Mikhail Petrovich Badigin - Tank Destroyer
Badigin (in the Decree - Badygin) Mikhail Petrovich - commander of the artillery crew of the 266th Guards Army Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment of the 8th Guards Army of the 1st Belarusian Front, Guards Senior Sergeant.
Born on October 21, 1923, in the village of Surulovka, now in the Novospassky District of the Ulyanovsk Region, in a peasant family. Russian. Completed 10 grades. Worked in the Karasuy communication department of the Omsk Region.
In February 1942, he was drafted into the Red Army and sent to the Tashkent Mortar Machine Gun School.
He completed an accelerated training course but did not become an officer. In August 1942, due to the difficult situation at the front, the entire course was sent to the active army with the rank of junior sergeants. On the Stalingrad Front, Badigin was assigned as a gunner of a 45-mm anti-tank gun in the anti-tank battery of the 434th Rifle Regiment of the 169th Rifle Division.
He saw his first combat in November 1943 during the encirclement of the enemy's Stalingrad grouping. In one of the battles, he replaced the wounded commander of the crew but was also wounded himself. He spent six months in the hospital. Upon returning to the front, he was appointed commander of the crew of a 57-mm gun in the 105th Guards Separate Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment of the RGK. In August, during a battle near the Barvenkovo station in the Kharkov region, he knocked out a "Tiger" tank, was wounded again, and spent a month in the hospital.
In September 1943, he was back at the front. He commanded the crew of a 76-mm ZIS-3 gun of the first fire platoon of the fourth battery of the 266th Guards Army Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment. As part of this unit, he fought through the Dnieper, Southern Bug, Dniester, Vistula, and Oder rivers, liberating Dnipropetrovsk, Apostolovo, Odessa, and Tiraspol. For the battles on the right bank of the Dnieper, he received his first combat award - the Medal "For Courage." He became a member of the VKP(b)/CPSU in 1944. He distinguished himself in the final stages of the war, in battles on the territory of Poland and Germany.
On August 8, 1944, during battles on the left bank of the Vistula near the city of Magnuszew (Poland), Guards Senior Sergeant Badigin, commanding his crew, knocked out three enemy tanks. He was wounded but continued to fight, during which he killed up to ten enemy soldiers.
It was dawn... The birds were waking up in the forest. Roosters were crowing in the village, and wisps of smoke were rising over the trenches of our infantry. The soldiers were lighting up, stretching. The morning began quietly, peacefully. Behind the trenches stood a battery of 76-mm anti-tank guns. Their crews were preparing for battle and glancing at their forest and the one that was green in the distance beyond the mowed field. There were Germans there. An attack was expected from that direction.
The battery commander, Lieutenant Maslov, pointing to the edge of the village, told Badigin, the commander of the outermost gun:
— Prepare a backup position there and everything else... It may be needed.
Badigin approved his decision. The backup position would be on the flank during the German advance, and fire from it would be effective. But fighting alone on the outskirts was not so easy. Badigin's crew had been through various situations, had fought their way from Stalingrad to the Vistula, could withstand any test, yet this task set by the lieutenant required extreme tension of their strength. The thing was that the scouts had just reported the news: the Germans were concentrating "King Tigers" behind the forest, and they would probably attack today.
The fascist command wanted to eliminate the bridgeheads on the western bank of the Vistula at all costs, hold Warsaw - stop the advance of our fronts. So the battle was going to be tough...
— It’s ordered to prepare a position here, — he said cheerfully when he brought his crew to the garden of the outermost house.
— “It’s a pity for the potatoes...” — grinned gunner Grisha Kravchenko. The garden was lush with potato foliage.
Apple trees with ripening apples stood along the edge. The soldiers tried the apples and stuffed their pockets.
— They will fall anyway when it starts, — Badigin allowed.
In an hour, everything was ready. The soldiers equipped the firing position, made niches for ammunition, and dug holes for themselves.
Defensive battles were expected in this area. Our troops were regrouping, the rear was being pulled up, which had lagged during the last forty-day offensive, ammunition was being replenished, and in general, new powerful strikes were being prepared as outlined in the strategic plans of the Supreme Command.
This was the Magnuszew bridgehead, which entered the history of the Great Patriotic War with prolonged heavy battles. To the north of it was Warsaw. To the south, battles were raging on the Puławy bridgehead.
On August 8, 1944, the Germans began their attack in this area exactly at ten o'clock, after a short but powerful artillery barrage. "King Tigers" appeared at the edge of the forest. The roar of their engines, amplified by the echo of the forest, was deafening.
It seemed as if the air had thickened, trembled, and pressed on the ears. The clanking of tracks, the short growl of turret guns, and the incessant chatter of machine guns filled the air. The ground shook, rumbled, and the edges of the trenches crumbled. Following the "Tigers," automatic riflemen ran.
— Nine, — Badigin counted.
At first, the "Tigers" opened fire on the village, several houses caught fire, and smoke billowed thickly towards our positions.
— Cleverly thought out, — Badigin thought.
Our infantrymen coughed, rubbed their eyes, but did not see the enemy, while the roar of engines and the clanking of tracks rolled over them, and it seemed - this was the end, no force could stop the avalanche of metal. Suddenly, a soldier jumped out of our trench. Throwing away his machine gun, he covered his ears and rushed towards the forest. Others followed him.
— Stop! — shouted Maslov.
— Back, Slavs, back! — the battery sergeant Shkarupa rushed to intercept, pulled out his pistol, and waved it over his head. And around, shells were exploding, bullets were whistling, and the soldiers, seeing the sergeant who feared nothing, stopped.
— Back, Slavs, back, — he repeated pleadingly, — We will stop the tanks, but we cannot cope with the infantry without you. — Back, brothers!
At that moment, the battery opened fire. The salvo of explosions danced before the tanks. They swayed clumsily, spilling fiery traces, advancing on our positions. Some slowed down, evidently hesitant to go under the explosions. The artillerymen took advantage of this. A black-maroon flame billowed under the steel turret of the front tank, the track of the neighboring tank was broken, and it stopped, continuing to fire. The second shell set it on fire, and a column of flame shot up into the sky.
— Look, Slavs! — Shkarupa pointed at the "Tigers" and urged the young, inexperienced soldiers towards the trenches.
— Badigin, to the wheels! — ordered the lieutenant.
Badigin's crew ceased fire and ran, grabbing the gun mounts and leaning against the shield, to the backup position.
— Aim at the nearest! — Badigin commanded and, fearing that he might not be heard, stood next to the loader. When the crosshair on the turret was clearly defined, he gave the command, confirming it with a wave of his hand.
Flames leaped from the gun barrel, the air trembled. The tank jerked and stopped.
Kravchenko, not tearing his eyes from the panorama, joyfully exclaimed:
— Got one! Come on, let’s get another!...
The second tank began to turn towards the village but also caught fire. “Well done, Grisha,” thought Badigin, pointing to the third tank.
At that moment, a shell exploded in front of the gun. The shockwave jolted the gun. The gunner fell and, getting up, grabbed his head. He had been hit by the sight.
— Load! — shouted Badigin, replacing the gunner.
The Germans were firing from the forest at the battery and the village.
Shells were exploding around. The shell holder fell, and suddenly the gun jumped, the right wheel flew off to the side, the barrel dug into the ground and buried itself in it.
— Take cover! — ordered Badigin.
The soldiers ran to the gaps, opened fire with their personal weapons, cutting off the enemy automatic riflemen from the tanks. But they broke into the battery, crushed the guns, flattened the gaps, but stopped, blown up by grenades.
Seeing the knocked-out "King Tigers," the Germans withdrew, their artillery fell silent, and the battle was over.
Badigin sank to the bottom of the trench, pressed his cheek to the cool clay. His head was spinning, and his shoulder burned.
Blood was running down his sleeve, dripping from his fingers.
— Sergeant... Misha... — Kravchenko, covering his swollen eye with his palm, looked at Badigin with his other eye, bulging as if he could not believe that his commander could be wounded.
— Comrades, over here! — he called, still examining Badigin.
The soldiers lifted the sergeant, laid him on a pile of green potato foliage, tore his tunic, and bandaged his wound. Badigin felt awkward in front of them. He overcame his weakness and sat up.
— We need to bury our comrades...
It was already getting dark. It was quiet. Voices of birds could be heard from the forest, it smelled of flowers blooming at the edge and of smoke.
After burying their comrades, the soldiers tidied up the positions and tried to repair Badigin's gun. It was in better condition than the others, it only needed a wheel replaced, but it turned out to be impossible - the axle was broken.
— And it’s not needed, — said Lieutenant Maslov, — a replacement is coming here. Get ready for rest.
He was wounded, limping heavily, leaning on a stick he had cut in the forest.
— And you go to the medical battalion, — he ordered Badigin.
Badigin silently nodded, but when the lieutenant left, he stayed with his crew. At sunset, they were replaced by a new battery, and another company of infantrymen came into the trenches.
For this battle, by order of September 19, 1944, Senior Sergeant Mikhail Petrovich Badigin, along with many of his comrades, was awarded the Order of Glory III class (No. 239892). His wound turned out to be non-life-threatening, it healed quickly, and he remained on the bridgehead. The battery was equipped with new guns and replenished with personnel...
On January 19, 1945, Guards Senior Sergeant Badigin, while breaking through the enemy's defense near the city of Lodz, knocked out and burned ten carts with cargo, suppressed two machine guns, and destroyed an enemy squad.
By order of March 4, 1945, Guards Senior Sergeant Mikhail Petrovich Badigin was awarded the Order of Glory II class (No. 7039).
The brave artilleryman distinguished himself again on the approaches to the capital of Nazi Germany - the city of Berlin. On April 25, 1945, Mikhail Badigin and his crew destroyed more than a platoon of Nazis, suppressed five machine guns, and put two enemy anti-tank guns out of action.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 15, 1946, for exemplary performance of command assignments in battles against the German-fascist invaders, Guards Senior Sergeant Mikhail Petrovich Badigin was awarded the Order of Glory I class (No. 74). He became a full cavalier of the Order of Glory.
In October 1945, Badigin, having sustained three wounds, was demobilized. He lived in the regional center of the Osh Region of Kyrgyzstan - the city of Osh. He worked as the head of the technical supply department at the VLKSM Silk Factory. Since 1951, he was involved in party work. In 1963, he graduated from the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU. Since 1979, he was a member of the party commission of the Osh Regional Committee.
Since 1993, he lived in the city of Zelenograd (in the outskirts of Moscow). He died on January 5, 2000. He was buried in Moscow at the Zelenograd Cemetery.
He was awarded the Orders of the Patriotic War I class, the Red Star, the Orders of Glory of three classes, and medals.
In the city of Osh, a bust was erected to the full cavalier of the Order of Glory.
Author of the book "The Battle Requires a Feat" Moscow; 1980
Kyrgyzstanis – Full Cavaliers of the Order of Glory