Red Star Airacobra
Page 1
Dedicated to my comrades in arms
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Published by Helion & Company 2006
eBook edition 2011
Designed and typeset by Helion & Company Limited, Solihull, West Midlands
Cover designed by Bookcraft Limited, Stroud, Gloucestershire
Printed by Cromwell Press Ltd, Trowbridge, Wiltshire
© Artem Drabkin and Evgeniy Mariinskiy 2006
Photographs © personal archive of the Mariinskiy family
Text edited by Artem Drabkin, translated by Vladimir Krupnik.
Preface written by Mikhail Bykov, translated by Vladimir Starostin.
Publication made possible by the I Remember website (http://www.iremember.ru/index_e.htm) and its director, Artem Drabkin.
Hardcover ISBN 1 874622 78 7
Digital ISBN 9781907677540
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Contents
Preface: The Regiments of Aces
1 Heavy losses
2 The human shield
3 These ’Schmitts are easy to hit!
4 To the bridgehead
5 You’ve done your duty
6 The frontline is below
7 Nothing to report
8 He slammed into the ground
9 What can you do alone?
10 Well, we can dance!
11 ‘Terkin’ in captivity
12 The German Communists
13 An island in an ancient Park
14 In combat again
15 He didn’t make it home
16 Here comes my death
17 Batya sets out on a quest
18 Galya cried again
19 At Larga Station
20 To a new frontier
Epilogue
Photographs
Preface: The Regiment of Aces
This book is about the men of a fighter regiment that followed in the footsteps of many similar fighter regiments formed just before the Great Patriotic War and disbanded soon after the end of this war. There were dozens of front-line regiments just like it that faithfully did their duty as soldiers. But this regiment without any special status became one of the most effective in the Soviet Air Forces: according to the official records its pilots brought down 546 enemy planes in aerial combat, killed hundreds of enemy soldiers and officers and destroyed dozens of pieces of combat equipment and vehicles on the ground. Ten pilots of this regiment received the rank of Hero of Soviet Union: one pilot received this award twice.
The 27th Fighter Regiment with four squadrons began to be formed in May 1938 in the Moscow Military District Air Force on the base of a separate special fighter squadron. The Regiment was equipped with I-14, I-15bis and I-16 fighters. Major Ivan Dmitrievich Klimov commanded the 27th FR from the moment of formation till June 1941.
In December 1939 two squadrons of the Regiment (3rd and 4th) were equipped with I-153 aircraft and directed to the Karelian Isthmus where they took part in the war against Finland. In view of the small number of Finnish aircraft, pilots of the 27th FR were mainly engaged in air-to-ground attacks. The Squadrons’ crews conducted 747 operational sorties and as a result of air strikes on the enemy front line destroyed, according to the Soviet data, 4 field guns, 3 antiaircraft batteries and up to 700 enemy soldiers and officers.
On 20 June 1941 the 27th FR with a 3-squadron structure joined the Moscow Air Defense’s newly formed 6th Fighter Corps. Lieutenant-Colonel P.K.Demidov took charge of the Regiment. Before the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the Regiment was at the stage of rearming with new materiél and had a double set of I16 and MiG-3 planes. 36 of the 53 pilots in the Regiment had already mastered a new fighter of Mikoyan and Gurevich’s design.
In the summer of 1941 the Regiment became involved in the aerial defence of the capital from enemy air raids. In July the crews carried out operational sorties from the Kalinin airfield, then from an airfield in the town of Klin. Despite the complexities inevitably related to reequipment with new materiél, the Regiment, which had not participated in the fierce frontier battles of the first month of the war, and was manned by skilled aircrew and technical personnel, managed to make a worthwhile contribution to the protection of Moscow from the first and most intensive strikes from German aircraft.
The fighting account of the Regiment was opened on 17 July 1941 by Senior Politruk (political officer) Desyatnichenko, who brought down (according to Soviet records) a German Ju-88 bomber whilst flying his MiG-3. During the first week of the Luftwaffe night strikes on Moscow (22–29 July) 6 German bombers (all were identified as Ju-88) were assigned to the Regiment’s account and it is noteworthy that five of them fell victim to pilots flying I-16s. The reason for a ratio so unfavourable to the MiGs was that the pilots of the 27th FR had mastered night flights on new planes to an insufficient degree and the main load of work at nights was carried by the seasoned, tried and true “workhorses”: the I-16s.
The pilots of the Regiment also held undisputed pride of place in the development of “the weapon of heroes” – aerial ramming (while not denying the real heroism of the Soviet pilots it is necessary to note that the rams were frequently a consequence of insufficient mastery of new equipment). The first night ram in history was carried out on 31 July 1941 by a squadron commander Senior Lieutenant Petr Vasilyevich Yeremeyev, who destroyed an enemy bomber. Above the village of Golovino, near Moscow, the Soviet pilot attacked a He-111 in his MiG-3 at 1.36 a.m. He expended all of his ammunition but the enemy plane continued flying. Then Yeremeyev approached the bomber from below and chopped off its stabilizer and control surface with his propeller. Then the enemy plane crashed. The crew commanded by Unteroffizier A. Tsarabek died. The Soviet pilot bailed out of his uncontrollable plane and landed by parachute. For this feat Petr Yeremeyev was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
On August 11th, 1941 Lieutenant Alexey Katrich distinguished himself. At 9.30 a.m. he was flying a MiG-3 in a pair with Lieutenant Medvedev to intercept a Do-215 reconnaisance plane which was flying towards the Bologoye railway junction. Soon the engine of his wingman’s plane overheated and Katrich continued the pursuit alone. Before reaching Bologoye the enemy turned around and went along the Moscow–Leningrad railway. Katrich caught up with the German plane above Ostashkov at a height of about 8000m and from a distance of 100m opened fire from his machine guns, piercing the enemy plane with a long burst of fire from tail to engine. Katrich set ablaze one of the engines with his second burst and killed the gunner with his third one. The Soviet pilot intended to shoot at the cockpit to finish the enemy off but ran out of ammo. The “Dornie” continued its flight. Then Katrich decided to ram the enemy. He approached it at a narrow angle from the left and damaged the enemy’s stabilizer with the ends of the blades of his propeller. The German plane wavered, then fell over on its wing and went down. Soon it smashe
d into the ground near the village of Staritsa and burned up. The whole crew from 1/Aufkl.Gr. Ob.d.L. (the strategic reconnaissance aircraft group operated by the German Oberkommando) led by Lieutenant R. Roeder was killed. Lieutenant Katrich safely landed on the airfield. This was the first high-altitude ram in the world history of military aviation.
By October 1941 the German Command had rejected the tactics of massed night strikes on Moscow and the pilots of 27th FR and all 6th AD Fighter Corps were assigned other tasks. The Germans approached close to the capital and the Soviet Army and national home guard barely restrained the Wehrmacht onslaught, allowing the German tactical air force to reach Moscow. Therefore aerial defense pilots were compelled to carry out tasks unusual for AD fighters – to battle enemy fighters and to carry out bombing and strafing attacks on the approaching enemy. I-16 “Donkeys” again were very useful because their air-cooled engines could cope better with ground fire than the MiG motors which were more vulnerable, even to a rifle bullet. In addition, the pilots of the I-16s could better use the more powerful armament and better manoeuvrability of their planes when strafing.
In November 1941 Major V.A. Ivanov took charge of the Regiment. On 21 November 1941 the unit re-deployed from Klin to the airfield in Zagorsk because of the approach of the front line. The sorties were continued: some of them were carried out at night. Then by order of command the 6th AD Fighter Corps, the Regiment was transferred to Staritsa, and on 8 February 1942 returned to Klin airfield: the Germans were drawn away from Moscow, and an essential contribution to this was made by the pilots of the 27th FR. The unit was one of Moscow AD’s most effective: per Soviet data the pilots of the Regiment destroyed 59 enemy planes in aerial combat.
From the beginning of operations on 1 April 1942 the aircrew of the Regiment carried out 5250 sorties including 456 at night. Besides the victories in aerial combat the pilots of the 27th FR destroyed in strafing 24 enemy planes on airfields, 27 tanks, 200 motor vehicles, 12 motorcycles, 113 horse-drawn vehicles with military property, 3 fuel tanks, up to 9 infantry companies and up to a squadron of cavalry, and the field staff of one German unit.
The Regiment irrecoverably lost 12 planes. The first Heroes of the Soviet Union appeared in the 27th FR. Alexey Nikolayevich Katrich and Vasiliy Nikolayevich Matakov received this rank for heroism and courage in the struggle against the German invaders. Many pilots and technicians of the Regiment were awarded orders and medals.
Liquidation of the direct threat to Moscow allowed the withdrawal of many Fighter Regiments from the complement of the 6th AD Fighter Corps, and their redirection to the front-line, in the most intense sectors of Soviet-German front line. Among these Regiments was the 27th. In February 1942 the Regiment was changed to a 2-squadron structure (20 planes). In June 1942 it was equipped with English Hurricane fighters and became part of the 287th Fighter Division of the 1st Air Army.
From July 1942 the 27th FR operated on the Bryansk Front. The duties of the pilots included support of the bombers and air cover of the battle formations of the Red Army’s ground force. They brought down 17 enemy planes according to Soviet data. But in less than 20 days the Regiment lost 10 planes (half of its aircraft) in the fierce aerial combat. The heavy losses were because of the full moral and technical air superiority of the enemy aircraft. Besides, many skilled pilots of the 27th FR had been transferred to other regiments which remained in the Moscow Air Defence system.
Because of the heavy losses the 27th FR was withdrawn to the rear at the end of July 1942. It joined with the 2nd Reserve Air Brigade to bring personnel up to strength and reequip with new equipment. In August 1942 at the Seyma railway station in the Gorky Region the best-trained pilots and technicians from the disbanded 292nd FR joined the 27th FR. The Regiment received the newest equipment – La-5 fighters. Then, after accelerated re-training, the Regiment went to the Stalingrad Front under A.A.Slutskov’s command, where they participated in combat operations from 18 August until 24 December 1942 as part of the 8th Air Army’s 287th FR.
Near Stalingrad the duties of the Regiment, besides those listed above, were interception of enemy bombers on approaches to that city and reconnaissance of German airfields and dispositions. In aerial combat the pilots of the 27th FR were credited with 60 enemy planes. But the actions of the unit in planes of Lavochkin’s design could not be recognized as successful. The reasons were the imperfection of construction and numerous industrial defects of the first-series La-5, and the small time given to training the pilots on a new type of fighter. 14 planes were lost as a result of combat, that is about three quarters of the initial amount. In aerial combat near Stalingrad many pilots of the Regiment were killed, among them one of the most skilled air fighters, commander of a squadron, Captain Fedor Sergeyevich Chuykin who distinguished himself during the battles near Moscow. At the moment of his death his score was 11 enemy planes personally brought down along with 6 other joint claims.
In this period two pilots of the Regiment – Arcadiy Kovachevich and Alexandr Chilikin were most succesful. Both had fought in the unit since 1941. Near Stalingrad Lieutenant Chilikin brought down two German planes personally and 4 jointly with other pilots. The personal score of Senior Lieutenant Kovachevich had already reached ten enemy aircraft. He was promoted to the rank of Hero of Soviet Union on 1 May 1943. When the 27th FR was withdrawn to the rear both of the skilled pilots were transferred to the newly formed ‘Regiment of Aces’ – the 9th Guards Fighter Regiment under command of a veteran of the Spanish War, the Hero of the Soviet Union L.L.Shestakov.
On 24 December 1942, the 27th FR was withdrawn from the front line to the 13th Reserve Fighter Regiment. The rest of its equipment (5 La-5s) and 13 pilots were transferred to other units of the Division. The Regiment received reinforcement of personnel from the Kachinsk, Chguyev and Borisoglebsk Higher Pilot Schools and technical personnel from the Volsk Higher Air Technical School. In actual fact the Regiment was formed anew. Now it had nothing in common with the previous 27th FR except for the number and the banner. The type of planes was changed again: now the pilots were going to join battle with the enemy in Yak7B fighters. However on 22 March 1943 the Regiment was transferred to the 16th RFR and equipped with Yak-1s. On 4 April 1943 Guards Lieutenant Colonel V.I. Bobrov took command of the 27th FR. He had gained fighting experience during the Spanish Civil War and was certainly not an ‘ordinary person’ in the Soviet Air Forces.
In April 1943 the unit was based at the Nikolsk airfield complex and the aircrew carried out sorties from there for the interception of enemy reconnaissance planes during the phase of formation and consolidation of the armies of the Steppe Front. During one such sortie the 27th FR’s pilot Sergeant Kotrusov attacked and shot down a Junkers Ju-88 long-range German reconnaissance aircraft which fell near the Talovaya railway station. Three crew members of the enemy plane were captured.
On 10 May 1943 the 27th FR arrived on the Voronezh Front (the Belgorod sector) where it joined with the 5th Fighter Corps of the Red Army High Command Reserve, which was assigned to the 2nd Air Army to strengthen it. The Regiment formed part of the 205th Fighter Division with which its fighting career would be connected all the way through to the victorious month of May 1945. The Regiment was based on the Pravorot airfield. The combat activity of the Regiment in the spring and the summer 1943 could be roughly divided into two phases. In the first phase – from 10 May until 4 July – the primary tasks were the interception of single reconnassaince aircraft and groups of bombers near the concentration area of the 6th Guards Army and the covering of ground forces and military objects in the immediate rear. For this period the pilots of the 27th FR scored 30 confirmed air victories. The losses of the Regiment were as many as 10 planes.
It was in May 1943 that one of the Soviet Air Force’s most outstanding fighter pilots’ star began to rise: Lieutenant Nikolay Dmitrievich Gulayev, later to be twice Hero of the Soviet Union and the most effective pilot of the Regiment. He began fighting after June 1941 in another Regiment and gain
ed only one air victory before his arrival at the 27th FR. During May-June he was credited with 6 enemy aircraft(3 bombers and 3 fighters). It was the best result in the Regiment for that period. One of the enemy planes (a Ju-87 dive-bomber, on 14 May 1943) was destroyed by a ram from Gulayev.
The second phase of the combat action of the Regiment – from 5 to 18 July – was connected with repulsing the massed German offensive on the central sector of the Soviet-German front. Later it was named the Battle on the Orel-Kursk Salient. The primary task of the aircrew of the Regiment was repelling the massed blows of the enemy bombers and ground-attack aircraft on the defensive lines of the Soviet forces. In July the pilots of the 27th FR brought down, according to Soviet data, 55 enemy planes of different types. The losses of the Regiment were as many as 11 aircraft. The most effective fighter of the unit was Senior Lieutenant Gulaev again, who gained 13 personal and 2 joint victories. On 28 September 1943 he was awarded the rank of Hero of the Soviet Union for sorties over the Orel-Kursk Salient.
On 18 July 1943 the Regiment was withdrawn from the front line to the rear. Surviving equipment (18 Yak-1s) was transferred to the 737th RF. The 205th Fighter Division joined with the 7th Fighter Corps of the High Command Reserve and the pilots and technicians of its Regiments began training on the American Airocobra Bell Ð-39 fighters in the 22nd Reserve Fighter Regiment in the town of Ivanovo. The brightest pages in the history of the 27th RF related to this American-made plane. Just like any design this plane had some defects but it was loved by the overwhelming majority of the Soviet pilots who fought the war in it. The pilots appreciated the hardy all-metal airframe of the plane, reliable and well thought-out armoured protection, and comfortable spacious cockpit with a good field of view. Aircrew who had previously flown in Soviet planes especially liked the stronger armament with greater ammunition supply and the powerful and reliable radio transceiver which allowed the pilot to keep in contact with his comrades in the air and on the ground: previously, Soviet pilots could only dream about this.