Tag #155304 - Interview #94498 (Evadiy Rubalskiy)

At night of 20 - 21 June 1941 the situation around us raised much concern. At night on 22 June few additional guards, including me, were appointed. My duty was off at 2 o’clock in the morning and having transferred the post to another guard I went to bed. At 4 o’clock in the morning we were awaken by powerful artillery bombardment. Shells were flying into the rear over our heads. We were close to the near-border stripe line: one and a half hours later German units broke through the border guard covering forces and came close to where we were. One of commanding officers ordered us to retreat while he stayed keeping firing at Germans to help us leave. He must have perished. We were armed with rifles and didn’t have bullet stocks. We could not retreat running back: there was mass barrage of fire. I didn’t even notice that I was wounded in my arm at once. Fortunately, I had good ‘rush-run’ and crawl techniques. I got to a forest where nurses gave me first aid. Germans were very close and we could hear their shouting. Slightly wounded military were told to walk to a hospital in Grodno. When we got to Grodno, a bombing began.