Tag #114490 - Interview #92415 (Boris Lerman)

I entered the army as a volunteer in summer of 1943. At that time I worked as a turner and had an exemption from military service. But I wanted to volunteer. The factory produced airplanes; therefore every worker was part of the war effort already. When I told the director that I wanted to volunteer anyways, he told me to return to my work. Later I went to the military registration and enlistment office, and they advised me to tell nobody and go directly to the army base to join.

‘And what will happen at my factory?’ – I asked. ‘Later we will inform them that you left for the front line,’ they responded.

So I went to Ryazan (a city 200 km far from Moscow) to the training tank battalion. Later we received new American self-propelled guns and were sent to the 1st Tank Army, to the Tank Corps #11. I participated in defense of Moscow until 1944.