Masha against a platoon of fascists. How a 20-year-old girl destroyed opponents

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

“In a fight with the enemy, she killed 15 soldiers and one officer with a machine gun, killed four soldiers with a rifle butt, recaptured the commander and eight soldiers from the Germans, captured the enemy’s machine gun and machine guns,” - this is how the main feat of Maria Baida is briefly and dryly described in the award list.

But a simple native of the Crimean village of Novy Chuvash became famous not only for this: as a sanitary instructor, she pulled out from under the bullets and saved from certain death dozens of soldiers and commanders of the Red Army.

From orderlies to scouts

Before the war, Maria worked in a hospital, and from the first days of the attack she went to the front as a volunteer. There, at first she was a nurse and medical instructor, received the rank of senior sergeant, and participated in the heroic defense of Sevastopol.

It was then that the girl developed a desire to become a scout, and not only save the lives of our soldiers, but also openly fight the enemy, destroying him to the best of her modest strengths and capabilities.

Maria fought quite successfully, more than once went to the front line and brought "tongues". On June 7, 1942, when the Germans undertook another assault on Sevastopol, the reconnaissance company in which Baida served was thrown into battle. I had to fight in conditions of a shortage of cartridges.

The girl left the trench more than once to pick up weapons from the killed enemies. In one of these sorties, she was wounded and shell-shocked by a grenade that exploded nearby.

15 soldiers and one officer

Maria came to her senses in the evening, when the Germans had already broken through the section of the front protected by the reconnaissance company. She and 9 soldiers from her platoon were taken prisoner - all wounded or shell-shocked.

Immediately assessing the situation, Maria made the only correct decision and, jumping up, picked up the machine gun lying nearby. Several enemy soldiers were "cut off" on the spot with a long line.

The Germans, taken by surprise, did not immediately realize that they were being attacked by a shell-shocked and wounded girl, and tried to flee, believing that they were attacked by superior enemy forces.

When the cartridges ran out, Maria, intercepting the machine gun like a club, entered into hand-to-hand combat. The battle, which lasted just a few moments, ended in an unconditional victory for the young scout. Fifteen soldiers and an enemy officer were lying on the ground, and the prisoners, led by Baida, went to their own.

Further combat path

For her feat, the girl was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. She found out about this while in a hospital bed. But she did not finish treatment and fled to the front. True, she did not have to fight for long - in early July the city fell, and Maria was captured. Almost three years continued her ordeal in the camps. The girl was released only on the eve of Victory Day.