Drugov, Ilya Dmitrievich

Before the war

Ilya Dmitrievich Drugov was born on August 8, 1923 ^{[1] [2] [3]} in the county town of Scheglov ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] of the} Tomsk Province of the RSFSR of the USSR (now the city of Kemerovo , the administrative center of the Kemerovo Region of the Russian Federation ) in working family. Russian ^[1] . He graduated from high school number 42 ^[3] . Prior to conscription, he worked as an electric welder at the Kemerovo nitrogen fertilizer plant named after the 18th Congress of the CPSU (B.) (Now the Khimprom Production Association) ^{[2] [3] [5]} .

On the fronts of World War II

I. D. Drugov joined the ranks of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army as a volunteer in July 1941 ^[3] . After undergoing military training, he was sent to the 303rd Infantry Division, which was being formed in Kemerovo ^{[2] [5]} . In battles with the Nazi invaders, Ilya Dmitrievich from July 19, 1942 on the Voronezh Front . He was baptized in the northern outskirts of the city of Voronezh . In the fall of 1942, he was seriously wounded in the battles on Zadonskoye Highway ^[5] . He was treated in a rear hospital in the Urals ^[5] . After recovering, he was trained at the courses of drivers of the T-34 tank at the Uralmash plant . In April 1943, the rank of sergeant was enlisted in the 197th Sverdlovsk Tank Brigade of the 30th Ural Volunteer Tank Corps ^{[2] [5]} . Again at the forefront of I.D. Drugov from July 27, 1943. Fighting on the Bryansk front , Ilya Dmitrievich took part in the Oryol operation of the Battle of Kursk and the liberation of the Bryansk industrial region. During the Bryansk operation, Drugov was unexpectedly summoned to the headquarters of the corps. The command required an experienced junior commander, able to lead the scout-motorcyclist squad of the 88th separate motorcycle battalion. Immediately Ilya Dmitrievich received the first combat mission. 30th Colonel Motorized Rifle BrigadeM.S.Smirnov was to knock out the enemy from the city of Unecha . To clarify the strength of the Germans, a group of scouts under the command of Sergeant Drugov was tasked with capturing a control prisoner . Scouts managed to quietly get to the German trenches . At the signal of the group commander, they rushed to the enemy machine gun crew. In a short battle, Soviet fighters destroyed two German soldiers, and the third was twisted and dragged to the motorcycles left nearby. However, the scouts failed to carry out their plans silently. An alarm was raised in the enemy camp, and the reconnaissance group had to retreat, but the control prisoner was delivered to the brigade headquarters and provided valuable information about the number and combat structure of the German units defending Unecha, their defense and fire points ^[6] . Towards the evening of September 23, 1944, motorized rifles of the 30th Panzer Corps, with the assistance of other parts of the front, completely liberated the city, and Sergeant I.D.Drukhov, who proved himself well during the operation to capture the language, remained in the motorcycle battalion.

After the offensive operations in the Oryol and Bryansk regions were completed, the 30th Panzer Corps was withdrawn to the reserve of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command . In contrast to the battles, by order of the NCO of the USSR No. 306 of October 23, 1943, it was transformed into the 10th Guards , and the 88th separate motorcycle battalion became the 7th Guards. In February 1944, lieutenant general tank guards G. S. Rodin were transferred to the 1st Ukrainian Front and took part in the Proskurov-Chernivtsi operation . During the liberation of Western Ukraine, the guard sergeant I. D. Drugov, being at the forefront of the advancing corps forces, delivered command orders directly to the units, provided communications with the rifle units, conducted reconnaissance on the movement routes, uncovered the intermediate lines of the enemy’s defense, and revealed the presence of anti-tank obstacles, minefields and anti-tank weapons, participated in sabotage operations behind enemy lines and the capture of languages. Ilya Dmitrievich was especially distinguished during the Lviv-Sandomierz operation .

Order of Glory III degree

On July 13, 1944, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front went on the offensive in the Lviv direction. The main forces of the 10th Guards Tank Corps in the early days of the operation concentrated southwest of Zbarazh in anticipation of an order to enter the breakthrough. At this time, motorcyclists of the 7th Guards Motorcycle Regiment were constantly plying between the headquarters of the corps and the front, delivering command information on the operational situation. On July 14, Sergeant I. D. Drugov, under the enemy’s hurricane mortar and machine-gun fire, kept in touch with the rifle unit advancing in the area of ​​the settlement of Bzovitsa on his motorcycle. At a time when the enemy launched a large-scale counterattack, Ilya Dmitrievich was directly in the battle formations of the infantry. Together with the infantry, he went on the attack and in hand-to-hand combat personally destroyed two enemy soldiers ^{[1] [7]} .

On July 17, corps brigades were introduced into Koltuvsky corridor with the task of bypassing Lviv from the south and closing an encirclement ring around the enemy’s Lviv group in the Gorodok area. However, due to the fierce resistance of the Germans on July 20, the guardsmen of Major General EE Belov were ordered to storm Lviv by order of the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front. Before the fighters of the 7th Separate Guards Motorcycle Battalion of the Major Guard N.P. Beklemishev was given the difficult task of breaking into the city through a section of the highway occupied by the Germans and reconnaissance of the enemy’s forces and weapons. On the near approaches to Lviv near the settlement of Arturovka, the battalion encountered fierce resistance from the enemy. Having boldly entered the battle with the superior forces of the Germans, the guardsmen inflicted great damage on the enemy and occupied Arturovka, which facilitated the advance of the corps ^[8] . July 23rd 2nd Tank Battalion of the 63rd Guards Tank Brigade under the command of the Captain's Guard P.V. Chirkova was the first of the corps to break into the southern outskirts of Lviv. During fierce street battles of the Guard, Sergeant I. D. Drugov tirelessly provided communication between the headquarters of the corps and units and more than once under enemy fire delivered orders to the thick of the battle ^[5] .

On June 27, Lviv was liberated, and the Ural Volunteer Tank Corps continued its offensive in the Sambir direction. Throughout the entire length from Lviv to the Dniester River, I. D. Drugov was in the front line detachment and continuously conducted reconnaissance. On July 28, in the area of ​​the settlement of Velikaya Belina, Ilya Dmitrievich, under heavy mortar shelling in the conditions of marshy terrain, made reconnaissance of the route of movement and revealed the location of the German firing points. Continuing to move forward, on the approaches to the city of Sambir, he discovered a place of concentration of large enemy forces, preparing to launch a counterattack on the flank of the advancing units of the 1st Ukrainian Front. On June 29, forces of the 7th Guards ICB in the area of ​​the village of Gordyn conducted reconnaissance in force , during which valuable information was obtained on the size of this group and its fire weapons ^{[1] [7]} . Over the course of several days, the 4th Panzer Army actively bound the enemy’s forces near Sambir, and on August 7, with a swift strike in the direction of the city of Sanok, the German troops were pushed back to the Carpathians , which largely determined the outcome of the battles for holding the bridgehead on the left bank of the Vistula in the Sandomierz region . For exemplary performance of combat missions of the command during the Lviv-Sandomierz operation, by order of August 22, 1944, guard Sergeant I. D. Drugov was awarded the Order of Glory of the 3rd degree (No. 214048) ^[2] . At the same time, he was awarded the next military rank of the senior sergeant guard.

Order of Glory II degree

Between August 11 and 15, 1944, the 10th Guards Tank Corps was transferred to Sandomierz bridgehead , where until the beginning of 1945, it fought in the defense zone of the 5th Guards Army . With the start of the Vistula-Oder operation on the afternoon of January 14, he was put into battle south-east of the city of Kielce with the task of developing the success of the 13th Army . The tank guards inflicted a heavy defeat on the 17th and 19th tank divisions of the Wehrmacht near the village of Lisów and developed an offensive with a general direction towards Piotrkow . Guards Senior Sergeant I.D. Drugov, all the way from Charn Nida to Pilica, acted in intelligence, being the forefront of the corps, and sometimes ahead of his battle formations. On January 17, in the area of ​​the city of Konsk, he discovered an enemy ambush in one of the buildings. Secretly approaching the house, the scout threw an open window several grenades, destroying 5 enemy soldiers, and forced two survivors to surrender ^[9] . On January 18, Ilya Dmitrievich participated in the defeat of the convoy of the 17th Panzer Division in the village of Paradyz, which resulted in the capture of many prisoners and a bus with staff documents.

With the approach of parts of the corps to Oder , the 7th Guards Motorcycle Battalion was tasked with exploring the ways of approaching the river. Guard Sergeant I.D. Drugov led a group of 18 scouts who were to act northwest of the city of Breslau . When conducting intelligence activities on January 26, scouts came across an enemy screen. Acting boldly and decisively, Drugov destroyed two enemy soldiers with a grenade, and captured six Wehrmacht soldiers captured ^{[1] [9]} . On the same day, scouts crossed the Oder on thin ice and occupied a small bridgehead on its western shore, which they kept until the motorized rifle units of the corps arrived ^{[10] [11]} . In contrast to the Wisło-Oder operation, by order of the Guard of March 13, 1945, Senior Sergeant I. D. Drugov was awarded the Order of Glory of the 2nd degree (No. 26353) ^[2] .

Order of Glory I degree

The capture and retention of the bridgeheads on the Oder created favorable conditions for the advance of the Red Army in Silesia . In February 1945, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front successfully conducted the Lower Silesian Operation , during which units of the 10th Guards Tank Corps reached the border of the Neisse River near the city of Forst . In March 1945, the corps was attracted to participate in the operation to rout the enemy’s opposition-ratiom group. During the Upper Silesian operation , tank guards launched a strike in the direction of Neustadt and Sylz and, by March 18, joined forces with the 7th Guards Mechanized Corps, General I.P. Korchagin , completing the encirclement of a large enemy group. From March 18 to March 22, Soviet troops fought to eliminate it and thwarted the enemy’s attempts to release troops in the ring. On March 18, Senior Sergeant I.D.Drukhov, before the start of the operation, was appointed assistant commander of the platoon of his battalion, carried out reconnaissance in the area of ​​the settlement of Buchelsdorf (now Niemysłowice, Prudnice County , Opole Voivodeship , Poland ). Suddenly, a platoon collided with a large group of Germans. Quickly taking up the defense, the scouts repelled two attacks of the enemy, inflicting significant damage to him in manpower. In the battle, Ilya Dmitrievich personally exterminated 7 enemy soldiers and 1 captured. On March 19, during the assault on the village of Rennersdorf (now Rynarcice, Nyisk County , Opole Voivodeship, Poland) of the Guard, Senior Sergeant Drugov, being a senior tank assault, personally led the fighters into the attack, during which he personally destroyed 10 Wehrmacht troops and captured 5. On March 20, while combing a forest in the area of ​​the village of Maunsdorf, he discovered three German Faustniks who were trying to get close to Soviet tanks, and boldly entered the battle, destroyed the enemy. On March 21, Drugov commanded a reconnaissance group entrusted with capturing a language in the area of ​​the settlement of Ditmansdorf (now Mieszkowice, Prudnitsky County, Opole Voivodeship, Poland) ^{[1] [12]} . At the same time, the command ordered that the control prisoner be delivered “with a more authentic language” ^[10] . Under cover of darkness, Ilya Dmitrievich with a small group of fighters managed to penetrate the village. During the observation of the enemy, scouts noticed one of the houses where the headquarters of some unit was supposedly located. Choosing a convenient moment, they boldly burst into the enemy’s location, and acting with machine guns and grenades, they destroyed up to 15 German soldiers, and the Germans who jumped out of the headquarters were quickly twisted and evacuated to their side. The captured “language” turned out to be a high-ranking staff officer who gave the corps command very valuable information ^{[5] [10]} . March 31, 1945 Captain of the 7th Separate Guards Motorcycle Battalion Guards Captain V. A. Kontseva for the valor and courage shown during the battles in Silesia, introduced the guard of sergeant I. D. Drugov to the Order of Glory of the 1st degree ^[12] . The high award number 214 was awarded to Ilya Dmitrievich by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 27, 1945 ^{[2] [13]} .

At the end of the war

On April 16, 1945, Soviet troops launched a decisive attack on Berlin . During the Berlin operation , the 10th Guards Tank Corps crossed the Neisse and, breaking through the enemy’s defenses in the offensive zone of the 5th Guards Army, rushed to the capital of the German Empire . On April 23, the main forces of the corps reached the southwestern outskirts of Berlin in the vicinity of the settlement of Stansdorf . During the storming of Berlin, the brigades and regiments of the corps acted separately: some fought on the island of Wannsee and the southern outskirts of Berlin, others in Potsdam , and others in the Luckenwalde area. However, the headquarters of the corps, located in Stansdorf, always had the necessary information about the enemy, the position of their units and provided control of the battle to the corps commander. To a large extent this was facilitated by the selfless work of the personnel of the 7th Guards Motorcycle Battalion, including the Guard of Senior Sergeant I.D. Drugov. According to some reports, during the final battles in Berlin, Ilya Dmitrievich with his fighters sent signals from the ground to Soviet attack aircraft at the headquarters of the German troops. After the air raid, scouts found in a dilapidated building one of the standards of the 5th SS Viking Panzer Division , which Ilya Dmitrievich threw to the foot of the Lenin Mausoleum during the Victory Parade on Red Square in Moscow ^[11] .

After the end of the Berlin operation, the 10th Guards Tank Corps was withdrawn to the Dame region, but the rest of the tankers was short-lived. On the night of May 6, 1945, they received an order to attack Prague . Having defeated German troops in the Freiberg area by May 7, the guardsmen of Lieutenant General E. E. Belov crossed the Ore Mountains and at 3 o’clock in the morning on May 9 they advanced to Prague. Here, in the capital of Czechoslovakia , I. D. Drugov completed his military career ^[5] .

After the war

After the end of World War II, I. D. Drugov remained in military service until 1948 ^{[1] [3]} . Demobilized in the rank of guard foreman, Ilya Dmitrievich returned to Kuzbass . He lived in Kemerovo . He worked as an electric welder in the installation department of the Zapsibantekhmontazh trust ^[14] and as a gas electric welder in the production and repair enterprise Kuzbasselektroremont ^{[1] [2] [11]} . He died on October 12, 1990 ^{[1] [2]} . He was buried in Kemerovo ^[11] .

• Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree (03/11/1985) ^[15] ;
• Order of Glory of the 1st degree (06/27/1945) ^[13] ;
• Order of Glory of the 2nd degree (03/13/1945) ^[9] ;
• Order of Glory 3rd degree (08/22/1944) ^[7] ;
• medals, including:
  • medal "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." ;
  • medal "For the capture of Berlin" ;
  • medal "For the Liberation of Prague" .

• A plaque in honor of I. D. Drugov was installed in Kemerovo at the address: 19 Vesennyaya Street ^[16] .

• Public electronic document bank “The Feat of the People in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945” (neopr.) . Numbers in the database:

Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree (archive props 1515001605) (neopr.) .

Presentation to the Order of Glory of the 1st degree (archive props 46956070) (neopr.) .

Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 27, 1945 (archival requisite 46807319) (neopr.) .

A petition addressed to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief (archive requisite 46808132) ( unopened ) .

Order of Glory of the 2nd degree (archive props 22259328) (neopr.) .

Order of Glory 3rd degree (archival requisite 40886208) (neopr.) .

• Cavaliers of the Order of Glory of three degrees: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. collegium D. S. Sukhorukov. - M .: Military Publishing House, 2000 .-- 703 p. - ISBN 5-203-01883-9 .
• Loboda V.F. Soldier Glory. Prince 2. - M .: Military publishing house, 1967. - S. 105-106. - 352 p.
• Front-line soldiers, put on orders! essays about the Kuzbassites - full cavaliers of the Order of Glory / comp. M. Shcherbakov. - Kemerovo: Kemerovo Book Publishing House, 1970. - S. 49-57. - 206 p.
• Soldier glory: short essays on the exploits of the Sverdlovsk citizens - full knights of the Order of Glory / comp. V.M. Demidov. - Sverdlovsk: Middle Ural Book Publishing House, 1985. - P. 154. - 176 p.
• Volunteers of the Urals: Essays on Memories / comp. I. Reznik. - Sverdlovsk: Middle Ural Book Publishing House, 1980. - P. 181. - 240 p.

• Drugov, Ilya Dmitrievich (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ".