“The commander took a machine gun and shot the enemies directly from the hatch.” The story of a tanker who received the Hero of Ukraine star posthumously

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On September 29, the President awarded the title of Heroes of Ukraine to servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Junior sergeant Dmytro Granchar, who was awarded the title of Hero with the note “posthumously” is among the awardees.

The award decrees do not specify the military unit and do not describe the merits of the soldiers. However, the author of this material was lucky enough to know Dmitry and his comrades personally, so we can write for what exactly the Hero star was received.

Dmytro Granchar (call sign Dymon) served as a tank crew commander in the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade, he was adored by the infantrymen and feared by the enemy. In Russian social networks, there was even an announcement about a reward of 25 thousand dollars “for the head of Damon”. He was a fearless fighter who always rushed to attack.

Dmytro died in October 2022. We tell his story.

Damon on his T-72 tank (photo taken four days before his heroic death)

In every battle, the antenna of Damon’s tank was decorated with the Ukrainian flag

Dmytro was born in 1982 in Poti, Georgia. His father is Bulgarian, and his mother is Russian. After the birth of the son, the family moved to Odesa (where the father is from). It was here that Dmytro grew up, received an education, and worked as an electrician at a local utility company.

In 2015, he was mobilized, and then remained in the army on contract. Passed the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone, received the status of a participant in hostilities. Although Dmytro did not have Ukrainian blood in his veins (he himself considered himself a Bulgarian), his years of service in the Armed Forces showed that he was a true patriot of Ukraine. In every battle, the antenna of Damon’s tank was decorated with the Ukrainian flag.

Dmytro’s regular contract ended in October 2021, but he extended it for another year. And a few months later, a full-scale war began.

The tank unit of the 128th brigade was involved in heavy fighting from the first days of the Russian invasion. On the third day of the war, the crew of a T-72, in which Diemon was the gunner, stopped an enemy convoy in the direction of Zaporozhye and came under the fire of an anti-tank missile system.

The tank was hit by two rockets, the crew commander (who was also the tank company commander) was seriously wounded. Damon, together with the driver-mechanic, despite the concussions, pulled out the wounded officer under enemy fire and handed him over to the evacuation team, thus saving his life.

Five days after the injury, Damon entered the battle again as a tank commander. He accompanied the movement of an infantry unit near the village of Myrne, saw an enemy column and immediately opened fire.

As a result of that battle, Russian BTR-80, MTLB (armored tracked tractor), URAL truck with ammunition and Russian infantry were destroyed by direct hits. The remnants of the enemy fled in panic, not having time to return fire, Damon’s tank and crew remained unharmed.

Shortly after this battle, Demon’s tank, together with the infantry, raided the enemy’s rear and engaged in battle with a Russian Army unit near the village of Dorozhnyanka. The result of the battle was the destruction of enemy BMP-3, MTLB and infantrymen.

At the beginning of the full-scale war, there were only a few experienced crew commanders who had gone through actual combat operations in the tank battalion. Therefore, Dmytro Granchar, in the breaks between battles, taught the newcomers how to choose the right position, maneuver, and use different types of camouflage. These trainings saved the life of more than one fighter.

Demon and Pinocchio’s mechanic driver

“Daemon always led the fight from the hatch, he was completely fearless…”

At the end of the summer of last year, the 128th brigade was transferred to another direction – to liberate the Kherson region. Bloody attacks began, and tank crews were attached to mountain assault infantry units. In the first assault, Damon was also involved.

This is how the mountain stormtroopers describe that battle:

– Our platoon was reinforced by two tanks, in particular, Damon’s crew. They worked very filigree – they constantly moved, changed positions and alternated fire, which did not stop even during the replenishment of ammunition. Directly behind the landing occupied by the Russians, a dirt road leading to the village began, along which a column of infantry on board vehicles moved to help the enemy. Our tank hit it with a high-explosive fragmentation projectile, from one shot there were minus twenty 200s and 300s. During the battle, the tankers also burned a Russian armored personnel carrier – they worked very efficiently.

During the first assault, it was possible to knock out the Russians only from the landing part. The main battle followed by the liberation of the village took place two days later.

– We rushed to the enemy positions, lowering mine trawls to demine the passages for the infantry, – the tank mechanic-driver Viktor (call sign Pinocchio) remembers that battle. – The stormtroopers were supposed to be covered by the BMP, but after several rounds from the automatic cannon, the mechanic was poisoned by powder gases and could not move. Therefore, the infantrymen followed our tank.

On the move, the T-72 continuously covered the enemy with fire from a cannon and a machine gun, and when it approached the positions by a hundred meters, they began to hit it with RPGs (manual anti-tank grenade launchers). Daemon stepped out of the hatch and directed the battle directly. It could even be taken from a machine gun, but he never paid attention to that.

– Before each battle, the commander asked the infantrymen for several grenade launchers and put them near him in the tower, – Viktor continues. – During that assault, when we approached the enemy by 20 meters, the first RPG grenade hit our frontal armor. I was only slightly shaken, tinnitus appeared and that was it. The tank continued the battle, although we only had three projectiles left – two cumulative and an armor-piercing one. We shot they calculated the enemy ZU-shka (anti-aircraft installation), which worked on ground targets. A few seconds later, a second RPG shot. Damon managed to see the grenade launcher and shouted to me: “Left!” At the last second, I managed to make a sharp turn, thanks to which it was not difficult to hit the grenade – only the electronics failed and the gun partially jammed.

The tank reached the end of the landing, released a smoke screen and rushed back – to reload the ammunition. He flew at 7 speeds and even jumped in the air on one of the climbs.

The gunner managed to wedge the gun on the move, during reloading it was so hot that it was impossible to touch. The cannon did not fire the last projectiles, but “spit out”. But immediately after reloading, the T-72 rushed back to the landing and continued the battle, firing at enemy positions from a cannon and a machine gun on the way. These were very good fortifications and the Russians behaved professionally.

Later it became known that the assault aircraft of the 128th brigade was opposed by the landing-assault brigade from Ussuriysk – regular units of the Rosarmy, which were not going to retreat or surrender.

– We approached the positions at close range, our last shells hit them with direct fire from a distance of ten meters, – says Victor. – And then Damon pulled out a grenade launcher from the tower, jumped on the enemy trench from above and started shooting the enemies with his machine gun. When he fired his horns, the gunner and I gave him ours. Only after that, the Russians began to flee, and our infantry captured their positions…

Pinocchio: “Before every battle, the commander asked the infantrymen for several grenade launchers and put them next to him in the tower”

All the foot soldiers adored Damon, it was like a concrete wall behind him

After the first assaults, the brigade moved rapidly forward, liberating one settlement after another. On the approaches to one of the villages, the tank blew up on an anti-tank mine and got stuck. However, Damon from the spot continued to cover the infantry with cannon and machine gun fire, his support helped to free the village faster.

At the beginning of October, there was a new assault on the village captured by the Russians.

– We took the first enemy line, our gunner then placed a lot of infantry with a cannon and a machine gun, – Viktor remembers. – He shot the enemies at close range, I saw how after the hits from the machine gun, pieces of the body flew away from the Russians, and they tried to shoot back for some time. Apparently, they were under the influence of some drugs. It looked like a zombie movie. Our infantry then took many prisoners. And when returning to reload, the tank ran into a “sandwich” (several buried anti-tank mines stacked on top of each other). It was a very powerful explosion, I was “turned off”, I was barely able to regain consciousness. We camouflaged the tank and waited for the evacuation. There were a lot of Russian mines around, so Damon deployed columns of our equipment so that they would not run into a minefield.

The damaged tank was repaired – both goosenecks were replaced, and a new ice rink was installed. After a severe concussion, the driver-mechanic’s eyesight was severely impaired.

– We had to drive about 20 kilometers to the unit, but I saw almost nothing – says Victor. – Then Damon said: “I will be your eyes, I will show you the way.” And so we went. Damon was also badly contused, not for the first time, but he never went to the doctors, he always went into battle. The enemy knew him very well.

We even found a $25,000 reward for the “head of Damon” on hostile social networks and periodically poked fun at him. He laughed in response and said that it was necessary to wait until the price rose to a million.

Four days after the repair, during the liberation of the village of Nova Kamianka in the Kherson region, Demon’s tank was hit by an ATGM. The rocket hit the tower from the side of the command post, Dmytro Granchar died on the spot.

– Dmytro was desperate from childhood, he could not sit still, – says Dymon’s brother Oleksiy. – The Armed Forces became a native element for him. The brother rarely got to come home (even before the full-scale war), but he was always in touch with his relatives, he loved his son Artem very much. We talked with Dmytro every day, the last time was on October 6. The brother said: “I will be out of touch for a couple of days, don’t worry, I’m fine.” And the next day he died.

Stormtrooper Buivol: “All the infantrymen adored Damon, it was like a concrete wall behind him”

Dmytro Granchar was buried in his native village of Teplytsia in Odesa. State flags were lowered along the route of the funeral cortege, residents of the community knelt down.

– I remember very well that storming during the liberation of Kherson Oblast, – remembers a fighter of the mountain assault unit Vasyl (call sign Buivol). – The assault began unsuccessfully – the “beha”, which was supposed to cover us, did not go, and we ended up in an open field in front of well-fortified positions of the Russians. They shot us with direct fire from machine guns and grenade launchers.

We lay down in the grass and could not raise our heads under the barrage of enemy fire. And then Damon’s tank rushed to the Russian positions. The tank was hit with a grenade launcher, and he and the commander sticking out of the hatch flew headlong. The tank climbed into the Russian trenches and began to shoot them at close range with a cannon and a machine gun. When the shells ran out, Damon directly from the hatch began to shoot at the enemies with his machine gun, and then waved his hand at us and shouted: “Forward!” Only then were we able to capture those trenches.

Damon broke the flow of that assault, the Russian paratroopers could not withstand his pressure and ran away, abandoning their weapons. All the foot soldiers adored Daemon, there was no danger for him. We knew that he would cover us under any circumstances, behind him was like a concrete wall.

Yaroslav Halas, an officer of the 128th separate mountain-assault Transcarpathian brigade, specially for UP. Life

Author’s photo

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