Probably every adult man and most women in the country knows well that the 345th Airborne Regiment is legendary. Fame became wide after the release of the cult film of F. Bondarchuk's "9th company", which piercingly spoke about the battle near Khost, where the Ninth Parachute Airborne Company of this regiment heroically died.
Start
The regiment was finally formed on New Year's Eve, on the thirtieth of December, when almost half a year remained before the Great Victory. Forty-fourth, the town of Lapichi near Mogilev in liberated, tormented by the Nazis Belarus. It was from here that the 345 Regiment (Airborne Forces) went along the roads of war. At first, the regiment was a rifle - 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 (Airborne Forces) regiment was stationed in Kostroma, after which, until December 1979, in Ferghana, merging with the Hundred and Fifth Guards Airborne Division.
Continuation
Already in 1946, the regimental banner with honor carried the Order of Suvorov. Until the end of the victorious year, the regiment guarded the peace of Hungary. For a high level of military training, the USSR Minister of Defense awarded the regiment 345 (Airborne Forces) with a pennant "For Courage and Military Valor". This regiment practically did not see the 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 this yet. Upon receiving the status of "separate", the 345th Airborne Regiment - Bagram also receives a new appointment.
Afghanistan
Soviet troops had not yet been brought into this contiguous country, and the second battalion was already helping the Hundred and eleventh Guards Airborne Regiment to guard the Bagram airfield. Our military transport helicopters and aircraft were based there. At the end of December 1979, the ninth company of eighty people had already stormed the palace of Amin (as part of the Fortieth Army). In 1980, unparalleled heroism and courage earned another award - the Order of the Red Banner.
Retooling
In the spring of 1982, new equipment arrived at the 345th Airborne Regiment. Afghanistan never recaptured Bagram until our troops left the country. In 2002, the Americans began to use the powerful Soviet efforts built by the airfield and our largest military base.
The new landing equipment of the early eighties was more adapted to guerrilla operations in the mountains. BMD (airborne assault vehicle) did not interfere with the fragments of mines, and the standard 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 it was very fond of the old machine - powerful, maneuverable and fast.
No longer parachuting
The regular structure of the unit also changed for the better: regimental weapons received an effective tool for firepower - the howitzer division (D-30) and the tank company (T-62). It was practically impossible to land with parachutes here - the mountainous terrain was too complicated, so the landing assault in the form of airborne service units was removed as unnecessary.
The enemy had no aviation or armored vehicles, therefore both the anti-aircraft missile and anti-tank batteries went where they needed to: cover the columns on marches from Bagram and to Bagram. 345th Airborne Regiment, thus, became more like a motorized rifle.
Reviewing the album
The missions during the fighting in Afghanistan were of a very different nature: fighters guarded roads and directly automobile convoys on the way, cleared mountain areas, set up ambushes, raided, both separate and in support of the Commandos and HAD, and helped units government police … What can be seen in the photo albums of those years? Here in the photo - 345 Airborne Regiment. Kunduz. The fighters are smiling, it would seem, serene, but their weapons, if not in their hands, then close, close …
Looking at photographs, you understand how much dangerous work that requires all-round professionalism was carried out by fighters. Here is another page. Again 345th Airborne Regiment. Bagram (Afghanistan). The photo does not convey even the smallest share of those dangers that every day every minute lurked fighters for a long and bloody nine years. Nine years of daily loss. 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. Over the years, many want to figure out why the victory did not come. Such strong people in the photographs. Confident and very very beautiful. And the high, dizzy mountains around.
Job
Any military operation in the highlands has a fifty-fifty chance of success. A frontal offensive is possible only in certain areas. Artillery, no matter how ironing the nearby mountains, rarely justifies efforts. 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 "circumventing" squads do little to help, which most often do not reach the goal, because vertical cliffs or irresistible gorges stand in their way.
It is long and dangerous to look around and trails. Climbers' units would help, but they were not 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. At altitudes of 3-4 thousand meters, reconnaissance was carried out for 2-3 weeks, on foot, with a load of 40 kilograms behind each, with complete uncertainty. When you do not know at what point 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 shocked by a revolution that brought to power the PDPA party, which immediately proclaimed Soviet-style socialism. The United States, of course, did not like it. Mohammad Taraki was elected leader of the country, and his colleague, even the closest, Hafizullah Amin, who graduated from the university in the United States, became the prime minister. Taraki asked L. Brezhnev to send troops. But the General Secretary of the CPSU was a kind, but cautious man. He refused.
Probably, it was necessary to be bolder in upholding their interests in neighboring territories. Experience was gained - hard and terrible. By order of Amin, he was first arrested, then strangled by Taraki, who was Brezhnev's great friend. By the way, immediately after he was arrested, the Secretary General of the USSR personally asked Amin to save Taraki’s life. But Amin had already secured the support of the United States by that time and was not going to follow the path of his closest neighbor.
Chagrin
Brezhnev was upset to the core. Therefore, on December 12, 1979, at a meeting of the Politburo, the question was raised about the situation in Afghanistan. The decision to use the Soviet armed forces in this war was supported by Gromyko, Ustinov and Andropov. Against Agarkov and Kosygin. The majority of the voices began the war.
Here, as if in brackets, that is, in a whisper, we must admit that since July 1979, troops have been quietly transferred to Afghanistan: KGB and airborne special forces, for example, including Alpha, Zenit, and Thunder … And even the Muslim Battalion had already begun exploring Afghanistan by the fall.
345th Airborne Regiment was sent there by one of the first airborne units. And on December 25, 1979, Soviet troops openly crossed the state border into Afghanistan. Literally two days later, Amin’s residence was stormed, and he was killed. In these battles, the regiment suffered the first losses. Eight guardsmen of the 345th Airborne Regiment will never embrace their relatives. These losses were not the last …
Sanctions
Like the Olympics in our country, so the war in the neighborhood is traditional. As early as January 2, 1980, the United States began sanctions on the war in Afghanistan. One of them was the refusal to participate in the Olympics-80. One hundred and four UN member states supported the sanctions. Only eighteen - no.
And in Afghanistan, a leader loyal to the USSR appeared - Babrak Karmal. The United States, of course, didn’t leave it like that. Already in February, one after another, rebellions broke out across Afghanistan against the PDPA. Money (and more often promises) plus a herd of insane - that’s the uprising. And then the carnage began. Bloody nine years and two months. On February 11, 1989, the 345th Airborne Regiment left Afghanistan.
