The life of German soldiers during the Second World War. Soldier's life in the first years of the Great Patriotic War
The Second World War is multifaceted, many books, articles, memoirs and memoirs have been written on this topic. But for a long time, under the influence of ideology, these topics were covered mainly from a political, patriotic or general military point of view, very little attention was paid to the role of each individual soldier. And only during the Khrushchev “thaw” did the first publications begin to appear based on front-line letters, diaries and unpublished sources, covering the problems of front-line life, the period of the Patriotic War of 1941-1945. How did soldiers live at the front, what did they do in a short time respite, what they ate in, what they wore, all these questions are important in the overall contribution to great victory.
At the beginning of the war, soldiers wore a tunic and trousers with tarpaulin overlays in the areas of the elbows and knees, these overlays extended the life of the uniform. They wore boots and windings on their feet, which were the main grief of all the service brethren, especially the infantry, as they were uncomfortable, fragile and heavy.
Until 1943, an indispensable attribute was the so-called "roll", an overcoat rolled up and put on over the left shoulder, which caused a lot of trouble and inconvenience, which the soldiers got rid of at any opportunity.
From the rifle in the first years of the war, the legendary “three-line”, the three-line Mosin rifle of the 1891 model, enjoyed great respect and love among the soldiers. Many soldiers gave them names and considered the rifle a real comrade-in-arms that never fails in difficult combat conditions. But for example, the SVT-40 rifle was not loved because of its capriciousness and strong recoil.
Interesting information about the life and way of life of soldiers is contained in such sources of information as memoirs, front-line diaries and letters, which are least of all subject to ideological influence. For example, it was traditionally believed that soldiers lived in dugouts and pillboxes. This is not entirely true, most of the soldiers were located in the trenches, trenches, or simply in the nearest forest without any regrets. It was always very cold in the pillboxes at that time there were no autonomous heating and autonomous gas supply systems, which we now use, for example, for heating summer cottages, and therefore the soldiers preferred to spend the night in the trenches, throwing branches on the bottom and stretching a cape on top.
The food of the soldiers was simple "Schi and porridge is our food" this proverb accurately characterizes the rations of soldiers' bowlers in the first months of the war and of course best friend a soldier's cracker, a favorite delicacy, especially in field conditions, for example, on a military march.
Also, a soldier's life during short periods of rest cannot be imagined without the music of songs and books that gave birth to good mood and uplifting spirits.
But still the most important role in the victory over fascism, the psychology of the Russian soldier played, able to cope with any everyday difficulties, overcome fear, survive and win.
Indeed, in books and in films, it was very rarely shown what was happening exactly “behind the scenes” of military life. And, if we analyze it this way, then the same films do not show that part of the soldier's life, which would be mostly uninteresting for the viewer, but for the soldier it was probably the most significant.
This is daily life.
It seems to be not such an interesting thing, but, nevertheless, significant. Most of all, the film “Only old men go to battle” was similar to the truth, but the living conditions of the pilots were somewhat different from the infantry or tankers. The latter, according to the directors, have nothing special to show.
Meanwhile, even in the conditions of war, attention was paid to the organization of everyday life. How good? Well, it would be better, but what happened, it happened. And I would like to talk about exactly what happened in that war just when the fighting subsided.
Food, sleep, warmth and a bath - that's what the fighter needed. But, despite the difficult conditions, people read books and newspapers, went to the cinema, were engaged in amateur performances, sang, danced to the harmonica, listened to the radio and rested. True, mostly in the second echelon and on holidays. Five to ten times a year.
Let's leave the food for later, let's talk about things even rarer in the descriptions, but very significant. About sanitation.
“Feed lice at the front” - probably everyone has heard this common phrase. Judging by archival documents, the scale of the spread of pediculosis in the troops during the Great Patriotic War reached catastrophic proportions, and an entire sanitary armada was even created to fight lice, in which there were over a hundred special trains and disinfection units.
96 fighters out of 100 had lice.
So, for example, by September 1941 in parts Western Front The “lice” of personnel exceeded 85%, on the Kalinin Front - 96%. There was a lack of soap, baths and laundries. It was not up to everyday life at that difficult time. Plus, even during the war years, the quality of soap produced in the country dropped sharply and the supply of soda for washing almost completely stopped.
At Headquarters, the flow of reports aroused concern, and personnel from the Research and Testing Institute of the Red Army (NIISI KA) were thrown into battle.
scientific search brought the first practical results by the end of 1941: the Red Army began to receive special bath-laundry and disinfection trains (BPDP), in which up to a hundred fighters could be processed in an hour. Such trains consisted of 14-18 cars: locker rooms, formalin chambers, showers, laundries and dryers. The steam locomotive provided steam and hot water for the entire bath and laundry plant.
Special trains were disinfected by 100 fighters per hour.
By the end of 1942, there were already more than a hundred such trains in the Red Army. Naturally, the special trains could not squeeze out all the lice and nits at the front. They acted far from the front line and processed mainly the replenishment arriving in the active army, or the fighters of the units withdrawn for replenishment or reorganization.
The washing of uniforms was carried out by field laundry detachments (PPO) and laundry and disinfection detachments (LDO), which etched out lice with a whole range of chemicals.
Insects were poisoned with turpentine, DDT and burned with fire.
The main means of combating insects was the "synthetic insecticides" that were used to treat the fighters and their uniforms. At first, these were bisethylxanthogen, on the basis of which "soap K" and "preparation K-3", chlorinated turpentine (SK) and its soap version SK-9, pyretol, anabazine sulfate and other products were made.
It is clear that for many reasons the orderlies could not process every soldier of the Red Army.
And then the soldiers used folk methods of fighting lice. For example, frying. In general terms, the action looked like this: lice-ridden tunics and quilted jackets were folded into a metal barrel, closed with a lid on top and roasted on a fire. But often, along with the lice, uniforms also perished.
Frequent scallops, which came to the front mainly through humanitarian aid from the population, were very popular in the trenches. The lice were simply combed out. As the front-line soldiers say, almost everyone cut their hair "to zero" and even shaved off their eyebrows, tried not to wear sheepskin coats and other "shoes".
And one more detail. Again, according to the stories, as soon as at the end of 1942 - the beginning of 1943 it became better with food, the lice somehow calmed down. “Lice, she, an infection, loves the hungry and the weak,” grandfather often used to say.
By the end of the war, the problem of head lice in the army began to fade away. One of the reasons was the normalization of the bath and laundry services for the troops. So, if in 1942 the soldiers washed themselves in the bath 106,636,000 times, then in 1944 almost 3 times more - 272,556,000 times. In 1942 rear units 73,244,000 sets of uniforms were disinfected, and in 1944 - already 167.6 million sets.
“The Germans had rich blankets, woolen ones,” my grandfather Nikolai recalled. Considering that he often found himself in the positions of the Germans earlier than other soldiers, and even when the Germans were not going to retreat, he could well have tampered with. But... The Germans' woolen blankets were just breeding grounds for insects.
During the war, the treatment of patients consisted in the use of various ointments, and the Demyanovich method was also widespread, according to which naked patients rubbed a solution of hyposulfite into the body from top to bottom, and then hydrochloric acid. At the same time, pressure is felt on the skin, similar to rubbing with wet sand. After treatment, the patient may feel itching for another 3-5 days as a reaction to dead ticks. At the same time, many soldiers during the war managed to get sick with these diseases dozens of times ...
In general, washing in a bathhouse and undergoing sanitization took place, mainly being in the second echelon, that is, without taking a direct part in the battles.
In summer, the fighters had the opportunity to swim in rivers, streams, and collect rainwater. In winter, it was not always possible not only to find a ready-made bathhouse built by the local population, but also to build a temporary one ourselves.
Here, especially in places where it is problematic to build a bathhouse (the same Rostov steppes, for example), another invention of NIISI KA came to the rescue - autobahns.
Actually, a truck with a sealed body, in which a stove and a water tank are mounted. But where there is no firewood, and the stove on diesel fuel was quite.
Front-line life was unequivocally one of the factors in the combat capability of the personnel, it created such conditions when the presence of the most necessary phenomena in the life of fighters became vital.
Soldiers and officers lived in such conditions when the most necessary things for life support, such as food, washing in the bath and sanitization, monetary allowance and free time from service, became practically the only available pleasures. And since they were often absent, their presence turned into a self-sufficient complex of "joys of life."
But you still have to fight...
And yet, lice were harassed, shoes and uniforms were repaired, pots were soldered, razors were sharpened. It was a whole army of those who helped the soldiers to overcome hardships and hardships.
You can talk for a long time about how bad or not quite bad was the front-line life of Soviet soldiers. It is also worth mentioning that, in contrast to german army, holidays in the Red Army were a rarity, one of the highest awards. So to be away from the front line, after the bath, in a clean one - it was already not bad. It helped.
It's just a series of photographs that tells that they tried to fix the front-line life, if not properly, then at least just fix it.
Probably, it turned out still better than the Germans. Judging by the result, isn't it?
Vladimir Nadezhdin The further the events of the Great Patriotic War go down in history, the more various inaccuracies, conjectures, and even falsehoods and lies are layered on them.
Veterans note that in many literary works, TV and movies, the truth is often distorted, especially when we are talking about the details of military life. What was he like, how did the soldiers survive in the cold and heat on the front line, between battles? The editors asked Mikhail Fedorovich Zavorotny, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War who went through it from beginning to end, to answer these and other questions. After the Victory, the former senior sergeant of the Red Army and lieutenant of the Army Lyudova worked in the republic in senior positions - he was chairman of the Mogilev regional executive committee and deputy chairman of the State Planning Committee of the BSSR.
Mikhail Fedorovich, is it possible to talk about some kind of orderliness in the life of a soldier during the Great Patriotic War?
- Soldier's life can be divided into several categories related to where one or another unit was located. The greatest hardships fell on people on the front line - there was no usual washing, shaving, breakfast, lunch or dinner. There is a common cliché: they say, war is war, but lunch is on schedule. In fact, such a routine did not exist, and even more so there was no menu.
In this regard, I will cite one episode. Before the war, I was a cadet of the first Kyiv Artillery School, and when fighting, they began to push us to the forefront of the defense of the Ukrainian capital. We stopped for a halt at the location of some military unit. There was a field kitchen where something was cooked. A lieutenant in a new uniform with a creaking harness came up and asked the cook: “Ivan, what will be for dinner today?” He replied: "Borscht with meat and porridge with meat." The officer fumed, “What? I have people working earthworks, and you will feed them borscht with meat! Look at me - so that there is meat with borscht!
But this was only in the rare days of the war. I must say that at that time it was decided not to let the enemy seize the collective farm cattle. They tried to bring him out, and where it was possible, they handed him over to military units.
The situation near Moscow was completely different in the winter of 1941-1942, when it was forty degrees below zero. There was no talk of any dinner at that time. We were advancing, then retreating, regrouping forces, and as such there was no positional war, which means that it was impossible even to somehow equip life. Usually, once a day, the foreman brought a thermos with gruel, which was simply called "food." If this happened in the evening, then there was dinner, and in the afternoon, which happened extremely rarely, lunch. They cooked what was enough food, somewhere nearby, so that the enemy could not see the kitchen smoke. And each soldier was measured out with a ladle in a bowler hat. A loaf of bread was cut with a two-handed saw, because in the cold it turned into ice. The fighters hid their "soldering" under their overcoats in order to warm them up a little.
At that time, every soldier had a spoon behind the top of his boot, as we called it, a “trench tool” - aluminum stamping. But I must say that she served not only as a cutlery, but also was a kind of " calling card". The explanation for this is this: there was a belief that if you carry a soldier’s medallion in your trouser pocket-piston: a small black plastic pencil case, in which there should be a note with data (last name, first name, patronymic, year of birth, where you were called from), then you will definitely be killed . Therefore, most of the fighters simply did not fill out this sheet, and some even threw away the medallion itself. But all their data was scratched out on a spoon. And therefore, even now, when the search engines find the remains of soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War, their names are established precisely by spoons.
During the offensive, dry rations were given out - crackers or biscuits, canned food, but they really appeared in the diet when the Americans announced their entry into the war and began to provide assistance to the Soviet Union. The dream of any soldier, by the way, was fragrant overseas sausages in cans.
- Did the “front-line one hundred grams” really stand out?
- Alcohol was given only at the forefront. How did it happen? The foreman came with a can, and in it there was some kind of cloudy liquid of light coffee color. A bowler hat was poured into the compartment, and then each was measured with a cap from a 76-mm projectile: it was unscrewed before the shot, releasing the fuse. It was 100 or 50 grams and no one knew what strength. I drank, “bite” on my sleeve, that’s all the “drinking”. In addition, from the rear of the front, this alcohol-containing liquid reached the front line through many, as they say now, intermediaries, so both its volume and “degrees” decreased.
- Often in films they show that a military unit is located in a village, where living conditions are more or less human: you can wash yourself, even go to the bathhouse, sleep on the bed ...
- This could only be in relation to the headquarters, located at some distance from the front line. And on the most advanced conditions were completely different - the most severe.
How were the soldiers dressed?
We are lucky in this sense. The brigade in which I served was formed in Siberia, and God forbid everyone the same equipment that we had. We had felt boots, ordinary and flannelette footcloths, thin and warm underwear, cotton trousers, and also wadded pants, a tunic, a quilted padded jacket, an overcoat, a balaclava, a winter hat and mittens made of dog fur. And when we arrived near Moscow, we saw other units: the soldiers were poorly dressed, many, especially the wounded, were frostbitten.
- But how long could you survive in the cold even in the same clothes as the soldiers of your unit? Where did you sleep?
- A person can endure even the most extreme conditions. Most often they slept in the forest: you chop spruce branches, make a bed out of them, cover yourself with these paws from above and lie down for the night. Of course, there were also frostbites: I still have a frostbitten finger that makes itself felt: they had to point the sight of the gun.
- But what about the notorious “dugout in three rolls”, “fire beats in a cramped stove”?
- During the entire war, I only equipped dugouts three times. The first - during the reorganization of the brigade in the rear near Moscow. The second - after the hospital, when we, recovering, were again trained in military affairs near the city of Pugachev, Kuibyshev region. And the third - when I happened to serve as part of the partisans of the People's Army, formed from the local population and fled from German captivity soldiers of the Red Army. All Polish officers served in the First Polish Division, formed in the USSR and took part in the battles near the town of Lenino in the Gorki district of the Mogilev region. After appropriate training, 11 officers of the Polish Army and I (a radio operator) were dropped by parachute into the deep rear of the Germans to strengthen the command cadres partisan detachments operating in the area of Lodz, Czestochowa, Radomsko, Petrikova. Then, indeed, especially in winter, dugouts were dug, made from stove barrels, instead of beds in the ground, beds were dug out, which were covered with spruce branches. But such dugouts were a very unsafe place: if a shell hit, then everyone who was there died. When they were fighting near Stalingrad, they used ravines-beams lying in the steppe as defensive structures, in which they dug similarities of caves, where they spent the night.
- But, probably, units and subunits were not always at the forefront, were they exchanged for fresh troops?
- In our army, this was not the case, they were taken to the rear only when there was almost nothing left of the unit, except for its number, banner and a handful of fighters. Then the formations and units were sent for re-formation. And among the Germans, Americans and British, the principle of change was applied. Moreover, the soldiers were given leave to travel home. In our country, out of the entire army of 5 million, and today I can say this very seriously, only a few received vacations for special merits.
- There are well-known words of a song from the movie "Shield and Sword": "I didn't take off my tunic for a month, I didn't unfasten my belts for a month." Was it really so?
- Near Moscow, we went on the offensive on December 5, 1941, and only on April 30, 1942, our brigade was withdrawn for reorganization, because almost nothing was left of it. All this time we were at the forefront and there could be no question of any bathhouse or dressing up. There was no place to do it and no time. I can give only one example, when I had to "wash" - forcedly. It was during the liberation of the homeland of P.I. Tchaikovsky - the city of Klin. I saw a tuft of hay on the ice of the Ruza River. And since our guns were horse-drawn, I thought: we need to take and feed the horse. And although the frost reached 40 degrees, after walking only a few meters on the ice, I fell into the water. It's good that we had 3-meter ramrods for cleaning cannon barrels. Comrades handed me such a pole and pulled it out of the river. The water immediately froze on me, and it is clear that I had to warm myself somewhere. Saved me the house of the great composer, which was on fire. I ran to him, stripped naked and began to warm myself and dry my clothes. Everything ended happily, only the mittens made of dog fur broke, dried up. As soon as I managed to get dressed and run out of the house, its roof collapsed.
- But if it was not possible to observe the elementary rules of hygiene, then, probably, there was a danger of infectious diseases ...
- There was a problem of lice, especially in the warm season. But the sanitary services worked quite effectively in the troops. There were special "washers" - cars with closed van bodies. Uniforms were loaded there and treated with hot air. But this was done in the rear. And on the front line, we kindled a fire so as not to violate the rules of disguise, took off our underwear and brought it closer to the fire. Lice only cracked, burning! I want to note that even in such harsh conditions of unsettled life in the troops there was no typhus, which lice usually carry.
- And when did the troops begin to dress in sheepskin coats, for the supply of which to the USSR, as they say, almost all sheep were put under the knife in Mongolia?
- They talk a lot about them, but in fact, very few received such uniforms. The newspaper "Narodnaya Volya" published in nine issues notes by a certain Ilya Kopyl, which allegedly tells the "truth" about the war. He writes: what kind of partisan movement could be discussed in Belarus? Like, these were the Moscow organizations of the NKVD, which were dropped from aircraft in chic white coats. They organized sabotage against the Nazis, then hid in the forests, and suffered from such "provocations" local civilians, who were dealt with by the angry Germans - up to the burning of villages.
Moreover, this author, by the way, who served all his life in Soviet army, however, already in peacetime, insists that there was no Great Patriotic War in Belarus, that Germany was in collusion with Soviet Union attacked Belarus. And the struggle on its territory was between the "Moscow partisans" and the police. This is absurd, because the BSSR was an integral part of the USSR! It turns out that our republic attacked itself?!
It turns out that this man, being in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the USSR, and then Russia, carried a stone in his soul for 25 years and decided on this pseudo-revelation only when he received a high pension from the state: it is twice as much as that of me, a war veteran, and in further chairman of the Mogilev regional executive committee and deputy chairman of the State Planning Committee of the BSSR.
Personal memories of this war, if I may say so, boil down to the fact that he, then a boy, was treated by the "good" occupiers with a chocolate bar.
War veterans protested against this publication by picketing in front of the editorial office of Narodnaya Volya and demanded an answer from the leaders of the newspaper, but Chief Editor newspaper I. Seredich explained this by freedom of speech and press. A shame!
It must be understood that the youngest veterans who were called to the front during the Great Patriotic War were born in 1927, and they are already 83 years old today. A maximum of 10 years will pass, and there will be no direct participants in the war. Who will defend the truth about the struggle of our people against the Nazi expansion? Therefore, I believe that the republic needs a law that would protect the memory of the war from the encroachments of various kinds of falsifiers. After all, incitement of national hatred is punished in our country! Why do sabotage against the very foundations of the life of our people - its history go unpunished?! Why are the ideological vertical, the Ministry of Defense silent?
And if we return to those, frankly, inhuman conditions in which we had to fight, then only our people could withstand all these tests, no French, English or Americans could have endured such hardships and made a decisive contribution to the defeat of the brown plague.
This post will tell us about what we had to fight in Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War. Despite the fact that at that time military personnel often wore trophy clothes, no one canceled the generally accepted equipment, and read below about what it included.
Steel helmet SSH-40. This helmet is a modernization of the SSH-39 helmet, accepted for supply to the Red Army in June 1939. In the design of the SSH-39, the shortcomings of the previous SSH-36 were eliminated, however, the operation of the SSH-39 during the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. revealed a significant drawback - it was impossible to put on a winter hat under it, and a regular woolen balaclava did not save from severe frosts. Therefore, soldiers often broke out the SSH-39 under-the-shoulder device and wore a helmet over a hat without it.
As a result, in the new SSH-40 helmet, the under-shoulder device was significantly different from the SSH-39, although the shape of the dome remained unchanged. Visually, the SSH-40 can be distinguished by six rivets around the circumference in the lower part of the helmet dome, while the SSH-39 has three rivets, and they are located at the top. The SSH-40 used a three-leaf under-body device, to which reverse side shock absorber bags stuffed with technical cotton were sewn on. The petals were pulled together with a cord, which made it possible to adjust the depth of the helmet on the head.
The production of SSH-40 began to be deployed at the beginning of 1941 in Lysva in the Urals, and a little later in Stalingrad at the Krasny Oktyabr plant, but by June 22 the troops had only a small number of these helmets. By the autumn of 1942, helmets of this type were made only in Lysva. Gradually SSH-40 became the main type of helmet of the Red Army. It was produced in large quantities after the war, and was withdrawn from service relatively recently.
The pot is round. A bowler hat of a similar round shape was used in the army Russian Empire, made of copper, brass, tin plate, and later aluminum. In 1927, in Leningrad, at the Krasny Vyborzhets plant, mass production round stamped aluminum bowlers for the Red Army, but in 1936 they were replaced by a new flat bowler hat.
With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, in the fall of 1941, the manufacture of round bowlers was again established in Lysva in the Urals, but from steel instead of scarce aluminum. The return to the round shape was also understandable - such a bowler hat was easier to manufacture. The Lysvensky plant did a great job, which made it possible to significantly reduce the cost of production. By 1945, the total production of round army bowlers amounted to more than 20 million pieces - they became the most massive in the Red Army. Production continued after the war.
Duffel bag. This item of equipment, nicknamed "sidor" by the soldiers, was a simple bag with a strap and a rope neck tie. He first appeared in tsarist army in 1869 and without significant changes, he entered the Red Army. In 1930, a new standard was adopted that determined the look of the duffel bag - in accordance with it, it was now called the "Turkestan type duffel bag", or the duffel bag of the 1930 model.
The duffel bag had only one compartment, the top of which could be pulled with a rope. A shoulder strap was sewn to the bottom of the bag, on which two jumpers were put on, intended for fastening on the chest. On the other side of the shoulder strap, three rope loops were sewn to adjust the length. A wooden toggle was sewn to the corner of the bag, for which the loop of the shoulder strap clung. The shoulder strap was folded into a "cow" knot, into the center of which the neck of the bag was threaded, after which the knot was tightened. In this form, the bag was put on and carried behind the back of the fighter.
In 1941, there was a change in the appearance of the duffel bag of the 1930 model: it became slightly smaller, the shoulder strap was narrower and received lining inside on the shoulders, which required its stitching. In 1942, a new simplification followed - the lining in the shoulder strap was abandoned, but the strap itself was made wider. In this form, the duffel bag was produced until the end of the 40s. Taking into account the ease of manufacture, the duffel bag became the main means for carrying the personal belongings of the Red Army soldiers during the Great Patriotic War.
Gas mask bag model 1939. By 1945, no one removed the gas mask from the supply of Red Army soldiers. However, four years of the war passed without chemical attacks, and the soldiers tried to get rid of the "unnecessary" piece of equipment by handing it over to the wagon train. Often, despite the constant control of the command, gas masks were simply thrown away, and personal belongings were carried in gas mask bags.
During the war, soldiers of even one unit could have different bags and different types of gas masks. The photo shows a gas mask bag of the 1939 model, issued in December 1941. The bag, made of tent fabric, closed with a button. It was much easier to make than the 1936 bag.
Small infantry shovel. During the war, the MPL-50 small infantry shovel underwent a number of changes aimed at simplifying production. At first, the overall design of the tray and shovel remained unchanged, but the fastening of the lining with the rear cord began to be made by electric spot welding instead of rivets, a little later they abandoned the crimp ring, continuing to fasten the handle between the cords with rivets.
In 1943, an even more simplified version of the MPL-50 appeared: the shovel became one-piece stamped. It abandoned the lining with the rear cord, and the shape of the upper part of the front cord became even (before it was triangular). Moreover, now the front strand began to twist, forming a tube, fastened with a rivet or welding. The handle was inserted into this tube, tightly hammered until wedging with a shovel tray, after which it was fixed with a screw. The photo shows a shovel of intermediate series - with strands, without a ferrule, with fixing the lining by spot welding.
Pomegranate bag. Each infantryman carried hand grenades, which were regularly carried in a special bag on the waist belt. The bag was located on the left rear, after the cartridge bag and in front of the grocery bag. It was a quadrangular fabric bag with three compartments. Grenades were placed in two large ones, and detonators for them were placed in the third, small one. The grenades were brought into combat position immediately before use. The material of the bag could be tarpaulin, canvas or tent fabric. The bag was closed with a button or wooden toggle.
Two old grenades of the 1914/30 model or two RGD-33 (pictured) were placed in the bag, which were stacked with the handles up. The detonators lay in paper or rags. Also, four F-1 “lemons” could fit in pairs in a bag, and they were located in a peculiar way: on each grenade, the ignition socket was closed with a special screw plug made of wood or Bakelite, while one grenade was placed with the cork down, and the second up. With the adoption of new types of grenades during the war by the Red Army, putting them in a bag was similar to the F-1 grenades. Without significant changes, the grenade bag served from 1941 to 1945.
Soldier's trousers of the 1935 model. Accepted for supply to the Red Army by the same order as the tunic of 1935, bloomers remained unchanged throughout the Great Patriotic War. They were high-waisted breeches, well-fitting at the waist, loose at the top and tightly fitting the calves.
Drawstrings were sewn on the bottom of the trousers. There were two deep pockets on the sides of the trousers, and another pocket with a flap fastened with a button was located in the back. At the belt, next to the codpiece, was a small pocket for a death medallion. Pentagonal reinforcement pads were sewn on the knees. Loops for a trouser belt were provided on the belt, although the possibility of adjusting the volume was also provided with the help of a strap with a buckle in the back. Bloomers were made from a special double "harem" diagonal and were quite durable.
Soldier's gymnast, model 1943. It was introduced by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated January 15, 1943 to replace the tunic of the 1935 model. The main differences were in a soft standing collar instead of a turn-down. The collar was fastened with two small uniform buttons. The front placket was open and fastened with three buttons through through loops.
Attached shoulder straps were placed on the shoulders, for which belt loops were sewn. At the soldier's gymnast war time there were no pockets, they were introduced later. Pentagonal field epaulettes were worn on the shoulders in combat conditions. The infantry's epaulette field was green, the piping along the edge of the epaulette was crimson. Badges of junior officers were sewn on the top of the epaulette.
Belt. Due to the fact that leather was expensive to process and often needed to make more durable and responsible items of equipment, by the end of the war, a braid waist belt reinforced with leather or split leather elements became more common. This type of belt appeared before 1941 and was used until the end of the war.
Many leather waist belts, differing in detail, came from Lend-Lease allies. The American belt shown in the photo, 45 mm wide, had a single-pronged buckle, like the Soviet counterparts, but it was not made from a wire that was round in cross section, but was cast or stamped, with clear corners.
The Red Army soldiers also used captured German belts, in which, because of the pattern with an eagle and a swastika, they had to modify the buckle. Most often, these attributes were simply ground off, but if there was free time, the silhouette of a five-pointed star cut through the buckle. The photo shows another version of the alteration: a hole was punched in the center of the buckle, into which a star from a Red Army cap or cap was inserted.
Scout knife NR-40. The reconnaissance knife of the 1940 model was adopted by the Red Army following the results of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, when there was a need for a simple and convenient army combat knife.
Soon, the production of these knives was launched by the Trud artel in the village of Vacha (Gorky Region) and at the Zlatoust Tool Plant in the Urals. Later, HP-40s were also manufactured at other enterprises, including those in besieged Leningrad. Despite a single drawing, HP-40s from different manufacturers differ in details.
At the initial stage of the Great Patriotic War, only scouts were armed with HP-40 knives. For the infantry, they were not authorized weapons, but the closer to 1945, the more and more knives can be seen in photographs of ordinary submachine gunners. Production of the HP-40 continued after the war, both in the USSR and in the countries participating in the Warsaw Pact.
Glass flask. Glass flasks were widely used in many armies of the world. Russian was no exception. imperial army, from which this type of flask was inherited by the Red Army. Despite the fact that tin or aluminum canteens produced in parallel were more practical, cheap glass containers were good for the mass draft army.
In the Red Army, they tried to replace glass flasks with aluminum ones, but they did not forget about glass either - on December 26, 1931, another standard was approved for the manufacture of such flasks with a nominal volume of 0.75 and 1.0 liters. With the beginning of the war, glass flasks became the main ones - the shortage of aluminum and the blockade of Leningrad, where most aluminum flasks were produced, affected.
The flask was closed with a rubber or wooden stopper with a twine tied around the neck. Several types of cases were used for carrying, and almost all of them provided for wearing a flask on a belt over the shoulder. Structurally, such a cover was a simple bag made of fabric with rope ties at the neck. There were options for covers with soft inserts to protect the flask during impacts - these were used in the Airborne Forces. A glass flask could also be carried in a belt case, adopted for aluminum flasks.
Bag for box magazines. With the advent of box magazines for the Shpagin submachine gun and with the development of the Sudayev submachine gun with similar magazines, it became necessary to carry them in a bag. A bag for magazines of a German submachine gun was used as a prototype.
The bag contained three stores, each of which was designed for 35 rounds. Each PPS-43 was supposed to have two such bags, but wartime photographs show that submachine gunners often wore only one. This was due to a certain shortage of stores - in combat conditions they were consumables and were easily lost.
A bag was sewn from canvas or tarpaulin and, unlike the German one, was greatly simplified. The valve was fastened with pegs or wooden toggles, there were options with buttons. On the back of the bag were sewn loops for threading a waist belt. Bags were worn on a belt in front, which provided quick access to equipped stores and stacking empty ones back. Laying stores up or down the neck was not regulated.
Yuft boots. Initially, boots were the only footwear of the Russian soldier: boots with windings were accepted for supply only at the beginning of 1915, when the army increased dramatically in numbers, and boots were no longer enough. Soldier's boots were made from yuft and in the Red Army were supplied to all branches of the military.
In the mid-30s, tarpaulin was invented in the USSR - a material with a fabric base, on which artificial sodium butadiene rubber was applied with an imitation of leather texture. With the beginning of the war, the problem of supplying the mobilized army with shoes became acute, and the “damn skin” came in handy - the boots of the Red Army soldier became tarpaulin.
By 1945, the typical Soviet infantryman was shod in kirzachi or boots with windings, but experienced soldiers sought to get leather boots for themselves. The photo on the infantryman shows yuft boots, with leather soles and leather heels.
Camp of Catherine's soldiers. Illustration by Alexandre Benois for the publication "Pictures on Russian History". 1912 Wikimedia Commons
Recruit XVIII century after a long journey, he ended up in his regiment, which became a home for young soldiers - after all, service in the 18th century was lifelong. Only from 1793 was her term limited to 25 years. The recruit took an oath that forever separated him from his former life; received from the treasury a hat, a caftan, a cloak-epancha, a camisole with trousers, a tie, boots, shoes, stockings, undershirts and trousers.
The "Instruction of the colonel's cavalry regiment" of 1766 prescribed to teach the privates "to clean and screw up trousers, gloves, a sling and a harness, tie a hat, put a casket on it and put on boots, put spurs on them, plant a scythe, put on a uniform, and then stand in the required a soldier's figure, to walk simply and to march ... and when he gets used to everything, begin to teach rifle techniques, horse and foot exercise. It took a lot of time to teach the peasant's son to behave valiantly, "so that the peasant's vile habit, evasion, antics, scratching when talking were completely exterminated from him." The soldiers had to shave, but they were allowed to grow mustaches; hair was worn long, to the shoulders, and on ceremonial days they were powdered with flour. In the 1930s, soldiers were ordered to wear curls and braids.
It took a lot of time, "so that the peasant's vile habit, evasion, antics, scratching during conversation were completely exterminated from him"
Coming to a company or squadron, yesterday's communal peasants were included in their usual form of organization - a soldier's artel ("so that there were at least eight people in porridge"). In the absence of a developed supply system (and the shops and shops that are familiar to us), Russian soldiers have adapted to provide themselves with everything they need. Old-timers taught newcomers, experienced and skillful ones bought additional provisions with artel money, repaired ammunition themselves and sewed uniforms and shirts from state-owned cloth and linen, and those who were smart at the billet were hired to earn money. Money from salaries, earnings and awards was deducted to the artel cash desk, at the head of which the soldiers elected a sedate and authoritative "expenditor", or company headman.
This arrangement of military life made the Russian army XVIII century socially and nationally homogeneous. The feeling of connection in battle provided mutual assistance, supported the morale of the soldier. From the very first days, the recruit was told that now “he is no longer a peasant, but a soldier, who in his name and rank is superior to all his previous ranks, differs from them indisputably in honor and glory,” since he, “not sparing his life, provides of his fellow citizens, defends the fatherland ... and thus deserves the gratitude and mercy of the Sovereign, the gratitude of fellow countrymen and the prayers of spiritual ranks. Recruits were told the history of their regiment, mentioning the battles where this regiment participated, and the names of heroes and generals. In the army, yesterday's "mean peasant" ceased to be a serf, if he had been before. A peasant boy became a "state servant" and in the era of constant wars he could rise to the rank of non-commissioned officer and even - if he was lucky - to the chief officer. The "Table of Ranks" of Peter I opened the way to obtaining a noble rank - in this way, about a quarter of the infantry officers of the Peter's army "came out to the people". For exemplary service, an increase in salary, awarding a medal, promotion to corporal, sergeant was provided. "Faithful and true servants of the fatherland" were transferred from the army to the guards, received medals for battles; for distinction in the service, the soldiers were awarded "a ruble" with a glass of wine.
A serviceman who had seen distant lands on campaigns forever broke with his former life. The regiments, which consisted of former serfs, suppressed popular unrest without hesitation, and in the 18th and XIX centuries the soldier did not feel like a peasant. And in everyday practice, the soldier got used to living at the expense of the townsfolk. Throughout the 18th century, the Russian army did not have barracks. In peacetime, it was lodged in the homes of rural and urban residents, who were supposed to provide military premises, beds and firewood. Release from this duty was a rare privilege.
In everyday practice, the soldier got used to living at the expense of the townsfolk.Fusiliers of infantry regiments 1700-1720 From the book "Historical description of clothing and weapons of the Russian troops", 1842
AT short days rest from battles and campaigns, the soldiers walked with might and main. In 1708, during the difficult Northern War, the brave dragoons “became quarters in the towns. Wine and beer were collected before the convoy. And a certain rank of the gentry drank unbearably. They reproached those viciously, and also beat them with the sovereign's name. But fornication still appeared. Imali in the corners of the dragoons of the shvadrony gentry. There were those young children and there is no passage from these whores to girls and women "gentry"- noblemen (gentry) who served in the dragoon squadron ("shkvadron"). These young nobles did not give the women a pass.. Our colonel and worthy cavalier Mikhail Faddeyich Chulishov ordered to frighten all those who are impudent and beat them with batogs.<…>And those dragoons and granodirs, who were from the battles of small battles, they rested and drank koumiss with Kalmyks and Tatars, flavored with vodka, and then fought with fists with the neighboring regiment. De we, reproached, fought and lost our bellies, and de you hovil and sveev Svei- Swedes. were afraid. And in the distant shvadron they staggered and barked obscenely, and the colonels did not know what to do. By the sovereign's command, the most malicious were sent and broadcast and fought in batogs on the goats in front of all the front. And two of ours from the shkvadron also got the dragoon Akinfiy Krask and Ivan Sofiykin. They were hung around the neck. And Krask’s tongue fell out from the strangulation, it even reached the middle of his chest, and many were amazed at this and went to look. "Official notes (diary) of Simeon Kurosh, captain of the dragoon shvadron, Roslavsky.".
And in peacetime, the stay of the troops in any place was perceived by the townsfolk as a real disaster. “He fornicates with his wife, dishonors his daughter… eats his chickens, his cattle, robs him of his money and beats him incessantly.<…>Every month, before leaving the quarters, the peasants must be gathered, questioned about their claims, and their subscriptions taken away.<…>If the peasants are dissatisfied, they are given wine to drink, they get drunk, and they sign. If, in spite of all this, they refuse to sign, then they are threatened, and they end up keeping silent and signing, ”general Langeron described the behavior of soldiers at the checkpoint in Catherine’s time.
The soldier fornicates with his wife, dishonors his daughter, eats his chickens, his cattle, takes his money and beats him incessantly.
The officers had the opportunity for more refined leisure - especially abroad. “... All other officers of our regiment, not only young, but also elderly, were engaged in completely different matters and concerns. All of them, almost in general, their zealous desire to be in Koenigsberg stemmed from a completely different source than mine. They heard enough that Koenigsberg is a city that is full of everything that the passions of the young and in luxury and debauchery can satisfy and satiate their lives, namely: that there was a great many taverns and billiards and other places of entertainment; that you can get anything in it, and even more so, that the female sex in it is too prone to lust and that there is a great many young women in it, practicing dishonest needlework and selling their honor and chastity for money.
<…>Before two weeks had even passed, when, to my great surprise, I heard that there was not a single tavern left in the city, not a single wine cellar, not a single billiards and not a single obscene house, which would be unknown to our gentlemen officers, but that not only all of them are on their register, but quite a lot of them have already made close acquaintances, partly with their mistresses, partly with other residents of the area, and some have already taken them to themselves and for their maintenance, and all in general have already drowned in all the luxuries and debauchery ”, - Andrey Bolotov, the former lieutenant of the infantry regiment of the Arkhangelsk city, recalled about his stay in Koenigsberg conquered by Russian troops in 1758.
If in relation to the peasants "impudence" was allowed, then in the "front" discipline was demanded from the soldiers. The soldiers' poems of that era truthfully describe the daily drill:
You go to the guard - so grief,
And you will come home - and twice,
In the guard we are tormented,
And how you change - learning! ..
Suspenders are on guard,
Wait for stretch marks for training.
Stand up straight and stretch
Don't chase the pokes
Slaps and kicks
Take it like pancakes.
Violators under the "Military Article" were expected to be punished, which depended on the degree of misconduct and were determined by a military court. For "magic" was supposed to be burned, for the desecration of icons - cutting off the head. The most common punishment in the army was "chasing gauntlets", when the intruder was led with his hands tied to a gun between two ranks of soldiers who struck him on the back with thick rods. The one who committed the offense for the first time was taken through the entire regiment 6 times, the one who committed the offense again - 12 times. Strictly asked for the poor maintenance of weapons, for deliberate damage to it or for "leaving a gun in the field"; sellers and buyers were punished for selling or losing their uniforms. For repeating this offense three times, the guilty person was sentenced to death. Theft, drunkenness and fighting were common crimes for the servicemen. The punishment followed for "inattention in the ranks", for "being late in the ranks." A latecomer for the first time "will be taken for guard or for two hours, three fuzes Fusee- smoothbore flintlock gun. on the shoulder". A latecomer for the second time was supposed to be arrested for two days or "six muskets per shoulder." Those who were late for the third time were punished with gauntlets. For talking in the ranks was supposed to be "deprivation of salary." For negligent guard duty in peacetime, a “serious punishment” awaited the soldier, and in wartime, the death penalty.
For "sorcery" was supposed to be burned, for the desecration of icons - cutting off the head
Especially severely punished for the escape. Back in 1705, a decree was issued, according to which, of the three fugitives caught, one was executed by lot, and the other two were exiled to eternal hard labor. The execution took place in the regiment from which the soldier fled. The flight from the army assumed a wide scope, and the government had to issue special treatment to deserters with a promise of forgiveness who voluntarily returned to duty. In the 1730s, the situation of the soldiers worsened, which led to an increase in the number of fugitives, especially among recruits. The penalties were also increased. The fugitives were expected either by execution or hard labor. One of the decrees of the Senate of 1730 reads: “Which recruits learn to run abroad and will be caught, then from the first breeders, for fear of others, they will be executed by death, hanged; but for the rest, who are not breeders themselves, to inflict political death and exile them to Siberia for government work.
The usual joy in soldier's life was to receive a salary. It was different and depended on the type of troops. The soldiers of the internal garrisons were paid the least - their salary in the 60s years XVIII century was 7 rubles. 63 kop. in year; and cavalrymen received the most - 21 rubles. 88 kop. If we take into account that, for example, a horse cost 12 rubles, then this was not so little, but the soldiers did not see this money. Something went for debts or into the hands of resourceful marketers, something - to the artel cash desk. It also happened that the colonel appropriated these soldiers' pennies, forcing the rest of the officers of the regiment to steal, since they all had to sign expenditure items.
The rest of the salary the soldier squandered in a tavern, where sometimes, in dashing courage, he could “scold everyone obscenely and call himself a king” or argue: with whom exactly did Empress Anna Ioannovna “live prodigally” - with Duke Biron or with General Minich? Drinking buddies, as expected, immediately denounced, and the talker had to justify himself with the usual “immeasurable drunkenness” in such cases. In the best case, the matter ended in “chasing gauntlets” in their native regiment, in the worst case, with a whip and exile to distant garrisons.
The soldier could argue with whom exactly Empress Anna Ioannovna "lives prodigally" - with Duke Biron or with General Minich?
Bored in the garrison service, the young soldier Semyon Efremov once shared with a colleague: “Pray to God that the Turk rises, then we would get out of here.” He escaped punishment only by explaining his desire to start the war by the fact that "while young, he can serve." The old servicemen, who had already smelled gunpowder, were thinking not only about exploits - among the “material evidence” in the affairs of the Secret Chancellery, conspiracies seized from them were preserved: “Strengthen, Lord, in the army and in battle and in every place from the Tatars and from the faithful and unfaithful tongues and from all kinds of military weapons ... and me, your servant Mikhail, create like a lion with strength. Others, like ordinary Semyon Popov, were driven by longing and drill to terrible blasphemy: the soldier wrote with his own blood a “letter of apostasy”, in which he “summoned the devil to himself and demanded riches from him ... so that through that riches he could leave military service.”
And yet the war gave a chance to the lucky. Suvorov, who knew perfectly well the psychology of a soldier, in his instruction “The Science of Victory” mentioned not only speed, onslaught and bayonet attack, but also “holy booty” - and told how in Ishmael, taken by a brutal assault under his command, soldiers “divided gold and silver in handfuls ". True, not everyone was so lucky. To the rest, “who remained alive — that honor and glory!” - promised the same "Science to win."
However, the army suffered the biggest losses not from the enemy, but from diseases and the lack of doctors and medicines. “Walking around the camp at sunset, I saw some regimental soldiers digging holes for their dead brethren, others already burying, and still others completely buried. In the army, quite a few suffer from diarrhea and putrid fevers; when officers also move into the realm of the dead, for whom, during their illness, they are certainly better looked after, and doctors use their own medicines for money, then how can soldiers not die, left in illness to their fate and for which medicines are either dissatisfied, or absolutely not available in other shelves. Diseases are born from the fact that the army stands in a square, a quadrangle, that defecating feces, although the wind blows a little, spreads a very bad smell through the air, that Liman water, being used raw, is very unhealthy, and vinegar is not divided among the soldiers, which On the shore, dead corpses are visible everywhere, drowned in the estuary in the three battles that took place on it, ”the army official Roman Tsebrikov described the siege of the Turkish fortress Ochakov in 1788.
For the majority, the usual soldier's fate fell out: endless marches across the steppe or mountains in the heat or mud, bivouacs and overnight stays in the open, long evenings in "winter-apartments" in peasant huts.