Construction of the red Army light tank BT-5 Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya at the Irkutsk military plant of heavy engineering named after Kuibyshev.
Subsequently, the Irkutsk Komsomolets tank column was formed from 6 BT-5 and 2 T-26 tanks, which became part of the 206th Separate Tank Regiment of the Red Army.
The tank column “Irkutsk Komsomolets” consisting of 6 BT-5 and 2 T-26 light tanks was created in May 1942 with donations from the Komsomol members of the heavy engineering plant named after V. Kuibyshev and the workers of the region.
“We finally arrived at Moscow. On the calendar it was May 6, 1942. In the Main Armored Directorate of the Red Army, V. S. Filimonov and A. I. Denisevich was instructed to transfer the tanks to the 206th reserve regiment of the 5th Army, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Vasilevsky. The tanks were unloaded at the Los railway station and then they arrived on their own in the area of the city of Dmitrov, where the reserve regiment was stationed.
It was here that the transfer of a tank column took place, one of the first military gifts in the country to front-line soldiers. Everything went quickly, militarily. The tanks were built in a row, in front of them were the crew members. The regimental commissar Terekhov congratulated everyone on the solemn event and read out the order on assigning tanks to the crews of the regiment, while the tank with the name BT-5 Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was presented by the representative of the plant A. Denisevich to Sergeant Khudyakov – the best crew commander in the unit. In his speech, the factory worker V. Filimonov gave parting words to the tankers “to hit the enemy harder, and we will use all our skill and strength to defeat the Nazi hordes in 1942 together with the Red Army”.
Tank BT-5 Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya No. 26840: commander sergeant Khudenkov I. N., driver – senior sergeant Ponomarev A. S., tower gunner – sergeant Oshustin V. I.
Location: Irkutsk, USSR
Photo time: April 1942
Author: Ivan Shagin