Children who became heroes in World War II

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

In the war of annihilation, which Adolf Hitler unleashed against the USSR, almost everyone fought with the Nazis: men, women, old people and even children. The latter were in no way inferior to adults in this. Tens of thousands of minors joined the partisan detachments and the ranks of the active army, thousands were awarded various kinds of awards, and several even became Heroes of the Soviet Union.

Anatoly Lindorf / MAMM / MDF

Of course, it never entered anyone's head to mobilize children into the Red Army (they were called up from the age of 18, although there were cases as from the age of 17). They voluntarily ran away from home to the front, but the surest way for a minor to become a soldier was to become an orphan, which was not uncommon in the conditions of the cruelty of the Eastern Front.

Often, units of the Red Army, having picked up such a fugitive or a child left without parents, did not send him to the rear, but took him into their care as the so-called “son of the regiment”. In the navy, such pupils were called cabin boys. They were most often the children of the deceased sailors.

Young from the cruiser "Krasny Kavkaz" Boris Kuleshin - Evgeny Khaldey / MAMM / MDF

For the most part, the "sons of the regiment" performed economic functions at the front. They were not always included in the list of units, but if this happened, the young soldier could receive allowance, uniforms and even weapons. Some of them took part in the hostilities.

Sergeant Vladimir Sokolov - Ivan Shagin / MAMM / MDF

Fourteen-year-old Pyotr Klypa was a pupil of a musical platoon in the 6th Infantry Division, stationed at the beginning of the German invasion in the border Brest Fortress.

With the outbreak of war, Peter joined one of the groups of fighters, performed the functions of a signalman, undertook reconnaissance sorties to enemy positions, got the necessary water and medicines, and even discovered an intact ammunition depot, which helped the defenders to extend the defense.

In early July, Klypa and with several soldiers managed to escape from the fortress, but they were soon captured. Peter, driven away to work in Germany, was released only in 1945.

Petr Klypa - Ivan Shagin / MAMM / MDF / Public domain

In October 1941, sixteen-year-old Vasily Kurka joined the Red Army units retreating from Mariupol and was, of his own free will, enlisted in the 395th Infantry Division. In view of his youth, Vasily was not sent to the front line, but was kept in the rear services.

However, upon learning that they were recruiting for sniper courses, he convinced the commanders to give him a chance. It turned out that Kurka had a talent for sniping. He rose to the rank of junior lieutenant, became a sniper platoon commander and even a sniper training instructor. Vasily, who died in the battles for Poland in January 1945, has 179 enemy soldiers and officers on his account - one of the best indicators in the Red Army.

Vasily Kurka - Ivan Shagin / MAMM / MDF / Public domain

The father of thirteen-year-old Ivan Gerasimov died in the first days at the front, and his mother and sisters were burned, as he thought, in the house during the bombing (only after the war it turned out that they managed to survive). Ivan joined the artillery regiment of the 112th Infantry Division, in which he was made an assistant cook, and then a carrier of shells.

During one of the battles for Stalingrad at the end of 1942, Gerasimov, the only survivor from his crew, picked up someone's machine gun and fired at the enemy infantry. When his right hand was torn off and his left elbow was shattered, he, clutching an anti-tank grenade with his stumps, pulled out the pin with his teeth and threw himself under a German tank, blowing it up with him.

Ivan Gerasimov - Ivan Shagin / MAMM / MDF / Public domain

Five-year-old Sergei Aleshkin became an orphan after his elder brother and mother were executed by the Germans in the fall of 1941 for participating in the partisan movement (his father died before the war). The lost and emaciated child was picked up by the scouts of the 142nd Guards Rifle Regiment, whose commander decided to adopt the boy.

In November 1942, in Stalingrad, the youngest "son of the regiment" in the history of World War II accomplished his feat, for which he was awarded the medal "For Military Merit". As a result of artillery shelling, the commander's dugout was filled up. Under enemy fire, six-year-old Seryozha brought help and himself participated in digging up the dugout, thereby saving the life of his new father.

Sergey Aleshkin - Ivan Shagin / MAMM / MDF / Public domain

Not all the children who ended up in the war were orphans or fugitives from home. It happened that their parents, going to the front, took them with them. So in April 1943, his fourteen-year-old son Arkady arrived in the 5th Assault Aviation Corps, commanded by Nikolai Kamanin.

After several months of service as a flight mechanic and navigator-observer, he made his first independent flight on a U-2 aircraft. Enlisted in a separate communications air squadron, Arkady Kamanin became the youngest Soviet pilot in World War II. Unfortunately, having survived the war, he died of meningitis in 1947, at the age of only eighteen.

Arkady Kamanin - Ivan Shagin / MAMM / MDF / Public domain

While thousands of minors served in the Red Army, their number in the partisan movement numbered tens of thousands. It was much easier for young fighters to get to the partisans than to the following military unit, where unpleasant consequences could await commanders for finding teenagers on the front line.

In addition, if from the front it was possible to send children to the rear, then for partisan detachments in the occupied territories such a rear often simply did not exist.

Arkady Shaikhet / Private collection

Some of the young partisans achieved the highest award - they became Heroes of the Soviet Union. The feat of seventeen-year-old Zinaida Portnova, a scout of a partisan detachment in Belarus and a member of the underground organization Young Avengers, is noteworthy.

Captured by the Gestapo, she was subjected to numerous interrogations, during one of which she managed to grab a pistol from the table and shoot the investigator and two of his assistants. However, her escape failed. On the morning of January 10, 1944, after a month of torture, she was shot. 14 years later, Zinaida Portnova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Zinaida Portnova - Ivan Shagin / MAMM / MDF / Public domain