On April 6 of this year, in the village of Tesovo-Netylsky, Novgorod district, Novgorod region, a military-historical reconstruction of several combat episodes of April-May 1942 took place. Soldiers of the 2nd Shock Army fought here with the Germans for a rather narrow supply corridor. The official name of the event is international festival "Forgotten feat - Second Shock Army". Several hundred reenactors took part in an unusual festival, which was filmed for military historical portal WarSpot.
The action turned out to be noteworthy for several details: exhibits from the Tesovsky Museum of Narrow-Gauge Railway Transport were used, and the reconstruction took place in the same places where heavy fighting took place. For the first time I saw that some elements of drama were included in the script of a military-historical reconstruction, and I noticed a decent number of participants who thoughtfully worked on their appearance. Well, “civilians” turned out to be extremely appropriate. Perhaps this was one of the most interesting reconstructions I have ever seen.
Brief historical background: when the city on the Neva was already blocked and, without surrendering, was subjected to constant attacks by the Germans, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command took measures to relieve the blockade of Leningrad. In December 1941, attempts were made to counter-offensive in the area of the city of Tikhvin, and the success of the attackers was to be supported by the troops of the Leningrad, Volkhov and North-Western fronts. A joint simultaneous powerful strike by all forces did not work out, the operation stalled, from the Tikhvin strategic offensive it turned into the Lyuban offensive, first, and then defensive, which in turn transformed into an operation to withdraw troops from encirclement.
The Volkhov Front began the Lyuban operation in January 1942, in a fierce winter with forty-degree frosts. Several stages of the offensive led to the formation of a breakthrough zone, shaped like a bottle with a neck in the Myasnoy Bor area. Our troops managed to push back the Germans, but there was a threat of encirclement, the Red Army’s offensive stopped and the “bottle” began to rapidly turn into a “cauldron”.
In April 1942, the army moved from unsuccessful offensive actions to defensive ones. On April 20, 1942, General A. A. Vlasov was appointed commander of the 2nd Shock Army. Under his leadership, the already surrounded troops tried to break out of the “bag” to their own. Being almost completely isolated, the soldiers and commanders of the Second Shock fought fiercely with the enemy.
The encircled troops were supplied through the only “corridor” that remained just near Myasny Bor, between Polist and Glushitsa. It was he who later received the name “Valley of Death” due to the large number of those who were breaking through the encirclement who died under German fire. The "Valley" was known to the Germans as "Eric's Corridor". In June 1942, the Germans managed to eliminate this only corridor. The encirclement was completed, and the destruction of the Second Shock soldiers by the Germans continued.
During May-June, the Second Shock Army under the command of A. A. Vlasov made desperate attempts to break out of the bag. Having given his troops the order to leave the encirclement as best he could, Vlasov himself, with a small group of soldiers and staff workers, after several weeks of wandering, was captured by the Germans. While in the Vinnitsa military camp for captured senior officers, Vlasov agreed to cooperate with the Nazis and headed the “Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia” (KONR) and the “Russian Liberation Army” (ROA), composed of captured Soviet military personnel. So, because of one person, an undeserved shadow of betrayal fell on the tragedy and death of an entire army.
Funeral salvo. The word “pleased” in this context is not very appropriate, but when the boys, after laying wreaths by the adults, rushed to collect spent cartridges, it somehow let go inside. They are normal boys, their values are normal and their memory of the event will remain correct. What they all say is true: it’s not the dead who need it, the living need it.
Someone placed candy at the feet of the stone soldier. Both green and yellow are among the cheapest. Such candies were usually found in the pockets of village grannies; I was treated to such candies more than once as a child. One candy with a not very tasty “white” filling, and the second without it at all. It was rarely possible to buy anything else in the general store. So those were also valued. Yes, they are simply REAL. You can’t put some kind of Rafaello here, the wild Russians won’t understand, sir.
After the rally, the train and buses returned everyone to the reconstruction site.
Railroad riding was in full swing.
Meanwhile, at the far end of the site, everything was ready for the start of reconstruction.
Use the surrounding landscapes even now in a movie “about the war” - you won’t go wrong.
Interesting design: armored rubber. This time she fought on the side of the Germans. The weapon is a Soviet DT (Degtyarva, tank) machine gun mounted on a pivot mount.
A simple interior of a “German” armored tire.
And this is an improvised Soviet “armored train”. An open platform lined with sandbags. The famous Soviet “magpie” is installed on the platform.
Heavy German weapons. This is the first time I've seen this during a reconstruction. Schwere Wurfgerät 40 (Holz). Wooden frame, inside which a 32-cm-Wurfkörper Flamm is placed. A 32 cm incendiary rocket filled with crude oil. The maximum flight range of the missile was about 2000 meters with a maximum speed of 150 m/s. It was launched directly from the packaging frames, flew to the target very reluctantly, there was no need to talk about any accuracy. However, when firing across a dry meadow or forest, a mine explosion caused a fire of up to 200 square meters with a flame height of up to two to three meters. The explosion of a mine charge (weighing 1 kg) created an additional fragmentation effect.
Behind the German's back is a metal box for carrying 50-mm mortar shells.
At that moment, the pyrotechnics did something magical and a whole pond flew into the air, indicating another attack by the Red Army soldiers fighting their way out of encirclement.
Real prototype of a German poster. “The ass of the world begins here!”
The Germans who visited the Volkhov Front and returned from there alive in the Reich were considered to have seen all sorts of things.
The opponents changed places, and now the Germans were attacked from several directions.
The unconfused Red Army soldier stabbed one of the Germans with a bayonet. To prevent injury, a spent rifle casing is attached to the tip of the bayonet.
Another was destroyed with a DP machine gun. More precisely, with a DP machine gun.
The one who tasted the bayonet crawled for some time.
A German soldier is killed next to a light 50 mm mortar. A fighter wielding a knife is visible in the background.
The hero of the bayonet fight was mortally wounded, leaning on his “three-ruler” and tried to get up, but could not.
Hand-to-hand combat raged on the approaches to the station.
The German forces have dried up again and the station is again occupied by ours.
A red banner was raised above the building. This is the end of reconstruction. Finally, a few portraits of the participants.
In general: see photo. One of the most interesting reconstructions I've seen. Many thanks to the organizers for their efforts in making all our ideas come true. Special thanks for the preparation, organization and conduct, for taking into account all sorts of important details (for example, for the signs on the route). Everything turned out well and correctly.
A remarkable shot: a Red Army soldier armed with a 37-mm shovel mortar. The following is a short excerpt from this document:
Warrior of the Red Army, believe in the power of your military equipment, keep cool in moments of danger, never part with your weapon, fight the enemy to the last opportunity!
The 37-mm mortar is a smooth-bore mounted fire weapon and is designated as an individual weapon for a fighter to engage manpower and suppress enemy firing points.
In the stowed position, the mortar is a shovel, the handle of which is the barrel. In this position, the mortar can be used for various kinds of trench and earthworks like a regular small sapper(approx. by: strange, in the document the shovel is called a sapper shovel, not an infantry shovel (self-digging, digging trenches, etc.).
When shooting, the shovel serves as a base plate. The shovel is made of special armor steel, which is not pierced by bullets, so it can be used as a shield to protect against bullets and shrapnel.
The mortar has the following main characteristics:
1. The longest firing range is about 250 m.
2. The shortest firing range is about 60 m
Note: The design allows for a shorter range, but shooting at a distance of less than 60 m in open areas is not recommended due to the danger of hitting friendly fighters with shrapnel.
3. The weight of the mortar is about 1.5 kg.
4. The angle of horizontal firing without changing the position of the plate is about ±12°.
The mortar consists of three main parts: a barrel, a shovel-base plate, and a bipod with a plug.
I saw such a mortar found by searchers at the battlefields of maneuverable airborne brigades and used it against the Germans. It is generally accepted that the effectiveness of these weapons was not very high (not accurate and not powerful), but the veteran reported that soldiers trained in the use of mortars firing such mortars in groups were a force.
Residents and guests of the Novgorod region are invited to the international military-historical festival "Forgotten Feat - Second Shock Army", dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Lyuban offensive operation.
Place: village Tesovo-Netylsky, Novgorod district, Novgorod region
Date: April 9, 2017 from 12.00
Free admission.
Guests of the festival will be presented with a historical reconstruction of episodes of the battles in the spring of 1942 for the supply corridor of the Second Shock Army with the participation of heavy military equipment and artillery. Traditionally, a festival of narrow-gauge railway equipment will be held in parallel with the presentation of rare and unique exhibits that entered the collection of the Tesovskaya UZD Museum over the past year.
The international festival “Forgotten Feat - Second Shock Army,” rightfully considered the largest military-historical event in the North-West, is taking place in the region for the fifth time. The project twice became the best project of the All-Russian Youth Forum "Tavrida" and received grants for implementation from the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, and was also repeatedly included in the top of the best military-historical events in Russia according to the decision of the competition commission of the Russian Military-Historical Society.
The event will begin at 13.30 with the laying of flowers at the mass grave in the center of the village of Tesovo-Netylsky. Reconstruction begins at 15.00, on the territory of the narrow-gauge railway station and the Tesovskaya UZhD Museum. Interactive sites - front-line mini-museums in the open air will begin work at 12.00.
The organizers of the festival are the organizing committee of the series of military-historical festivals “Forgotten Feat” and the Museum of the Tesovo Narrow-Gauge Railway. With the support of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, the administration of the Tesovo-Netylsky rural settlement, the Government of the Novgorod Region, the Tourism Committee of the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Novgorod Region, the Novgorod State United Museum-Reserve, the Tesovo-1 peat enterprise, the Leningrad Regional Military Technical Museum " Red Star" branch of the Yugra Military-Technical Museum and JSC "Corporation "Splav".
As the name suggests, the military-historical festival is dedicated to the tragic events of 1942, when the Second Shock Army advancing on Novgorod was surrounded, cut off from communications, stuck in impassable swamps and was actually completely defeated. Despite the massive heroism shown by the fighters, official Soviet historians tried to forget about this episode, which did not show the High Command in the most favorable light.
The chain of events that followed the Lyuban offensive operation, which was carried out by units of the 2nd shock, 4th, 52nd, 54th and 59th Soviet armies, was ending. The goal of this operation, which began in winter, was to break the blockade of Leningrad and defeat units of the 18th German Army, and the capture of the city of Lyuban, after which the operation was later named, was a private task of the large offensive operation of the Volkhov Front. The center of defense of the German group in the Lyuban direction was the city of Chudovo. The 54th Army, with a strike from Pogostye to Lyuban, was supposed to meet there with units of the 2nd Shock Army, which had broken through the German front between the villages of Myasnoy Bor and Spasskaya Polist, which corresponded to the plan to encircle the enemy’s Chudovskaya group.
Moreover, an excellent opportunity presented itself: the commander of the Second Shock, General Andrei Vlasov, who was captured, subsequently headed the Russian Liberation Army (ROA). The 2nd Shock began its combat path by participating in the Lyuban operation. The army was initially faced with the task of attacking from the Volkhov line to the Chashcha station, Nizovsky crossing, with a further attack on Luga. However, the attempt to cross Volkhov in the army’s zone failed at all: in the first half hour of the battle alone, the army lost more than 3,000 people killed and wounded. After some time, the 2nd strike managed to liberate the villages of Bor, Kostylevo, Arefino and Krasny Posyolok, and after some time, having broken through the enemy’s defenses, it also took the village of Myasnoy Bor.
However, in March 1942, enemy troops went on the offensive with the goal of blocking the corridor at Myasny Bor and encircling the 2nd Shock Army, and on March 17, 1942, the ring closed. After this, the “battles for the corridor” began: first, Soviet troops broke through the corridor, then German units closed it again and began to expand the breakthrough zone, and then Soviet troops broke through the corridor again. After a half-month lack of communications, the 2nd Shock Army began to experience shortages of all types of supplies: ammunition, food, fodder, fuel, and this shortage only worsened over time. Nevertheless, the command continued to set offensive tasks for the army, but at that moment it could no longer carry them out.
In March, the 2nd Shock Army was surrounded. As a result of bloody battles, the Soviet offensive fizzled out by mid-April 1942 without achieving its goals. The troops suffered heavy losses, units found themselves in a semi-encirclement - a pocket, and by the end of April the focus of the fighting shifted to the supply corridor of the 2nd Shock Army, the fighting became fierce, often turning into hand-to-hand combat. At the same time, on April 20, 1942, Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov, who was considered one of the most capable Soviet senior officers, was appointed to the post of commander of the 2nd Shock Army.
On May 5, 1942, according to Lenfront directive No. 00120 dated May 13, 1942, a Plan for the withdrawal of troops of the 2nd Shock Army was developed, which was reported to higher authorities. According to this plan, during the withdrawal of troops, two intermediate lines of defense and one main line are provided. The troops are sequentially withdrawn from the initial lines to intermediate ones, covering each other. The withdrawal of units that are not valuable for the defense of the army: horses, convoys, rocket and large-caliber artillery, which do not have ammunition and supply prospects, was supposed to begin on the night of May 15-16.
In reality, the organized withdrawal of units of the 2nd Shock Army can be considered limited to the period from May 15 to June 26, 1942; after this date, there was a complete loss of command and control on the part of the army headquarters; the independent withdrawal of units, small units and individual fighters continued until September 1942
The army tried to get out of the “bag” and once again break through a corridor to their own.
At 22.30 on June 24, 1942, the troops of the eastern group made a breakthrough in accordance with the last order of the army commander. The Germans opened barrage fire, and at the same time small units became active, penetrating the ranks of the retreating. Almost immediately, communication with the group’s command was disorganized, and from that moment on, command and control of the troops was completely lost. The breakthrough was carried out spontaneously, the units were mixed, and there was no leadership for the breakthrough. Those going for a breakthrough were fired upon by the Germans with small arms, mortar and artillery fire. According to the recollections of survivors, it was a continuous wall of fire and steel. The soldiers leaving the encirclement were guided by the corpses of their comrades and the remains of broken equipment. A significant part of the commanders and soldiers moving through the corridor were wounded. The 59th Army made attempts to support the breakthrough with fire, firing at the “walls” of the corridor, but this did not have a significant impact. Part of the breaking through troops lay down and lay under German fire until the morning of June 25, waiting for the shelling to stop.
On June 25, there was no organized resistance inside the former cauldron of the 2nd Shock Army, but there were battles between individual groups and units of Soviet soldiers who were unable to cross the corridor on the night of June 24-25; the wounded were killed by enemy aircraft. There was no longer any talk of organizing a second assault.
On June 28, the Germans finally blocked this corridor. The army's losses were enormous. The fighters began to make their way to their own in groups.
In total, 10,815 people from all units that were inside the cauldron left the encirclement from June 20 to September 7, 1942, and people came out very far from the planned place, sometimes in the North-Western Front, having carried out a multi-kilometer raid on the German rear, some were hit to the partisans and continued to fight as part of partisan detachments. Part of the command staff of the army units that fell to the partisans was taken by plane to the “mainland”. The real events that developed when units of the 2nd Shock Army came out of the bag are described in the report of the Volkhov Front Military Council, compiled on September 29, 1942.
The strength of the 2nd Shock Army on June 20, 1942 was 23,401 people. This number does not include soldiers from other units and the wounded; the total number of all troops and wounded surrounded by June 20 can be very roughly estimated at approximately 40,000 people.
On July 12, 1942, the former commander of the 2nd Shock Army, Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov, and the nurse and chef of the army military council canteen M. I. Voronova went to the village of Tukhovezhi, where they introduced themselves as refugees and asked for food. The local “self-defense unit” mistook them for partisans, arrested them and locked them in a barn. On the morning of July 13, the head of the village, V.V. Vasiliev, led a German patrol, commanded by the intelligence officer of the 33rd Corps, Oberleutnant von Schwerdner, and with him was the translator Pelhau. When they opened the barn door, the translator called out to those in it, to which he heard in response the phrase: “Nicht schieYen. Ich bin General Wlassow.”
Already in the prisoner of war camp, the Nazis offered him cooperation. He agreed and led the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) created by the Germans.
IV International Military History Festival “Forgotten Feat – Second Shock Army”
On April 3, 2016, the IV international festival “Forgotten Feat - Second Shock Army” will take place in the village of Tesovo-Netylsky (Novgorod district, Novgorod region). The event program includes a historical reconstruction of episodes of the battles of the spring of 1942 for the supply corridor of the Second Shock Army with the participation of heavy military equipment and artillery, and an interactive exhibition of the military life of the warring parties. Also, in parallel, a festival of narrow-gauge railway equipment will be held with a presentation of unique exhibits that entered the collection of the Tesovskaya UZD Museum in 2015-2016. Admission to the festival is free. Last year, as part of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, many ceremonial events were held, but the need to study the historical heritage, rehabilitate the undeservedly forgotten feat of Soviet soldiers and restore justice is relevant regardless of the date. “The uniqueness of the event the fact that from the very beginning to the end it is organized and carried out by young, caring people. It is their efforts aimed at restoring the historical truth about the feat of the soldiers of the 2nd Shock Army, their efforts, and not empty idle talk, that allow this memory to live and, with the help of military-historical reconstruction, be broadcast and passed on to the younger generation. The work of the “Forgotten Feat” team for the sake of the memory of the Fallen once again shows that if you don’t talk, but do, then they will see you and help you. In addition, this year the festival becomes more relevant against the backdrop of attempts to glorify Vlasov. We should not allow this!” – notes Sergei Machinsky, head of the Department of Search and Reconstruction Work of the Russian Military Historical Society. Every year the festival becomes larger and larger: this year more than 800 reenactors are expected from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Pskov, Novosibirsk, Murmansk, Rostov-on-Don, Belarus, the Baltic States and Finland, and more than 8 thousand spectators from all over Russia. In 2016, in addition to traditional interactive platforms (reconstructions of army life, battalion headquarters, military medical stations), the premiere of rare equipment is expected. For example, among the trains will be presented a narrow-gauge ice car from the Bautzen plant, which is not in any museum collection in Russia, and a freight-passenger car from the Ammendorf plant, of which less than a dozen copies have survived throughout the world and not a single one in museums. In addition, there will be a presentation of military equipment: a restored 85-mm anti-aircraft gun of the 1939 model, a T-27 wedge, a Schweres Wurfgerät 41 rocket launcher, a 37-mm trench gun of the 1915 model (Rosenberg trench gun) and other equipment. As part of the festival, the Tesovo Museum of Narrow Gauge Railway Equipment will hold an exhibition of the best exhibits. This year, more than 20 units of rolling stock will be demonstrated: diesel locomotive TU4-2630, self-propelled power station ESU2a-179 with track layer, snow plow PS-1, etc. Also, everyone will be able to ride a narrow-gauge train and motorized tires. It is worth noting that some of the exhibits take part in the reconstruction itself, which is unique in its kind: no festival in Russia involves the railway in this way. There is a large element of historical authenticity in this - on exactly the same narrow-gauge railway in 1942 the battles for breaking the Siege of Leningrad took place. The international festival “Forgotten Feat - Second Shock Army”, rightfully considered the largest military-historical event in the North-West, takes place on the territory region for the fourth time. In 2015, at the All-Russian Youth Forum "Tavrida" in the category "Search Squads and Military-Patriotic Clubs" the project won first place and received a grant for implementation from Rosmolodezh, and also entered the top 10 best military-historical events in Russia by decision of the competition commission Russian Military Historical Society. The event will begin at 13.30 with the laying of flowers at the mass grave in the center of the village of Tesovo-Netylsky. Reconstruction begins at 15.00, on the territory of the narrow-gauge railway station and the Tesovskaya UZhD Museum. Interactive sites will begin work at 12.00. All visitors to the event will be able to communicate with members of military history clubs, see with their own eyes the uniforms, models of weapons and equipment of the Red Army and the Wehrmacht. Organizers: ANO “Volkhov Front”, Museum of the Tesovskaya Narrow Gauge Railway. With the support of the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO), the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs, the administration of the Tesovo-Netylsky rural settlement, the Government of the Novgorod Region, the Tourism Committee of the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Novgorod Region, the Novgorod State United Museum-Reserve, the North-Western Regional Branch Russian Union of Tourism Industry, peat enterprise "Tesovo-1", Military Festival "Battlefield", Leningrad Regional Military Technical Museum "Red Star" branch of the Yugra Military Technical Museum.
This article was automatically added from the community
In the village of Tesovo-Netylsky, Novgorod region, a reconstruction dedicated to the soldiers of the 2nd Shock Army and the Lyuban offensive operation on the Volkhov Front took place.
A little over three years ago, a group of young reenactors from St. Petersburg decided to organize a new festival dedicated to the Great Patriotic War, but only to that part of it that is not so often remembered: the 2nd Shock Army of General Vlasov and the Lyuban offensive operation on the Volkhov Front.
“Because of the betrayal of Lieutenant General Vlasov, all the soldiers who participated in the offensive operation were invisibly marked as traitors. Our goal and task and the mission of our project is to explain to people that this is not so, to restore historical justice.”
We studied historical documents for a long time and went to the battle sites. As a result, the village of Tesovo-Netylsky in the Novgorod region was chosen, largely due to the fact that an abandoned narrow-gauge railway station was preserved here and it was here that the battles of the Lyuban operation took place. With their idea, the reenactors came to the local administration, where they found understanding and support.
Nikolay Velichansky - Head of Tesovo-Netylsky rural settlement:
“We were afraid, worried about how everything would turn out. But it turned out well. The first year there was snow, winter, it was also the first Sunday in April. Last year there was a downpour, there were about 2 thousand spectators, and no one left.”
In the year of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, the 3rd festival brought together representatives of more than 50 military-historical reconstruction clubs from all over the country and neighboring countries. Interactive platforms were prepared for spectators, where they could not only hold weapons and ammunition of those years in their hands, but also literally plunge into the life of soldiers of both the Soviet Red Army and the Wehrmacht invaders.
Ilya Rusanov - Member of the Patriot military-historical reconstruction club:
“The site is being worked out months before the event. It’s being worked out where the Soviet side’s camp will be, where the German side’s camp will be, what kind of interactions there will be, all communications along the railway are being worked out.”
For example, this poster is a copy of a real-life inscription in a German layout. It can be translated very roughly as: “Welcome to hell,” which is what the Nazis called the Volkhov forests after the first months of fighting.
Not a single military reconstruction is complete without military action. And what are military operations without explosions and bombings?
Alexander Yakovlev - Master Pyrotechnician:
“Today we are planning an air raid, there will be a shootout with grenade launchers, we will blow up a tank. Maybe it will be somewhere quieter, somewhere theatrical, but in general, we are simulating a war.”
Pavel Zheltov - Chairman of the organizing committee of the military-historical festival “Forgotten Feat - Second Shock Army”:
“It is clear that we cannot fully correspond to those people who fought here, but at least for a split second, for some moments, understand what they felt, and most importantly, at what cost the victory was won. For this, there is this military-historical festival. And of course, for the mass audience this is the most intelligible, most understandable form of reproducing history."
Today, a variety of people are involved in reconstruction; you can meet students, workers, and even retirees here. Each of the participants finds their own motivations - why spend months of preparation and painstakingly study documentary materials of those terrible years.
Andrey Afanasyev - Commander of the Patriot military-historical reconstruction club:
“The Second Shock Army died here after all. And we mainly want to pay our debt to those people who died here. And a lot of them died here, here the earth is simply watered with blood.”
Real reenactors pay attention not only to the spectacularity of battles and the authenticity of historical weapons. When talking about the war, we must not forget about the thousands of refugees, killed and wounded civilians. At the festival in the village of Tesovo-Netylsky, the organizers seem to have provided for everything. Maybe that’s why, despite the distance from major highways, thousands of people have been coming here, to the Novgorod outback, for three years in a row. And the boys, having visited this festival, begin to read about the history of their region and come to military-patriotic clubs.
Timur Mamonov, Maxim Belyaev, Tatyana Osipova, Alexander Vysokikh and Andrey Klemeshov. Channel One - Petersburg.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
International Festival “Forgotten Feat - Second Shock Army” Today it is the largest independent military-historical event in the North-West.
“The Forgotten Feat Festival” is largely unique, - notes the press secretary of the Russian Military Historical Society Vladislav Kononov, - This is the only event dedicated to soldiers of the Second Shock Army, who turned out to be betrayed twice - first by Vlasov and his inner circle, who surrendered to the enemy, and the second time by unconsciousness, an established public opinion that all of them, ordinary soldiers, are also traitors. During the restoration of the battle episode, the narrow-gauge railway and equipment recreated with historical accuracy will be actively involved. Around exactly the same narrow-gauge railway, which supplied the encircled Second Shock Army, the most fierce battles unfolded in 1942.”
May 25, 2019 in the village Tesovo-Netylsky Novgorod district of Novgorod region will be held VII International Military History Festival, dedicated to the battles of April-May 1942 for the supply corridor in the area of the breakthrough of the 2nd Shock Army.
About 500 reenactors from different regions of Russia, CIS countries and far abroad, will be applied military and railway equipment, layouts heavy weapons.
Interactive exhibitions will run throughout the day, where viewers will be able to get acquainted with the life of the warring parties in the conditions of the Volkhov Front.
Simultaneously at the event site there will be narrow gauge festival, and will also be organized riding on rare railway equipment.
