The book by Boris Polevoy “The Tale of a Real Man” about the feat of Alexei Maresyev was read by Soviet boys and girls, and a film about him was watched dozens of times. And the Transbaikal boy Lyosha Likhanov also knew well about the feat of Maresyev. His grandfather fought from the first to the last day.

Alexei was born in Undino-Polesie, his father is a driver, his mother is a builder. After graduating from school, he entered a medical school in the city of Balei in Transbaikalia and went into the army. He served two years in Chechnya. After urgent work as a rural physician. But he decided that it would be more useful to defend the Motherland. The contract was signed and the service began. He preferred not to tell his relatives about where he was sent on business trips. But outside of Chechnya, he twice visited the diagnosis.

“He won’t tell…”

Going to Ukraine, Aleksey told his mother that he was going to the exercises. But the wife in early March stopped meeting in touch …

Medical instructor Likhanov saved the lives of his comrades. One case was told by the mother of the rescued soldier Alexei Yusupov.

Alexei is a man of great courage. No wonder he was awarded the medal “For Courage”. He himself will not tell that in battle, he was wounded, he carried a soldier on himself from the battlefield. And my son too. From our family bow low to you, Alyosha.

On that day, at the end of winter, the Russians came under fire in the battles for the Donbass. The enemy poured fire on our positions for several hours in a row. During the counterattack, several wounded soldiers remained on the battlefield. Likhanov crawls up to them. The first bandaged and dragged for almost two hours. The wounded man lost consciousness from pain, Alexey brought him to his senses and continued on his way under the whistle of bullets and explosions of mines. And then inveterate.

12 days and two grenades

A few days later, Likhanov himself came under fire. It was March 8th. The shell hit a group of our soldiers, the blast wave scattered them all around. When Alexey came to his senses, there was not a soul around. perhaps they thought he was dead and did not take him away. Or they didn’t notice.

Alexei realized that he had to make his way to his own. Crawling. There is no other way: a fragment went into one leg under the knee, on the other – a foot was crushed. No food, no water with you. There are no buses either, no telephone, no compass. He just remembered where he came from, and years of service in intelligence gave him much-needed experience for survival. From the benefit – only two grenades. And help is nowhere to be found.

wife’s birthday gift

So he crawled on the frozen ground, losing consciousness from pain and cold, coming to his senses, grabbing the falling snow with his mouth. He met his birthday, March 15, in an empty and snowy forest. The next goal is to live to see my wife’s birthday, March 20th. It was on this day that the fighter reached his own.

And all this time, relatives prayed: “Let him seize the corpse! Let him return!” Arrived, returned. Frostbitten fingers had to be amputated on one leg. The course of treatment, rehabilitation. He returned home – to his wife and daughter and strictly forbade news of himself, he does not want too much fame. Although the family are proud of their hero and his award – the medal “For Courage”, but, fulfilling the request of their father and husband, they refuse to talk to journalists about his feat.

Photo: Alexei Likhanov with his mother in the hospital / provided to Tsargrad

Maresyev’s feat

The plane of Alexei Maresyev in the first days of April 1942 was shot down in battle, barely reached the front line and fell. In the fall, both of the pilot’s feet were crushed, and the wounded man, guided by the sun, climbed out to his own for 18 days. Two boys found him, called his grandfather for help, and then nursed him at home for two weeks. There was no doctor in the village. If only in the first days of May a plane landed nearby, Maresyeva went to the clinic.

Both legs in the shin area had to be amputated, but already at the beginning of 1943, Maresyev sat at the helm. During the war, he died 86 sorties, shooting down 11 enemy aircraft.

Maresyev was not the first

Without a left hand, the company was commanded by the Cavalier of St. George and military historian Konstantin Popov. A graduate of the Naval Cadet Corps Alexander Prokofiev-Severny lost his right leg in 1915. He learned to walk on a prosthesis and fought until 1917, completed 57 sorties. Cornet Yuri Gilsher’s plane was shot down in 1916. The pilot was left without his left leg, but returned to service. He died in the summer of 1917.

Six months before the feat of Alexei Maresyev, fighter pilot Zakhar Sorokin went to ram, he survived. For six days he crawled through the snow to his own. Both of his feet were amputated. And on prostheses, the hero returns to fight in the sky.

Without one or without the withdrawal of legs in the Red Army fought more than ten pilots. And there was one without arms: 20-year-old Ivan Leonov also had his shoulder and shoulder blade removed. He made himself a prosthesis of light duralumin and returned to service.

The Nazis tore out the eyes of the pilot Ivan Drachenko during torture. On the way to the camp, he returned to the pilot, who had undergone a course of treatment, and after he drove off 150 sorties with his own eye, which ran off with one fascist one in full.

TO READERS

Russia must know its heroes!

Our site continues a series of publications about exploits during special operations in Ukraine. A report about officers, soldiers, nurses and ordinary defenders of Donbass goes under the rubric “Our Heroes”.

Unfortunately, while a special operation is going on, the collection of complete and accurate data on exploits often fails. If you want to know us about the feat of a Russian warrior, write to the mail: [email protected]