Danutė Stanelienė
Danutė Stanelienė (20 April 1922 – 8 August 1994) was a machine gunner in the 167th Infantry Regiment of the 16th Lithuanian Rifle Division during World War II. On 24 March 1945, she became the first woman (of only four) to be awarded the Order of Glory 1st class. Early life Stanelienė was born on 20 April 1922 to a Lithuanian peasant family in village, Lithuania. Her mother died when she was just two years old, but her father later remarried. After completing her third grade of school she took care of her younger siblings from her father's second marriage in addition to working in agriculture. In 1940, she began working at a printing house; and after the start of the war, she was evacuated from the front to Nizhny Novgorod where she worked at a factory. In 1944, she became a member of the Communist Party. Military career After voluntarily enlisting in the Red Army in February 1942 she began serving in a medical unit before transferring to become a cook. While she was a cook she met female machine gunner Lena Sergeyeva. Sergeyeva taught her how to fire a machine gun and told her about female machine gunners that fought in the Russian Civil War. Stanelienė asked her company commander to permit her to become a machine gunner when Sergeyeva was killed in battle. Permission granted, Stanelienė completed machine gunner's courses in December. She was assigned to the 167th Infantry Regiment of the 16th Lithuanian Rifle Division of the 4th Shock Army on the 1st Baltic Front. Stanelienė first saw combat in the Battle of Kursk in Panskaya village where she gained respect from her colleagues for her techniques and patience. She would not immediately open fire on the enemy but instead waited for the enemy to advance closer before opening fire. In an engagement on 16 July 1943, three of her fingers were torn off by shrapnel from enemy fire. Nevertheless, she continued firing on enemy infantry despite her injuries. She stayed at her post until another soldier came to take over. While recovering in the hospital, she was awarded the Medal "For Courage". After being released from the hospital and rejoining her regiment, she fought in the battle to retake a train station in the village of Rodnye. After the Red Army launched the raid on the station the Axis launched a barrage of counterattacks, including airstrikes and artillery fire. After her company commander was wounded in an airstrike and could no longer fight, she took over his machine gun and began firing on advancing Axis infantry forces and later chose places to reposition machine guns when her platoon was nearly fully surrounded by enemy forces. Stanelienė continued fighting and stayed in her machine gun nest to repel counterattacks while waiting for reinforcements to arrive after most of her unit was unable to continue on fighting. For her actions in that engagement she was awarded the Order of Glory 3rd class on 3 January 1944. She