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p Late February 1943  [122•* 

p We defenders of Volchansk died a brave death on this spot. There were four of us: Kozodub V., Bondarenko V., Sinin, Kiparenko T. Serg.

1943. Get the note to the airfield.

Note of the four defenders of Volchansk

p In the summer of 1959, a local man from the town of Volchansk, near Kharkov in the Ukraine, N. Akulichev, spotted the tip of a metal canister peeping out of the sand on the site of what used to be an airfield. After digging it out, he noticed a number of openings on its 123 sides and in one of them a length of vinyl insulation with the word “Note” faintly scribbled on it. Inside lay a neatly folded slip of cigarette paper bearing in ink the last words and surnames of four men who fought and died defending Volchansk in 1943.

p After the Soviet drive on Kharkov between February 2 and 16, 1943, the nazi High Command desperately tried to retake the initiative and avenge their recent defeats. They brought up over thirty divisions from the Western front and in late February undertook a counterdrive in the Donbas-Kharkov area. With these reinforcements the Germans pushed the Soviet troops back across the North Donets River. By the end of the month Soviet forces had to quit Kharkov, too, after a round of heavy fighting.

The enemy was not given a chance to surround the Soviet troops in the vicinity of Kharkov and take revenge for the defeat in the Battle of the Volga. It was probably about this time that the Volchansk defenders, beating off enemy tank attacks, wrote their note.