Village of Verkh-Kamyshenka, Sorokinsky District, Altay Region_x000D_ Branch of service: Army, Air Force (except for Naval Aviation), Coast Guard, NKVD troops, Border Guards._x000D_ My great-grandfather, Alexey lotnikov was born on March 28, 1910 in the village of Verkh-Kamyshenka in the Sorokinsky District of the Altai Region. He went to primary school and worked for a collective farm. He went to the front in September 1941, after completing a driver's course in Barnaul. He got to the 1st Baltic Front._x000D_ On the site" Feat of the people" I found the order #18/n from: 01.11.1944 Medal For Courage “to award the rifleman of the 5th Rifle Company Guards Private Plotnikov Alexey for the fact that in the battles near the village of Morphogtay 12.10.44, weth the fire of his sub-machine gun, showing courage and bravery, destroyed 7 German soldiers and officers."_x000D_ My grandfather was seriously wounded in October 1944, and spent a long time in a hospital. It was not until January 1945 that he returned home. At home, he worked honestly for the collective farm all his life. He was awarded the medal Veteran of Labor, that was probably not easier than to get any military award._x000D_ There is only one of his front-line photos is kept in the family. One where the great-grandfather is a rifleman of the 33rd Regiment of the 84th Guards Division of the 1st Baltic Front (in the center). Perhaps someone would recognize their relatives from the photos in the album?_x000D_ Unfortunately, I didn't know my grandfather personally - he died when my mother was 11 years old. My mother remembers him talking about the war. How terrible it was at Stalingrad - the water in the Volga River was red with blood, how they dragged guns on themselves, how they fell under German bullets and under their own. And my grandmother remembers his stories about the liberation of Sevastopol - all night the soldiers stood in the waters of Sivash under the bursts of enemy bullets and shells. It's a pity that I don't know much about his battle path. Only a few documents tell us where he shed his blood - Stalingrad, Sevastopol, Leningrad._x000D_ And in the family album with black-and-white photos, grandfather Alexey looks tired, kind and definitely our own, although familiar only from stories. It is terrible to imagine what he saw at that time. Thank you for the clear sky above, grandpa. Thank you for life. We know, we remember, we are proud!