Hailo, Vasily Alexandrovich

Born on January 18, 1924 in the village of Bolshaya Kirsanovka, now Matveevo-Kurgan District, Rostov Region, in a peasant family of Alexander Maximovich and Stepanida Rodionovna Khailo. Russian

The family was big - 8 children. Vasily was the fourth child. After graduating from a seven-year school, he graduated from a vocational school. He worked in a native collective farm as a tractor tractor-trailer.

He was drafted into the Red Army on February 25, 1942 by the Matveevo-Kurgan RVK of the Rostov Region and since February of the same year at the front.

In May 1942, as part of the 14th mortar regiment, he took part in hostilities in the Izyum-Barvenkovsky direction.

In the first battle, the calculation, in which Hailo V.A. was a gunner, knocked out an enemy tank.

In the area of ​​the city, Izium was wounded.

After the hospital, with a marching company, he arrived in the 91st Infantry Division of the Southern Front (from the 20th of October 1943 - the 4th Ukrainian Front), in the 321st Artillery Regiment (regiment commander - Lt. Col. Peskovsky Vladimir Nikolaevich) in the 4th battery 76- mm anti-tank guns (battery commander - Lieutenant Glukhov).

The 91st Infantry Division at that time was on the defensive on the Seversky Donets River, west of the city of Voroshilovgrad (now the city of Lugansk). On January 1, 1943, the 51st Army launched an offensive for the liberation of Donbass. In the battle for the village of Yekaterinovka on the Volchya River, the crew in which Khaylo V.A. was located, knocked out a tank and crushed two enemy machine-gun points.

By the fall of 1943, the Nazis strengthened on the right bank of the Molochnaya River. How important this line was to them says that the Hitler command to all personnel taking part in the defense on the Molochnaya River paid a triple salary, and in Berlin they minted the medal “For the Defense of the Melitopol Positions” ^[4] .

To break through the enemy defenses and liberate the city of Melitopol, the Melitopol offensive operation was carried out (09/26/05/11/1943). On the morning of September 26, 1943, the assault on the Hitler defensive line "Vatan" began. On October 13, 1943, the 51st Army liberated the southern part of Melitopol.

The battle on October 20, 1943 for the city of Melitopol , described from the words of Hailo V. A. by his wife Hailo (Zaporozhtseva) Vera Semenovna:

“German tanks were moving on our battery along the city avenue. The enemy did not see us, as the guns stood among the trees in the park. After our first shot, the Germans spotted us and returned heavy fire. When the smoke cleared, it turned out that only the Red Army soldier Khaylo V.A. and Sergeant Frolkin Grigory Ivanovich, who was seriously wounded in both legs, survived from the whole battery. Vasily acted for the whole calculation: the commander of the gun, gunner, castle, carrier of shells. From the first shot, he knocked out a heavy tank. The second shot was hit by a tank that bypassed the burning one. The narrow street was blocked by flaming German tanks, and since the tanks were moving in a dense column, the traffic stopped. One tank turned onto a side street and, hiding around the corner of the house, shot at the gun, but missed. Vasily fired at the corner of the house. The tank was bombarded with bricks. The second shot was over a pile of bricks, and the third tank burned. Hitler’s machine gunners began to run across from house to house, surrounding the square where our gunners were. Vasily transferred the wounded comrade to a nearby house and laid him in the back room of the apartment on the second floor. Then, having barricaded the front door with a cupboard, he himself, having covered himself with a feather-bed and pillows, lay in the bathroom, which is opposite the front door. After some time, the wooden sills of the stairs creaked. This was creeping up on Fritz. The door was loosely locked by the cabinet and through it with difficulty, but it was possible to squeeze through. And now the door slowly opens and the fascist’s head slowly pokes into the slot. Vasily shot at this white spot. A few more minutes passed and creaking on the stairs again. Everything repeated: a door that opens slightly, a white spot instead of a face in the opening, a shot and a second Fritz lies at the door. Vasily Alexandrovich often recalled this battle and could not understand why the Nazis did not choose another way to capture or destroy the Soviet soldiers, as soon as this one: to enter the apartment through the front door, seeing that the dead soldiers were already lying on the threshold. But there was a third. And he was also killed. There was a lull. Vasily carefully left the apartment. Through a window on the landing, he saw in the courtyard a group of German soldiers standing by the staff car, two or three officers were telling them something. Vasily threw a grenade at them and disappeared into the apartment. After some time, the Nazis rolled up several barrels of fuel to the walls of the house and, having shot them, set fire to the house. It became unbearably hot, everything was obscured by smoke. The stairs burned, the front door lit up. And then Hailo V.A., putting in his cigarette case a party ticket of the communist G. Frolkin and his Komsomol, scribbled on the inner lid:

“In this house the communist Frolkin G.I. and the Komsomolets Hailo V.A. burned alive. We preferred a painful death on fire than a shameful surrender. Avenge us, dear comrades. October 20, 1943. G. Frolkin, W. Hailo. “.

The heat was so strong that the Germans moved away from home a considerable distance. Seeing this, Vasily tied Frolkin with sheets to his back and jumped out the window from the second floor. He hit his head with something and passed out. When Vasily came to himself it was still light. Frolkin moaned half-delirious. The house was on fire. Unable to withstand strong fire, the walls collapsed, covering the fighters. Basil again lost consciousness. Frolkin brought him in, freeing both from the rubble that collapsed the wall. It was night. Grigory Frolkin said that the Germans were looking for them until dark, but they did not begin to rake a pile of burning debris. German speech was heard all around. They were in an enemy environment. Vasily dragged Frolkin to the sounds of gunfire. “In the early morning, the assault group of Lieutenant Bratkeev discovered wounded near their positions ...”

October 23, 1943 the city of Melitopol was liberated.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 1, 1943, 79 people were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the liberation of Melitopol. Among them was Vasily Aleksandrovich Khaylo. He was 19 years old at that time.

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 1, 1943 for exemplary performance of the combat missions of the Command to break through the heavily fortified Germans and liberate the city of Melitopol, and showing courage and heroism to the Red Army soldier, Khailo Vasily Alexandrovich, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the awarding of the Order of Lenin and the Golden Medal Star ” ^[5] .

Sergeant Frolkin Grigory Ivanovich was awarded the Order of Lenin.

18 units and formations are given the honorary name of the Melitopol.

After returning to the unit, Hailo V.A. was sent to the hospital. The treatment was long and difficult, and only by the middle of January 1944, the Red Army soldier Hailo was back in service and sent to study at the 8th training infantry regiment. January 26, 1944 enrolled as a cadet in the 2nd battery.

By order 49-USD No. 226 of 08/09/1944 he was awarded the title of "sergeant."

By order No. 47 of 02.15.1945, he left for the Astrakhan Artillery School.

In March-October 1945, a cadet at the Stalingrad Artillery School (the city of Rostov-on-Don).

In the future, he served as an officer in the 345th artillery Novogeorgievsky Order of the Kutuzov Regiment (the city of Uryupinsk, Volgograd Region). Officer Hailo V.A. is improving his knowledge every day, passing it on and his combat experience to his subordinates.

In 1947, he studied in the city of Novocherkassk (KUOS).

In 1952, he studied in the city of Dzaudzhikau (KKSOU). He is promoted and appointed deputy division commander.

Army Komsomol members showed great confidence by electing Vasily Alexandrovich a delegate to the XI Congress of the Komsomol.

At the congress, Vasily Alexandrovich made friends with the heroes of the underground organization Young Guard, Georgy Arutyunyants, Radik Yurkin, Valentina Borts, Olga Ivantsova.

But more and more often they began to remind themselves of wounds, shell-shock, adversity of the past war. Increasingly, you have to see doctors. Even making an offer to his girlfriend, Vasily said: “Verochka, marry me. But just know that for a long time I will not be enough. " When their son was born in 1950, the happy father said: “Now I can die ...”. There is a photograph of V. A. Hailo, on which Vera Semyonovna Hailo wrote: “January 7 is the Nativity of Christ. On this day, Vasya began to die. "

Vasily Aleksandrovich Khaylo died on the night of January 18, January 17, 1953 in the military hospital of the city of Stalingrad , before he lived only a few hours before his 29th birthday.

• Gold Star Medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union;
• Order of Lenin ;
• medals, including:
  • medal “For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945” ;
  • anniversary medal "30 years of the Soviet Army and Navy . "

• He was buried in his native village of Bolshaya Kirsanovka, Rostov Region .
• In the village of Bolshaya Kirsanovka , one of the streets is named in the house on which the hero was born.
• The name of the Hero bears the school in which he studied ^[6] . The memorial plaque in memory of Hailo was installed by the Russian Military Historical Society on the building of this school.
• In memory of Vasily Alexandrovich Hailo, football tournaments are held annually among the teams of the second group in his village in the village of Bolshaya Kirsanovka ^[7] .

• Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. collegium I. N. Shkadov . - M .: Military Publishing , 1988. - T. 2 / Love - Yashchuk /. - 863 s. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN 5-203-00536-2 .

Hailo, Vasily Alexandrovich (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ".

• Heroes of the Soviet Union are natives of the Don .