User:Kawinksy/sandbox

On the morning of 19 August, the vanguard of the German 8th Panzer Division approached the outskirts of Krasnogvardeysk and ventured directly into a strongly fortified position blocking access to Leningrad. A deployed platoon of five KV-1 tanks under Lieutenant Zinoviy G. Kolobanov, which were the ‘ekranami’ model with extra 35mm thick armour plates welded on the turret, waited hull-down in ambush along the route that the 8.Panzer-Division was heading.

Once in range, Kolobanov’s five KV-1s opened fire and engaged the leading elements of the Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 59 (reconnaissance battalion) and quickly destroyed an assortment of armoured cars, half tracks and wheeled vehicles. The Panzerjäger-Abteilung 43 close by, tried to deploy its 3.7cm and 5cm Pak into firing positions, but got pinned down by the tank's coax machine gun barrage and high explosive rounds. Eventually the 3.Panzer Regiment 10 managed to get a company or more into action, but the puny guns of the Pz.38(t) and Pz.IV could not defeat Kolobanov’s platoon. Kolobanov’s tank was hit repeatedly, with the sights getting demolished and his turret jammed, althought without being knocked out. He only broke off the action after firing his entire basic load of ninety-eight rounds. The Soviets claimed to have destroyed 42 German tanks, including 22 by Kolobanov himself, without a single KV-1 being lost. However, the kill claims were exaggerated by counting every AFV as a tank, and there was little doubt that General Erich Brandenberger took another bloody nose in the ‘shoot ‘n scoot’ ambush tactics against well-prepared Soviets. The KV certainly demonstrated that it was an excellent tank in the defensive and fortified position.

The battle for Krasnogvardeysk was also covered up by Soviet propaganda. A monument dedicated to this battle was installed in the village of Noviy Uchkhoz in 1980, at the place where Kolobanov's KV-1 was dug in, due solely to the demands of the villagers. Unfortunately it was impossible to find a KV-1 tank, so an IS-2 heavy tank was installed there instead.

Some KVs remained in service right up to the end of the war, although in greatly diminishing numbers as they wore out or were knocked out. The 260th Guards Heavy Breakthrough Tank Regiment, based on the Leningrad front, operated a number of 1941-vintage KV-1s at least as late as the summer of 1944 before re-equipping with IS-2s. A regiment of KVs saw service in Manchuria in August 1945, and a few KV-85s were used in Crimea in the summer of 1944. The Finnish forces had two KV-1s, nicknamed Klimi, a Model 1940 and Model 1941, both of which received minor upgrades in their service, and both of which survived the war.

Persondata for Zinoviy Kolobanov

Lieutenant Kolobanov was awarded the Order of Lenin, while his driver Usov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Later on, former Captain Zinoviy Kolobanov was again decorated by Soviet authorities, despite having been convicted and downgraded after the Winter War for "fraternizing with the enemy." After the end of World War II, Lieutenant Kolobanov served in the Soviet occupation zone in East Germany[citation needed], where he was convicted again when a subordinate escaped to the British occupation zone, and was transferred to the reserves