Demin Ivan Kornilovich_x000D_ _x000D_ Rank: Sergeant Branch of the armed forces: coastal defense and air defense Artillery, coastal units, aviation of the red army AND Marine forces border guard of the NKVD Division: 4th anti-aircraft artillery of the lower Dniester order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky division great-Grandfather was called up in 1942. He fought in the 40th Guards division of the anti-aircraft battery. participant of the battle of Stalingrad, blocked the crossing of the Volga. He recalled that " ... from morning to evening and even at night, the Germans bombed the city on the Russian river. Soviet troops suffered heavy losses. Soon we were taken to the rear for replenishment, and then transferred to the don front. At Kletskaya station we were expected to have heavy fighting, but we also pretty battered the Germans and stood on the defensive. Did not retreat, stood to the death before the order to attack. And on November 19, 1942, our troops went on the offensive. The fire of our guns destroyed manpower and equipment in enemy defense positions. The encirclement of the German-fascist troops began. A radical change in the war has come. Already as part of the 3rd shock army, his regiment liberated the Donbass. The fighting was heavy, with heavy losses, and only 12 of our 76-man brigade remained. Do not forget the heavy fighting for Dmitrievka, the city of Shakhty. Everywhere could be seen traces of the atrocities of the Nazis. The shafts were filled to the top with the corpses of Soviet civilians. During the liberation of Zaporozhye, we were expected to fight hard. Our brigade liberated Nikolaev, Odessa, and Crimea. Participated in the encirclement of the Yassl-Kishenev group. He also liberated cities in European countries. At Warsaw, we broke through the deep-echeloned defense and crossed the German border. They suffered heavy losses. They buried their front-line comrades. Our beloved regimental commander, Lieutenant Colonel Sazonov, died here. I reached the Oder. We took the city of Kyustrin. The Germans, fleeing, did not even stop the military plant. The machines were working, but there were no people. He took part in the storming of Berlin, led street battles in Karlhost, knocked out the remnants of the Germans after the surrender of the Berlin garrison. German soldiers not wanting to surrender, hiding in warehouses and factories, hiding under the manholes of the sewers. On the night of may 7 to 8, we sheathed the guns. How much joy and shouts of "Hurrah!" were at the news of the capitulation of the fascists! I was lucky enough to be in the security of the building where the act of unconditional surrender was signed. That's how the war ended for me. And today I can't help remembering all the horrors of war. I will not forget those who were drowned by the Nazis on barges in Odessa, who were burned in the furnaces of the Polish Treblinka concentration camp. I remember the burned villages and cities and the moments that separated me from death, and my dead commander, and the tears of widows and children. I remember everything, and I want peace more than anything else, so that what our generation has experienced will never happen again.»