RP78PK Special Event Station will be active from Podolsk, Moskovskaya oblast, Russia, 1 - 9 May 2023, commemorating 78th Anniversary of the Victory in Second World War.
QRV on HF Bands.
QSL via UA5D.
Information from their QRZ page:
Special Memorial Station RP78PK dedicated to 78th anniversary of Victory in Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) and hero feat of Podolsk cadets.
To defend the capital, Stalin concentrated the forces of several fronts. Only the Western, Reserve, and Bryansk Fronts numbered 1,250,000 men by September 30, 1941. Almost all the forces that the Red Army had in the area of the capital were thrown to the defense of Moscow. The civilian population was mobilized to build fortifications.
Meanwhile, the Nazis were rapidly advancing towards Moscow. On October 3, 1941, the troops of Nazi Germany broke into Orel, on October 6, the 17th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht captured Bryansk, and the 18th Panzer Division captured Karachev. Three Soviet armies – the 3rd, 13th and 50th-were surrounded near Bryansk, and Colonel-General A. I. Eremenko, who commanded the Bryansk front, was seriously wounded and evacuated to Moscow on a special plane. The situation in the Vyazma region was also extremely unfavorable. Here 37 divisions, 9 tank brigades, 31 artillery regiments of the RGC and departments of the 19th, 20th, 24th and 32nd armies were surrounded. More than 688,000 Soviet soldiers and officers were captured, including the commander of the 19th Army, Lieutenant General M. F. Lukin, and the former commander of the 32nd Army, Major General S. V. Vishnevsky. The commander of the 24th Army, Major General K. I. Rakutin, was killed. Only 85 thousand soldiers managed to escape from the encirclement.
In early October 1941, the enemy continued its offensive in the area of Maloyaroslavets. On October 5, the Nazis occupied the city of Yukhnov (Kaluga Region), but on the Varshavskoe Highway, the path of the advanced units of the 10th Panzer Division of the 57th motorized corps of the Wehrmacht was blocked by a small detachment of 430 paratroopers, commanded by the head of the parachute service of the Western Front, Captain Ivan Starchak. He raised the paratroopers on his own initiative and for several days held the defense against the enemy's vastly superior and well-armed forces.
The forces that could be used in the defense of the capital were becoming less and less. Cadets of military schools in the Moscow region remained in reserve. On October 5, 1941, the personnel of the infantry and artillery schools located in Podolsk near Moscow were alerted. These military educational institutions were established in Podolsk in 1938-1940, when the USSR was rapidly increasing the size of the armed forces, paying special attention to the development of the military education system.
In September 1938, the Podolsk Artillery School was established, designed to train platoon commanders of anti-tank artillery. At the same time, there were four artillery divisions in the school consisting of three training batteries, each of which included 4 platoons. The personnel of each training battery numbered about 120 cadets, and in total about 1,500 people were trained at the Podolsk Artillery School. The head of the Podolsk Artillery School in 1941 was Colonel Ivan Semyonovich Strelbitsky (1890-1980)-a career military man who had passed the Civil War and at the time of the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War commanded the 8th artillery brigade of anti-tank defense, and then appointed head of the school. In the same Podolsk, in January 1940, another military educational institution was created – the Podolsk Infantry School, which trained infantry platoon commanders. It also had 4 training battalions, each of which included 4 training companies of 120-150 cadets. The total number of cadets of the Podolsk Infantry School totaled more than 2000 cadets.
Since December 1940, the Podolsk Infantry School was headed by Major General Vasily Andreevich Smirnov (1889-1979), a former officer of the Tsarist Army, a graduate of the Vilna Military School and a participant in the First World War, who rose in the Imperial Army to the rank of battalion commander of the 141st Mozhaisk Infantry Regiment, and then fought in the Civil War on the side of the Red Army. Immediately before being appointed head of the school, Vasily Smirnov led a special group under the Military Council of the Moscow Military District, and before that he was an assistant commander of the 17th Gorky Rifle Division of the Red Army.
Thus, by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there were more than 3,500 cadets in Podolsk military schools. Mostly they were yesterday's schoolchildren, as well as young people with full secondary education, who were selected by military enlistment offices for short-term training, followed by production to the command ranks and sent to the front as platoon commanders.
When a serious breach was made in the defense of the Soviet troops on the Ilyinsky combat sector of the Mozhaisk line of defense of Moscow, the command had no choice but to raise the Podolsk military schools, forming a combined detachment of more than 3,500 people from their cadets. Later it became known that the order to send the Podolsk cadets to close the gap was given personally by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, I. V. Stalin. An advanced detachment of the infantry school, reinforced by an artillery division, moved to the position near Maloyaroslavets. However, the command immediately faced a big problem – it was not so easy to form even one artillery division in the school. One of the few miraculously surviving participants of the terrible battle, Pyotr Lebedev, recalled that in the artillery training park there were mostly outdated models of artillery guns, some of them had to be removed even from classrooms. But the most important problem was the almost complete lack of transport, since the artillery school was served by horses, there were too many cars. It was necessary to mobilize civilian drivers with cars of institutions and enterprises.
The personnel of the cadet companies and batteries almost entirely consisted of yesterday's school graduates who managed to study in schools a few weeks after the start of the school year. After all, those cadets who managed to attend the crash course were already released to front-line infantry and artillery units. Therefore, completely inexperienced guys had to defend the trusted sector of the front. And it was they, the young Podolsk cadets who had just begun to master military professions, who performed an impressive feat, holding back the onslaught of the selected Hitlerite armies.
The river Izver. A typical small river of Central Russia, only 72 kilometers long, flows through the territory of the Kaluga region. It was here, near a quiet river, that the advanced detachment of Podolsk cadets took their first battle. A group of German motorized infantry arrived in the river area on motorcycles and armored cars. The attack of paratroopers and cadets of the infantry school caught the Nazis by surprise. The enemy was driven far beyond the Izver River, to the western bank of the Ugra River. Of course, the cadets could not free Yukhnov with such a small force, but the first battle victory greatly inspired yesterday's boys. On October 6, cadets took up defensive positions in the Ilyinsky combat area. They were to defend their positions on the eastern bank of the Vypreyka and Luzha Rivers, between the villages of Lukyanovo and Malaya Shubinka.
Hitler's command got its bearings quickly enough. Air raids began, then artillery fire, and then German tanks moved to the positions of the Podolsk cadets. But the cadets were on the defensive. Long-term firing points and long-term wooden-earth firing points were equipped, which allowed cadets to conduct active fire on the enemy, causing serious damage to equipment and personnel. On October 13, desperate to break the resistance of the cadets in a frontal attack, the Hitler command came up with a deceptive maneuver. Tanks went to the rear of the heroic Soviet soldiers under red flags to create the appearance of"their own". But the cadets quickly understood the essence of what was happening and were able to destroy the advancing enemy tanks. The command of the advancing Wehrmacht units was furious — the "red junkers", as the Germans called the Podolsk cadets, broke all plans to quickly overcome the defense line.
QRV on HF Bands.
QSL via UA5D.
Information from their QRZ page:
Special Memorial Station RP78PK dedicated to 78th anniversary of Victory in Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) and hero feat of Podolsk cadets.
To defend the capital, Stalin concentrated the forces of several fronts. Only the Western, Reserve, and Bryansk Fronts numbered 1,250,000 men by September 30, 1941. Almost all the forces that the Red Army had in the area of the capital were thrown to the defense of Moscow. The civilian population was mobilized to build fortifications.
Meanwhile, the Nazis were rapidly advancing towards Moscow. On October 3, 1941, the troops of Nazi Germany broke into Orel, on October 6, the 17th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht captured Bryansk, and the 18th Panzer Division captured Karachev. Three Soviet armies – the 3rd, 13th and 50th-were surrounded near Bryansk, and Colonel-General A. I. Eremenko, who commanded the Bryansk front, was seriously wounded and evacuated to Moscow on a special plane. The situation in the Vyazma region was also extremely unfavorable. Here 37 divisions, 9 tank brigades, 31 artillery regiments of the RGC and departments of the 19th, 20th, 24th and 32nd armies were surrounded. More than 688,000 Soviet soldiers and officers were captured, including the commander of the 19th Army, Lieutenant General M. F. Lukin, and the former commander of the 32nd Army, Major General S. V. Vishnevsky. The commander of the 24th Army, Major General K. I. Rakutin, was killed. Only 85 thousand soldiers managed to escape from the encirclement.
In early October 1941, the enemy continued its offensive in the area of Maloyaroslavets. On October 5, the Nazis occupied the city of Yukhnov (Kaluga Region), but on the Varshavskoe Highway, the path of the advanced units of the 10th Panzer Division of the 57th motorized corps of the Wehrmacht was blocked by a small detachment of 430 paratroopers, commanded by the head of the parachute service of the Western Front, Captain Ivan Starchak. He raised the paratroopers on his own initiative and for several days held the defense against the enemy's vastly superior and well-armed forces.
The forces that could be used in the defense of the capital were becoming less and less. Cadets of military schools in the Moscow region remained in reserve. On October 5, 1941, the personnel of the infantry and artillery schools located in Podolsk near Moscow were alerted. These military educational institutions were established in Podolsk in 1938-1940, when the USSR was rapidly increasing the size of the armed forces, paying special attention to the development of the military education system.
In September 1938, the Podolsk Artillery School was established, designed to train platoon commanders of anti-tank artillery. At the same time, there were four artillery divisions in the school consisting of three training batteries, each of which included 4 platoons. The personnel of each training battery numbered about 120 cadets, and in total about 1,500 people were trained at the Podolsk Artillery School. The head of the Podolsk Artillery School in 1941 was Colonel Ivan Semyonovich Strelbitsky (1890-1980)-a career military man who had passed the Civil War and at the time of the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War commanded the 8th artillery brigade of anti-tank defense, and then appointed head of the school. In the same Podolsk, in January 1940, another military educational institution was created – the Podolsk Infantry School, which trained infantry platoon commanders. It also had 4 training battalions, each of which included 4 training companies of 120-150 cadets. The total number of cadets of the Podolsk Infantry School totaled more than 2000 cadets.
Since December 1940, the Podolsk Infantry School was headed by Major General Vasily Andreevich Smirnov (1889-1979), a former officer of the Tsarist Army, a graduate of the Vilna Military School and a participant in the First World War, who rose in the Imperial Army to the rank of battalion commander of the 141st Mozhaisk Infantry Regiment, and then fought in the Civil War on the side of the Red Army. Immediately before being appointed head of the school, Vasily Smirnov led a special group under the Military Council of the Moscow Military District, and before that he was an assistant commander of the 17th Gorky Rifle Division of the Red Army.
Thus, by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there were more than 3,500 cadets in Podolsk military schools. Mostly they were yesterday's schoolchildren, as well as young people with full secondary education, who were selected by military enlistment offices for short-term training, followed by production to the command ranks and sent to the front as platoon commanders.
When a serious breach was made in the defense of the Soviet troops on the Ilyinsky combat sector of the Mozhaisk line of defense of Moscow, the command had no choice but to raise the Podolsk military schools, forming a combined detachment of more than 3,500 people from their cadets. Later it became known that the order to send the Podolsk cadets to close the gap was given personally by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, I. V. Stalin. An advanced detachment of the infantry school, reinforced by an artillery division, moved to the position near Maloyaroslavets. However, the command immediately faced a big problem – it was not so easy to form even one artillery division in the school. One of the few miraculously surviving participants of the terrible battle, Pyotr Lebedev, recalled that in the artillery training park there were mostly outdated models of artillery guns, some of them had to be removed even from classrooms. But the most important problem was the almost complete lack of transport, since the artillery school was served by horses, there were too many cars. It was necessary to mobilize civilian drivers with cars of institutions and enterprises.
The personnel of the cadet companies and batteries almost entirely consisted of yesterday's school graduates who managed to study in schools a few weeks after the start of the school year. After all, those cadets who managed to attend the crash course were already released to front-line infantry and artillery units. Therefore, completely inexperienced guys had to defend the trusted sector of the front. And it was they, the young Podolsk cadets who had just begun to master military professions, who performed an impressive feat, holding back the onslaught of the selected Hitlerite armies.
The river Izver. A typical small river of Central Russia, only 72 kilometers long, flows through the territory of the Kaluga region. It was here, near a quiet river, that the advanced detachment of Podolsk cadets took their first battle. A group of German motorized infantry arrived in the river area on motorcycles and armored cars. The attack of paratroopers and cadets of the infantry school caught the Nazis by surprise. The enemy was driven far beyond the Izver River, to the western bank of the Ugra River. Of course, the cadets could not free Yukhnov with such a small force, but the first battle victory greatly inspired yesterday's boys. On October 6, cadets took up defensive positions in the Ilyinsky combat area. They were to defend their positions on the eastern bank of the Vypreyka and Luzha Rivers, between the villages of Lukyanovo and Malaya Shubinka.
Hitler's command got its bearings quickly enough. Air raids began, then artillery fire, and then German tanks moved to the positions of the Podolsk cadets. But the cadets were on the defensive. Long-term firing points and long-term wooden-earth firing points were equipped, which allowed cadets to conduct active fire on the enemy, causing serious damage to equipment and personnel. On October 13, desperate to break the resistance of the cadets in a frontal attack, the Hitler command came up with a deceptive maneuver. Tanks went to the rear of the heroic Soviet soldiers under red flags to create the appearance of"their own". But the cadets quickly understood the essence of what was happening and were able to destroy the advancing enemy tanks. The command of the advancing Wehrmacht units was furious — the "red junkers", as the Germans called the Podolsk cadets, broke all plans to quickly overcome the defense line.