Andrey Fyodorovich Buts

Andrey Fyodorovich Buts was born in 1923 in the village of Balakliia in Smila district of Cherkasy region, Ukraine, into a peasant family. He finished seven classes and was a worker. From 1941 to 1944 he lived in territory occupied by German forces. After the area was liberated he was called up into the Red Army in February 1944 and fought on the 2nd Ukrainian Front as a rifleman of the 1st Rifle Battalion, 929th Rifle Regiment, 254th Rifle Division, 52nd Army. In the fighting of 5–8 March 1944 for the village of Kobyliaky in Zvenyhorodka district of Cherkasy region he put the crews of two enemy heavy machine guns out of action, which helped the regiment take the village. In the fight for the village of Ivanky in Mankivka district, pursuing the retreating enemy, he was the first of his unit into the enemy trench, killed fifteen soldiers with grenades and took two prisoners, one of them an officer. On 13 March, on reconnaissance with Private Nikolay Shmatko near the village of Dzhulynka in Bershad district of Vinnytsia region, he captured two German officers, a captain and a lieutenant, and brought them back to the regiment. On the morning of 14 March, when the enemy attacked, he was the first to rise in a counter-attack and led the men of his unit into the enemy trenches, killing more than a section of enemy infantry with his submachine gun. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of 13 September 1944, Private Andrey Fyodorovich Buts was made a Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and Gold Star no. 4670. He was also awarded the Order of Glory 3rd class. After the war he continued to serve in the armed forces. He died on 18 October 1948; both sources say only that he 'died tragically', without giving the circumstances. He is buried in his native village of Balakliia. A street in the town of Smila bears his name.