Russian light armour + vehicles

Louis · Jan 8, 2023

Lieutenant (Czechoslovak) Richard Tesarik (1915/1967) aboard of T-34/76 "LIDICE" tank. Tesarik one of three nonsoviet holder of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was awarded after battle of Kyiv in 1943.

The T-34 "Lidice" was named in honour of victims of Lidice Massacre (June 1942) and was extensively used in combat, where it was knocked out multiple times, but each time was repaired and returned to service soon thereafter. Today, it is on display in the Military Technical Museum in Lešany, Czech Republic.

Gunner · Jan 8, 2023

"The Lidice massacre was the complete destruction of the village of Lidice in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, now the Czech Republic, in June 1942 on orders from Adolf Hitler and the successor of the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, Kurt Daulege.

In reprisal for the assassination of Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich in the late spring of 1942, all 173 men from the village who were over 15 years of age were executed on 10 June 1942. A further 11 men from the village who were not present at the time were later arrested and executed soon afterwards, along with several others who were already under arrest. Out of a total 503 inhabitants, 307 women and children were sent to a makeshift detention center in a Kladno school. Of these, 184 women and 88 children were deported to concentration camps; 7 children who were considered racially suitable and thus eligible for Germanisation were handed over to SS families, and the rest were sent to the Chełmno extermination camp, where they were gassed to death."
-Wikipedia