Vladimir Davydovich Grendal

Born Mar. 22 (Apr. 3), 1884, in Sveaborg (Suomenlinna); died Nov. 16, 1940, in Moscow. Soviet artillery specialist; lieutenant general of the artillery (1940); professor (1939).

Grendal’ graduated from the Mikhail Artillery Academy (1911). He participated in World War I as a colonel. In 1918 he enlisted in the Red Army. During the Civil War he was an artillery inspector on the Southern (1918–19) and Southwestern (1920) fronts. After the war he was chief of artillery of the Kiev and Petrograd military districts (1923–24) and assistant artillery inspector of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army (1925–34). From 1935 to 1937 he taught at the Frunze Military Academy. In January 1938 he became deputy chief of the Main Artillery Directorate and chairman of the directorate’s artillery inspector of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army War of 1939–40 as a representative of the Main Artillery Directorate, commander of an operational group of forces, and commander of the Thirteenth Army. He was the author of many works on firing and the combat application of artillery. A work done under the guidance of Grendal’, Artillery in the Basic Types of Combat (1940), expressed the most progressive views on the role and importance of artillery in the coming war and made practical recommendations for its combat application, which was of great significance during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Star, and one medal.