Ivan Yefimovich Butenko

Ivan Yefimovich Butenko was born on 30 May 1918 on the Blagodatny khutor, now in Frolovsky district of Volgograd region, into a peasant family. He was Russian, had five classes of schooling and worked as a tractor driver. He was called up in 1938 and took part in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-40. He completed a course for junior lieutenants and, in 1942, an officers' advanced course, and was at the front from June 1942. He was wounded twice. On 6 July 1943, the second day of the battle of Kursk, the 2nd Guards Tank Corps was sent in to counter-attack German tanks that had broken through the positions of the 51st Guards Rifle Division. The 1st Battalion of the 25th Guards Tank Brigade was ordered to drive the enemy from a height near the village of Smorodino, in present-day Yakovlevsky district of Belgorod region. Guards Lieutenant Butenko's T-34 broke ahead of the battalion, crushed three machine-gun posts and an anti-tank gun, and near Smorodino ran into eight German tanks waiting in ambush. He knocked out one with his gun; when a direct hit put his own gun out of action, he rammed two German tanks. His tank caught fire, the driver was killed and the radio operator badly wounded. Butenko got out, shot a German officer and several soldiers from the rammed tanks, took the officer's documents and carried the wounded radio operator off the field under artillery and mortar fire. He then fought in the Smolensk offensive and distinguished himself near Yelnya and Smolensk. He was killed in action on 21 October 1943 and was buried in the village of Krasnaya Gorka in Krasninsky district of Smolensk region, beside the Smolensk-Minsk highway. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of 10 January 1944, published in the Vedomosti of the Supreme Soviet, Guards Lieutenant Ivan Yefimovich Butenko was posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet Union. He had also been awarded the Order of the Red Star.