Among the individual heroes who have been mentioned in the Soviet press in connection with the successful drive to lift the siege of Leningrad is 18-year-old Lieut. Solomon Feinstein, commander of an artillery reconnaissance unit, who is more popularly known as “young Solly Feinstein.”
Young Feinstein, who holds four Orders of the Red Banner and one Order of the Patriotic War (Second Class), is cited for his persistence in ferreting out enemy positions. On one occasion, he and a gunnery sergeant reached a hollow within the German lines from which they sought to map out the Nazis’ gun emplacements, but they were discovered by the Germans who flooded the hollow to force them to come out. Undaunted, the two observers remained in the water-filled hole until the Germans opened fire on them from all sides. That was what Lieut. Feinstein had been waiting for, and, carefully, he plotted all the gun positions from which fire was coming despite a withering barrage.
Another time, Feinstein was trapped in a bomb crater which he was using as an advanced observation post by scores of Germans. Disregarding his own safety, he shouted into the mouthpiece of his field telephone: “Fire at me.” The accurate Russian artillery fire covered the area around the crater killing many Germans and wounding Feinstein, but he was enabled in the confusion to slip back to the Red Army lines. On numerous occasions, the newspapers report, he has penetrated far behind the enemy lines and from there directed the Soviet artillery.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
