Order of the Red Star nr. 38692 was awarded by Order of the Southwestern Front of February 22, 1942 to 31-year-old Captain Viktor Ivanovich Voichenko, commander of the 3rd Company, 79th Independent Railroad Track Construction Battalion, 5th Railroad Brigade, Southwestern Front.

Viktor Ivanovich Voichenko was born on January 9, 1911 in Spas-Klepiki, a city about 100 kilometers southeast of Moscow in Ryazan Province, in a working-class family. After high school Voichenko attended a technical school for future railwaymen in Ryazan, graduating in 1932.

In 1932 Voichenko joined the Red Army. After finishing a six-month course for railroad track constructors he was assigned as a platoon leader in a railroad track construction regiment. During his service Voichenko got married to a woman named Yevgenia, with whom he had to sons. Promoted to Lieutenant in 1936, Senior Lieutenant in 1939, and Captain in 1940, he was promoted to company commander in the 79th Independent Railroad Track Construction Battalion in August 1940.

One of the principal responsibilities of railroad track construction battalions was laying and repairing railroad track to support military train operations, but also blocking and concealing railroad lines. In February 1942, Voichenko was called upon to provide succor to Armored Train nr. 7.

Armored Train nr. 7 was built at Kharkov Locomotive Repair Plant. It was an NKPS-42 class train. This class of armored trains was equipped with two gun platforms, each carrying two 76-mm Lender antiaircraft guns and four Maksim machine guns. The flatcars as a rule were also armed with two Maksim machine guns each. The locomotive was protected by 30-mm armor and the gun platforms by 40- to 45-mm armor. Although Armored Train nr. 7 was formally part of a two-train battalion (the 3rd Independent Armored Train Battalion), with several such battalions supporting the Southwestern Front, it generally operated independently. Armored Train nr. 7 was deployed to the front line in October 1941, serving south and southeast of Kharkov in the Kupyansk-Chuguyev area before withdrawing into the Donbas. In December 1941 it moved north, to the 40th Army's area of operations between Kursk and Voronezh, where the train knocked out three German tanks, an armored vehicle, 4 guns, and 3 mortars.

On February 4, 1942 Armored Train nr. 7 was hit by several enemy 105-mm shells at Golovinka Station, killing five soldiers and wounding six. Captain Voichenko's company was ordered to repair the track on both ends of the train and underneath it to save the train. For his efforts, Voichenko was awarded the Order of the Red Star, which was to be his only World War Two combat award.

Armored Train nr. 7 was sent to Voronezh for repairs. In late April 1942, the repairs finished, it was redesignated as Armored Train nr. 2 and deployed to the Kupyansk area to support the 38th Army. On June 22, 1942 the train was subjected to a massive German air raid, destroying 3 flatbed cars and almost 200 meters of railroad track. The train's crew was able to repair the track and withdraw the train, after which it engaged German tanks who had broken through the Soviet lines. The train knocked out four tanks, but was hit several times and was dispatched to Kupyansk for new repairs.

Voichenko was promoted to Major in June 1942. A few weeks later he enrolled in an accelerated course at Kaganovich Military Transport Academy, which had been evacuated from Leningrad to Kostroma, 300 kilometers northeast of Moscow, in late 1941. In September 1942 Voichenko returned to his old battalion to serve as its deputy commander.

In July 1943 Voichenko was assigned to the staff of the Central Front to serve as the head of the Technical Reconnaissance and Obstacles Desk in the Railroad Forces Department. In February 1944 he was transferred to the 1st Belorussian Front Railroad Forces staff and assigned as the assistant chief of its Technical Reconnaissance Section. Later that year, the chief of staff of the 1st Belorussian Front Railroad Forces rated Voichenko as a well-trained, exceptionally conscientious, demanding staff officer with strong volitional qualities who deserved further promotion.

In June 1945, one month after the end of the war, Voichenko was assigned as acting commander and later deputy commander of a railroad repair battalion. In 1949, now a Lieutenant Colonel, he was assigned to a school for military railroad technicians in Irkutsk. In 1953 Voichenko transferred back to the railroad forces, serving as chief of the Personnel Section of various railroad brigades. He retired from the army in April 1960 and lived in Kharkov.

All fields to be filled out fully

1. Last name, first name, and patronymic: Voichenko, Viktor Ivanovich
2. Rank, position, and unit: Captain, commander of the 3rd Company, 79th Independent Railroad Track Construction Battalion

Nominated for: Order of the Red Star

3. Year of birth: 1910
4. Nationality: Russian
5. Party affiliation: Member of the Communist Party
6. Education: Secondary technical education
7. Combat service (where and when): During the fighting at Gusyatin Station, Vinnitsa Railroad Line, on July 6, 1942
8. Drafted by which military commissariat: Career officer
9. Wounds and contusions received: No
10. Since when in the Red Army: Since October 1932
11. Has he been decorated before (which award, what for, when): No
12. Permanent home address (of the prospective awardee or his family): _______________

Viktor Ivanovich Voichenko

Order of the Red Star nr. 38692 with order booklet

A type NKPS-42 armored train	An unidentified type NKPS-42 armored train, February 1942
A type NKPS-42 in winter camouflage	Antiaircraft gunners on an unidentified type NKPS-42, Kalinin Front, 1942