In the village of Legedzino there is a unique monument to 150 border dogs...
In the village of Legedzino there is a unique monument to 150 border dogs who "tore apart" a regiment of fascists in hand-to-hand combat. This is the only battle between people and dogs in the history of world wars and conflicts that took place in the very center of Ukraine.
Few people know that by order of Hitler, Kyiv was to fall on August 3, 1941. On August 8, the Fuhrer himself was going to come to the "victory parade", and not alone, but with the leader of Italy Mussolini and the dictator of Slovakia Tissot.
It was not possible to take Kyiv "head-on", and an order was received to bypass it from the south. This is how the terrible word "Green Gate" appeared - a place not indicated on any maps of the great battles of that war. Only in our days the information became public, and the "Green Gate" turned out to be one of the most tragic events of the Great Patriotic War.
In these places, two armies (6th and 12th) of the Southwestern Front were surrounded – about 140,000 soldiers. And only 11,000 soldiers and officers escaped from the encirclement.
In a separate battalion, created on the basis of the border commandant's office, there were service dogs.
They steadfastly endured all the hardships of the military campaign. The battalion commander, Major Lopatin, despite the disgusting conditions of detention and the complete lack of proper nutrition, did not release the dogs, although the higher command advised him to do so.
Near the village of Legedzino on July 30, the border battalion accepted its last battle.
The forces were too unequal: against 500 border guards – an entire regiment of fascists. And at the critical moment, when the fascists went on another attack, Major Lopatin gave the order to send border guards and service dogs into hand-to-hand combat with the fascists. This was the last reserve.
150 well-trained hungry German shepherds rose up against machine gun fire.
Eyewitnesses claim that the German shepherds bit into the fascists' throats, even when mortally wounded. The occupiers retreated, but tanks came to their aid. Bitten, covered in jagged wounds, screaming in horror, the fascists jumped onto the armor of the tanks and shot the heroic dogs.
All 500 soldiers died in this battle, no one surrendered. The surviving dogs lay down next to their masters and did not let anyone near them. Some of them were shot by the advancing troops, and some died of hunger on the field.
In a panic, the invaders shot all the large dogs in the village of Legedzino - even those that were tied to their kennels. Only one German shepherd left the battlefield and was able to crawl to the village.
The Germans collected their dead in battle, and then allowed the villagers to bury the Soviet border guards. Their bodies were buried together with their faithful four-legged friends, and the secret of the burial was kept secret for many years.
Only in 1955, the residents of Legedzino were able to collect the remains of almost all 500 border guards and move them to the village school, near which the mass grave is located. And on the outskirts of the village, where the only hand-to-hand combat of people and dogs with the fascists in the world took place, on May 9, 2003, the only monument in the world to a man with a gun and his faithful friend - a dog - was erected with voluntary donations from veterans of the Great Patriotic War, border troops and dog handlers of Ukraine.
