The feat of the medical instructor Valeria Osipovna Gnarovskaya. Valeria Gnarovskaya's feat: a girl against a tank

And in the silence of the morning before - the long-awaited distant roar of the engine. Not otherwise - they are following the wounded cars from the hospital ... - I'll run on the road - I'll meet you! - Cleverly ...

And in the silence of the morning before - the long-awaited distant roar of the engine. Not otherwise - they are following the wounded cars from the hospital ...

I'll run to the road - I'll meet you! - Deftly completing the next dressing, Lera threw it to her comrades.

The dawn was a pink streak over the wide wasteland. And then Lera saw that on a country road broken by hundreds of boots and wheels from behind a fishing line crawling out, rumbling, not a truck with a red cross on board - a terrible German tank in black and green frog camouflage ... And behind him - the second.

For the Germans, the orderlies were mostly guys. In the Red Army, 40% of the medical services were girls.

Guys, tanks! ..

The Germans, over the roar of their engines, did not hear her, but the temporary field evacuation point did. Soldiers poured out of the tents - both orderlies and some walking wounded. A handful of people exhausted by previous battles, and most of them were already crippled, who had no anti-tank rifle or artillery - only about ten grenades at all - blocked the path of enemy tankers breaking out of the encirclement.

Crashing the small forest on the edge of the forest with the tracks, the head "tiger" turned off the lane and crawled, grumbling, straight to the tents. The long trunk of an artillery barrel swayed in an angular armored turret. Shoot - and all death. Both the wounded and the survivors. Straightaway. No questions. Who believes in God - "save and preserve!" will not have time to whisper!

Assisting a wounded man in a field hospital tent

But a fragile figure with a medical bag on its shoulder rushed across the heavy combat vehicle. In her hands - a grenade ... And when only she managed to grab these grenades?

A moment later, the sky burst over the clearing with a resounding explosion. And the German armored monster froze, enveloped in smoke, a multi-pound caterpillar slid off the rollers with a crash. Throwing back the hatches, the tankers jumped out of the smoking colossus - like black devils in their overalls, rushed away. A sharp turn of someone's PPSh slashed after the fleeing Germans ...

And to the second tank he was already walking, as if not seeing anything around, clutching a bundle of grenades in his hand, a staggering fighter with a bandaged head - the shooter Ryndin.

He will be destined to knock out this tank, and withstand, together with the Red Army men who ran up, hand-to-hand combat with a German who fell out of the hatch. He will remain alive, and together with his comrade, the Red Army soldier Turundin, will be presented with a government award. And Lera ...

Feat of Lera Gnarovskaya. From a painting by a contemporary artist

When a car wagon train, which had lingered on its way, finally pulled up to the place of the recent battle, there was silence over the edge of the forest. The wrecked tanks towered like dead lumps of metal. Two German prisoners with their elbows tied back to back were sitting by a broken birch, and a Red Army sentry stood over them, legs wide apart, a pistol in one hand, a crutch in the other, a leg cut to the knee, and a fresh bandage over the boot with an accordion.

The lieutenant of the medical service jumped off the footboard of the hospital "lorry".

It was hot here for you, brothers ... Who is the senior in rank alive?

I - the foreman with a red cross on his sleeve responded from the tents - there is still a captain, but he is "heavy". Lies in delirium, cannot command. His machine gunner stitched across his chest - I'm afraid, and you won't get it ...

Report the situation.

Seventy wounded soldiers and commanders, eighteen of them are "heavy". Four healthy ones. And so, I am Sergeant Major Tikhonenko. We survived the battle with an enemy formation breaking through from the encirclement in the amount of two Tiger-type tanks ... You can see the results yourself. Both tanks were knocked out, two prisoners were taken, one of them was an officer, wounded, first aid was provided. The rest of the guys decided - some with a bullet, and some with hand-to-hand combat.

They were going to the regiment's headquarters, the tanks, the intelligence found out ... He was just here on their way, behind the abandoned village. It turns out that you saved yourself and the headquarters here! Losses?

Lera ... medical instructor Valeria Gnarovskaya. I lay down under the tank with grenades. Several more soldiers were wounded for the second time in a day. Tied it up already, take it away.

Valeria Granovskaya award list

When the last wounded man had already been loaded into the vehicles, the tents were removed, the soldiers' weapons and property were taken away, and the convoy began to hum along the broken road to the hospital, only five surviving soldiers remained at the damaged tank. They had to catch up with the battalion, but first give their last debt to the nurse, who shielded them from armored death.

Soon a small mound of fresh earth grew up by the side of the road. The foreman brought boards from the abandoned village, hastily put together a four-sided obelisk with the butt of an ax, and cut out a five-pointed star in the pommel with a knife.

Sleep well, little sister. We will take revenge. We'll crush the reptile - I give you my word. Let's come back here - and we will erect a real monument to you, such that for centuries ...

The old soldier was choked with tears. And in the autumn forest the crackling volley of five rifles, which gave the last salute over Lera's grave, seemed quiet in the autumn forest.

A monument for centuries ...

Having learned about the death of her daughter, Valeria's mother, Evdokia Mikhailovna, addressed a letter to the commander and all the soldiers of the 907th regiment. She wrote:

“It hurts a mother's heart unbearably to realize that my daughter, my Swallow, is no longer in the world. It seems, not tears, but blood flowing from my eyes. I lived with the hope of seeing her, and now this hope is gone ... But I am proud of my daughter. I am proud that she did not hide in a difficult time for the Motherland, did not get cold feet, and with her head held high, she accepted death, saving the wounded. The people will not forget her, just as they will not forget other defenders of the Fatherland, who laid down their heads for the freedom of their native land ... ”.

In response, the fighters wrote:

“You have become a dear mother to all of us. We swear to you that we will avenge the death of our sister Valeria, for your bitter tears, for the tears of all our mothers, wives and sisters, our brides "...

A year after the battle, Lera was reburied by local residents in the mass grave of the soldiers who died in the village of Ivanenkovo. In the center of a large state farm park. And the village itself was given a new name - Gnarovskoe. And the monument was erected for centuries.

For saving the lives of seventy wounded soldiers at the cost of her own life and destroying an enemy tank, medical instructor Gnarovskaya Valeria Osipovna was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Wars are won by the wounded

Know Soviet people that you are the descendants of fearless warriors!
Know, Soviet people, that the blood flows in you great heroes,
Those who gave their lives for the Motherland, without thinking about the benefits!
Know and honor Soviet people the exploits of grandfathers and fathers!

“I stood up in full growth among the grasses of my relatives.
Formidable, not a womanly menacing look.
She fell under a German tank,
A girl with a bunch of grenades. "

A. Gorbachev

On all fronts of the Great Patriotic War, in the very heat of battle, one could see girls in white coats - medical instructors, nurses, paramedics, doctors, who made up about half of the entire medical staff of the Armed Forces.

They saved the lives of thousands of Soviet soldiers and commanders by bandaging them on the battlefield, taking them to shelters, delivering them to medical battalions and hospitals. To protect the wounded, nurses, orderlies, medical orderlies and paramedics often had to take up arms and use grenades.

The chief surgeon of the Red Army, Professor N.N. Burdenko, who was himself an orderly during the Russo-Japanese war, said:

“Remember, friends! Our whole country is looking at a soldier with a sanitary bag bending over a wounded comrade! "

The doctors never forgot about it ...

Nurse Vera Lebedeva, which carried away from the battlefield more than a dozen wounded soldiers and commanders, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for military exploits. She walked along the front-line roads until she was completely victorious.

Ekaterina Demina, a medical instructor of the 369th separate battalion of the marines, which was part of the Azov and then Danube military flotillas, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the courage and heroism shown during the war years.

During the Kerch-Eltigen landing operation, the marines were met with furious enemy fire near the minefields.

There was a momentary confusion that threatened everyone with death. And at this moment the nurse of the battalion Petrov G.K. screaming “There are no mines here, guys! Forward, comrades, dare forward! " carried away the rest of the fighters. On the same night, a brave girl carried out 20 wounded from the battlefield. And there are thousands of such examples ...

To the sanitary instructor Valeria Osipovna Gnarovskaya was only nineteen years old when she accomplished the feat, giving her life in the name of saving the wounded soldiers.

In 1941 Valeria graduated from a secondary school in the city of Podporozhye, Leningrad Region. The war began, Valeria's father, Osip Osipovich Gnarovsky, went to the front in the very first days of the war. The fighting was approaching Leningrad, and the Gnarovsky family: mother, grandmother, Valeria and her younger sister in September were evacuated to the Tyumen region, to the distant Siberian village of Berdyuzhye, where Valeria graduated from nursing courses. From Ishim, she went to the front, fought at Stalingrad.

In June 1942, when the 907th Infantry Regiment of the 244th Infantry Division of the 12th Army of the Southwestern Front took up defensive positions along the eastern bank of the Seversky Donets River, a puny girl in a soldier's uniform entered the dugout of the commander of the 1st battalion and reported:

- Medical instructor Gnarovskaya. Arrived for service.

The battalion commander looked at the medical instructor who looked like a teenager, doubted:

- Will he be able to take out wounded soldiers from the field?

Proposed:

- You'd better go to the field first-aid post. Take it easy there ...

But Valeria Gnarovskaya flatly refused to go to the first-aid post.

“You don’t look that I am small,” she said. - I'm strong. You will see!

She was left in the battalion. It was difficult for Valeria, her letters to her mother testify to this. At first, the girl could not look at open wounds, with great difficulty she pulled the seriously wounded from the battlefield on a raincoat. But she has a character, and she wrote about her difficulties with humor. In the battle near the village of Golaya Dolina alone, Valeria Gnarovska saved more than 40 wounded soldiers and commanders and killed about 30 German soldiers.

In the battles on the outskirts of Stalingrad, Valeria Gnarovskaya was at the front line and, under continuous deadly fire, continued to provide assistance to the wounded, carried the soldiers out of the fire and delivered them to the medical and sanitary company. She steadfastly endured all the hardships of life at the front, inhuman stress and, forgetting about the danger, saved our soldiers. Having received a concussion, after which she began to hear poorly, she ended up in the hospital, but soon returned to the front line. The regiment participated in continuous battles with the enemy, Valeria performed her duties as a medical instructor, pulled out the wounded from the battlefield. For about three weeks they fought surrounded, Gnarovskaya fell ill with typhoid fever. The soldiers broke through the leading edge to their own and carried the sick Valeria in their arms. Medical instructor Valeria Gnarovskaya was awarded the medal "For Courage".

In the spring of 1943 Valeria was already at the 3rd Ukrainian Front. It was September 1943, on account of Gnarovskaya there were three hundred wounded soldiers and officers whom she carried under fire from the battlefield ...

It happened on an autumn morning in 1943. Our troops fought intense battles on the banks of the Dnieper, especially fiercely the enemy resisted on the approaches to Zaporozhye.

The battalion, in which Valeria Gnarovskaya served, drove the Nazis out of the half-burnt village of Verbovaya, Chervonoarmeisky district, Zaporozhye region. Several times Verbovoe passed from hand to hand, and now the village is ours. They took a deep breath and marched towards the Dnieper. In front was an infantry company, followed by an artillery battery. As soon as we left the village and approached the forest plantations, we came under machine-gun fire from a carefully disguised enemy ambush.

The fight was short but bloody. The Nazis fled, but ours also had losses. After burying the dead, they gathered all the wounded and provided them with first aid. They pitched tents in the forest plantations, placed the wounded before being sent to the hospital. The foreman of the medical service, Gnarovskaya, remained with them.

“Swallow” was affectionately called by her fighters. At dawn, cars with red crosses were supposed to come for the wounded. But as soon as the sun rose, the growing roar of the engine was heard, and Valeria saw that two stray fascist "tigers" were moving from our rear towards the forest plantations. The first tank went straight to the tents, crushing bushes and destroying young trees.

In these critical moments, the nineteen-year-old girl did what the duty of a true sister of mercy told her to do. She collected from all the wounded bags with grenades and, hung with them, threw herself under the tracks. There was a deafening explosion, the tank froze, enveloped in black smoke.

Valeria died, but at the cost of her life she saved seventy wounded soldiers. This happened on September 23, 1943. The Red Army men arrived in time and knocked out the second tank.

The breakthrough was eliminated. For the accomplished feat, the medical instructor Gnarovskaya Valeria Osipovna, who was not yet twenty, was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Having learned about the death of her daughter, Valeria's mother, Evdokia Mikhailovna, addressed a letter to the commander and all the soldiers of the 907th regiment. She wrote:

“It hurts a mother's heart unbearably to realize that my daughter, my Swallow, is no longer in the world. It seems, not tears, but blood flowing from my eyes. I lived with the hope of seeing her, and now this hope is gone ... But I am proud of my daughter. I am proud that she did not hide in a difficult time for the Motherland, did not get cold feet, but with her head held high, she accepted death, saving the wounded. The people will not forget her, just as they will not forget other defenders of the Fatherland, who laid down their heads for the freedom of their native land ... ”.

In reply Gnarovskaya Evdokia Mikhailovna received a collective letter from the soldiers and officers of the regiment.

"You have become a dear mother for all of us," wrote the front-line soldiers, "We swear to you that we will avenge the death of our sister Valeria, for your bitter tears, for the tears of all our mothers, wives and sisters, our brides."

Crushed by shells, burned down, the village of Verbovaya rose from the ruins long ago. Now this is the village of Gnarovskoe, and in its center lies the ashes of the heroine. An obelisk was thrown up near the Moscow - Simferopol highway ...

Gnarovskaya Valeria Osipovna- Medical instructor of the 907th Infantry Regiment of the 244th Infantry Division of the 12th Army of the Southwestern Front, private.

She was born on October 18, 1923 in the village of Modolitsy, Plyussky District, Pskov Region, in the family of an employee. Russian. Graduated from the Podporozhskaya secondary school named after A.S. Pushkin.

With the outbreak of World War II, her father was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army, and with the approach of German troops to Leningrad, the Gnarovsky family was evacuated to Ishim, Tyumen region. There they were sent to the village of Berdyuzhie, where Valeria, together with her mother, began to work at the local post office.

From the very beginning of the war, Valeria repeatedly appealed to the local military enlistment office with the requirement to send her to the front, but each time she was refused. In the spring of 1942, the Komsomol members of the village of Berdyuzhye went to the Ishim station and secured their enrollment in the 229th rifle division that was being formed there. Valeria, together with her friends, underwent military training, studied sanitary engineering.

In July 1942, the division was sent to the Stalingrad front and immediately entered into heavy battles, in which Valeria Gnarovskaya showed courage, raising the Red Army soldiers to attack and carrying the wounded from the battlefield.

According to the memoirs of her front-line friend E. Doronina:
On the approaches to the front, in the heat, along a dusty road, in full gear, we walked day and night ... Not far from the Surovikino station, our unit went into action. There were strong battles. .. I was anxious at heart, especially in the first minutes. We were so confused that we were afraid to get out of cover on the battlefield. The strikes of artillery shells, the explosions of bombs - everything mixed into a continuous roar. Everything on the ground seemed to be crumbling and the earth crumbling underfoot.

As I remember now, Valeria was the first to run out of the trench and shouted: “Comrades! It's not scary to die for the Motherland! Went!" - And without the slightest hesitation, everyone left the trenches, rushed to the battlefield.

For 17 days, the division fought incessant battles with the enemy, was surrounded and within a week made its way to its own. Valeria courageously performed the duty of a physician. But soon she fell ill with typhoid fever. The soldiers, breaking through the encirclement, carried a barely living girl in their arms. She was awarded the medal "For Courage". After recovering again at the front.

In the summer of 1943, Valeria Gnarovskaya was again admitted to the hospital with a concussion, but soon returned to the unit. In a letter to her mother dated August 22, 1943, she wrote that she was alive and well, that she had been to the hospital for the second time, after the concussion she had difficulty hearing, but she hoped that it would go away:

From 15.08 to 21.08.1943 there was a heated battle with the Fritzes. The Germans rushed to the high-rise where we were, but all their attempts to break through were in vain. Our fighters - all my dear and lovely comrades - fought steadily and bravely ... Many of them died a heroic death, but I survived and I owe you, my dear ones, to tell you that I did a great job. She carried about 30 seriously wounded soldiers from the battlefield.

During the period of offensive battles, V.O. Gnarovskaya saved the lives of over 300 wounded.

On September 23, 1943, in battles near the village of Ivanenki, now the village of Gnarovskoe in the Volnyansk region of the Zaporozhye region of Ukraine, a sanitary instructor of the 907th rifle regiment of the 244th rifle division, Private Valeria Gnarovskaya, pulled out the wounded and brought them to the dressing station. At this time, two German "tigers" broke through in the direction of the dressing station. Rescuing the wounded, Valeria Gnarovskaya with a bunch of grenades threw herself under one of them and blew it up, the second was hit by the Red Army men who arrived in time. She was buried in the village of Gnarovskoe.

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 3, 1944, for the exemplary performance of the combat missions of the command and for the courage and heroism shown in battles with the Nazi invaders, the Red Army soldier Gnarovskaya Valeria Osipovna was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

She was awarded the Order of Lenin and a medal.

In the city of Podporozhye, Leningrad Region, Hero of the Soviet Union V.O. a monument was erected, and a memorial plaque on the school building. The streets in the cities of Podporozhye and Tyumen bear the name of the Heroine. In the center of the village of Gnarovskoe there is a bust of V.O. Gnarovskaya, at the place of her death - a memorial sign.

From presentation to award

Only in the battle for the city of Dolitsa near the Seversky Donets River, she carried 47 wounded soldiers and officers with their weapons from the battlefield ... I personally destroyed 28 German soldiers and officers. Under the Ivanenkovo ​​state farm, 2 enemy tanks of the "Tiger" type broke through our line of defense - rushed to the location of the regiment's headquarters. At this critical moment, the tanks approached 60-70 meters to the headquarters location. Gnarovskaya, grabbing a bunch of grenades and rising to her full height, rushed to meet the enemy tank in front and, sacrificing her life, threw herself under the tank.

As a result of the explosion, the tank was stopped ...

... Valeria's life before the war was the same as that of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Soviet girls. She was born in 1923, in the village of Modolitsy near Pskov, in the family of a postman. Father...

... Valeria's life before the war was the same as that of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Soviet girls. She was born in 1923, in the village of Modolitsy near Pskov, in the family of a postman. Father - Osip Osipovich Gnarovsky, a participant in the Civil War - worked as the head of the post office, mother - Evdokia Mikhailovna, was engaged in housekeeping, raised children. The family had a legend that Osip Gnarovsky was a direct descendant of the Polish revolutionary Ignatius Gnarovsky, who was exiled to Siberia for participating in the Polish uprising of 1863-64.

In 1924, the Gnarovsky family moved to the village of Bardovskoye of the Yandebsky village council in the Podporozhsky district of the Leningrad region. Here, after graduating from the Yandebsky elementary school, the girl entered the secondary school named after A.S. Pushkin in the city of Podporozhye. In 1941 she graduated from the 10th grade, planned to enter a mining institute, studied in an amateur art circle, joined the Komsomol.

Valeria Gnarovskaya

With the first salvoes of the war in the summer of 1941, Valeria's father Osip Osipovich volunteered for the front. And the family of the Soviet postal worker was asked to leave for evacuation. The Gnarovskys didn’t have any more fighters, it’s not a family without a father — an old woman’s kingdom: an elderly grandmother, a toiler-mother, and two daughters, one of whom had barely crossed the school threshold, and the other was still studying. In September 1941, having collected simple belongings, the family left with fellow villagers to the Tyumen region, to the distant Siberian village of Berdyuzhye.

What will you do with us, beauty? a one-armed, stern man from the board of a local collective farm asked Valeria. - Even though you are unfortunate refugees, and you are a prominent girl, there, there is a Komsomol badge on a jacket ... So, I'm not used to sitting around idle. And it's easier to forget grief while at work. Judging by myself. We will be familiar: Timofey Kiryanov, a former soldier, according to the priest - Mikhailovich.

And Valeria decided:

Dad is at the front with us, Timofey Mikhalych. I also think to go ...

Forget it, little pig. War is not an occupation for girls. Do you see how I came from the war - a cancer with one claw? And count it, if you were so, beauty? .. Here, that's the same ... The war, dear, all the wounded are winning, believe the old man, the burnt kerzhak, who has seen four of them for a lifetime, wars!

Four Wars!

What was the history of your school? .. The first was Japanese, in 1905. I was old then - as you are today, no older. The second is the Imperialist one, also, as now, against the German. Then - Civil, "All to fight Denikin!" ... And for the fourth time I had to fight in Turkestan, when after the Civil War there, with the support of British agents, the Basmachi raged. And I'll tell you, girl, that you have nothing to do there, in the war. Blood, death, dirt, a louse and a trench spirit are worse than in a stable. The peasants - and even then not all can stand, but peasants are supposed to put their heads for their homeland. And we will find something for you that is more suitable for the female class. With your echelon, dozens of bereaved kids were brought from the orphanage. I placed them with Makarovna, she has a lot of places - four sons at the front, their women - in the city at the factory. Will you go to Makarovna as an assistant - a nanny, follow the kids? ..

Can. As a child, she nursed her younger sister - her parents were at work.

Okay. And all the same - forget about the war!

However, the branch of the orphanage of the collective farmer did not last long. "Bezbatyushny" orphans were quickly taken to their homes by compassionate villagers, consider, adopted. Then she helped the signalmen at the telephone exchange for several weeks. But the Sovinformburo brought news of the retreat of the Red Army in the evening reports.

And then Valery, together with several rural girls, begged the chairman to send them to Ishim - to nursing courses. And already in Ishim, Lera began to knock on the thresholds of the military registration and enlistment office, demanding that after her studies she be assigned to a military hospital or to a front-line unit - a medical instructor.

She achieved her goal just when the glow of the Battle of Stalingrad rose over the Volga steppes.

The medical instructor in battle assists the wounded

In June 1942, when the 907th Infantry Regiment of the 244th Infantry Division of the 12th Army of the Southwestern Front took up defensive positions along the eastern bank of the Seversky Donets River, a puny girl in a soldier's uniform entered the dugout of the commander of the 1st battalion and reported:

Red Army medical orderly Gnarovskaya. Arrived after training at the Ishim medical school for service.

The battalion commander looked the girl from head to toe. Thin little pig! Boots are two sizes too big, not otherwise, a tunic on narrow shoulders - like on a hanger. Not a soldier, but a yellow-mouthed chick.

So, soldier Gnarovskaya, how old are you? I suppose she lied at the military registration and enlistment office that seventeen had already hit?

I am born in 1923.

I see, - carefully examining the girl's documents, the commander said, - but you look like a schoolgirl - weak means. In addition, from the evacuees, it means that you had to starve and win. I won't let you go to the front line. Serve while at the medical center in the near rear ... Pigalitsa!

Comrade Major, don't need me to go to the infirmary! I was always short, but I can handle it. I'm strong. She was an athlete before the war.

Did you play chess?

Volleyball. And our team was the second in the area among juniors. Don't look that I am a short man, I am hardy. And in your battalion, the medical instructor was killed, I know.

Yes, they killed ... - the commander became serious, ruffled his forelock, which had already begun to turn gray, - you are right, soldier Gnarovskaya, I have no one for this position now ... I can hardly imagine how you, for example, someone like me, from the battlefield drag on a drag. I have almost eighty kilos in me, and I still have a reputation for being puny in the battalion, the other guys are still heroes.

I can do it, Comrade Commander!

The major pulled out from under the table a skinny canvas bag with a red cross on the flap.

Here, take it. But you still have to go to the first-aid post - you need to replenish it here. Take it, take it, don't look like that. Natasha's inheritance ... Snegireva's soldier, then. What's your name?

Lera. Valeria.

If one of the fighters, out of habit, calls Natasha - do not shy away. She was a glorious maiden!

If the medical instructors were captured, the Germans could have hanged ...

Gnarovskaya Valeria Osipovna - medical instructor of a company of the 907th Infantry Regiment (244th Infantry Division, 66th Infantry Corps, 12th Army, South-Western Front), petty officer.

She was born on October 18, 1923 in the village of Modolitsy, Medush volost, Gatchinsky district, Petrograd province (now Volosovsky district, Leningrad region). Russian. Since 1924 (according to other sources - since 1928) lived in the village of Bardovskaya (now it does not exist; the territory of the Podporozhsky urban settlement of the Podporozhsky district of the Leningrad region). In 1938 she graduated from 7 classes of elementary school in Bardovskaya, in 1941 - 10 classes of secondary school in the city of Podporozhye. She planned to enter the Leningrad Mining Institute.

After the outbreak of World War II in September 1941, she was evacuated to the village of Peganovo (Berdyuzhsky district of the Tyumen region), where she worked as a telephone operator in the post office. In April 1942, she achieved enrollment in the 229th Infantry Division, which was being formed at the Ishim station, and soon graduated from nursing courses.

Participant of the Great Patriotic War: in July - September 1942 - a nurse of the 804th Infantry Regiment. She fought on the Stalingrad Front (July - September 1942). Participated in the defense of Stalingrad. Since August 10, 1942, with other soldiers, she was surrounded, but a week later they managed to break through to their own. Soon she fell ill with typhoid fever and was sent to the hospital.

From May 1943 he was a medical instructor in a company of the 907th Infantry Regiment. She fought on the Southwestern Front (August - September 1943). Participated in the Donbass operation and the liberation of the Left-Bank Ukraine. In August 1943, she was shell-shocked and lost her hearing. After a short stay in the hospital, she returned to her unit.

On September 23, 1943, in the vicinity of the village of Verbovoe (now the village of Gnarovskoe, Volnyansk region, Zaporozhye region, Ukraine), two enemy Tiger tanks broke through to the rear of our troops and rushed to the location of the regiment's headquarters and the medical battalion. At this critical moment, V.O. Gnarovskaya, grabbing a bunch of grenades and rising to her full height, rushed to meet the enemy tank in front and, sacrificing her life, blew it up. The second tank was knocked out by soldiers from an anti-tank rifle.

During the war, she helped 338 wounded soldiers and commanders.

For courage and heroism shown in battles with Nazi troops, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 3, 1944, the foreman Valeria Osipovna Gnarovskaya posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

She was buried in a mass grave in the center of the village of Verbovoe (sometimes it was called Ivanenki), which in 1945 was renamed the village of Gnarovskoye.

She was awarded the Order of Lenin (03.06.1944, posthumously).

In the city of Podporozhye and the village of Gnarovskoe, there are busts of V.O. Gnarovskaya, and at the place of her death on the outskirts of the village of Gnarovskoe - a memorial sign. Streets in the cities of Tyumen, Podporozhye (Leningrad Oblast), Zaporozhye (Ukraine) and Volnyansk (Zaporozhye Oblast), as well as in the village of Berdyuzhye, Tyumen Oblast, are named after her. In the city of Podporozhye, a memorial plaque was installed at the school in which she studied.

Notes:
1) A number of reference books indicate the erroneous place of birth of V.O. Gnarovskaya - the village of Modolitsy, Plyussky district of the Pskov region (which contradicts the documents). For this reason, in the village of Plyussa, a street is named after her and a monument is erected;
2) In the text of the Decree, the military rank is erroneously indicated - Red Army soldier;
3) In the award list of V.O. Gnarovskaya there is a medal "For Courage", but no documentary evidence of this award could be found ...

Military ranks:
Red Army soldier (04.1942)
Sergeant Major (1943)

In July 1942, the 229th Rifle Division, which included the 804th Rifle Regiment, was sent to the front and immediately engaged in heavy fighting in the 64th Army's defense zone. On July 26, 1942, the enemy broke through the division's defenses on the right flank near the Surovikino station (Volgograd region) and reached the Chir River. The division, retaining its combat capability, continued to hold back the enemy, who was striving to reach the railway bridge over the Don River. And on July 31, 1942, together with the 112th Infantry Division, supported by ten tanks and aviation, the fighters of the 229th Infantry Division themselves launched a counteroffensive and threw back the German troops across the Chir River.

For 17 days, the soldiers of the division fought incessant battles with the enemy, and on August 10, 1942, they were surrounded and within a week made their way to the front line (about 700 people from 5.419 crossed over to the left bank of the Don and reached their own).

All this time, Valeria performed the duty of a physician, but soon fell ill with typhoid fever and was sent to the hospital.

When breaking through the enemy's defense in the area of ​​the village of Dolina (Slavyansky district of Donetsk region, Ukraine) on August 15-21, 1943, she carried 47 wounded soldiers and officers from the battlefield, personally destroyed several Nazis. During these battles, she was wounded and lost her hearing. After a short stay in the hospital, she returned to her unit.

From the morning of September 23, 1943, the 907th Rifle Regiment was conducting offensive operations in the direction of the Dnieper north of Zaporozhye. In the area of ​​the village of Verbovoe (now the village of Gnarovskoe, Volnyansk district, Zaporozhye region, Ukraine), the advance detachment of the regiment was ambushed by the Nazis. In the very first minutes of the battle, many killed and wounded appeared, and Valeria fearlessly rushed to where groans and calls for help were heard.

After a fierce battle, deploying guns on direct fire, the Soviet soldiers managed to knock down the enemy from their positions and continue the offensive. The wounded were left on the battlefield, to whom V.O. Gnarovskaya began to provide first aid.

Valeria and the orderlies left to help her organized an impromptu field medical center, where the wounded were collected for their further sending to the rear. The headquarters of the 907th Infantry Regiment is located a few hundred meters away.

Suddenly, two enemy tanks "Tiger" broke through to the rear of our troops and rushed to the location of the headquarters of the regiment and the medical battalion. At this critical moment, V.O. Gnarovskaya, grabbing a bunch of grenades and standing up to her full height, rushed to meet the enemy tank in front and, sacrificing her life, blew it up. The second tank was knocked out by soldiers from an anti-tank rifle.