Mikhail Ilyich Surkov ( 1921-1953 ) - participant of the Great Patriotic War , sniper of the 1st battalion of the 39th rifle regiment of the 4th rifle division of the 12th army of the Southern front , junior lieutenant . The best Soviet sniper of the Great Patriotic War, the number of destroyed opponents according to Soviet sources is 702 [1] [2] [3] [4] .
| Mikhail Ilich Surkov | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Date of Birth | 1921 | |||
| Place of Birth | ||||
| Date of death | 1953 | |||
| Place of death | ||||
| Affiliation |  the USSR | |||
| Type of army | Infantry | |||
| Years of service | 1941 - 1946 | |||
| Rank |  | |||
| Battles / Wars | The Great Patriotic War | |||
| Awards and prizes |
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External images
Content
Biography
Born in 1921 . Russian .
Before the war, he lived in the village of Bolshaya Salyr, now the Achinsk District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory . He was a taiga hunter.
In the Red Army since 1941, he was called up by Achinsky (in the award list - Atchevsky ) district commissariat .
At the end of November 1941, the 4th rifle division became part of the 12th army , defending the Red Liman - Debaltseve front, west of Voroshilovgrad . By December 1941, the front had stabilized. The defense began a sniper movement, which in the winter of 1941/42 was widely developed on all fronts. In early March, the division had 117 snipers. During their stay in the defense, they destroyed more than a thousand Nazis. The experience of snipers was transmitted at special meetings and was widely used in propaganda.
Candidate in the CPSU (b) since 1942 .
After the beginning of the German offensive in the summer of 1942 and the loss of Rostov-on-Don in July, the southern front was disbanded. 4 division transferred to the North Caucasus Front . By the beginning of autumn it was reduced in number to the consolidated regiment and on November 28, 1942 it was disbanded. At the end of 1942, M. I. Surkov was transferred to 1341 rifle regiment of the 319 rifle division [5] .
In 1943, after the 7th wound, Mikhail Surkov was sent to the hospital, from where he had to return to his homeland, to the village of Bolshaya Salyr, where the countrymen happily met the hero and elected him chairman of the village council. He died in 1953.
Son - Alex.
Awards
- He was awarded orders: Lenin (07/11/1942), Red Star (12/07/1942) [5] ; medals, including "For Courage" [6] (03/12/1942).
The fact of the number of enemies destroyed
When the account of the Nazis destroyed by Mikhail Surkov reached 701 people, two cameraman went with him to the next "hunt" against enemy snipers.
“The case is difficult: a sniper is found only when fired, at other times it is almost impossible to detect it. So, it was required to call the enemy for a shot. Michael cut a pumpkin in the garden, put on his helmet and stuck it out over the parapet of the false comfrey, about 400 meters from the Germans. From the enemy’s side, this pumpkin with a helmet “read” like a soldier’s head. Then Surkov crawled into another trench, 40 meters away from the false, made a shot and began to observe. Very soon they began to hit the pumpkin - at first they were rifle shots, then hit a mortar . During the shootout, Michael discovered an enemy sniper. He killed his 702nd enemy that day. ”
From the memoirs of the cameraman Soyuzkinotehnika A. Levitan . Published in the "Literary Gazette" of February 24, 1971 in the article "Movie Camera in Attack" [7] .
Interesting fact
Surkov introduced himself to the title Hero of the Soviet Union , but never received it, although none of the many snipers - Heroes of the Soviet Union - achieved such a result as he did.
A number of Western historians question this figure, believing that it was fabricated by Soviet propaganda [8] in order to level the result of the Finnish sniper Simo Hyahya , whom he achieved during the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940 .
Information about the combat account of M. I. Surkov in 702 fascists began to appear in the Red Army press at the end of October 1942 [9] [10] . As indicated in the award sheet for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, his combat score for July 1942 was 220 enemies. Thus, during the summer and autumn of 1942 in the conditions of a retreat of 300 km from Voroshilovgrad to Rostov-on-Don and to the North Caucasus, the sniper destroyed an average of 160 enemies per month. Earlier in the submission to the Order of the Red Star (awarded the Medal of Honor), the regiment commander mentioned the account of 15 enemies on March 3, 1942. [11] The last award was received for the destruction of 7 Nazis by sniper fire and 3 more Nazis with their own dagger, but in the final sniper score they not included.
Notes
- ↑ Mark Spicer and Pat Farey, Sniping: An Illustrated History. Grand Rapids, MI: Zenith, 2009; pg. 129. (English)
- ↑ Lukovets Alexey Illarionovich. Victory Banner: articles, essays, correspondence, letters: a collection . - M .: True, 1975. - T. 1.
- ↑ The best snipers of the 2nd World
- ↑ Mikhail Ilich Surkov - sniper legend (Inaccessible link) . Date of treatment September 9, 2012. Archived on May 2, 2014.
- ↑ 1 2 Order of awarding of 319 recounted boards dated 12/07/1942 . The memory of the people .
- ↑ Order No. 1 of the 12th Army dated 03/12/1942 On awarding the medal "For Courage" . The memory of the people .
- ↑ The legend man. Mikhail Surkov.
- ↑ Gregory Mast, To Be a Military Sniper. St. Paul, MN: Zenith Press, 2007; pg. 22. (eng.)
- ↑ Fighting path: daily Red Army newspaper. Karelian Front - 1942, (April - December) . elibrary.karelia.ru .
- ↑ So beat the Germans and you. The newspaper "Fighting Way" of the Karelian Front No. 285 27.10.42. - 1942.
- ↑ Award list for the Order of the Red Star . The memory of the people .
Links
- Surkov Mikhail Ilyich
- Which of the snipers had the biggest score of the Nazis destroyed?
- The story of the front-line surgeon and the hero of the sniper of the Southern Front https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAq3xOmHxZg