Lavrinenko dies on December 18, 1941, after 2.5 months of battles and 28 fights, from a fragment of a mine. Repeatedly presented to the title of Hero, honored him in 1990. The position of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, and personally, the head of the personnel department, I. Gusakovsky, prevents it: «Dmitry Lavrinenko’s relatives will demand special privileges.»
On May 7, 1942, the Wehrmacht attacks the Soviet troops, concentrated on the Kerch Peninsula (the front line from Kazantip Point to the Black Sea), bombard the previously known targets, never changing their location, and also the ways of retreat. Prior to this, the representative of the Stavka, L.Z. Mehlis completely suppressed the initiative of the commanders, forbidding the construction of defensive structures, even digging trenches, in order «not to bring down the offensive spirit.» Three armies are lined up, side by side, in a limited area of 18 to 6 km, with no reserves in Kerch. Some parts are being evacuated through the Kerch Strait to the Taman Peninsula (140,000), 55,000 people are dying, and 120,000 are taken prisoner. German and Romanian irretrievable losses amount to 10,000 people.
Until the beginning of the eighties, the tractor drivers refused to plow the isthmus of the peninsula between Feodosia and Kerch; The fields are dotted with bones, fragments and ammunition.
The encirclement of the Soviet armies near Kharkov. Barvenkovsky trap. The Third Assault of Sevastopol
May 12, guided by Stalin’s order «to ensure that 1942 was the year of the final defeat of the German fascist troops,» the Red Army is conducting an offensive near Kharkov, with the aim of encircling the «South» grouping, pressing it to the Sea of Azov and destroying it. The blow is inflicted on the three armies of the enemy already prepared for their offensive, including one of the tank armies. The troops advance 20—35 kilometers, then the Wehrmacht tanks cut their weakly protected communications. Escape from the «Barvenkovskaya traps», by May 31 can only a tenth of the encircled troops. Losses of the parties: Red Army 170,000 irretrievably, 120—150 thousand prisoners, 1,240 tanks, Wehrmacht – 7,000 German and 3,000 Romanian soldiers, according to other sources, a total of 18,000 people.