OGIII for a Full Cavalier of Order of Glory

[Egorka]

Hello,

OGIII # 173482 bestowed on private BACHURA Stepan Dmitrievich, (25.05.1917 - 25.01.1993). One of the 2678 full cavaliers of Order of Glory. 

Private BACHURA was engineer and explosives specialist serving at the time of recommendation in 358 Engineering Battalion. He was awarded OGIII on 14.08.1944, OGII on 17.02.1945, and OGI on 15.05.1946 (post war).  

The OGIII 173482 was the action in the spring 1944, and particularly for actions on 11-13 May 1944. Citation reads:

"Comrade BACHURA is courageous, disciplined soldier, a master in mine- laying. Always executing his orders perfectly, he conducted multiple complex engineering tasks on our first line in spite of difficult circumstances. He is awarded with the badge “Excellent miner” for excellent mine-laying and mine clearing. Comrade BACHURA presented examples of selflessness during the forced crossing of the Southern Bug river while building a ferry crossing. He built two piers under heavy enemy fire, which allowed for quick infantry crossing and timely resupply of our advancing troops on the right river bank.

Comrade BACHURA didn't stop working under bitter enemy artillery barrages and airstrikes while building urgently needed Commander post for 28 Gu. Rifle Corps on 11-12-13 May. Thanks to comrade’s BACHURA selfless work and fearless conduct the task was finished 5 hours ahead of time, which provided the Corps headquarters with proper cover facilities and allowed them to conduct effective units control in the defence of the bridgehead on the right bank of Dnestr river.

Comrade BACHURA is worthy of order “Glory III class.

Commander of 358 Engineer Battalion Major signature. 16.05.1944"

The Cavalier in his later years.

Edited September 27, 2017 by Egorka

[BalkanCollector]

Extraordinary! Thank you very much for sharing!

[slava1stclass]

4 hours ago, Egorka said:

Hello,

OGIII # 173482 bestowed on private BACHURA Stepan Dmitrievich, (25.05.1917 - 25.01.1993). One of the 2678 full cavaliers of Order of Glory. 

Gents,

  One correction.  All told, there were 2,656 Full Cavaliers of the Order of Glory.

Regards,

slava1stclass

[Egorka]

11 hours ago, slava1stclass said:

Gents,

  One correction.  All told, there were 2,656 Full Cavaliers of the Order of Glory.

Regards, slava1stclass

Point taken! Thank you for correction!

[Egorka]

Not often one can have ward in his collection where the veteran has a book chapter dedicated to him. 
I have added to my collection 2 books, which have chapters dedicated to the veteran.
1. "Soldiers Glory", 1963.
2. "Order of Glory cavaliers", 1973.

The first book has short one page account for 238 Full cavaliers of Order of Glory. It appears the primary source is the citation.
The second book covers 30 cavaliers who were born in Stavropol region. The accounts are 2-3 pages long. The strong part of this book is that it is also based on the interviews. Therefore despite the literary editing and politically charged language it has some interesting material.

The one pager from "Soldiers Glory", 1963.

"Order of Glory cavaliers", 1973.

And this is scan from a later book, which has account about all (?) Full Cavaliers. It uses two previous books as sources.

Edited January 21, 2018 by Egorka

[BalkanCollector]

That's amazing Egorka!

[Paul R]

Total respect.  It stinks that his grouping is all split up, but at the same time, it is cool to have a piece of this hero's estate.