Years of service 1938 - 1943 Rank Captain Service/branch Red Army | Name Mikhail Potapov Allegiance Soviet Union | |
Born 23 January 1921
Baklanovskaya, Rostov Oblast, Russian SFSR (now Russian Federation) ( 1921-01-23 ) Buried at Berezovets, Kursk Oblast, Russian Federation Battles/wars World War II
Battle of Kursk Awards Hero of the Soviet Union
Order of Lenin
Order of the Red Banner
and other awards Died 1943, Kursk Oblast, Russia Unit 2nd Guards Tank Army, Central Front | ||
Place of burial Kursk Oblast, Russia | ||
Mikhail Feofanovich Potapov (Russian: Михаи́л Феофа́нович Пота́пов, 23 January 1921 - 8 July 1943) was a Soviet Red Army artillery captain and commander of an anti-tank artillery battery from the 1188th Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment of the 13th Anti-Tank Artillery Brigade, 2nd Tank Army. Potapov's battery destroyed ten German tanks near the Ponyri railway station at the Battle of Kursk.
Captain Potapov was killed during the battle on 8 July 1943. He was twenty-two years old and had been in the Red Army since 1938.
He had served in the artillery as an officer since graduating from the Moscow Artillery School in 1940 and had received the Order of the Red Banner and other decorations during his war service.
He was posthumously named a Hero of the Soviet Union and awarded the Gold Star and Order of Lenin on 7 August 1943.