Alexander Marchenko: biography, feat

Many heroes can be recalled when speaking of the Great Patriotic War. One of these people is Alexander Marchenko, whose biography is extremely entertaining. He was in the period of battles in the number of the sixty-third tank brigade, which had moved to the front from Chelyabinsk.

Biography

Alexander Porfirievich was born in the family of an ordinary mason in a small town called Glukhov. He graduated from seven classes of the school, and then became a student of the Cherkasy Technical School of Road Construction. Then work on the specialty, the army, from where he was dismissed to the reserve and again carried out work for the good of the country. When the war was declared, Marchenko Alexander was in Lviv and was engaged in the inventory of local railways.

Immediately, when the realization came that the motherland was in danger, Alexander expressed a desire to fight, but the military enlistment office rejected the application. The reason was simple: his profile specialists were needed to work in the rear. Marchenko was evacuated to the territory of the Southern Urals, to a city called Magnitogorsk, where he was to design strategically important railroads for exporting equipment and specialists from the most important enterprises in Central Russia to the interior of the country. It was during this period that Alexander Marchenko realizes his first feat: together with a friend he rescues a young child who fell through the ice.

Military career

All this time, Alexander Porfirievich did not leave the idea that he must be at this time on the battlefields, and not sit quietly in his office and work with drafts. Just in 1898, the thirtieth Volunteer Corps, consisting of Chelyabinsk workers, began its existence. In order to get into his ranks, Marchenko specially studied the specialty of the radio telegraph-machine gunner. And this time the military registration and enlistment office could not refuse, and even the front needed fighters. Alexander Marchenko is in the sixty-third tank brigade.

In it among the fighters there was an interesting tradition: to give machines patriotic names. For example, the tanks were called "Avenger", "Volunteer", "For Motherland" and so on. Marchenko happened to serve in the crew of the tank called "Merciless". For the first time on it, he fought in a terrible battle under the Kursk arc, and then defended the lines under the Dnieper, Zhytomyr, Kamenets-Podolsky. Many victories won the tank with the sonorous name "Merciless".

On the exploits

One day one of Marchenko's friends, Mordvintsev, who served as a sergeant, was wounded in battle and, accordingly, fired from his service. Hardly a little recovered, Mordvintsev entered the university in Kiev. The city at that time was already released, but life was still very difficult, the war did not abate. It is necessary to pay tribute to the sergeant, he never complained of his being in the messages to his comrades in the service. But, anyway, realizing how difficult it is for him, Marchenko beat his colleagues to collect the feasible amount and send it to Mordvintsev. He was extremely grateful, and after the war he successfully graduated from university and even received a degree.

All the memories of Alexander Porfirievich, which have survived from the wartime, are entirely of a positive nature. Even the command was amazed at how authoritative, we love colleagues Alexander Marchenko - a tankman by vocation. His appearance was manly, he always knew how to keep a calm expression, even in a very difficult time.

There was another entertaining incident in the biography of this man. Near Lviv, he was able to penetrate directly into the burning Soviet tank, cope with the fire, take the car out from under fire, save the crew, and then a few more people literally on their shoulders to drag from the battlefield to the medical unit. It is not at all surprising that this man had many awards, for example, the medal "For Courage", and also Marchenko is a Knight of the Order of the Red Star.

Taking of Lviv

The most difficult operation in the life of Alexander Marchenko was the capture of Lviv. The difficulty was that there could be no support from the air, the command strictly prohibited the destruction and spoilage of the old unique architecture of the city. And the tankmen needed the most experienced, knowledgeable city. Alexander Marchenko (photo - below) in all respects approached, moreover, at that time he already wore an officer's rank and established himself among his colleagues as a very responsible person.

The last battle

The crew of the "Guard" tank, in which Alexander Marchenko was listed, was given the task to get to the city center, and it was Marchenko who had to hoist the red Soviet banner over the Lviv city hall.

The task was formulated clearly, but only to achieve it seemed to be impossible. Several tanks that went ahead, had already suffered a fiasco, and the crews of these vehicles were taken to the headquarters with severe injuries.

For as long as two days, the Guard was getting to the town hall, being in a shootout with German cars. Weary, understanding that constantly in danger, Marchenko and his colleagues reached their goal. Then there are two versions of what happened.

According to the first assumption, Marchenko was mortally wounded when he hoisted a red flag over the square. The second version is registered directly in the award sheet of the hero and says that Alexander Marchenko took command of the tank after the commander's death on himself, having entered into an unequal battle with the enemy. And when absolutely all of his comrades fell in with him, he continued the battle alone. It's hard to believe, but more than fifty people of experienced German soldiers were killed, who had instructions to take him alive. But still, when Marchenko tried to cross the open space of the square and get to the rescue, he was shot down by a machine gun, from the injuries Alexander died on the spot.

Regalia

Alexandra Marchenko was never introduced to the list of Heroes of the Soviet Union, for lack of good reasons, because there were no exact confirmations of what exactly this person did. But the descendants remember the exploits of this man, the Chelyabinsk people are proud of his name. In the city there is a street Marchenko. And in Ukraine every schoolboy knows who Marchenko Alexander Porfirievich is, since this worthy person is listed in honorary citizens of the city of Lviv.