[RedStar] Behind enemy lines, brave reconnaissance soldiers carried out combat missions even at the cost of their lives.
by Yuri Dmitriev
A solemn wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial monument "To the Intelligence Soldiers" was held in Victory Park in Kaliningrad, which was dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the formation of the legendary intelligence group. The event was attended by representatives of the regional government, the Kaliningrad administration, the leadership of the military memorial march "Along the Roads of the Intelligence Group "Jack", veteran intelligence officers, cadets of the Baltic Higher Naval School named after Admiral F.F. Ushakov, and young army members.
The head of the military-patriotic project "March of the Kremlin Cadets", retired Major General Alexander Zubkov, spoke about the heroic feat of Soviet intelligence officers of the "Jack" group of the 3rd Belorussian Front, which is included in the world catalog of intelligence services as one of the best.
During the war, East Prussia was the location of the Nazi headquarters, the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair), and the German province was under their complete control. In fact, no plane could get there unnoticed. On the ground, the paratrooper reconnaissance troops were met by special teams with dogs, police, field gendarmerie, Volkssturm, and the Hitler Youth. Any airborne contact was immediately triangulated.
The commander of one of the Soviet reconnaissance groups was Captain Pavel Krylatykh, call sign "Jack." The parachute landing in the enemy rear was carried out on the night of July 27, 1944, in the area of ​​Lyaukenen (today it is the village of Gromovo in the Slavsky District of the Kaliningrad Region). The combat mission of the group was to collect and transmit information about the deployment and movements of German troops.
Note that the bombing attack on Adolph Hitler took place only 11 days before. This was a daring raid by Soviet recon troops.
The scouts landed without losses, but on the night of July 29-30, while crossing a bridge on the Parva River, the group commander, the same "Jack", was killed. The fascists, shooting from an ambush, hit the 26-year-old officer right in the heart. After his death, Nikolai Shpakov, call sign "Hedgehog", took command.
The Prussian landscape was extremely unsuitable for covert reconnaissance: the local forests were more like well-kept parks, divided into sections by clearings, and open areas were crossed by many rivers, streams, and canals. The bridges were guarded around the clock. Almost all settlements, even very remote farmsteads, were provided with telephone communications.
The most remote area was immediately cordoned off by the fascists. In such conditions, the scouts of the "Jack" group had to act: at the limit of their strength, losing their comrades in arms. During another clash while escaping pursuit, Iosif Zvarika died while covering his comrades.
On the night of September 28, the scouts were ambushed again. Then the group commander Nikolai Shpakov died, and the translator Napoleon Ridevsky seriously injured his knee.
The new commander of the group, Ivan Melnikov, call sign "Mole", decided to split into two groups. Four people entered one, which continued the reconnaissance search, and the other included the wounded Ridevsky and 16-year-old scout Gennady Yushkevich, left by the commander to help him.
On the night of November 11-12, the group was joined by a new commander, Lieutenant Anatoly Morzhin, call sign "Gladiator", who was parachuted from an airplane. But losses continued. On November 19, Ivan Ovcharov died in a skirmish with a patrol.
In November, the "Jack" group crossed into Poland and broke through to the Polish patriots. Under their cover, four scouts settled in a forest dugout near the city of Myszynets and continued to transmit information about the transfer of German troops.
On December 27, the dugout was attacked by punitive forces. In the fierce battle, Ivan Melnikov was killed, Anatoly Morzhin was captured, and 21-year-old radio operator Zinaida Bardysheva - "Jay" was wounded in the chest and, in order not to fall alive into the hands of the fascists, shot herself. Only another radio operator, Sergeant Anna Morozova, call sign "Swan", managed to escape.
During another raid, Anna was seriously wounded. The scout was scented by dogs sent by the Germans on her trail. Anna Morozova fired back from a captured Walther, killing several punitive forces on the spot, and wounded the German shepherds unleashed on her with a grenade explosion. When the clip ran out of bullets, Sergeant Morozova managed to destroy the secret radio codes she had with her, after which she pulled the pin of the last grenade and, waiting for the fascists to come closer, blew herself and the enemy up.
Thus ended the heroic story of the reconnaissance group "Jack".
During the crossing to Poland, the scout Ivan Tselikov fell behind the group. He got lost and after a month of ordeal he reached the advanced units of the Red Army. Napoleon Ridevsky and Gennady Yushkevich, who, by the way, still lives in his native Minsk, also survived.
Having completed the historical excursion, retired Major General Alexander Zubkov noted that, together with the Kaliningrad regional branch of the Russian Union of Afghanistan Veterans, an action "Along the Roads of the Reconnaissance Group "Jack" is being held in memory of the scouts.
- In preparation for the East Prussian operation, 237 deep reconnaissance formations were created, but "Jack" had the most difficult conditions, and by many criteria - duration, territory coverage, complexity of tasks - it was the most successful group that operated on enemy territory, - noted Alexander Zubkov.
– In 2022, after an appeal to the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, we were given 19 archival documents about the Jack group, on the basis of which we prepared reliable information about its activities. Based on this data, we laid out scout trails that can be used today by military personnel, cadets, young people, and anyone interested in history. You can go on a hike along routes of three difficulty categories – 28, 80, and 105 kilometers.