Victory Day is dedicated to...

So it turned out that we know about the unique battle under Raseynaya thanks to the direct participants of those events, though, on the opposite side. In 1945, high-ranking German officers were officially captured by the United States. In fact, they were used as military advisors for a future possible war with the USSR. Something the Americans knew, something they guessed, but one of the reports, presumably Colonel General Franz Halder, just shocked the U.S. military.

On June 23, 1941, near the Lithuanian town of Raseiney, Soviet tanks entered a counter-offensive. According to the calculations of the command of the Red Army, they should have opposed no more than twenty tanks of the group "Zekendorf", the number of artillery and infantry was not taken into account at all. From the composition of the 2nd Tank Division was taken a battalion of heavy tanks KV, which had never met the Germans on the front. The task was simple - to attack the enemy in the flank and thus force him to retreat to the Dubise River. But in fact, it all turned into a tank battle, where about a hundred Germans were against 20 Soviet tanks.
In the early stages of the war, Germany did not have tanks capable of penetrating the 70-mm KV armor. Only anti-tank guns or some types of artillery were able to do this. Therefore, in the first minutes of the battle, the surprise of the German soldiers had no limits. The artillery of their Pz-35 tanks did not leave on the armor of the "Stalin monster" even wreckage, but the retaliatory shots of the KV crashed everything in its way. Only a few moments passed, and the whole field was filled with crushed German tanks, and the KV battalion was already moving through the enemy infantry, its goal was artillery. When she also mostly turned into metal, a thunderstorm was heard - the German aircraft began to hit the tanks with direct guidance. Under a barrel of shells, having lost several vehicles, the battalion managed to retreat, leaving behind a complete chaos.

The first acquaintance with Kliment Voroshilov was not pleasant for the Nazis - several dozen Pz-35s, a battery of artillery of a caliber of 150 millimeters, dozens of anti-tank guns, trucks were destroyed, and infantry losses were counted in hundreds. But the second appearance of the KV forced this car to be respected by all German commanders.

A few kilometers from the exhausted tank group "Zekendorf" were its colleagues - the Raus group. Things went much better here, there were almost no losses, the city of Raseinaya was taken, and individual clashes with the Red Army did not bring alarm. But one evening, on June 23, a tank appeared in the road's sight. Apparently, it was a modification of the tank KV - KV-2, which was equipped with a 152-mm tank haubice, but no documentary evidence of this has been preserved. If it was, and indeed he was, then it remains only to imagine what horror the tankers of the light German tanks of the Raus group, who saw him early in the morning, captured.
At first glance, the tank looked abandoned - it was a very unimportant place for the assembly. If anyone was there, then surrounding and destroying the tank in a clean field was easier for the Germans. Most likely, the Soviet crew lagged behind its squadron or broke, which means that it did not pose any danger. However, as soon as a column of German tanks and cars appeared on the road, the monster "resurrected". With the first shot, he detonated a truck with fuel, then alternately destroyed several anti-tank guns and tanks, and then again began to "squeeze" trucks with supplies. When the highway began to resemble hell, and German tanks were hardly recognized in the bush of metal, KV calmed down. There were several small wreaths and scales on his body, but no one was able to break through his armor. However, after the battle, the tank did not go further, but continued to stand still on the road, as if it could not move.

The incident at Raseynaya alarmed the German headquarters, as this clash spoke of a soon-to-be offensive of Soviet troops in the area of this highway, and the invulnerable KV looked only a snare. Understanding the danger of the situation, the leadership decided to immediately throw all available tank reserves to the site. A day later, new columns of grey German tanks appeared on the road, and with them were 88-millimeter aircraft, for which the armor of the KV was not impenetrable.

From the side, the situation seemed absurd and wild: an entire army, and against it a lonely KV, which again looked like the crew had already left it. But soon "Kliment Voroshilov" again met the guests with a rocky explosion of shells. The first suffered a 88-millimeter anti-aircraft gun, it was almost stunned by a 152-millimeter projectile. The offensive of the Soviet tankers was certain: a tank, another, another gun... But now the Germans realized that before them was not the advanced tank of the Russian offensive, but only one car with a desperate, but not broken crew inside.
The minutes of our tankers were counted, the self-abandoned tank was literally scattered. Using the numerical advantage, the Pz-35 cold-blooded surrounded the solitary KV, while the remaining 88-mm guns crushed the tank with a bunch of shells. After the 13th hit, the KV stopped moving. But even then the fascists did not dare to touch the talked tank. Only after waiting for a while and making sure that the enemy was destroyed, the German soldiers risked to approach him. But when they approached a distance of a few meters, the tank's tower suddenly turned toward them - the crew was still alive! Frightened soldiers began to run, who where, but a few grenades thrown into the cabin of the Soviet tank completed the fate of the brave Red Army soldiers.

Surprising Germans found the bodies of six brave tankers in the tank. For two days, one tank with six tankers held back a tank group and several hundred infantry soldiers! War was a war, but military feats at all times were honored by allies and enemies, so the heroic crew was buried by the Germans with military honors.

In 1965, the tankers were buried at a military cemetery near Raseiniya, the names of the three soldiers are still unknown. Personal items suggested the names of two fighters: Ershov P.E., Smirnov V.A. and only the initials of the third - S.N.A. In memory of those events near the site of the legendary battle, near the village of Dainay, there is a military memorial dedicated to the unnamed Red Army.