1970-01-01
Komsomol Gataulla Salikhov is a young fighter, he has just turned 19 years old. He joined the ranks of the Red Army 1 year ago. This young Tatar left his beloved collective farm near Urganch, Khorezm Oblast, Uzbek SSR, and went to the front to protect cotton fields and blooming vineyards from the evil locust-German oppressors. Hardworking and active red soldier soon became a youth commander. Sergeant Gataulla Salikhov commanded the rifle division during the summer offensive of the Soviet troops on the Oryol side. Lieutenant Chirkov, commander of Salikhov with three orders, evaluates the brave warrior as follows: Salikhov is like fire on the battlefield. I have seen a lot of fearless people, but there are few brave heroes like him. Salikhov is always looking for where the enemy is. He is not afraid of death. It is rightly said that the hero is afraid of the bullet itself. Salikhov bravely walked through the terrible fire and led the warriors from his side. Despite the danger from all sides, he remained healthy and won over the enemy. In one place, the advance of our division was hindered by a steel dot. German machine gunners were killing and protecting the roads leading to this place in the trenches with roads extending from all sides to his reserved cap. The fascists called these "tight krabs". Gataulla Salikhov tried to destroy the reserved firing point of the Germans. Despite the constant fire of the enemy, the sergeant boldly crept up to the dot from the rear and, approaching him, threw a hand grenade into his mouth. An explosion was heard from inside the box, and the German machine gun immediately stopped. Our fighters took advantage of this and started running forward. The brave sergeant's personal combat report recorded several enemy firing points destroyed. One day, Salikhov took a rifle in his hand and began to fight alone with a German machine gun. He crawled in front of the machine gun and shot the Nazi machine gunner. In this battle, the commander of the division, who was wounded in the leg, did not leave the ranks and reached Oryol with the battle. During the street fighting, Salikhov was the first to enter the city. During the battle, Gataulla showed himself not only as a brave warrior, but also as an experienced and brave young commander. He said the following about the battles fought by his unit: Our company was assigned the task of occupying a railway section of great importance. This section was defended by more than one company of Germans. They had a number of machine guns, mortars and cannons. Fire was being opened from all of them and it would not give our company a chance to reach this place. At that moment, I received an order to cross the railway with my unit and attack the Germans from the rear. We moved forward, but all these places are open fields, the Germans saw us. One mine went off, followed by another. One mine exploded right next to us. I quickly got out of the grass and ordered to go forward. We did it so fast that the Germans lost sight of us. As for me, I am watching their finish line. I wrote it down in detail on a piece of paper and sent it to the company commander. Soon, our artillery and mortars began to attack the enemy's goal. I saw that a German cannon was scattered in all directions from a grenade explosion. 2 machine guns on the left side of the Germans were also out of order. The enemy fire slowed and I decided to continue our advance. I ordered the warriors Rakhmatullaev and Loparev to check the place. A German machine gun started firing at them on the railway. Seeing the machine gun where it was, I ordered the machine gun corporal Abdullaev to silence the German. Abdullaev could not destroy the German machine gunners, but forced them to change their positions. At that moment, Loparev and Rakhmatullaev moved to the other side of the railway, I brought my unit closer to the railway and as soon as my fighters who left before gave the signal, I ordered the unit to cross the railway . Machine gunner Corporal Abdullaev was the first to pass with a machine gun, followed by Umarov. They quickly crawled to the right and opened fire towards the place where the Germans were concentrated. This maneuver, which the division made boldly, scattered the defense of the Germans. They started firing at an irregular rate. Ignoring him, we crawled through the fields planted with yams, descended into the ravine and walked along the ravine towards the station. I decided to approach the station and open fire. When I was 150 meters away from the station, I inspected the objects and decided to open fire.
