Biography
After the end of hostilities, he returned to study at the academy. Lived in the city Balashikha Moscow region.
From the first days of the Great Patriotic War he took part in battles.
On the Western Front he commanded a separate experimental battery of rocket artillery from installations BM-13(“Katyusha”). For the first time, BM-13 installations were tested in combat conditions at 10 a.m. on July 14, 1941, when shelling enemy troops and equipment in the city Rudnya, supporting the defending units of the Red Army. And on July 16 they showed high efficiency in destroying unevacuated Soviet trains at the city’s railway junction Orsha. October 7th 1941 Captain Flerov, being surrounded, died heroically.
Combat path during the Great Patriotic War
In the first days of the war, Captain Flerov, at the suggestion of the head of the academy, Major General Govorova was appointed commander of the Red Army's first separate First Experimental Battery of Rocket Artillery. 3 July battery armed with five experimental and two production combat vehicles M-13-16(later called "Katyusha") and one 122-mm howitzer, used as a sighting gun, was sent to the Western Front.
In addition, the battery included 44 trucks to transport 600 M-13 rockets, 100 howitzer shells, entrenching tools, three fuel and lubricant refills, seven daily food allowances and other equipment. The battery's personnel consisted of 160 people (46 people came out of the encirclement).
On the night of July 3 (4), 1941, from Moscow along the Mozhaisk Highway, the battery of Captain I. A. Flerov went to the front along the route: Moscow-Yartsevo-Smolensk-Orsha. Two days later (July 6), the battery arrived at the site and became part of the artillery 20 armies Western Front.
With the second salvo, the battery destroyed a pontoon bridge across the Orshitsa River on the Minsk-Moscow road, built by German sappers at the site of the Western Front blown up by the Foreign Detachment. The 17th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht came under attack. For 3 days, the 17th Panzer Division could not take part in hostilities. On July 15, with three salvos, she helped break the resistance of the German troops who occupied the city of Rudnya. The battery as part of the 42nd division took part in the Elnitsky counter-offensive.
On October 2, Flerov’s battery was surrounded in the Vyazemsky cauldron. The batteries covered more than 150 kilometers behind enemy lines. The captain did everything possible to save the battery and break through to his own. When the fuel ran out, he ordered the installations to be charged and the remaining missiles and most of the transport vehicles to be blown up.
On the night of October 7, a convoy of battery vehicles was ambushed near the village of Bogatyri (Znamensky district, Smolensk region). Finding themselves in a hopeless situation, the battery personnel took up the fight. Under heavy fire they blew up the cars. Many of them died. Being seriously wounded, the commander blew himself up along with the main launcher. Buried in the Smolensk region, Ugransky district, no. Bogatyr.
- From the combat reports of the commander of the first Katyusha battery, Captain I. A. Flerov, July 14 - October 7, 1941:
July 14, 1941 They attacked fascist trains at the Orsha railway junction. The results are excellent. A continuous sea of fire. 7.X.1941 21 hours. We were surrounded near the village of Bogatyr - 50 km from Vyazma. We will hold out until the end. No exit. We are preparing for self-explosion. Goodbye comrades.
| Subdivision | Commander | notes |
|---|---|---|
| Battery commander | Captain Flerov Ivan Andreevich | being surrounded, he died in battle on October 7, 1941. |
| deputy battery commander | Lieutenant Serikov Konstantin Konstantinovich | 10/11/1941 near the city of Yukhnov was captured (flag No. 57), released |
| assistant battery commander for technical matters | military technician 2nd rank I. N. Bobrov | |
| Battery Commissioner | political instructor Zhuravlev Ivan Fedorovich | |
| party organizer battery | Sergeant Nesterov Ivan Yakovlevich (driver of the M-13 installation) | (went out to his people) |
| Komsomol battery | Sergeant Zakharov Alexey Anisimovich (radio operator) | (went out to his people) |
| Park platoon commander | Senior Lieutenant A.V. Kuzmin | (went out to his people) |
| Automotive battery technician | military technician 2nd rank I. E. Skigin | |
| Battery electrician | military technician 2nd rank A. K. Polyakov | |
| representative of the research institute | military engineer 2nd rank Dmitry Shatov | left the battery after a week |
| representative of the research institute | design engineer Alexey Popov | left the battery a week later and subsequently trained the personnel of the 2nd battery of Lieutenant A.M. Kun |
| Platoon control | Lieutenant P.K. Vetryak | |
| Sighting platoon | Lieutenant M. I. Naumenko | |
| 1 fire platoon | Lieutenant I. F. Kostyukov | |
| 2nd fire platoon | Lieutenant N. A. Malyshkin | |
| 3rd fire platoon | Lieutenant M. A. Podgorny | |
| Commanders/drivers of combat crews of launchers: Sergeant Ovsov Valentin Sergeant Gavrilov Ivan / Sergeant Nesterov I. Ya. (went to their own) Sergeant Yessenov Sergeant Konnov Ivan Nikolaevich (joined a partisan detachment) Sergeant Kurganov Alexander Sergeant Rushev Sergeant Nayaglov Konstantin |
||
| ammunition platoon | Lieutenant A.V. Kuzmin | |
| economic department | ||
| department of fuels and lubricants | ||
| sanitary unit | military paramedic Avtonomova Yulia Vladimirovna | (went out to her team) |
Awards
- Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree (posthumous)
- Medal "Gold Star" Hero of the Russian Federation(posthumously)
Memory
in autumn 1995 a group of Vyazma search engines 250 meters west of the village Bogatyr found artillerymen who died along with the Katyushas. The remains of 7 rocket men were found. Among them, the remains of Captain Flerov were identified. On October 6, 1995, all the remains were reburied next to the obelisk near the village of Bogatyr, erected in memory of the feat of the rocket scientists.
Original taken from loginov_lip in Burial place of Captain Flerov and his soldiers
Ivan Andreevich Flerov - Hero of Russia, native of the village of Dvurechki, Gryazinsky district, Voronezh region (now Lipetsk region), legendary commander of the first Katyusha battery, my fellow countryman. Captain Flerov's artillery unit showed the Soviet command the promise of this type of weapon. It was thanks to the successes of this great commander that the Katyushas became so revered in the infantry.
Ivan Andreevich was born in 1905 in the village of Dvurechki, Gryazinsky district. There were six children in the Flerov family - four brothers and two sisters. His father worked as an accountant at the Borinsky sugar factory, his mother did housework. Ivan Flerov graduated from the zemstvo school with a certificate of merit, having especially excelled in arithmetic. After working in the village, he became an apprentice mechanic at a sugar factory. And in 1926 he graduated from the factory apprenticeship school (FZU) at the iron foundry in the city of Lipetsk (for a long time it was PU No. 23, where there is a museum of the legendary fellow countryman). Here, as one of the best graduates of the school, he worked for some time as a master of industrial training.
from here
Having served his military service in artillery units, in 1933 Flerov cast his lot with the army. After graduating from the artillery school, he was enrolled as a student at the Military Artillery Academy named after F. E. Dzerzhinsky. In 1939, he took part in the war with Finland and was awarded the Order of the Red Star for his heroism.
October 7, 1941 was the last test for the captain and his battery: the soldiers entered into an unequal battle with the enemy in the notorious Vyazemsky cauldron (Smolensk region, Ugransky district, outskirts of the village of Bogatyr). Following the order of the General Staff, Flerov ordered part of his troops to break out of the encirclement, and he himself, together with a foreman, two sergeants and three privates, activated the explosive mechanisms on the Katyushas.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 14, 1963, Ivan Andreevich Flerov was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War degree. In 1995 he was awarded the title of Hero of Russia (posthumously).
The search for the place of Flerov’s death was long and affected several generations of patriotic search engines.
On June 21, 1941, the day before the start of the war, tests of the latest weapons - the BM-13 rocket artillery installations, later better known as "Katyushas" - were completed, and a decision was made to begin their serial production.
Monument to "Katyusha" in Odessa:
On June 28, Captain I.A. Flerov was instructed to begin creating the first experimental battery of rocket artillery. It consisted of 170 soldiers, sergeants and officers, 7 BM-13 combat vehicles: three fire platoons and one lead vehicle, a sighting platoon consisting of a 122-mm howitzer, control platoons, motor transport and medical platoons, economic and financial units and other special forces. The officers at the battery came mainly from the Artillery Academy. On the night of July 3, the battery left Moscow for the Western Front, armed with about 3,000 M-13 missiles.
The formed battery included a control platoon, three fire platoons, ammunition supply and sighting platoons, as well as rear and support units. In total, it contained 7 BM-13 installations, about 50 different vehicles and one 122-mm howitzer (for preliminary shooting before firing a salvo of rockets). There were about 170 personnel in the battery.
The first combat mission for Captain I.A. Flerov was assigned by Major General G.S. Coriophylli: to launch a fire raid on the Orsha railway station, where fascist trains with personnel, ammunition, equipment, fuel and other material resources had accumulated. And so on July 14, 1941, at 15:15, the first salvo of rockets loaded with incendiary substances was fired.
A few seconds later, a fiery tornado hit the railway junction. Few of the fascists who found themselves at the station at that time managed to escape. The effect was amazing! At the Orsha station, all trains and track facilities were practically destroyed. Observing the results of the battery’s combat work from an observation post, I.A. Flerov told Lieutenant Colonel Krivoshapov: “We can safely report to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief that an excellent weapon has been created! One must think that the echoes of the salvo will reach from Orsha to Berlin! "
Over the course of three months, the battery, constantly changing its location, fired dozens of crushing volleys at the accumulation of fascist manpower and equipment. The Wehrmacht command allocated special units with the task of finding and capturing the battery at any cost. A real hunt began for her using aircraft, tanks and infantry.
But all this time, thanks to the skillful actions of Captain Flerov, the battery evaded pursuit with minimal losses and at the same time constantly delivered devastating blows to the enemy. On September 30, the Nazis began to implement the Typhoon plan, the ultimate goal of which was the capture of Moscow. At this time, the battery, along with other troops, was surrounded in the area of the city of Roslavl. To reach the front line and connect with the troops, the batteries had to make a two-hundred-kilometer march along the rear of the fascists, having missiles for only one salvo on the guides of the combat installations. And the battery broke through to its troops, preserving its personnel and all its equipment.
With a powerful blow from tank and mechanized divisions from Roslavl and Dukhovshchina, the Germans broke through our defenses, occupied Spas-Demensk, Yukhnov, and on October 6 united in Vyazma. Our units in the area of Smolensk and Yelnya were surrounded.
Captain Flerov's battery was cut off. The guardsmen had to drive heavy vehicles off-road, through forests and swamps. They walked behind enemy lines for more than 150 kilometers (from Roslavl past Spas-Demensk to the northeast).
Captain Flerov did everything possible to save the battery and break through to his own. When the fuel ran out, he ordered the installations to be charged and the remaining missiles and most of the transport vehicles to be blown up. The convoy contained combat installations and 3-4 trucks with people.
Not far from the village of Znamenka, the captain stopped the column at the edge of the forest and sent out a reconnaissance vehicle. Soon she reported that the way was clear. Flerov ordered the scouts to follow in front of the column at a distance of no more than a kilometer and, in case of danger, immediately give a signal. When it got dark, cars with their headlights off walked closely one after another. It was quiet all around. But suddenly the field was lit up by flashes of gunfire. The enemy ambush deliberately missed the reconnaissance vehicle and attacked the rocket convoy with all its might. The Nazis sought to capture the battery at any cost in order to unravel the secret of the new Soviet weapon. Flerov and his subordinates entered into mortal combat. While some fought off the enemy, others rushed to the combat installations.
The old road from Znamenka to Bogatyr, along which the battery moved
Having fired the last direct fire salvo at approaching enemy tanks, the batteries, following the commander's order, blew up combat installations that were prepared for explosion. Captain Flerov himself, being seriously wounded, having given the order to his subordinates in small groups to make their way to their troops, blew up the main installation, to which the Germans got within 40 - 50 meters, and died in the process. Only 46 artillerymen of the battery reached the front line, who were brought out by the fire platoon commander, Senior Lieutenant A.V. Kuzmin, and the party organizer of the battery, political instructor I.Ya. Nesterov.
After the battle, the Germans, having inspected the place, removed awards and weapons from the dead, and took away documents. They were buried by local residents near the village of Bogatyr - not far from the Vyazma-Yukhnov highway. One of the participants in these events remained alive, went through the war and every year on May 9 came to the grave of his fellow soldiers and looked after it together with local residents. After 1984, such trips stopped, and many rural veterans passed away. The fence enclosing the grave rotted and fell; the place was plowed, along with the road that led through the field to the village. The burial was lost.
Journalist N.M. Afanasyev put a lot of work into restoring the history of the famous battery. He wrote the book “The First Salvos,” for which all the mortar guards are grateful to him.
Made from colorful material O. Yablokova in Gryazinskie Izvestia(No. 86 (9168) dated October 25, 1995) it becomes clear why for many years the heroes were not buried with due honors. The journalist talked with old-timers of the village of Bogatyr, witnesses of the events of October 1941. After the Nazis left the village, local grandfathers buried the bodies of the soldiers:
In 1995, after Flerov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia, the leadership of the Smolensk region was faced with a difficult question: there is a monument (a memorial plaque at the beginning of the village of Bogatyr), and the remains of the hero are located somewhere in the middle of the field. Vyazma search engines led by A. Gavrikov and L. Gorshkova were called to search for the remains of the dead soldiers.
Flerov's wife and son (from the archives of the Gryazinsky Museum of Local Lore)
Nature itself was on the side of the members of the patriotic club: the autumn rains stopped, and warm, clear weather set in. The expedition arrived in the village of Znamenka and settled in a local school. We went to the place of Flerov’s death, once again listened to the local residents, and walked along the road along which the Katyushas were moving towards the village of Bogatyr. One elderly woman not only told the story of what happened here in 1941, but also brought a photograph showing a burial with a wooden fence. Based on photos and stories, we narrowed the search area to a minimum: a rectangle of 100 by 200 meters.
Armed with probes and shovels, they examined every hole or bump, centimeter by centimeter. The remains were discovered by Lyubov Gorshkova. When the contours of the pit were cleared, it turned out that Captain Flerov (this could be seen from the “sleepers” on his buttonholes) was resting separately, and 6 people were lying on the other side in a row (one of them was a senior lieutenant). Artillery emblems were clearly visible on the buttonholes of the dead.
The reburial ceremony began with a rally in the regional center of Ugra, and then a column with coffins on an artillery carriage and with a guard of honor went to the village of Znamenka, where modern Grad rocket launchers fired a salvo. The remains were solemnly reburied in the village of Bogatyr near the Vyazma-Yukhnov highway.
Thus, thanks to the efforts of the search engines, historical justice was restored and one of the brightest and tragic pages of the Great Patriotic War was worthily completed.
It is very good that there is now a large sign near this place. Heroes must be remembered.
In honor of the battery’s feat, monuments were erected in the cities of Orsha, Balashikha, near the village of Bogatyr, and an obelisk in the city of Rudnya. Streets in Lipetsk, Gryazi, Orsha, Balashikha, an agricultural enterprise in the Smolensk region, and the central square of the village of Dvurechki are named after Flerov. On May 9, 1975, a memorial museum to I.A. was opened here. Flerov, and in one of the Gryazi parks there is a monument to the legendary “Katyusha”.
“Grad”, “Hurricane”, “Smerch” and the affectionate name “Katyusha”. What unites these names is known to few, as well as the fact that one day in July 1941 turned the history of weapons upside down. It was then that the guard battery of Captain Ivan Flerov struck the German troops.
"Katyusha" came ashore
On June 21, 1941, the day before the start of the war, tests of the latest weapons were completed - the BM-13 rocket artillery installations, later better known as "Katyushas", and a decision was made to begin their serial production. On June 28, Captain Ivan Flerov was instructed to begin creating the first experimental battery of rocket artillery. It consisted of 170 soldiers, sergeants and officers, 7 BM-13 combat vehicles: three fire platoons and one lead vehicle, a sighting platoon consisting of a 122-mm howitzer, control platoons, motor transport and medical platoons, economic and financial units and other special forces. The officers at the battery came mainly from the Artillery Academy. On the night of July 3, the battery left Moscow for the Western Front, armed with about 3,000 M-13 missiles.
The name "Katyusha" comes from the marking "KAT" ("Cumulative Artillery Thermite") on the incendiary rockets used. And since the appearance of weapons in combat units coincided with the popularity of the song “Katyusha,” this name stuck. Another version seems more convincing. The first BM-13s were marked with the letter “K” - the sign of the plant named after. Comintern. And front-line soldiers loved to give nicknames to their weapons. For example, the M-30 howitzer was nicknamed “Mother”, the ML-20 howitzer gun was nicknamed “Emelka”. So it was quite logical to call the BM-13 “Katyusha”.
On June 26, 1941, at the Comintern plant in Voronezh, the assembly of the first two serial BM-13 launchers on the ZIS-6 chassis was completed, which were immediately accepted by representatives of the Main Artillery Directorate. The next day, the installations were sent under their own power to Moscow, where on June 28, after successful tests, they were combined with five installations previously manufactured at the RNII into a battery for sending to the front. An experimental artillery battery of seven vehicles under the command of Captain Ivan Flerov was first used against the German army at the railway junction of the city of Orsha on July 14, 1941. The first eight regiments of 36 vehicles each were formed on August 8, 1941. The production of BM-13 units was organized at the Voronezh plant named after. Comintern and at the Moscow Kompressor plant. One of the main enterprises for the production of rockets was the Moscow plant named after. Vladimir Ilyich.
The first salvo is the most important
On the night of July 3, the first Separate Experimental Battery of Rocket Artillery left Moscow and moved west along the Minsk Highway. In the column of ordinary trucks covered with tarpaulin, covered vehicles stood out, reminiscent of cars transporting pontoons. Everyone who happened to see that column considered them pontoon carriers.
On July 14, 1941, at 3:15 p.m., with a roar, a grinding sound, and raising a cloud of dust from the scorched earth, Katyusha rockets launched into the sky. The Orsha railway station ceased to exist that day, and the German command organized a real hunt for the weapon that had so frightened them.
The battery's volley made a stunning impression not only on the enemies, but also on the Soviet soldiers occupying the defense near Orsha. Having got out of the trenches, they threw their helmets up, waved their caps in admiration, seeing off the inconspicuous vehicles of the “pontoon” troops, which were in fact a formidable weapon.
The last battle of captain Flerov
At the beginning of October 1941, Wehrmacht troops launched a massive attack on Moscow, and Captain Flerov’s battery was cut off from supplies. Using the remaining fuel, the Katyushas moved to the village of Bogatyr, where they fell into a German ambush. The combat installations had devices for destroying vehicles. On the night of October 6, they blew up the Katyusha rockets with their own hands. And many, including Captain Flerov, died in the process. The enemy got only shapeless fragments of iron. The gunners kept the secret of their weapons.
Not all the fighters of the experimental rocket mortar battery died in that battle. Forty-six out of one hundred and seventy remained alive. After blowing up the installations, they managed to retreat into the forest and take cover. For several days, in four scattered groups, they walked through the forests, ate mushrooms and rowan berries, and safely reached the city of Mozhaisk.
Ridiculous rumors surfaced that Flerov had deliberately led the battery into an ambush. And only when it was possible to discover documents from one of the Wehrmacht army headquarters, where with German scrupulousness it was reported what actually happened on the night of October 6-7, 1941 near the Smolensk village of Bogatyr, doubts were dispelled. It became known that none of the participants in the last battle were captured. Captain Flerov was removed from the list of missing persons.
"Stalin's organs"
Officially, the Katyusha regiments were called the Guards Mortar Regiments of the Reserve Artillery of the Supreme High Command. It was a terrible weapon. All 16 shells could be fired in 7–10 seconds. The time it took to transfer the MU-2 launcher from the traveling to the combat position was 2–3 minutes, the vertical firing angle ranged from 4 to 45 degrees, and the horizontal firing angle was 20 degrees.
The design of the launcher allowed it to move in a charged state at a fairly high speed (up to 40 km/h) and quickly deploy to a firing position, which facilitated the delivery of surprise attacks on the enemy.
It is difficult to imagine what it would be like to be hit by Katyusha missiles. According to those who survived such shelling (both Germans and Soviet soldiers), this was one of the most terrible experiences of the entire war. Everyone describes the sound that the rockets made during the flight differently - grinding, howling, roaring. Be that as it may, in combination with subsequent explosions, during which, over an area of several hectares, the earth mixed with pieces of buildings, equipment, and people flew into the air, this gave a strong psychological effect. When the soldiers occupied enemy positions, they were not met with fire, not because everyone was killed - it was just that the rocket fire drove the survivors crazy.
Yuri USYNIN, reserve major general, ex-chief of the Saratov Higher Military Command School of Missile Forces named after. Lizyukova:
- “Katyusha” is a very formidable weapon, despite such an affectionate name. The first blow near Orsha, delivered by the guard battery of Captain Ivan Flerov, sowed panic among the troops of the Nazi invaders. Unfortunately, this battery did not see the colossal contribution to the common cause that it made, since it was destroyed by the invaders on the road from Smolensk to Moscow. But what she did is invaluable.
"Katyusha" was part of the artillery troops, which played a decisive role in the battles on the fields of the Great Patriotic War. It’s not for nothing that she’s called the “God of War.” Artillery troops are divided into cannon, anti-aircraft and rocket artillery. The jet aircraft included the famous Katyushas. They went through the entire war and visited all battlefields, gradually improving from eight-round to twenty-round units. They finished their journey in Berlin.
From the combat reports of the commander of the first Katyusha battery, Captain I. A. Flerov, July 14 - October 7, 1941:
= July 14, 1941. They attacked fascist trains at the Orsha railway junction. The results are excellent. A continuous sea of fire.
= 7.X.1941 21 hours. We were surrounded near the village of Bogatyr - 50 km from Vyazma. We will hold out until the end. No exit.
We are preparing for self-explosion. Goodbye comrades.
--------------
= We have someone to look up to! Eternal and bright memory to the heroic warriors!
December 5, 2011 marks 70 years since the start of the heroic counteroffensive of Soviet troops near Moscow. By order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I. Stalin, the troops of the Kalinin - General Konev, Western - General Zhukov and Southwestern - Marshal of the Soviet Union Timoshenko fronts launched a decisive counter-offensive. Hitler's occupation hordes were driven back several hundred kilometers from Moscow. But before that there was the heroic defense of the capital of our Motherland of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The whole country worked for the defense of Moscow. The Soviet Army was armed. The Katyusha rocket launchers were especially terrible for the Germans. The first battery of this formidable weapon was headed by a student at the Academy. Dzerzhinsky, a native of the glorious city of Lipetsk, captain Ivan Andreevich Flerov. This is how I. Kostyukov and I. Gavrilov, one might say, the first rocket men of the Union, participants in those events, remember that feat. The first salvo of the battery was fired on July 14, 1941. The battery was ordered to destroy enemy personnel and equipment. Then there were attacks near Orsha, Rudnya, Yelnya. Skillfully maneuvering and protecting itself from enemy artillery and aviation, the battery carried out its tasks with honor. With its salvoes in Ryzhkovo at the accumulation of fascist troops trying to seize the Solovyov crossing near Yelnya, Flerov’s battery played a significant role in the development of the first counter-offensive of Soviet troops on the Western Front. The occupiers feared and hated Captain Flerov’s battery, calling its installations “hellish machines” and “devilish meat grinders.” They tried to find a way to neutralize it. The losses from Flerov's Katyusha strikes were so noticeable for the Nazis that Hitler was soon informed about this. The Germans began scattering leaflets from airplanes in order to bribe the traitors to capture and hand over to them at least one installation for study. 500 thousand of those German marks were offered. But there were no traitors. And the battery continued to destroy Hitler’s hordes. Troops were landed in the battery areas. They tried to intercept it by tanks, destroy it from the air, and used cannon artillery and mortars. But all their efforts were in vain. The battery destroyed the Nazis. But several Katyusha batteries could not then stop the advance of the Wehrmacht troops. Operation Typhoon began in the fall. Flerov's battery found itself deep in the rear of the Germans. Access to the front was 250 kilometers through forests and swamps. The battery lost contact with our troops, but continued to move east. There is only one round of missiles left and little fuel left. The excess equipment had to be destroyed. And one day, Captain Flerov’s batteries nevertheless stumbled upon a German ambush. This is how the commander of one of the installations, I. Gavrilov, described those events. “The Nazis shot us almost point-blank. But we could not fire a targeted salvo from such a close distance. Seeing the hopelessness of the situation and the possible capture of the battery, Captain Flerov ordered the installations to be blown up. The order was carried out. At the same time, Captain Flerov and many of his comrades died heroically.” This feat was accomplished near the village of Bogatyr near Vyazma. According to the stories of local residents, German “specialists” came to the site of the death of Flerov’s battery, but left with nothing. So, at the cost of their lives, the soldiers of Captain Flerov’s battery kept the military secret. Eternal Glory to the fallen Heroes who defended the capital of our Motherland, Moscow.
Ivan Andreevich Flerov was born on April 24, 1905. His father worked as an accountant at the Borino sugar factory, his mother was a housewife. In addition to Ivan, there were five more children in the family: three sons and two daughters. Ivan graduated from the local zemstvo school with a certificate of merit, showing particular success in arithmetic. After school, he worked in the village, and then became an apprentice mechanic at the Borinsky sugar factory, where his father worked. In 1926, Ivan graduated from the FZU school in the city of Lipetsk. Here, as one of the best graduates of the school, he worked for some time as a master of industrial training.
In 1927 - 1928, Flerov served in the Red Army. Then - the artillery school. In 1939-1940 he participated in the Finnish War. For the courage shown in battles with the Finns, senior lieutenant Ivan Andreevich Flerov was awarded the Order of the Red Star. After the end of the war, he became a student at the Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy. A brilliant career opened up for Flerov, but a year later the Great Patriotic War broke out... On June 21, 1941, immediately after passing his first-year exams, he was summoned to the headquarters of the Red Army artillery commander. Flerov was received at headquarters by Major General Aborenkov.
Several times Ivan Andreevich wrote reports asking to be sent to the active army, but Academy students were not sent to the front. A chance helped: an important official arrived from the People's Commissariat of Defense to select officers for a special artillery division. The choice fell on our fellow countryman: he was appointed commander of a secret unit. It was formed in Moscow within a few days. Specialists were assigned to her. Their task is to train personnel and provide assistance in the combat use of new weapons. Parting with the battalion commander, Aborenkov said: “You, Captain Flerov, are entrusted with the greatest military and state secret. Your unit will become the founder of a new branch of troops, which has a great future. Under any conditions, in any situation, the enemy should not receive any information about this weapon. In a desperate situation, installations and ammunition should be blown up.”
Flerov assured the command that he would fulfill the task of the Motherland. The formed battery included a control platoon, three fire platoons, ammunition supply and sighting platoons, as well as rear and support units. In total, it contained 7 BM-13 installations, about 50 different vehicles and one 122-mm howitzer (for preliminary shooting before firing a salvo of rockets). There were about 170 personnel in the battery.
Flerov’s battery fired its first salvos at the enemy in July 1941. The following entries appeared in the battery's combat log: “14.7. 1941 15 hours 15 minutes. They attacked fascist trains at the Orsha railway junction. The results are excellent. A continuous sea of fire." "14.7. 1941 16 hours 45 minutes. A salvo at the crossing of fascist troops through Orshitsa. Large enemy losses in manpower and military equipment, panic. All the Nazis who survived on the eastern bank were taken prisoner by our units...” And here is what German newspapers reported: “The Russians used a battery with an unprecedented number of guns, high-explosive incendiary shells, but of unusual action... The troops fired at by the Russians testify “The fire raid was like a hurricane.”
After the volleys in the Orsha area, attacks followed on the Germans near Yelnya, Roslavl, Spas-Demyansk. News of the new weapon, which was affectionately dubbed “Katyusha,” quickly spread throughout the Soviet troops. Flerov’s battery not only inflicted considerable material damage on the Germans, it also contributed to raising the morale of our soldiers and officers, exhausted by continuous retreats. The Nazis understood this well, and they organized a real hunt for the battery. As soon as they managed to pinpoint its location, they immediately sent tanks and aircraft there. But the battery did not stay long in one place - having fired a salvo, it immediately changed position.
A special iron box was installed on the rotating frame of each combat vehicle, supposedly for rags. In fact, there was a powerful landmine inside. In the event of a real threat of encirclement of a secret unit, its commander was supposed to self-destruct along with the equipment.
Such a tragic moment occurred on October 7, 1941, near the village of Bogatyr, Vyazemsky district, Smolensk region. The brave rocket men blew up the cars, and fought their way to their own. In this battle, the commander of our first missile battery died the death of the brave. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated November 14, 1963, Ivan Andreevich Flerov was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
But where is the grave of Ivan Flerov? According to the head of the Poisk club, in the course of work in the archives and meetings with front-line soldiers, they managed to find several soldiers, sergeants and officers of Flerov’s battery. With their help, her battle path was restored.
This is what happened in the so-called Spas-Demensky “cauldron”. The enemy was rushing to the east. Our troops fought heroically, but the forces were unequal. With a powerful blow from tank and mechanized divisions from Roslavl and Dukhovshchina, the Germans broke through our defenses, occupied Spas-Demensk, Yukhnov and united in Vyazma on October 6. Our units in the area of Smolensk and Yelnya were surrounded.
Captain Flerov's battery was cut off. The guardsmen had to drive heavy vehicles off-road, through forests and swamps. They walked behind enemy lines for more than 150 kilometers (from Roslavl past Spas-Demensk to the northeast). The captain did everything possible to save the battery and break through to his own. When the fuel ran out, he ordered the installations to be charged and the remaining missiles and most of the transport vehicles to be blown up. The convoy contained combat installations and 3-4 trucks with people.
Not far from the village of Znamenka (on the picture) the captain stopped the column at the edge of the forest and sent out a reconnaissance vehicle. Soon she reported that the way was clear. Flerov ordered the scouts to follow in front of the column at a distance of no more than a kilometer and, in case of danger, immediately give a signal. When it got dark, cars with their headlights off walked closely one after another. It was quiet all around. But suddenly the field was lit up by flashes of gunfire. The enemy ambush deliberately missed the reconnaissance vehicle and attacked the rocket convoy with all its might.
The Nazis sought to capture the battery at any cost in order to unravel the secret of the new Soviet weapon. Flerov and his subordinates entered into mortal combat. While some fought off the enemy, others rushed to the combat installations. Under heavy fire they blew up the cars. Many of them, including captain Flerov, died heroically. The survivors fought away from the Nazis and crossed the front line.
After the battle, the Germans, having inspected the place, removed awards and weapons from the dead, and took away documents. They were buried by local residents near the village of Bogatyr - not far from the Vyazma-Yukhnov highway. One of the participants in these events remained alive, went through the war and every year on May 9 came to the grave of his fellow soldiers and looked after it together with local residents.
After 1984, such trips stopped, and many rural veterans passed away. The fence enclosing the grave rotted and fell; the place was plowed, along with the road that led through the field to the village. The burial was lost.
However, in 1995, after Flerov was posthumously awarded the title “Hero of Russia,” the leadership of the Smolensk region was faced with a difficult question: there is a monument (a memorial plaque at the beginning of the village of Bogatyr), but the remains of the hero are somewhere in the middle of the field. Vyazma search engines led by A. Gavrikov and L. Gorshkova were called to search for the remains of the dead soldiers.
Nature itself was on the side of the members of the patriotic club: the autumn rains stopped, and warm, clear weather set in. The expedition arrived in the village of Znamenka and settled in a local school. We went to the place of Flerov’s death, once again listened to the local residents, and walked along the road along which the Katyushas were moving towards the village of Bogatyr. One elderly woman not only told the story of what happened here in 1941, but also brought a photograph showing a burial with a wooden fence. Based on photos and stories, we narrowed the search area to a minimum: a rectangle of 100 by 200 meters.
Armed with probes and shovels, they examined every hole or bump, centimeter by centimeter. The remains were discovered by Lyubov Gorshkova. When the contours of the pit were cleared, it turned out that Captain Flerov (this could be seen from the “sleepers” on his buttonholes) was resting separately, and 6 people were lying on the other side in a row (one of them was a senior lieutenant). Artillery emblems were clearly visible on the buttonholes of the dead.
The reburial ceremony began with a rally in the regional center of Ugra, and then a column with coffins on an artillery carriage and with a guard of honor went to the village of Znamenka, where modern Grad rocket launchers fired a salvo. The remains were solemnly reburied in the village of Bogatyr near the Vyazma-Yukhnov highway.
Thus, thanks to the efforts of the search engines, historical justice was restored and one of the brightest and tragic pages of the Great Patriotic War was worthily completed.
(grave of the Katyusha combat crew. Znamenka village, Vyazemsky district, Smolensk region).
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Place of death of partisans and local residents. Znamenka village, Vyazemsky district, Smolensk region.
Place of death of Grigory Makeev. Znamenka village, Vyazemsky district, Smolensk region.