Throughout the Second World War there were many acts of bravery which led to people being
awarded some of the highest military honours their countries had.
There was one man named Charles Upham, who won two Victoria crosses for example for his
skill on the battlefield and immense bravery under heavy fire.
In the Red Army there were a number of Soviet women who fought alongside the men after heavy
losses following the early parts of Operation Barbarossa.
Many women were snipers and found themselves thrust into some of the deadliest battles
in History, with them crawling through ruined buildings to take out the German enemy.
But there was one woman who fought for the Red Army on the Stalingrad Front, and she
was a nurse who served the 907th Rifle Regiment.
However, in order to save others from their deaths at the hands of the enemy, she valiantly
decided to take action and sacrificed herself in a brutal and bloody way, blowing up one
of the conflicts most infamous tanks.
Join us today as we look at the story of Valeriya Gnarovskaya, and remember to support our channel
please make sure to subscribe.
Born on the 18th October 19233 into a Russian family who lived in the Region of Petrograd,
Valeriya Gnarovaskaya’s humble beginnings would not necessarily foreshadow her heroic
actions.
Her father was a modest postmaster and her mother was a housekeeper, but in 1924 the
family then moved to the Leningrad region, and Valerie attended primary school there.
The family remained there, and following finishing secondary school she join the local Komsomol,
the communist youth group.
During the conflict, the Komsomol would play an important part in the soviet war effort,
as they performed many of the duties on the home front that were required, for example
working in agriculture to harvest crops and food.
But following this, she then joined a mining institute.
But as the Second World War broke out, it looked unlikely that Stalin and Hitler would
ever find themselves fighting against each other.
The Nazis and the Soviets signed the molotov Ribbentrop pact before which as well as agreeing
how to divide Poland up between them, it stated that the two nations would not go to war with
each other for some time.
But this obviously was not upheld, as the Germans would storm into Soviet lands in July
1941 following the launch of Operation Barbarossa.
The Red Army suffered initially very heavy defeats, and then Stalin would later allow
women to joined the armed forces to fight against the Germans.
But Valeriya’s father was also drafted into the military following Barbarossa and in September
1941 as the approaching German forces pushed on, it put Valeriya’s homeland at the front
line of the war.
Leningrad and the districts surrounding it faced incredibly heavy fighting, and Valeriya’s
homeland was at the forefront of the conflict.
The female members of her family including herself, her mother, sister and grandmother
were then evacuated away to Omsk in Siberia away from danger, and then they travelled
onto another city.
But Valeriya wanted to join up with the Soviet military, and she wanted to take up arms and
fight alongside other soldiers to help defend her homeland.
She and a number of other members of the Komsomol went to a recruiting station on the 10th April
1942, and Valeriya had been rejected a number of times to join the military, but this time
she was allowed to enrol in the 229th Infantry Division and she was then sent to complete
some training as a medic.
But in July 1942, the unit she was part of were sent into the heart of the bloodiest
and deadliest battle of the whole of the Second World War.
She was sent to Stalingrad, and she was tasked with evacuating many of the wounded soldiers
from the battlefield.
She performed her duty very well, and constantly faced heavy fire whilst she was carrying the
injured to safety, and she also was armed with a weapon for close quarters combat and
protection.
On the 26th July enemy forces pushed through the Soviet line of defence and crossed the
Chir River but her unit continued to fight valiantly, and they managed to stop the Axis
forces reaching a key railroad.
But on the 31st July, the unit then launched a counteroffensive against the enemy forces,
and they forced them to retreat behind the river, as the Soviets were backed up by tanks
and air support too.
But the next part of this battle was constantly, and for around 2 weeks there was non-stop
fighting, and Valeriya was constantly forced day and night to carry the wounded back to
hospitals.
However she did get typhoid fever, and she got very sick and was carried to hospital
by her fellow soldiers, and she was then forced to stay in hospital to recover.
She almost succumbed to typhoid fever, but she did manage to recover and she requested
to be sent back to the front.
She served on the 3rd Ukranian front, and during a huge and intense battle between the
15th and 22nd August 1942, she managed to carry around 30 wounded soldiers to safety,
even though she sustained a very bad concussion during this, but after recovering again she
went back to the battlefield.
This injury affected her hearing and she lost her hearing partially because of this, but
her actions on this specific battlefield saved dozens of lives.
But then further fighting took place, with a battle erupting near the river of Severesky
Donets, and here she continued her rescuing.
But amazingly, during this she managed to carry 47 wounded soldiers and senior officers
along with their weapons from the battlefield and she also managed to kill dozens of German
soldiers.
She during this battle personally killed 28 Germans in action, and it’s believed throughout
her time in service with the Red Army that she saved an estimated 338 wounded soldiers,
which was miraclous as she was just a girl of around 18 and 19 when she did this.
However her final battle took place on the 23rd September 1943, and she valiantly gave
her life for the protection of others in a huge and bloody death in which she went out
in a blaze of glory.
Near to the village of Ivanenka, which was later named Gnarovsky after her, she was serving
as part of the 907th Rifle Regiment.
She managed to evacuate the wounded from the frontlines and take them to the hospital tent.
It was also said during this battle that she managed to kill 47 soldiers during this engagement,
however trouble was then on the horizon.
Two German Tiger I tanks were spotted and they broke through defensive lines, and they
were heading straight for the medical station.
But upon seeing the enemy tanks heading for the wounded, assuringly to take out the soviet
aid station killing nurses, doctors and also wounded people, Valeriya decided to act.
She grabbed a satchel which was filled with grenades, and then with them in her arm she
ran towards the tanks.
Without a seconds hesitation she then threw herself under the tank, and then detonated
them, which blew herself to pieces.
However the damage to the tanks was colossal, as she managed to blew up also one Tiger I
tank completely, and then the Soviet soldiers nearby seeing this managed to attack the other
which was distracted, and overwhelm it quickly taking it out.
So the two tiger tanks had been stopped, at the cost of Valeriya Gnarovskaya’s life,
and with this heroic action she undoubtedly saved many more.
The German attack was sent back, and the mission was a success for the soviets.
Following the battle, the villagers inside the settlement hearing of her heroism then
went back to find parts of her body, and they gathered up what they could and buried her.
A year later she was given a reburial with full military honours, and on the 3rd June
1944 she was awarded the title of the ‘Hero of the Soviet Union,’ and as mentioned the
village where she died was renamed after her.
In her service in the Red Army, she rescued hundreds of wounded soldiers so they could
get the treatment they needed and ultimately she was just a teenage girl at the time.
Valeriya was not phased by the brutality of Stalingrad and the Eastern Front, she just
wanted to rescue as many wounded people as she could, and she wanted to do her bit for
Stalin’s war effort.
She was 19 when armed with a sack of grenades she ran towards the Tiger Tank to save others,
and her achievements during the Second World War saved many lives.
But ultimately she was the brave and heroic girl who sacrificed herself to save others.
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