Probably every adult man and most women of the country knows well that the 345th (VDV) regiment is legendary. Fame became widespread after the release of the cult feature film by F. Bondarchuk "9th Company", which poignantly told about the battle near Khost, where the 9th Airborne Company of this regiment heroically died.
Start
The regiment was finally formed on New Year's Eve, the thirtieth of December, when almost half a year remained before the Great Victory. Forty-fourth, the town of Lapichi near Mogilev in Belarus, liberated and tormented by the Nazis. It was from here that Regiment 345 (Airborne Forces) went on the paths of war. The regiment was originally a rifle regiment - based on the Fourteenth Guards Airborne Brigade.
The final renaming took place in June 1946. From July of the same year until 1960, the 345th (VDV) regiment was stationed in Kostroma, after, until December 1979, in Fergana, merging with the 105th Guards Airborne Division.
Continued
Already in 1946, the regimental banner carried the Order of Suvorov with honor. Until the end of the victorious year, the regiment guarded the peace of Hungary. For the high level of military training, the Minister of Defense of the USSR awarded Regiment 345 (VDV) with a pennant "For Courage and Military Valor". The regiment has hardly seen this world, constantly being in the hottest spots of the country and the planet.
In total, from 1979 to 1998, the regiment, without interruption for a single day, participated in various armed conflicts and wars, and so eighteen years and five months passed. Then, on December 14, 1979, no one knew about it yet. With the status of "separate", the 345th Airborne Regiment - Bagram also receives a new assignment.
Afghanistan
Soviet troops have not yet been introduced into this neighboring country, and the second battalion has already helped the 111th Guards Airborne Regiment to guard the Bagram airfield. Our military transport helicopters and planes were based there. The ninth company in the amount of eighty people at the end of December 1979 had already stormed Amin's palace (as part of the Fortieth Army). In 1980, unparalleled heroism and courage earned another award - the Order of the Red Banner.
Refitting
In the spring of 1982, new equipment arrived in the 345th Airborne Regiment. Bagram Afghanistan never recaptured until our troops left the country. In 2002, the Americans began to use the airfield built by Soviet efforts and our largest military base.
New landing equipmentthe beginning of the eighties was more adapted to partisan operations in the mountains. The BMD (airborne combat vehicle) did not interfere with the fragments of mines, and the regular BTR-70 and BMP-2 well protected the airborne soldiers sitting inside. The 345th Airborne Regiment in Afghanistan was pleased with the new equipment, despite the fact that they loved the old car very much - powerful, maneuverable and fast.
No longer a parachute
The staff structure of the unit has also changed for the better: the regimental armament has received an effective tool for firepower - a howitzer division (D-30) and a tank company (T-62). It was almost impossible to land with parachutes here - the mountainous terrain was too difficult, so the landing support in the form of airborne service units was removed as unnecessary.
The enemy did not have aviation and armored vehicles, so both the anti-aircraft missile and anti-tank batteries went where they were needed: to cover the columns on the marches from Bagram and to Bagram. The 345th Airborne Regiment thus became more like a motorized rifle regiment.
Reviewing the album
Assignments during the fighting in Afghanistan were of a very different nature: the soldiers guarded the roads and directly the motorcades on the way, cleared the mountainous areas, set up ambushes, went on raids, both individually and in support of the "Commandos" and " KHAD", helped government police units … What can be seen in the photo albums of those years? Here in the photo - 345 Airborne Regiment. Kunduz. The soldiers are smilingseemingly serene, but their weapons, if not in their hands, then close, close…
Looking at the photos, you understand how much dangerous work that required all kinds of professionalism was carried out by the fighters. Here is another page. Again 345 Airborne Regiment. Bagram (Afghanistan). The photo does not convey even the smallest fraction of the dangers that fighters lay in wait every minute for a long and bloody nine years. Nine years of daily losses. It's good that the 345th Airborne Regiment managed to take photos and managed to save them. Amazing inner composure in poses, at first glance, calm, even relaxed. Years later, many want to figure out why the victory did not come. Such strong people in the photographs. Confident and very, very beautiful. And high, dizzying mountains all around.
Work
Any military operation in the highlands has a fifty-fifty chance of success. A frontal offensive is possible only in certain directions. Artillery, no matter how ironed the nearby mountains, rarely justifies the effort. It is necessary to radically change both tactics and forms of maneuver. The main thing is to capture all the dominant heights. For this, there is a helicopter landing where the “bypassing” detachments help little, which most often do not reach the goal, because sheer cliffs stand in their way, then insurmountable gorges gape.
Detours and paths are long and dangerous to look for. Alpinist units would have helped, but there were none in the 345th Airborne Regiment. The Afghan mountains tested the Soviet paratroopers in all respects: endurance,psychological stability, strength, endurance, mutual assistance - everything turned out to be in place for them. At altitudes of 3-4 thousand meters, reconnaissance was carried out for 2-3 weeks, on foot, with a load of 40 kilograms on each back, with a complete ambiguity of the situation. When you don't know when and where to expect an attack. For a week in the mountains, paratroopers lost up to 10 kilograms of their own weight.
Whose war is this?
In April 1978, Afghanistan was shaken by a revolution that brought the PDPA party to power, which immediately proclaimed socialism in the Soviet version. The US, of course, did not like it. Mohammad Taraki was elected the leader of the country, and his comrade-in-arms, even his closest one, Hafizullah Amin, who graduated from a university in the United States, became prime minister. Taraki asked L. Brezhnev to send troops. But the General Secretary of the CPSU was a kind man, but cautious. He refused.
Probably, one should have been more courageous in defending one's interests in the adjacent territories. The experience was acquired - heavy and terrible. By order of Amin, Taraki, who was a great friend of Brezhnev, was first arrested, then strangled. By the way, immediately after he was arrested, the USSR Secretary General personally asked Amin to save Taraki's life. But Amin had already enlisted the support of the United States by that time and was not going to be led by his nearest neighbor.
Grieving
Brezhnev was upset to the core. Therefore, on December 12, 1979, at a meeting of the Politburo, the question of the situation in Afghanistan was raised. The decision to use the Soviet armed forces in this war was supported by Gromyko, Ustinov and Andropov. AgainstAgarkov and Kosygin spoke. By a majority of votes, the start of the war was laid.
Here, as if in brackets, that is, in a whisper, it must be admitted that since July 1979, troops have been quietly transferred to Afghanistan: special forces of the KGB and the Airborne Forces, for example, including the Alpha, Zenit, "Thunder"… And even the "Muslim Battalion" began to explore Afghanistan by autumn.
345 Airborne Regiment was sent there as one of the first landing units. And on December 25, 1979, the troops of the USSR had already openly crossed the state border into Afghanistan. Literally two days later, Amin's residence was stormed, and he himself was killed. In these battles, the regiment suffered its first losses. Eight guardsmen of the 345th Airborne Regiment will never hug their relatives again. These losses were not the last…
Sanctions
As the Olympics in our country, so the war in the neighborhood is traditional. As early as January 2, 1980, the US began sanctions over the war in Afghanistan. One of them was the refusal to participate in the Olympics-80. One hundred and four member states of the UN supported the sanctions. Only eighteen - no.
And in Afghanistan, a leader loyal to the USSR appeared - Babrak Karmal. The United States, of course, did not leave it like that. Already in February, uprisings against the PDPA broke out one after another in Afghanistan. Money (and more often promises) plus a crazy herd - that's the uprising ready. And then the massacre began. Bloody nine years and two months. Only on February 11, 1989, the 345th (VDV) regiment left Afghanistan.
Phoenix rising from the ashes
April 13, 1998 by order of the Secretary of DefenseRussian Federation 345 (VDV) regiment was disbanded. The combat banner and awards are stored in the Central Museum of the Armed Forces. Copies were transferred to the Ryazan Museum of the Airborne Forces. Nowhere and never dropped the honor of the Soviet army, observing all military traditions and faithfully, regardless of life and death, performing all combat missions, the glorious 345th Airborne Regiment was disbanded, not even allowing it to set foot on its native land. Sixty-four kilometers remained to Russia.
Memory will never fade. In many cities, veterans of the Airborne Forces have created organizations to prevent this from happening. Honor the 345th Airborne Regiment Novosibirsk, Ryazan, Moscow, many cities of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, all territories of the former Soviet Union.
Most recently Commander of the Airborne Forces V. Shamanov confirmed that the airborne troops will receive a newly formed separate assault brigade, number 345 - in honor of the legendary parachute regiment, which has more than seventy years of history. Formation will end in 2016 in Voronezh.
