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  1. Martin Antonenko A Fixture

    Country:
    Germany
    The downfall of the 6th Company



    The second Chechnya war is raging:

    The mass of the 6th Company of the 104th Airborne Regiment...

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    ... which is part of the 76th Airborne Division (location: Pskov, commander: General Gennadij Troschew) ...

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    … arrives on February 28, 2000 at around 12:00 noon at altitude 776 southeast of the Chechen town of Ulus-Kert, and begins to set up a defensive line facing west along the ridge and, according to some reports, begins to cook.

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    Near the height, meanwhile, a five-man reconnaissance troop got into a firefight with around 20 Chechen rebels at around 12:30 p.m. They recognize the weakness of the Russian troops, put them under pressure immediately and begin to encircle the Russian soldiers.

    To avoid the enclosure, the five Russian soldiers retreat towards Height 776.


    The experienced rebels pursue the fugitives, interrupted by exchanges of fire, up to their starting position.

    Major Moldow, actually company commander of the 6th, went with some men to meet the soldiers of the reconnaissance troop in order to support them, but was fatally wounded in a firefight with the troop's pursuers.

    Intercepted radio traffic on ultra-short wave between the rebel leaders Abdul Ibn Chattab ...

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    …and Schamil Bassajew…

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    ... who did not personally take part in the battle as a result of his severe wounding indicates that the fighters had not known anything about airborne soldiers in the area up to this point. According to the intercepted radio messages, Chattab decides to attack the Russian troops.

    The first rebel force of around 160 men under the command of Chattab splits and bypasses Height 776 on both sides. Divided into groups of around 50 fighters, it includes the airborne soldiers.

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    A short time later, the mass of the rebels arrive. Their total number is controversial; Depending on the source, the information varies between 1,500 and 2,500 fighters.

    The still missing group of the airborne troop company is surprised on the route and overrun by the rebels before they could unite with the rest of the company.

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    After realizing the positions of the Russian airborne soldiers, the rebels begin to put them under mortar fire to prevent them from digging in.

    The shelling does not end until their fighters have worked their way up to the positions of the airborne soldiers and the actual attack begins.

    Shot with machine guns, sniper rifles and bazookas, the surviving airborne soldiers retreated with their wounded to the top of Height 776 towards the end of the day, leaving some of their equipment, such as food and sleeping bags, on the slope.

    The airborne soldiers, for their part, request artillery fire from the two 2S9 Nona-S tank mortars via the artillery officer accompanying them by radio ...

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    ... of their airborne regiment, which started around the afternoon of February 29 and, according to the artillery commander, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Taustika...

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    ... ultimately devoured the entire stock of ammunition.

    General Troschew describes this topic in his memoirs as follows: “1200 (!) Снарядов“ высыпали ”артиллеристы 104-го полка в район высоты 776,0 с полудар 1 с полудня 29 аферар 1 с полудня 29 аферар [1] [29] (German: "1,200 grenades" poured "the artillerymen of the 104th regiment in the area of ​​altitude 776.0 from the afternoon of February 29th to the early hours of March 1st [...];")

    However, no statement can be made about the effectiveness of this artillery support. 31 soldiers of the 6th Company were killed on the first day, which is almost half the total strength of the unit.
    The company's calls over the radio are not encrypted and can be overheard by the rebel fighters.

    An attempt at relief by two trains of the Spetsnas special unit then failed when these soldiers, long before they reached Height 776, came across the Abazulgol River at a barrier position east of Ulus-Kert and had to retreat under the fire of the rebels.

    At 3:00 a.m., a platoon with 15 soldiers from 4th Company succeeds - under the leadership of the deputy battalion commander Major Alexander Dostawalow ...

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    ... (he was company commander of the 6th until 1999) - to break through the enclosure ring coming from the south and to get to the 6th company.

    The platoon leader, a lieutenant, was killed in the action, the major himself seriously wounded. At around 5 a.m., on the morning of March 1, 2000, the rebels intensified their attacks again after initially not sending any fighters to the heights since midnight.

    To repel this attack, the company requests artillery fire at targets that are only 50 meters away from its own positions.

    At 6:00 a.m., a wave of attacks pushes the surviving airborne soldiers together in a very small space.

    Two Russian Mi-24 attack helicopters ...

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    ... those who circle in the vicinity of the height in the morning have to turn away after being shot at by the rebels from the forest with heavy machine guns.

    The position of the last airborne soldiers is presumably overrun around 6:50 a.m. in another attack and the few survivors are killed in close combat (picture from a movie about the foght).

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    On the morning of March 2, parts of the 1st Company of the 1st Battalion reached Height 776 and found only dead people. After warning of further rebel units in the area, the bodies of the airborne soldiers could not be recovered until two days later.

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    There are controversial representations about the last radio message from the trapped, around 6:10 a.m. ...:

    After the information was spread that some of the Russian soldiers had been killed by their own artillery fire, the last radio message is described in several sources as the request for artillery fire at one's own position, either by Lieutenant Colonel Evtjuchin or by Captain Romanov.

    On the website of the daily newspaper "Izvestia" the wording of the last radio message, here by Captain Romanow, is reproduced in an article from August 2001 as follows:
    “Прощайте, мужики. Высота занята боевиками. Огонь по высоте 776 !; ” (German: "Farewell boys, the height is occupied by militants. Fire at height 776!")

    A short time later, the journalist Vladimir Swartsewitsch evaluated the recordings of the radio traffic.

    According to Swartsewistsch, the wording of the last radio message was: "Вы козлы, вы нас предали, суки !;" (German: "You bullshit, you betrayed us, sons of bitches!")

    I think that's much more realistic.

    Six airborne soldiers survived the battle and were picked up by 1st Company during the course of March 2nd.

    Two were in hiding, three stated that they had sneaked from the heights on the instructions of a superior before the last attack, the sixth claimed to have surrendered in the course of the battle and was pillaged by the rebels and passed out after being hit with rifle butts in the face been left behind.
    84 dead Russian airborne soldiers and Spetsnass soldiers from the 6th and 4th Company platoons were later found at Höhe 776 and the surrounding area.

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    The insurgents are said to have transported some of their dead on horse-drawn carts before Russian troops secured the site.

    It is unclear how many rebels and mujahideen actually perished. While initial reports of around 100 fighters were killed, Major Andrei Lobanov, who belonged to the group that reached the height a few days later, reported that he had counted around 200 fighters dead.

    The Russian press later reported a figure of 400 dead rebels and foreign mujahideen. That should be propaganda ...


    Our next picture shows President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Alexej II at a memorial service for the men of the 6th Company on March 14, 2000 in Pskov, the home base of the unit.

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    And of course there is plenty of propaganda trimmings ...:

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    Airkid likes this.
  2. Airkid A Fixture

    Country:
    England
    A nasty business Chechnya. Good read Martin, with the usual quality pictures.

    Phil
    Martin Rohmann likes this.
  3. Nap Moderator

    Country:
    England
    As Phil says a nasty business

    Bad time for the Russian Airborne

    Cheers

    Nap

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