, like water.” Recall that to obtain one ton of steel from cast iron, it was necessary to melt 25 tons of ore and use 2 tons of coke. To obtain one ton of steel from scrap metal, neither ore nor coke was required, but only 690 kg of scrap metal, 460 kg of cast iron and 80 kg of flux. During the war, the trophy service collected and sent to the deep rear 6,008,285 tons of scrap metal, including 165,605 tons of non-ferrous metal. In addition, 507,294 tons of ferrous and non-ferrous metals suitable for the production of 470 were shipped. It is also difficult to overestimate the military and economic importance of the collection and evacuation of spent cartridges, special caps, scrap rubber, etc. At the fronts, among other mobilizing appeals of the party, there was also this one: “A cartridge case for industry is a new projectile for the front!”

Of course, the military-economic significance of using the front's internal resources is negligible compared to the gigantic losses from destruction and the costs of the war that the Soviet Union incurred. History did not know such examples of mass robbery and violence that the fascist barbarians did on Soviet soil. The military and economic costs of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War significantly exceeded the costs of the United States, Britain and France taken together in the entire Second World War. 471 But the significance for the country's economy of the additional sources mentioned above is considerable. Trophy property and everything sent to the deep rear for reuse(scrap metal, capping, spent cartridges, spare parts, etc.) directly entered the production circuit, replenished its funds. And those trophies that went directly to meet the needs of the troops, to an appropriate extent, reduced the country's spending on military consumption and the burden on communications. So, on the 3rd Belorussian Front, during the East Prussian operation, thanks to the use of captured food, its delivery from the interior of the country was reduced by 110 wagons per day. In the Berlin operation, all three fronts during the preparation and conduct of this operation did not need the supply of food forage. It should be emphasized that a large proportion of the food we seized from the enemy was looted by him on Soviet territory.

A serious military-economic task of the trophy service was to identify novelties and achievements of enemy military equipment, as well as the technology of its production. For example, the trophy organs of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, on a special assignment from the center, searched for and discovered an underground FAA plant.

When the first fascist planes were shot down over Moscow at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, they were placed on Sverdlov Square for public viewing. It was the "embryo" of the future trophy exhibition. And on June 22, 1943, by decision of the State Defense Committee, the Central Exhibition of Captured Weapons was opened, which lasted until 1948. In total, more than 7 million people visited it during the period of the exhibition. There are many reviews from visitors. Sergeant Chupinov writes: "With legitimate pride, every soldier, every officer of our army is aware of the superiority of our weapons, our equipment, which was so recently confirmed." The commander of the partisan brigade comrade. Khramov wrote: “Having looked at the exhibition, I admire our glorious warriors, tamers of these monsters “panthers” and “tigers”. The entry of two lieutenants of the French squadron "Normandy" is characteristic: "The exhibition gave us the opportunity to get acquainted with the machines against which we have to fight."

In this regard, it should be noted the importance of trophies for studying enemy equipment and training troops in the most effective ways fight with her. In the memoirs of a former member of the Military Council of the 1st Ukrainian Front, General K. V. Krainyukov, it is indicated that “several training centers were organized in the troops of the front, where there were lined or captured “royal tigers” and other trophy vehicles” 472. Experienced soldiers explained to the young fighters how to deal with enemy tanks. Demonstrative combat shootings were also carried out at the "royal tigers".

Thus, the trophy service of the Soviet Army, created during the Great Patriotic War, did a great job of collecting, sorting, accounting and sending to the deep rear of trophy property captured by our troops from the retreating enemy. The results of its work had an important military-economic and political significance both for our state and for the countries liberated by the Soviet Army. The experience of the Great Patriotic War clearly showed the need to have in the rear system active army trophy service, which is a military-economic organization with its own governing bodies, units and institutions, staffed with qualified personnel and equipped with modern evacuation, rigging and evacuation equipment. Such an organization during the years of the last war, in essence, was the trophy service of the Soviet Army.

Fuel supply during the Great Patriotic War Water transport during the Great Patriotic War

“Two days later, a Komsomol meeting of the battalion was held, the battalion commander spoke and told Sadovoy’s version, adding that he believed him, and therefore Bronstein was not worthy of being a Komsomol organizer, and his suitability to be an assistant platoon commander should be considered.
I was shocked and did not know how to justify myself. My attempts to explain myself were thwarted by the presiding political officer, Senior Lieutenant Vasilenko.
My eyes darkened, and some kind of "bunnies" jumped into them. Blood hit my head, and without thinking, I jumped into the dugout where our platoon was located, grabbed the captured machine gun and rushed outside.
Seeing the battalion commander, I went to him, giving the turn up. He looked around and, seeing me, rushed to run through the bushes, and a holster with a pistol dangled from his side, which he forgot about.
After giving another turn up for warning, I calmed down and, realizing that I had done a stupid thing, went to my company to the foreman. There he handed over the machine gun, and the foreman gave a glass of vodka.
In the morning a squad came for me and took me to the regimental guardhouse. And three days later I was summoned to a meeting of the regiment's Komsomol bureau, where I was expelled from the Komsomol, and by order of the regiment commander, I was deprived of my driver's license and went to the rifle unit. The rank of senior sergeant was left to me.

Soon Podkolzin informed me that some kind of trophy team was being formed, that is, a team collecting some kind of military trophies, and he recommended me as its deputy commander, to which I, of course, agreed.
Finally, such a team was created, it included forty drivers, from the most experienced. We were lined up on the street to meet the new commander, whom none of us had seen or known. Finally, an officer came out of the building and I, having given the command to be quiet, typing a step, went to meet him.
Throwing up my hand, saluting, and raising my eyes, I was dumbfounded - my new temporary commander was Captain Yamkova, apparently removed from his post as battalion commander and sent to the front reserve for some deeds.
Having received the next day weapons and two Studebakers in addition, we drove to our destination, which none of us knew.
In the evening, at an overnight stay, in a small Polish village, the captain called me to his place and told me in confidence that a big offensive was soon planned. And our team is really trophy, but the trophies are German cars, which, as a rule, are destroyed in the heat of battle, and we need to save them.
To do this, during the battle you should go among the attackers, seize the "cars" yourself, set up guards and then send them to their destination. Only he himself, and now me, should know about this in the team. We will tell the rest of you just before the battle in which we are going to participate.
Since not every German unit had cars, we will also participate in battles only at the direction of the headquarters of the formation to which we will be seconded.

However, on January 14, 1945, when the offensive of the 1st Belorussian Front began, Captain Yamkovoi had to make a lot of efforts so that we did not participate in the battles of the breakthrough, reasonably declaring that there were no cars on the front line of German defense.
At the same time, on January 17, we all had to participate in an offensive foot battle on the southwestern outskirts of Warsaw, together with the first Polish army, half staffed by our guys, and which was instructed to finish off the encircled garrison.
All of us for this fight, subsequently, were awarded the medal for the liberation of Warsaw. But we did not manage to find whole cars among the completely destroyed city.

Soon the order came to immediately move to the area of the city of Radom, where near the village of Pshysykha (as in memory) the headquarters of the German corps was surrounded in the forest.
Urgently gathered and in the evening were already in place. After spending the night in the village, at 7 o'clock in the morning we arrived at the starting point of the upcoming offensive, in a small village called Russian Brody, located on the very edge of the forest.
As we were told, a large column of various vehicles with the property of the corps headquarters entered the forest the day before and, stretching along a wide clearing, found themselves surrounded by our troops.
Guarded by her cover battalion and scattered small units German troops who retreated from Radom after its capture. The Germans refused the offer to surrender. Therefore, it was decided to destroy them.
Yamkovoi went to look for the authorities, asking the soldiers who were here, and I gathered my guys and again reminded us what to do: stick together, not disperse and at the same time act in groups of 10 people, listen to the commands of infantry commanders, and make decisions according to circumstances and the order of the elder for ten.

It began to dawn and, finally, Yamkova appeared with a pistol in his hand. "Disperse! - he ordered - soon we will go too." Having taken a predetermined position, I listened to the sounds coming from the forest, but everything was quiet. After an infinitely long time, so it seemed to me, perhaps after 15-20 minutes, the forest seemed to shudder from the explosions of grenades and machine gun shots. The command "forward" sounded, and the soldiers surrounding me almost ran towards the forest, and we followed them. I ran after the soldiers, holding my machine gun at the ready, trying to follow the trail of the one in front.
There was little snow in the forest, and it was easy to run, but the trees interfered with the roots of which I stumbled all the time. What did I feel at that time? Anger and fear at the same time, but the anger was stronger, I wanted to push the trees apart with my hands and get to the Germans as soon as possible.
And the worst thing is the limited visibility in the forest: behind every big tree the enemy was imagining, and you convulsively twist the barrel of the machine gun in different directions.

The first wave of attackers, having met the forest blockages and enemy fire, lay down and we too, but not for long. In the rear of the Germans, shots and shouts of "Hurrah" were heard, and all the soldiers and we rose in unison and rushed forward, bypassing the rubble.
Running from tree to tree, I, along with others, jumped out to a clearing, where the battle was already in full swing, gradually turning into a simple destruction of people. Right in front of me was a large German truck. The driver had already been killed, and his head without a cap with red hair stood out brightly in the snow.
Next to the truck was an Oppel-Kadet passenger car with an open door. Beside her lay in the snow German officer in a fur coat with a collar, but in a cap, and, as it seemed, was aiming at me with a pistol.
Instinctively, I rushed down, at the same time pressing the trigger of the machine gun. I don't know who killed him, but when I raised my head, the officer rolled over and fell over in the snow, and two of our infantrymen ran towards him.
Approaching the car, I examined it, it was intact. The soldiers, having removed the watch from the dead man, and having shaken out every little thing from his pockets, ran on.

The killed officer was young and handsome, the pleasant aroma of expensive perfume emanated from his clothes, and my nervous excitement was replaced by sadness. The shots stopped. I, realizing that now no one will touch the car, went along the column, looking for my own.
The whole clearing was filled with wounded and killed Germans, the corpses of drivers hung from the cabs. There were few of our soldiers killed here, but in the forest they met literally at every step. The orderlies were already putting the wounded into the motor vehicles and our Studebakers, which were temporarily confiscated for this purpose.
We did not have serious losses in the group - only three slightly wounded, and in the trophies there were eleven serviceable cars of various brands, suitable for hauling on their own. The very next day, among the still uncleaned corpses, avoiding meeting with us, Polish marauders were working, loading their wagons with German junk.
After a ten-day business trip, we returned to the 29th Reserve Automobile Regiment, and three days later, I and seven other drivers familiar with foreign cars were sent to the 41st Red Banner Automobile Regiment of the 5th Shock Army.

The battalion, commanded by Major Chirkov, was seconded to the newly organized forward detachment of the army for operational operations ahead of our main forces and consisted of an infantry regiment, a tank brigade, mortars and some other military units.
Our army could not keep up with the rapidly retreating Germans. The rear was catastrophically lagging behind, the fighters did not receive hot food, and it was impossible to stock up on ammunition, which is why this grouping was created.
Having put infantry soldiers on the vehicles, she was always in contact with the enemy, capturing small German cities along the way, where they did not expect the arrival of our troops.
I remember one episode when our small detachment, where I was, consisting of fifteen vehicles with soldiers and three guns, drove into some town and stopped in its center.
Shops worked here, buses ran, policemen stood at the crossroads, and there were a lot of people on the street, and from pay phones standing on the street you could call Berlin. We stared dumbfounded at all this.
The soldiers began to jump off the vehicles, and the city was instantly deserted. The streets were covered with white sheets hung from windows, balconies and even on the doors of entrances.
So, without encountering serious resistance, we slipped to the Oder River, north of the fortress city of Kustrin, and even captured a bridgehead on the western bank of the river. Kustrin himself was taken only in March, and the bridgehead was held until April by the entire army. - From the memoirs of the senior sergeant of a separate auto regiment V. Bronstein.

Litvinov Danil

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State budgetary educational institution cadet boarding school "Kurganin Cossack Cadet Corps"

"Trophy service during the Great Patriotic War"

Made by a pupil of GBOU KSHI

"Kurganin Cossack Cadet

Corpus" Daniil Litvinov

Teacher: Pshebyshevskaya S.S.

A history teacher

2015

Time inexorably moves us away from the events of the Great Patriotic War, around which ideological and political disputes still flare up. There is no such person in our country who would not be affected by the war. Every family in our great country cherishes the memory of the heroes who fought at the front with weapons in their hands, forged the Victory at machine tools, worked in the rear, providing the army with bread.

In my work, I would like to talk about one little-studied topic in the history of the Great Patriotic War - the history of Trophy Battalions. In the First Order of Alexander Nevsky, the great-grandfather of the cadet of the GBOU KSHI "Kurganin Cossack Cadet Corps" Sergey Golovkin served in the trophy battalion.

No books are written about the TROPHY service, no films are made, it is very rarely mentioned in the media. Therefore, many do not know that such a service existed as part of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. Perhaps it would be useful even today when conducting local wars, armed conflicts and counter-terrorist operations.

Meanwhile, the value of trophies is difficult to overestimate. During the war years, for example, the trophy service collected 24,612 tanks and self-propelled guns, which would be enough to equip 120 German tank divisions. 72,204 guns captured on the battlefields could have been the artillery armament of 300 infantry artillery divisions.

Trophies have always accompanied wars as the symbolic and material results of victory over the enemy.In the modern era (according to international laws and customs of war), it is customary to understand trophies captured from the enemy as weapons, military property, food, military-industrial equipment, stocks of raw materials and finished products intended to meet the needs of the armed forces of a belligerent state.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Army did not have an independent trophy service.The collection and sale of trophy property was carried out by trophy commissions created from representatives of the content services. Only after a radical restructuring of the rear system of the Soviet Army (August 1941) was the first attempt made to unite the trophy business in the hands of a single body. In the center, the evacuation department of the headquarters of the Logistics of the Soviet Army, formed from the economic department of the General Staff, became such an organ.

The order of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR dated December 18, 1941 stated that “in the rear of the Western Front, no organized collection of trophy property is carried out ... The absence of any protection of property abandoned by the enemy leads to the fact that the population freely takes this property.”

In accordance with the decree, two permanent commissions were created under the GKO - the Central Commission for the Collection of Captured Weapons and Property, chaired by Marshal of the Soviet Union S. M. Budyonny, and the Central Commission for the Collection of Ferrous and Non-Ferrous Metals in the Front Line, chaired by N. M. Shvernik. As part of the Main Directorate of Logistics of the Soviet Army, a Directorate for the collection and use of captured weapons, property and scrap metal was formed, and in the fronts and combined arms armies.

In April 1942, instructions were issued for the collection, cutting and removal of captured weapons, property and scrap metal. (Appendix 2) In it, the main tasks of the trophy service were determined by the identification, collection and sale of captured weapons, property and scrap metal.

New tasks arose before the trophy service after the defeat of the Nazi troops near Stalingrad and the subsequent winter offensive of the Soviet Army.

To clear the battlefields of a huge amount of military equipment and weapons, a special reinforced trophy department was created on the basis of the trophy department of the former Don Front (headed by Lieutenant Colonel Pletnitsky). The department was given seven army trophy companies, five army battalions, a front-line trophy brigade, an evacuator, seven army trophy depots, three separate work battalions, an evacuation and evacuation diving detachment. 463.

The increased scope and pace of offensive operations required further strengthening of captured organs and increasing their maneuverability. Indeed, only during the period of the winter offensive of the Soviet Army (November 1942 - March 31, 1943) our troops captured 1490 aircraft, 4679 tanks, 15,860 guns of various calibers, 9,835 mortars, 30,705 machine guns, over 500 thousand rifles, 17 million shells, 123 thousand cars, 890 steam locomotives, 22 thousand wagons, 1825 warehouses, a large number of radio stations, motorcycles and many other military equipment 464.

The further the hostilities were transferred to the west, the more our troops seized from the enemy the Soviet equipment, national economic property and cultural property looted by him, destined for export to Nazi Germany. In Odessa alone, the trophy organs of the 3rd Ukrainian Front discovered 1,900 wagons loaded with property looted by the Nazis in Ukraine. On the Danube, as well as in the ports of Romania and Bulgaria, more than 109 barges with various national economic goods (equipment, food, etc.) were returned.And if local economic objects (factories, warehouses, etc.) were enough to take into account, protect, and then transfer to local authorities, then in relation to the mentioned property, it was still necessary to establish its ownership and organize shipment to its destination.

The scale of economic work increased especially after the entry of our troops into East Prussia. Here at first there was a difficult situation. The population was completely forcibly taken out by the Nazi command, all areas of the economy were inactive. Meanwhile, among the huge number of abandoned enterprises and household property, there were more and more Soviet industrial and power equipment, agricultural machinery, cultural and other valuables taken out by fascist robbers from the USSR. The trophy organs of the 3rd Belorussian Front found: machine tools of the Minsk plant named after S. M. Kirov, scales of the Minsk weight plant "Drummer", furniture and theatrical costumes of the Belarusian Opera and Ballet Theater and the Vitebsk State Drama Theater, furniture of the Government House of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic etc. In total, in a small area (25–30 km along the front and 12–15 km in depth), there were 3,200 wagons of various equipment and property.

Despite the large diversion of forces and resources for work in national economic facilities, the trophy service also coped with its most important task - the collection, sale and shipment of weapons, military equipment and scrap metal. The volume of this work in 1944 increased significantly in comparison with all previous periods. The government plan for the collection and shipment of scrap metal was fulfilled by 126 percent for black scrap, and by 220.8 percent for non-ferrous scrap. The volume of evacuation work of the trophy service in 1944 is evidenced by the following data: 130,344 wagons were shipped with weapons and scrap metal alone. The chairman of the Trophy Committee, Marshal of the Soviet Union K. E. Voroshilov, wrote: “In the offensive operations of the Soviet Army, captured units ensured the timely collection and removal of captured and domestic weapons, ammunition, military equipment, taking their place in the combat formations of the active troops. Trophy units in 1944 successfully completed the tasks assigned to them". In 1944, 3674 officers, sergeants and soldiers of the trophy service were awarded orders and medals.

On the 1st Ukrainian Front, for example, during the Vistula-Oder operation, trophy units in a short time dispersed all personnel to guard bases, warehouses and other objects so much that the trophy artillery depot in Valya-Visnava, which had a perimeter of 14 km, was guarded only 36 fighters 467. Dozens and hundreds of small warehouses were left without protection, not to mention the scattered trophy national economic property. At the same time, the volume of tasks for the collection and evacuation of captured military equipment, weapons, ammunition and other property has also increased. Only during the period of the Berlin operation in the bands of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, according to far from complete data, 4510 aircraft, 1550 tanks and self-propelled guns, 565 armored vehicles and armored personnel carriers, 8613 guns, 2304 mortars, 19 393 machine guns, 179 071 rifles and machine guns, 876 tractors and tractors, 9,340 motorcycles, 25,289 bicycles, 8,261 wagons, 363 locomotives, 22,659 wagons, 34,000 shells, 360,000 screw cartridges, 34,886 faust cartridges, etc. Given the lack of forces and means of the trophy service, the command of the fronts provided it with possible assistance. For example, the commander of the 1st Belorussian Front, in a directive dated January 20, 1945, ordered that in addition to the captured teams, one rifle company be allocated in each division, providing them with transport and tractors.

One of the important tasks of the trophy service at the final stage of the war was to take care of the protection of historical and cultural values (museums, art galleries, etc.) in the territory liberated from the enemy.

A serious military-economic task of the trophy service was to identify novelties and achievements of enemy military equipment, as well as the technology of its production.For example, the trophy organs of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, on a special assignment from the center, searched for and discovered an underground FAA plant.

At the end of the war in Europe, a special period began for trophy service. Along with the completion of work on cleaning up the theater of operations, the evacuation and sale of the remnants of captured property, it was entrusted with the solution of tasks for the military and economic disarmament of fascist Germany, carried out in accordance with the decision of the Potsdam Conference. In this regard, in June 1945, on the basis of the trophy departments of the fronts, separate trophy departments were organized. After the creation of the military command and control system, the trophy departments were strengthened and became part of the groups of troops with subordination to the commanders.

Attachment 1.

REMINDER
for the collection of trophy weapons and property

WHAT ARE TROPHIES AND WHO COLLECTS THEM

All weapons, military and household property abandoned by the enemy or captured by our troops on the battlefield, in settlements, at railway stations, are considered trophies.

All trophy weapons and property captured from the enemy arestate property.Plundering it, damaging or hiding it is regarded as an act aimed at undermining the state and defense power of our Motherland.

The collection of trophies and domestic weapons and property left on the battlefield is carried out by regimental trophy teams and army companies for the collection of captured weapons, property and scrap metal.

In addition, part of the captured weapons and property is picked up in the course of combat by military units for direct use against the enemy.

Regimental trophy teams are responsible for the collection and removal of light weapons, property and scrap metal. The account of the collected is kept by the head of the team according to the forms established by the trophy bodies of the division.

All trophy and domestic weapons, property and scrap metal collected by the regimental trophy team are demolished or brought to temporary collection points organized at the direction of the assistant regiment commander for logistics, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe rear border of the regiment.

The assembly point, as a rule, is planned near roads or driveways.

As the assembly point of the regiment accumulates weapons, property and scrap metal, the latter is taken out to the divisional exchange office or, if there is a passing empty, directly to the army trophy warehouse.

Army companies for the collection of trophy property and scrap metal produce:

Collection and removal from the battlefield of heavy types of weapons and property;

Collection of light types of weapons and property that were not collected for one reason or another by the trophy teams of the regiments;

Collection of scrap metal - ferrous and non-ferrous metals.

Accounting for everything collected and exported is carried out by platoon and company commanders according to the forms established by the trophy department of the army,

All weapons, property and scrap metal collected by an army trophy company or located at divisional exchange points are evacuated by an army trophy company on its own or passing vehicles directly to the army trophy salary or its assembly points.

An indication of which army collection point to send property to is given by the trophy department of the army.

ORGANIZATION OF COLLECTION AND EXPORT OF CAPTURED AND DOMESTIC WEAPONS AND PROPERTY

Terrain reconnaissance

1. Upon liberation of the territory occupied by the enemy, a regimental trophy team or an army trophy company sends reconnaissance to search for and clear the abandoned weapons and property.

Reconnaissance must be carried out carefully, combing the allotted area or area, inspecting all premises, basements, abandoned trenches, dugouts.

2. All discovered weapons and property, especially guns, tanks, armored and motor vehicles, tractors, etc., are entered in the statement in the following form:

In the note, indicate the features, for example: “Undermined”, “Under enemy fire”

3. After reconnaissance, the completed statement is handed over to the commander who ordered the reconnaissance for use in collecting weapons and property.

4. To prevent theft (“dismantling”) on vehicles, tanks, vehicles, warehouses and other large species weapons, an ad is pasted in which the registration number is affixed:

5. Upon discovery a large number trophy weapons and property, as well as trophy warehouses, should immediately notify their command, which should provide the appropriate guards, before the guards arrive, set up their post.

Care must be taken to ensure that no one takes trophy food and fodder until laboratory research, as there were cases of poisoning by his opponent.

6. Inspection captured equipment must be carried out with all precautions, since the enemy often mines the equipment and weapons he throws.

These precautions are as follows:

a) When inspecting captured vehicles, guns, tanks, the presence of miners is mandatory. In particular, mine reconnaissance of tanks blown up in minefields should be carefully carried out.

The doors of the cabs abandoned by the enemy, if they are closed, and the hinged covers of the hoods should be opened only after a thorough inspection.

If you suspect installed booby traps (“surprises”), cabin doors and hood covers are opened with a rope no less than 25 m long. A sign of traps will be thin wires that, upon careful inspection, can be found through the cabin window or if you carefully open the hood of the car, if available. wires, there is a slight resistance to opening.

b) When a large number of small arms - machine guns, rifles, machine guns, pistols - are found on the battlefield or in a populated area, one must be especially careful, since mining is widely used by the enemy.

If there is a suspicion that the weapon is mined, it is best to hook it with a cat on a rope (35-45 m long), stepping back the entire length of the rope, lie on the ground, and sharply jerk the cat towards you so that the wire breaks. If there is no explosion, wait 2-3 minutes and, approaching the lying weapon, carefully raise it. In the absence of a cat in winter, you need to carefully shovel the snow with your hand and carefully examine the weapons for signs indicating that they are mined. Most often, these signs are traces of freshly dug earth.

One of the simplest and most common “traps” is tying a weapon to a German exhaust ball. hand grenade M-24 (or M-39) or an anti-tank mine that burrows into the ground. Having found such a connection, it is necessary to carefully cut the wire or string, and remove the grenade or mine from the ground or destroy it with an explosion.

c) Reconnaissance of chemical weapons abandoned by the enemy - chemical shells, cylinders with toxic substances, chemical equipment - must be carried out in compliance with the rules of anti-chemical protection. Carry chemical projectiles and cylinders with toxic substances only in a gas mask.

It must also be borne in mind that the enemy uses self-igniting liquid dousing weapons and property.

d) Mines, shells, grenades and explosives found on the battlefield can be collected only after they have been carefully examined and neutralized by an artillery technician. He also establishes the procedure for collecting ammunition.

Ammunition that is not subject to collection is blown up on the spot, without fail with the permission of higher commanders and in the presence of an artillery technician.

7. In winter time, in the presence of deep snow cover, it is recommended to mark the location of weapons found during reconnaissance with stakes or stencil indicators, which will make it easy to find weapons when collecting them.

Collection and evacuation of light weapons and property

The collection of light weapons and property is carried out, as a rule, in the area of the first echelon of the regiment. For the correct organization of the collection, the following must be observed:

1. Divide the battlefield into sections. Each section is inspected by a group of fighters (2-4 people). The size of the site is assigned depending on the specific conditions of the situation.

2. Each group of fighters carefully combs their area and collects the abandoned enemy small arms and property. Everything collected is immediately demolished or transported by motor vehicles, wagons or sledges to the nearest temporary assembly point or divisional exchange point. When evacuating weapons and property, it is necessary to use the passing empty transport as much as possible.

3. Temporary assembly points are organized mainly near roads or in places convenient for the entrance of auto-drawn vehicles and are masked.

4. Particular care must be taken when transporting mines to mortars, since they easily explode from strong shocks, transporting them without packaging is prohibited.

5. The removal to the rear of weapons, ammunition and other property from the captured enemy warehouses must be forced, since the enemy, knowing exactly the location of his warehouses, can destroy them by air bombing or long-range artillery fire.

In extreme cases, if it is impossible to immediately evacuate weapons and property from the captured warehouses to the rear, the warehouses should be relocated at least 1-2 km to the side and carefully disguised.

Collection and evacuation of heavy weapons and equipment

1. The collection and removal of heavy weapons (guns of various systems, aircraft, tanks, armored vehicles) and equipment (cars, tractors, transporters, engineering equipment) are carried out by the forces and means of an army company for the collection of trophy property, evacuators of the armored forces of the army or working battalions of the air force forces.

2. Equipment and weapons evacuated from forward positions are sent to addresses at the direction of the trophy bodies of the division, army and front, as well as the heads of the supply services. For the evacuation of heavyweights, passing empty vehicles are used as much as possible.

3. When transporting tanks, vehicles, tractors from the battlefield, when there is a suspicion of mines, the following rules must be observed:

a) At the beginning of the transportation of vehicles, tractors, tanks, it is recommended to use a steel cable with a length of at least 50 m with hooks or loops at the end.

b) The rear wall and the top of the tractor driver's cab should preferably be upholstered with iron sheets 5 mm thick to protect against splinters.

c) One driver starts the transportation of the evacuated weapons or equipment, and all the other fighters either retreat 100 m or hide in a shelter.

d) Having towed a car (tractor, tank) 10-15 m from the place of its initial parking, you need to carefully inspect it inside (body, cab, tank body) and remove all foreign objects (shells, cartridges, grenades, etc.) . Particular attention should be paid to the inside of tanks, which usually contain dozens of shells and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Not withdrawn from vehicles, they more than once led to accidents at stations, repair depots, where curious people, having discovered shells and not knowing how to handle them, caused an explosion with an accidental blow.

After inspecting the transported machine, the tug rope is reduced to 10 m and towing continues. to the place of concentration of trophies.

Tractors and tanks, in cases where they have been previously checked by miners, are transported immediately on a 10 m long cable,

4. Trophy vehicles with a serviceable rear slope and a faulty front one can be transported to the places of concentration on the rear wheels, immersing the front part of the transported vehicle onto the body of the transporter. Thus, it is possible to transport passenger German cars and trucks weighing up to 2.5-3 tons. Heavy German cars of 5-12 tons can only be transported by tractors.

5. In winter, when there is deep snow cover, tanks, tractors, heavy vehicles and implements are transported on special sledges, skids or skis.

Loading a tank (tractor) on a sled, skid or ski is done in two ways:

The first way: the tank is hung out with jacks (light tanks can be hung out with wagons), sleds, skids and skis are brought under it, after which the tank is lowered onto them;

The second way: the tank is pulled onto a sled, runners or skis along two guide pads using a tractor, winch or hoists.

Before loading, the tank must be prepared: checked for mine safety, dig out of the snow and clear the way to it.

Trophy sorting

All collected trophy property is sorted into the following groups;

1) serviceable or requiring minor repairs;

2) requiring military repair;

3) requiring factory repair;

4) bad.

Captured weapons and property are considered serviceable if they can immediately be put into operation (for example, cars, tanks, tractors and motorcycles on the move, guns, machine guns, machine guns that the enemy abandoned without having time to spoil them).

Property requiring minor repairs should be understood as property that can be repaired on the spot by military units (for example, vehicles with shot cylinders, batteries, carburetors or other small parts removed).

Requiring military repair is weapons and property, the repair of which requires machine equipment and skilled labor. Medium repairs are carried out in divisional artillery repair shops and front-line repair depots.

In the warm season, outside the zone of constant shelling, medium repairs can be carried out right on the spot (in the field) by mobile repair teams of divisional artillery repair shops and front-line repair bases.

Factory repairs are required for those machines, tanks or guns, from which important units and parts have been removed (or broken), or the wear of mechanisms reaches such a level that a complete refurbishment is necessary with the replacement of worn parts.

When sorting, a pyrotechnician must be present, whose duties are to check the explosion safety of property.

Suitable parts and assemblies, which are used as spare parts in the repair and restoration of vehicles, must be removed from equipment and weapons, especially from tractors and vehicles intended for shipment to scrap metal.

The right to determine the worthlessness of weapons and property is granted only to representatives of the relevant services, who draw up an act of its worthlessness for each object.

INVOLVING THE LOCAL POPULATION IN THE COLLECTION OF TROPHY AND DOMESTIC WEAPONS AND PROPERTY

The local population can provide great and valuable assistance in collecting captured and domestic weapons and property from the battlefields.

In rural areas, the population watching the German withdrawal often knows where the enemy has abandoned or hidden weapons and property that he could not take out. Children aged 10-13 are especially well aware of this; with the powers of observation characteristic of Soviet children, they notice where, what the enemy has left or hidden, and can often provide extremely valuable information.

Village councils and district executive committees must organize the collection by the population of small weapons and property located in the field and forests. It is necessary to carry out appropriate work among the population, explaining the importance of collecting trophy property for the needs of the Red Army.

Local residents who are actively involved in the collection of captured and domestic weapons and property receive a monetary reward. For example, for the collection of our steel helmets, the person who returned the helmet is paid.

per	serviceable helmet	rub
	serviceable helmets

and for each helmet over 100 pieces for 6 rubles. a piece. For German helmets, the reward is reduced by 25%.

At rapid advance of our troops, when it is not possible to organize their removal to the army trophy warehouse simultaneously with the collection of trophies, it is possible, as an exception, to attract the local population to protect the collected trophies. In this case, the collected trophy weapons and property are handed over to the chairman of the village council or collective farm against receipt with the issuance of a safe-conduct:

STUFF

Safeguard No. ___

Received security certificate No. ___. I undertake to keep the trophy property transferred to me and transfer it only at the request of the trophy authorities ___________ (name of the settlement)

_____________________
(last name, first name and patronymic)

Signature

SAFETY CERTIFICATE No. ___

This certificate of protection issued

_____________________________
(last name, first name and patronymic)

living in ____________ (name of the locality) in the fact that triple property was handed over to him under the protection of military unit No. ____, according to the attached inventory.

The property can be transferred only to representatives of the trophy organs of the army upon presentation of a copy of the safe-conduct.

For unauthorized seizure of property, the perpetrators are brought to trial by the Military Tribunal.

194_

Signature of the issuer of the certificate (surname)

194_

The spine of the security certificate remains with the person who issued it. The issue of a safe-conduct is notified, with a copy of the safe-conduct and inventory, the department of trophy weapons of the army,

Upon receipt by the trophy bodies of the army of weapons and property left in storage with local authorities, the latter are issued a corresponding receipt of receipt.

Appendix 2

“I approve”

Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR

General of the Army Bulganin

REGULATIONS ON TROPHY ORGANS, UNITS AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE RED ARMY

I. General provisions

1. Trophy organs, units and institutions of the Red Army provide:

a) identification, accounting and dismantling by decision of the Government of enterprises, loading, transportation with protection along the way of equipment, materials, finished products captured by our troops in cities, towns and industrial centers on enemy territory;

b) the transfer, by decision of the military councils of the fronts, armies, of food, fodder, fuel and commissary property to the supply services of the fronts (armies);

c) collection, accounting, protection and transfer of captured weapons, ammunition, military equipment and military-technical property to supply services in the fronts and armies;

d) collection of scrap metal in the front line and shipment to factories and industrial enterprises;

e) accounting for the captured property and weapons collected, exported and transferred to the contentment services of the Red Army and people's commissariats. 2. Trophy bodies in the Red Army are:

A) in the center - the Main Trophy Directorate of the Red Army;

B) in the front - trophy management;

C) in the army - a trophy department;

D) in the military formations of the army in the field - trophy squads of the corps and divisions;

D) assistant commandants of cities and settlements on economic issues.

3. The composition of the captured units of the Red Army includes:

Front trophy brigades;

Army trophy battalions;

Worker battalions;

Separate dismantling battalions;

Evacuation trains;

Car regiments;

Autobattalions;

Army bases;

Transshipment bases;

Army trophy companies;

Evacorites;

Evacuation-lifting-rigging platoons;

Dismantling platoons;

Army trophy warehouses;

Cutting bases.

4. The collection, accounting and transfer of captured and abandoned domestic weapons and equipment on the battlefield in the military rear is carried out by trophy teams created by commanders of military formations and units of all branches of the armed forces, in accordance with the Decree of the GOKO No. 4329 of October 15, 1943.

II. Main Trophy Directorate of the Red Army

The Main Trophy Directorate of the Red Army is entrusted with:

1. Organization of the dismantling of trophy enterprises, loading and protection of the exported trophy equipment, materials and finished products along the way.

2. In accordance with the decisions of the Government, drawing up plans for the dismantling, removal and delivery of equipment from captured industrial enterprises and national economic property.

3. Management of accounting and collection of captured weapons and military equipment.

4. Accounting for the trophy national economic property, weapons, ammunition, military equipment and other military property collected and transferred to the contentment services of the Red Army and people's commissariats.

5. Organization of collection and removal of scrap metal from the front line.

6. Management of trophy units and institutions and their logistics.

7. Development of questions on the formation of trophy units and institutions.

8. Publication of manuals, instructions for work and programs for combat and special training of units and institutions of the trophy service.

9. Management of combat and special training of subordinate units and formations.

10. Drawing up estimates, production and financial plans and making cash payments.

11. Head of the Main Trophy Directorate of the Red Army in terms of the duties assigned to him:

a) issues orders and directives to captured units and formations;

b) issues orders for the personnel of trophy units, formations and institutions on the appointment and transfer to positions.

12. Directly subordinate to the head of the Main Trophy Directorate are:

a) trophy departments of the fronts;

b) front-line trophy brigades;

c) trophy, dismantling and working battalions;

d) evacuation trains and evacuators;

e) transshipment bases; e) cutting bases.

III. Trophy department of the front and trophy department of the army

The trophy departments of the fronts and the trophy departments of the armies are entrusted with:

1. Dismantling of trophy enterprises and shipment of equipment, materials and finished products to the rear of the country in accordance with the decisions of the Government of the USSR.

2. Ensuring the transportation and protection of captured equipment, materials and finished products along the way.

3. Accounting and collection of captured weapons, ammunition and military property.

4. Transfer of weapons, ammunition, military equipment, food, fodder, fuel to supply services.

5. Involvement of local labor and horse-drawn vehicles for the collection and export of trophies.

6. Accounting for all trophy national economic property, weapons, ammunition, military equipment and other military property collected and transferred to the supply services and people's commissariats.

7. Issuance of orders for the transfer and transportation of national economic property, weapons, ammunition, military equipment and other military property according to the decisions made,

8. Management of the work of trophy units and institutions, as well as checking all reports on the range of their activities.

9. Collection of scrap metal and shipment to factories and industrial enterprises.

10. Management of combat and special training, staffing and provision of horse-tractor vehicles, special lifting and rigging equipment and other personnel equipment of captured units and institutions.

11. Management and control over the operation and repair of the auto-tractor fleet of trophy parts.

12. Management of explosion safety at work and during the transportation of trophies.

13. The head of the trophy department of the front is subordinate to: the trophy departments of the armies and the trophy units of the front.

14. Army trophy units, trophy squads of corps and divisions and assistant commandants of cities and towns on economic issues are subordinate to the head of the trophy department of the army. wasps.

15. The chiefs of the trophy departments of the fronts and departments of the armies issue orders to subordinate units.

IV. Trophy department of the corps and division

The trophy department of the corps (division) is entrusted with:

1. Management of corps, divisional and regimental non-standard trophy teams for the collection, protection, accounting of captured and domestic weapons, ammunition and military property.

2. Transfer to the chiefs of services of regiments and divisions of service weapons and other military property assembled in the rear of the army for the restoration of losses, and the surplus - to army trophy warehouses and collection points.

3. Keeping a trophy card (scheme).

4. Ensuring explosion safety during the collection and transportation of weapons, ammunition and other military property.

V. Assistants to the commandants of cities and towns on economic issues

Assistants to the commandants of cities and towns on economic issues are guided in their work by the Regulations on assistants to commandants on economic issues, announced by order of the NGO dated January 19, 1945 No. 04 *.

Head of Logistics of the Red Army

General of the Army A. Khrulev,

After the end of World War II, many trophies were taken from occupied Germany to the USSR. Art objects became trophies, military equipment and much more. This post will introduce us to the most interesting trophies of the war.

"Mercedes" Zhukov

At the end of the war, Marshal Zhukov became the owner of an armored Mercedes, designed by Hitler's order "for the people necessary for the Reich." Zhukov did not like Willys, and the shortened Mercedes-Benz-770k sedan turned out to be most welcome. The marshal used this fast and safe car with a 400-horsepower engine almost everywhere - he refused to go in it only to accept the surrender.

"German armor"

It is known that the Red Army fought on captured armored vehicles, but few people know that it did this already in the first days of the war. So, in the "journal of combat operations of the 34th Panzer Division" it is said that on June 28-29, 1941, 12 German tanks were captured, which were used "to fire from a place on enemy artillery."
During one of the counterattacks on the Western Front on July 7, military engineer Ryazanov on his T-26 tank broke into the German rear and fought the enemy for 24 hours. He returned to his own in the captured Pz. III".
Along with tanks, the Soviet military often used German self-propelled guns. For example, in August 1941, during the defense of Kyiv, two fully serviceable StuG IIIs were captured. Junior Lieutenant Klimov fought very successfully on self-propelled guns: in one of the battles, while in StuG III, in one day of the battle he destroyed two German tanks, an armored personnel carrier and two trucks, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Star. In general, during the war years, domestic repair plants brought back to life at least 800 German tanks and self-propelled guns. Armored vehicles of the Wehrmacht came to court and were operated even after the war.

"U-250"

On July 30, 1944, the German submarine U-250 was sunk by Soviet boats in the Gulf of Finland. The decision to raise it was made almost immediately, but the rocky shallows at a depth of 33 meters and German bombs greatly delayed the process. Only on September 14 the submarine was raised and towed to Kronstadt.
During the inspection of the compartments, valuable documents, an Enigma-M encryption machine, as well as T-5 homing acoustic torpedoes were found. However, the Soviet command was more interested in the boat itself - as an example of German shipbuilding. The German experience was going to be adopted in the USSR. On April 20, 1945, the U-250 was added to the composition of the USSR Navy under the name "TS-14" (captured medium), but it was not possible to use it due to the lack of the necessary spare parts. After 4 months, the submarine was excluded from the lists and sent for scrap.

"Dora"

When Soviet troops reached the German test site in Hilbersleben, many valuable finds awaited them, but the super-heavy 800-mm Dora artillery gun, developed by Krupp, attracted the attention of the military and Stalin personally.
This gun - the fruit of many years of searching - cost the German treasury 10 million Reichsmarks. The gun owes its name to the wife of chief designer Erich Müller. The project was prepared in 1937, but only in 1941 did the first prototype come out.
The characteristics of the giant are amazing even now: “Dora” fired 7.1-ton concrete-piercing and 4.8-ton high-explosive shells, its barrel length is 32.5 m, weight is 400 tons, vertical guidance angle is 65 °, range is 45 km. The striking ability was also impressive: armor 1 m thick, concrete - 7 m, hard ground - 30 m.
The speed of the projectile was such that first an explosion was heard, then the whistle of a flying warhead, and only then did the sound of a shot reach.
The history of the Dora ended in 1960: the gun was cut into pieces and melted down in the open-hearth furnace of the Barrikady plant. The shells were blown up at the Prudboy training ground.

Dresden gallery

The search for paintings in the Dresden Gallery was like a detective story, but ended successfully, and eventually the paintings European masters safely arrived in Moscow. The Berlin newspaper Tagesshpil then wrote: “These things were taken as compensation for the destroyed Russian museums in Leningrad, Novgorod and Kyiv. Of course, the Russians will never give up their booty.”
Almost all the paintings arrived damaged, but the task of the Soviet restorers was facilitated by the notes attached to them about the damaged places. Most complex work produced by the artist of the State Museum of Fine Arts. A. S. Pushkin Pavel Korin. We owe him the preservation of the masterpieces of Titian and Rubens.
From May 2 to August 20, 1955, an exhibition of paintings by the Dresden Art Gallery was held in Moscow, which was attended by 1,200,000 people. On the day of the closing ceremony of the exhibition, an act was signed on the transfer of the first painting to the GDR - it turned out to be Dürer's "Portrait of a Young Man". A total of 1,240 paintings were returned to East Germany. It took 300 railway wagons to transport paintings and other property.

Troy Gold

Most researchers believe that the most valuable Soviet trophy of the Second World War was the "Gold of Troy". The "Priam's Treasure" (as the "Gold of Troy" was originally called) found by Heinrich Schliemann consisted of almost 9 thousand items - gold tiaras, silver clasps, buttons, chains, copper axes and other items made of precious metals.
The Germans carefully hid the "Trojan treasures" in one of the towers of the air defense system in the territory Berlin Zoo. Continuous bombing and shelling destroyed almost the entire zoo, but the tower remained unscathed. On July 12, 1945, the entire collection arrived in Moscow. Some of the exhibits remained in the capital, while others were transferred to the Hermitage.
For a long time, "Trojan gold" was hidden from prying eyes, and only in 1996 the Pushkin Museum staged an exhibition of rare treasures. The “Gold of Troy” has not been returned to Germany so far. Oddly enough, but Russia has no less rights to him, since Schliemann, having married the daughter of a Moscow merchant, became a Russian subject.

color cinema

A very useful trophy was the German color film AGFA, on which, in particular, the Victory Parade was filmed. And in 1947, the average Soviet viewer saw color cinema for the first time. These were films from the USA, Germany and other European countries brought from the Soviet zone of occupation. Most films were watched by Stalin with a translation specially made for him.
The adventure films The Indian Tomb and The Rubber Hunters, biographical films about Rembrandt, Schiller, Mozart, as well as numerous opera films were popular.
The cult film in the USSR was Georg Jacobi's The Girl of My Dreams (1944). Interestingly, the film was originally called "The Woman of My Dreams", but the party leadership considered that "dreaming about a woman is indecent" and renamed the tape.

Let's talk about the trophies of the Red Army, which the Soviet victors were taking home from defeated Germany. Let's talk calmly, without emotions - only photos and facts.

A Soviet soldier takes a bike from a German woman (according to Russophobes), or a Soviet soldier helps a German woman
align the steering wheel (according to Russophiles). Berlin, August 1945.

Whatever happens on this famous photo, we will never know the truth anyway, so why argue? But the truth, as always, is in the middle, and it lies in the fact that in abandoned German houses and shops, Soviet soldiers took everything they liked, but the Germans had quite a bit of brazen robbery.
Looting, of course, happened, but for him, it happened, and they were judged by the show trial of the tribunal. And none of the soldiers wanted to go through the war alive, and because of some junk and another round of the struggle for friendship with the local population, go not home as a winner, but to Siberia as a convict.
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Soviet soldiers buy up on the "black market" in the Tiergarten garden. Berlin, summer 1945.

Although junk was appreciated. After the Red Army entered the territory of Germany, by order of the NPO of the USSR No. 0409 dated 12/26/1944. all servicemen of the active fronts were allowed to send one personal parcel to the Soviet rear once a month.
The most severe punishment was the deprivation of the right to this parcel, the weight of which was established: for privates and sergeants - 5 kg, for officers - 10 kg and for generals - 16 kg. The size of the parcel could not exceed 70 cm in each of the three dimensions, but they managed to send large equipment, carpets, furniture, and even pianos home in various ways.
During demobilization, officers and soldiers were allowed to take away everything that they could take with them on the road in their personal luggage. At the same time, oversized things were often taken home, fastened to the roofs of the wagons, and the Poles left the craft to pull them along the train with ropes with hooks (grandfather told me).
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Three Soviet women deported to Germany carry wine from an abandoned liquor store. Lippstadt, April 1945.

During the war and the first months after it ended, the soldiers mainly sent non-perishable provisions to their home fronts (American dry rations, consisting of canned food, biscuits, egg powder, jam, and even instant coffee, were considered the most valuable). Allied medicines - streptomycin and penicillin - were also highly valued.
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American soldiers and young German women combine trading and flirting on the "black market" in the Tiergarten garden.
The Soviet military in the background in the market is not stupid. Berlin, May 1945.

And it was possible to get it only on the "black market", which instantly arose in every German city. You could buy everything at flea markets: from a car to women, and tobacco and food were the most common currency.
The Germans needed food, while the Americans, the British and the French were only interested in money - Germany then circulated Nazi Reichsmarks, the occupation stamps of the winners, and the foreign currencies of the allied countries, on whose courses a lot of money was made.
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An American soldier is trading with a Soviet junior lieutenant. LIFE photo from September 10, 1945.

And the funds Soviet soldiers were carried out. According to the Americans, they were the best buyers - gullible, badly traded and very rich. Indeed, since December 1944, Soviet military personnel in Germany began to receive double salaries in rubles and in marks at the rate (this system of double payment will be canceled much later).
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Photos of Soviet soldiers trading at a flea market. LIFE photo from September 10, 1945.

The salary of Soviet military personnel depended on the rank and position held. Thus, a major, deputy military commandant, in 1945 received 1,500 rubles. per month and for the same amount in occupation marks at the exchange rate. In addition, officers from the position of company commander and above were paid money to hire German servants.
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For pricing information. Certificate of purchase by a Soviet colonel from a German car for 2,500 marks (750 Soviet rubles)

The Soviet military received a lot of money - on the "black market" an officer could buy anything his heart desires for one month's salary. In addition, the servicemen were paid debts for monetary allowances for the past, and they had plenty of money even if they sent home a ruble certificate.
Therefore, it was simply stupid and unnecessary to risk “falling under distribution” and be punished for looting. While there were certainly plenty of greedy marauding fools, they were the exception rather than the rule.