вЂњIn final testimony of the hell left behind,вЂќ one of the passengers later remembered, вЂњthe dark bulk of Corregidor suddenly blazed with fires and bursting shells. The small craft pulled along side the submarine, and 27 passengers climbed aboard the USS Spearfish with their baggage, important files, and mail. Were the months of hunger and war behind them? Would their rescuers slip through the blockade of Japanese warships?ДЇinally, at 7:35 pm they saw it: A recognition signal from a surfaced submarine. Its passengers, evacuees of bombarded Corregidor island, waited anxiously for sign of their promised rescue. Portrait of Earl LeRoy Sackett, around 23 years old, from the 1920 US Naval Academy yearbook. In 1945 he was sent into Suvorov Military School.Image 1. Sergey remained with regiment through the entire war. Awarded the medal for вЂњcombat achievementsвЂќ on (saved regiment commander ,who was buried alive by the explosion, by promptly finding help). Serezha was wounded during Stalingrad battle (18-11-1942) After recovery in the hospital he returned to the regiment. He was вЂњenlistedвЂќ in the regiment since the regiment commander believed (and reasonably so) that the boy had better chances of surviving with them (more or less regular feeding, winter clothing etc) than on its own. On the Septemhe was found, half-dead, by soldiers from 142nd Guards Regiment, who pretty much saved from inventible death. He wondered in the forests for couple of weeks, eating whatever he could find.

Two of his older brothers and a mother perished while fighting Germans he became an orphan and was forced to run for his life when Germans finally found the village and destroyed it.

Due to its location (read in the middle of nowhere) the village became a partisan base. Sergey Aleshkov born in 1936 died 1990,В He lived in some remote village in Kaluga region. Some of those boys joined the army at nine or eleven, and stayed with their regiment through all the war front, from Russia to Germany, until the war ended and they were discharged at fourteen or sixteen, often with medals of honor. Specially sized uniforms were tailored for them and they were entrusted with guns. While there was a directive for them to send such children to established orphanages, still sometimes such boys were simply incorporated into the active combat units While some did succeed in joining the army, it was often the case for these runaways to get lost in the woods or shot along their journey.ДЄlso, from time to time, soldiers found children in the devastated and burnt down villages of the Soviet Union. Many kids tried to run away from their homes вЂњto the WarвЂќ but most such cases were eventually captured by military police and returned back to their homes.

Generally speaking, children were not allowed to join the combat army-but many exceptions were made. But just a few decades ago, during World War II, there were often occasions of Russian kids fighting in the regular army against the Nazis. From time to time photos of child soldiers in Africa holding AK-47s or some other kind of weapon appear here and there provoking outrage and compassion from the Western public.

The journey back ww2