OMSBON - Independent Special Purpose Motorized Brigade

From the spring of 1942, the brigade's operations began to be conducted in a more systematic manner, taking in significant territory.Strikes against enemy communications grew in scope. Thus, from 28 March to 10 May 1942, 7 OMSBON detachments totaling 259 men operating on the railroads Dorogobuzh to Smolensk, Smolensk to Vitebsk, and Smolensk to Orsha, planted 70 mines, destroyed the road bed in 18 places, blew up 3 bridges, derailed 11 trains, and interrupted rail movement for 20 days. Highly praising these actions, the commander of Western Front, G. K. Zhukov, gave the brigade headquarters new missions: strikes against a number of rail lines, an assessment of the enemy strength approaching the Western Front along them, and reconnaissance of enemy forces between Minsk, Bobruysk, Vitebsk, and Gomel'. The detachments of S. A. Vaupshasov, A. M. Rabtsevich, P. G. Shemyakin, A. P. Shestakov, A. N. Shikov, S. A. Kaminskiy, and N. D. Matveyev accomplished these tasks.

OMSBON participated in the most significant partisan operations of 1943–44. Among them, a special place is occupied by the «rails war» of 1943, when almost all strategically important enemy rail lines in Byelorussia and northern Ukraine were put out of action on the eve of the Kursk battle. In a number of areas, this was accompanied by the destruction of fascist garrisons. Thus, Ye. I. Mirkovskiy's detachment, having destroyed enemy forces at the Radcha station (Chernigov-Ovruch line), then destroyed the station and a section of the tracks. The detachments of S. A. Kaminskiy, N. D. Matveyev, and A. N. Shikhov achieved identical successes, destroying the railroad hubs of Gomel' and Unecha. After this, front commander K. K. Rokossovskiy requested that the People's Commissariat for State Security of the USSR «give further help to the Byelorussian Front by sending your sabotage-reconnaissance detachments into the enemy rear for interdiction of the transportation net and destruction of main rail lines of communication.» And the detachments of A. N. Shikhov (second time), D. I. Kuznetsov, and D. P. Raspopov, which aided the front in 1944 during the conduct of Operation Bagration, were quickly sent.Subsequently, K. K. Rokossovskiy characterized the actions of A. P. Shestakov's detachment in this way: «It was based in the area of the Bryansk-Gomel' rail line, and for an extended period of time terrorized the Germans in this sector and reported valuable information to us.» G. K. Zhukov gave high praise to the actions of V. A. Karasev's detachment.

The experience of the «rails war» was utilized in the summer of 1944. At night on 19–20 June, partisans put most of the rail lines in Byelorussia out of action. OMSBON demolition men from the detachments of M. S. Prudnikov, A. P. Shestakov, I. F. Zolotar, S. A. Vaupshasov, A. N. Shikov, D. I. Kuznetsov, D. P. Raspopov, F. F. Ozmitel', and B. L. Galushkin participated in this operation on the rail lines Baranovichi to Minsk to Borisov, Minsk to Osipovichi to Bobruysk, Brest to Baranovichi, Brest to Pinsk, and Polotsk to Vitebsk. Underground groups created by the Gradov detachment in Byelorussian cities committed fifty-two large-scale acts of sabotage. In the period from January to July 1944, the detachment Elusive derailed 103 trains, blew up 10 bridges, and killed as many as 5,000 Germans. We mention just one fact from the actions of the brigade's agents. P. G. Lopatim's detachment, while assisting the underground in early summer 1943, captured K. Krug, a member of the intelligence section of the staff of the air forces of Army Group Center. This officer gave information about the plan of the fascist offensive in the area of the Orel-Kursk bulge, and the location of thirty-two forward area airfields and radio stations that controlled the bomber flights. The soldiers of this same detachment shot down an airplane, in which a personal representative of Hitler was flying to the front line with orders for this very operation.

The OMSBON men shared all the hardships and deprivations of forest existence along with the partisans: hunger, cold, encirclement, bombardment, and sickness. Many of them became ill with typhus, suffered from swamp eczema, and were frostbitten right up to gangrene of the extremities. There were not even rudimentarily suitable conditions for their treatment, no anesthetics or sterilized instruments and supplies. In spite of this,I. Yu. Davidov, the doctor of A. P. Shestakov's detachment, performed a number of complex operations. In particular, surgery of this type saved the life of Private A. I. Zevelov (now a professor and doctor of historical science). The commander of a detachment, K. P. Orlovskiy, displayed exceptional personal courage. During a battle, a mine blew up in his hands, and he lost one arm below the elbow and his other hand. An emergency amputation was necessary, but the only available instrument was a hatchet.Encouraging the doctor, Orlovskiy himself gave the command: «Chop!» Subsequently, this brave Chekist and Hero of the Soviet Union managed a collective farm in Byelorussia, and became a Hero of Socialist Labor.