Monument to Tank Crew Mykola Yatsenko

The monument was erected on May 9, 1960 in the park on Universitetska Square. A T-34 tank was installed on a pedestal of granite blocks. On the pedestal is a granite memorial plaque with the inscription.

In September 1943, troops of the Southwestern Front launched an offensive towards the city of Zaporizhzhya. In the immediate approaches to Zaporizhzhya, the enemy created a solid defense, which included two contours - external and internal, and the Nazis turned the entire city into a fortress. For the complete defeat of the enemy forces on the Zaporizhzhia beachhead under the command of army general Malinovsky, an assault group consisting of three armies, a tank and a mechanized corps was established.

On October 10, after artillery and aviation training, Russian troops went on the offensive. Given the situation, the Military Council of the Southwestern Front decided on October 13 to carry out a night attack.

It was the first major city storm in the history of the Second World War in Ukraine. On October 13, at 10 p.m., the troops of three armies, tank and mechanized corps at the front with a length of 30 km, after vigorous fire training, launched an attack.

It was in this battle that the troops of the tank crew and the landing force cleared the bridge over the Moskovka River and provided access to other combat vehicles.

During street fighting on October 14, 1943, the crew of the tank, consisting of the driver Sergeant Varikunyi, the radio operator Sergeant Shelyulev, the commander of the tower Sergeant Lebedev, destroyed four enemy tanks, seven vehicles, six guns and ten enemy firing points. Personally, Lieutenant Yatsenko destroyed two tanks, a self-propelled gun and a significant enemy force. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was posthumously assigned to Yatsenko.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Richard Holden