Stalingrad Certificate, help required with the details

[lugerfan]

hi all,
wonder if i could ask for a spot of help with a Stalingrad certificate please. Recently picked it up, however only have a limited knowledge of this area of collection, but i think its genuine..

I believe its to a Sub lieutenant Vtorov Vasilij Dmitrievich, possibly of the 256th guards rifle regiment, awarded 16th December 1943 - can anyone confirm ?

also any idea who the signature would have been or is there any info on the stamp in the lower left hand side?

Is it possible to get any more information about the soldier himself online, i don't speak Russian, but know someone who can, be we don't know really know where to start looking.

I've tried to research the regiment, but drawn a blank there as well, i think they may have been part of the 86th guards rifle division, but that was dated 4/6/43, so I'm not sure what they were doing at the time of the battle.

thanks in advance for any help you can give..

[Bill Garvy]

Document for the Medal Defense of Stalingrad issued to Guards Senior Lieutenant Vasiliy Dmitrievich Vtrov (born 1920) dated December 16th, 1943 by the Commander of the 265th Guards Rifle Regiment Guards Colonel Pankov. Interestingly the stamp, lower left, is for Military Unit 44138 Field Mail (Войсковая Часть Полевая 44138 Почта), which is seldom seen.

He was also awarded an Order of the Red Star on April 14th, 1944 as a member of the regiment which was part of the 86th Guards "Nikolaev" Red Banner Rifle Division. He was previously awarded an Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd Class on May 28th, 1945. He was also alive in 1985 to received another Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd Class, 1985 Jubilee issue.

[lugerfan]

Hi Bill, many thanks for the quick reply, really appreciate it. I have a few questions if i may..

any ideas, based on his regiment, as to where he may have been during the Stalingrad battle ?

re the stamp of the military unit 44138..., - not come across this before, is it possible just a way of sending mail in the field somehow, would these stamps have been typically tied up to their unit etc.

i notice the certificate number is quite low, in comparison with earlier dated awards with higher cert numbers, presumably there were no duplicates, were they just issued in random number orders - in which case did the field mail orders just happen to have a lower numbers block of certificates.

cheers

[meyerse]

Hi Bill, many thanks for the quick reply, really appreciate it. I have a few questions if i may..

any ideas, based on his regiment, as to where he may have been during the Stalingrad battle ?

re the stamp of the military unit 44138..., - not come across this before, is it possible just a way of sending mail in the field somehow, would these stamps have been typically tied up to their unit etc.

i notice the certificate number is quite low, in comparison with earlier dated awards with higher cert numbers, presumably there were no duplicates, were they just issued in random number orders - in which case did the field mail orders just happen to have a lower numbers block of certificates.

cheers

The certificate 'numbers' are in letter blocks as well, note 'Л'

[meyerse]

As for where he was at stalingrad, you have to track back the regiment, but starting here
503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

his regiment was subordinated in this way 28 А ( 265 гв. сп, 86 гв. сд, 10 гв. ск, 28 А ) in 1944 when he won the red star, but that does NOT mean it was this way at the time of Stalingrad I'd have to do much more digging. 265 гв. сп shows up south on Jan 1, 1943, but of course then the pocket was already closed. (just click on the link, don't know why it says service unavailable.....)

[meyerse]

Here is where it says he won his 'red star' just an FYI

[lugerfan]

Thanks - I'm sadly now out of my depth on the Russian language info so will have to ask my friend for that. I did find a website with the following info on them though.. not sure if that adds anything..

[meyerse]

It does, but it is pushing the limits of my knowledge!
You see that there were two formations, BUT the date of the Stalingrad doc is prior to the renaming (it turned into the 168th guards) now your guy is a 'guards' but those go with the individual, and when he won his red star in 1944 it was with the 256 guards? But my order of battle also says the 30th was reformed as the 55th guards...and that the second formation of the 30th didn't include the 256? the 30th-55th had several honorifics

[meyerse]

So here is the 28th army in early-December, downstream of Stalingrad (look at the very bottom corner.......
Map 22

[lugerfan]

sorry, Looks like i made a mistake in the 2nd page posting above, somehow i reposted page 1 twice..

it should have been this page, if I'm reading this right the actual regiment at the time of Stalingrad was the 308th ? are their actions in the order of battle ?



i guess though there is the assumption he was with the 308th regiment (98th division) rather than somewhere else at that period of time..

appreciate to continued help