Russia – Soviet: A 45mm Gun Commander’s Konigsberg Offensive Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Class awarded to Guards Starshina Filipp Ivanovich Ivanov, Gun Commander of a 45mm Gun Battery, 277th Guards Order of Suvorov and Kutuzov Rifle Regiment, 91st Guards ‘Poltava’ Red Banner, Order of Suvorov, Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Rifle Division for is gallantry in East Prussia during the final assaults in the region of Konigsberg where he fired on the settlement of Lendorf destroying 2 enemy machine gun positions, and later at Zeerattek Statoin where he destroyed 3 machine gun positions and later while repelling counterattacks, firing over open sights, he killed 10 Germans and destroyed another 3 with his personal weapon.
Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Class, flatback reverse, numbered 744474
Condition: a section of enamel missing from the 12 o’clock arm, Very Fine
Filipp Ivanovich Ivanov was born in the village of Bolshoi Ostrov, Zaluchsky District, Leningrad Oblast in 1914. A Russian national he attained an elementary education before joining the Red Army in 1941. He would initially serve on the Karelian Front defending Leningrad against the Finns who were attacking the city from the north.
The actual awards that Ivanov would be awarded other than this one are somewhat confusing as there was another man with the same surname in his regiment who appears to have been confused for him on some of his paperwork, what is clear however, is that Ivanov would be awarded this Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Class by decree of the 5th Guards Rifle Corps on 6th May 1946 just over a year after the conclusion of the war in Europe.
The citation for the award, given to him whilst serving as a Guards Starshina, and Gun Commander of a 45mm gun battery, 277th Guards Order of Suvorov and Kutuzov Rifle Regiment, 91st Guards ‘Poltava’ Red Banner, Order of Suvorov, Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Rifle Division, reads:
From 6th April to 17th April 1945 while breaching the German defences in the area of Regitten (modern Krasnopolye, Kaliningrad Oblast) and height 35.1, Ivanov’s gun moved with the infantry battle lines and took up a firing position on height 38.7, from which it opened fire on the settlement of Lendorf, where with direct fire, 2 enemy machine-gun positions were destroyed.
On 7th April 1945, Ivanov’s gun demolished the trackman’s hut at Zeerattek Station and destroyed 3 machine gun positions. While repelling counterattacks, his gun, firing over open sights, killed 10 Hitlerites. He destroyed 3 enemy soldiers with his personal weapon.
He deserves the government award the Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Class.
Ivanov would go on to receive both the Medal for the Victory over Germany and the Medal for the Victory over Japan.
He would later return to Leningrad where he would live on Borovaya Street and work as an Assistant Foreman at the ‘Pyotr Anisimov’ Factory.
