Russia - Soviet: A drive to the Baltic Order of the Red Star awarded to Guards Lieutenant Prokopy Vasilevich Korobov, Fire Platoon Commander in the 27th Guards Order of Kutuzov Artillery Brigade of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for knocking out

Russia - Soviet: A drive to the Baltic Order of the Red Star awarded to Guards Lieutenant Prokopy Vasilevich Korobov, Fire Platoon Commander in the 27th Guards Order of Kutuzov Artillery Brigade of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command for knocking out a German tank and defeating an enemy counter attack along the Lithuanian-Latvian border at the end of the Great Summer Offensive of 1944 – Operation Bagration, which led to the complete defeat of the German Army Group Centre, and the isolation of Army Group North in the Kurland Peninsula in Latvia.

Order of the Red Star, type 2, the reverse numbered 1799465

Condition: chip to enamel at the top of the 7 o’clock arm, Good Very Fine

Prokopy Vasilevich Korobov was born in the village of Izedinovka, Novooskolsky District, Kursk Oblast in 1908 and joined the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1932. He would join the Red Army in August 1941 and see front line service from the following month.

Korobov would be decorated with the Order of the Red Star, his only numbered award of the Great Patriotic War by Order of the 27th Guards Artillery Brigade on 31st December 1944. At the time of his award he was serving as a Fire Platoon Commander, 13th Battery, 27th Guards Order of Kutuzov Artillery Brigade of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. The recommendation for the award reading:

‘In fierce defensive battles on 20th August 1944 in the areas of Zagare and Bukaisi, Comrade Korobov, firing the guns over open sights, knocked out an enemy tank and held back the Hitlerites’ onslaught with fire from the guns of his battery, which was instrumental to the withdrawal of material to new firing positions.

On 26th August 1944 the enemy again attempted to break through, but the fire platoon under the command of Comrade Korobov steadfastly held the defense, and firing over open sights, repulsed the Hitlerites’ onset, preventing them from moving forward.

While breaching the enemy’s defences in the month of October 1944, in the area of the city of Siauliai, fire from the battery’s guns suppressed one enemy four-gun 105mm battery and destroyed 1 artillery battery with its trucks and up to 50 enemy soldiers and officers. For valour and courage in battles for the Motherland, Comrade Korobov deserves the government award the Order of the Red Star.’

Korobov would also receive a Medal for the Victory over Germany for his part in the Great Patriotic War. Having survived he worked as the District Procurator, Medvensky District, Kursk Oblast after the war