War tales from USSR

[Datrus]

Hello Gents,

I have decided to make a thread on tales from the war in USSR. I got the inspiration from another thread not really having anything to do with this topic. As i said almost everybody here have a story to tell and have family members killed in the war. Even my wife is not that old, she have a lot of stories to tell from our family. She is very interested in family history and WW2. It's amazing what she knows actually. Both grandfathers served of course. On fathers side a pilot that made it all through the war. He was also in Berlin and finished in Budapest. The other one became a POW but was returned to USSR later. Many more family members served as well. Many stories to tell.

I will not update this thread often as it takes time to research all this. I do this because i want their stories to live on and i think this is great place to do so. I also think they deserve it.

Here is a brother of her grandmother on mothers side. His name is Nicolai. His brother Pavel i do not have pics of at the moment. Both went to the front after one month of training. Nicolai entered the war in 1943 at the age of 17 yrs old. His brother Pavel at the age of 16 yrs. I will update the older brothers story as soon as i get more info. At the moment i have most on Pavel's story. Quite interesting.

Pavel went to the army for one months training before going to the front. When his training was over he was granted a one day leave to go and visit his mother. He arrived in a uniform much too big for him, almost not able to carry his rifle. As grandmother said "he was just a small boy and they all cried when he left, because they knew he would never make it". He had to meet on troop transport the following day. He went Narofominsk. He was killed in battle after only two days.

Nicolai made it all through the war. He was a very skilled harmonica player and started a harmonica school after the war. I do not have much on him at the moment, but here is Nicolai's pics.

During or after the war



After the war



Regards, Lars

[Totenhead]

Nice one Lars ! I will be keeping a close eye on this, i am very interested indeed !

[Datrus]

Thanks mate I am sure you know where i got the inspiration to do this

Cheers mate

[Totenhead]

Hmmm, possibly !!! haha

[Datrus]

No Totenhead, we were not arguing

[Totenhead]

Cool

[Adrian Stevenson]

Thanks for this thread.

Cheers, Ade.

[Paul D]

Good idea Lars , much is now available in print about the German experience of the War on the Eastern Front but due to langauge and the difficulties after the war we can all still learn much about the expereince of the ordinary Russian families !!

[Datrus]

Thank you guys. I was not really sure it would be interesting

Regards, Lars

[robin morley]

Justbump this to the top, would love to hear more