Aleksandra Samusenko

Aleksandra Grigoryevna Samusenko (Александра Григорьевна Самусенко, Олександра Григорівна Самусенко; 1922, Chita—March 3, 1945) was a Soviet Ukrainian commander of the T-34 tank and a liaison officer during World War II. She was the only female tankman in the 1st Guards Tank Army.

Samusenko was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War 1st class and the Order of the Red Star, which she received for bravery in the Battle of Kursk.

Life
Samusenko began her tour of duty as a private in an infantry platoon. Later she successfully finished the tank academy. Samusenko received her Order of the Red Star, when her tank crew defeated three German Tiger I tanks. Later Samusenko participated in the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive.

World War II veteran and writer Fabian Garin, in his book Tsvety na tankakh (The Flowers on Tanks), mentions an episode from Samusenko's personal life, when a certain Mindlin, who fell in love with her, asked her "not to smoke and drink". Samusenko parried with "Maybe you have fallen in love?", kissed him in the head and stopped smoking thereafter.

US Army Sergeant Joseph Beyrle, who had escaped from Stalag III-C POW camp in Alt Drewitz in early January 1945, encountered Samusenko's tank brigade in the middle of January. Beyrle (who was only American soldier known to have served with both the United States Army and the Soviet Army in World War II) was eventually able to persuade her to allow him to fight alongside the unit on its way to Berlin, thus beginning a month-long stint in a Soviet tank battalion, where his demolitions expertise was appreciated. Beyrle's new battalion was the one that freed his former camp, Stalag III-C, at the end of January, but in the first week of February, he was wounded during an attack by German Stuka dive bombers. He was evacuated to a Soviet hospital in Landsberg an der Warthe (now Gorzów Wielkopolski in Poland.)  Samusenko died from wounds in the German village Zülzefirz (70 km from Berlin), during the East Pomeranian Offensive, and according to World War II veteran Pyotr Demidov, under the caterpillar tracks of a tank, which did not notice the accompanying people in the darkness. She was buried in Łobez, Poland, near the monument to William I. Beyrle died in his sleep on December 12, 2004, age 81. His son, John Beyrle, served as the United States Ambassador to Russia 2008-2012.

Spanish Civil War
In his 1975 book the Russian author Y.A. Zhukov wrote that Samusenko was a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and the Winter War, though Garin discounted this rumor in Tsvety na tankakh. According to Garin, it came from a certain soldier named Balandin, who told battalion commander Zhukov that Samusenko had fought in Spain:

"My [Balandin's] submachine gunner Kolka... approached her and says: '[...] I saw you already under Huesca... ¡No pasarán!' And she replies: 'I don't remember you' [...]"

Zhukov then asked, why does she conceal and Balandin replied that he does not know, "but for some reason many don't want to reveal that fought in Spain". Garin, however, further cites Samusenko's boyfriend Mindlin, who lately said that "she has never been there".