Vasily F. Davidenko

Lieutenant of artillery, forward observer platoon leader, 7th Rifle Regiment, 24th Samara - Ulyanovsk "Iron" Rifle Divsion

I was born on July 7, 1911. It had been quite a while. I was drafted into Red Army in 1933 – those days, from 1933 to 1936, draftees were 22. So when I came to the Army I was already a grown-up man. I was drafted into 24th Samara – Ulyanovsk Iron Division, 70th Rifle Regiment, as a rank soldier. The regiment’s number was changed in 1937 for 7th Rifle Regiment. I was drafted in Ukraine, Vinnitsa. They were rotating different units around the country and changing unit numbers – apparently, the enemy had some information about us. We were sent to Leningrad from Vinnitsa. Two regiments of the Division were stationed in Leningrad, while the third one was in Pesochnoe. In 1939 I graduated from Lieutenants’ courses in 1st Leningrad Artillery Academy (it is located at MOskovski prospect). Funny enough, my grandson also studied in the same academy some 60 years after me. I was sent to the Academy because I had graduated from secondary school and completed accountant’s courses. I used to work as an accountant in our kolkhoz. Those days this was considered to be good education level those days, and I was sent to the Academy.

After graduating from the Academy I was commissioned as a Lieutenant and became artillery observers platoon leader for the battery in my rifle regiment. Each rifle regiment had a battery of small 45 mm guns and a battery of 76 mm guns. I took part in the Winter war in my division. If you would like to hear more, it was very complicated. First everything went well. After an artillery barrage we advanced towards Black river and first everything went smoothly, but later everything went wrong. Why did it go wrong? Because I, a forward observer platoon leader, did not even have a map! We arrived at the Mannerheim Line and stopped. We were first advancing along the road, destroying and defeating small Finnish delaying parties, and approached the Mannerheim Line, without knowing what was in front of us. When we made camp in the forest, a Finnish reconnaissance plane flew over us and took a photograph of our camp. After that Finns delivered a strong artillery blow on our camp from all the weapons that they had. They had very little air force, though. Our losses were high.

We started scout operations together with infantry scouts from our division. Our mission was to find location of gunports of Finnish concrete and wood-and-soil bunkers. The situation was the following: Finns had a barbed wire fence there, six rows and then rock fence and a minefield. We would set a gun for fire over open sight and make passage in the fence. Our commanders would wake up in the morning, take their binoculars and inspect the obstacle line, and our passage would not be there! Finns repaired the fence during the night. This is all because we did not know how to fight the war. What was to be done? We just had to make harassing fire at the fence during the night! At the same spot where we had made passages. Then Finns would not dare to come close to the fence. But we only made passages and went to bed, while Finns repaired their fence during the night. This repeated day after day. Then they decided to send me on a scout mission – I don’t know why they sent me. We made four passages by fire and off we went late in the evening. Even when we sneaked to the barbed wire fence late in the evening the passages were already repaired! It turned out that Finns had makeshift mines there – simple water pipes filled with explosives, and we got stuck on that minefield. I had twelve men with me and someone triggered that makeshift mine. Explosion shook the air, Finns spotted us and we had to withdraw. Finns arranged a static barrage on the route of our retreat an we lost many men there. I lost seven there. The only new information that I brought was that Finns were very diligent in repairing their barbed wire fences.
I was wounded in the war, but refused to go to the hospital. I was in a similar situation 5 years later, during the operation on destruction of German siege around Leningrad. I simply went to the medical platoon in some three kilometers from the frontline and had some rest there.

We started an offensive against the Mannerheim Line and we had very high losses there. We should have gotten to know the Finnish defenses first. We were right at Muolaanjarvi lake, there was an island on the lake. We had a snow trench on the ice. We saw a dog with a small bag running from the Finnish positions into our rear every morning on the ice, and then running back. Finns used a dog as means of delivering intelligence information! They gave us a mission to catch teh dog. We caught it, and read a message from a Finnish scout in our rear. The message was that we were preparing for an offensive.

What else can I tell you? In the beginning we had very high losses, because we were not prepared. We were not prepared for the war. Also, if you compare Germans and Finns, Germans fought very well if they had air force, superiority in tanks or artillery and so on. But as soon as Russian, I mean, Soviet soldiers appeared on their flanks or in the rear, they would be shouting “Hitler kaput”. Finns were quite different. They were very and very good warriors. For example, on Red Army day they set up a quiet counteroffensive. They were very good skiers, and they could ski without poles. They advanced up to 5 kilometers in the sector of our division! They almost made it to our division HQ. We had to repel their assaults for three days. This demonstrates how bad we were in setting up and holding defenses those days. (Apparently, Mr. Davidenko is speaking about the Finnish counteroffensive on Dec 23, 1939).

We were very well equipped in terms of uniforms and weapons. Each one of us had sheepskin coat and felt boots. When going behind Finnish lines, I would tale a rifle and a pistol with me. I would wear a sheepskin coat. We were neck-deep in snow, so we simply dug caves in the snow in order to approach the Finnish positions secretly. So, in terms of uniforms and supplies our 24th Rifle Division was doing great.

How did we survive in such frosts? We would dig a hole in snow, put some fur tree branches on the bottom of the hole, put a rain cape on the branches. Then two men could sleep there back against back and cover ourselves with another rain cape. One could sleep for one and a half hour like that, then we had to take turns. It’s like that.

Our Division commander, kombrig Veschev, was killed. He was ambushed by the Finns. We were all very upset about this. During that war we were very sad about every single person that we lost. Our regiment commander was also killed. One time Veschev came to our regiment. He came, gave some orders and had to ride back. There was a small valley with a brook there, and it was under Finnish fire. We had to go back. Veschev ordered us that we find him safe route. We tried two different routes but both times came under fire.

I had a horse called Lyubimchik (pet). When we were at Hanko and were ordered to shoot all the horses, I could not kill my friend. I grew him up myself, I fed him myself, I would take him to the meadows. He knew me well, no one could control that horse except for me. I put our division commander on my horse and he had to gallop across that valley. I sent two scouts with him for security. Both scouts were wounded, but the division commander made it through. Can you imagine a division commander riding on horseback between regiments with just two soldier? This was completely unacceptable later, during the Great Patriotic war. A division commander – without staff, without any means of communications, without security – is just riding to another regiment. No wonder he got killed. By the way, our division commander was not an infantry or artillery officer – did you know about that? He was a pilot. During some training session he flew under the high-voltage electric line. He was demoted and sent away from Air force for that. He completed some courses and became a rifle division commander – at least, this is the story that I heard.
When our troops broke through on our left flank, I visited a Finnish concrete bunker. It had some cracks in the walls from the fire from our heavy artillery. I had not seen a single bunker hit by a bomb. Those days we had not yet have dive bombers, and bombers could not hit a small target. When artillery fired at a concrete bunker, first they would destroy a protective earth layer, and then you could see the bunker clearly. It’s like that. The infantry assault during Winter war were quite different from the assaults during the Great Patriotic war. During the Great Patriotic war we would have an infantry assaulting behind a creeping barrage. During the Winter war they also had a creeping barrage, but there were several infantry lines assaulting one after another. The first line would be wiped out, the second line would lose less, and then the third or fourth line would complete the mission.

Then, after the Winter war was over, we were very warmly greeted in Leningrad. We did not have to line up in shops, everyone was happy to let us go forward.