WW2airbattles

The manuscript "War" was written in 1979 and covers events of 1941–1943. Its parts "The most characteristic air fights over Kursk" and "Some cases close to disaster" were written by the author later during the Soviet period. Together they formed a basis for a final part of this book about the spring — summer period of 1943 and 1944.

The text of the manuscript underwent minimal corrections. Besides technical editing it generally concerned dates and place names. Unfortunately, in certain cases it was impossible to find out full names of the participants of described events. If there is an opportunity to eliminate this shortcoming with the help of the book’s readers, it could be accomplished via World Wide Web.

This work isn’t a fiction book and though it can be qualified as memoirs, it rather represents one of the documents of the past epoch about the generation which is already gone. Publisher believes that justice of such judgment is supported partly by the photos included in the edition and also by the contents of appendices to it. These documents comprise parts of copies of the author’s flight books dating from December 1937 to July 1963. Thе flight books fortunately had been kept.

The publisher expresses profound gratitude to E.V. Klementyeva and V.N. Bogdanov for their invaluable help in design of this edition and also hopes that the book would be useful not only for those who are interested in the contemporary history, but also for the readers already connected with or going to join the Russian Air Force.

The book’s title "The Left-Side Mustache Legend" ("Pages of the History of the WW2 Air Battles") wasn’t agreed upon with its author. During one of the conversations about the Kursk arch battle the author noticed that this popular belief — a tradition to carry the leftside mustache unshaven — emerged among the 146 guards regiment pilots spontaneously and is attributed to the belief that if you are not finished shaving, you will return alive after the fight and then you’re done shaving.

I remember this moment well and clearly.22.06.1941.

I was woken up by some noise and knocking at 4:00 or earlier. The sun hasn't risen yet. A combat alert was announced, there were a lot of them at that time, so it didn't make much impression on me. As I got dressed, I couldn't get the dream out of my head. I dreamed of a huge pig, at first it was not big, but then, being in the valley, it quickly grew to gigantic size. Besides the fact that she was growing up, she was also coming at me. And so, it swallowed me up with its entire volume, and I found myself inside this huge white pig. We were gathered at the aircraft parking lots, where we were given a task. Then we dispersed the planes and waited for orders. Everyone made plans for a day off, not knowing that he would receive it now only at the end of 1945. Our regiment was then located near Serpukhov near the village of Lipitsy on the flooded meadow of the Oka River. Perhaps there are not many such beautiful places in nature. Before breakfast, at about 7:00, some motorist, a smart guy, came and said: "Let's hurry up, that you don't know that there is a war with the Germans." It was amazing for me, he was immediately sent: "what, they say, you are spreading provocations." He stopped talking and even looked scared. But after a few minutes, the squadron engineer came up and confirmed the words of the mechanic, and a few minutes later the whole field was already bubbling: "war, war" and so on until Molotov's speech. His speech was broadcast on the radio. There was little concrete information in it. By the way, he owns the words: "the enemy will be defeated, victory will be ours," although for some reason they are attributed to Stalin, but in my opinion, he just repeated them. But no measures were taken, we were not targeted, we were not collected. Our squadron flew I-16 aircraft with an M-63 engine. This is the latest modification of the Polikarpov I-16 aircraft. His engine could not withstand the loads, and it jammed from oil starvation, although the pilots, including me, loved him. It had weak armament - two SHKAS machine guns, 7.62 mm. By that time, I had already been completely retrained on the Mig-3 aircraft. But they were not enough, and I flew the I-16. That is, our squadron of Captain M.G. Trunov flew, then he died near Leningrad at the end of the war. At about 10 o'clock, they reported that an air raid was being carried out on Moscow. They gave the command to everyone in the air, distributed the directions, and we took off. No one knew exactly where or why. It was supposed to find a plane with a swastika and shoot it down, at least that's how most of my colleagues understood their task. After landing, they began to figure out who saw what and where. But no one really said anything, and they couldn't say anything. Although the chief of staff, Colonel Fedorov, claimed that he saw an enemy passing on the western side, which, of course, was not near Moscow. This option was repeated two days later, when 570 planes were raised near Moscow and some claimed to have seen the enemy, although, again, it was not there. Indeed, the following happened. The SB plane, which went with its regiment from Estonia to bomb Konigsberg at night, got lost, and was heading east. So he was mistaken for an enemy aircraft by the entry posts. But since the management near Moscow was mostly decentralized, each regiment commander made a decision on his own, so all the regiments ended up in the air without general control. The regiment commander Pisanko was the first to distinguish himself. He acted on the experience of Spain. But apparently they didn't draw much conclusion from this bitter experience, and it turned out even worse. If on that day they lost up to 10 planes for nothing, then on the following nights they lost up to 30 planes. And only because of the lack of any organization in the management. Because the reorganization should have been done earlier and interaction at all levels should have been worked out. A few days later, our regiment was relocated to Vnukovo airfield, recently built by prisoners. We were on duty at night. The echoes of the war reached us. Anti-aircraft artillery fired a lot of shots. Enemy planes appeared on the outskirts of Moscow. German scouts were taking to the air. On the second night duty, after dusk, the regimental commander ran up to me and said: let's launch it, and into the air. You will take off in a link with squadron commander Kopitan M.G.Trunov, you are on the left, senior Lieutenant N.A. Shokun on the right, landing in Ramenskoye. I saw how the engine of the squadron commander and his deputy worked. I was the second deputy commander of the air squadron, that is, there were three of us. Senior Lieutenant N.A. Shokun, an experienced, well-trained pilot, had the Order of Lenin and the Red Banner. He fought well in Mongolia on the Hankhil Gol River with the Japanese, shot down several old Japanese planes, 4 or 5. I liked him, he behaved very modestly. A green rocket shot up, and we quickly taxied into the lane, which, by the way, I had no idea about. But since I had flown to parades many times before and loved these flights, I felt confident. Therefore, it was not difficult for me to take off at night in formation. I taxied close to the wing of M.G.Trunov's plane, N.A.Shokun stood much further away, almost three swings. The commander gave gases and flashes. I didn't see anything except the commander's plane with lights on the wings. We got off the ground, I quickly removed the landing gear, faster than my commander (I'm not exaggerating), apparently it was more difficult for M.G.Trunov to remove the landing gear, since he also had to look after us, pilot and navigate. As soon as we gained about 100 meters, he turned off the lights, and dozens of searchlights streamed at us. This made it easier for me to fly, since I piloted my plane according to the silhouette of M.G. Trunov's plane, there was no land in sight, and I did not see N.A. Shokun's plane either. M.G. Trunov piloted his plane unevenly, he apparently not only looked around, but also wanted me to break away from him in order to ease my situation. (Ed. There was no radio communication, and flying in close formation is dangerous, especially at night). But it was not there, besides being disciplined, I was afraid that he would not take me far from Moscow, and if I lost him, I would not be able to restore my orientation in detail. But he guessed, and turned the tail of the plane towards Moscow by the searchlights, and we began to move away from the airfield, the searchlights, and Moscow, and went west. I couldn't see the ground, but the glow of the searchlights indicated that Moscow was behind me. We flew in search of the enemy for about 30 minutes. We did not find anything and, as I noticed, my commander turned east, therefore, we were heading for the landing airfield. When we turned east, I stood up a little and looked at the ground and noticed that we were in the Serpukhov area and going to Ramenskoye. When we approached the Ramenskoye airfield, we had fuel left for another 15 minutes. We had to land, as we had been in the air for more than an hour. I noticed that an arrow was lit at the airfield, indicating the direction of landing and the place of landing. But immediately the arrow was turned off, and it was no longer lit. M.G. Trunov gave the command to land with the lights, and moved away from me. I only lit the lights on the wings. While on the circle, in the distance I noticed another silhouette of an airplane, which also made flashing lights, and I assumed that this was my comrade N.A. Shokun. I walked around for a few more minutes, the fuel was running out. And I decided to make a landing. From the experience of landing at this airfield, I knew that in order to get to the runway without mistakes, you need to have a height of 70 m above the Moscow River. (it was at 0115 hours). I was planning on a small gas and noticed the silhouette of a hangar at a height of about 10 m. Gradually descending, I touched the ground, then I heard the rustle of grass on wheels. I turned off the gas and started to brake, but there was a blow, one, and another, and the plane stopped, the engine stalled. I started to get out of the cockpit, but I heard the command: "Hands up!, stop." I stood in the cockpit of the plane in disbelief. Where am I, what's wrong with me, and why can't I get out? I persuaded the guard who came up, and he "let me go" - allowed me to get out of the cockpit, and I found myself on the taxiway under the wing of a bomber, which I damaged the tail and stopped under its wing, which was painted black. In the distance, I could hear the commander's strange speech, he was also arrested. They took us to the guardhouse, threatening that General M.M. Gromov, the famous pilot, hero of the Soviet Union, would put us on trial by a tribunal for unmasking the airfield where he concentrated bombers to attack Berlin. Senior Lieutenant N.A. Shokun and I were sent to the guardhouse. There was straw and we lay down hungry, or rather fell on this straw and immediately fell asleep. I was woken up, and when we went out, the sun was pouring down. We got into the car and drove to the twin-engine plane, where we took the parachutes, boarded the plane, and flew to Vnukovo airfield. On the way to the car, the squadron commander showed me a pilot with the rank of colonel, with a hero's star, and said that this was A.B.Yumashev. I really liked him. Then the commander began to tell about his conversation with General M.M. Gromov. He was offended with him, called him all sorts of names, and that he was a grumbler and a bourgeois, that he had his own stable and his kennel, that Stalin allowed him to keep Orlov trotters and greyhounds. And that when he came to him, he was sitting like Troekurov, talking disdainfully, holding a greyhound dog in his arms and stroking it, and that, without finishing, he kicked him out to A.B.Yumashev, who figured out in detail how we got to Ramenskoye, and why we fly and fornicate at night (Ed. In the summer of 1943. At the Kursk Bulge, A.B.Yumashev commanded the 6th Air Corps). Indeed, the war has confused everything so much, and our military administration has shown its weakness, that even after 38 years it is a shame to think to what extent a Russian person is careless.

About alternate airfields, maps and barrage zones.

Now I want to clarify this incident. Before departure, they brought us maps and familiarized us with the reserve and main airfields, that is, not before the flight itself, but before night duty, when we took over night duty, although all the crews were on duty then. It was clear from everything that no one really knew what was going on or how things were going. Thus, after departure, we were forbidden to land at our airfield. We had to go to another one so as not to unmask it, but Ramenskoye airfield is more important than Vnukovo, since it is close to TsAGI. But the command apparently believed that he was standing on the enemy's flight path and was afraid that the Germans would not bomb the airfield of the fighters' departure. In the documents, the alternate landing airfield for us was Ramenskoye. The situation was changing so quickly that the headquarters did not have time to react. There was confusion, and we suffered unjustified losses. That night, the pilots were put up to repel the raid, and then there were still single scouts and individual German planes. Other regiments also faced the same situation as us. The next day, about 30 aircraft were lost in such a disorderly manner. That's what happened to Major M.F. Quresh. He took off that night from another airfield, there were many of them around Moscow. When he came to land, like us, they did not give him permission and did not provide any assistance, so he had to leave his plane, that is, he abandoned it by parachuting down. There were 9 of them who abandoned their planes in the air. And three people, L.P.Kalyan, Kiselyov and another pilot, sat down in the undergrowth or in the gardens. Some died, and L.P. Hookah turned over, piloted, smashed the house, and when they pulled him out of the plane, they beat him for another good hour, mistaking him for a German pilot. Even seeing the plane with the stars, they did not believe that he was a Russian pilot, they beat him with anything. Among other things, we suffered losses from the fact that the aviation barrage zones were changed. They were moved 60 km from Moscow and 40 km from the place where their border ended. Previously, in general, the zones were removed by about 50 km, but we pilots did not know, and our headquarters hardly knew, because staff officers and chiefs of staff were changing. Therefore, the pilots used old maps, the zones in which were plotted near Moscow itself, and even over Moscow. I've been barraging over the Kremlin myself. Therefore, at night the pilots came to the zones above Moscow, and I myself went to the zone above Kuzminki. At that time, barrage balloons up to a height of 3-5 km were already placed in these zones. Pilots, not knowing this, entered the zones of balloons, collided and died. This is how Volodya Fokin, V.I. Bardin and many others died. Where there were no barrage balloons, anti-aircraft artillery was firing and we suffered losses from it too. I remember I had a case over Kuntsevo, the anti-aircraft gunners thought that the plane was someone else's and fired, and I, taking the explosions of anti-aircraft shells for the silhouettes of enemy aircraft, turned around and hurried to the cloud of rupture and thereby saved myself from defeat by an unconscious maneuver. Thus, due to poor organization, we suffered losses at the beginning of the war, I think we lost at least a third of them. Surprisingly, nothing is written about this anywhere. We have a completely false shame to talk about our mistakes. It is not clear why we are so afraid to tell everything, the whole truth, and learn from it. It seems to me that this false shame is instilled in us from the fact that they are afraid not to blame the party for this, but they say the party is infallible. And why? Why not say: yes, they made a mistake, and this will teach thousands, and save millions.

I did not manage to shoot down the plane over Moscow, but I went through the whole mess from beginning to end and participated in repelling the first raids of reconnaissance and lone aircraft. And so, as an "experienced" night light, I am sent to test the latest searchlights in Undol – Kosterevo along the Gorky railway. But for this, I had to fly to Lipitsy - Serpukhov and take a plane there. And from there to Undol, 160 km from Moscow – the birthplace of the great Suvorov. When I arrived in Lipitsy, there were several planes, there were technicians, and among the pilots I met the famous pilot Vera Lomako, whom I had known for a long time. Once, together with P.D. Osipenko, they made a non-stop flight from Astrakhan to Arkhangelsk. Vera was going, like me, to take off on an I-16 plane to another airfield. Apparently, she was supposed to fly to Vnukovo airfield, and I to Undol, to test the latest searchlights (meaning to illuminate enemy aircraft not with a searchlight beam, but to create a glow, illuminate the entire horizon). After a while, I saw a plane taxiing to the runway and heard a noise, and when I looked at the runway again, I saw that the plane was lying on its "belly", that is, the landing gear broke off and the plane stopped taking off. When we ran up, Vera had already climbed out of the cockpit with a bloody face. Immediately taking out a mirror, she looked into it and said, "who will need me now." This is the psychology of a woman, this is human thinking, what is the main thing inherent in a person in the foreground, and what the storage device stores. By evening, I flew to Undol, where the searchlights and the head of the Serpukhov school of pilots, Lieutenant Colonel Tsukanov, were already waiting for me. The school had two or three airfields, including Undol. Tsukanov greeted me very kindly and cordially. I understood my role very vaguely, I did not attach much meaning to what was happening, and I did not know the importance of tests – I flew little at night, did not make attacks, including training, but in general, I did not consider myself a night light. But the sorties near Moscow put me in the forefront. In peacetime, I studied the theory of night flights, but I did not fly a combat aircraft on my own, I had several cargo flights on the UTI-16 and that was it, but several flights on the U-2 aircraft. In the evening, I attended a meeting of searchlight specialists, there were some two lieutenant colonels and one colonel, there was Lieutenant Colonel Tsukanov and several other people. Although I was the main figure, and I should have understood well, but this did not happen. There was no bomber pilot, and I did not know exactly the maneuver. Although, I actually flew to Undola, but it was a long time ago, two years ago, and even then during the day, so I couldn't navigate there at night. I made several landings at dusk, and then flew off in search of the bomber and its attack. In fact, the attack did not take place, because the target flashed quickly, and the floodlights were very weak, so after the first night I could not say anything clearly, much less write in my report. When I landed, it was already foggy at the airfield, and I barely managed to land, because after a few minutes the airfield was completely closed: this is the second time in my life I was lucky. I was taken to the dining room, where I ate a vinaigrette and went to bed. At night I woke up from acute abdominal pain, a doctor was called, he determined appendicitis. While I was being examined and prepared, morning came, Tsukanov came, I felt better. The doctors insisted on sending me to the village or Gorky for surgery. But Tsukanov acted very wisely, he asked how I was feeling, I said that it was tolerable, the pain was gone. Then he advised me to fly to Lyubertsy immediately, and he would call and meet me. I immediately flew (of course, in my donkey) to Lyubertsy and 50 minutes later I was already in Lyubertsy. But when I came in for landing, the pain was so severe that I could barely see the ground, it seemed to me yellow spots. I landed the plane well, but I missed the direction on the run, somehow I drove to the parking lot, and Commissioner Elizarov (Yelizarov is Lenin's own nephew) and several other people helped me get out of the plane. A nurse quickly approached, and an hour later I was taken to the I-th Communist Hospital (now named after him. Burdenko). I was immediately sent to the operating room and operated on 30 minutes later. The operation was carried out by a lieutenant colonel, the head of the department, an angry and strict man. The operation took thirty minutes. I screamed like crazy, although it didn't really hurt me, but then I calmed down, apparently they gave me morphine. The wounded have already been admitted to the hospital. But everyone was in my room after gastric and appendicitis surgeries. I was discharged six days later. I stayed at home for three days and went to the unit (then I lived in Lyubertsy). By this time, the 34th regiment was divided into two regiments 34 and 35. The 34th regiment remained in Vnukovo, and the 35th moved to Sukovo about twenty kilometers from Vnukovo, closer to Moscow. There were intense raids on Moscow, and I had to observe the whole process of the raid and its reflection in Lyubertsy. During the bombing, Captain Smirnov and I, my former squadron commander, I don't remember for what reason, he ended up in Lyubertsy at that time, lay in the grass in the polisade and watched as German planes came in from the southwest and south. About 10 aircraft. I saw three planes shot down, the rest were heading west. A great many searchlights were randomly searching the skies of Moscow and only some managed to capture and fly the plane for a considerable time while the rest mostly created a common background, as they were poorly trained. Very often, I know by myself, having grabbed our fighter, they illuminated it and it rushed like a sick man in bed until it left the range, and sometimes it ended tragically: the pilot lost his orientation and spatial position and the plane was not controlled, fell to the ground, and the death of the pilot and the aircraft in this case It was inevitable. And there are a great many such examples. The barrage balloons were clearly visible against the background of the searchlights. They were like living fish creatures, swaying slightly and hovering over Moscow. I had to watch two or three times as German planes crashed into the barrage balloons and burned. I saw how our plane crashed into a balloon, meaning its cable, and caught fire. As I was told, it was pilot Kiselyov. A little to the south, I watched as our plane rushed into the attack and opened fire on the German aircraft from a fairly long distance. I have also observed such a phenomenon: how our fighter plane was illuminated by our searchlights, and how our anti-aircraft battery, standing on the outskirts of Lyubertsy, fired at it. But our pilot was brave - like me in such a situation, he rushed from one direction to another, mistaking the exploding shells for enemy planes. I remember the look of our people – they were all confused and waiting for something, they didn't even ask each other what would happen next, but just looked at each other and everyone wanted to say: well, how will it be, yes, yes, it's not your fault, but then, how and what? Once I was driven into a bomb shelter, I looked at women with children, including my wife, they were in a "fog". I stayed in the shelter for only 15-20 minutes and never again in the entire war did I enter the shelter. And he believed that the most dangerous place was a shelter. And even at that time there were goods in the shops: canned food, cereals, that is, people were not panic-stricken and did not rush to stock up on food. Either we were so careless, or we were so unorganized. At the beginning of the war, I was also so careless that I never took a suitcase with me, although this was strictly required by the commanders. The morale of Muscovites and all the people I have met cannot even be described. Some tried to hide their worries and worries and wanted to seem indifferent to their person, to look brave, worthy of their ancestors, some spoke furtively, watching the reaction of other interlocutors. Others, lost in thought, seemed not to notice anything that was happening, and seemed to be busy with something, and that it did not concern them, and they were just for example, that is, they only make up the mass and do not participate in business, although they owned all the best. And still others, rushing from one side to the other, wanted to learn more, then see more, evaluate and then disguise themselves as best they could, first of all, dodge. Of course, a person is able to change his state and behavior in the process of transformation. And so it was, some quickly got into the role and gained experience, while others were slower, but the war! The war was rolling on people. She tore apart families, destroyed wealth and everything necessary for life, took away relatives and friends, killed all living things, devastated the earth and human souls, it seemed there was no point in living anymore. I'm only talking about the beginning of the war, about the first days and months of two or three, and then another thing. It is interesting to recall the condition of the pilots in the early days of the war, technicians, staff, rear. Hospital, Sukovo, Edrovo. I remember my former flight commander V.A. Gridin. This handsome man with sparse reddish hair was 34 years old. He came from a family of intellectuals, as they said at the time, he was taken to college from the third year of the institute. Then it was done to strengthen aviation, it was the most technically equipped type of the armed forces, literate people were needed. And so, from 1930 to 1937, flight schools were taken only from universities. Many of them didn't want to go, but the Air Force was developing. The Red Army was deploying its forces. More and more new units were being formed and literate people were needed. But surprisingly, about 50% of this category of people were reluctant to join aviation. And in terms of their flying qualities, they were lower than others, that is, more proactive pilots who volunteered for the Air Force. V.A. Gridin had previously fought in China, he talked a lot about Chinese affairs, but most importantly, I understood from the conversation that there was no war, as there was no implementation of them. The Japanese carried out raids rarely, in small groups, and our volunteers took off late or did not take off at all. As I understood it, he did not like China and, like all sensible and deep-thinking people, he wanted to live, he loved his family and his hearth. Therefore, when I met him at the Sukovo airfield (now it is the city of Moscow, it is next to the Vnukovo airfield, was 20 km away), he smiled bitterly at me and said nothing, in his eyes I read the hopelessness of his life. Apparently, being in China, he learned to value life. I saw and noticed the faces of other pilots. They have remained an imprint in my memory to this day. This is the commander of Regiment No. 35, Mayr M.F. Kuresh, a Ukrainian of Moldovan origin, small, stocky, slightly fattened, but a strong man. His face was simple and swarthy, his nose, lips, ears, strong masculine eyes, his hair had just begun to leave his head, he was starting to go bald, he was only 35 or so. He met me fatherly well and, in general, he respected me. I'm not bragging, most of my bosses not only respected me, but also loved me. I am referring to the beginning of my flying career, when I was pre-war honest, independent, and diligently fulfilled my duties. There was nothing else for me except service and study. Then we flew Mig-1 and Mig-3 aircraft, designed by Mikoyan, the brother of Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan, who was under three rulers: Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev. These aircraft were more modern in their aerodynamic and tactical-technical data and corresponded to the plans, but they were poor in their weight and combat qualities. With excellent aerodynamic characteristics, they were made of wood, therefore they were bulky and not durable. Their armament consisted of one 12.7mm caliber machine gun designed by Berezin and two SHKAS – Shpitalny and Komaritsky machine guns. If the killing power of the 12.7 mm machine gun was good, then the 7.62 mm machine gun. (there were two of them) it was completely useless, because with a small angle of the bullet meeting with the wing or hood skin, it recoiled to the side, leaving only a scratch on the skin. Not to mention the fact that almost half of the combat kit had to be used up to destroy the bomber. For example, in order to destroy the Yu-88 aircraft, it was a medium bomber, it was necessary to approach a distance of 200 – 100 m. and shoot them in a long queue, and for this you need to: detect, get closer, choose a position, aim and open fire. But the enemy aircraft is actively defending itself. And a day later, in the morning, when I got up, I was informed that V.A. Gridin died at night during takeoff, that is, he took off, but after taking off from the ground at an altitude of 2-3 m, according to eyewitnesses, the plane crashed and burned down. Rather, it turned over several times, because there were ravines behind the airfield and it was already impossible to land. Some claimed that the engine had failed, as aviators say when the engine stops due to a malfunction. In this case, as the commission claimed, the valve timing roller was cut off. The engineers said that the pilot had failed to pilot the aircraft. He was accused of being overly cautious in flying. Both could be. He could have been confused during takeoff, there were a lot of glare near the airfield, a lot of searchlights looking for enemy planes, cannons and machine guns that fired at German planes. In general, this aircraft was unreliable, had a weak engine for its weight. In addition, there were many failures. A.A.Mikulin, the designer of the engine counted on good manufacturing, and the factories did very poorly, it had 1300 hp with a weight of about 700 kg. Of course, for an aircraft weighing over four tons, this is not suitable.All this is true or not, the war wrote off everything as combat losses, and, indeed, it was difficult to separate the lack of education from fear and cowardice, or the refusal of the material part. All this was mixed up in the chaos of losses and experiences of events, it was simply impossible to figure it out. It was chaos that reigned in state affairs, or rather military affairs, because enterprises in the rear worked normally, especially in the interior of the country. They gave out products, fulfilled plans whenever possible, but the European part of the state was in chaos. It couldn't have been any other way. Now, when we are separated by more than 3 decades from these events, we can say it more accurately and truthfully. Only the wars of knights and kings were planned in advance and conducted according to schedules drawn up in advance, and such a war as the Great Patriotic War could not be fought otherwise, especially in Russian reality. I do not know how the rest of the military apparatus worked, but there was a lot of patriotism at the bottom. He expressed himself in various ways, but for three months the confusion was so noticeable in human minds that sometimes there was a fear of confusion. But people believed. What did I believe in? I believed that we would retreat for a long time. But he was firmly convinced that the sharpness and force of the blow of the fascist troops in space and time would weaken and dry up, and their morale would decrease more and more, and decomposition, complacency and loss of combat capability were inevitable. At the same time, our forces will grow through increased organization, through the acquisition of experience, through bitterness and thirst for revenge, and, finally, through the assistance of allies for fear of losing the market and domination. I want to write a few words about my stay in the hospital. It was called the first Communist hospital. At that time (the month of June), there were still few wounded people in Moscow, and there were few of them in this hospital. And in our department there were no people from the front at all, there were only those who were wounded in the rear. The main reason was the inability to lead the wounded from the front to the deep rear. Our troops were rolling back, surrendering abroad. In fact, all transportation from the front to the rear was stopped, because the transport was throwing military echelons to the front and it was almost impossible to return the trains. The hub stations were bombed daily, and our air transport was poorly developed. In fact, there was no civil transport aviation because its meager number was turned into a night bomber aircraft. Consequently, only railway transport remained, and it was blocked from the air. Among other things, apparently, they did not particularly try to score Moscow with the wounded, this is all understandable. I remember there were 8 of us in the ward. I remember three of them. This is a young, well-erudite Lieutenant Bystrov, then he was deputy head of the department of the Ministry of Railways. One engineer, he had a stomach operation, an ulcer was cut out, he was 48-50 years old, a very cultured man, and so they didn't give him a drink, he asked them to give him a drink, but they moistened his mouth. He said that when I was allowed to drink, I would drink all day, I would not go around a puddle, I would drink, drink and drink.

On the second day at 10.00 we took off from Vnukovo and the whole group headed for Yedrovo near the station of Bologoe. The flight was not particularly difficult, the commander of the regiment, Major Quresh, was the leader. At about 12.00 we arrived at the airfield of Yedrovo, upon landing I saw a large number of aircraft of different types, both on the ground and in the air. There was restlessness, anxiety, and even some kind of commotion. We placed the planes very unsuccessfully, that is, the regiment was scattered all over the airfield, which had about 100 Yak-1, Mig-3, Lagg-3, Pe-2, Il-2, Su-2, and of course, U-2 aircraft. After refueling– we gathered in groups of 8-10 people. The regimental commander came up to me and said that you would go with your unit ahead of the group behind the leader of the Pe-2. He will lead you, keep him at a distance. Landing at the Lezier airfield near the Mga station. After receiving the assignment, several pilots approached us, one of whom told us that he had arrived from the front line, that the Germans were not far away, 120 km away, and that our troops were retreating. There is no front line as such, and the fighting is focal. There are a lot of German aircraft, there are the latest types of BF-109f (Messerschmitt 109f) aircraft, that this aircraft has a speed of 550 – 600 km / h and that its armament consists of 4 cannons and 2 machine guns (Approx. ed. 1 20 mm cannon and 2 7.92 mm machine guns). Another said that the Germans were already near Leningrad, and that they had blocked the Leningrad–Moscow road. Despite such an environment, I did not particularly attach importance to the danger that I had to face. I thought that I would be like everyone else, I was only saddened that the Mig-3 aircraft on which I flew and had to conduct an air battle had weak weapons – there were only two 7.62 mm ShKAS. and one birch is 12.7 mm. I was negatively impressed by the condition of the airfield. It is very large, dusty and unsettled compared to Moscow. If the pilots, and all the personnel, observed the uniform near Moscow, then here I saw the military without buttonholes, patches and the like. The traces of the war and the retreating army were clearly visible. Then I would be back at the Yedrovo airfield in 1944, in a different rank and with merit, but so far everything, all the events and everything that was happening, could not fit in my mind. This is also because no one really set the task for us, and could not set it. Not only because they did not know the whole situation themselves, but also because they did not know how to do it correctly, did not have sufficient training and military vocabulary. When we were standing, Lieutenant Litvinov ran up to me, he used to serve in our 34th regiment, a somewhat naughty guy. He is six years older than me, and asked for a cap, just to run to the headquarters. He said that he would bring it to me, I did not dare to give it, but he actually grabbed it and ran to the headquarters. I thought he would return it, and I was very upset when I saw that he was already taxiing to the runway. I felt so sorry for the pilot's cap that later I thought to punch him in the face when I met him, but I saw him – Litvinov – in the air above the Mga station and a month later I found out that he was dead. Since then, I have learned firmly that at the front, as at a wedding: never give anything of your own to anyone. I mean weapons, equipment and ammunition, because you won't get it anymore, but you need to fulfill your combat mission. I made such a digression because something remarkable remained in my memory, something that aroused my feelings. Whether it was a disturbed memory, or I was brought up on little things, or I believed, and this is the most important thing during the war and battle, that a person should be honest in everything, I do not know, but even a smoked cigarette played its role. I understood, since it was said, it must be done. I was brought up that way, and the fact that he deceived me, maybe it was a joke or a game on his part, because a cap is not a gun or a chain mail, but as you can see, here, everywhere, a person justifies his actions. We took off as part of 26 aircraft, it was the 35th fighter Aviation regiment (I.A.P.). Then, in August 1941, it will be renamed 487 I.A.P., and in August 1943, it will receive the Guards title, that is, 146 Guards. Our flight ran from Yedrovo – Bologoe to the Mga station at the Lezye airfield, and was supposed to take about one hour. We were flying over the forest. The land of northern Russia was surprisingly poorly populated at that time. Villages were rare. Well, there should be a destination in time, for a while I lost sight of our leader, the leading Pe-2 aircraft, Petlyakov's designs. This plane had very good aerodynamics, but it was very delicate. It could not take more than 1.2 tons of bombs, and the engine power was only 2,100 hp. With a weight of 9 tons, it could reach speeds with only a load of up to 400 km / h, and generally without a load of up to 530 km / h, the aircraft was modern, all-metal. We have to land at the Lezier airfield, which is 10-15 km south-west of the Mga station. This station is 40 km away. from Leningrad. All the way from Yedrovo airfield, despite the stressful conditions, I felt the wealth of our country. Virgin pine and mixed forests caressed the eye, the weather was magnificent, and it was possible to observe the endless forest and the plain of forest tops from a great distance. To this day, I can still see this boundless expanse with its indescribable beauty, the reflection of small lakes seemed to mirror the beauty of all nature. I determined from the map that the Mga station is 15-20 km ahead. As I was later told, these places were Peter I's favorite hunting grounds. He went hunting here, so the names of all the villages are peculiar: Mga is the name of the daughter of Peter's associate, General Grigory Apraksin (Maria Grigoryevna Apraksina), abbreviated as MGA. They say she was a bad girl, and after hunting, the king rested there. Then there were villages: Where beaters were exhibited, Noise, where noise was created so that the beast would run. And finally, Voybakalo, where the king feasted with the clink of glasses after the hunt. Whether this is true or not, I was told, and I also want to convey everything that I remember from those places. But from afar, I see how our leader, the Pe-2 plane, makes a slide and rushes towards us, turns around, and goes east. I thought it was a sign of the end of leadership–escort, and that we should act on our own, but as it became clear to me later, it was a signal - follow me. Having lost sight of the leader, I acted on my own, that is, I found the Lezier airfield and decided to land my flight. Since we were on the Bologoe – Mga route at an altitude of 600-300 m, then my flight had an altitude of ~ 200 m when approaching. I gave the signal to rebuild, made a sign with my wing to change to the right side, that is, I determined the bearing. My pilots, Jr. Lieutenant M.P. Barsov, a relative of the singer, and Lieutenant I.P. Bakhulenkov took their respective places. Barsov stayed close, he was still a young pilot, and was afraid to fall behind, and Bakhulenkov, an older pilot with 3 years of experience, moved on. I dropped to a height of 100-70 m and began to build a maneuver for landing, but then decided to look in more detail and more closely at what is on the runway. After the U–turn, I began to descend to a height of 30 - 20 m. at a speed of ~ 300 k/h. At a height of 10-20 meters, it began to pass over a reinforced concrete strip. Immediately I saw that the strip was destroyed, that is, the airfield was bombed, and that all the craters were filled in and there were a lot of people on the strip, in groups of 15-20 people in several places. I began to peer into the lane, choosing a landing site, and involuntarily looked at the groups, they were with shovels, and what struck me, they waved handkerchiefs at us, as if greeting us. I looked at M.P. Barsov's wingman, as he was very close to my wing, and thought: this is how the war is, without shoulder straps with shovels, and even waving handkerchiefs. I was confused for a moment, it all lasted no more than 2 or 3 seconds. But when I turned my head, that is, I looked forward, I saw flashes on the ground in different places on the outskirts of the airfield, involuntarily looked at the wingman, whose plane was covered in anti-aircraft cannon shells, and shells were bursting at my plane and tracer bursts from machine guns were coming. I abruptly turned the plane down, and at an altitude of 5-7 meters we passed buildings and trees standing on the outskirts of the airfield. When I got a few hundred meters away from the airfield, I realized that we were ambushed. This airfield has been captured by the Germans for two days. And the captured Soviet soldiers, then still Red Army soldiers, were preparing a landing strip for German planes. That's why they welcomed us so much. I headed for the Shum alternate airfield. This village was located at a distance of 70 km from Moscow State University. At this time, the main group, headed by Major M.F.Kuresh and Captain M.G.Trunov, joined me. When I approached the Shum airfield, the main part of the regiment was already landing or was on the ground. After landing, and taxiing to the designated place for the greeters, I caught sight of It's a strange environment. The technicians were in a hurry, and immediately attacked my car and the planes of my wingmen. Even before I had time to take off my parachute, a signalman ran up to me and demanded to answer the phone. I was confused, I couldn't figure out what was going on. Firstly, after the shelling of my group over the Lezier airfield, my fellow wingmen and I received holes, although they did not affect the aerobatic qualities of the aircraft, nevertheless this episode inflated our condition, we were already baptized. Then, at the airfield, I noticed several groups of planes in different places, standing in threes. As it turned out later, three regiments were based here, and each of them had 36 aircraft, but only two or three aircraft remained, after a month of fighting near Leningrad. They were armed with Yak, Mig and Lagg aircraft. I went to the phone and heard the voice of the chief of staff, Major V.P. Kovalev, who told me in a sharp and categorical form that I should fly with my group to the Mga station and engage in battle with German bombers. I said in disbelief that I was not ready yet, my planes were not refueled, and I did not have a map for orientation. Then he told me: did you come here for a wedding, or to fight? I didn't have time to tell him that I needed at least a week after the operation, but then I spat, and going up to the plane, looking around, I thought to find the commander or commissioner so that they would tell me exactly where, what and how? But then I remembered the words of the chief of staff, who answered me in addition: there are no maps, and there will be no maps today, go along the railway, and there you will see and understand everything. Thus, no one gave me any task, and even more so, they did not explain who I would meet with, who the enemy was, how many of them, who else would be with me. Taking a confused breath, I looked at my technician, foreman Kiryanov Ivan Pavlovich, his intelligent brown eyes looked at me sympathetically, very pityingly. Without hesitation, I said: give me the parachute. He immediately said: stop after the operation, your stitches will open and you will not be fit to fly, let me tie you up with a towel and in a moment a waffle towel came from somewhere and he tightened me tightly, making me a "bandage". The whole procedure lasted no more than 5 minutes with conversations with the chief of staff. Thus, according to witnesses, no more than two hundred minutes passed from my landing to the next takeoff. I was in the air with my wingmen. I didn't think they were strong enough or prepared enough, but I was sure they wouldn't leave me in battle. After takeoff, I headed for Moscow State University, and 5 minutes later I saw smoke in the distance from bomb explosions, oil tanks, ammunition and a fire after the raid. We flew at an altitude of 300 – 500 m, in order to get a good view of the sky and approach unnoticed. When approaching the place, 10-12 km away, I saw German Yu-88 bombers, in groups of 3-5 aircraft, coming in to bomb the accumulated echelons, troops and vehicles. As you know, at that time there was one railway and one cobblestone road from Leningrad to Vologda through Moscow State University, Volkhov, Lodeynoye Pole. The rest of the area around this station, and the entire area, is surrounded by impassable swamps. These are the so-called Sinyavinsky marshes. They are mentioned even in Peter's decrees when laying the well-known Maryinsky system afterwards. As it later became known, on that day, Moscow State University was bombed by about 300 Nazi bombers. When we saw a group of 5 planes, we launched an attack from below from the side and thereby confused this group, which dropped bombs before reaching the target 10 km. In addition, and this is the main thing for us, we shot down one plane during the second attack. I saw this plane go down with a smoking engine. I turned the group towards the station, and again attacked a group of three German planes, and also prevented the bombing. After making four attacks, I turned towards my airfield, having one wingman, Jr. Lieutenant M.P. Barsov, to the east, since I.P. Bakhulenkov was lost by me, he broke away from the group, and went home after the second attack. In this battle, two more groups from our regiment fought, then D.I. Ledovsky and M.G. Trunov arrived in time, 8 aircraft each in the group. On the second day, the fighting lasted from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. This day was less eventful, but since it was cloudy, the effectiveness of the bomb attacks was low. Our sorties were also without much success, only two enemy planes were shot down. On the third day, the weather was cloudy, and there was a relative calm. There has been no fighting since morning. M.F.Kuresh, the commander of the regiment, drove up to me and gave me the task to go with his unit along with the leader, the commissar of the neighboring regiment, who should show the front line, and fly around the area for a better study of it. A few minutes later, we were all in the air, and I, with my group, followed the commissioner at a distance of about 1.5 km. When we moved 15-20 km away from the airfield, I saw an enemy aircraft, a BF–110, which emerged from the clouds close to the nose of the leading aircraft. I immediately rushed towards the fascist, who had gone into the clouds, when I looked back, I saw that my presenter was going the other way. I caught up with the leader, and began to give him signals, coming close to him, I pointed the direction at the enemy, after that, the Me-110 jumped out on the left. I rushed to the attack, and the commissioner made a half-turn and walked away. As a group, we began to look for a fascist plane in the clouds and attacked it. He entered the clouds and walked away in his own direction. But we met a couple more Me-110s and had a fight with them. After that, our group returned home and indignantly told about what had happened. I did not see this unfortunate pilot, but I told the commander that he had not seen anything, and that the group had fallen behind him. This incident made a huge impression on me – the psychological impact, how can it be that the enemy is under your nose and you don't attack him. I was very amazed and upset that there could be such people among such a squad, and he was a major. I believe that I have never had such shocks before. There was no end to the indignation of my wingmen at such vile behavior as this case with our leader. I was later told that he had been noticed before in such dishonest matters, when he left his comrades in battle and left. It seemed to me that this was a gross mistake by the leaders, who allowed such a mediocre person to lead a group that actually flew into battle in a calm environment for the first time. Then I always attached great importance to the first combat flight, and in general, the departure with the intention of fighting. I cannot accuse this man of cowardice, but the fact that he did not join the battle under these conditions is reprehensible. It's all his friends' fault, and his bosses'. It was necessary to educate a person in the duties of duty. In this case, of course, he showed obvious fear, and most importantly, he caused huge damage to our psychological state. It would be another matter if there was a fight in a difficult situation, when a person enters into a stupor against his will. It's just a shock that I had on the Kursk Bulge, when I couldn't open fire in the thick of the fascist planes. Then, before that, I was sleeping in the cockpit and took off after 2-3 minutes, crashed into a group of 30 planes and was confused – who to shoot at, and how - it's a shock. Then, after this departure, I never hoped for anyone, and did not pay attention, but carried out a combat mission on my own with my group. Trying to always engage in battle from a more advantageous position, although it was not always possible, especially during a raid on our airfield. On the fourth day, heavy fighting began from early morning until late at night. And the nights were not long yet, we were fighting. The disadvantages include our outdated order of battle. We flew and fought in formations, while all the Air Forces, and primarily the Germans, fought in pairs, in fours. In the troika, the wingman's combat aircraft is inside the turn and gets into difficult conditions, and even interferes with the maneuver of the others, being on the outside, while he himself is not protected. Thus, the link of 3 planes outlived itself, it was necessary to switch to a 4-plane link, and we showed conservatism. Suffering losses, we could not actively influence the enemy. When, on the fourth day, I approached the Mga station in the group of the regiment commander, I saw a huge conflagration, even more impressive than it was in the first days: about 10 echelons with ammunition, fuel, food, evacuated children and the elderly, and finally military echelons all mixed into some kind of hell and horror. But I didn't have to consider it, I immediately attacked a group of 6 planes at the exit of the bombing and shot down one plane. Coming out of the attack, I turned my unit around and attacked a group of bombers entering the bombing from the south, and then, after conducting two more not entirely successful attacks, I found myself in the south with my wingman M.P. Barsov. Then I went to refuel, and that's when the severity of our situation was immediately felt. While the planes of our I-th group were refueling and loading, the second group of Major D.I. Ledovsky fell into a difficult situation during the attack. This group of 12 aircraft was suddenly attacked by German Messerschmidt 109f (Bf-109F2) fighters. This is the newest type of aircraft, during this battle, 4 of our fighters were shot down. Ml died immediately. Lieutenant V.I. Tsymbal, and two other pilots. Lesha Tsitsarov was seriously injured. And so, this whole group came to the airfield alone after the battle and sat down in a panic. Who knows how, without basic rules. It was obvious that we had failed. A.I. Tsitsarev sat down across the runway and technicians ran to him, as the engine of his plane stopped. When I ran up to him, I saw that his plane was riddled, that is, full of holes from the shells of an aircraft cannon. The pilot himself was dragged out of the cockpit. Blood was pouring, his leg and side were injured. He was pale and shouted: "Damn, why are you sitting at the airfield, there is a battle going on, Messera!" Such agony was understandable. It was the shock of our battles, and not only of A.I. Tsitsarev. By the way, both V.I. Tsymbal and A.I. Tsitsarev fought in China as volunteers and were considered combat pilots, although the combat experience of those who were in China was different compared to those who fought in Spain and near Khanhil Gol. A.I. Tsitsarev was a great guy, a cheerful blond with with a red shade of hair, he played the accordion well, as an average pilot. After that, I never saw him again, they said he was alive, but he didn't fly. The pilots were then immediately sent to the rear hospitals by plane. We lost six planes and four pilots that day: two were killed and two were injured. Our evening was gloomy, everyone was depressed, the regiment was upset, the regiment commander parachuted into our territory a little burned and wounded in the leg. That's how we were baptized, and all our virginity fell off. Death flashed in front of everyone's eyes, and we had a different attitude to life, friends and others. For the fifth day in a row, air battles took place from morning to night. They passed intermittently, then faded, then intensified again. If on the first day there were up to 300 German planes in the area, then on the second day there were fewer of them, I do not know by how many, but fewer. On the first day we shot down (our regiment), 6-8 enemy aircraft, on the second and third about the same number, because the losses were approximately equal on both sides. By the first of September 1941, we had lost 14 aircraft, that is, we had 12-14 aircraft and a little more pilots - sixteen people. The onslaught of the Germans fell, the tension subsided, our nervous system calmed down, we became tougher, more determined, more impudent and, most importantly, combat-ready pilots. But there were also isolated cases when one pilot clearly wanted to crash his plane, not wanting to risk his life. After the Germans managed to block the Mga junction station with huge losses, they continued to bombard railway stations along the entire road from Leningrad to Volkhov, and even attacked echelons. In early September, they attacked the Voibakalo station, where General Kulik's tank division (formerly Marshal Kulik, since Stalin demoted him for insufficient activity in combat) was unloading. This division was supposed to deliver a flank attack on the group advancing on the Mga station, Petrokrepost, Ladoga. But due to the insufficient capacity of the railway line (it was single-track), it was forced to unload in two places across the Volkhov River, and all the way to Volkhov. The division played a significant role then, but not decisive, as the command assigned it. In the area of the Voybakalo station, I made sure that the German pilots were punctual. They struck in groups of 5 – 8 planes from the south, 7 – 10 groups from different sides at once, just brazenly climbed on our fire. My group consisted of six planes, and D.I. Ledovsky's group also had the same number. We took positions literally above the station. I attacked the southern group, and Ledovsky attacked the northern one, attacking one of the first groups, shooting down one plane and forcing them to drop bombs, I turned around and hurried to intercept the other, which was hurrying at maximum speed to purposes. Intercepting this group, we forced them to drop bombs to the target, into the swamp. We were in a hurry to intercept another group again, and it's amazing that after fighting like this for three days, we did not once let the enemy drop bombs on the target. The tankers did well, they put their tanks after unloading on the parapet of the railway track, and fired like anti-aircraft guns, of course, their effectiveness was low, but the very organization of interaction was very original, and together we managed to fully complete the task and be satisfied, both tankers and pilots on the ground. The Germans continued their bombing attacks on rear targets, moving deeper into our territory. It was in the morning, around 8:00, when the technicians made a noise, rockets flew into the air, aircraft screws spun, raising dust behind their tails, pressing bushes with a jet, rear guards ran in, the roar from the planes rose. The pilots, not paying attention to the situation around them, dressed quickly, the mechanics brought them parachutes, and sometimes jumped straight into the plane, and quickly put on the parachute straps with the help of technicians, listened to the last parting words of a technician, engineer or staff member who happened to be rad, who spoke briefly, pointing a finger or hand in the direction from where they were coming enemy aircraft indicated approximately the height and number of aircraft. No time was spent on this, it's all in the complex: everything is in order, the plane is loaded, there are a lot of Germans there, bombers with cover. I watched as the group's rise began. Vasya's root gave gas, the whole disguise consisting of aspen and birch trees flew apart, and even the mechanic and technician barely managed to bounce off. I went straight to take off, after the plane detached at an altitude of 1.5 m. I removed the landing gear, and after a few seconds, looking back, I saw a group of bombers, it was heading straight to the airfield. After taking off in front of the group, I saw how it turned to the left, provided that the enemy was on the right, it even angered me. Having gained a height of about 30 – 50 m. I turned to the right, and immediately crashed into a group of bombers approaching the airfield. Opening fire too early, I hit two bombers, that is, I missed the queue through the formation and even got confused, because I crashed into the very "thick" and leading the attack from below, I saw no other way out – how to collide, ramming the plane, and, of course, death is inevitable. But acting more subconsciously than meaningfully, I brought the plane down in a dive. A group of Germans, and there were 12 planes, scattered and randomly dropped bombs. I disrupted not only the bombing, but the entire flight and the enemy's plan. Then the scattered groups were attacked by our fighters, and suffered heavy losses without causing any damage to us. Since all the bombs fell into the swamp, and did not even bring harm to the forest, and the Germans lost three planes. After this successful attack, I came out of a dive at such a height that I mowed down the tops of the trees with a screw, and brought the tops of pine and spruce in the radiator. And so, at the very moment of exiting the attack, I created such an overload that at the same time I felt the pain of the seam where the operation was. We began to gradually recover from the shock and even smile at some occasion. I would like to mention another difficult episode in the battles for Moscow State University. The weather was very bad, low clouds, 100-150 m., in some places it was raining in the area, the enemy was very passive. He was already exhausted, and the weather did not allow for accurate bombing. But on this day, there were a lot of Me-110 (Bf-110C-4) single aircraft prowling. I have already mentioned it, it is a twin-engine, two-seat, two-keeled, well-armed aircraft: two aviation 20 mm guns and four 7.92 mm bullet guns firing forward, and one firing a large-caliber installation backwards, could take up to 0.5 tons. bombs, but it was considered and used as a long-range fighter escort. These types of fighters were flown by well-trained pilots. Such an aircraft appeared over the airfield one, then another, they carried out low-altitude bombing with time bombs on rear targets. Six planes took off, we were already operating in pairs, taking into account the experience of previous battles. After takeoff, I noticed that one of them surfaced not far away, and went on the attack. He quickly jumped into the clouds, and I lost him for a few seconds. At that time, I noticed our plane heading towards the enemy, and suddenly, the German falls out of the clouds and involuntarily our ml plane appeared in front of him. Lieutenant S.M.Gutskin, and one burst at him, and the confused young pilot falls into the forest. Either he hit him, or he shied away himself, and, I'm sure of it, hit the tops of the trees, and died. I attacked this plane immediately, almost simultaneously, but it was too late, we lost a good pilot. And despite the efforts of the search team, he was never found then, although I accurately showed the crash site, not far from the railway. And only 10 years later he was found and his funeral was at the cemetery near the village of Shum. And the Me-110 I shot down was leaving for its territory, I was told that it fell near Kirishi station. But I didn't see where, because I was attacking another aircraft of the same type. It's just a ridiculous case: to be under the very nose in the crosshair by accident, especially at the Me-110. The next day, fog came, and no one could fly, since visibility was 300 m, and clouds reached the ground. And in such dog weather, a single Heinkel-111 bomber appeared in our area over the southern airfield near Lake Ladoga. The regiment commander, Major M.F. Kuresh, was also at that airfield. He gave the order for me to take off, so that I would attack him, because he literally mocked everyone on earth. It turns out that the fog was only over our area within a radius of 150 km, the weather was better in other areas. Well, having looked at the targets from above, he groped for them, and dropped bombs approximately along the airfield. I always followed orders in a combat situation without thinking, and so it is this time. I flew out without seeing the ground under me already at an altitude of 50 m. But with some kind of feeling, and by God I had it… I literally turned around by touch along the tops of the trees, and went to the airfield, and, by chance, I jumped out to the airfield, and saw a silhouette in the clouds. It was a German plane, I opened fire at random – Lazarus. And immediately lost it, but then the German also saw me, and quickly dropped bombs into the swamp, moved away from the airfield, and I barely found my airfield, and landed with difficulty. And only after that I realized that I was born in a shirt, because the explosions of the enemy's bombs were mistaken for my death, and they hugged me tightly and congratulated me as best they could, but I still did not understand what I did and why I did it, that is, I fulfilled the order, and this was the second time when I fulfilled the task was brilliant, although there were more experienced and militant pilots at the airfield. Such as Commissioner A.A. Podoprigora, D.I.Ledovsky. After these battles, we had six serviceable aircraft left. A few days later, a sudden assault raid was carried out on our airfield. I was far from the plane, like all the pilots, and no one took off. The stormtrooper was only 1.5 – 3 minutes. He immediately attacked and left without giving us time to recover. And so, walking to the plane, I saw this picture: my technician I.P.Kiryanov, passing by a haystack, saw a waitress Luda, a tall girl, a simple Russian madonna, who, wanting to hide from the bombing, climbed her head into the hay, and the priest remained on top, and so, Ivan Pavlovich, who under no circumstances ever he hid neither in a crack nor in a shelter, went up to her, lifted her skirt, and patted her ass, said: "Luda, it's all over, and you're hiding the wrong thing." After this incident, I laughed for the first time during the war. It made such an impression on me that it was as if I had come to life. After this assault, we flew out, had several fights, and in the third battle, I was shot down. My engine sneezed, my engine was damaged in a frontal attack, and I barely made it to the airfield, somehow sat down, and the engine stopped. I was immediately picked up by technicians, the plane began to be repaired, replaced from what was available on the battered planes. Lieutenant Lukyanov, Anatoly Grigoryevich, ran up to me, then the Hero of the Owls. The Union. I will talk about him a lot more, and I have already talked about him. With Commissar (military commissar) A.A. Podoprigora, and they began to congratulate me on those shot down. I was offended and said what congratulations could be, I was hit, not I was hit. That's a good thing, Lukyanov said, otherwise you would have been killed. We have been waiting for several days for you to be picked up so that you can be with us. It turns out that they had been worried about me for a long time, and thought that I might be killed in battle. We approached the main group of colleagues, where the political instructor, Major Bamonov, conducted classes with the personnel about the superiority of our weapons over the Nazis. He compared our Mig-3 aircraft with the German Messerschmitt-109f aircraft, the newest type. Ours has a speed of 700 k/h, he has 600, and so on (Approx. ed. The speeds in stationary flight of 640 and 520 at high and medium altitudes differ from them not much, but the Mig-3 gained an altitude of 3000 m in 6 minutes, and the Me-109 in 3 minutes). Commissioner A.A. Podoprigora was standing, and suddenly, his face, rounded with a small nose, and a small head firmly sitting on a sports neck, and his whole dense, even well-fed figure seemed to swell. The charred floor of his raglan gave him the appearance of an enraged Zaporozhian Cossack. He could not stand the comparisons made by the respected political instructor, since, of course, it was not in our favor, but in favor of the Germans. Now you can say it for sure. And then it was very difficult. His figure grew, swelled, and it seemed that he was among huge stone boulders, soon to turn into a rock. There was no limit to his anger, he turned into a being ready for any risk, for any feat, ready to fight the elements just to prove that we will never surrender and will not submit to anyone, and what happened is nothing but a misunderstanding bordering on betrayal. We were in difficult conditions, but not hopeless. We had something, and we didn't know what, just like we didn't know why it all happened. Therefore, each of us felt guilty about something, for something that did not work enough at some point in time, where and when we ourselves did not know. This feeling, of course, did not occur to everyone, since not all people were so devoted to their homeland. We must also understand the situation that the Soviet government was only about 25 years old at that time. The country has experienced NEP, collectivization, and the annexation of the Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Then the war with the Finns, and finally the liberation of western Belarus and Ukraine. All this made itself felt, especially since, as always, when bringing any plans to life, we will definitely mess up, and so it was now. There is an inflection in the collective farms, a cap-making in the annexation, and bragging in the Finnish war. There were many dissatisfied people among our people, not among the pilots. First of all, other measures were carried out with unjustified rudeness in collectivization, too presumptuously. That's why we felt a little guilty, none other than us young people shouted: we don't need anything. "On earth, in heaven and at sea, our chant is both harsh and powerful." We did not regret that we had set such points. But the trouble is, the war fell on our heads, we were literally stunned. It is necessary to be responsible for everything, and nothing else, but business, and business was not going on. We suffered one defeat after another. The German marched by leaps and bounds towards Moscow, sweeping away and destroying everything in his path. An avalanche of German tanks, infantry, and armored personnel carriers was rolling towards Leningrad. This northern group of troops was resisted only in the Baltic States, and then, near Leningrad on the Luga River, they passed the remaining 1000 km without encountering resistance. That's why the commissar "went berserk" and shouted: "what are you talking about, what are you comparing, what are you comparing, give me one Messerschmit plane and I'll show you how to fight, I'll disperse all the fascist vultures, and you're a talker." Of course, this political officer was offended by his commissar, since he was doing his duty, although not quite skillfully. It was also possible to understand the commissioner, who was right in his own way. Before that, having spent several dozen battles, and up to 100 sorties, he experienced all the bitterness and fear, risking his life every time. Finally, he was shot down in battle, and accidentally survived, as his plane caught fire in the air and he barely jumped out of the burning plane and walked not only with a burned strip, but also with a burned face. It all happened just a day ago. But it was necessary to fight. This was the psychological situation at the front where our 487 I.A.P. was operating. German troops captured the necessary lines, approached the Sinyavinsky marshes near the Neva River. They suffered heavy losses from our desperately resisting troops, stopped, exhausted. The German air fleet also suffered heavy losses in air battles, their losses amounted to more than 300 aircraft, the data is contradictory, they mainly performed the task of organizing an offensive and did not perform the task of demoralizing our rear and destruction at all. Later, the German Air Force switched to the tactics of single raids in small groups, performing purely tactical tasks in psychological terms. At night, the raids were carried out singly, during the day in small groups and single aircraft. So one night, one plane came and hovered over the parking lots of our planes for 20 minutes. It was a moonlit night, and he was at such an altitude that you could see the pilots' heads. But hese were isolated cases. By this time our situation was even more critical than it had been at the beginning of our arrival at the Leningrad Front. I mean in the air, because on the ground it has stabilized in our favor, as the front has stabilized. The troops occupied well-equipped positions. Formations and units, having gained combat experience, began to fight skillfully. They began to launch counterattacks against the advancing enemy troops in an organized manner. They began to demand tougher demands from the commanders and heads of party organs and rear areas. Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, the army general, played a great role in this. His wise and courageous decision led to the giving of a very short but specific order. It read: from this hour, where the number and hour stood, "do not change command posts." This meant that every commander from the battalion to the front had to defend his KP, and therefore keep the troops, or die. Our regiment, and not only ours, but all six regiments that arrived from near Moscow to help Leningrad, suffered huge losses. There are six to eight aircraft left in each regiment instead of 32. I remember the penultimate battle near Leningrad, when in cloudy weather, in groups of three or two planes, the Germans tried to bomb the unloading stations of our troops on the Leningrad-Volkhov railway. Flying in tandem with M.P. Barsov to repel this raid, we met two He-111 (He-111H-2) bomber aircraft, and attacked from a fairly close distance of 100-150 m. When I opened fire with machine guns, I saw that the bullets from the SHKAS machine gun made a dent in the bomber's skin and ricocheted upwards. It was only then that I became convinced how ineffective our 7.62 machine guns were in combat. It means that all our efforts and calculations to destroy the enemy aircraft were fictitious. In fact, we fought and destroyed the German planes with a single Be (Berezina) machine gun. Of course, in a frontal attack at right angles, SHKAS had an impact, but not in attacks at a distance of 300-200 m, as was customary at the beginning of the war. That's why the commissar was right to call the political instructor a chatterbox when comparing two Mig-3 and Messerschmit—109f aircraft. As I have already said, my defeat, that is, the fact that I was shot down in an air battle, brought joy to my comrades A.G.Lukyanov and A.A.Podoprigor. When I asked what you were happy about, they answered me with one voice: you will live, otherwise you would have been killed, because we have only 5 planes left. Indeed, we still have 5 planes with pilots: N.G. Shcherbina (later became a Hero of the USSR), M.P. Barsov, my wingman, (then he was shot down over the Pulkovo heights and shot by the Germans by parachute), V.A.Koren, then died on the Sandomierz bridgehead after the capture of Kiev, and two more pilots, who died near Leningrad. And we? We were surrounded. The Germans reached the Volkhov River through Kirishi and in another place, so we found ourselves in a double ring. A new psychological situation has arisen in our reality. There were no serviceable aircraft, and there was nothing to repair at the field airfield. But still, through the efforts of engineers and technicians, two aircraft were put into operation: one of them was mine (it did not show oil pressure, and therefore the engine could jam at any time), the second kept the temperature high and could also stop at any time. But our engineer convinced me that my plane would not jam for 30 minutes, and therefore I could fly out to reconnoiter the German position. I was a trusting person, which later seemed to me like a disadvantage in life. I flew out to investigate, and I did it for three days. The Germans tightened the ring over our area more and more, and 7 km remained to the airfield. It was in such an environment that we learned that the Germans could attack our airfield any day and capture us. The latest intelligence confirmed: I looked at all the positions in detail and saw the Germans, and most of all, I noticed a cluster of tanks in the Voybakalo area, which could be at our airfield in 20 minutes. So, we had only 2 faulty aircraft, several pilots and almost all the equipment, as well as the rear units. Everyone knows that when pilots do not fly, the rear decomposes, but in this case, not before decomposition. There was a period of partial confusion. After my last reconnaissance mission, it became clear that we are in a double environment and it is not yet clear what will happen. It was obvious that the Germans could be at our airfield in 30 minutes, as there was a stable front in ere was no Volkhov direction, the main efforts of our troops were applied to Leningrad, where both troops and aircraft were pulled together. Of course, our command was pulling up – hastily throwing troops from the rear to repel the German troops. But they did not have the opportunity to turn around in time, concentrate and launch a counterattack or conduct a counterattack. So it happened with the tank division of Marshal, and then demoted to Major General G.I.Kulik. His division did not have time to deploy at Volkhov and art. The war broke out and was forced to join the battle. The tanks had to fire directly from the platform, without even getting off the ground, because the Germans were on the way. I had to cover this division on unloading. All the time we were attacking enemy bombers, who, suffering heavy losses, still bombed the Voybakalo unloading station. As a pilot, a lot was not clear to me, and by my nature I was not a curious person, I stubbornly always delved into my affairs, tried to study my business perfectly. Although I didn't always succeed. I didn't know a lot, and I didn't really want to figure it out – I hoped that there were higher bosses, and they knew everything and would do everything in a timely manner. Considering the maps and diagrams of our troops and the German troops after the war, it becomes a shame that in some cases, the true position of our troops is hidden, and the actions of the enemy are downplayed, but on the contrary it was necessary to show the true position of the troops, that is, to show the difficult situation, the difficulties that our troops experienced during the retreat to 41 and 42 years old. By showing the true position of our troops, we, in turn, would highlight the whole course of events, and most importantly, we would show the moral and psychological state of our people and the command in the first place. No other nation is given such power, in such a hopeless position. This is mainly a socialist system, and of course, a party system, without state bureaucracy, bragging and bragging. Indeed, before Zhukov's arrival in Leningrad, German tanks approached the meat processing plant, that is, on the outskirts of Leningrad, and only a strong rush by our detachments forced the Germans to retreat to the Pulkovo heights. The same thing happened in the Kirishi-Mga area, where German tanks approached Voybakalo and along the Volkhov River broke through to Volkhov itself. Although Kulik's tank division was located in this area, that is, it arrived here, but it had just begun unloading, and joined the battle in separate groups of scattered tanks, but still, after unloading, it drove the Germans back to Kirishi – this is what I saw from the air and knew then. And now it's not there. We are simply ashamed to show the situation, the inadequacy, the helplessness that we have fallen into. And all this is in vain, we wanted to hide our reality, we are robbing ourselves. By showing everything truthfully, we would elevate the person, society, our system, our character. And for the edification of posterity, we would have forestalled their mistakes. But everyone "at the top" did not want to show himself in a bad way, did not want to look like a fool and did not want to admit his guilt. For how could the same A.A. Zhdanov admit when, knowing that war was on the nose and inevitable, he did not create any food reserves. A city, such a city, of 2.5 million people did not have a reserve even for three months, it's a shame, and even the available stocks were in one place, that is, in Badaevsky warehouses, known to the whole world. Instead of dispersing them to factories, enterprises, shelters, and so on, and, of course, bring the maximum to the city. Hence the famine and the death of a million people, or rather, a million two hundred thousand people. In fact, six regiments that arrived near Leningrad from Moscow suffered huge losses during the month and were almost not combat–ready, in particular, the remaining aircraft - 4 serviceable, were relocated and transferred to the second fighter corps of the general (then Colonel N.D.Antonov ), and the remaining 2 faulty aircraft were at the airfield, that is, my plane was a damaged engine, and another aircraft of Major D.I.Ledovsky, commander of the air squadron, was also damaged, faulty. Despite this condition, Engineer Morshnev and I, a very entertaining, literate, erudite person who positively influenced me (I learned a lot from him), made a plan. Despite the fact that there was a difficult war, he understood music, taught me how to play chess, life affairs. He infected everyone with chess so that later, near Voronezh, the whole regiment played chess, despite the heavy fighting and tension, and there was even a proverb – anecdote: "I met such a strong player that when he grabbed my queen, I barely took her away from him." And so the pilots guarded their pieces during the game so that the enemy could not accidentally take his piece. And if the game was not played out, because of the combat departure, then each of their players grabbed their queen, and ran into the plane, and flew into battle and upon return, the game continued. This is how the pilots of my squadron always played: V.A. Zabara and Efimov. So the pilot, senior Lieutenant V.A. Zabara, died in an air battle. When his remains were removed from the plane, and these were only pieces of clothing, the white queen turned out to be in Raglan's pocket, he grabbed her and ran away for departure. Morshnev offered me his plan, it was as follows: when the Germans break through to the airfield, we get into a faulty plane with him, and he was sure, as an engineer, that the engine would work from two to four hours, therefore, we could fly to the station. The pick-up is behind Tikhvin and will land there after leaving the encirclement. It's amazing that he agreed to fly with me even at night, where the chances that he and I would stay alive were no more than 50%, and more for the fact that we would have died. The fact is that I did not know the airfield, and I never landed on it, especially at night, without searchlights, except that the engine could stop. Although I was flying confidently at that time, and even landed at night without spotlights, and the night was moonlit, so that I could land the plane. Well, his situation was even worse, at the slightest blow he could die, and yet, he was such a brave man that when I told him: You're in great danger, he didn't even want to listen, he was so sure. And then, until the end of his service in the same regiment, he never moved or flew on a transport plane, he always boarded my plane behind an armored car. And we flew to a new base when the authorities were already sitting down. Morshnev not only met, but gave his advice, and made adjustments to the location, thereby surprising everyone. And in general, all the technicians, as we called them, were the strongest people, in many ways stronger than the pilots – this was my technician I.P. Kiryanov, this man had no fear and inspired courage to others. I often took risks at the front, sometimes too much. And he was always pleased and proud. Once, in a muddy field airfield near Voronezh, not a single plane even managed to taxi during a raid, but he and I managed to move our plane from its place, and I risked taking off to repel a bomber raid. When I ran almost the entire airfield and did not come off, the pilots and the chief standing at the airfield believed that I would crash into the forest and die. Kiryanov did not blink an eye, as eyewitnesses later told me in one voice, he said: my commander will take off, do not worry, and when I removed the landing gear over the treetops, he showed them the muzzle. However, he had to take needles out of the radiator of my plane several times. It is still unclear to me whether it was stupidity, whether the risk was justified, or whether it was just recklessness. But for some reason I was sure that I would fly up and not hit the forest. I fought with I.P. Kiryanov, having reached Kiev itself. But then, night fell, and we were surrounded. It was reported that somewhere near the airfield, Nazi tanks broke through, and indeed, the roar of engines was heard. They reported that 15 tanks had broken through under the Mga station, and were moving in the direction of our airfield and were 7 – 5 km away. It was ordered to take up defense on the outskirts of the airfield. I joined the group of "combat" reflection: the navigator of the regiment, an engineer, four technicians and a staff officer. When we went around the posts where the defense was located, we saw a group of people, they were aircraft technicians who did not return from the battle, there were 4 or 5 of them. When they were asked what you were going to do. The senior oxygen and radio technician replied: "We will repel a tank attack." What do you have? He showed me an old-fashioned pistol. It was not only the suddenness that people fell into, but also the helplessness that was visible. The people were not only brave, but also insane. They did not represent the battle, nor the conditions in which they were, much less the enemy. And indeed, we had no more than 30 bottles with a combustible mixture, the probability of damage to which was, at best, 10%. It was necessary to crawl up to the tank, go into the tail, that is, the back of the tank, light the wick with a match, and only then throw a bottle of combustible mixture onto the engine of the tank, going at a speed of maybe 10-15 km / h. We knew that there were also our troops in the Ladoga area, that is, north of our airfield. The hum of the engines grew, and it seemed that we were about to see tanks. But since it was night, although not very dark, we were not in despair. They didn't know why. I must say that we were comforted by the terrain, it was not only crossed by boulders, but also swampy. At about one o'clock in the morning, when it seemed to us that the airfield should be attacked by the enemy, the hum of the engines stopped, and the storm completely subsided, shots were heard, queues and again it was quiet. In the morning we learned that 15 tanks had broken through from the area of the station. Mga is in our direction. Before reaching the airfield, they split up to surround the airfield. Seven tanks went straight to the airfield, and the rest decided to bypass it from the south. As a result, the group walking straight stopped 3 km from the airfield, as it hit boulders and was ambushed, and the rest fell into a swamp, abandoned tanks and ran away, our tankers pulled out these tanks and fought on them. Engineer Morshnev did not withdraw his plan, and even when we were on patrol with him, I believed that we would implement it as soon as there was a threat. I didn't mind, and I was sure even though it was night. I would have taken off, and, of course, we would have reached Podborovye, because it was a moonlit night in the second half. But thank God that didn't happen. In the morning, our troops counterattacked the enemy, and on the second day, our wagons were brought to the locomotive, and we were dragged to the station. Podborovye for Tikhvin. We stayed there, for two or three days, and were out of everything. We went to the forest, where I first saw the forest wealth: berries, mushrooms and all the delights of the north. Then our 3 wagons were hooked up to a freight train and two days later we were in Moscow in Lyubertsy.

Our families and our base were located in Lyubertsy. We flew there for training. From there they flew to the Moscow air parades, there was the center of the entire fighter aviation of the country, as a rule, all the commanders were from abroad or served in Lyubertsy. There was a "royal" aviation. And throughout the war, it was the center where regiments arrived for formation, tracing, and rearmament. We arrived home around 12.00, all the families gathered and the bachelors decided to set the tables and have lunch, relax. By 14.00, the tables were set, everyone was assembled, and at that time, that is, before boarding at the table, a messenger ran in and handed over the order of the regiment commander, then Major M.F. Quresh, that it was urgent to come to the airfield with headsets, in flight gear. We hesitated, grumbled and decided to go and come home for lunch. But alas, an airplane was waiting for us at the airfield, the engines of which were in working order. We were literally pushed into the plane and an hour later we were already at the airfield, then unknown to anyone, Domodedovo. Mig-3 planes were already there, they were brought there from the factory and assembled there, they were waiting for us. By evening, we flew around some of the planes, and on the second day the squadron departed near Tula. The Germans were 70 km from Tula, and on the second day the fighting was already on the outskirts of the city. The weather deteriorated sharply, and after making three or four departures, we settled down. There was confusion because we happened to be there by accident. Our place was Voronezh. And indeed, the Germans were stopped near Tula, and our regiment flew to Voronezh seven days later. First we boarded airfield "B" and then settled at the OSOAVIKHIM airfield on the northern outskirts of the city, near the agricultural institute. The Germans were 40-50 km from the city. In the beginning, the air battles took place only at night. Small groups bombed and attacked the outskirts of the city and the railway bridge over the Don River. Our regiment consisted of 36 Mig-3, Yak-1 and Lagg-3 aircraft. But mostly there were Mig-3s. There were few young pilots, mostly we were replenished with pilots arriving from the west. In Voronezh, that is, by November 1941, I was no longer appointed navigator, but commander of the 3rd squadron, and the regiment received the number not 35, but 487 fighter Aviation regiment. Basically, the pilots were good, had combat experience, brave, but not proficient in such aircraft as the Mig. It was heavy, had insufficient armament and was inferior in maneuverability to our other aircraft. At the beginning, the mood was depressed, as the retreating troops and the arriving pilots, and we ourselves, saw and experienced everything, it had a hard effect on our morale. I didn't really delve into the essence of the matter, general, global. I was interested in more minor issues.: how to fly and shoot down planes at night, how to land at night without spotlights. When and where you can practice. In short, by that time my horizons were still narrow, and my patriotism was so great that it overshadowed everything else. At that time, Voronezh and its surroundings made a great impression on me. This magnificent city, surrounded by greenery, is well planned and beautiful. And the climate is one of the best in the Black Earth region. People are hospitable, clean, tidy and beautiful not only externally, but also mentally. Women are especially attractive. There was a lull for some time, and we had the opportunity to fly around the Voronezh region to Zemlyansk, where the famous prison is located, where Baum (the rook bird of spring) and other celebrities were imprisoned at one time. Kulikovo field, where Dmitry Donskoy defeated the Tatars. The confluence of the Voronezh River with the Don River. Forests and fields, floods and lakes attracted attention even during the war. And the fauna is so diverse, and there are so many ducks, that it was dangerous to fly. Of course, the monthly respite in winter was not used correctly enough by us. Instead of good training in flying, shooting on the ground and in the air, we actually took a break. And then it affected the training of pilots. The young were not sufficiently engaged, and the old began to lose their skills. But we didn't have to "be blissful" for long. A month later, fighting resumed again at night, and then during the day. After a long break in night flights, I had to take off again at night and attack German planes. And I immediately I felt a break, although I managed to shoot down two planes. In general, I attacked many, but still, the quality of my piloting and combat techniques was weaker than necessary. We began to incur unjustified losses, Senior Lieutenant Fedorov died, taking off at night, he got caught in a snowfall on landing, and died, crashed into the ground on the outskirts of the city. Another pilot was killed. The Germans resumed their offensive again, and advanced in some places to the Don itself. An order was received to organize the bombing of a column of German troops. Then two 50 kg bombs were hung on the plane and they flew to storm the front line. This, of course, was a forced measure, because the Mig-3 aircraft is not suitable for low-altitude combat, and even more so for assault operations. But it had to be done. This is where the lost time of December and part of January affected, when it would be possible to train pilots in assault operations, in tactical techniques when striking. Therefore, in a few days we lost five planes, and three pilots, although two of them returned, crossed the front line. The front near Voronezh stabilized for a while, but the offensive began near Kharkov and four pilots and I were transferred to Kharkov. Our troops launched an offensive there, but not successfully, and the Germans took advantage of this and defeated our group, where we lost about a million people. We also relocated from near Kharkov to Urazovo, then to Valuyki. Our regiment consisted of 36 Mig-3, Yak-1 and Lagg-3 aircraft. But mostly there were Mig-3s. There were few young pilots, mostly we were replenished with pilots arriving from the west. In Voronezh, that is, by November 1941, I was no longer appointed navigator, but commander of the 3rd squadron, and the regiment received the number not 35, but 487 fighter Aviation regiment. Basically, the pilots were good, had combat experience, brave, but not proficient in such aircraft as the Mig. It was heavy, had insufficient armament and was inferior in maneuverability to our other aircraft. At the beginning, the mood was depressed, as the retreating troops and the arriving pilots, and we ourselves, saw and experienced everything, it had a hard effect on our morale. I didn't really delve into the essence of the matter, general, global. I was interested in more minor issues.: how to fly and shoot down planes at night, how to land at night without spotlights. When and where you can practice. In short, by that time my horizons were still narrow, and my patriotism was so great that it overshadowed everything else. At that time, Voronezh and its surroundings made a great impression on me. This magnificent city, surrounded by greenery, is well planned and beautiful. And the climate is one of the best in the Black Earth region. People are hospitable, clean, tidy and beautiful not only externally, but also mentally. Women are especially attractive. There was a lull for some time, and we had the opportunity to fly around the Voronezh region to Zemlyansk, where the famous prison is located, where Baum (the rook bird of spring) and other celebrities were imprisoned at one time. Kulikovo field, where Dmitry Donskoy defeated the Tatars. The confluence of the Voronezh River with the Don River. Forests and fields, floods and lakes attracted attention even during the war. And the fauna is so diverse, and there are so many ducks, that it was dangerous to fly. Of course, the monthly respite in winter was not used correctly enough by us. Instead of good training in flying, shooting on the ground and in the air, we actually took a break. And then it affected the training of pilots. The young were not sufficiently engaged, and the old began to lose their skills. But we didn't have to "be blissful" for long. A month later, fighting resumed again at night, and then during the day. After a long break in night flights, I had to take off again at night and attack German planes. And I immediately felt a break, although I managed to shoot down two planes. In general, I attacked many, but still, the quality of my piloting and combat techniques was weaker than necessary. We began to incur unjustified losses, Senior Lieutenant Fedorov died, taking off at night, he got caught in a snowfall during landing, and died, crashed into the ground on the outskirts of the city. Another pilot was killed. The Germans resumed their offensive again, and advanced in some places to the Don itself. An order was received to organize the bombing of a column of German troops. Then two 50 kg bombs were hung on the plane and they flew to storm it the cutting edge. This, of course, was a forced measure, because the Mig-3 aircraft is not suitable for low-altitude combat, and even more so for assault operations. But it had to be done. This is where the lost time of December and part of January affected, when it would be possible to train pilots in assault operations, in tactical techniques when striking. Therefore, in a few days we lost five planes, and three pilots, although two of them returned, crossed the front line. The front near Voronezh stabilized for a while, but the offensive began near Kharkov and four pilots and I were transferred to Kharkov. Our troops launched an offensive there, but not successfully, and the Germans took advantage of this and defeated our group, where we lost about a million people. We also relocated from near Kharkov to Urazovo, then to Valuyki. It was in April 1943, when three pilots of the 487th regiment were relocated from Voronezh airfield to Valuyki airfield to destroy high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft conducting reconnaissance on the Kharkov-Valuyki-Saratov line at altitudes of 7000 – 8500 meters. There were few radars then, and the flight was carried out by sight. It took a long time to track down this fascist intelligence officer of the General Staff. I was given the task of shooting down a reconnaissance squadron of the German General Staff. Several aircraft of this squadron regularly conducted reconnaissance of our deep rear, almost to Saratov. It is about 600 km. Knowing the estimated time of departure of the scout from the Poltava airfield, or near Kiev (according to intelligence data), and already having our own data, we made sure that he passes our area around 11.00. When I took off from Moscow on a signal to intercept him, then, as a rule, after staying in the air for about one hour, I must I had to come back for refueling. The pilots who took off after me did not see him, the radio was not working then. Thus, he passed with impunity several times. And so, I decided to take off later than I was given the command, I stayed on the ground on purpose. After takeoff, I stayed in the air for about an hour, and there was no scout. I was annoyed, and suddenly, before going to land, I looked around and saw traces of an inversion in the distance to the west. I decided to meet him halfway. I gained an altitude of 8,700 – 9,000 m (at that time this height was considered very high, since many planes had a limit, that is, a ceiling of 7000 – 8000 m), and began to approach, then I looked at the gas meter, it showed that I had only 20 – 15 minutes of flight left, so I was home I won't be able to come back, because I don't have enough fuel. I had to shoot down this reconnaissance plane, because I had no other choice. At first, I directed my plane to descend, I wanted to dive, refuel quickly, and climb back to intercept. But then I automatically looked to the left, and again saw the contrail from evaporation and compression of air at altitude. Immediately, I brought the plane out of a dive, and began to gain altitude, as the enemy was going higher, he was at an altitude of about 9000 m. While I was climbing and turning around, the scout passed the traverse of my location, and I began to catch up. At that time, I briefly remembered that a hundred eyes were looking at me from below, wanting me to do my duty, because my group, four planes, had been specially deployed to intercept a scout of the general staff of the German Army. In addition, an important fact weighed on me all the time when, after arriving at the Valuyki airfield, division commander I.I. Evsevyev, a general, once fought in Spain, where he received the Hero of the Soviet Union, arrived on the second day. For us, and me in particular, it was not even clear and incomprehensible how one could be a Hero and how one could achieve this, what had to be done. In fact, I had no clear idea of anything, everything was in a fog, when the thought flowed, was interrupted and floated out and confused again. But still, I was steady. I just needed to show where and how very little experience and a lot of adversity affected me. One defeat after another, retreat after retreat, not a single decent sigh. And, of course, I could not accurately imagine the whole course of events, and the surprises confused me, that is, I did not clearly see how best to fight, how to hit the enemy better with one attack. There was a lack of tactical training, a solid fighting style. When the division commander ordered to build all the pilots at the airfield, that is, at the aircraft parking lot, and there were two regiments, or rather one and a half, about 50 pilots. Of these, more than half flew and fought on old I-16 aircraft. These shelves were they were transferred and formed from pilots instructors of schools of flight and training centers. The pilots were good and wonderful comrades. Guskov, Karpov, Pchelkin, commander of the regiment they had Major Afanasyev, and the pilots in general were junior lieutenants, lieutenants, and then there were sergeants. They were good fellows. All of them took place, and, most importantly, their content was devotion to the Motherland and, of course, to Stalin, whom they had already managed to deify by that time, although he deserved a lot, but not God. All the preparations and formations were short, because it was necessary to wait for an air strike every hour. When all the pilots were built, I.I. Evseev came out into the middle, and said that you must restrain the onslaught of German aviation, and not let our troops bombard, and especially the Urazovo station and the city of Valuiki. But today Senior Lieutenant Kalyuzhny came to you, and pointed at me with his hand. I was standing on the left flank. He will show you how to shoot down fascist vultures. Everyone looked in my direction, and some even moved forward to see who he was. I understood them perfectly, their feelings. But did they understand me? I stood there as if a tub of cold water had been poured over me. Firstly, I have never considered myself capable of any feats and deeds. I've never tried to stand out among my comrades. I never thought that I was stronger than others. I felt so sad that I almost cried. I was afraid that I would not justify the trust, and this would let down the whole regiment, the whole team, and that everyone would curse and reproach me. When the formation was over, older pilots came up to me, and began to examine my plane and ask me about air battles, of which I had few by that time. I was rescued here by technicians and an engineer who saw my battles near Leningrad, especially when, after takeoff, our pilots who took off ahead made a U-turn after takeoff to the left and therefore did not see the enemy, and moved away from the airfield and from the advancing group of bombers. And I was the last one to take off, and I saw about 30 enemy planes approaching the airfield. Making a U-turn to the right, after takeoff, I literally crashed into a formation of bombers and the bombs flew into the forest before reaching the airfield. The first nine dropped bombs before reaching the target. Opening fire from a distance of 400 – 300 m. I went straight into the forehead of the whole nine, and did not see how many bombers I hit. But the fact is that the presenter started a U-turn, and his plan was realized. True, the shooters of all nine planes opened fire on me, but the transience of the flight did not allow them to shoot me down. I went down, under the nine bombers, which was going at an altitude of 800 – 900 m. And when I came out of the dive, I almost collided with the ground, after landing, my technician Kiryanov Ivan Pavlovich took needles out of the water radiator, that is, I touched the tops of the trees, which means there was a split second or two meters before the disaster. That's what the engineers and technicians around them told the pilots about this battle. And I clearly saw nothing but the Heinkels walking then. So my fate, or rather the fate of the fight, was decided at the meeting almost a month ago. I felt good before the attack. I pointed my plane at the scout and the chase began. Once again, I looked at the gas meter, which showed that I had 15 minutes of fuel. My plane was rapidly gaining altitude, it was here that the Mig-3 surpassed all aircraft in speed, since its engine developed maximum power, and therefore the aircraft developed maximum speed. It reached 700 k /h, while the newest German scout Heinkel 111B developed no more than 550 k / h. On my plane there were RS 6 missiles and three machine guns, one Berezina 13.2 and two Shkas 7.62. My plane was quickly approaching the scout, I determined the distance by sight, it was about 1000 m. The top gunner was actively shooting at my plane. But I could clearly see that the track runs below my plane. He kept pulling to the left, stopping and firing again. When I determined the distance again, I fired two rockets. They passed below and exploded below the enemy aircraft. Then I pressed the rocket triggers again, and one of them hit the right engine. The shooter fell silent, and Heinkel began to turn sharply to the left, exposing the entire area of the wings to me, I fired the last two missiles. But they exploded ahead. The distance was already about 300 meters, then I opened fire with machine guns and once again hit both the shooter and the engine, the plane began to burn. The right engine was on fire and the enemy rushed into the cloud, which was on the left and below about 7 km away. He began to descend sharply, I chased him, and attacked him again. Then, having lost traction, he began to descend under the clouds to a height of about 800-600 m. I approached him (Heinkel was on my right at a distance of about 30 m.) and pointed with his hand - jump out. It was clearly visible how the pilot was already in the open cockpit, from which there was smoke, trying to do something, at this time, apparently the navigator, or the lower shooter got out to the killed upper shooter and opened fire on me from the upper turret and hit me in the cockpit, touched the headset on my head, broke the dashboard, and what is very important, my entire onboard ration: (condensed milk, biscuits, chocolate, canned meat are all mixed up. I jumped away from him from such a surprise. And he attacked again, it was at an altitude of 300 m. And at that time, my engine stopped, I ran out of fuel, and my plane began to lose altitude sharply. I switched to another tank, that is, to the main tanks, where apparently there were several liters of gasoline left. The engine roared, I gained altitude, and saw that the reconnaissance plane continued to fly in a downward direction towards the west. But it was clear to me that he would fall in a minute. And I didn't know where I was, turned the plane to the east, began to gain altitude, after 3-4 minutes the engine stopped again, the altitude was about 300 m. But where am I? After almost 20 minutes of combat, it was very difficult to establish my location immediately, and even at a low altitude. I did not know the exact location, but I assumed that I was at the front line, which passed behind the Old Oskol. When, mechanically, I switched the tap to the spare gasoline tank, my engine roared again and the plane rose to a height of 200 m (the height decreased rapidly as soon as the engine stopped). At the same time, I saw how Heinkel quickly went down and fell following the east. I was "choosing" a place where I would land, because the engine could stop and I knew that it would stop in a few seconds or minutes. It depended on how much gasoline I had left, which flowed from one side to the other depending on the roll of the aircraft. The last breath, and the engine stopped, the height was no more than 80 m. Ahead I saw a clearing, then a field, the forest ended, and stacks of straw. From a height on a snow-covered field, the ravine and beams were not visible, and when I started to land the plane, it literally fell with the engine stopped. It was impossible to lose speed, otherwise the plane would have fallen on the wing and not only the breakdown of the aircraft was inevitable, but also the death of the pilot. In fact, the whole process lasted no more than 30 seconds. When the plane touched down, I felt a blow, another blow, a jerk, and I immediately jumped out of the cockpit and rushed to the haystack. I didn't even notice how and when I dropped the parachute, unbuckled from the straps, it was all instantaneous. The haystack was 100 – 120 meters away from me. At the stack, I remembered that I had to take on board the ration, which was located behind the armor plate. But when I looked around, I saw a field road 500 meters away, along which two children were walking. I started running towards them, but the snowdrifts did not allow me to cover the distance quickly, and then I felt uncomfortable, something prevented me from walking in my boots. It turned out to be chocolate, which we put in our boots in case we had to jump out of the plane in an emergency. I took out the chocolate, put it in my pocket, took out my pistol on the move, reloaded and continued walking towards them through the deep snow. The children noticed me and started running away, then I started calling loudly, explaining that I was a Soviet pilot, and asking them to wait for me. They let me get to 100-80 m, wanting to get away from me faster, but they answered when I asked where the Germans were. They told me that they had been to that village, but they had not been to this one, ours. I breathed a sigh of relief, so I was on my own territory, which meant that the Germans had been driven back a week ago. That's when I headed for the railroad, where I noticed a booth in the distance. I noticed a man from a distance and started approaching him, he initially tried to leave, and then stopped, pretending to correct the canvas. Then, when I told him that I was a Soviet pilot, he began to talk to me very carefully, but little by little. He turned out to be the only person at the stop, however, it was far from the front line, 5-7 km, but trains came here only at night. Our troops did not occupy a solid defense, that is, there was no solid line of defense after the defeat at Kharkov. Then, on the second day, I got to the airfield, where I was considered dead, because at the end of the battle, already at an altitude of 300 m, when the plane was on fire, Senior Lieutenant L.P. Kalyan appeared. He told me what happened to me. He did not see me, but since I had run out of fuel for a long time, it was clear that I had to sit down somewhere, or died in battle. But what a joy the technicians were when they saw me, and they already knew that I shot down Heinkel's plane, because the ground troops saw it. And from the airfield it was visible by the inversion how I attacked the enemy. What was important to me was that I somehow justified the trust of my division commander, and I was morally satisfied myself. It turned out that this crew had to go to Saratov to scout and photograph the railway from Kharkov to the Volga, or rather, to Saratov. The Henkel-111 crew consisted of 5 officers with from 3 to 7 awards for fighting in France, England and Greece. This was indicated by the photos found on the plane. The crew commander is an intelligence officer of the General Staff Squadron, Lieutenant Colonel Spübel, pilot Captain Oberbach and 4 other crew members who distinguished themselves over England, France and Greece. Life in the city The wave was moving so fast, so fast, so impressively that, apparently, not only me, but other pilots, technicians and even civilians felt it. Valuiki, an ancient town may be much older than Moscow, is located on the Oskol River. It is very green, very well planned, and the soil is very good here. It is located on a slightly hilly wooded area. Like hundreds of such cities in the Soviet Union and throughout Russia. People are kind and honest. There was almost no industry. Except for the distillery, and the depot. We lived in an apartment in a private house of a railway master. He is a literate, old-fashioned, cultured man. Tall, with an excellent accent, a gray slightly balding head, erudition and communication with people especially attracted me to his personality. His wife, I still remember her name: Polina Alexandrovna, small, well-built, with gray on her head, brown slightly faded eyes, smooth facial features. Her voice was slightly muffled. She impressed her husband. If, it seemed to me, he was the owner and citizen personified by a Russian person, then she was the kind of woman who could grow up somewhere in the Voronezh-Poltava side. She is always cleanly and neatly dressed, in an apron, a sign of a good hostess. Then their daughter came from Leningrad. By chance, she managed to escape from the already surrounded Leningrad. Exhausted from hunger and cold, she barely reached the frontline town of Valuyki. She lay in bed for several days, her mother was pacing. She studied at the Leningrad University. The girl is beautiful with a dark complexion. When we passed through her room to our room, there were three people living in this house, I am A.A. Eldyshev, Hero of the USSR, and another pilot. She was looking at us so intently. And it's all terrible. Confused faces, uncertainty, regret and sympathy. People's relationships are kind of angular. Yes, no, perhaps, what can you do, but what next, why is all this so, what about Stalin, and where are the Germans, and all this is written and read on the faces of everyone and even everyone. The situation is gradually changing, memory is erased, and interest in past very important cases is changing. I have hardly written these years, my fate, my life has developed in such a way that it has knocked me out of my rut every time. Now I can't describe all the details, as I could have done it many years ago. But still, I once again confirm my desires to know at least something about the experiences of my ancestors, about their affairs, therefore I write what remains in my memory. Maybe some day some "electronic" brain will read these illiterate and haphazard lines and form an idea about that period of life, about the interests of people who lived during this period, what was intended and for what. My whole life, like no other, is entangled with dangers and risks. For some reason, I was almost always sure of my calculations at a certain period. And now, I want to direct my thought to the right path – to remember, describing life in Valuyki. I would like to emphasize once again that most of the actions of pilots in the war were carried out mechanically and unconsciously with one goal in mind – to fulfill their duty, how and in what way, few people thought about it. In addition, our commanders were very humane and did not have time to properly target the pilots to destroy the enemy, they were too gentle and even too sensitive. In addition, the general confusion made them not mobile and indecisive. They can be understood, because they were brought up in this spirit. Every day we went to the airfield at dawn, I mean he winter of 1941-42 in Valuyki. The planes were prepared, the engines were warmed up, and after breakfast we were in dugouts, or in huts, all kinds of outbuildings. We flew out several times for barrage. I remember such an episode, it speaks about the primitiveness of our and my training. When I took off, the radio was not on all planes, and it was terribly inconvenient to use it, the wave was leaving, a strong crackling in the ears greatly irritated the already tense pilot. Ground-based radio stations were also unstable, so the task was assigned to pilots on the ground. The search was carried out visually by the pilot. It was March 1942, when I was barraging over art. One time. The weather was cloudy, its height was 120-200 m. I passed, flew along the railway closer to the ground, where I had a better view of the space. When I started approaching the trains, there were several of them, I noticed that they stopped one after another at a distance of 2 km from each other and on one of them, the first, the drivers jumped out and ran to the other side. I thought they were scared of me – they confused me, but when I turned my head to the left, I saw a Junkers Yu-88 (Ju-88A-4), which was going to bomb this echelon. It was a drama, because he was almost behind me, and at the beginning he did not see me, then, when I turned around sharply, he threw bombs on the field, and wanted to get the clouds, go into them. And then I successfully attacked him, although I did not see my result at the beginning and did not know. Then on the 2nd day it was reported that he fell 10 km from the train. On March 22, 70 bomber planes raided the Valuiki station. I took off first - I always managed to take off first, not only because I was more mobile than others, more energetic and put on a parachute faster, but also because my technician Ivan Pavlovich Kiryanov was a conscientious, dedicated, organized person. He always started the engine first and always kept the plane warmed up and ready. After takeoff, making a U–turn, I crashed into the thick of the planes and at first I was just confused about who to fire at, but a moment – 2-3 seconds, and Heinkel turned out to be on my right course. I successfully took aim, and later turned the plane around and opened fire with three machine guns. Then I attacked the other one, but it was all so fast that after 30 seconds they were leaving, and I attacked the third one in the stomach. But there were no special results from the last attack. We repelled the attack. But not as effectively as we could have done. We flew out a little because they came at low altitude and we were not ready to meet them properly. Our attacks were scattered. I would say not strong, and the armament of our Mig-3 and I-16 aircraft was inferior to the enemy's. In early spring, we were with my wingman, Sergeant Anatoly Eldyshev, then he became a Hero of the USSR, then left the 487th fighter Aviation regiment for the marching regiment of the Air Force. He fought very well, was presented to the title of Hero twice, but then, near Kiev. Later, the following happened. By that time, the girls of the pilot rebelled, they demanded that they be sent to the regiments where men were, in order to fly in pairs – as a partner with a man or vice versa, so that the man was her wingman. And then they decided to make an experiment: to plant two regiments at one airfield or base them next to each other in squadrons. And so they were traced near Kursk, and then they decided to put them into battle. Before that, they had already flown into battle directly at the front line and the attacks were not bad, although there were no special battles during this period near Kiev. The front has been pushed back somewhat. One day two couples took to the air: Captain Kuznetsov with a girl and Eldyshev A.A., also with a girl. But unfortunately, 6 Focke Wolf-190 (Fw-190A-4) aircraft piloted by Assami met. After the fight, both pilots, Heroes and Eldyshev and Kuznetsov, died, and the girls returned home with holes. Thus, the girls and boys experiment ended tragically. We lost two excellent air fighters and that was the end of the experiment. The women's regiment was left in the rear, that is, near Zhytomyr, and the 147th I.A.P., in which Kuznetsov and Eldyshev fought, went to the Samdosher bridgehead. Of course, women did a lot in the army during the war and they are necessary even on the very front line, they make not only a part of them live, but also everyone. I didn't have to fly with them much, just a few times in training. I met them two or three times in battle, although I was told that they wanted to transfer me and give me a task to train the girls. protracted and very unstable, and this year 1942. The airfield was damp, the Mig-3 aircraft was relatively heavy, it had a weak thrust-to-weight ratio. It weighed more than 4 tons, and the engine power was only 1300 hp. and in order to lift the plane off the ground, it is necessary to gain more speed, and therefore a long take-off lane is needed. I decided to fly alone, and leave Eldyshev until the airfield dries out. There was a lull at the front in this area. Our troops, as it later became known, were preparing an offensive against Kharkov, and they had to prepare for battle. It was necessary to return to his regiment, which was based at the OSOAVIKHIM airfield, near the agricultural institute. In general, there were many airfields in Voronezh, more than five: A, B, factory No. 18, Grafskaya Levaya Rossosh, Semiluki and others. At that time, we had very little aviation, and each commander sought to attach other people's planes and pilots to his regiment, especially in the autumn of 1941, when regimental control was lost during the retreat, units retreated, there was no plan for withdrawal, it was considered shameful. This was a gross mistake, and contributed to a general loss of control, confusion and staggering. It got to the point where they were already smuggling planes and flying to other units on other fronts. So, 15 pilots with airplanes strayed to us, and the pilots were excellent, such as Vakin, then I had a deputy in the squadron. I now remember how cultured, educated, honest and handsome this man was, not only externally, but also mentally. I respected him very much, and I always enjoyed listening to his conversation. He was a very cultured and competent pilot. But unfortunately, he died in an unequal battle near Voronezh, having lived so little. Unfortunately, the second pilot Potapov, who also stood out, was also shot down near Voronezh and severely burned, I do not know his fate. Then Shilov, now a general. In general, when I think back to those guys of that time, it seems to me that we were different, not like now. Therefore, the regiment commander Afanasyev, to whom I promptly obeyed with my group, tried to deceitfully detain me. But I had technical consultants, the people were very visionary, omnipresent and knowledgeable, all the time they instructed me to fly out. That's what I did. None of the pilots, especially the commanders, thought that such a sodden airfield could be used to take off on an aircraft like the Mig-3. Therefore, I taxied to the airfield from the parking lot without any precautions, asked the technicians to hold the plane while I fully revved up so that I could gain more speed on dry ground and went for takeoff. When I was running away, everyone jumped out of the dugouts and looked in surprise at who and what, but I ran about 500 m, separated the plane from the ground and immediately removed the landing gear, as the lane ended and the ravine began, and when the landing gear was removed, the plane is stable and the speed increases quickly. When I took off, I circled the airfield and thought about going home, that is, to Voronezh alone, but immediately saw the takeoff of the Mig-3 aircraft. It was A.A.Eldyshev who took off. I did not think that he would take off, especially since I forbade him to take off without my permission. But the mechanics hid from me that they also secretly prepared him for departure, and forbade him to tell me about it in order to avoid resistance and objections on my part. The whole trick was to take off, because it was dangerous, it was possible to make a disaster, since the airfield was not suitable for takeoff and at the end of the airfield there was a large and deep ravine, accidents had already happened there and even worse. My wingman quickly joined me, and we headed for Voronezh. I remember I had some kind of mixture of joy and fear, satisfaction and chagrin. The commanders didn't really know anything themselves, the commanders knew something, but they were afraid to talk. Although the press was alarming, and the radio called for preparations for the upcoming battles. Those who had already fully experienced the horrors, having been behind enemy lines, were depressed and did not see a way out of the created "impasse", and those who had not yet experienced everything, although they were actively fighting, believed that we had something somewhere and that something would come and he will help us. Real, effective help. Somewhere, we were encouraged by the help of our allies. Someone hoped for Siberia, although everyone was afraid of a Japanese attack in the Far East, and this was the most dangerous. Personally, with my modest intellect, I thought so: (before that, I had already read a lot about Napoleon, Clausewitz, Suvorov, Kutuzov) our space and our winter will play a significant role. Then I read a lot of Engels and to my current surprise, I have 5 logic.

When we arrived in Voronezh (the distance to it is 300 km), no one at the airfield where the regiment was based expected us, no one thought that we would be able to take off from such ground. But here we were no less disappointed. Along the way, I noticed that nature seemed to have quieted down. Indeed, at that time, near Voronezh, some cities such as Ostrogozhsk stood in the forest. The forest occupied a huge space. Of all the places I visited during the war, I probably liked this area the most. The rugged plain and copses with groves and gullies were incomparable, and the banks of the Don are steep and beautiful. How sad it was. The troops were not moving yet, the roads were not allowed, there was confusion in people's lives. If nature could be preserved to this day, people would be satisfied with one contemplation, and their lives would be extended for decades. I still believe that the most fertile, richest region of Russia is the Voronezh and Kursk regions, where the war was going on. The war, in which people did not understand from confusion and fear, became confused, lost their qualities, so unexpectedly, so randomly broke into their lives. That generation, brought up on honest work, on a conscientious attitude, on faith in their own strength, and in the future, differed from the modern generation so much that it is difficult to find a yardstick for at least some comparison. A generation in which sedentariness and chained to their native land remained, a generation for which laws were the main criterion in life, and the prospect of living and making desires a pattern and norm of life. Honesty and dignity were a form not only in treatment, but in all matters. Mutual revenue and family ties, pride in the family name, family, nation, homeland. All plans were combined with desires. At the same time, the generation was very naive. Kindness, the desire to know, acquire, study, absorb, overcome - such was the mood, such were the aspirations, such was the content of a person. Then there were about 50% of us "old" pilots, soldiers, and officers in the army. In Voronezh, the situation at the airfield was similar, their airfield was also crumbling, no one took off or landed for more than 10 days. The Germans did not carry out raids, the scouts also went rarely and far. They were flown only by those fighters who were based at airfields with concrete coverings, and there were only two such airfields near Voronezh, but in fact, one. Therefore, when we appeared over the airfield, everyone came out of the dugouts, and it was clear that they were surprised at our arrival, since no one took off or landed at any airfield for more than a week, we were not even given permission to land. They believed that it was impossible to land at the airfield. But after making two circles over the airfield, I released the wingman and went to land spontaneously and landed. The plane ran a little bit and I felt that the ground was soft, turned on the revs and taxied to my old parking lot, which I hadn't been to for almost half a year. Eldyshev was young, though – a sergeant by rank, he was only 19 years old, he was quick-witted and imitated me in everything, he drove off the lane just as quickly, but then got stuck. He didn't drive to the parking lot, and he didn't know exactly where to steer. Although they were surprised by our arrival, everyone was happy about it, and then they sent a U-2 plane for a technician. We had a quiet "rest" for several days. But on the third day, a scout appeared. It was necessary to take off, none of the pilots risked taking to the air. I had to take my breath away again, in short, when they told me that the scout was over the airfield, that is, passing, the technician started the engine. I got on the plane and went to take off without any permission. The plane was slowly gaining speed, and everyone thought that I would interrupt the takeoff, but I did not think to interrupt it, I knew that I would tear it off in front of the forest. When I took off, I passed 1.5 – 2 m above the pines and after that I began to catch up with the scout. When I looked at the airfield, I noticed that no one took off after me. Unfortunately, I could not catch up with the scout, as he was very far away, then he turned south, and of course, it was impossible to catch up with him. I returned home, landed again and taxied to my seat. The commander of the regiment, Quresh, the commissar of Pounds, came and began to ask in surprise how I managed to lift the plane. It turns out that after me, two squadron commanders tried to take off, but they failed, they stopped taking off. The spring of 1942 was coming. The echoes of the offensive were already coming. My wingman and I were given three days off. And the commander made sure that I was in the company of women. Spring began, and I was sent to Moscow to get a plane. The Mig-3 aircraft had been standing there for a long time after the "repair", it was standing idle. In fact, this plane was the commander of the Moscow defense zone, Colonel General I.D. Klimov. He was a strong man and a wonderful pilot. In the first battles for Rostov-on-Don, he led a group of brave pilots, but things did not turn in favor of these brave guys. They were already adults and experienced pilots. Before the war, they worked as test pilots: Ryndin, D.P.Kalarash, M.F.Kuresh, I.D. Klimov occupied large positions in the command staff at the beginning of the war. Some of them had been in Spain before, fought well, so they had the idea to create a group. And there were many such groups, but they were not particularly effective. For example, the group of S.P.Suprun, in which C.P. Suprun himself died, this ass from the ass, a jeweler in piloting techniques. Before the war, he was in America, showed piloting techniques, glorified our pilots there and gained great popularity in the world and eventually, having created a group of brave pilots, he died in the Smolensk region, was already a Hero twice and it was determined by the golden star that it was S.P.Suprun. I.D. Klimov's group made only a few sorties and was defeated by German assesmen who flew and fought on the latest types of Messerschmitt-109f aircraft. None of them came to their airfield, several people parachuted down, three or four died in the air, and I.D. Klimov himself, wounded, parachuted down, however, on his own territory, went to the hospital. And so his plane, which was in Moscow, stood without a master, since I.D. Klimov fought near Rostov on another plane, although also a Mig-3. Then I.D. Klimov was a great boss, headed the air defense of Moscow and the entire West, he was an outstanding man with a strong character. I remember before the war, he commanded a brigade and then a division of fighters near Moscow. In 1940, I was among the first to master the Mig-3, it was considered a complex aircraft. I have already said that it had a weak thrust–to-weight ratio at the ground, it was designed for combat at an altitude of 6000 - 7000 m, where it had a speed of up to 700 k/h, and at the ground it was only 410 k/ h. Therefore, he ran away for a long time. I.D. Klimov personally checked all the pilots who flew for the first time. He also checked on me, not like the others, but he checked anyway, when I was already taxiing for takeoff, he came up to the side of the plane, climbed on the wing, my engine was running, so the air stream from the propeller blew over him, he looked at me for a few seconds, and I looked at him, then said "ready" I replied - yes, after that there was a blow of huge gloves on my headset, that is, on the head, and come on. I took off normally, landed. He is a kind of psychologist, and most importantly, instilled confidence in the pilot. And so, on a passing transport plane, I ended up in Moscow. I had a family in Lyubertsy. After being there for two days, I flew over the airfield for several laps and set a course. My first landing was in Ryazan, then in Michurinsk and finally Voronezh. It is known that by the time I was still in Valuyki, Senior Lieutenant Lukyanov A.G. rammed south of Voronezh. He made a classic ram. However, he landed in a field, in corn, not quite successfully, he hit and even temporarily lost consciousness. The director of the stud farm picked him up and brought him home. In general, the feat was impressive, he was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR. After this event, he began to speak frequently on the radio. Voronezh. The broadcast was everywhere. The front was approaching Voronezh. There were no planes in this area. The infantry retreated unorganized, even disorganized. We were forced to storm German columns with Mig-3, Yak and even I-16 fighters. Of course, it is impossible to succeed in this attack, except to morally influence the enemy and our own, but we had to defend ourselves, we suffered huge losses, each flight cost us several planes and even pilots. I've only flown twice, and I must say, I didn't believe in the effectiveness of the attack. Two 50 kg bombs were suspended under the wings of the Mig-3 aircraft. That's all there was, but there was also another reason: we were completely unsuited to bombing, did not know how and did not know how. Lukyanov continued to perform systematically, once a week, on adio and say that "we drop tons of bombs on the heads of the fascists," and 10 planes that went on an attack took only one ton. As a rule, 100 grams of vodka were given out for dinner in the evening. Then I did not drink, I could not, and the body did not perceive alcohol, after even a small dose, my jaw ached, not only my head hurt, but all my bones, so I did not drink, I gave my technique to Kiryanov I.P. Lukyanov A.G. drank, loved to drink, so I was often tipsy. One day, after his performance on the radio, we played a prank on him, that is, we rebuked him. Indeed, our situation was very difficult, it was our turn to sacrifice our lives. I told him that you're the one who talks on the radio all the time. What tons are you dumping on the heads of fascists, and we have already lost 5 pilots. He looked at me for a long time with his blue, even turquoise eyes. Then he quickly left and took a machine gun, went to the dining room, where the superiors were sitting, that is, the regiment commander, the commissar, and the chief of staff. He put the machine gun on the table and barked at the commissioner: "why are you making me lie, you made Goebbels out of me?" I'll put you against the wall. Of course, he was calmed down, but he has not performed since. The collapse of our group near Kharkov was looming. There was no particular opinion in our circles about the further conduct of the war. There was a kind of mood of either inhibition or confusion. Even the weather of early spring seemed to have quieted down in anticipation of something. The commission was correct. Any state, which, moreover, overthrows several states and peoples by force, will "decompose". And eventually it will fail. I thought it was somewhere beyond the Volga, but we'll hold on anyway. This is my purely subjective point of view, some thought that everything was over. These are the memories I have of that period. I was not amazed, although I was afraid of all the horrors. There have already been rumors that they were doing in Ukraine and Belarus. At that time, Wanda Vasilevskaya and Korneychuk worked in Valuyki in winter and lived not far from us. They kept in touch with the rear, with the partisans in Ukraine, they had the latest information about what was being done in Ukraine. Then they wrote their main works "At Babi Yar", then the film "rainbow" appeared, which made a terrible impression, this is a documentary film that told about the atrocities of fascism. Perhaps this picture made the strongest impression on me during the entire period of the war. I had to see both Wanda and Korneychuk several times in the same place in Valuyki in the winter of 1941. During this period, the southwestern front was temporarily located there. Before that, even earlier, I received the Order of the Red Banner there in Valuyki, the first order in my life. He presented the orders to several of us pilots (probably 12 or 14 people, then they were awarded the Order of the Red Star and the medal "For Bravery"), Air Marshal F.Y.Falaleev. A wonderful man, then he was still a colonel general. In the past, a cavalryman from Budyonny's cavalry. He is one of those who strengthened and generally created aviation, which was still being formed at that time. Later, he was the head of the Air Force Academy and helped me get into it, and opened the doors for me to advance in life. These are people who have been difficult to meet since 1955. In my life, I remember two people of the Leninist type who played a big role in shaping me as a person: this was an employee of the Cheka in 1937, at flight school, when they wrote slander against me about my origin, and he decided to leave me at flight school. I still hear his sweet face, impressive kind voice. F.Ya.Falaleev, being the head of the academy, provided graduates of the academy with a memorable manual after the war, just as Dale Carnegie's book was later published in America. F.Y.Falaleev's memo armed the commanders who were still weak in psychological terms at that time. How little we knew then, and how difficult it was for us to build the armed forces, especially the Air Force. Returning to Wanda and Korneychuk, I will say that later I met with them at the congress - meeting of the Slavs in Moscow in 1943 at the House of Unions. Then all the Slavs united. The southwestern front was in Valuyki for a very short time, then it moved back closer to Kharkov. While at the Air Force Academy, I had to visit F.Ya.Falaleev several times, at the table he told us young people, colonels and lieutenant colonels, a lot about his service, about Marshal S.K.Timoshenko, G.K.Zhukov and others, and in particular, told us how he got a marshal aviation. It happened in the carriage when they were traveling with the entire front headquarters to Moscow to approve the operation. And so in the carriage where F.Ya.Falaleev was standing, Marshal C.K. Timoshenko was passing in the corridor and accidentally touched F.Ya.Falaleev with his stomach while passing. Then he stopped and said: "according to his density, he should be assigned a marshal," although F.Ya.Falaleev was not a fat man – that's how I became a marshal, Marshal F.Ya.Falaleev finished his story. The authority of the big bosses among the middle ranks of the army before the war was somewhat distorted. So Marshal S.K.Tymoshenko was not respected among pilots in particular, this was explained by the fact that during his period when he became Minister of Defense, the army was reorganized, rearmament was underway, the number of soldiers and officers increased, the army was technically equipped. This is especially true for aviation, it switched to a new class of aircraft: from 500 k/ h and above, new aircraft such as Yak-1, Chaika-153, Mig-3, Lagg-3, BB-22 and others were replaced by I-16 and 15, TB-3, TB-1. There was a change in the flight crew from an officer to a sergeant. Before that, the schools produced military pilots with the rank of lieutenant, senior lieutenant. After the arrival of C.K.Tymoshenko, sergeants and senior sergeants began to graduate. All young pilots who had not served for three years had to move to the barracks position. Drill was introduced for all categories of officers, physical education and the like. In addition, the officers, then they were called commanders, knew that Stalin's son Vasily was married to S.K. Timoshenko's daughter. And this was considered nepotism in the Stalinist period, and had a bad effect on the generation. Although later, and even then, many high-ranking officials spoke very well of him as an excellent cavalryman of Budyonny's cavalry. Spring and May were approaching, anxious days were coming, everyone was waiting for something, but there was more confusion in waiting than anything else. The big mistake of our commanders, and ourselves, was that we flew little, trained little, prepared little, worked little on battle formations and knew the enemy poorly. The Germans began an active reconnaissance of our rear, but we did not show much activity. But the young pilots arrived. By this time, I was appointed commander of an aviation squadron and instructed me to train young pilots, but in the meantime, get to know them. There were 18 of them, graduates of the Chkalovsky and Serpukhov – Borisoglebsky schools. But these were boys, they were 18-19 years old, and of course, one should not talk about flying skills, not because they are very young, but because fate sacrificed them as beings who had to be paid for our not yet perfect training, for our cap-making. Only 10% could benefit. I have already written that I also did not represent anything solid, but at least I could "somehow" defend myself, and most importantly, I was not bad at flying an airplane, and I had little combat experience. But they didn't know anything, and they didn't own anything. You could only throw up your hands and say, my God. But already at that time in aviation we had a good methodology, and even psychology: we could already distinguish and even distinguish between specialist pilots, what they are capable of. I remember that Morshnev, the commissar, and I gathered these young pilots and decided to determine who would fly how. Morshnev engineer – captain held the position of engineer of the aviation squadron. The captain and squadron commander determined the abilities and recorded them. Morshnev and I almost did not disagree. Out of 18 people, I named 6-7 who would be a good pilot, and I was almost right. Among them were the surnames Yakovenko, Kurganov, and others. When I started talking about flight training, it turned out that they had only 18-25 flight hours each. Of these, 16 hours are spent on U-2 and Po-2. This is a raid by the cadets of the aero club in order to make several flights over the airfield. They had only 3-4 hours on the I-16 plane, and some did not even have that. This raid is even terrible for a person, since it is not possible to own an airplane with such a raid. Their appearance was so miserable, and their mood so pathetic, that they still stand in front of my eyes. I will say more about Yakovenko and Kurganov, these are heroes posthumously. They were dressed in windings and boots copied from bast shoes, tunics and trousers were too small, caps, and they had nothing else. Although hundreds of warehouses remained in the rear, no one could touch them to dress these unfortunate boys sent to their deaths. But the war. The war, it devoured everything, and it seemed to me that She will devour these pretty boys without a trace. I was ordered to fly with my squadron to the Levaya Rossosh airfield and begin preparing them for battle, I was given 15 days, then I had to lead them into battle. The planes were promised to be delivered from the 18 plant in Voronezh. He produced the Il-2, but the plant itself was evacuated to the rear, and the remnants of the workers repaired and assembled Mig-3 aircraft and others. The left Rossosh was located at a distance of about 40 km from Voronezh and was a huge field of 5x5 km, it is a plain with excellent coverage: a green carpet, grass. Not far away in these places were the stud farms of the famous Orlov trotters: the estate of Alexei Orlov, the same one who elevated Catherine to the throne with his brother Gregory, and he also strangled her husband Peter III. But at that time I did not know any history, neither Russia nor Ukraine, and even did not really know even the history of the party, since by that time they had already tried to confuse it and discard everything living and essential, and it was not possible to remember the rest, since there was not enough logic in it. I mean the fear of Berievism and the elevation of the cult to a degree. At the end of this airfield stood the huge village of Levaya Rassosh, judging by the buildings, a very good noble village. We lived on the outskirts in a barn, although it was still cold, there was a lot of hay, and not only in the barn, there was hay in the stacks at the end of the airfield. We ate in a house on the outskirts. I slept in the hay and I did not remember a day or a night, as I was engaged in flights of young pilots from dawn 5.00 to 9.00 pm. I had 6 planes: two for training young people and 4 for covering the airfield from the Germans, there was also a UTI (I-16 training aircraft) with dual controls. My deputy Vakin was one of the flight crew, and another flight commander A.S.Shleonkov, who later died in battle near Voronezh. After I told the pilots the specifics of the flight, and the independent departure, I took off and showed them how to take off and land. Then he let the pilots down, put them on the plane, and told them again, then asked who would fly, and so, the first one named Kurganov was a sergeant. He was a boy with reddish-colored hair with regular facial features, slightly smiling, blue eyes, medium height, a little fluff appeared on his mustache, apparently he hadn't shaved yet. When he boarded the plane, I looked at everyone and at him, many were confused. He was concentrating on getting on the plane. After all, I showed him the horizon once again, he calmed down a little and, at my signal, taxied to the takeoff, then, at the signal, gave "gas", revs, and raced for takeoff. Somehow I was not very afraid of the consequences, after the take-off he came off with a left roll, this happens to all pilots on this plane, since he has such a feature: heeling from the reaction of the rotation of the propeller. Kurganov made two laps, came in for a landing and landed well. It was a victory. On the second day, I actually had two pilots who could fly this plane. On the third day, German fighters appeared over the airfield, before that they mostly flew near Voronezh. My deputy Vakin and I took off in pairs, we went to the front line, it was 15 km away, looked, did reconnaissance: the crossings over the Don were not brought, and we continued training pilots. By the evening, I received an order from the regiment commander M.F.Quresh to speed up training, he now gave me not 15 days, but only 10. On the third day, there were already those who wanted to, but their appearance was very unsightly – confused. I remember the pilot, Jr. Sergeant Krivin. He was a handsome young boy with dark hair and thick fused eyebrows on his forehead, his voice was muffled and pleasant. They said that he sang well, but I did not have to listen to him, although he was in 487 I.A.P. for a long time, even at the Kursk Bulge, where he died in a fight with the assami of the Germans. His presenter was my favorite V.I. Kotsar. It was a Moldovan. He went through the war and I don't know, he lives somewhere in Bryansk. They flew to the scout, and then to the ass. Krivin's independent flight presented a tragicomic situation for me – when he boarded the plane, he touched the winding, and barely survived. I had to intentionally tell more about how to take off, where to look at takeoff, how to operate the rudders. What will happen to the plane when it starts moving, what will happen in the middle of the run-up and especially at the end of the run-up and off the ground. I wanted to impress on them the main thing – the moment the plane leaves the ground, when the plane reaches a speed of ~ 200 km / h and having a soft shock absorption of the wheels begins to hit the ground. I already he said that the MIG–3 aircraft had a weak (thrust-to-weight ratio, thrust-to-weight ratio of the aircraft). The power of its engine is 1300 hp, and its weight was about 4.5 tons. This is the weakest aircraft in terms of thrust, it was designed for combat at 5000-7000 m. At that time, no one was fighting at such a height, there were separate skirmishes between scouts and interceptors, but nothing more. I want to say that modern aircraft (jet) are much easier to take off and land, compared to the motor ones that were in the third generation. The first are 100-160 k/h S–5, R-1, 250 k / h, the second I-5, R-3, the third I-16, I-15, I-183, Mig-3 350 – 500 km/h. Finally, it seemed to me that my ward was ready, that he had learned the main thing, and I could be calm. I gave the command, that is, I said, "Come on." It was such an expression in aviation, which included both permission and I am confident in you, and you will cope, and finally, there was - there was not. When he brought the engine to medium speed, I jumped off the wing and ran away from the jet from the propeller of the aircraft, waved my hand forward once more. The plane moved and rolled accelerating for takeoff, it ran for a long time, about 1500 m, then stopped taking off. After the aborted takeoff, the pilot taxied up to me, that is, to take off. Here I saw the pilot's fear and confusion. I decided to push him, which was not quite right on my part, but I had no other way out, and I had to go ahead. Air battles were going on over Voronezh, the Germans forced the Don, I had two days left, and 10 more pilots were not released and the minimum was not done. It was necessary to sacrifice: either land Krivin and replace him with another pilot, and then cowardice may appear, or continue. The fear could arise not only of the aircraft, which the pilots did not own, but also of the German assos, who walked 3 to 4 km from our airfield, and only due to the fact that three of my planes are flying in the air, they do not appear above the airfield. I ran to the plane and in a rage knocked on the side of the plane, shouted: why didn't I take off. But then I saw tears in my eyes, and I immediately sagged. My pilot Krivin began to speak in a frightened voice, to justify himself. How does she, how does she not obey me, my winding has unwound, and I cannot operate the steering wheel. He took out the winding and threw it overboard. I gave the command "Come on" again and the plane started moving again. I saw that he did not give full throttle, and, of course, the plane could not come off in time, so he ran for a long time, hitting the ground, bouncing, he ran for two kilometers, then finally began to break away. After the breakaway, it began to tilt to the left. I turned away, I thought it would turn over. The commissar and engineer Morshnev were here. I asked: did it turn over? And I heard from the commissioner - "went" - took off, but not in the direction where he was aiming at the start, but in the other opposite direction. During the breakaway, he was led to the left, and he went in a circle with a roll (the radio was not working well on the planes then) and went towards the front right at the German fighters, who began to leave for their territory, apparently they thought that this was some trick of our pilots. We were all lost on the ground and in the air. My deputy Vakin started to catch up to bring him home. It was such a commotion that it could have cost us a lot. If there were four Ass fighters in the vicinity, we could have suffered heavy losses. I quickly ran to my fighter to take off to help our pilots Vakin and A.S. Shleenkov. But it turned out that everything went well. Vakin brought him to the landing and, finally, we met him on the ground. He calmed down, and we came to our senses. I gave him two more flights, and he flew pretty well. On this day, I released three more pilots. Thus, I had 7 ready-made pilots who could automatically lift the plane into the air. There were two more to pick up 9 planes in Voronezh and move to the rear for further development. I had to make fighters, real pilots, in 15 days. By the evening of the fourth day, the regiment commander himself, Lieutenant Colonel M. F. Quresh, arrived and painted a gloomy picture for me. I ordered them to return to Voronezh in the morning, and immediately, when approaching the city, to take the fight with German planes, mainly bombers, if there are fighters, and they will be, they will be connected by Pakhomov, Shilov and B.Y.Ternovoy, because my pilots will not stand the fight with fighters, we will have heavy losses. At dawn, around 4:00, I took off with my young pilots, gathered them for a long time until they approached me in formation. They walk – they couldn't fly, so I drove them in a bunch. As a result, I was less threatened by German fighters than my untrained pilots. At any time, they could chop off my tail with their screws. The departure process itself began even before the departure from Voronezh. The decision was changed because some of the planes were taken away. The old pilots flew away, including Vakin, two more old pilots flew away, I stayed with the young ones. I felt something was wrong, that is, no one could really draw the situation for me and set the task of what, when, and how to act. One thing was clear to me, that I had to be in Voronezh tomorrow. But in the evening a car came, a truck and a half, and took all the people, including the technicians, and I had to take off with a young pilot Yakovenko in two planes in the morning and go to Voronezh in order to create a group there to fight. The remnants of several regiments that had been thrown back from Kursk, Orel, Kastornoye and other places were already fighting there. In the evening, the car came out, taking all the people of our regiment, there were about 20 of them, and the young pilot Yakovenko and I stayed. We slept in a haystack and started the engines at dawn. First he and then I took off, there were no Germans in the air, and we reached Voronezh safely. But when I was landing, I noticed that there were no planes at the airfield. This did not bother me, I landed anyway, and the young pilot Yakovenko followed me. When I taxied to the parking lot, the remaining people ran up to me: technicians, motorists and a rear guard and demanded that I quickly get out of the airfield, since the fascists are 2 km away and with one throw they can capture the airfield. I had to immediately send the young pilot to another regimental airfield 5 km from Voronezh. And to pick up my things myself, but it happened so quickly that within a few minutes the situation became more complicated, and I had nothing left to do but get out. People appeared on the outskirts of the airfield 200-300 m away, then a firefight began, and mines exploded in parking lots. I quickly started the engine. I was informed that the Germans were on the outskirts, all the people had fled, and I felt fear of helplessness. I turned on the gas and went from the parking lot to take off, when I took off and removed the landing gear, I saw that mines and shells were exploding on the runway. And on the edge of the airfield and to the parking lot where my plane was 30 seconds ago, the Germans were walking, and the Fascist equipment was already moving. It turned out that in the evening the fascists crossed the Don and prepared for the storming of Voronezh. The entire 487th regiment has relocated to an airfield east of Voronezh, and has been fighting heavy battles with the Germans for two days, quite actively holding back raids, suffering heavy losses. The Germans have been attacking Voronezh from the air and ground for two days in a row. I remember the amazing atmosphere in those minutes when I was in the air. In principle, I knew where I needed to land, but it was not clear to me what to do. An aerial battle of a group of planes was visible on the southern outskirts of the city. On the ground, it was not clear from our side, there was no outline of the front line, while the Germans were moving in groups towards the city. The city was smoking. Before that, the Germans bombed it well back in April, so there were ruins. I hurried to a group of our planes fighting German fighters and bombers. He immediately joined the battle, attacked the bomber, but the battle was coming to an end, the Germans were leaving the front line, our fighters were also quickly returning to their territory. I also went to the designated airfield, which I did not know, and never landed on it. After passing over the airfield, I landed quickly, but as soon as I taxied, a car jumped up to me and the commander of the regiment, M.F. Quresh, was quite upset. He invited me to get in the car and go to the checkpoint, where I was tasked to immediately pick up the young pilots on the car, move to the factory airfield and pick up six young pilots already waiting for me there, and take them to the Mud or Tambov. Then it is necessary to overtake six serviceable Mig aircraft to where the pilots are without planes, and transfer the planes and pilots to another regiment. This upset me because I can't get to the city by car. The city is retreating, all the people are in a panic, who are wandering on what, fleeing, leaving the city, their native places and houses, apartments. The people are terrified, panicking, and it is impossible to do anything in an organized manner. The city, its western part beyond the Voronezh River, is empty, there are only some parts fighting the Nazis, who are fiercely shelling the civilian population. Everything is on fire, because the attack has begun. Who is on what, on carts and on foot, with children on his hands, and on a leash, carrying some belongings, some food, who drags a cow. Everyone curses everything and everyone, and first of all the army, which is supposed to protect them, while it "runs". I didn't know much about the ground situation then. I only saw from the air that our defense is focal, in separate groups, there is no complete proper resistance. I also saw that the Germans were crossing the Don in a fairly organized manner, building one crossing after another. Attempts by our "attack aircraft" and "bombers" such as Su or BB-22 and individual Il-2s did not have any effect, there was clearly not enough aviation. When, back in May, there was some tangible resistance during the raids, then during this period our forces dried up, while the enemy moved with the whole mass, possessing freedom of maneuver. During this period, the Germans had more than 500 aircraft in this direction, but we could oppose a hundred, one and a half, no more. No more than 200 planes appeared over the city itself per day. The horror of Voronezh shocked me, it seemed to me that we were doing something wrong, and what was not clear to me. Then I only realized what we lacked for pilots: it was training, flying, flying and flying. Training and flights of the flight authorities, and the ability to take risks. Our commanders, and we ourselves, misunderstood the psychological moment and the psychological state of the people. We were full of patriotism, the strength of our spirit, and boundless devotion. Ideology, idealism, and adaptability prevailed. The moment of the power of technology, its use, and the human factor in different conditions were not taken into account. In my mind, this moment was postponed in two ways. On the one hand, I participated in air battles over Voronezh, but I did not know who I was fighting with, who my companions were, who was the eldest, who was the youngest. One fact is that we fought short-term vigorous battles in disparate groups. We have never seen each other in person, on different Yak-1, Mig-3, Lagg-3 aircraft. Planes appeared at the front that almost no one saw, so when the Su-2 aircraft appeared, many thought it was a German reconnaissance aircraft, and even tried to attack. That day I made several sorties, for me they were not very remarkable, in fact we shot down several, three or four German planes, although we suffered heavy losses, much more than we destroyed. But on the other hand, we managed to thwart an organized attack by German bombers, especially at the crossings in Semiluki and on the railway to Voronezh. It was the biggest mess I've ever been involved in. Complete disorganization. And, apparently, only after the arrival of G.K.Zhukov, "order" was restored, it was possible to attack the fascists. On the second day in the afternoon, I was ordered to take out the young pilots and move the planes to Tambov. After takeoff, I gathered young people for a long time: six aircraft piloted by pilots with a raid on this type of Mig-3 for 1.3 – 1 hours and before that flying on U-2 training aircraft with a raid of 10 – 15 hours, this is a meager amount. Yes, considering that this is at the front, where the fighting is going on, where the ass of the Germans are roaming, by that time so brazen that they attacked our planes not only over the airfield, but even on landing. We suffered huge losses, but for the fascists it was a walk, they still wanted to be humane when shooting down our planes, the pilots descending by parachute, they did not attack, and they did not fire on the ground, but only passed, and showing their advantage, rocked from wing to wing. But, we still had to fight, and fight for our own. We suffered losses not only in the air, but also on the ground, and not only from the Germans, from attacks, but even from our lack of organization, from our inability to fight, and even from the lack of elementary organization. Independence is low, combat savvy. Of course, the conditions we were in were extreme. On February 15, 1942, German planes bombed the Valuyki and Urazovo stations, and Yu-88 bombers struck group after group. Our 12 I-16 and Mig-3 aircraft shot down 5 aircraft. In this battle, Sergeant Anatoly Eldyshev especially distinguished himself. He was an excellent pilot, possessed exceptionally good piloting technique and was a selfless fighter. I want to say more about Eldyshev because he joined the regiment at the end of 1941 near Voronezh. And as a sergeant pilot, he was respected by the entire regiment. He asked to be my wingman for a long time, which is why I took him under the Boulders, where he distinguished himself for the first time, and showed his skills. He was my wingman in the 487th regiment, but then he was transferred to the 148th Guards Regiment. I don't remember his number exactly, but I know that he was replenished with young pilots. It was in May 1943, where he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Tolya Eldyshev shot down many enemy planes, more than twenty. He died near Kiev, in the spring of 1943!

As you know, the Germans were preparing the summer campaign of 1943. They wanted to create two groups near Orel and Belgorod, surround our troops and destroy them, and since our troops were also preparing for the summer battle, in May-April echelons with troops and ammunition went to the front. The Germans, starting in the second half of April, inflicted massive strikes on railway stations and the city of Kursk. 500-600 aircraft participated in the raid at the same time. The planes came in waves one after the other, echeloned along the height and along the front. The regiment in which I fought was based near the front line at the busiest place in Shchigry -the Kastornoe river Kshen. The most active actions of the German aviation began in the second half of April. On April twenty-seventh, the regiment I led met in the air on the approaches a group of bombers with fighter cover - about 200 aircraft that were heading towards the city of Kursk, in order to strike at the concentration and unloading sites of our troops, as well as ammunition. Twenty-six of our fighters struck the main column of bombers and disrupted their order of battle, disrupted bombing and destroyed 4 bombers. Other fighters arrived in time and dealt a tangible blow to the entire group of bombers. Thus, the targeted bombing was disrupted and the enemy suffered heavy losses. The most characteristic battle for me was on April 22, when the led group of 28 aircraft, together with our other fighters, fought with bombers marching to bomb the city of Kursk, accompanied by a large number of fighters. In total, there were more than 300 aircraft from the German side at the same time in this raid. The battle began, it began 30 kilometers from the city of Kursk. Our group attacked the main forces, the He-111 bombers. Each of them had on board up to 10 bombs of different calibers. This fight lasted more than 30 minutes. The German group was defeated: after the first attack, up to 8 aircraft were destroyed, the enemy was forced to change course, drop bombs to the target. The fighters of other formations arrived in time and dealt a crushing blow to the rest of the aircraft. In this battle, the group I led destroyed 8 planes, we lost 4 planes in total, but the pilots remained alive, they parachuted into their territory. In this battle, I shot down one Xe-111 aircraft. The fighting continued, then intensified, then subsided. And most importantly, by the end of April 1943, the Germans were forced to abandon bombing in the city of Kursk and its area. The most critical period was the fighting from July 5 to the defeat of the Germans on the Kursk Bulge. As you know, air supremacy was completely conquered on the Kursk Bulge, and the conquest of air supremacy began in the Kuban, where the Germans tried to hold on for a while to withdraw their troops from the boiler. The fighting on June 5 began at 3:50 a.m. On this day, our pilots flew 8-9 missions each. Our regiment was most active, as it had the task of covering troops and railway stations. On this day, our regiment destroyed more than 20 enemy aircraft, including me, destroyed 3 aircraft. The fighting continued. By the end of the first day, our aviation had already ousted the German aviation from our territory. If in the first half of the day the fighting took place on our territory, at a depth of up to 40 kilometers, then by the end of the day they were conducted over the front line, and on the second day they were already behind the front line. It was on June 28, when I and a young pilot, to whom I was showing the front line, met six German assos, not far from the front line. The command mistakenly believed that there were two German fighter planes in the air and the command post pointed my pair at six German fighters piloted by Assami. When we attacked the first pair of Fascist fighters, we were hit by four more planes. After the first attack, I managed to destroy one German plane. But at that time, my wingman was also shot down, who had to leave for the airfield. Thus, I had to hold back the onslaught of five fascist assos alone. My situation was hopeless. At that time, the experience of previous battles helped me, and in particular, the good piloting technique of the Yak-7b aircraft. One of the German assos made a mistake I was piloting my own plane, and I took advantage of this to shoot down another German ace. Not only the increased skill of our pilots was visible here, but also the advantage of our equipment. The Yak-1 and Yak-7b aircraft were well armed and had good aerodynamic qualities. I also remember another interesting battle on June 30, 1943, just before the start of the great Battle of Kursk. It was Sunday, and the Germans had not been active for two or three days before, but were preparing to deliver a crushing blow to our troops on July 8. The Germans were preparing for the summer offensive, their pilot officers sent their wives to Germany, not hoping for a positive outcome of the Kursk operation. After drinking a lot, they boasted (as the captured pilots later told) that they would strike the Shields without losses and arrive unharmed at the departure of the train. And so, 22 Yu-88 bombers without fighter escort suddenly appeared on the horizon. I gave the command to take off, since I was driving a group, that is, a regiment (the regiment commander was ill) consisting of 28-35 Yak-7b. One minute later I was in the air, and 5 minutes later the whole regiment attacked the enemy. Immediately, 28 fighters took off from Shchigry field airfield, and attacked the German armada of 22 aircraft. Yu-88 got rid of bombs, did not reach the target and were attacked by our fighters. The leader of the group of German bombers quickly, freed from his bombs, began to move away towards the Eagle. The situation was clear, 70 fighter planes that took off from nearby airfields attacked 22 Nazi bombers. The planes of the fascists fell in flames, but the presenter was leaving. Having given the command to my deputy to stop the bombers, I and my wingman art. Lieutenant I.S. Romanenko rushed after the leading fascists. After 5 minutes, we caught up with him, and after two attacks, he hit the roofs of houses and collapsed to the ground. Then it became known that not a single Nazi bomber aircraft had left - all were destroyed in the area. In other words, 22 took off and everyone stayed here in the area where they brought the cargo. The shooter, the navigator and the radio operator of the presenter survived, but the pilot himself died – burned down in the plane after hitting the ground. The prisoners said that on this day they were escorting their wives from Orel, who were currently at the train station on the train and should go to Berlin. In honor of their wives, they organized an initiative flight to the rear to prove that Germany is strong. After the bombing, they were supposed to fly in and escort the train carrying the wives. What was the condition of these women when not a single crew returned? It was an unprecedented defeat of the Germans in the air, when none of the group of 22 aircraft returned. The activity and strength of our aviation was also shown here. And the most worthy thing is that the leading lieutenant colonel of the German Air Force, despite the losses of the entire group, believed that he would escape defeat, but he failed, his plan was solved. Only I had the opportunity to get it, because the others couldn't catch up with it – they took off later. Thus, an important task was completed. We were all surprised and delighted at how well we managed to deal with the fascists and show our ingenuity.An example of our increased advantage is the battle on July 17, 1943 at the Ponyri station, where our six Yak-7b fighters, in which pilots participated: I.S.Romanenko, Isaenko, V.I.Kotsar, Ya.D.Tretyachenko, I.M.Meshcheryakov and P.P.Kalyuzhny, engaged in battle with 20 enemy fighters. The attack was so sudden that after the first meeting, three Fascist planes were shot down, and a few minutes later two more. Our six, fighting with a superior enemy, destroyed 5 aircraft without losing any of their own. This indicated the increasing skill of our pilots and air superiority. About the courage and determination of our pilots, who achieved victories in any conditions. I am writing here only about successful air battles, but there were no less upsets and failures, especially in the first two years of the war. They should be written about, but only in another place. The next episode also deserves attention. Then a group of 6 aircraft fought with 20 German aircraft, destroying three Focke Wulf 190 fighters and two bombers and suffered no losses. In this group were senior lieutenants I.S.Romanenko, Y.D.Tretyachenko, Lieutenant Isaenko, I.M.Meshcheryakov, The next episode also deserves attention. Then a group of 6 aircraft fought with 20 German aircraft, destroying three Focke Wulf 190 fighters and two bombers and suffered no losses. Senior lieutenants I.S.Romanenko, Y.D.Tretyachenko, Lieutenant Isaenko, I.M.Meshcheryakov, N.P. Krasilnikov and Captain P.P.Kalyuzhny were in this group. The most difficult day for the personnel of the 146 Guards Regiment was July 5, 1943. Then the Germans launched a general offensive on the Kursk Bulge. More than 300 German aircraft participated in the first raid at 3:59 a.m. When we took off, it was clear that the ground was burning all along the front: it was our artillery counter-preparation, and the Germans' artillery preparation. And above this avalanche of fire hung a black cloud of German planes. And so, we were one of the first to join the battle. Then, in the first battle, we managed to shoot down five German planes without losing our own. In total, on this day we destroyed 12-15 enemy aircraft and by 21h30 we had made 5 sorties with heavy fighting. Most of the pilots made 8 sorties that day. The first battles were on our territory, but by 21.00, that is, the fifth battle was behind the front line. Especially distinguished were senior lieutenants Y.D.Tretyachenko, I.S.Romanenko, Lieutenant Isaenko, I.M.Meshcheryakov, Sergeant V.I.Kotsar, Gulyaev, senior Lieutenant M.P.Starzhinsky, Captain B.Ya.Ternovoy, A.G.Lukyanov, V.I. Gavrilenko, and others. I had to lead the whole group that day, that is, the regiment. The pilots wanted this themselves (I was the navigator of the regiment by position), since the Kursk magnetic anomaly affected the compass readings because it gave errors up to 60 degrees. The life of this regiment was also interesting. A group of 15 pilots was sent to Kursk earlier than the rest of it. This group was headed by Captain Kalyuzhny P.P. Somehow spontaneously, after several successful battles, the personnel decided to wear a left mustache for 5 months. The pilots of this separate squadron wore it, and then almost the entire personnel of the regiment began to wear a left mustache. It is especially interesting when senior Lieutenant Ya.D.Tretyachenko, being red-haired, with sparse hair on his mustache, wore one red rare left mustache. This happened because the pilots sensed strength and superiority over the enemy, that's how I assessed this phenomenon back then. I was amazed by this mischief myself. I am writing this because I was often called the Left Mustache. I had to hear stories about the Left mustache already in a perverted form. Therefore, I just wanted to clarify that, indeed, the left moustache of the pilots of the Guards of the 146 regiment wore a leom in 1943. I have listed their names more than once. These are Senior Lieutenant Y.D.Tretyachenko, Senior Lieutenant I.S.Romanenko, I.M.Meshcheryakov, Lieutenant Isaenko, Sergeant V.I.Kotsar and others. I cannot describe the exploits of B.Ya.Ternovoy, since he fought for the Dnieper when I left the regiment for promotion. Captain L.P. Kalyan left the regiment in 1943. There is a lot to say about A.G.Lukyanov, because I studied with him at the Kach pilot school (Kachinsky School of pilots in the Crimea). Then, he flew in the same flight to the Moscow parades: he is on the left, I am on the right in 1938 - 1939, and fought with him all the time, up to 1944. A.G.Lukyanov received the title of hero for ramming the Yu-88 near Voronezh, fought bravely, flew well. He now lives in Volgograd.

It was April 1944. In March, I graduated from the Ase pilot school and was appointed senior instructor of the Northwestern Air Defense Front, it was an improvised front, his duties included covering troops from Bryansk to Leningrad from the air. Before that, in November 1943, after the liberation of Kiev and the North-West of Ukraine, the 146th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment temporarily stayed near Kiev in Brovary, from there I was sent to the newly formed Assov school, it was called: VOSH WB and VS (Higher Officer School of Air Combat and Aerial Shooting). This school was created in contrast to the German Goering School of German fighter pilots. The Goering school trained the most courageous and well-trained pilots, they brought great victories, and often terrified our aviators, as a rule, they armed themselves with the latest types of aircraft, and formed freely hunting groups. There were 10-12 of them on the same front, they flew freely in groups of 2-4-6 planes in a stretched formation, their aircraft armament was strong, 2-3 guns and 4-2 machine guns. About this later in another place (Approx. ed. it was not possible to find a manuscript related to this topic). It was at the Dubrovitsy airfield on the outskirts of the mountains. Podolsk is west of Domodedovo. In this village, in the church, which still stands, (it houses the historical archive of the Armed Forces) Peter I, married his first wife Lopukhina. The airfield was literally at the very outskirts, and I, a senior instructor of fighter aviation of the Northwestern Air Defense Front, had to participate in training camps for instructors of all divisions and corps. As I said before, I graduated from the Assov school. The school is located in Lyubertsy, 18 km from Moscow. A fighter division, the so-called Royal Aviation, once stood here, its task was to protect Moscow, and of course, parades, which were very fashionable then. The 34th Fighter Aviation Regiment, in which I began my flying career, was located in this garrison. It was on the basis of this garrison that a school was created, which recruited the most capable pilots, young and old, already shelled Heroes of the Soviet Union. I arrived there in November 1943, and in March April I was back at the front, but it turned out that I was left in control. I didn't have to work much in this position, since it wasn't my job. I asked to go to the front, but while I was in this position, training camps were held in Podolsk, they were attended by not many more than 12 people. Then I had already flown on many aircraft such as: I-16, Mig-3, Lagg-3, Yak-1, Yak-7b, Heinkel He-126, Harikein Mk.2, La-5F,FN, Cobra P-39D,N. On the second or third day, in the evening, the Chief Engineer of the Air Defense, General Vasiliev, came up to me and asked me to fly around the aircraft of the commander of the La-5, since even venerable engineers would not figure out what was wrong with the engine: the propeller blades did not move and were not regulated, and asked me to "hang" vertically and lighten the screw, test it at various speeds. For me, this task was very simple. I knew the plane, and I flew it confidently. General Vasiliev was one of those thinkers and experts in aviation technology who had come a long way from a motorist to a chief engineer and designer. These people are gifted, talented, devoted to their work and their Homeland, it's one charm to work and live with them. They were never discouraged, always in the mood, have a sharp humor, are honest and conscientious, always go they meet and help out their comrades. After I got into the cockpit, all the other instructors, Hero of the Soviet Union - Dima Zaitsev, N.K.Savenkov and a number of other famous pilots rested in a beautiful meadow, there was a break in flights for several hours (2 hours). At first, in the presence of an engineer, I tested the engine in the parking lot, moved the propeller blades from one position to another several times, changing the pitch of the screw, it worked well, I had no doubt about that. Most of these "whims" of technology occurred due to the pilots' poor knowledge of technology and the dangers of the formidable La-5 aircraft at that time, because the pilots did not have time to study technology, so it seemed to them that something was wrong, somewhere there was a screech, something was missing. Vasiliev listened to the engine running, came up to the cabin and asked me: "how?", I replied: "It's fine, the engine is working well." He asked me to lighten the vertical with an angle of 30-40 ° and then tighten the screw, that is, to conduct tests. I taxied onto the runway, and practically this is a huge field, and took off. The remaining instructors watched my takeoff and flight from the ground. The plane had a new engine, boosted, so after a short run I was in the air. I was told that all the instructors would be watching my flight, and therefore everyone who was at the airfield. After climbing about 1500 m. I accelerated the plane, checked how the propeller works in horizontal flight, and therefore the engine. Then he made a vertical "slide" and began to tighten the screw, while the angle of attack of the blades increases, and the propeller rakes in more air and becomes "heavy" for the motor. The engine is losing momentum, and, consequently, speed and power, more precisely, to say that in order for the engine thrust to be the largest, and the screw to be more efficient, the angle of attack of the blades must be systematically changed. At takeoff, the angle of attack is minimal, while the rotation speed is maximum, after takeoff, as the speed increases, the angle of attack increases, the rpm drops to a certain value and thus the pilot manipulates the angle of attack of the propeller, choosing the best mode of operation. And so, after I tightened the screw to the maximum, the rpm dropped. I had to do this on the vertical with an angle of 50 g , 60 g and 80 g. When I put the plane at the maximum angle of climb and tightened the propeller again, the plane quickly began to lose speed, and, consequently, stability. I started to lighten the screw quickly, but the speed continued to drop. I noticed that it was less than 100 km, and this already means a loss of controllability for the LA-5FN. The plane began to fall on the right wing, I did not want to make a right turn, it is inconvenient for pilots, like all right figures, I decided to dump it to the left, and gave my left leg to perform the "Renvertsman" figure. But the plane abruptly turned over on its back, wanting to keep it in the position I needed, that is, in the vertical position, I gave the depth controls, that is, pitch angle controls in order to get out of this position. However, my actions only made the situation worse. The plane, being in an inverted state, went into a tailspin. This situation creates negative overloads for the pilot up to 4g, which means a rush of blood to the brain, and in general the condition is unusual for a person, and he quickly loses consciousness. It happened to me too. The plane froze for a few seconds, there was a "pop", which means the picture of the aircraft's streamlining has changed, and the action of the rudders is now reversed. After that, the plane began to roll from one side to the other, it rotated simultaneously around 3 axes, and everything would have been normal if I hadn't made a gross mistake on the ground before, hadn't fulfilled the requirements for securing myself with seat belts. I was almost not tied, that is, I had only the side straps, as it is now on passenger planes, and the main shoulder straps were unfastened. Therefore, as soon as a negative overload was created, I was pressed against the visor "upside down" with 4g overload, and due to the heavy load on the rudders, the control stick was torn out of my hands, and the plane began to rotate rapidly with a decrease. Since lifting force is created during rotation, then on one, then on the other wing, the ailerons experience a huge load, deviating first to one side, then to the other, and consequently, the control knob "dangled" then to one side, then to the other, the aircraft fell with a decrease. I was unconscious. With an inverted flat corkscrew, the aircraft's descent is small 10-15 m / sec., while the overload increases. The uncontrollable plane was falling and spinning rapidly. I was pressed against the lantern, my head was "cracking", and the glasses on the front of my head were crushed, fortunately the headset prevented my head from being hit. I was all bent into a ball, I was in the upper part of the cabin, the handle was torn out of my hands, bumped from side to side, my feet jumped off the pedals, the only point of support was the gas: the gas sector. I don't know exactly how long this period lasted, but I can see 8-10 seconds. Uneven movement along the corkscrew rotation and height made it possible to wake up at one moment from a strong impact of the handle on the knee. The painful sensation brought me to my senses, and I instantly grabbed the control stick with great effort and pulled it towards me, thereby dramatically reducing the overload. The plane lowered its nose almost vertically, the speed of rotation decreased, but the rate of descent increased, and I saw the approach of the earth, clearly realized that there was essentially no way out of the situation, I only heard the command from the ground: "jump." But in such a position, in order to leave the aircraft, it is necessary to create a positive overload, for this you need to have an altitude of at least 4000 m. because although the negative overload contributed to the separation from the seat and falling out of the cabin, but I weighed 3-3.5 times with my body, that is, 200 kg. The weight was pressed against the lantern, which I had to drop first and then leave the plane. In fact, the lantern was jammed, the ball for which I had to pull so that the lantern separated from the cabin was above my head, and it was impossible to reach it in the current situation, and in general, with overload, and even uneven, it is impossible to perform a hand movement. I had a fleeting thought of dropping the lantern, but my attempts were in vain. In an instant, I saw that the earth seemed to fit on me. The aircraft was in an inverted position in a dive with an angle of about 50 gr. The thought worked clearly, the plane stopped rotating, and I turned its cabin over to the top. I saw the horizon and the forest, which "climbed" on me, that is, the plane was diving, with a sharp movement of the control stick, literally at an altitude of 30 m. I took the plane out of a dive, making a "slide". After that, I came to my senses: "another second, and I would have crashed into the forest land." Fortune was on my side. During the period of my struggle for life, all the instructor pilots were terrified, they were on the radio and shouting with their voices: "Jump! Throw it!" but, alas, ah! It was only after a few minutes that I came to my senses and landed at my airfield. When I approached the whole group, the most experienced pilots, everyone shook my hand and sympathized. Since the instructor's task was to determine the cause of the pilot's death, before telling them about what happened, I asked them the question: "What was the reason for my case, which only by chance did not end in death?", and surprisingly, none of them suggested my mistake and the reason that led me to the state of the disaster. That's why it's very difficult to guess the first cause that created the emergency. None of them thought that I could allow such illiteracy, such a mistake that even a weak cadet would no longer allow. That's why I can say with confidence that the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin died because he acted hastily in the current situation: he took the plane out of a steep spiral without taking it out of the roll, he had to first choose the plane from the roll, and then choose from the dive. But V.S. Seregin, as an instructor, had to do this, and strictly monitor even before this situation so that the roll was selected in a timely manner. I made the following mistakes. 1. Ignoring the instructions, which resulted in the fact that I did not fasten the shoulder straps. 2. Disdainful attitude to piloting techniques when the plane lost speed vertically, and I acted incorrectly with the rudders. 3. The whole flight was not well thought out by me, as required by the pilot's flight methodology and technology. The second case. Many pilots died on the Aerocobra aircraft, (P-39N,Q) due to the corkscrew condition. When the plane entered a "flat" spin due to a pilot's error, almost no one got out of it. This design feature of the P-39 is due to the fact that it has a rear engine location and an unusual alignment, and when losing speed, the aircraft corkscrewed almost horizontally. Due to this, the pilots were afraid of this machine, and further aggravated their mistakes. Therefore, special training sessions were held with demonstrations: how to get the plane out of a tailspin, and how to operate the rudders in the current situation. The demonstration at the training camp was conducted by the famous Honored test pilot M.L.Gallai. Then a book of his memoirs was published. It was 1944, and I was a deputy. commander of the 124 Fighter Aviation Division. The division had three Aerocobr regiments, two YAK regiments and one La-5. Its parts were located near Pskov, and even near Leningrad, Malaya Vishera. The division occupied a huge space, it was strong. I had to show the pilots that this plane is easy to pilot and there is nothing to be afraid of. Therefore, for the pilots of each regiment, I showed aerobatics over the airfield. At the beginning, he gained altitude, as required, 3000-3500 m., brought the aircraft to the minimum speed when it began to fall freely – a breakdown into a spin. After I took him out, I decided to show aerobatics, that is, I performed a loop, flips, renversman, chinchelman, slides and turns at an altitude of 800-1000 m. In the process of aerobatics, I got carried away, dropped to an altitude of 600 m., the maximum permissible for this aircraft, since in order to get out of a dive, you have to lose 300 m., well, I overdid it. Performing the figures one by one together, I lost altitude and speed limit, showing the pilots what can be done. And so, while performing the last loop at an altitude of 300 m., I made a gross mistake, again losing speed beyond the maximum permissible. The plane at the top point hovered in an inverted position without speed and began to fall to the ground, not controllable – death was inevitable, but even here an instant reaction helped me. Acting with the elevators, I lowered the nose of the aircraft and, losing altitude, gained a minimum speed of 140 miles, I managed to turn the plane over to its normal position and at an altitude of 20 m above the forest to bring it to an upright position on the "hill". The pilots were delighted. But in this case, if I moved the handlebars a few millimeters, I would inevitably die. None of them (70 people) thought that, being carried away, I had made such gross mistakes. Such as a loss of speed to a minimum, which means an inevitable disaster, since in such cases, for an aircraft such as an aerocobra, it is necessary to have at least 1,500 m. heights. I was afraid only when I landed and got out of the plane. The specialists, the "old" pilots, just sighed, looking at me as if I were lucky. The main thing was the sensitivity of the pilot, how accurately he manages to act, and to know how much, however, it was an accident that he remained alive. When later, and before that, I had to sort out disasters and deaths of pilots, one conclusion suggested itself: the pilot did not cope with the situation in time. In 90% of cases, the pilot could not cope with the situation, but he created it himself by 80%. The remaining 20% relate to exceptions when the plane was falling apart, due to any accident, an engine accident or a fire. All his life, a person walks on the ground, and naturally, all his movements, actions, positions are conditioned in advance by reflexes that warn and anticipate. In the air, there are not two or three degrees of freedom of movement, but more, not counting rotational moments, and all this is due to the movement of masses and all kinds of accelerations. Consequently, there are many times more solutions to pre-emptive tasks, and there are almost no pre-emptive reflexes, because it is almost impossible to teach this. That's why pilots need flight training, and this was underestimated by our aviation bosses. The third case. It was on the Kursk Bulge, July 1943. The fighting went on continuously from morning to night, we had to make eight sorties a day. Between breaks, the mechanics did an inspection of the equipment, especially they monitored the fuel, since the fuel did not always have air conditioning, that is, it was with impurities. Therefore, they drained the sludge, turning off the taps for this purpose. So this time, the technicians decided to drain the sludge, but in their haste they forgot, that is, the technician - Lieutenant Danilin forgot to put the gas tank faucet on the "both" left right, both right. Alarmed, I jumped into the plane, the engine, as a rule, had already been started by this time by the technicians, you just need to put on a parachute and take off. So it happened this time. After takeoff, the group gathered, and we headed to the front line, where the battle was already underway. When, after 15 minutes of combat during the attack, I made a "slide" on the vertical, my engine stopped. This stunned me, as I thought that I had been hit, although I had reliable cover from behind, and there should not have been an attack. I made a coup, and moved my YAK-7b to a sharp decrease so as not to lose speed, otherwise the plane would become uncontrollable. This maneuver naturally led to a loss of altitude, which was already about 600m. While still upside down, I began to look around to find a place for an emergency landing, but there was nothing suitable nearby: the plane was practically over the river. One bank rose with a significant slope, on which it was impossible to land, and the other was flat, overgrown with tall reeds. All this flashed through my head in an instant, the plane was rapidly losing altitude, I had no more than 60 seconds left, but I had already started to release the landing gear, the altitude was decreasing even faster. I had practically no opportunity to maneuver along the course, any sudden movement would lead to loss of control and death would be inevitable. It was impossible to release the flaps for the same reason: loss of speed, the engine was standing. With a very slight roll, I chose the right bank, where the reeds ended, but the plane was still moving at a significant angle to the edge of the shore. At the moment of contact, the vertical speed was prohibitive: there was a jerk and several blows, the plane bounced on the sand and in a few moments was in the water. The speed dropped quickly and he stopped, I was in shallow water. And this time I was lucky. Although there were favorable factors. I was on my own territory. By that time, I had a significant raid on this aircraft, that is, I was piloting it confidently. And, perhaps, the main thing is the aircraft itself: the weight of an empty Yak–7b is 2.5 tons, and the take-off weight is no more than 3 tons. At the same time, its engine power exceeded 1000 hp, had a 20mm cannon and two 12.7mm machine guns. Perhaps only the German Messerschmitt of early modifications (Bf-109E) had a lower take-off weight. The I-16 does not count, because although it has a low take-off weight, it also has a small wing area and, consequently, a significant landing speed.

Generally speaking, pilots have a lot of cases near to disaster, but there are not many pronounced ones. I don't take into account wars and air battles, it goes without saying. During the battle, it is very difficult to clearly imagine these moments, because all the time you are in such tension that you do not give yourself an idea when there was the greatest danger. When near Leningrad, I saw the tracks from machine-gun bursts during the attack of a group of bombers from 12 aircraft, during my attack, it did not occur to me that this was a destructive fire. It seemed to me that this was natural, and even when I attacked the Heinkel link in the area of art. Mga and they were constantly firing at me, and one of the bursts still hit my engine, of course, it could have killed me, but it also seemed to me that this was natural. When I was shot down for the first time near Leningrad in the area of art. Unfortunately, no special thought occurred to me about my death, there was only one bitterness, why I missed, why I did not attack and did not immediately open fire, I blamed myself for my slowness. But when this happens in an environment of conscious flight (when not only the subconscious mind and reflexes work), then it's another matter. When I got into catastrophic situations under other circumstances, when my condition was hopeless, I had a fear – "Well, this is the end!", but my thinking worked so quickly and so decisively that I managed to find a way out of this situation. In some cases, it's a miracle that he stayed alive, I wrote about it. Recently, I read the conclusions of the commission on the causes of the death of the first cosmonaut Gagarin Yu.A., they were published in the press. Of course, V.S. Seregin was the culprit of their death, since he was clothed with the rights of a senior mentor, a teacher. Of course, V.S. Seregin is guilty of everything. The Commission could not make all this public because it was unprofitable. Psychologically, this is a very difficult question and its pilots are mostly silent. I do not know what kind of raid and what kind of break in flights V.S. Seregin had, if I knew this, I could tell unmistakably where and at what moment they were confused, they were confused. I had to get into similar conditions many times, and by chance I stayed alive. When the situation becomes more complicated, especially when suddenly getting into conditions that the pilot did not foresee, then a number of errors arise in the actions of the pilot. I had to participate many times in decoding the causes of disasters, although there were few of them under my command, and each time it was clear that their cause was the error of the pilot who put himself in difficult piloting conditions. The most important thing is that the aircraft has many degrees of freedom when moving, including rotation, and their combination is difficult to predict. The instruments are in motion at this moment, and they cannot give a clear definition of the flight dynamics. From the investigation materials, it can be seen that the plane was descending, was in a spiral, it was rotating in three planes at once, and the most dangerous of them was the roll created by the pilot on the turn, and that was what killed them. Thus, the aircraft was descending, the roll was increasing, it was in a turn, that is, in a spiral, the aircraft's speed was increasing, the roll was increasing, the overload was increasing. Practically in the cockpit at that moment there was a mess: the speed on the device was growing, the horizon showed an increase in roll, it also showed a decrease, and it was almost impossible to figure it out right away. The lowering device, in turn, showed an intense decrease, that is, it was also moving, the gyrocompass was in motion – all the devices were in motion. The pilot wanted to get out of the clouds faster, hoping that they should end, but did not notice that they had descended into the lower part of the cloud. The more the pilot took the handle on himself, the worse the situation was, since the plane was burrowing, increasing the overload, and perhaps he could achieve a dive almost vertically. The pilots needed to make a small movement with the ailerons in order to choose a roll, bring the aircraft out of the roll, and everything would fall into place. The plane would have taken the correct position in relation to the horizon, and the actions of the pilot would have been immediately simplified. At the same time, the aircraft would begin to exit the dive, the pilot would see the instruments in the in a normal position, and his actions would be infallible. But it didn't happen that way. Apparently, V.S. Seregin was poorly prepared for this flight in the clouds, and did not expect such a mistake from the first cosmonaut, and in vain. (Ed. In 1953 - 1963, P.P. Kalyuzhny made 793 sorties on jet aircraft: MiG-17, MiG-15, MiG-19s, Mig-17pf and his flight time on these types of aircraft was 614 hours, including 139 hours at night, as well as in clouds and a closed cockpit by instruments. Source: Flight Book, ex. 9199. )

March 20, 1991

The long-forgotten years of the war leave almost nothing of the memories, not to mention the State and the people still living in it. Society has collapsed, the State has collapsed, the people have become stupid. In the village where I live, everyone drinks heavily. Milkmaids have stopped milking cows, calves have stopped feeding calves, they die every day for several. In the cities, they sit and argue about who is the best leader. And Yeltsin stands out in this, he wanders around Russia, praises himself and blasphemes Gorbachev, although he is much lower than his rival. Just as at one time they bowed to Brezhnev and Chernenko, completely sick leaders who no longer understood what they were for and why, we all worshipped them, at least, we tolerated them. And now they are shouting and clapping Yeltsin as a leader. In fact, he is as sick as Brezhnev and Chernenko, even worse, because he is mentally ill, and his appearance, words, speeches are the essence of a man who is stupefied with anger. He is riding on the wave of hatred of certain groups of people, in fact the scum of society, embittered, because somewhere, when, the party members did them wrong. They were joined by all kinds of crooks: thieves, bandits, loafers and dark personalities who are ready to sell anything and everything. Yeltsin's "hobby" is to take away dachas, take away pensions, and make an equalization. Nothing concrete. This type (the product of the party, the worst part of it), uses difficult circumstances and the situation in the State. In his speech at the Kirov factory, he shamelessly proposed his candidacy for President. The audacity. In the village, the people are embittered to the point that they burn down houses, farms of cooperatives and private individuals. So, in our village, an alcoholic burned a neighbor from Leningrad, and in the Novgorod region there are several such cases. They don't want to work and they don't give it to others. Indeed, now WWII veterans are poor, despicable people. Perestroika has hurt them a lot. At this time, a young man, a certain Alexander Vladimirovich Stankov, an artist and designer, came to me from Kiev and began to ask me about the Second World War. I thought I was awake. He tortured me, as I and my squadron wore a left mustache, I felt so sad, I wanted to return to WWII again. He also tried to tell me what kind of paint the ace of spades was painted, and exactly where and how a puss in boots or a bear with a bottle of vodka on the tail of an airplane, a naked woman wrapped in a snake was painted. Of course, the question was unexpected, and it was difficult for me to reproduce everything by memory. Do we need to describe everything, how they shaved our moustaches and painted over naked women?