Soviet OPW 1st class Nr. 177.608 to Lieutenant-Colonel P. G. Dudnik

[Gerd Becker]

Getlemen,

here is research to one of my favourite pieces in my collection, an OPW 1st class Nr. 177.608 to a Commander of a communications unit (maybe someone can tell me the exact name?) the 127th Seperate Telegraph-???-Company.(Signal-Company?)

Comrade Petr Grigorievich Dudnik, born 1920, Ukrainian, born in Bobrov, Lebedinsky Region, Sumy Oblast, participated in the Civil War and from December 1941 to the end of the war in the Great Patriotic War in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Front.

His awards are:

OGPW 1st class Nr. 177.608 awarded 04.04.1945

Order of the Red Star Nr. 685.974 awarded 12.07.1944

Order of the Red Star Nr. 309.268 awarded 11.10.1943

Medal for Military Merit Nr. 491.839 awarded 16.08.1943

Order of the Red Star Nr. 3.259.880 awarded 05.11.1954

Medal for Military Merit awarded 15.11.1950

Medal for the Defense of Moscow

Medal for the Capture of Koenigsberg

Medal for Victory over Germany

Maybe someone is so nice to give an overview of the citation and fill the gaps...

Award Record Card Obverse:

Edited January 2, 2007 by Gerd Becker

[Gerd Becker]

Award Record Card Reverse:

[Gerd Becker]

Citation upper half

[Gerd Becker]

Citation lower half

[Gerd Becker]

Citation Reverse

[Gerd Becker]

Service Record Part 1

Edited January 2, 2007 by Gerd Becker

[Gerd Becker]

Service Record Part 2

[Gerd Becker]

Service Record Part 3

[Gerd Becker]

Service Record Part 4

[Gerd Becker]

and a nice photo of Lt-Col. Dudnik with good visible awards, including the OPW 1st class in question.

[Gerd Becker]

and last, but not least, his order, which resides in my collection now:

[Gerd Becker]

and the reverse of the piece

[Riley1965]

Gerd,

WOW !!! What a Great OPW and research!! Congratulations my friend!!!

Doc

[Gerd Becker]

Thanks, Doc. I am glad, you like it

[order_of_victory]

Very nice Gerd

Hope the citation turns out to be good

Order of Victory

[Gerd Becker]

Thanks, OoV. In short, it says, he and his unit kept the communication lines alive in several mentioned towns and so on...

I?ll get a translation for it, so we will know the content for sure, but it takes some time.

Gerd

[Guest Rick Research]

He was commander of the 127th Independent Telegraph EXPLOITATION Company, 48th Army.

CPSU 1942.

Lt 10.6.41

Sr Lt 29.7.42

Capt 7.6.43

Maj 26.4.49

Lt Col 12.5.52

and that is his last promotion although he did not retire until 15 January 1968!!!!

When the ARC was filled out in April 1946 he was an instructor at the Kazan Suvorov Military School.

He attended Frunze Military Academy 1953-56, graduating that year.

HE DIED 28 September 1977 per notice by the Ternopolsky Oblast Military Veterans Commisariat. So you've got him birth to death.

Citation is basically that under constant operations he was an energetic and decisive commander (look at ALL those awards!!!) who maintained the connections of captured (exploited) telephone lines so that the advancing Soviet forces never lost the ability to use local German communications. First part is about preserving 240 Km of wires around Mlava, Zol'dai, Allenstein, Osterode, and Hohenstein. Second part says he maintained 490 Km of wires in East Prussian operations.

Imagine being up telephone poles under enemy fire and you will realize how dangerous and important his work was.

I'm surprised to see how long he served without being promoted beyond Lt Col. Will have to re-read this more closely when I have time (away from the Meiningen WW1 rolls)

[Gerd Becker]

Thank you, Rick. Telegraph Exploitation Company Thats an interesting Unit-designation. Indeed very strange, he wasn?t promoted in almost 14 years, especially as he was such a well decorated chap.

Thanks again, my friend

Gerd

[order_of_victory]

Fantastic citation Gerd

Order of Victory

[deptfordboy]

Super piece Gerd and once again with this Russian stuff there is an interesting story 'between the lines' ...

G

[Guest Rick Research]

Service History:

26.10.39 enrolled as student at Kiev MilitarySchool of Signals "in the name of Kalinin" from which he graduated as a Lieutenant 10.6.41

10.8.41 assigned as commander of a platoon in 16thIndependent Signals Regiment

8.4.42 deputy commander of the 127th Independent telegraph Exploitation Company, 24th Army

"3.19.42" (so ? September or ? October) commander of a platoon in that company

2.9.42 (yes, the dates do not make sense hence the arrows on the service record) Commander of that company in the 48th Army now, on Central and 1st White Russian Fronts.

3.7.45 battalion commander in the 102nd Independent Signals Regiment of 48th Army, on what was still being called the 3rd White Russian Front (war in Europe OVER)

23.11.45 commander of the battalion school of the 1044th Independent Signals Battalion in Kazan Military District

23.11.46 Instructor at the Kazan Suvorov Military School

thecontinuation under the stamp in the middle of that page with his photo has the last date as

28.9.46 with him remaining there until attending the Frunze Military Academy

22.10.53 to 30.10.56 (now you need a 16 Republics graduation "diamond": for that)

28.12.56 commander of a RIFLES battalion in 168th Rifles Regiment, 24th Rifles Division

30.4.57 commander of a motor rifles battalion in 310th Motor Rifles Regiment, 24th Motor Rifles Division

31.12.59 deputy commander in that regiment for "Z/O" whatever that abbreviation means

11.2.64 for disposition of the commander of forces per Ministyry of Defense (so 5 years in THAT job above)

1.4.64 having trouble with this line, but apparently dead-ended into a District veterans Commissariat job in Ternopolsky Oblast from which

15.1.68 he was retired and in which

27.9.77 he is reported as having died.

This is very very strange. I'd have expected a Frunze graduate to have been in the run for making General. Something went wrong with his career. He made it through Khruschev's mass reduction of the armed forces in February 1960, but then nothing happened.

We've seen enough groups come back with research to make it appear that 7-8 years as a full colonel without promotion to general meant retirement. But 16 years as a Lieuteant Colonel? OK, the last 4 were borrrrring, but what about the previous 12? Deputy Regimental Commander for a FRUNZE graduate?

[NavyFCO]

This is very very strange. I'd have expected a Frunze graduate to have been in the run for making General. Something went wrong with his career. He made it through Khruschev's mass reduction of the armed forces in February 1960, but then nothing happened.

We've seen enough groups come back with research to make it appear that 7-8 years as a full colonel without promotion to general meant retirement. But 16 years as a Lieuteant Colonel? OK, the last 4 were borrrrring, but what about the previous 12? Deputy Regimental Commander for a FRUNZE graduate?

Not to rain on anyone's parades, but a lot of officers ran through the Frunze courses, either in residence or by correspondence that never went on to become a general officer. In fact, one of the very few groups I have left in my collection belonged to a Lieutenant Colonel who was also an in-residence Frunze graduate, but never made it past Lieutenant Colonel. There's a few things when talking about the military schools to remember. First, not every officer that goes there is what we consider a "hot runner". If the military needed someone to go to the school, they sent someone. It was preferential that they send a really great officer, but that wasn't always the case. Second, there were different courses at the Frunze school, varying from junior and senior commander courses, etc. Likewise, Frunze courses could be taken via correspondence as well as attending in-resident. Not every course was one that was a "general making" course. If someone went through the junior commander course, they had an entire career to either perform well, or not perform well that would eventually dictate their eventual promotion potential.

Third, we also have to remember that not all officers, and not all WW2 vets were perfect. They varied from really great to not-so-good to downright criminal. We (and this is a corporate we as in the majority of the population) love to put halos around these guys and think that nothing that they could do was beyond reproach, but in reality, that just simply wasn't the case. There were some guys that were simply great officers in the junior levels, but sucked as senior officers, and vice versa (if they were allowed to make it in rank.) Likewise, some people excelled at some skills that simply weren't needed to be advanced.

Let's look for example at the fact that he became a mid-career rifles officer after being a combat communications officer. Talk about being a fish out of water! We don't know why the military did this - perhaps they had too many communications officers, and not enough rifles officers, so they transferred amongst branches? That is certainly possible, but what we do know is that he obviously didn't cut the proverbial mustard as a rifles officer and that lateral transfer into the rifles branch was the end of his career. Was it something more sinister than just the simple fact that he might have been a poor rifles officer? We don't (and can't) know that unless we translate his personnel service reports from his personnel file, read those through the light of someone who can actually understand the nuances of the report writing of the time, and then evaluate his performance from that point. Might be a rather interesting study, actually.

Anyway, just my two kopeks worth as both a graduate of a mid-level commander's course (just as he did) as well as someone who wrote their thesis researching promotion to flag/general officer rank.

Dave

[Gerd Becker]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Rick, thanks a million for the translation. Dave, i appreciate EVERY comment, as i am not a hunter for the perfect combat-citation. I like the unusual twists in these stories. Rick and Dave, you guys really bring life in this hobby with the information, you add. Thanks a bunch

Thanks again

Gerd

Edited January 3, 2007 by Gerd Becker

[NavyFCO]

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Rick, thanks a million for the translation. Dave, i appreciate EVERY comment, as i am not a hunter for the perfect combat-citation. I like the unusual twists in these stories. Rick and Dave, you guys really bring life in this hobby with the information, you add. Thanks a bunch

Thanks again

Gerd

Gerd-

You're welcome! The thing I love about this hobby is bringing these guys to life, even sometimes the bad stuff that accompanied the good. I find it's a fascinating slice of life back during that time period and in the USSR - a very tumultuous time, even well after the fighting stopped.

Dave

[Guest Rick Research]

Yeah, it's the COMBINATION of things that is niggling at me:

good ticket punch at the Academy, then out of branch but survived the mass culling ... only to have gone nowhere.

If he had reached his "glass ceiling" at Lieutenant Colonel, why wasn't he dumped in February '60?

He had 8 years in grade by then.

Mysteries and mysteries.