RAJABOV NARZE

RAJABOV NARZE (NARZA)
Junior Sergeant, Participant of World War II, The Hero of the Soviet Union (September 13, 1944)

   Narze Rajabov was born in June 1924 in the village of Khazarman of the Bukhara People’s Soviet (now a village in the Jondorsky district of Bukhara region) in a peasant family. He was Uzbek. He had incomplete secondary education. Before military service, he worked on a collective farm.
   On January 1, 1942, N.Rajabov was drafted into the Red Army by the Sverdlovsk District Military Commissariat of the Bukhara Region of the Uzbek SSR. He began his service in the internal troops of the USSR IIXK (NKVD). From September 1943 he served as a machine gunner in the 3^rd Rifle Company of the 818^th Rifle Regiment of the 31^st Rifle Division. He participated in the Donbass operation on the Southwestern and Steppe Fronts, and fought on the Avul bridgehead. From December 3, 1943, he fought in the 31^st Rifle Division of the 2^nd Ukrainian Front and took part in Operation Kirovograd.
   He was active during Oman-Botoshan operation. When he broke through the German defenses on March 5, 1944, he bypassed the enemy positions and caused panic in the enemy with his fire. The courageous machine-gun maneuver allowed the rifle unit to advance rapidly and to capture the German base in the village of Rizhanovka with almost no loss. During the next attack, Narze repeatedly moved his company forward and repulsed the enemy’s counter-attacks. He took part in the liberation of the city of Oman, allowed his comrades to cross the Gorny Tikhich, Southern Bug, Dniester and Reith rivers.
   On their way to the state border on the Prut River, the 818^th Infantry Regiment captured a German base in the village of Reutsel and launched an attack on Ungen. However, the regiment was counterattacked by stronger enemy forces in the village of Stary Negureniy (Negureniy Vek). On March 27, German and Romanian troops, using tanks and planes, made three attempts to squeeze Soviet troops out of the Romanian border, but the regiment held its position firmly. Rajabov fired from his machine gun, and caused serious damage to the enemy. When the shots were fired, Soviet fighters engaged in hand-to-hand combat, and destroyed 10 enemy soldiers.
   By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 13, 1944, “For exemplary performance of combat duties, courage and heroism in the fight against Nazi invaders on the front”, Junior Sergeant Narze Rajabov was awarded the title of “The Hero of the Soviet Union”.
   On August 20, 1944, the 31^st Rifle Division launched an offensive as part of Operation Iasi-Chisinau. Breaking through the enemy’s defenses, the units began to move forward in the general direction of Ungen. On August 22, 1944, Junior Sergeant N.Rajabov died in the battle for the village of Todiresti.