The history of the combat use of animals goes back many centuries - from Hannibal's elephants to incendiary bats that were tested in the United States. One of the most outstanding feats the four-legged fighters performed in the summer of 1941, holding back the German offensive south of Kiev near the village of Legedzino.
The alignment of forces
Throughout July, Soviet troops in Ukraine retreated under the pressure of the Wehrmacht. Together with the rest of the Southwestern Front, fighters from the separate Kolomyi border commandant's office of the NKVD, who until the start of the war, guarded the state border in Ivano-Frankivsk region, also moved east.
At the end of July, border guards and their service dogs were in the village of Legedzino near Uman, Cherkasy region. In these places, known as the Green Brahma, heavy fighting took place. On July 30, the Russians learned that the enemy, closing the encirclement, was planning to attack the headquarters of the 8th Rifle Corps.
Among the defenders of the headquarters was the Separate Special Purpose Battalion under the command of Major Filippov. It was formed from the personnel of the service dog breeding school of the border troops of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR, based in Kolomyia, as well as from the remnants of border outposts.
The dogs, under the supervision of 25 guides, were placed in a grove at the edge of a wheat field. The command did not pin any particular hopes on this unit, especially since at the decisive moment it was actually "beheaded" - the head of the district school of service dog breeding, Captain Kozlov, and other leaders were recalled to Kiev. Senior Lieutenant Ermakov remained in charge.
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The fight
The Nazis launched a massive attack on Legedzino on the morning of July 31. In this direction, 2 infantry battalions of the Germans (about 2 thousand people) were thrown with the support of tanks and motorcyclists. For 14 hours, while the fight lasted, the dogs sitting in the grove did not receive food, but they behaved absolutely calmly and did not even give a voice, despite the sounds of explosions and machine gun fire that frightened them.
When the forces of the defenders of the headquarters were almost exhausted, and the Germans were already at a distance of several tens of meters, the battalion commander Filippov ordered Ermakov to release about 150 dogs at once. Hearing the command, the dogs rushed across the field at breakneck speed and attacked the Fritzes.
For the enemy, exhausted by the long battle, the "dog attack" came as a complete surprise. Seeing the grinning mouths, the Nazis first wavered, and then turned around and fled, leaving the conquered positions.
“The shepherd dogs responded to the fascist anger with their canine anger. In a few seconds, the situation on the battlefield changed dramatically in our favor,”Alexander Fuki, the former commander of the border company of the Kolomyia commandant's office, described these events.
The surroundings were filled with barking dogs and the sounds of explosions - trying to save their own, the Germans sent mortar fire at the men and dogs pursuing them. Wehrmacht soldiers fought back from the Soviet dogs with bayonets and rifle butts.
The fate of friends
In the battle at Legedzino, 500 border guards were killed. There were also many killed and wounded among the dogs. A significant part of the four-legged in the confusion was confused and fled to the surrounding forests.
After a while, the Red Army nevertheless retreated, but among the inhabitants of Legedzino, the memory of the battle remained for a long time, and local boys, even during the occupation, proudly wore the green caps of the dead border guards.
Meanwhile, the dogs of the Kolomyia commandant's office in the vicinity of the village gradually became wild. However, packs of shepherd dogs for a long time distinguished "their" from "strangers".
“Sometimes you walk or go in our soldier's clothes - nothing, but as soon as you notice a man in German clothes, they will be persecuted until they are bitten,” one of the local residents recalled.
A story was passed from mouth to mouth that once border dogs saved a 15-year-old girl from rape, who was attracted by four fascists on the road near the forest. It is not surprising that the villagers tried, whenever possible, to feed the four-legged defenders.
On May 9, 2003, a monument to the service dogs and border guards who died in that battle was unveiled in Legedzino.
Timur Sagdiev
