On June 22 1941, the
Eastern Front of
World War II began and Galushkin was drafted into the
Red Army at an
Omutninsky District enlistment office in October of the same year to fight against enemy combatants in
Moscow in January, where he was soon wounded in the arm and recovered following treatment. On October 30, 1942, Galushkin was awarded the
Order of the Red Banner. The award sheet noted that by September 20, the sniper had brought the number of enemy soldiers killed to 115. In the battle on September 29, 1942, Galushkin wounded one and killed two enemy soldiers, and then, while trying to remove their bodies, killed eight more German infantrymen. In 1942, he joined the
All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), and party cards were handed to him and other fighters directly at their combat positions. In January 1943, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of the
Mongolian People's Republic; Among the 24 distinguished Red Army soldiers, Galushkin was invited to the front headquarters, located at the
Balabanovo station near
Maloyaroslavets, where a meeting was held with a delegation from Mongolia. In addition to Galushkin, orders were awarded to the front commander, Colonel General
I. S. Konev and member of the front Military Council
N. A. Bulganin. Subsequently, Nikolai Ivanovich recalled:Konev asked me to stay. He asked where I was from, where I learned how to shoot like that. And he offers to send me to a military school – they say he showed leadership abilities. I answer: “Comrade General, excuse me, but I have already entered the academy.” – “Which academy?” – “Yes, to the one where our brothers and sisters fight, defending their homeland.” – "Well done!" – That’s all Konev said. And when I arrive at my unit, a dispatch follows: to assign Private Galushkin the rank of junior lieutenant.In February 1943, he was one of the first to cross the
Seversky Donets River with a group of fighters. On June 4, 1943, rifle platoon commander Galushkin organized a “group hunt” – 6 snipers actually defeated a unit of the 333rd German division in the village of
Sidorovka. In his diary, he writes that in five hours of battle, 36 enemy soldiers and officers were destroyed (and he personally killed 14 of them), 3 ammunition warehouses, one stable and 3 officers’ houses. According to the sniper's records, in the battle on July 17, 1943, he killed 32 German soldiers, and with his colleagues, they managed to capture a German tank and drive it to the location of Soviet troops. Soon, several newspapers repeatedly published notes and articles dedicated to him and other soldiers of the 49th Infantry Regiment. The German command appointed a reward for the sniper's integrity, Wehrmacht soldiers and officers were warned of increased danger in those areas where Galushkin and his fighters operated. Nikolai Ivanovich said, with announcer
Yuri Levitan, during a personal meeting with him years after the end of the war, admitted that he remembered the sniper’s name for the "rest of his life", repeatedly repeating it on the radio in
Sovinformburo reports. On July 19, during the next “hunt,” two German machine gunners stunned and subdued a sniper; in the same battle, Galushkin’s partner, Sergeant Taras Sadzhaya, was also wounded. The submachine gunners searched Galushkin, and did not notice that a grenade and a pistol were hidden under his camouflage robe. Later, the lieutenant took out a grenade and threw it at the German soldier walking behind him, and fired a pistol at the one walking in front. Galushkin began to search the machine gunners, at that moment one of them woke up and shot the sniper in the stomach with a machine gun. “As I held the gun, I fired all the bullets at him. I got up and fell. I can't crawl either. Fainting,” Nikolai Ivanovich later recalled. Galushkin lay unconscious for several hours until his body was discovered by Soviet soldiers. Soon, the commander of the
Southwestern Front,
Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky, future minister of defence, ordered Galushkin to be nominated for the title of
Hero of the Soviet Union. In a submission dated June 26, 1943, signed by the commander of the 49th Infantry Regiment on June 26, 1943, it was noted that he had killed 225 enemy soldiers and officers in his combat account, and also trained 38 snipers who “have dozens of destroyed Germans". By decree of the
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of October 26, 1943, Nikolai Ivanovich was awarded the
Order of Lenin. After an operation, Galushkin was evacuated to the rear and was treated at a military hospital in
Balashov. In his diary, Nikolai Ivanovich notes that until October 1, 1943, he was treated by Olga Petrovna Kotovskaya, the wife of the Civil War military leader
G.I. Kotovsky, who at that time served in the hospital with the rank of major in the medical service. Already on October 1, Galushkin left for the front; by October 20, he caught up with his unit near
Krivoy Rog. Many soldiers of the 49th Infantry Regiment died, including
Sergeant Sajaya. On October 26, 1943, Nikolai Ivanovich wrote in his diary: “I learned that my best comrades were killed”. After returning to the active army, Galushkin took part in battles in
Ukraine and
Eastern Europe, including the
liberation of Kirovograd and the capture of the city of
Iași, and was wounded three times. In his diary, he writes that in the period from April 12 to July 15, 1944, he managed to train 72 snipers. By May 1945, Lieutenant Galushkin was the commander of a
platoon of 50-mm
mortars of the 49th Infantry Regiment. As noted in the award documents, during the battles from April 16 to 21, 1945, during the crossing of the
Neisse River and breaking through German defenses in the area of the village of
Zentendorf, as well as in the final battles from May 5 to 7, 1945. While feeling unwell after being wounded, he led the unit's snipers and, while in combat formations, destroyed important enemy targets. By order of the 73rd Silesian Rifle Corps No. 76/n dated May 23, 1945, he was awarded the
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree. Nikolai Ivanovich Galushkin ended the war with his regiment in
Prague. == Post-war ==