manned, we were given the T-34 tanks. It was me who drove them to the location we were stationed. In April we arrived in Tbilisi, the location where the new middle tank brigade was formed. The unit number was #52”.

David’s first serious combat was in Caucuses:

“North Caucasus was very attractive for the Germans because of the fuel. They needed fuel as much as we did. They tried various plans to get to Groznyy where a major oil refining plant was situated. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for us they never got to it. As far as we knew, 14 intact tanks remained in the field, on our side, the rest were destroyed and there were dead bodies lying around. Our brigade was awarded the title of Guards for heroism during the defense of Caucasus.”

The brigade received more accolades for successfully defending Vitebsk. After Belarus, they fought at the liberations of Lithuania and Latvia. There were only small pockets of Nazi resistance by the time David arrived in Riga:

“We liberated Riga from a handful of obstinately resisting Germans. However we broke them to go on advancing. Our tank brigade stayed near Riga. At that time, the war was nearly over.”

After the war David went to vocational school and worked as a mechanic in Odessa. He was drafted for a third time in 1949, this time serving as a vocational training foreman before immigrating to Canada.