Zinoviy Kolobanov Zinoviy Grigor ' evich Kolobanov ( ) ( 1910 – 1995 ) was a tank commander and veteran of the German - Soviet War . He commanded a KV - 1 tank and is widely considered the second top scoring tanker ace of the Soviet Union . Service . At the Battle of Krasnogvardeysk ( German : Krasnogwardejsk ) on 20 August 1941 ( part of the Battle of Leningrad ) , Kolobanov ' s unit ambushed a column of German armour . The vanguard of the German 8th , 6th and 1st Panzer Divisions was approaching Krasnogvardeysk ( now Gatchina ) near Leningrad ( now St Petersburg ) , and the only Soviet force available to stop it consisted of five well - hidden KV - 1 tanks , dug in within a grove at the edge of a swamp . KV - 1 tank no . 864 was commanded by the leader of this small force , Lieutenant Kolobanov . The German forces attacked Krasnogvardejsk from three directions . Near Myza Vojskovitsi ( German : Wojskowitzy ) , Seppelevo , Vangostarosta ( now Noviy Uchkhoz ) , Ilkino and Pitkelevo settlements , the geography favoured the Soviet defenders as the only road in the region passed the swamp , and the defenders commanded this choke point from their hidden position . Lieutenant Kolobanov had carefully studied the situation and readied his detachment the day before . Each KV - 1 tank carried twice the normal amount of ammunition , two - thirds of which were armour - piercing rounds . Kolobanov ordered his other commanders to hold their fire and await orders . He did not want to reveal the size of his force , so only one tank at a time engaged the enemy . The 6th Panzer Division ' s vanguard entered directly into the well - prepared Soviet ambush . Belorussian gun ' s tank sniper named Andrej Usov knocked out the leading German tank with its first shot . The German column assumed that the tank had hit an anti - tank mine and , failing to realize that they were being ambushed , stopped . This gave to Andrej Usov the opportunity to destroy the second tank . The Germans realized they were under attack but were unable to locate the origin of the shots . While the German tanks fired blindly , Kolobanov ' s tank knocked out the trailing German tank , boxing in the entire column . Although the Germans now knew where they were being attacked from , they could only spot Lieutenant Kolobanov ' s tank , and now attempted to engage an unseen enemy . The German tanks got bogged down when they moved off the road onto the surrounding soft ground making them easy targets . Twenty - two German tanks and two towed artillery pieces were knocked out by Kolobanov ' s tank before it ran out of ammunition . Kolobanov ordered in another KV - 1 , and 21 more German tanks were destroyed before the half - hour battle ended . A total of 43 German tanks had been destroyed by the five Soviet KV - 1s ( two more remained in reserve ) . For their actions , Lieutenant Kolobanov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and his gunner , Andrei Usov , was awarded the Order of Lenin . The Soviet victory was the result of a well - planned ambush on advantageous ground and superiority of weapons . Most of the German tanks in this battle were light tanks armed with only 37 mm guns . The German tank guns had neither the range nor the power of the 76 mm main gun of a KV - 1 . After the battle , the crew of No . 864 counted a total of 135 hits on their tank , none of which had penetrated the armor . The narrower tracks of the German tanks caused them to become trapped in the swampy ground . Later on , former Captain Zinoviy Kolobanov was again decorated by Soviet authorities , despite having been convicted and downgraded after the Winter War for " fraternizing with the enemy . " After the end of World War II , Lieutenant Kolobanov served in the Soviet occupation zone in East Germany , where he was convicted again when a subordinate escaped to the British occupation zone , and was transferred to the reserves . He remained in the army for some years , based in Belarus , and retired as a lieutenant - colonel . He then went on to work for the Minsk Auto Works . A monument dedicated to the battle was installed in the village of Noviy Uchkhoz in 1980 , at the place where Kolobanov ' s KV - 1 was dug in , due solely to the demands of the villagers . Unfortunately it was impossible to find a KV - 1 tank , so an IS - 2 heavy tank was installed there instead . On 8 September 2006 , a monument in his honour was unveiled in Minsk , the capital of Belarus . It was sponsored by the director of AGAVA , Vasiliy Monich .