RP79KZG
tankist KOLOBANOV Zinoviy Grigorevich

On February 16, 1933, 22-year-old Kolobanov, who was in his third year of college, was drafted into the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army.

In May 1936, he graduated from military school with the rank of lieutenant, with honors, and began serving as a tank commander in the 3rd separate tank battalion of the 2nd Tank Brigade of the Leningrad Military District. In 1938, Kolobanov graduated from the Advanced Training Courses for the command staff and then served as an assistant commander of the ammunition supply in the 210th Infantry Regiment of the 70th Infantry Division. Then, from July 31, 1938 to November 16, 1938, Zinovy Kolobanov served as a platoon commander of the 6th separate tank brigade, and then was appointed commander of a tank company in the same brigade. On November 25, 1939, Kolobanov was transferred by the commander of a tank company to the 1st Light Tank Brigade, which was deployed on the Karelian Isthmus.

The commander of the tank company, Zinovy Kolobanov, did not just participate in the war. He walked from the border with Finland to Vyborg, burned three times in a tank, being on the verge of death. After the end of the war, on March 17, 1940, Lieutenant Kolobanov was appointed assistant commander of the 52nd Tank Reserve company for the combat unit of the 1st Light Tank Brigade, and then transferred to the Kiev Military District. At first, he was deputy commander of a tank company of the 90th Tank Regiment, then he was appointed commander of a tank company of the 36th separate tank training battalion of the 14th Light Tank Brigade. On September 6, 1940, he was awarded the military rank of senior lieutenant. For some time Kolobanov held the position of senior adjutant (chief of staff) of the battalion of the 97th Tank Regiment, and then in the same regiment he was appointed commander of a tank company of a battalion of heavy tanks.

When the Great Patriotic War began, Senior Lieutenant Kolobanov was transferred by the commander of a company of heavy KV-1 tanks to the 1st Tank Division.

On August 14, 1941, Zinovy Kolobanov participated in the battle near the village of Ivanovsky on the Luga River. His crew destroyed a tank and an enemy artillery piece.

On August 20, in the Luga direction, the tank crews of Lieutenant M.I. Evdokimenko and Second Lieutenant I.A. Degtyar engaged in battle with an avant-garde German tank column and destroyed five tanks and three armored personnel carriers. Kolobanov missed the Nazis on motorcycles who drove along the road towards the state farm of Voiskovitsa, since his task was to block the movement of the enemy tank column. Finally, the German light tanks of the 6th Panzer Division also appeared (although there are other versions — that the tanks belonged to either the 1st or 8th panzer divisions). After waiting, Kolobanov gave the order to open fire. The first shots knocked out three lead tanks of the German column, which stood up, blocking the way to the rest of the tanks. Then the Soviet tank hit the tail and then the center of the German column.

Accurate hits became possible thanks to the actions of senior Sergeant Andrei Usov (in the photo he is in the uniform of a lieutenant, because then he rose to this rank), an experienced artilleryman who fought in the Soviet—Polish and Soviet-Finnish wars and previously served as an assistant platoon commander in an artillery regiment, and then trained as a heavy tank gun commander.

After Usov's shots, panic began in the enemy column. Considering that the road passed through a swampy field, tanks that pulled over to the side fell into a swamp, where they got bogged down. Ammunition exploded in the tanks that caught fire. Within thirty minutes of the battle, Kolobanov's tank was able to knock out all 22 enemy tanks, expending 98 armor-piercing shells. The Soviet tank itself was hit by 114 German shells, but its armor really seemed strong. In total, the company under the command of Kolobanov knocked out 43 enemy tanks — 22 tanks on the account of the crew of senior lieutenant Kolobanov, 8 tanks were on the account of the crew of junior Lieutenant Sergeev, 5 tanks were shot down by the crew of Lieutenant Evdokimenko, 4 tanks by the crew of junior Lieutenant Degtyar and 4 more tanks by the crew of junior Lieutenant Lastochkin. After the battle, the tankers of the company destroyed an enemy artillery battery, one passenger car, and about two infantry companies. The history of Soviet and even world tank forces has never known such a battle.