Baptism of Fire at Stalingrad                                                           -October 1942- told by Isaak Kobylyanskiy
	Isaak Kobylyanskiy seemed to have been asleep for just a minute before someone shook him and yelled:   " ' Double-quickly to the telephone! Our battery commander called you!' "    "I slipped my bare feet into the boots and ran to the emplacements, threw the wet overcoat over my shoulders [while] fastening the belt at the same time," Kobylyanskiy remembers. "It was absolutely light outside."     His superiors were all standing close to the telephone set. The operator gave the receiver to Kobylyanskiy, who introduced himself to his battery commander on the other side.         " ' I order you to fulfill the duties of a man in charge at the battery emplacements! Report me the readiness for action in five minutes! ' "     "Yes, sir!"      The order was "so unexpected", he recalls. Kobylyanskiy questioned in his mind why he was chosen to be in charge since according to regulations, there should be several others before him. "I had no time to complete my reflection. I became slightly nervous, and at the same time I felt a surge of pride."
		"I was given responsibility for the first gunnery at the enemy! Now I have no right to blunder!"        The battery fired about 20 shells at three different enemy targets before the all-clear signal was given. The battery commander called and said that the battery under Kobylyanskiy had destroyed a pillbox and neutralized two Axis mortar batteries. He also thanked them for their very accurate fire - no error was made.        " ' Serve the Soviet Union!' -  we responded all together.        In such a way, my baptism of fire came about," Isaak Kobylyanskiy tells.