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Auction: 21002 - Orders, Decorations and Medals
Lot: 491

A Soviet Order of Glory 3rd Class awarded to Guards Senior Sergeant I. A. Grigorov, the Commander of an Artillery piece of the 158th Guards Artillery Regiment, 78th Guards Rifle Division, the recipient of several awards including a probable Stalingrad Order of the Red Star, this award for firing over open sights under heavy fire, destroying up to a platoon of enemy soldiers and surprising 2 armoured personnel carriers, including forcing the last one to retreat

Russia, U.S.S.R., Order of Glory 3rd Class, Type 2, Variation 1, reverse officially numbered '136250', very fine

Ivan Alekseyevich Grigorov was born in 1914, and served with the Red Army from 1941 onwards, seeing front line service from 28 July 1942.

Initially serving with 64th Army on the Stalingrad Front, he would have seen service in the defence of the southern districts of Stalingrad during the German onslaught of the city. When the German Sixth Army split the Russian defenders in mid-September, the 64th Army pulled to the south of the city where it launched continual counter attacks to try and deflect part of the offensive and halt the capture of the city. Eventually when the time for Operation Uranus the encirclement of the city came, the 64th Army played a major role in the successful destruction of the German forces in the city. It was most likely for an act of gallantry in the final part of the destruction of the German Sixth Army that Grigorov was awarded the Order of the Red Star on 21 February 1943.

Grigorov's unit became part of the new Don Front in early 1943, before transferring to the Voronezh Front from 2 February- 1 July 1943, and saw action in the follow up operations to the Battle of Stalingrad in which the Hungarian Second Army was destroyed, and then during the Third Battle of Kharkov in which the Red Army's attack was repulsed and the German's recaptured the city.

Becoming the Steppe Front on 1 July 1943, the Division acted as part of the Red Army's reserve during Operation Citadel (Battle of Kursk) and was then active in the Red Army's counterattack which re-captured Belgorod and resulted in the clearing of Eastern Ukraine.

During the advance to the Dnieper and the subsequent crossing, Grigorov saw service with 25th Guards Rifle Corps, and during the latter part of 1943 he was to be awarded the Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Class on 31 December 1943.

This Order of Glory 3rd Class was awarded to him on 18 August 1944, whilst serving as the Commander of an artillery piece of the 158th Guards Artillery Regiment, 78th Guards Rifle Division with the following citation:

'During the offensive operations conducted between August 4 and 10, 1944, he showed himself a brave gun commander. Firing over open sights from an open firing position while continuously subjected to enemy artillery and machine-gun fire, comrade Grigorov's gun destroyed 1 artillery piece, 2 machine-gun positions, a cart containing ammunition, an observation post, and up to a platoon of enemy soldiers and officers and suppressed 2 armoured personnel carriers and forced the last one to retreat.'

Signed by the Commander of the 158th Guards Artillery Regiment, Guards Lieutenant Colonel Schotchikov, August 12, 1944.

After the war Grigorov was living at the Inter-Sovkhoz base of the Begovat Raion, Tashkent Oblast, Uzbek SSR alongside his wife Anna Vasilyevna Yermakova; sold together with copied citation and research, including english translation.


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Sold for
£90

Starting price
£50