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p February 9, 1943

p Dying, but not a step back. Vow with my own blood.

Serg. Kagamlyk

Grigory Kagamlyk, born in the Ukraine in 1923, was commander of an anti-tank gun section of the 3rd Company of the 47th Infrantry Regiment, 15th Sivash Infrantry Division.

Y.C.L. card of Grigory Kagamlyk

p It was the second year of the war on the Soviet territory. The Soviet Army, having gained the initiative in the battle on the Volga, 121 continued its westward drive. At the end of January and the beginning of February, 1943, Soviet troops on the Voronezh and Bryansk fronts routed a 125,000-strong contingent of enemy troops consisting of eleven German and two Hungarian infantry divisions and liberated Voronezh, Kursk and Belgorod.

p On February 9, the Soviet advance cleared the Germans out of the village of Nikolsk in the neighbourhood of Kursk. The foe was determined to regain this crucial point, and Sergeant Kagamlyk and his anti-tank section were given the job of covering the right flank which spelled most danger. Enemy tanks with submachine-gunners trailing them bore down on the Soviet trenches. In the ferocious encounter that ensued Sergeant Kagamlyk was wounded three times. Despite an attempt to carry him back behind the lines, he stayed at his post and continued fighting. In a breather between attacks the sergeant, rapidly losing blood, jotted down a few words on his Y.C.L. card.

He was finally struck down by a bullet, but his resolve and fearlessness inspired his men, and they beat back the enemy. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and his name was put on his regiment’s roll of honour.

Grigory Kagamlyk, Hero of the Soviet Union