Branch of the service: Ground Forces, Air Force (except naval aviation), coastal service, NKVD troops, border troops. My family also has its own defender who bravely fought for the entire Russian people during the Great Patriotic War - my great-grandfather Ignatenko Pyotr Semenovich. During the outbreak of the war, he served in the army, and his regiment was sent to the front from the very first days. Grandpa Petya fought valiantly. Near Voronezh, during one of the Nazi offensives in 1942, he was seriously wounded, and already in an unconscious state was captured by the Nazis. From that moment began his long and difficult path of a captured Soviet soldier. He visited several concentration camps and miraculously survived. The last camp was on the territory of West Germany, which was liberated by the offensive of American troops in 1945. US soldiers admired the heroism of the Soviet fighters. They organized a hospital for former prisoners of war, in which they restored the health of former concentration camp prisoners, among whom was my great-grandfather. The Americans began to agitate our soldiers not to return to the USSR, offered them to go to the United States, promising large financial assistance and intimidating them that in the USSR they would be shot as former prisoners of war by the Germans. But my grandfather did not believe a single word of theirs and dreamed only of returning home as soon as possible and seeing his relatives and friends. After the victory, he was discharged from the hospital and transferred to the Soviet troops. When he was demobilized from the army, he was offered to work at an aluminum plant in Stalinsk, Kemerovo region, and until his retirement he worked in the field of metallurgy. My grandfather was awarded many military medals and awards, the most expensive of which for him was the medal "For Courage"; in peacetime he was awarded the title of "Honorary Metallurgist".