Russia – Soviet: A Tank Driver’s Operation Bagration Order of Glory 3rd Class awarded to Private S.I. Fak, 3rd Tank Battalion 19th Tank Brigade, 3rd Belarussian Front who in the area of Smolevichi on 3rd July 1944 with his tank tracks knocked out 3 cars, 1 armoured personnel carrier, 15 trucks, 8 motorcycles and up to 40 German soldiers and officers.
Order of Glory 3rd Class, reverse numbered 399711
Condition: Good Very Fine
Semyon Ivanovich Fak was born in 1921 and saw service in the Great Patriotic War from June 1941. This Order of Glory 3rd Class was issued to him by a decree of the 18th July 1944 whilst serving as a Guards Senior Sergeant and Tank-Driver Mechanic, 3rd Tank Battalion, 19th Guards Tank Brigade as a result of the following recommendation:
‘In battles on the 3rd Belarussian Front, in the area of Smolevichi on 3rd July 1944, Comrade Fak, with his tank tracks, knocked out 3 cars, 1 armoured personnel carrier, up to 15 trucks with various military cargoes, 8 motorcycles, and up to 40 German soldiers and officers.’
This period would have covered the opening of the Red Army’s summer offensives in 1944 when it destroyed Army Group Centre and cut off Army Group North in the Baltics.
He was not presented this medal until 20th May 1946 when he was stationed at the Kamyshinsky Tank School in the city of Omsk. He was also later awarded a Jubilee issue of the Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Class in 1985.
