Pyotr Zakharov

Captain Pyotr Zakharov commanded a T-34 tank platoon in the 5th Guards Tank Army. He fought at the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, where his platoon destroyed four German Panzer IV tanks during the fighting around Prokhorovka. Zakharov survived the war after fighting through Ukraine, Poland, and into Germany, reaching Berlin in May 1945. He was wounded twice — at Kursk and during the Vistula-Oder offensive. After the war, he studied engineering in Moscow and later moved to Birmingham in the 1970s to work at the Rover car plant in Solihull.