The feat of the Soviet chauffeur: How Maxim Tverdokhleb delivered tangerines to the children of besieged Leningrad

Under enemy fire, in the winter cold, wounded - he continued on his way, thinking about those who are waiting for him on the other side of Ladoga. In the winter of 1941, Maxim Tverdokhleb was carrying New Year's gifts to the children of besieged Leningrad along the Road of Life.

Maxim Tverdokhleb served in the autobot during the war, carried cargo along Ladoga, saving hundreds of residents of besieged Leningrad. The path along the Road of Life was full of deadly risk: enemy bombing, thin ice, many days of fatigue of drivers - danger lurked everywhere.

Maxim has been on the verge of death more than once. Once an enemy shell hit his truck loaded with ammunition. The burning car was miraculously extinguished, but while the driver was fighting the fire, he did not notice that he burned his hands badly — he discovered this only when he got behind the wheel again: "... the hands are like the claws of a boiled crab, all red, and the pain is like frying on a fire." That day he delivered the cargo, after which he got to the medical unit.

He had a chance, as he put it himself, and "to be baptized in an ice font." On the weak ice, he was carrying flour from Kobona. Trying to maneuver under the Nazi bombing, I got into a wormwood - the car quickly sank to the bottom, and the driver miraculously managed to open the door and emerge from the icy water. The anti-aircraft gunners who were nearby arrived to help, but Maxim was in no hurry to accept their help: the first thing was to save flour. "At that time, every gram of flour was as expensive and needed by the Leningraders as shells, as cartridges on the front line."

At the end of December 41, on New Year's Eve, he was carrying gifts for Leningrad children. Plywood boxes with the inscription "Children of besieged Leningrad" filled with tangerines were loaded into the lorry and a half.

T. Zhurina

Tverdokhleb overcame the halfway point without obstacles, trying to deliver the cargo ahead of schedule. Somewhere in the distance, the roar of enemy fire echoed — the Nazis were methodically shelling the highway. Then everything went silent.

P. Danilov

Nothing foreshadowed trouble, when suddenly our anti-aircraft gunners thundered — an unkind sign. A moment later, Hitler's planes appeared in the sky over Ladoga. Engines roaring menacingly, they opened fire on a moving target. There is nowhere to hide on the icy road — everything is visible in the palm of your hand. Having increased speed, Tverdokhleb tried to get away from the fire. One maneuver was successful, but the enemy returned again. This time, the lead pierced the cabin, knocked off part of the steering wheel, and the driver was wounded in the arm.

B. Kapranov

The vultures left the smoking car, and Maxim, taking a deep breath, tried to start his truck and a half. And she started up. "I tried to steer, the car listens. We can continue on our way," the driver recalled. And it was not easy to continue the journey: without a windshield, the thirty-degree frost burned the face, the smoking radiator made it difficult to see, the hand did not give rest. But it was impossible to give up — he was carrying gifts to children who needed a holiday to forget about the horrors of war for at least a minute.

V. Korotkova

That day Maxim Tverdokhleb delivered the cargo on time.