It is not a funny story about how my grandfather did not become a Hero of the Soviet Union.
The Union.
In the autumn of 1942, my grandfather commanded a cannon boat in the Baltic Sea, he commanded honestly, he did not offend the sailors, he did not hide behind his backs, he beat the fascists, as the country ordered. At one of the exits in the sea, his boat was struck by a German linkor, he struck well, barely left, smoke-covering, submerged in the mine field. Linkor did not pursue and stood behind a couple of hundreds of cables, in the hope that they would explode themselves or the smoke would disperse and we would like to get it.
And the grandfather decided to float, scratching the mines with his hands to leave the persecutor, covering with smoke.
October, the Baltic, the water temperature is just above 10 degrees. Who to send?
Botzman is an elderly already, the sailors, almost all wounded, he and the mechanic remained. Well, they swam alternately, changing every 5 minutes on the waves of the mine. The heaviest hypothermia was their reward, but the ship was rescued, the mine field passed and exhausted all the stock of smoke stones left the pursuit.
Upon returning to Kronstadt, the entire team was sent to the hospital, whom the wounds were treated and whom heated. The grandfather was then introduced to the star of the Hero, and the mechanic Glory was given.
Grandfather sits in the hospital in a couple of weeks, heats up with alcohol with the head of the hospice. They are earthquakes, they communicate, they tremble for life.
And it offers him a business in Russian to do, said the sailors to cut the barrel, on the return of the grandfather to the ship, and the profit from the sale in half, the sale of the barrel to eat... It was unfortunate for the grandfather, as I understand, in Peter the blockaders to sell the sailors' barrel for a gold, did not endure and went away.
Starting with the tail...
Crying, screaming, shouting, attacking the senior officer, the court... Nothing the grandfather said at the time, neither at the investigation nor at the court.
The star did not give the hero. Officer rank is deprived. He was sent to the penalty company to protect Peter.
After the injury was transferred back to the navy, but already as a sailor. Grandfather ended the war in Königsberg in the rank of chief of staff in 1946. And until the very dembel clearly patch the sailors controlled when receiving and handing out...
I remember you grandfather. Let the earth be yours!