“Hello. There is lighting in the sky.”
“I understand,” replied Mishanin.
“Good luck,” wished Ryabyshev and rung off.
Colonel Gerasimov, commander of the 7th Motorized Rifle Division, also located in Striy, was next.
“Gerasimov here.”
“Hello, my friend. Do you hear the sounds the forest is making?”
“It is indeed making sounds, but the forester knows what he is about,” Gerasimov replied.
Major General Vasilyev, commander of 34th Tank Division in the village of Sadovaya Vishnya, thirty miles west of Lvov, was the last one. Their exchange was even shorter.
“Hello. Mountain! Good Luck!”
“I understand.”
Shortly prior to the start of the war, Ryabyshev prearranged with his division commanders, for security purposes, code phrases which would notify them to open their sealed orders with war-time deployment areas. “Lightning,” “forest,” and “mountain” were the code phrases for the three divisions.[5]
Roughly at 0430 hours, Colonel V. S. Varennikov, chief of staff of the Twenty-Sixth Army, called with grim news: Germans were bombarding forward Soviet positions, city of Peremyshl was under direct fire of German artillery, and in some places German infantry had crossed the border. Varennikov’s instructions were not to fall for any provocations, not to open fire on German aircraft, and wait for orders.[6]
While the command staff of VIII Mechanized Corps waited for orders, the city of Drogobych was bombed twice by German aviation. As the second wave of bombers was just starting its run, Ryabyshev pulled Popel into his office. On the way there he ordered the duty officer:
“Connect me with commander of air-defense artillery brigade!”
Without saying another word, Ryabyshev looked at Popel. Besides being colleagues, the two men were friends. Popel knew that Ryabyshev was asking him, his commissar, for approval to violate the explicit orders not to open fire on German aircraft. Fully knowing the gravity of his decision, Popel nodded agreement.
After a second’s pause, Ryabyshev dropped instructions into the telephone:
“Open fire on enemy aircraft!”[7]
A minute later, barking of antiaircraft guns punctuated the sound of exploding German bombs.
Telephone lines, cut by German bombs, commandos, and Ukrainian nationalists, were working only intermittently. News began trickling in: casualties among units were light; however, there were casualties among officers’ families, victims of German bombs.
Ryabyshev also received reports that two small groups of enemy paratroopers were dropped in the area between Drogobych and Striy. He sent out two battalion-sized task forces made up of motorcycle companies, companies of BT-7 tanks, and companies of motorized infantry to track down and destroy the German commandos.
Reports, good and bad, continued trickling in. German bombing around Drogobych and Striy hit the rear echelon units and installations of the VIII Mechanized Corps hard. Both groups of enemy paratroopers were located and wiped out. A small airfield near Striy was bombed, and a squadron of Soviet reconnaissance aircraft, destroyed. Twelfth Tank Division finished leaving its garrison and proceeded to staging area without incident. One regiment from the 7th Motorized Rifle Division did not get moving orders in time and was hit hard by German aircraft in its camp; the casualties were heavy: 70 killed and 120 wounded.[8]
When around 1000 hours a liaison officer from the Twenty-Sixth Army at last brought orders, Ryabyshev and Popel could breathe easier: they finally had clear instructions after five hours of inactivity. The VIII Mechanized Corps was to concentrate by the end of the day in the vicinity of town of Sambor, roughly twenty miles to the west. Hastily prepared orders for subordinated divisions were sent out with liaison officers and over the radio when possible.
Ryabyshev with his headquarters element accompanied the 12th Tank Division to Sambor. Even though it was only twenty miles from Drogobych to Sambor, the trip there was extremely difficult. Other large units were on the move as well. While the 12th Tank Division was moving west from Striy and Drogobych to Sambor, another formation, the XIII Rifle Corps under Maj. Gen. N. K. Kirilov, belonging to the Twelfth Army, was moving east along the same road from Sambor to Drogobych.
The narrow two-lane unpaved road became a nightmare of entangled tanks, wheeled vehicles, tractors, wagons, men, and horses. Swearing, shouting, occasional bursts from air-defense machine guns were all enveloped in a thick cloud of dust. There were constant traffic jams. Some vehicles slipped off the narrow roads and became stuck in the marshy ditches. The roadbed did not hold up to the pressure of multitudes of men and machines and became a thick morass of soft earth. Ancient small bridges over many streams constantly broke under the weight of heavy vehicles.[9]
Popel, who was a good friend of the commander of the 34th Tank Division, Colonel I. V. Vasilyev, volunteered to go along with the liaison officer sent to that division. As Popel’s staff car and an armored car escort raced along the road to Lvov, a flight of German fighters spotted them and began hunting them along the rutted road. Drivers of both vehicles began series of evasive maneuvers, accelerating and stopping in order to foil the aim of German pilots.
Relief came unexpectedly in the shape of a single Soviet I-16 fighter. Without hesitation, the Soviet fighter threw himself against half-dozen German aircraft. Several moments later the I-16 went spiraling to the ground trailing a thick plume of smoke and crashed in front of Popel’s eyes. The name of the pilot who selflessly sacrificed himself to save strangers on the ground will never be known. But where was the rest of the Soviet Air Force?[10]
Popel found the 34th Tank Division well hidden in its assigned place in the woods west of Drogobych. Being able to leave its garrisons in time and disperse in the woods, Colonel Vasiliev’s division hardly suffered any casualties from German bombing. However, the division’s officers saw that the Germans were dropping bombs on the garrisons where their families remained and were extremely anxious for any news about safety of their loved ones.
After receiving updated instructions, the 34th Tank Division set off towards the border. This division contained a large portion of the new T-34 and KV-1 tanks, and Popel now proudly observed these new machines heading off to war.
As the 34th Tank Division approached the border, the sounds of fighting grew louder and more intense. Refugees, first in ones and twos, then in streams, appeared heading away from the border. The lucky ones found places on trucks, cars, or horse-drawn wagons. Many fled on foot, clutching their meager belongings. Almost every truck contained wounded soldiers.
By 2100 hours the VIII Mechanized Corps concentrated in the woods around Sambor. The corps headquarters were set up near the headquarters of the Twenty-Sixth Army.
Ryabyshev called for a staff meeting to get a situation report. All of his combat elements were in their assigned staging area. Roughly 700 of his 932 tanks were present and ready for action. In his memoirs Ryabyshev mentions that the missing 232 tanks were left behind in the garrison areas due to the need of major overhaul. However, the major portion of the missing tanks fell prey to various noncombat causes: broke down on the march, became stuck in difficult terrain, or suffered the prosaic indignity of running out of fuel.
Shortly thereafter, Col. A. K. Blazhey from the staff of the Twenty-Sixth Army hand-delivered to Ryabyshev orders from the front headquarters. The VIII Mechanized Corps was ordered to turn around and by noon on 23rd of June concentrate in the area fifteen miles east of Lvov and report to the commander of the Sixth Army, Lt. Gen. I. N. Muzychenko.