By the will of fate, in the fall of 1941, my grandfather found himself in the area of the main attack of the 2nd field and 2nd tank group of Guderian along the Bakhmach - Romny line. Seven kilometers from the village of Krasny Kolyadyn, at the Rubanka station, carriages with military equipment, soap, sugar, and grain were burning. Despite this terrible time, my grandfather Fyodor, succumbing to temptation, harnessed the horse to the cart, for greater impressiveness he put on an old two-horned German helmet (his personal trophy from the German war) and put on his three St. George's crosses over his quilted jacket. Putting me down next to him, he moved to the station to meet a column of German tanks, vehicles, and infantry. We looked ridiculous, and the Germans did not touch us, pointed at us, laughed, and one on the cart wrote "Rus Panzer" in chalk. Having loaded the cart at the station with fused soap and slag, they returned. It was about 4 pm, two hours passed after the rain,the weather was calm.
Before reaching the fork in the road Rubanka - Deptovka - Krasny Kolyadyn, the column of German troops stopped. The Germans, pouring out of tanks and vehicles, looked towards the Swedish mound, where, according to legend, the Swedes who died in the war of 1709 were buried. This mound was 150-200 meters from the road fork. Above him, at a height of 50-100 meters, hung a bright white fireball resembling a huge pumpkin with a diameter of 20-30 meters. There was an unusual silence, the engines of tanks and vehicles were not working. No one even tried to shoot at the unusual object, everyone was stunned by what they saw.
The huge ball rotated slowly, "hissed" and "crackled", sparked a little. After 3-4 minutes, two or three drops fell to the ground from it, large, light, with splashes of sparks (just like the molten metal falls during welding). The ball went up rapidly, leaving behind two bluish-green rings at the zenith. Nobody went to the mound, the Germans moved on, leaving two covered cars and a dozen soldiers near the mound. My grandfather and I, shocked by what we saw, drove further into the village. My grandmother, having heard this story from us, went to tell the priest about the "heavenly sign."
Five days later, a drunken policeman came to us and said that General Model, the commander of the 3rd German motorized division, had visited the Swedish mound. The Germans, taking two buckets of earth from the mound, removed the guard.
My grandfather and I also went to this mound, we saw burnt-out grass there in a circle of 20-30 meters, and in the center a barrel from a heavy machine gun hammered into the ground by the Germans. After the war, a triggering sign was installed at this place, which still stands today.
Such an incomprehensible, amazing phenomenon, sunk into my soul since childhood, prompted me to a thorough interest in this completely new science.