Kovpak Alexey Pavlovich
Commander of the gun of the 235th Guards Rifle Regiment (81st Guards Rifle Division, 7th Guards Army, 2nd Ukrainian Front), Guards Senior Sergeant – at the time of the award nomination for the Order of Glory 1st Class.
Born on November 11, 1918, in the village of Zelenoye, now in the Petrovsky District of Kirovograd Oblast, in a peasant family. Ukrainian. Member of the VKP(b)/CPSU since 1944. Received primary education. Worked as an electrician at the Petrovsky factory in Dnipropetrovsk.
In the Red Army and in the battles of the Great Patriotic War since 1941. During the battles near Kherson, he was encircled.
While breaking through to the front line, in one of the battles, Red Army soldier Kovpak was seriously wounded and captured. He escaped and made it back to his homeland. He was re-drafted into the Red Army in November 1943 after the expulsion of the Nazis from the area. Participated in the liberation of Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.
As a gunner of the 76mm gun of the 235th Guards Rifle Regiment (81st Guards Rifle Division, 7th Guards Army, 2nd Ukrainian Front), Guards Private Kovpak from March 10 to 22, 1944, during the repulsion of enemy counterattacks and the crossing of the Southern Bug River (16 kilometers southeast of the city of Pervomaysk in Mykolaiv Oblast), with accurate fire destroyed four enemy bunkers and killed dozens of fascist soldiers and officers.
By the order of the commander of the 81st Guards Rifle Division dated May 10, 1944, for bravery displayed in battles against the enemy, Private Kovpak was awarded the Order of Glory 3rd Class (No. 140180).
On August 18, 1944, Guards Sergeant Kovpak, acting with his crew in battle in the area of the settlement of Megura (15 kilometers northwest of the Târgu Frumos railway station, Romania), suppressed an enemy battery with direct fire, destroying about twenty soldiers.
By the order of the 7th Guards Army dated November 18, 1944, Guards Sergeant Kovpak was awarded the Order of Glory 2nd Class (No. 13232).
As a commander of the gun, Guards Senior Sergeant Kovpak and his subordinates on February 22, 1945, in the area of the settlement of Bart (northeast of the city of Komárno, Czechoslovakia), while repelling attacks from large enemy infantry and tank forces, set fire to an enemy assault gun from his cannon and scattered over a platoon of its infantry. When the shells ran out, the crew members repelled the attack of enemy tanks with anti-tank grenades, disrupting their combat formation. Two of them detonated on mines.
On April 30, 1945, in a battle near the city of Vyshkov (Czechoslovakia), he suppressed an enemy mortar battery, two machine guns with crews, and killed several Nazis. In street fighting, he destroyed a machine gun position with a grenade and shot four enemy soldiers with his submachine gun.
In the third award sheet, it was written about him: "On February 22, 1945, in the area of the village of Bart (Czechoslovakia), while repelling attacks from large enemy infantry and tank forces, Comrade Kovpak displayed exemplary courage, resilience, and bravery.
With direct fire from his gun, he destroyed a self-propelled gun and killed 32 German soldiers. During a repeated tank attack on the firing position where Comrade Kovpak's gun was located, he, without losing his composure, disrupted the enemy's tank formation with anti-tank grenades, forcing them to change direction, where they hit our minefield, resulting in two enemy tanks being blown up, and he destroyed a tank landing party of 9 fascist automatic riflemen with his personal weapon.
In the battle for the city of Vyshkov (Czechoslovakia) on April 30, 1945, with his crew, he destroyed one heavy machine gun and suppressed the fire of an enemy mortar battery. Supporting the infantry with fire and maneuvering in street fighting for the city of Vyshkov, he personally threw grenades at the enemy's light machine gun, which was hindering the further advance of our infantry, and killed 3 soldiers and one officer of the enemy with his submachine gun.
He deserves to be awarded the Order of Glory 1st Class."
By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 15, 1946, for courage, bravery, and heroism displayed in the struggle against the German-fascist invaders, Guards Senior Sergeant Kovpak Alexey Pavlovich was awarded the Order of Glory 1st Class (No. 3776).
Demobilized in 1948. Lived in the village of Kant (Kyrgyzstan). Worked at a railway station and a sugar factory.
Awarded the Orders of Glory 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Class, and medals.
Died on October 21, 1968 (according to other sources – in 1967).
Kyrgyzstanis – Full Knights of the Order of Glory