In the Moscow region near Volokolamsk, near 114 km of the Volokolamsk highway, there is a village called Strokovo. On November 18, 1941, 11 sappers under the command of second Lieutenant P.I.Firstov and the political officer A.M.Pavlov held their line of defense here, repelling the attacks of 20 advancing tanks and an infantry battalion. 7 tanks and many fascists were destroyed. The battle lasted for several hours. The entire platoon was killed, but the time gained allowed the rest of the regiment's forces to gain a foothold on the new defensive line. The platoon commander, Second Lieutenant Firstov, was 25 years old.
The Wehrmacht command tried to take Moscow in a pincer movement, in order to close the encirclement. In the most important, western sector, four German divisions fought against one 316th Infantry Division of Major General Ivan Vasilyevich Panfilov - the 35th Infantry Division, the 2nd, 5th and 11th tank divisions, which were sent to break through the front. The forces were unequal, Panfilov's division was retreating, but the Germans fought their way forward with great difficulty.
After the heavy October fighting, in mid-November, the Nazis resumed their offensive, which was stopped at the 42nd kilometer of the Volokolamsk highway, with the help of reinforcements, and from here, in early December 1941, the Red Army launched its counteroffensive. The commander of one of the German tank divisions, Erich Hoepner, justified his defeat by saying that the Soviet soldiers who opposed his detachments fought "in violation of all regulations and rules of engagement," did not surrender and were not afraid of death. The sappers who died near Strokovo were buried in a mass grave on the outskirts of the village. They were all posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin. "This is the only time in the Great Patriotic War when an entire sapper platoon was awarded such high government awards."..
On October 31, 1981, to mark the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow, an Explosion monument was erected at the site of their feat. The author of the project is architect A.A. Veselovsky. The composition is unusual and attracts attention, as it reproduces the moment of the battle – a German self-propelled artillery installation is blown up on a mine near the trench, the explosion flashes upward, transmitted by volumetric beams of sparkling stainless steel. The Shtug III self-propelled gun is genuine.
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