DATE OF BIRTH: 01.01.1915 DATE OF DEATH: - HISTORY: Title: Captain. Vasily Andreevich Andreev was drafted into the army in October 1936. He served in Kingisepp after graduating from the regimental school in Strelna. The service continued until December 1938, when the demobilization took place. Since 1939, Vasily Andreevich studied at the Tank-Technical School. The program was intense, 10-12 hours of classes every day. While he was studying, the school was reorganized into an automobile school. In April 1941, a forced release took place. Vasily Andreevich was sent to Novgorod Volynsky, where he formed a reconnaissance company, then ended up in the 35th auto regiment. Novgorod-Volynsky seemed to Vasily Andreevich to be a complete backwater, where even local girls came to dances barefoot. He slept through the beginning of the war as a messenger has not yet been assigned to him. Arriving in the morning in the officers' mess, he was surprised that there were very few people there. It was then that he was told that the war had begun. The regiment was disbanded, and Vasily Andreevich ended up in the reserve, from which he was transferred to tank units - the 90th tank brigade. Then - the 41st Guards Tank Brigade, which fought on the Kharkov-Stalingrad direction. The most striking episodes of this period of the war were described by Vasily Andreevich during his last visit to Leningrad, already in the midst of perestroika. They refer to the final stage of the Battle of Stalingrad. In particular, he spoke about how he was removed from the command of a tank company due to the fact that Vasily Andreyevich ordered to charge the batteries, and did not send the company to the cinema. For this he was exiled to the Observation Point, but soon (after a few hours) he was rehabilitated due to the fact that the new commander was killed during the battle for the height. The company left the battle without a commander. They had to enter the battle on another, not quite serviceable tank, which was soon knocked out, and Vasily Andreyevich himself was wounded. After that, he was summoned to a special department, interrogated, but rehabilitated. Again ordered to lead the company to the attack. Interacting with 4 medium tanks, it was necessary to take the height. Vasily Andreevich had a heavy tank, with this in mind, the medium tanks kept a little behind, but the height was taken. The episode at the Voroponovo station near Stalingrad was remembered by Vasily Andreyevich for the trophy stew. In the area of ​​this station there was an airfield and a large concentration of German cars. We made some stew at the dugouts. Vasily Andreevich sent his radio operator to the brigade on the Stalin car-making plant-5. They destroyed a convoy of German cars, first knocking out the first and last cars. The station was taken, but then left by order. They refused lunch, taking only bread. We ate stew. At the final stage of the struggle for Stalingrad, 11 tanks were restored and buried in the direction from which Manstein was expected to attack (to break through to Paulus). However, Manstein did not reach here, he was smashed at a decent distance from them. On January 27, 1943, during the battle for the village of Peschanka, Vasily Andreyevich's tank was hit, but it was not hopeless for the vehicle itself. The shell damaged the wiring, causing the tank to lose speed. The crew that got out of the car came under fire. Vasily Andreevich was severely cut with shrapnel in his legs. After this serious injury, Vasily Andreyevich was sent to the Ulyanovsk Tank School for health reasons, where he served until 1945. And on January 31, Field Marshal Paulus and all his generals surrendered. For his services at different stages of the first half of the Great Patriotic War, Vasily Andreevich was awarded the Order of the Red Star and the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree.