On January 7, 1988, the famous battle of the 9th company of the 345th separate guards parachute regiment (OPDP) took place. He gained particular fame after the release of the film "9th Company" in 2005. The director of the tape, Fyodor Bondarchuk, presented this story as an example of senseless heroism in a war that was not particularly needed by the country. However, in reality, this was not quite the case.
Win to leave
On November 13, 1986, at a regular meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev said: “We have been fighting in Afghanistan for 6 years already. If we don't change our approaches, we will fight for another 20-30 years. And the chief of the General Staff, Marshal S. F. Akhromeev said: “There is not a single military task that has been set, but not solved, but there is no result. We control Kabul and the provincial centers, but we cannot establish power in the occupied territory. We have lost the fight for the Afghan people.”
By this time, the Afghan war had been going on for almost 6 years, but victory was still looming somewhere in an elusive distance. At the same meeting of the Politburo, the goal was formulated - to withdraw all Soviet troops from Afghanistan within the next two years.
For the next year, operations were underway in Afghanistan, the main goal of which was to establish control over the Afghan-Pakistani border, because it was from the territory of the neighboring state that more and more groups of mujahideen infiltrated the country. One of these operations was codenamed "Magistral".
At an unnamed height …
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This major combined arms operation began at the very end of November 1987 and was almost completely completed by the time of the heroic battle. The troops completed their task and unblocked the city of Khost, located a few kilometers from the border with Pakistan. By that time, this center of the province of the same name had been under siege for several years and was subjected to constant attacks by dushmans who dreamed of creating an independent Islamic state there.
To achieve this goal, it was very important to establish control over the Gardez-Khost road (there are not many roads in mountainous areas, in addition: various communications usually stretch along them: communications, electricity, etc.). The military operation developed successfully, detachments of dushmans were thrown back beyond the Jadran ridge, and the first convoys of vehicles with various cargoes moved along the highway to the unblocked Host.
The 9th company of the 345th regiment was tasked with occupying several heights dominating the road and preventing a possible breakthrough by enemy units to the strategic route. One of the important points was the unnamed height at number 3234, which seemed to be an ideal platform for observing and adjusting artillery fire.
First blood
On the eve of the battle, a detachment of "black storks" (according to expert estimates, 250-300 fighters) was delivered by helicopters to a neighboring gorge from Pakistani territory, which was tasked with recapturing an important height.
The first massive shelling of Hill 3234, where 29 paratroopers of the third platoon of the ninth company were stationed, began at about 15:00. A storm of fire fell on the position of the Soviet troops. At a height of 3234, 5 mortars, 3-4 machine guns, numerous small arms and even one recoilless gun worked. A fiery barrage of mines, grenades and shells fell on the heads of the Soviet paratroopers.
The first victim of the first shelling was the radio operator, Private Andrey Fedotov. “When at 16:30 the third battalion announced that the shelling of the 9th company had begun, we did not yet know that this would be our pain and our glory. The shelling became commonplace. But gradually the situation became more alarming and alarming, - the deputy commander of the 345th Guards Regiment of the Guard, Lieutenant Colonel Yuri Mikhailovich Lapshin, will write in his diary. - Strong fire impact from recoilless guns, mortars, small arms, grenade launchers. First report on losses, corporal A. Fedotov dies. An hour later, at dusk, the enemy launched an attack. They move calmly, in full growth. Wearing black hooded jackets. A fierce battle breaks out. Prut, despite the losses and artillery fire."
When dusk fell, the enemy launched an offensive. Despite the losses, return fire and minefields, the spooks, using the complexity of the terrain, got closer and closer to the positions of the paratroopers. After a while, they were able to approach a distance of a couple of hundred meters and, when it got completely dark, they went on the attack.
“The attack was repelled (…). The enemy lost up to 15 people killed, about 30 wounded. In the platoon, junior sergeant Borisov was slightly wounded, but he refused to leave the height, remained in position … - the deputy chief of the political department of the 345th Guards regiment Major Nikolai Alexandrovich Samusev reported later on the course of the battle.
Forty minutes later, the attack of the dushmans drowned, and the enemy retreated.
New victims
At eight o'clock in the evening, a new offensive began on the positions of the Soviet paratroopers. This time, junior sergeant Aleksandrov was at the epicenter of the battle. Opening heavy machine-gun fire, he forced the enemy to lie in cover, allowing his two comrades, Arkady Kopyrin and Sergei Obyedkov, to move to more advantageous and safe positions. Aleksandrov continued to fire until his machine gun, pierced by a bullet, jammed. Then, throwing grenades at the advancing enemy, he, continuing to shoot back, left the shelter. Aleksandrov died only when he reached the positions of his comrades, who, when they took off his bulletproof vest, could not understand for a long time how he managed to stay alive and conscious for so long, because, judging by the nature of his wounds, he was “supposed” to die for a long time. And a little later it turned outthat only six cartridges remained in the horn of his machine gun …
Attacks followed one after another, and each turned into new victims. Another radio operator, Anatoly Kuznetsov, died the death of the brave, who, under heavy enemy fire, did not stop transmitting for a minute, but his last words were: “We are surrounded. I'm leaving to help the guys. Farewell!.
But the spooks also showed fanatical persistence and extraordinary courage. Having approached a distance of only a few meters, they were able to throw grenades at the Soviet paratroopers. It was they who led to new losses among our soldiers. Many participants in the battle were wounded, in addition, two junior sergeants, Vladimir Krishtopenko and Andrei Tsvetkov, were killed.
Waited for reinforcements
The heroism of the soldiers of the 3rd platoon was not in vain. By the time most of the paratroopers were wounded, when the ammunition was running out and the surviving paratroopers were ready to resort to the last way to stop the enemy - to call artillery fire directly on themselves - reinforcements broke through.
This is how Sergeant of the 2nd platoon of the 9th company S. Yu. recalled this moment of the battle. Borisov: “At this most terrible moment, our reconnaissance platoon came to our aid, and we began to pull out the wounded. Private Igor Tikhonenko covered our right flank all 10 hours, conducted aimed fire from a machine gun. Perhaps, thanks to him and Andrey Melnikov, the "spirits" were unable to bypass us on the right side. Only after four o'clock the spirits realized that they could not take this hill.
Taking their wounded and dead, they began to retreat. Then we found a grenade launcher on the battlefield, shots at it in different places and three hand grenades without rings. Apparently, when they tore the rings, the checks remained in the heat. Perhaps the rebels did not have enough literally these three grenades to suppress our resistance. There was a lot of blood everywhere, apparently, they had big losses"
In addition to the reconnaissance group of Rozhkov, 15 soldiers of Senior Lieutenant Smirnov broke through to the aid of the fiercely resisting platoon, and then two more neighboring units. The arrival of reinforcements convinced the Afghans of the futility of their efforts, and, taking all the dead and wounded, they left the battlefield.
A gang of dushmans moves from Pakistan to Afghan territory
PS In total, during this bloody night, the Mujahideen undertook twelve (!) Attacks, and the heroic third platoon of the 9th company held the defense almost continuously for almost 12 hours. It should be added separately that the paratroopers were not left to fend for themselves. The command was continuously monitoring the battle (the situation was reported even personally to the commander of the 40th Army 4, Lieutenant General Gromov), artillery and communications were working well. Of the 39 soldiers of the third platoon, six were killed and 28 were wounded. Junior Sergeant Aleksandrov and Private Melnikov were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and the rest of the soldiers were awarded the Orders of the Battle Red Banner and the Red Star.
Inaccuracies of the film "9th company"
1) The time of action, when the events unfold in the film, are "aged" for a year - not January 1988, as it actually was, but January 1989, shortly before the decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan was made.
2) The time of day is not the night, as in fact, but the day (most likely, due to the fact that the picture turned out to be more advantageous this way).
3) The number of victims - in reality, the losses amounted to 6 out of 39 fighters, and not all, except for one survivor, as in the film.
Obviously, it was the original idea of the film - to show the meaninglessness of the victims of Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan - that determined the venerable director's departure from historical accuracy.
Black storks
"Black storks" - this was the name of the special sabotage units created, as is commonly believed, by the Pakistani special services with the support of the United States from among the Afghan mujahideen and foreign mercenaries.
The overwhelming majority of the fighters there were adherents of fundamentalist Islam. According to a number of sources, Khattab, Hekmatyar and Osama bin Laden passed through these units.
Journal: Forbidden History №12. Author: Ilya Alekseev