Not long after the launch of Operation Barbarossa Visaitov first saw combat against German forces in June 1941 as a squadron commander in the 34th Cavalry Regiment on the Southwestern Front . During the defense of Ukraine on 24 July 1941 he was wounded in the left shoulder and treated in a hospital until the end of August . After recovering he participated in the defense of Kiev as commander of a separate reconnaissance battalion of the 206th Rifle Division . On 19 September 1941 while the division was encircled near the city of Boryspil , Visaitov took command of over 200 men and managed to reunite them with troops in Donbas . He went on to take part in the defense of Rostov-on-Don before he sustained frostbite in his hand and severely injured his right leg in November 1941 . He was sent to a hospital in Pyatigorsk where he remained recovering until the beginning of 1942 , after which he was appointed as the chief of staff of the newly formed 255th Separate Chechen-Ingush Cavalry Regiment , which was initially placed under the command of Yaponts Abadiyev ; later Abadiyev was appointed to a different position and Visaitov was made the commander of the regiment on 13 May 1942 . From the very beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad the regiment saw heavy battle ; on 3 August 1942 while covering the retreat of Soviet troops the regiment was engaged by the 78th Tank Corps of the Wehrmacht near Kotelnikovo . During the engagement the regiment took out four German tanks but suffered heavy losses from both German tanks and aviation-based attacks from numerically superior forces . Facing constant bombardment and high casualties , the regiment was forced to retreat , and after suffering further losses in Stalingrad the regiment was divided into two independent reconnaissance battalions for the 4th Cavalry Corps . Visaitov himself had expressed his disagreement with orders to send horsemen to fight against heavily armored German tanks , and he was punished for expressing such concerns ; but members of his regiment appreciated that he did not want to lead them to a certain death . As the regiment was being dissolved , in October 1942 Visaitov was placed in command of one of the separate reconnaissance battalions , and remained in that position until January 1943 , after which he was placed in charge of cavalry courses which trained junior lieutenants of the Southern Front . In September that same year he was reassigned again as an assistant inspector of cavalry , and fought in battles throughout Ukraine until he was expelled from his post into the reserve in May 1944 because he was Chechen ; in February 1944 the entire Chechen nation was declared to be traitors , and the civilian population was deported to Central Asia
deported to Central Asia
Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush
Movlid Visaitov