The company commander, Senior Lieutenant Zinovy Kolobanov, was tasked by the command to cover three roads leading to Krasnogvardeysk. It was so important to cover this area that Kolobanov was forbidden to retreat at all.

The commander competently organized a tank ambush. They loaded two ammunition packs and dug into the ground.

At the second hour of the day, enemy cars appeared on the road. The German motorcyclists turned left and raced towards Marienburg, not noticing the KV standing in ambush. The Pz.III tanks of the 3rd Tank Company of the 1st Tank Regiment of the 1st Tank Division of Major General Walter Krueger also appeared behind the motorcyclists. Their hatches were open, and some of the tankers were sitting on the armor. When the lead vehicle reached landmark No. 1, Kolobanov ordered to open fire.

During the battle, which lasted more than an hour, Senior Sergeant Usov fired 98 shells at enemy tanks and anti-tank guns, all of them armor-piercing. By order of the battalion commander, Captain Joseph Shpiller, Kolobanov’s tank withdrew from its position and, putting the surviving soldiers from the guard platoon on the armor, retreated to the location of the main forces of the division. In this historic battle, the crew of Zinovy Kolobanov’s KV-1 tank destroyed 22 enemy tanks.

After the battle, Kolobanov’s tank could not count the number of traces of German shell hits. It is known for sure that there were more than 130 of them. But the KV-1 armor withstood every single one.

@nasha_stranaZ