Draft:Nina Bondar

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Ilyinichna and the family name is Bondar.

Nina Ilyinichna Bondar
File:Ширяева, Нина Ильинична.jpg
Born	(1922-08-19)19 August 1922 Vladivostok, DVR, RSFSR
Died	(2013-04-13)13 April 2013 Biysk
Allegiance	USSR
Service / branch	WPRA (1940–1945)
Years of service	1941—1946
Rank	Captain
Unit	237th Tank Brigade
Battles / wars	Great Patriotic War Operation Barbarossa Battle of Kursk Battle of Korsun–Cherkassy Battle of the Dukla Pass Battle in Berlin
Awards	Order of the Red Banner Order of the Patriotic War Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945"
Other work	Engineer of the Design Bureau at ESD - BiKZ

Nina Ilyinichna Bondar (Russian: Ни́на Ильи́нична Бо́ндарь, 19 August 1922 – 13 April 1946; Since 1950 Shiryaeva) is a Sovietian tank officer and participant in the Great Patriotic War. During the war, she was a T-34 tank commander in the 237th Tank Brigade and a captain.

Biography

She was born in the city of Vladivostok into a military family.. Nina's father, Ilya Bondar, died in a train accident during a business trip to Novosibirsk. After some time, the family moved to Biysk. Since childhood, in her own words, she was “obsessed” with aviation, graduated from the Biysk flying club, and flew a Po-2 aircraft

War years

With the German attack, she volunteered to come to the Biysk military commissariat and enlistment office and was sent to the Moscow airunits. During one reconnaissance flight on a Po-2, she was seriously wounded and, according to doctors, was completely unfit for aviation.

However, Nina was not going to go to the rear and refused offers to enroll in a medical school and to become a traffic controller. Her friends from the reserve wrote a patriotic letter to Joseph Stalin, enclosing a list of those wishing to study at the tank school. N. I. Bondar was also included in this list. The letter was personally signed by Stalin and Voroshilov.

After graduating from the Saratov Tank School in the spring of 1942, Lieutenant Bondar was sent as a T-34 tank commander of the 2nd Tank Battalion of the 237th Tank Brigade. She took part in the Battle of Kursk and Battle of Korsun–Cherkassy. Liberated Ukraine SSR, Poland and Czechoslovakia.

For the memorial in the pass, the tank was decorated with the number under which Bondar drove

Distinguished herself especially during the Battle of the Dukla Pass. In September 1944, her tank, as part of three vehicles of the platoon commander Lieutenant Fedorov, was on reconnaissance and was the first to break into the pass. In a swift move, three tank crews cleared five settlements, ensuring the advance of the main forces of the brigade. When the company commander was out of action, in a difficult situation, she took command of the company and organized a 4-hour battle. Despite being wounded in the right arm, she remained in the ranks until the order was received to withdraw the entire battalion from the battle. In subsequent battles, N. I. Bondar's crew was the first to break into the city of Ostrava. For the battles at the pass, she was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

In January 1945, she participated in the liberation of Czestochowa, and in January and February 1945, she also repeatedly led her tank on reconnaissance missions in the area of ​​the cities of Ostrow, Gross-Strelitz, and Hindenburg. For her distinction in battle, she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (March 11, 1945). During an attack on enemy positions in Hindenburg as part of a tank platoon, she forced the enemy to abandon the city with a flanking maneuver. Having crossed the Oder river first, she broke into the villages of Rosenthal and Losii as part of a platoon. During the battle, she was wounded in the head, but did not leave the tank until the main forces of the 3rd tank battalion arrived. Then she stormed Berlin. Captain fired her last shell on the Elbe.

During the war, she was seriously wounded four times, and burned in a tank twice. In particular, she did not take off her helmet for about a year because her hair had burnt out. Participant of the Victory Parade in June 1945 in Moscow.

Post-war

In 1946, she was demobilized, lived in Biysk, worked in the design bureau at the boiler plant, Veteran of Labor. She graduated from the Heat Power Institute in Tomsk.

In 1950, she married her colleague Pyotr Fyodorovich Shiryaev, whom she met by chance during the war on the Vistula (After that, she became Shiryaeva). The family had a son, Vladimir, and a daughter, Galina. Son Vladimir Petrovich is a major in the tank forces, a participant in the First and Second Chechen Wars. Daughter Galina Petrovna is the head of the technical documentation department at the Biysk Boiler Plant. Four grandchildren.

She died on April 13, 2013 in Biysk. After that, a memorial plaque appeared on the house where she lived. They plan to name one of the streets of the City in her honor.

Sources

• The book "Zeva v ranku" was published in Slovakia
• Алексей Тимофеев (2010-03-05). ""В танкистской форме, при погонах..."". Интернет-газета «Столетие». Retrieved 2014-07-04.
• Николай Гуртенко (2011-08-19). "Командир «Тридцатьчертвёрки»". Алтайская правда № 238-240 (25229-25231). Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
• "Нина Ильинична Бондарь («Командир экипажа «Т-34»)". Mapro (20) (Интернет-газета «Танки Онлайн» ed.): 25–26. 2011.
• "Скончалась легендарная бийская танкистка Нина Ширяева". Газета «Бийский рабочий». 2013-04-22. Retrieved 2014-07-04.
• Ефанова Галина. "Ширяева Нина Ильинична". Бессмертный полк. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-07-04.