EVENING BELL:
Third Toast of the Day

On October 7, 1941, Captain Ivan Flerov died in battle near the village of Bogatyr in the Smolensk Region. He had fought in the Finnish War, where he was awarded the Order of the Red Star. He was a student at the Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy, from which, without completing his studies, he rushed to the front.

And finally, the commander of the Separate Experimental Battery, which made history with the first Katyusha strike on July 14, 1941, near Orsha...

That day, seven unprecedented rocket launchers unleashed a veritable hell on the Germans, intoxicated by the blitzkrieg.

"July 14, 1941, 3:15 PM. Struck fascist trains at the Orsha railway junction. Excellent results. A continuous sea of ​​fire."

"July 14, 1941, 4:45 PM. A salvo fired at the Nazi troops crossing the Orshitsa River. Heavy enemy losses in manpower and equipment, panic. All the Nazis who survived on the east bank were taken prisoner by our units…"

But other batteries would reach Berlin before the victorious Katyusha salvos. This one, however, was faced with encirclement and a long raid through the Nazi rear.

"The battery had expended almost all its ammunition," recalled Lieutenant General, then Lieutenant Mikhail Naumenko, after the war. "There were only enough shells for one and a half salvos." Flerov looked very haggard, his eyes sunken, the effects of sleepless days and nights.

Throughout October 5, the battery, no longer firing, moved along country roads to the rear, toward Vyazma. There was no communication with the division command and army headquarters. Our fuel supply was running low. At first, we moved in a single column with other units of the 43rd Army. Then, for reasons unknown to me, we were left alone…”

From the combat report of Captain I.A. Flerov:

“October 7, 1941, 9:00 PM. We were surrounded near the village of Bogatyr, 50 km from Vyazma. We will hold out to the end. There is no escape. We are preparing to self-destruct. Farewell, comrades.”

Half a century later, search parties would recover the remains of the battery commander and six of his soldiers. In 1995, Ivan Flerov would be awarded the title Hero of Russia.

In memory of Ivan Andreevich – a third toast and a salvo from all guns!