Георгий Петрович Ташкеев went through virtually all the war.
He was a very good sportsman, a swimmer, which helped him in the war when surrounded by the Germans and pushed to the very bank of the Dniepr, he dived in and was under the water for a long time and managed to cross along with two others. The others who could not swim all drowned or were shot by the Germans.
After the battle of Kursk, he was given a week's leave and went to the Urals to see his family. That was the last time they saw him. He was twice a prisoner of war but escaped both times.
He won a medal for 'Military Merit' on the 18th September 1944 in the Ukrainian Front for volunteering to help repair broken down vehicles that helped to speed up the movement of the regiment.
Date of birth: 1910
Place of birth: Svobodka 7, Verkhneuralsk, Chelyabinsk region, Urals.
Place of conscription: Verkhne-Uralsky RVC, Chelyabinsk region.
Date of call-up: 1942
Military rank: Private
Military unit: 129th howitzer artillery regiment
61st guards rifle division
p/n 06786 "b"
129th guards artillery regiment of the 61st guards rifle division of the 3rd Ukrainian Front.
Next of Kin / Address: Wife: Tashkeeva, Yevdokiya Semyonovna; Chelyabinsk Oblast, Verkhneuralsk District, Svobodka No 7.
Died of wounds on 31/01/1945
Hospital: 571 MSB, 65 OMSB 61 gv. Sd
Primary burial place: Buzhak (Buzsak) village, 55km north-west of Kaposvar and 150 km south west of Budapest, Hungary.
This was during the siege (battle) of Budapest where the Red Army had encircled Budapest and there was fierce fighting.
A soldier visited Georgi's mother in the Urals in the summer of 1945 saying that he had seen Georgi's tank burning.
His mother and sister Nina used to visit Konigsberg (Kaliningrad) after the war where it was believed he was killed on the 4th May 1945, but it appears though his regiment was based there in 1945, he was in Hungary. There is no record of him in the database of fallen Soviet soldiers in the Kaliningrad region at:
https://www.prussia39.ru/memory/database.php Extract from 61st Guards Regiment wikipedia entry:
'Budapest was surrounded by December 26 and on January 1, 1945 the German Army Group South began relief operations which continued for most of the month. During one of the most crucial of these on January 20 the 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf and 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking regrouped and then carried out a nighttime reconnaissance-in-force between the Danube and Lake Velence. This was followed at 0500 hours on January 21 by an assault that focused on the positions held by the 5th Guards Cavalry Corps, but a secondary thrust by up to a battalion of infantry backed by 17 tanks struck the 61st Guards in the direction of the Sárvíz River with the aim of tying down the 57th Army and preventing it being shifted to the Budapest axis. The attack broke into the division's first line of trenches but made little further progress due to strong antitank defenses'.
Extract from 61st Guards Unit War Diary:
During the night from the 20th to 21.01.45, in the Ketel–Gomba area, engine noise from enemy tanks or self-propelled guns was heard.
At 09:30 on 21.01.45, the enemy, with a strength of 200–250 infantry supported by self-propelled guns and armored personnel carriers (a total of 10 armored units), following a massive artillery strike, attacked the 2nd and 3rd/181st Guards Rifle Regiment in the area of Shari and the forest north of Shari, then the right flank of the 189th Guards Rifle Regiment (4th Rifle Company). By 14:00 on 21.01.45, the enemy occupied part of the trenches on the right flank of the 2nd/181st Guards Rifle Regiment (800 meters northeast of point 116), on the left flank of the 181st Guards Rifle Regiment (7th Rifle Company, east of Shari), and on the right flank of the 2nd/189th Guards Rifle Regiment (4th Rifle Company, southeast of Shari).
At 13:00 on 21.01.45, a large concentration of enemy infantry was spotted on the northern outskirts of Gomba. An enemy group attempted to demine their forward edge northeast of Gomba, but was dispersed by our artillery fire.
Enemy aviation conducted reconnaissance flights over the division's defense sector with single aircraft.
Units of the 61st Guards Rifle Division from 09:30 on 21.01.45 have been repelling enemy attacks in the sector of the 181st and 189th Guards Rifle Regiments.
From 14:00 on 21.01.45, the commanders of the 181st and 189th Guards Rifle Regiments committed their reserve companies to battle to restore the position. The counterattack is supported by artillery and mortar fire.
Enemy losses for the day of combat: 2 self-propelled guns destroyed, 1 self-propelled gun hit.
Our losses for 22.01.45: wounded – 135 men, killed – 67 men. Heavy machine guns destroyed – 9, RPG-21 [anti-tank grenades] – 2, 76 mm divisional guns – 2, 45 mm – 1, anti-tank rifles – 3, 82 mm mortars – 5, carbines – 45.'
The places mentioned Ketel-Gomba and Shari are just a few miles to the west of Buzsak and this is likely where Georgii was wounded.
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References:
https://pamyat-naroda.ru/heroes/person-hero105889991/ https://foto.pamyat-naroda.ru/detail/910274 https://1418museum.ru/heroes/360940/ https://obd-memorial.ru/html/info.htm?id=55969693 https://obd-memorial.ru/html/info.htm?id=64643340 https://obd-memorial.ru/html/info.htm?id=68496148 https://obd-memorial.ru/html/info.htm?id=56152811 Buzsak map:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Buzs%C3%A1k,+8695+Hungary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Budapest Route of unit 1943-1945:
https://pamyat-naroda.ru/warunit/id8483/?ysclid=msbo6hjc7e509184860 1st Ukrainian Front:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Ukrainian_Front 3rd Ukrainian Front:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3rd_Ukrainian_Front 61st Guards Rifle Division:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/61st_Guards_Rifle_Division 61st Guards January 1945 Unit War Diary:
https://pamyat-naroda.ru/documents/view/?id=134588352&backurl=division%5C61%20%D0%B3%D0%B2.%20%D1%81%D0%B4::begin_date%5C03.01.1945::end_date%5C03.01.1945::use_main_string%5Ctrue::group%5Call::types%5Copersvodki:rasporyajeniya:otcheti:peregovori:jbd:direktivi:prikazi:posnatovleniya:dokladi:raporti:doneseniya:svedeniya:plani:plani_operaciy:karti:shemi:spravki:drugie Maps showing Svoboda 7, Verkhneuralsk (Place of birth and also address of wife):
https://2gis.ru/verhneuralsk/geo/3659810352443537?m=59.196679%2C53.856456%2F16 Google maps equivalent:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Verkhneuralsk,+Chelyabinsk+Oblast,+Russia/@53.8554758,59.1893558,246m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x43d0f1858926c4e5:0x52be33d346de2a78!8m2!3d53.8798126!4d59.2152545!16s%2Fm%2F026bqvw?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDgxMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D 122 mm howitzer M-30 (1938) artillery:
https://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=110&art_id=1001 STZ-5 Artillery Tractor:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STZ-5 (This is most likely what Georgii would have driven and repaired)
Recollections of his sister Nina relayed to Adele.
