VIKTOR DMITRIEVICH VETOSHKIN

1925 – 2015

Full Knight of the Order of Glory

He was born in the village of Novaya Milcha. He studied at the railway technical school in Gomel.

He served in the Red Army since 1944. On January 14, 1945, the gunner of the mortar, Private Vetoshkin, when breaking through the enemy defense on the left bank of the Vistula River near the town of Warka (Poland), suppressed 2 machine-gun points and killed up to 10 enemy soldiers. On February 14, 1945, he was awarded the Order of Glory of the 3rd degree.

On March 27, 1945, during the liquidation of the enemy's bridgehead on the right bank of the Oder River, the commander of the mortar crew Vetoshkin destroyed 2 enemy firing points and 11 enemy soldiers. On April 26, 1945, he was awarded the Order of Glory of the 2nd degree. From the 5th to the 7th of May 1945, Sergeant Vetoshkin suppressed 5 firing points and destroyed up to 10 soldiers in a battle near the town of Vritsen (Germany). Being then in the infantry battle formations, he corrected the mortar fire, hit several enemy soldiers with his personal weapons. On May 15, 1946, he was awarded the Order of Glory of the 1st degree. In March 1950, he was demobilized. In 1958 he graduated from the school for the working youth. Until 1983 he worked as a photocincographer at the Polespechat factory. He lived in Gomel.

He was awarded the Order of Lenin and of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, as well as medals.

In 2002, he was awarded the title of "Honorary Citizen of Gomel", in 2008- "Honorary Citizen of Gomel region".

He died on June 27, 2015, and was buried at the Novomilchansky Cemetery.