Missile and Artillery Forces Day Marked at the Stalin Line Historical and Cultural Complex on 23 November

The official date of the celebration is 19 November.  However, as this fell on a working day, the Historical and Cultural Complex held an event marking the occasion on the nearest weekend.

On 23 November 2019, spectators gathered in the stands beside the open-air museum’s main reenactment field were shown a military-historical reenactment  of one of the battles fought during the liberation of Belarus in 1943. During the Gomel–Rechitsa Offensive, Soviet troops broke through the enemy defences, crossed the Sozh and Pronya rivers, captured the Propoysk defensive strongpoint and threatened the southern flank of Army Group Centre.

 

“We will be reenacting the battle for the village of Rabovichi at the bridgehead on the River Pronya. The 120th Rifle Division, now stationed in Minsk, took part in the battle,” explained Alexander Metla, Executive Director of the Stalin Line Historical and Cultural Complex, in an interview with journalists. He then added: “We cannot show everything that happened at the time in full, but we will recreate some aspects of it.”

 

For 30 minutes, visitors to the complex watched with interest as the performance unfolded in four episodes. The participants included military reenactors from Russia, Latvia, China  and the Republic of Belarus, assisted by residents of the village of Loshany, cadets from the Military Academy of the Republic of Belarus and service personnel from the 120th Guards Independent Mechanised Brigade of the North-Western Operational Command of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus. Around one hundred people in Soviet and German uniforms took to the battlefield, supported by military vehicles and artillery. The Red Army was backed by artillery guns and an SU-76M self-propelled gun, opposed by replica Sturmgeschütz self-propelled guns, Pz 38 and Pz III tanks, and a Kübelwagen. The German Wehrmacht was also represented by a BTR-40 and a BMW R71 motorcycle.

 

The audience witnessed events that had taken place on Belarusian soil during those November days 76 years earlier. Of course, the reality was far more terrible. Nevertheless, visitors from Belarus and abroad were able to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the past. They saw partisans in action and watched as punitive troops entered a village and set it ablaze.  Red Army units then joined the battle, initially defending their positions before launching an offensive and defeating the enemy. In reality, the city of Gomel was liberated on 26 November after fierce fighting. The entire performance was accompanied by continuous gunfire and explosions.

 

The military-historical reenactment concluded with a minute’s silence in memory of the fallen soldiers, followed by a ceremonial parade of all the participants and the presentation of commemorative certificates. Dan Muller, a historical uniform enthusiast from the Czech Republic, was awarded the rank of lieutenant in the Red Army.

 

At the end of the event, the participants in the battle gathered for a commemorative photograph beside the SU-76M self-propelled gun.

 

This battle reenactment was the last of the year. Afterwards, most of the operational military vehicle replicas were sent away for their winter break until February 2020, when the next visitor season would begin at the Stalin Line Historical and Cultural Complex. 

P.S. In addition to the military-historical reenactment, the programme included other activities, including a display of modern military equipment. The exhibits included a 9A52 Smerch multiple-launch rocket system, a BM-21A multiple-launch rocket system on a MAZ-6317 chassis and two artillery guns.