Thanks to “Echos of War” I've become interested (oh, alright... obsessed), with awards given for specific battles. Using EoW it's not a complete crap shoot when looking for such. But finding an award that's actually listed (p. 116) in that wonderful book makes it downright easy. So, when going through a dealer's hard copy print out (dot matrix, continuous feed paper... yes, he's had some things since the 1990s!), and noticing this Red Star on offer I jumped.
One confusing thing was the unit – the 279th Guards Light Artillery Regiment was not at Kursk. But again, standing on the shoulders of giants, in this case “Red Thunder: Soviet Artillery 1941 to 1945” by Charles Sharp, it was made clear. There I found this:
Looking at the entry for the 16th Light Artillery Brigade we find:
Armed with the awardee’s name another resource was available – PODVIG. Using a Cyrillic keyboard emulator and CathhR’s excellent write up for we linguistically impaired his citation and order were found. Sent to Auke, additional research was done and his award card was retrieved and the whole shebang translated.
The citation verifies that comrade Toikichev fought against the very first onslaught of 47th Panzer Corps on 5 July 1943, the opening of the battle of Kursk. The 5th Artillery Division's assets were distributed throughout the 13th Army, in the maze of defensive works that would blunt and finally stop the offensive. The town of Podolyan (Подолянь)was in the first defensive belt, and fell on 5 July after heavy fighting, basically being swamped by German forces with fearsome casualties on both sides. For his actions near there Toikichev received the Red Star; for that and the rest of the battle his regiment was made a Guards unit.
Frustratingly I’ve also found what looks like a map fragment, on a wargaming forum of all places, that seems to show the placement of two of the three artillery regiments of the 16th Light at Ponyri two days later. Not a reliable source by any stretch, but it is feasible that Toikichev was also at that climactic battle. The northern assault front was only about 35km wide, and the Soviets moved units around like chess pieces countering the assault. Ponyri was the place where the northern offensive was decisively defeated. (There is another indication: a footnote in Glantz’s “Battle of Kursk” places the 5th Artillery Division as “supporting the 307th Rifle Division”; the 307th is the unit that defended Ponyri.)
Long winded, but the history is what I like most about collecting!
Oh, and thanks to all mentioned herein for their invaluable work and assistance!
One confusing thing was the unit – the 279th Guards Light Artillery Regiment was not at Kursk. But again, standing on the shoulders of giants, in this case “Red Thunder: Soviet Artillery 1941 to 1945” by Charles Sharp, it was made clear. There I found this:
Quote:23rd Guards Light Artillery Brigade: Formed on 10 August 1943 from the 16th Light Artillery Brigade... with:
...
279th Guards Light Artillery Regiment (from 768th Light Artillery Regiment)
…
Looking at the entry for the 16th Light Artillery Brigade we find:
Quote:Formed in December 1942 in the 5th Artillery Division with the 540th, 697th 768th Light Artillery Regiments. … It served in that division through the battle of Kursk, where the brigade distinguished itself supporting 13th Army against the main German attacks from the north. As a result, in August 1943 the 16th became the 23rd Guards Light Artillery Brigade.
Armed with the awardee’s name another resource was available – PODVIG. Using a Cyrillic keyboard emulator and CathhR’s excellent write up for we linguistically impaired his citation and order were found. Sent to Auke, additional research was done and his award card was retrieved and the whole shebang translated.
The citation verifies that comrade Toikichev fought against the very first onslaught of 47th Panzer Corps on 5 July 1943, the opening of the battle of Kursk. The 5th Artillery Division's assets were distributed throughout the 13th Army, in the maze of defensive works that would blunt and finally stop the offensive. The town of Podolyan (Подолянь)was in the first defensive belt, and fell on 5 July after heavy fighting, basically being swamped by German forces with fearsome casualties on both sides. For his actions near there Toikichev received the Red Star; for that and the rest of the battle his regiment was made a Guards unit.
Frustratingly I’ve also found what looks like a map fragment, on a wargaming forum of all places, that seems to show the placement of two of the three artillery regiments of the 16th Light at Ponyri two days later. Not a reliable source by any stretch, but it is feasible that Toikichev was also at that climactic battle. The northern assault front was only about 35km wide, and the Soviets moved units around like chess pieces countering the assault. Ponyri was the place where the northern offensive was decisively defeated. (There is another indication: a footnote in Glantz’s “Battle of Kursk” places the 5th Artillery Division as “supporting the 307th Rifle Division”; the 307th is the unit that defended Ponyri.)
Long winded, but the history is what I like most about collecting!
Oh, and thanks to all mentioned herein for their invaluable work and assistance!
Steiner: "Why do you want it so badly? It's just a worthless piece of metal. Look."
