Red Banner to sapper company commander

[Auke]

This Red Banner was awarded to Lieutenant Mikhail Vasilyevich Fadeyev on February 25, 1945. Married and father of a 7-year-old daughter, Fadeyev joined the Red Army on September 15, 1941 at the age of 33. Initially serving as private and NCO, he attended an officers course during the summer of 1943 and was subsequently promoted to Junior Lieutenant. In May 1944 he was promoted to Lieutenant and in March 1945 to Senior Lieutenant. Fadeyev headed a sapper platoon and as of March 1944 a sapper company. In this capacity he was awarded a Red Star and OPW2 during the autumn of 1944.

Fadeyev was lightly wounded In March 1943, September 1943 and May 1944, and two more times in January 1945.

His Red Banner citation reads:

During the breakthrough of the enemy defenses near the settlement of Szydłów in Poland during the night to January 12, 1945, Lieutenant Fadeyev's company enabled the passage of the most forward rifle battalion of the 1035th Rifle Regiment through enemy engineering obstacles. The company cleared 8 passages through barbed wire and 16 passages through enemy minefields, removing 156 anti-tank mines and 210 anti-personnel mines. Having led the rifle battalion of the 1035th Rifle Regiment through the passages without any losses, Lieutenant Fadeyev personally escorted our tanks and self-propelled guns through the passages, where he was wounded and sent to the medical unit. On January 20, 1945, during the crossing of the Oder River near Leidesdorff in Germany, Lieutenant Fadeyev's company in a night built a crossing across the ice, which was reinforced with wood over a distance of 150 meters, which aided the crossing of the rifle regiments of the 280th Rifle Division, 840th Artillery Regiment, two attached mortar regiments, and the 350th Rifle Division. During the construction of the crossing across the ice, Lieutenant Fadeyev was lightly wounded for the second time. For capably leading his company and his selfless execution of missions, Lieutenant Fadeyev deserves the Order of Lenin.

[Auke]

And this is him, probably from when he was decommissioned in April 1946:

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An interesting detail is that for a significant part of the war he served in or together with the 350th Rifle Division, that was commanded by the general whose Hero star I own (Vekhin, https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/order...vekhin-114031/). Vekhin must have signed Fadeyev's ORS and OPW2 citations. It's A Small World After All...