Who used a ram in air combat. Victor Talalikhin: the ace who was the first to perform a night air ram

From the very beginning of the war with the Soviet Union, the air force of the Third Reich (Luftwaffe) had to experience the wrath of the Soviet “falcons”. Heinrich Goering, Reich Minister of the Reich Air Ministry from 1935 to 1945, was forced to forget his boastful words that “No one will ever be able to achieve air superiority over the German aces!”

On the first day of the Great Patriotic War German pilots were faced with such a technique as an air ram. This technique was first proposed by the Russian aviator N.A. Yatsuk (in the journal “Bulletin of Aeronautics” No. 13-14 for 1911), and in practice it was also first used by the Russian pilot Pyotr Nesterov on September 8, 1914, when he shot down an Austrian plane - scout.

During the Great Patriotic War, aerial ramming was not provided for by the military regulations, any manuals or instructions, and Soviet pilots resorted to this technique not by order of the command. Soviet people were motivated by love for the Motherland, hatred of the invaders and the fury of battle, a sense of duty and personal responsibility for the fate of the Fatherland. As the Air Chief Marshal wrote (since 1944), twice Hero Soviet Union Alexander Aleksandrovich Novikov, who was the commander of the Soviet Air Force from May 1943 to 1946: “An air ram is not only a lightning-fast crew, exceptional courage and self-control. A ram in the sky is, first of all, a readiness for self-sacrifice, the last test of loyalty to one’s people, one’s ideals. This is one of the highest forms of manifestation of that very moral factor inherent in the Soviet man, which the enemy did not and could not take into account.”

During the Great War, Soviet pilots performed more than 600 aerial rams (their exact number is unknown, since research continues to this day, and new exploits of Stalin’s falcons are gradually becoming known). More than two-thirds of the rams occurred in 1941-1942 - this is the most difficult period of the war. In the fall of 1941, a circular was even sent out to the Luftwaffe, which prohibited approaching Soviet aircraft closer than 100 meters in order to avoid air ramming.

It should be noted that Soviet Air Force pilots used rams on all types of aircraft: fighters, bombers, attack aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft. Aerial rams were carried out in single and group battles, day and night, at high and low altitudes, over one's own territory and over enemy territory, in all weather conditions. There were cases when pilots rammed a ground or water target. Thus, the number of ground rams is almost equal to air attacks - more than 500. Perhaps the most famous ground ram is the feat that was performed by the crew of Captain Nikolai Gastello on June 26, 1941 in a DB-3f (Il-4, twin-engine long-range bomber). The bomber was hit by enemy anti-aircraft artillery fire and committed the so-called. “fiery ram”, hitting the enemy’s mechanized column.

In addition, it cannot be said that an air ram necessarily led to the death of the pilot. Statistics show that approximately 37% of pilots died during an aerial ramming. The remaining pilots not only remained alive, but even kept the plane in a more or less combat-ready condition, so many aircraft could continue the air battle and made a successful landing. There are examples when pilots made two successful rams in one air battle. Several dozen Soviet pilots performed the so-called. “double” rams are when the enemy’s plane could not be shot down the first time and then it was necessary to finish it off with a second blow. There is even a case when fighter pilot O. Kilgovatov had to make four ramming strikes to destroy the enemy. 35 Soviet pilots each made two rams, N.V. Terekhin and A.S. Khlobystov - three each.

Boris Ivanovich Kovzan(1922 - 1985) is the only pilot in the world who made four air rams, and three times he returned to his home airfield in his plane. On August 13, 1942, on a single-engine La-5 fighter, Captain B.I. Kovzan made the fourth ram. The pilot discovered a group of enemy bombers and fighters and engaged them in battle. In a fierce battle, his plane was shot down. An enemy machine gun burst hit the cockpit of the fighter and was destroyed dashboard, shrapnel cut the pilot's head. The car was on fire. Boris Kovzan felt a sharp pain in his head and one eye, so he hardly noticed how one of the German planes launched a frontal attack on him. The cars quickly approached. “If now the German can’t stand it and turns up, then we’ll have to ram,” thought Kovzan. The pilot, wounded in the head, was going to ram a burning plane.

When the planes collided in the air, Kovzan was thrown out of the cockpit by the sharp impact, as the belts simply burst. He flew 3,500 meters without opening his parachute in a semi-conscious state, and only just above the ground, at an altitude of only 200 meters, he woke up and pulled the exhaust ring. The parachute was able to open, but the impact on the ground was still very strong. The Soviet ace came to his senses in a Moscow hospital on the seventh day. He had several wounds from shrapnel; his collarbone and jaw, both arms and legs were broken. Doctors were unable to save the pilot’s right eye. Kovzan’s treatment continued for two months. Everyone understood well that in this air battle only a miracle saved him. The commission’s verdict for Boris Kovzan was very difficult: “You can’t fly anymore.” But this was a real Soviet falcon, who could not imagine life without flights and the sky. Kovzan has been achieving his dream all his life! At one time they didn’t want to admit him to the Odessa Military Aviation School, then Kovzan gave himself a year and begged the doctors of the medical commission, although he did not reach 13 kilograms of weight to the norm. And he achieved his goal. He was driven by firm confidence that if you constantly strive for a goal, it will be achieved.

He was wounded, but is now healthy, his head is in place, his arms and legs have recovered. As a result, the pilot reached the Air Force Commander-in-Chief A. Novikov. He promised to help. A new conclusion from the medical commission was received: “Fit to fly on all types of fighter aircraft.” Boris Kovzan writes a report with a request to be sent to the warring units, but receives several refusals. But this time he achieved his goal, the pilot was enlisted in the 144th Air Defense Division near Saratov. In total, during the years of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet pilot made 360 ​​combat missions, took part in 127 air battles, shot down 28 German aircraft, 6 of them after being seriously wounded and being one-eyed. In August 1943 he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Soviet pilots during the Great Patriotic War used various techniques air ram:

Hitting an enemy's tail with an airplane propeller. An attacking aircraft approaches the enemy from behind and strikes its tail with its propeller. This blow led to the destruction of the enemy aircraft or loss of controllability. This was the most common aerial ramming technique during the Great War. If executed correctly, the pilot of the attacking aircraft had a pretty good chance of surviving. When colliding with an enemy aircraft, usually only the propeller suffers, and even if it failed, there were chances to land the car or jump with a parachute.

Wing strike. It was carried out both when aircraft approached head-on and when approaching the enemy from behind. The blow was delivered by the wing to the tail or fuselage of the enemy aircraft, including the cockpit of the target aircraft. Sometimes this technique was used to complete a frontal attack.

Fuselage strike. It was considered the most dangerous type of air ram for a pilot. This technique also includes the collision of aircraft during a frontal attack. Interestingly, even with this outcome, some pilots survived.

Impact with the tail of an airplane (ram by I. Sh. Bikmukhametov). The ramming that was carried out by Ibragim Shagiakhmedovich Bikmukhametov on August 4, 1942. He came out head-on to the enemy plane with a hill and a turn and struck the enemy’s wing with the tail of his fighter. As a result, the enemy fighter lost control, went into a tailspin and died, and Ibragim Bikmukhametov was even able to bring his LaGG-Z to the airfield and land safely.

Bikmukhametov graduated from the 2nd Borisoglebsk Red Banner Military Aviation Pilot School named after. V.P. Chkalova, in the winter of 1939 - 1940 participated in the war with Finland. The junior lieutenant took part in the Great Patriotic War from the very beginning, until November 1941 he served in the 238th Fighter Aviation Regiment (IAP), then in the 5th Guards IAP. The regiment commander noted that the pilot was “brave and decisive.”

On August 4, 1942, six single-seat and single-engine LaGG-Z fighters of the 5th Guards IAP, led by Guard Major Grigory Onufrienko, flew out to cover ground forces in the Rzhev area. This group also included flight commander Ibragim Bikmukhametov. Behind the front line, Soviet fighters met 8 enemy Me-109 fighters. The Germans followed a parallel course. A quick air battle began. It ended in victory for our pilots: 3 Luftwaffe aircraft were destroyed. One of them was shot down by squadron commander G. Onufrienko, the other two Messerschmitts by I. Bikmukhametov. The first Me-109 pilot attacked on a combat turn, hitting it with a cannon and two machine guns, the enemy plane went to the ground. In the heat of battle, I. Bikmukhametov late noticed another enemy plane, which came from above into the tail of his car. But the flight commander was not at a loss, he energetically made a slide and with a sharp turn went towards the German. The enemy could not withstand the attack head-on and tried to turn his plane away. The enemy pilot was able to avoid meeting the propeller blades of I. Bikmukhametov’s machine. But our pilot got creative and, sharply turning the car, struck a strong blow with the tail of his “iron” (that’s what the Soviet pilots called this fighter) on the wing of the “Messer”. The enemy fighter fell into a tailspin and soon fell into the thicket of a dense forest.

Bikmukhametov was able to bring the heavily damaged car to the airfield. This was the 11th enemy aircraft shot down by Ibragim Bikmukhametov. During the war, the pilot was awarded 2 Orders of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Star. The brave pilot died on December 16, 1942 in the Voronezh region. During the battle with superior enemy forces, his plane was shot down and during an emergency landing, trying to save the fighter, the wounded pilot crashed.

The first rams of the Great Patriotic War

Researchers are still arguing about who carried out the first ram on June 22, 1941. Some believe that it was senior lieutenant Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov, others call the author of the first ram of the Great Patriotic War, junior lieutenant Dmitry Vasilyevich Kokorev.

I. I. Ivanov (1909 - June 22, 1941) served in the Red Army from the fall of 1931, then was sent on a Komsomol ticket to the Perm Aviation School. In the spring of 1933, Ivanov was sent to the 8th Odessa Military Aviation School. Initially he served in the 11th Light Bomber Regiment in the Kiev Military District, in 1939 he participated in the Polish campaign to liberate Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, then in the “Winter War” with Finland. At the end of 1940 he completed fighter pilot courses. Received an appointment to the 14th Mixed Aviation Division, deputy squadron commander of the 46th IAP.

At dawn on June 22, 1941, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Ivanov took to the skies on combat alert at the head of the I-16 flight (according to another version, the pilots were on I-153) to intercept a group of enemy aircraft that were approaching the Mlynov airfield. In the air, Soviet pilots discovered 6 twin-engine He-111 bombers from the 7th detachment of the KG 55 “Grif” squadron. Senior Lieutenant Ivanov led a flight of fighters to attack the enemy. A flight of Soviet fighters dived onto the lead bomber. The bomber gunners opened fire on the Soviet planes. Coming out of the dive, the I-16s repeated the attack. One of the Heinkels was hit. The remaining enemy bombers dropped their bombs before reaching the target and began to fly west. After a successful attack, both of Ivanov’s wingmen went to their airfield, since, while maneuvering away from the fire of enemy riflemen, they had used up almost all the fuel. Ivanov let them board, continued the pursuit, but then also decided to land, because... the fuel was running out and the ammunition was gone. At this time, an enemy bomber appeared over the Soviet airfield. Noticing him, Ivanov went to meet him, but the German, firing machine guns, did not veer off course. The only way to stop the enemy was a ram. From the impact, the bomber (the Soviet plane cut off the tail of the German aircraft with its propeller), which was driven by non-commissioned officer H. Wohlfeil, lost control and crashed into the ground. The entire German crew died. But I. Ivanov’s plane was also badly damaged. Due to the low altitude, the pilot was unable to use a parachute and died. This ramming occurred at 4:25 am near the village of Zagoroshcha, Rivne district, Rivne region. On August 2, 1941, senior lieutenant Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov posthumously became a Hero of the Soviet Union.

Around the same time, junior lieutenant made his ramming Dmitry Vasilievich Kokorev(1918 - 10/12/1941). A native of the Ryazan region served in the 9th mixed aviation division, in the 124th IAP (Western Special Military District). The regiment was stationed at the border airfield Vysoko-Mazowiecki, near the city of Zambrov (Western Ukraine). After the war began, the regiment commander, Major Polunin, instructed the young pilot to reconnoiter the situation in the area of ​​the state border of the USSR, which has now become the line of combat contact between Soviet and German troops.

At 4:05 a.m., when Dmitry Kokorev was returning from reconnaissance, the Luftwaffe made the first powerful attack on the airfield, as the regiment was preventing the flight into the interior of the country. The fight was brutal. The airfield was heavily damaged.

And then Kokarev saw the Dornier-215 reconnaissance bomber (according to other information, the Me-110 multi-purpose aircraft) leaving the Soviet airfield. Apparently, it was Hitler’s intelligence officer who was monitoring the results of the first strike on the fighter aviation regiment. Anger blinded the Soviet pilot, abruptly jerking the high-altitude MiG fighter into a combat turn, Kokorev went on the attack, in a fever he opened fire ahead of time. He missed, but the German shooter hit accurately - a line of tears pierced the right plane of his car.

Enemy plane on maximum speed went to the state border. Dmitry Kokorev launched a second attack. He shortened the distance, not paying attention to the frantic shooting of the German shooter, coming within firing range, Kokorev pressed the trigger, but the ammunition ran out. The Soviet pilot didn’t think for a long time that he couldn’t let the enemy go, he suddenly increased his speed and threw the fighter at the enemy machine. The MiG slashed with its propeller near the tail of the Dornier.

This air ramming took place at 4:15 a.m. (according to other sources, at 4:35 a.m.) in front of the infantrymen and border guards who were defending the city of Zambrov. The fuselage of the German plane broke in half, and the Dornier crashed to the ground. Our fighter went into a tailspin, its engine stalled. Kokorev came to his senses and was able to pull the car out of the terrible spin. I chose a clearing for landing and landed successfully. It should be noted that Junior Lieutenant Kokorev was an ordinary Soviet private pilot, of whom there were hundreds in the Red Army Air Force. The junior lieutenant had only flight school behind him.

Unfortunately, the hero did not live to see the Victory. He made 100 combat missions and shot down 5 enemy aircraft. When his regiment fought near Leningrad, on October 12, intelligence reported that a large number of enemy Junkers had been discovered at the airfield in Siverskaya. The weather was bad, the Germans did not take off in such conditions and did not wait for our planes. It was decided to strike the airfield. A group of 6 of our Pe-2 dive bombers (they were called “Pawns”), accompanied by 13 MiG-3 fighters, appeared over Siverskaya and came as a complete surprise to the Nazis.

Incendiary bombs from low altitude hit the target, machine-gun fire and fighter jets completed the rout. The Germans were able to lift only one fighter into the air. The Pe-2s had already bombed and were leaving, only one bomber was left behind. Kokorev rushed to his defense. He shot down the enemy, but at that time the German air defense woke up. Dmitry's plane was shot down and fell.

The first...

Ekaterina Ivanovna Zelenko(1916 - September 12, 1941) became the first woman on the planet to perform an aerial ram. Zelenko graduated from the Voronezh Aero Club (in 1933), the 3rd Orenburg Military Aviation School named after. K. E. Voroshilov (in 1934). She served with the 19th Light Bomber Aviation Brigade in Kharkov and was a test pilot. Over the course of 4 years, she mastered seven types of aircraft. This is the only female pilot who participated in the “Winter War” (as part of the 11th Light Bomber Aviation Regiment). She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and flew 8 combat missions.

She participated in the Great Patriotic War from the first day, fighting as part of the 16th mixed aviation division, and was deputy commander of the 5th squadron of the 135th bomber aviation regiment. Managed to complete 40 combat missions, including night ones. On September 12, 1941, she made 2 successful reconnaissance sorties on a Su-2 bomber. But, despite the fact that her Su-2 was damaged during the second flight, Ekaterina Zelenko flew for the third time on the same day. Already returning, in the area of ​​​​the city of Romny, two Soviet aircraft were attacked by 7 enemy fighters. Ekaterina Zelenko was able to shoot down one Me-109, and when she ran out of ammunition, she rammed a second German fighter. The pilot destroyed the enemy, but died herself.

Viktor Vasilievich Talalikhin(1918 - October 27, 1941) made a night ram, which became the most famous in this war, shooting down a He-111 bomber on an I-16 in the Podolsk (Moscow region) on the night of August 7, 1941. For a long time it was believed that this was the first night ram in the history of aviation. Only later did it become known that on the night of July 29, 1941, a fighter pilot of the 28th IAP Pyotr Vasilievich Eremeev On a MiG-3 plane, a Junkers-88 bomber was shot down with a ramming attack. He died on October 2, 1941 in an air battle (September 21, 1995, Eremeev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia for courage and military valor).

On October 27, 1941, 6 fighters under the command of V. Talalikhin flew to cover our forces in the area of ​​​​the village of Kamenki, on the banks of the Nara (85 km west of the capital). They encountered 9 enemy fighters, in the battle Talalikhin shot down one Messer, but another was able to shoot it down, the pilot died a heroic death...

Crew of Viktor Petrovich Nosov from the 51st mine and torpedo regiment of the Baltic Fleet Air Force carried out the first ramming of a ship in the history of the war using a heavy bomber. The lieutenant commanded the A-20 torpedo bomber (American Douglas A-20 Havoc). On February 13, 1945, in the southern part of the Baltic Sea, during an attack by an enemy transport of 6 thousand tons, a Soviet plane was shot down. The commander drove the burning car straight into the enemy's transport. The plane hit the target, an explosion occurred, and the enemy ship sank. The crew of the aircraft: Lieutenant Viktor Nosov (commander), Junior Lieutenant Alexander Igoshin (navigator) and Sergeant Fyodor Dorofeev (gunner-radio operator), died a heroic death.

This happened on June 26, 1941, on the fifth day of the war, when the plane of Captain Nikolai Gastello was shot down while bombing a column of enemy tanks. The squadron commander did not leave the battle and continued to fight the Nazis to the end. With a firm hand, the pilot directed the bomber, engulfed in flames, into the very thick of enemy tanks and gas tanks. There, in the raging fire of enemy vehicles, he finished his last flight together with the commander and his combat crew (lieutenants Grigory Skorobogaty, Anatoly Burdenyuk and Sergeant Alexey Kalinin).

The hero's name became famous. Central newspapers wrote about the feat and talked about it on the radio. The throw of a set fire bomber onto a ground target, first performed by the regimental commissar M. Yuyukin back in 1939, and the feat of Captain Gastello showed the Soviet pilots the last means of struggle, which nothing could take away from them - neither damage to the aircraft, nor a depleted supply of shells, nor heavy wound.

For many years it was believed that the crew of Captain N. Gastello was the first to ram a ground target in battles with the Nazis. But the work of historians made it possible to make adjustments. It has been established that one of the first to carry out a fiery ramming of a ground target was the bomber crew under the command of Captain G. Khrapay. The crew included navigator Lieutenant V. Filatov and gunner-radio operator Senior Sergeant G. Tikhomirov. And this happened on June 24, 1941 near the city of Brody, Lviv region. On the same day, the fire ram was carried out by senior political instructor S. Airapetov. He directed his plane at a convoy of enemy vehicles near the city of Taurage in Lithuania.

On June 27, 1941, near the Polish city of Hrubieszow, a new fiery explosion hit a fascist motorized column like a tornado. This was the farewell salute of the pilot Lieutenant D. Tarasov and the navigator Lieutenant B. Eremin, who repeated the feat of the crew of Captain Gastello. A day later, on June 29, 1941, the flames of a violent explosion now shot up on Belarusian soil. It was Senior Lieutenant I. Preiszen who brought down his bomber into the very center of a group of Nazi tanks.

On July 4, 1941, on the Rezekne-Ostrov highway, squadron commander Captain L. Mikhailov attacked enemy tanks with his bomber. On August 28, pilot junior lieutenant I. Vdovenko and navigator lieutenant N. Gomonenko sent their burning plane to the enemy’s crossing of the Dnieper and destroyed it.

On September 19, 1941, near Leningrad, junior lieutenant V. Bondarenko aimed his crippled fighter at an enemy anti-aircraft battery. On September 23, senior lieutenant I. Zolin rammed the Berislav dam on the Dnieper. On September 28, Sergeant D. Koryazin crashed his plane into a column of fascist tanks near Tula.

IN Lately Among some military historians, there began to be a claim that the ground ram was caused by the accidental fall of out-of-control aircraft. But the facts tell a different story. Testimony of our pilots, who heard in their headsets through the roar of the battle the last words of the heroes: “For the Motherland, I’m going to ram!” and those who saw their fiery dive, finally, the very circumstances of the ramming convincingly prove that the wrecked vehicles were deliberately directed towards the target by the firm hand of the pilots.

“On January 17, 1945, accompanying a group of attack aircraft,” fighter pilots Major Gontarenko and Captain Makarov reported about the last combat mission of Junior Lieutenant A. Kolyado, “we observed how the fourth wingman, whose engine caught fire in the air, turned his “silt” and crashed into a concentration of enemy manpower and equipment. According to our observation, the plane was controllable, and the pilot, if desired, could land on fascist territory.”

The lines of combat documents confirm that the roar of explosions and the avalanche of flames that tore apart the tank wedges of the Nazis, raised their guns into the air, broke bridges and crossings, were not caused by the accidental fall of out-of-control aircraft. No, the planes were thrown at the target by living people who decided, even at the cost of their lives, to strike at the hated enemy.

The flames rose above the engine and fuselage of the downed bomber, rushing towards the gas tanks - senior political instructor A. Anikin did not deviate from the combat course. As if without noticing mortal danger threatening him, the pilot boldly attacked the fascist tanks concentrated to cross the Velikaya River. The pilots he led broke through a barrage of anti-aircraft explosions and for the second and third time brought down a deadly load on the Nazis. The fourth dive was the last for the senior political instructor - with the fiery comet of his plane, he crashed into a formation of tanks with crosses on their armor. On that July day in 1941, the enemy was never able to reach the right bank of the Velikaya River.

Did those heroes, like A. Kolyado, have the opportunity to save their lives? Certainly. They could land or jump out of the burning cars using parachutes. The last target could not have been chosen at random. Otherwise, would the pilot Lieutenant V. Kovalev have been able to ram an enemy anti-aircraft battery on December 14, 1941, located away from the Rumyantsev station, over which he was shot down? The pilot saw that the battery blocked the path of his wingmen to the enemy tanks moving along the Volokolamsk Highway with a barrage of fire, and headed for it. A flying fire fell on the enemy's firing position, V. Kovalev's fighter crushed the guns along with their crews, and the fascist tanks, having lost their anti-aircraft screen, were burned by the pilots of the flight of the heroically deceased commander.

Matching the feat of V. Kovalev was the fiery ram of the squadron commander, Captain V. Shiryaev. On September 4, 1942, during an attack by Nazi tanks rushing across the Kalmyk steppe towards Stalingrad, his plane was overtaken by a volley of anti-aircraft guns. The pilot separated from his group and, finding large cluster enemy vehicles, directed a wounded attack aircraft at them. On October 21, 1943, mortally wounded by a fragment of an anti-aircraft shell, the pilot dived onto enemy firing points that were hindering the advance of our advancing infantry near the city of Melitopol.

In the name of Victory, Lieutenant V. Aleinikov, Captain S. Borodkin, Captain K. Zakharov, Lieutenant P. Kriven, Senior Lieutenant P. Nadezhdin and other Soviet pilots rammed ground targets. A ground ram is a feat that only Soviet pilots, brought up with a sense of patriotism and the habit of putting the interests of the country above personal ones, were able to accomplish.

The path to this feat can be traced along the battle routes of Major D. Zhabinsky. On October 9, 1943, in one of the sorties on the Western Front, under continuous anti-aircraft fire, together with his wingmen, he attacked an enemy artillery battery seven times and still suppressed its fire. Wounded in the chest, neck, right hand, D. Zhabinsky is fighting with his last strength for his life, for the preservation of the plane, believing that in the formidable “silt” he will “iron” the fascists more than once. And the pilot, in spite of all the deaths, returned to duty.

When, on February 15, 1945, during the assault on the Nazi airfield, D. Zhabinsky’s plane was hit by an anti-aircraft machine gun, the pilot rejected the opportunity to escape, because this could only mean captivity. Zhabinsky decided to bring down all the steel power of his “silt” on the enemy - to die in such a way that there would be benefit from death. "Farewell, Motherland!" - with these words, heard on the radio by his comrades in arms, the pilot gave away the control stick of the burning car.

Yes, ramming of ground targets was carried out at the end of the war. And D. Zhabinsky was not the only one. On March 19, 1945, during an attack on a fascist airfield in Heiligenbeil (East Prussia), the plane of Captain K. Ivanov was shot down. The fearless pilot deliberately, without hesitation, directed his attack aircraft towards a concentration of enemy aircraft.

The self-sacrifice of the heroes of the fiery rams was the highest manifestation of heroism, moreover, collective heroism. After all, in bombers or attack aircraft, pilots led towards the enemy, all crew members were united with them by hatred of the enemy and front-line friendship. Navigators and gunners-radio operators Nazar Gubin, Boris Eremin, Boris Kapustin, Semyon Kosinov, Sergei Kovalsky, Nikolai Pavlov, Pyotr Sologubov, Stepan Shcherbakov and others - all of them fulfilled their duty until the last second of their lives, until their last breath. During the war, Soviet pilots carried out 446 fire rams. Almost all of these heroes did not return from the war, but their memory lives on in the names of streets, factories, schools and courts.

Sources:
Gulyas I. Fragments of the combat use of IL-4 // Aviation and time. 1998. No. 1. P. 17-18.
Kotelnikov V., Medved A., Khazanov D. Pe-2 dive bomber // Aviation and Cosmonautics. 2004. No. 5-6. P.29-30.
Mikhailov V. Shield and Sword of the Fatherland // Aviation and Cosmonautics. 2002. No. 8. P.8.
Zaitsev A. For the honor, freedom and independence of the Motherland // Wings of the Motherland: collection. articles. M.: DOSAAF USSR, 1983. P. 162-164.
Larintsev R., Zabolotsky A., Kotlobovsky A. To the ram! // Aviation and time. 2003. No. 5. P. 25.
Kovalenko A., Sgibnev A. Immortal feats. Moscow: Voenizdat, 1980. pp. 102-110.

Everyone knows that the first ram was carried out by staff captain P. N. Nesterov back in 1914. Many people know that the world's first night ram was carried out on October 27, 1941 by Soviet pilot V.V. Talalikhin. However, for some reason the names of the Stalinist falcons that rammed on the first day of the Great Patriotic War long years remain in the shadows. It is difficult not to agree that their exploits, their willingness to give their lives for the freedom of their native land are no less significant. The very first who went to ram during the Great Patriotic War were pilots of the Leningrad Military District - P. T. Kharitonov and S. I. Zdorovtsev. Which is not surprising: after all, Leningrad was behind them. It was these pilots who became the first Heroes of the Soviet Union, who received this title on July 8, 1941 by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for the feat accomplished in the Great Patriotic War. But there were other heroes who committed the ramming attack on June 22, 1941, and their names are no longer practically known to a wide circle of people. Let us reconstruct the events of that time and name their names.

Literally in the first moments of the war, at 4 o’clock in the morning, a flight of fighter aviation regiment No. 124 under the command of junior lieutenant D.V. Kokarev rose to intercept the enemy. Almost above the runway, he saw the fascist Dornier Do 215. Having made a turn, Kokarev’s MiG-3 took an advantageous position to open fire. And then it turned out that the machine guns had failed. What should I do? The Nazi was already turning the car on the opposite course. The decision was made instantly: Kokarev increased the engine speed, came close to Dornier and over the city of Zambrów hit him on the tail with the propeller blades. The bomber, having lost control, spun and crashed to the ground. So at 4 hours 15 minutes on June 22, 1941, one of the first rams in the skies of the Great Patriotic War was carried out. Kokarev managed to land his damaged plane. After the ramming, the brave pilot fought in the skies of Moscow and Leningrad, made more than 100 combat missions and shot down 5 fascist planes. He died in the battle for the city of Lenin on October 12, 1941.

Almost simultaneously with Dmitry Vasilyevich Kokarev, piloting an I-16 fighter, the flight commander of fighter aviation regiment No. 46, senior lieutenant I. I. Ivanov, carried out the ram. He committed it at 4 hours 25 minutes in the area of ​​​​the city of Zhovkva (now part of the Lviv region of Ukraine). It is significant that in the same place, in 1914, Pyotr Nesterov also carried out his aerial ramming. On August 2, 1941, Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Ivanov’s feat was also immortalized by the fact that his name was given to one of the streets in the city of Shchelkovo.

At dawn on June 22, 1941, the deputy squadron commander for political affairs of fighter aviation regiment No. 127, senior political instructor A. S. Danilov, and his pilots were patrolling over the city of Grodno (Belarus). Suddenly, fascist bombers and fighters began approaching the city from different directions. The squadron dispersed. Group air battles ensued. Danilov shot down two enemy planes. But in the whirlwind of the air battle, they used up all the ammunition. Then, approaching the enemy aircraft closely, A.S. Danilov directed his I-153 at the enemy aircraft and cut off its wing with a propeller. The fascist plane burst into flames and began to fall. Soon, Pravda published a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on awarding A.S. Danilov the Order of Lenin posthumously. But Andrei Stepanovich did not die. Seriously wounded, he landed the plane. The collective farmers of the village of Cherlen delivered the brave pilot to the medical battalion. After recovery, senior political instructor Danilov returned to duty and fought air battles on the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts. The end of the war found A.S. Danilov on the Transbaikal Front.

At 5:15 a.m., near the airfield located near the city of Stanislav (now the Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankovsk), the pilot of the 12th Fighter Aviation Regiment, Komsomol member, junior lieutenant L. G. Butelin took part in an air battle. Having shot down one Junkers Ju-88, he rushed to pursue another enemy plane trying to break through to the airfield. The Junkers were quite durable vehicles; it was not so easy to shoot them down, having only machine guns on the fighter. It was not possible to shoot down the second plane with airborne fire. All ammunition was used up. And then Butelin directed his plane into the bomber.

At 5 hours 20 minutes, the deputy squadron commander of Fighter Aviation Regiment No. 33, Lieutenant S. M. Gudimov, took off with the task of repelling a raid by Henkel He-111 bombers on the Belarusian city of Pruzhany. S. M. Gudimov managed to shoot down one bomber. During the battle, the lieutenant's fighter was hit and caught fire. S. M. Gudimov rammed the second Henkel with a burning fighter.

At 7.00, over the airfield in the Belarusian village of Cherlen, which was raided by 54 enemy aircraft, the commander of the squadron of high-speed bomber aviation regiment No. 16, Captain A. S. Protasov, took off under fire. In an air battle, despite the fact that his plane was being attacked by Me-109 fighters, Protasov’s crew managed to shoot down an enemy bomber. The captain rammed the second fascist bomber with his Pe-2. This was the first ram in the air by a bomber during the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War.

At 8:35 a.m., pilots of Fighter Aviation Regiment No. 126 Evgeniy Panfilov and Grigory Alaev began an air battle with nine Me-110s in the area of ​​their airfield. Two Nazi vehicles were shot down. Lieutenant Alaev died in an unequal battle. Panfilov went to ram. Upon impact with the enemy aircraft, he was thrown out of the cockpit. He landed safely with a parachute. Subsequently, Panfilov fought as part of the 148th and then the 254th fighter aviation regiments on the Southwestern Front. The brave pilot died in an air battle on August 12, 1942.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, Pyotr Sergeevich Ryabtsev accomplished his feat over Brest. Here is what is written about it in the history of fighter aviation regiment No. 123: “4 fighters, captain Mozhaev, lieutenants Zhidov, Ryabtsev and Nazarov, entered into battle with eight German Me-109 fighters. Lieutenant Zhidov's plane was hit and began to descend. Three fascists from above began to attack him, but Captain Mozhaev, covering Zhidov’s exit from the battle, shot down one of the fascist fighters with a well-aimed machine-gun burst, and the second “Messer” was intercepted by Lieutenant Zhidov and set on fire. At the end of the battle, Lieutenant Ryabtsev's entire ammunition was used up. But Ryabtsev, regardless of the danger to life, flew the plane to ram the enemy.”

The deputy squadron commander of Fighter Aviation Regiment No. 67, Senior Lieutenant A.I. Moklyak, continued counting the ramming strikes of the first day of the war. In an aerial duel over Moldova, he shot down two enemy vehicles. Having used up all the ammunition, Moklyak rammed the third fascist bomber.

On the first day of the Great Patriotic War, a ramming attack destroyed a fascist plane and the flight commander of fighter aviation regiment No. 728, junior lieutenant N.P. Ignatiev. “Where, in what country could such an attack technique as a ram be born,” wrote the famous ace, three times Hero of the Soviet Union A. I. Pokryshkin. - Only among us, among pilots who are infinitely devoted to their Motherland, who put it above everything, above their own lives... A ram is not daring, not a senseless risk, a ram is a weapon of brave Soviet soldiers who masterfully controlled an airplane. The ram required masterful control of the machine.”

During the Great Patriotic War, more than five hundred pilots carried out ramming attacks on the enemy. Rams were carried out not only on fighters, but also on attack aircraft and bombers. More than half of our pilots managed to save their combat vehicles after ramming enemy aircraft. During the war, 25 pilots made two rams. There were pilots who also carried out three rams: the deputy squadron commander, senior lieutenant A. S. Khlobystov and senior lieutenant B. I. Kovzan.

Studying the history of the air rams committed on June 22, 1941, it is impossible to ignore one more detail. All the pilots who decided to ram were either Komsomol members, communists, or party candidates. Let everyone draw their own conclusions.

Sources:
Burov A.V. Your heroes, Leningrad.
Abramov A.S. Courage is a legacy.
Immortal feats. Digest of articles.
Burov A.V. Fiery sky.
Zhukova L.N. I choose a ram.
History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union. 1941-1945.
Wings of the Motherland. Digest of articles.
Smirnov S.S. There was a great war.
Shingarev S.I. I'm going to ram.
Aviation and Cosmonautics 1971 No. 6.
Aviation and Cosmonautics 1979 No. 8.
Aviation and astronautics 1991 No. 6.

Exactly 75 years ago, on the night of August 7, 1941, junior lieutenant Viktor Talalikhin was one of the first in Soviet aviation to ram an enemy bomber at night. The air battle for Moscow was just beginning.

Sinister plane

That night, the deputy squadron commander of the 177th Air Defense Fighter Aviation Regiment, Viktor Talalikhin, received an order to intercept the enemy who was heading towards Moscow. At an altitude of 4800 meters, the junior lieutenant overtook the enemy plane, came up behind it with lightning speed and began shooting at it.

However, it was not easy to shoot down the Heinkel 111 long-range bomber. Of the five crew members, three fought with the fighters. During flight, the ventral, rear and side gunners constantly kept their field of fire in sight and, if a target appeared, opened furious fire on it.

The ominous silhouette of Heinkel-111 was well known to residents of Poland, Denmark, Norway, France, and Great Britain. This bomber was considered one of the main ones in the Luftwaffe and took an active part in all military campaigns of the Third Reich in Europe. He took an active part in the attack on the USSR from the very first minutes.

Deprive the USSR of Moscow

In 1941, the Germans tried to bomb Moscow. They pursued two strategic objectives: firstly, to deprive the Soviet Union of its largest railway and transport hub, as well as the center of command and control of troops and the country. Secondly, they hoped to help their ground troops break the resistance of the defenders of Moscow.

This task was entrusted by Hitler to the commander of the German 2nd Air Fleet, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring. This task force, numbering 1,600 aircraft, supported the advance of Army Group Center, whose main target, according to Plan Barbarossa, was the Soviet capital.

The bomber crews had extensive combat experience in attacking major cities, including at night.

Unpleasant surprises for the Luftwaffe

The Fuhrer demanded that the pilots “strike the center of the Bolshevik resistance and prevent the organized evacuation of the Russian government apparatus.” Strong resistance was not expected, and therefore the military and political leadership of Germany was confident in their imminent parade on Red Square.

On the night of July 22, 1941, the first raid on Moscow took place. The Germans discovered that the Russians had many anti-aircraft guns, barrage balloons, which were installed much higher than usual, and a lot of air defense fighter aircraft, which were actively operating at night.

Having suffered significant losses, the Luftwaffe pilots began to rise to new heights. Heinkeli-111 also actively participated in massive raids.

Trophies of the 177th Fighter Regiment

The German Air Force command did not learn a lesson from the air Battle of Britain in 1940, in which the Germans lost two and a half thousand aircraft. Of these, almost 400 are Heinkel 111s. Like a gambler, in the battles over Moscow the Nazis bet on their own luck, ignoring the combat potential of the enemy.

Meanwhile, the air defense fighter regiment under the command of Major Mikhail Korolev, in which Talalikhin served, opened a combat account of enemy losses on July 26, 1941.

On this day, the deputy regiment commander, Captain Ivan Samsonov, shot down a German bomber. Soon this military unit acquired other “trophies”.

Young but experienced pilot

The “impenetrable” Heinkel-111, which Talalikhin met in the night battle, did not have time to drop bombs on the target and began to leave. One of its engines caught fire. The Soviet pilot continued to shoot, but soon the air machine guns fell silent. He realized that the cartridges had run out.

Then the junior lieutenant decided to ram the enemy plane. At almost 23 years old, Victor had a low rank, but by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he was already an experienced pilot. Behind him was the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939/40 and the Order of the Red Star for four downed Finnish aircraft.

There, a young pilot fought on an obsolete I-153 biplane, nicknamed the “Chaika”. However, in the first battle he won an aerial victory. Another enemy plane was shot down by him when Talalikhin was covering his commander Mikhail Korolev.

Don't let the bastards get away

In a lightning-fast battle in the Moscow night sky, when the Soviet pilot aimed his plane to ram, his hand was suddenly burned. One of the enemy shooters wounded him.

Talalikhin later said that he “made the decision to sacrifice himself, but not to let the reptile go.” He gave full throttle and crashed his plane into the enemy’s tail. Heinkel 111 caught fire and began to fall down randomly.

The damaged I-16 fighter lost control after a terrible impact, and Talalikhin left it by parachute. He landed in the Severka River, from where local residents helped him get out. The entire German crew was killed. The next day, Viktor Vasilyevich Talalikhin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Hellish air defense

Having lost 172 Heinkel-111 aircraft in a short time (not counting a significant number of bombers of other types), by the tenth of August 1941, German aviation abandoned the tactics of attacking in large groups from one or two directions.

Now the Luftwaffe pilots tried to “infiltrate” Moscow from different directions and often attacked the target, entering in turn, one after another. They had to strain all their strength and skill in the fight against the hellish air defense of the USSR capital for the Nazis.

The air struggle reached its climax in the fall of 1941, when a grandiose ground battle unfolded on the outskirts of Moscow. The Germans relocated their airfields closer to the city and were able to increase the intensity of sorties, alternating night raids with daytime ones.

Death in battle

In fierce battles, the ranks of the 177th Fighter Aviation Regiment thinned. On October 27, 1941, Viktor Talalikhin died in an air battle, and on December 8, Ivan Samsonov died.

However, the Germans also suffered significant losses, breaking through a wall of anti-aircraft fire and fighting off Soviet fighters. During the period from July 26, 1941 to March 10, 1942, 4% of enemy aircraft broke through to the city. During this period, Moscow's air defense systems destroyed over a thousand enemy aircraft.

Those of the crews of German bombers who managed to drop bombs did so chaotically, rushing to quickly free themselves from the load and leave the shelling zone.

Failure of the air blitzkrieg

British journalist Alexander Werth, who was in the USSR since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, wrote that in Moscow the shrapnel of anti-aircraft shells drummed through the streets like hail. Dozens of spotlights illuminated the sky. He had never seen or heard anything like this in London.

The pilots, and not only the fighters, did not lag behind the anti-aircraft gunners. For example, the squadron commander of the 65th Attack Aviation Regiment, Lieutenant Georgy Nevkipely, during his 29 combat missions, burned not only six enemy aircraft, but also several tanks, and more than a hundred vehicles with infantry.

He died a heroic death on December 15, 1941 and was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The power of the air defense of the capital of the Soviet Union turned out to be generally insurmountable for the Luftwaffe. The air blitzkrieg that Goering's pilots were counting on failed.

The mighty will of the Creator of the world.
She called him to a great feat.
And crowns the hero with eternal glory.
She chose him as an instrument of vengeance...

Staff Captain P.N. Nesterov

Aerial ramming as a form of air combat

In 1908, a large article “On the military significance of airplanes” appeared on the pages of the newspaper “Russian Invalid”, the official publication of the military department. In it, the author put forward the idea of ​​​​bringing in special combat airplanes, “intended for squadron combat in the air,” to fight “for state supremacy in the air.”

At the same time, the author believed that: “(an airplane is) a flying machine ... is generally fragile and therefore any collision with opponents in the air, chest to chest, must inevitably end in the death of both aircraft colliding on board. There can be neither a winner nor a loser here, therefore, it must be a battle with maneuvering.” A few years later, the author of the article’s prediction was confirmed. In June 1912, the first air collision in the history of world aviation took place at a military airfield in Douai (France). While performing morning flights in the air at an altitude of 50 m, biplanes piloted by Captain Dubois and Lieutenant Penian collided. When they fell, both aviators died. In October 1912, a similar incident occurred in Germany, in May 1913 - in Russia. At the Gatchina airfield of the aviation department of the Officers' Aeronautical School (JSC OVSh), during training flights at an altitude of 12 - 16 m, the Nieuport of Lieutenant V.V. collided. Dybovsky and “Farman” Lieutenant A.A. Kovanko. The pilots escaped with minor bruises.

In total, during the period from 1912 to the start of the First World War, air collisions accounted for 6% of the total number of accidents in world aviation.

In order to avoid an air collision during troop maneuvers, Russian and foreign pilots were strongly recommended to fight at a certain distance from each other. The idea of ​​an air battle itself was not rejected by the military department. To conduct it, it was proposed to arm airplanes with guns or automatic weapons. This idea was reflected in the already mentioned article “On the military significance of airplanes”: “A gun, maybe a light machine gun, a few hand grenades - that’s all that can make up the armament of a flying projectile. Such weapons are quite sufficient to disable an enemy airplane and force it to descend, because a rifle bullet that hits successfully will stop the engine or put an aeronaut out of action, as will a successfully hit hand grenade, at close ranges thrown by hand, and at longer distances. long distance - from the same gun.”

In the fall of 1911, during large maneuvers of the troops of the Warsaw Military District, according to a pre-approved plan, two airplanes carried out a successful attack on a mock enemy airship. According to the district command, the presence of on-board weapons could lead to the destruction of the controlled balloon. But the absence of this urgently required the search for other forms of influence on the enemy aircraft.

A certain sensation among pilots was caused by the proposal of one of the theorists of domestic military aviation, mechanical engineer Lieutenant N.A. Yatsuka. In the summer of 1911, he published an article “On Air Combat” in the journal “Bulletin of Aeronautics”, where he wrote: “It is possible that in exceptional cases pilots will decide to ram someone else’s airplane with their airplane.”

In his work “Aeronautics in Naval Warfare” (1912), Nikolai Alexandrovich supported the idea of ​​​​an “air ram” that he had previously voiced, but with a different meaning. “It is not impossible,” wrote Yatsuk, “that the next war will show us cases when an aeronautical vehicle, in order to interfere with the reconnaissance of an enemy air force, will sacrifice itself by hitting it in order to cause its fall, at least at the cost of its death. Techniques of this kind are, of course, extreme. The fight in the air will be the bloodiest in terms of the number of people participating in it, since the damaged vehicles will, for the most part, quickly fall to the ground with all their crews.” However, his views remained unclaimed due to insufficient knowledge of the very nature of air combat.

The acting military pilot perceived the idea of ​​an air ram differently than others. commander of the 11th corps aviation detachment of the 3rd aviation company, Lieutenant P.N. Nesterov, seeing in it the possibility of turning an aircraft into a military weapon.

At the autumn large maneuvers of the troops of the Kyiv Military District in 1913, he showed in practice how it was possible to force an air enemy to refuse to carry out his mission. Taking advantage of the advantage in speed (about 20 km/h), Pyotr Nikolaevich, in his Nieuport-IV apparatus, imitated the attack of Farman-VII, piloted by Lieutenant V.E. Hartmann, forcing the latter to periodically change the course of his flight. “After the fourth attack, Hartmann shook his fist at Nesterov and flew back without completing reconnaissance.” This was the first simulation of air combat in domestic practice.

Lieutenant P. N. Nesterov near the Nieuport IV aircraft.
11th Corps Aviation Detachment

After landing, Nesterov was told that such an attack on an enemy airplane was only possible in peacetime, and in war these maneuvers were unlikely to have any effect on the enemy. Pyotr Nikolaevich thought for a moment and then answered with conviction: “It will be possible to hit him from above with the wheels.” Subsequently, the pilot repeatedly returned to the issue of ramming and proved its possibility, while allowing for two options.

The first is to rise above the enemy airplane, and then, in a steep dive, hit the end of the enemy’s wing with its wheels: the enemy airplane will be shot down, but you can glide safely. The second is to crash the propeller into the enemy’s tail and break his rudders. The propeller will shatter into pieces, but it is possible to glide safely. We must not forget that there were no parachutes yet.

In foreign countries in the pre-war years, air combat between airplanes was initially denied. For example, in Germany, where the rapid development of aviation began in 1912, the latter were considered only as means of reconnaissance and communications. The airplanes were armed with light small arms in the form of a revolver or carbine in case of a forced landing behind enemy lines. Meanwhile, the first successful tests of aviation as an air strike weapon during the Tripolitan (1911 - 1912) and 1st Balkan (1912 - 1913) wars convinced many leading European countries of the need to create special combat airplanes. At this time, information appeared that a special metal, high-speed fighter airplane had been built in Germany, which had undergone successful experimental tests. This was the reason for the Frenchman R. Esnault-Peltry to develop, together with artillery specialists, a project for the same fighter. Detailed characteristics were strictly confidential.

After the maneuvers of the St. Petersburg Military District in Russia in August 1913, the question openly arose about the need to form fighter aviation in the Russian army and arm airplanes with automatic weapons to combat enemy reconnaissance aircraft. However, by the beginning of the war, the aviation units of the Russian army remained practically unarmed.

The airplane as a means of armed struggle

The beginning of the First World War was characterized by the intensity of flights by aircraft of the warring parties, mainly for reconnaissance purposes. Already at the beginning of the war, their first combat clashes in the air were recorded. The main means of defeating the enemy used in air combat was the pilot's personal weapon. For pistol fire to be effective, it was necessary to get close to the enemy airplane at a distance of up to 50 m. Simultaneously with the fire, the pilots used the so-called. “intimidation technique,” ​​that is, active maneuvering near an enemy vehicle with the threat of colliding with it in the air in order to force the enemy to abandon the assigned task.

August 17, 1914 on the pages of the daily newspaper “ Russian word" the following information was placed: "Received interesting message about the air fight between Russian and German pilots. An enemy airplane unexpectedly appeared above the line of Russian troops. Our pilot expressed a desire to force the German to come down. He quickly took off, approached the enemy and forced him to land with a series of turns. The German pilot has been arrested." Subsequently, this technique was used repeatedly.

This circumstance led the Russian command to think about the possibility of using captured equipment for the needs of the Russian army. The commanders of aviation detachments at the front were now strongly recommended, if possible, not to destroy, but to forcibly land enemy aircraft. Later, within the walls of the capital’s plant of the Joint Stock Aeronautics Company of V. A. Lebedev, they received a new life. There were reasons for this. Firstly, the military department assessed the cost of restoration and newly built airplanes in the same way. Secondly, familiarity with foreign technologies and technical solutions made it possible to enrich one’s own design experience.

However, according to the pilots themselves, a forced landing could only affect a single enemy aircraft, while their group raid required other methods of influence, up to and including the destruction of the latter. This opinion was also shared by the staff captain of the 9th Siberian Rifle Brigade P.N. Nesterov, at the beginning of the war, commander of the 11th corps aviation detachment of the 3rd Army of the Southwestern Front (SWF). He believed that if the enemy does not stop flying over our territory and refuses to surrender, he must be shot down. To resolve this issue, it was necessary to arm the airplanes with light machine guns, which was confirmed in one of the orders of the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. It stated, in particular: “In order to combat enemy aircraft, it seems necessary to arm the most heavy-duty of our airplanes. For which it is recognized that it is necessary to use Madsen automatic rifles.” However, at that time there were not enough automatic weapons to reach the established kit in field units.

The lack of reliable weapons in aviation, the absurd “valuable instructions” of military officials “to shoot buckshot from hand ...” forced Nesterov and other aviators to invent exotic weapons like a bomb “suspended on a long cable ... to destroy enemy airships”, to lower “thin copper wire from the tail of the aircraft with a load, so that, cutting off the path of an enemy plane, break its propeller”, “adapt a saw-tooth knife to the tail of the plane and ... rip open the shell of airships and tethered observation balloons with it”, throw “artillery shells instead of bombs”.

Without abandoning the views of N.A. Yatsuk on the use of power (ramming) strikes, Pyotr Nikolaevich was still a supporter of technical and maneuverable methods of fighting the enemy. Unfortunately, the tragic death of a remarkable pilot excluded the possibility of implementing his inventions in the Russian school of air combat.

Hunting for the "Albatross" - a step into immortality

During the Battle of Gorodok (September 5 - 12, 1914), the Austro-Hungarian command attempted to defeat the Russian 3rd and 8th armies of the Southwestern Front. But the counteroffensive that followed on September 4 in the zone of our three armies (9th, 4th and 5th) forced the enemy troops to begin a hasty retreat. Within a few days, our advanced units reached and captured the important center of Eastern Galicia - Lvov. Preparations for the upcoming operations required a large regrouping of troops. To reveal their new positions, locations of military command and control bodies, firing points, field airfields, and transport networks, the enemy made extensive use of his air forces. In addition to collecting intelligence information in the near rear of the Russian troops, enemy pilots, whenever possible, bombed our military installations, including the airfield of the 11th corps air detachment. On September 7, one of the Austrian airplanes dropped a bomb on his airfield “(a sample of an artillery shell), which, having fallen, was buried in the sand and did not explode.”

One of the prominent Austrian observer pilots, Lieutenant Baron von Friedrich Rosenthal, owner of vast lands in Eastern Galicia, was involved in combat work. He made his flights on an Albatross-type airplane, designed and built with his personal participation. In the area of ​​special attention of the enemy apparatus was the city of Zholkiev, Lviv region, where the estate of Baron F. Rosenthal was located, temporarily occupied by the headquarters of the 3rd Russian Army. The appearance of enemy aircraft in this area caused extreme irritation among the army command. Senior commanders immediately accused the flight crew of the 3rd Aviation Company of insufficient activity in the fight against enemy air.

On September 7, 1914, Quartermaster General of the Army Headquarters, Major General M.D. Bonch-Bruevich demanded that the pilots exclude Austrian flights in the Russian rear. Staff Captain P.N. Nesterov promised to take drastic measures to solve this problem.

Initially, the issue of air ramming was not raised at all. Considering the possibility of the Albatross appearing unescorted (previously it had flown in a group of three airplanes), it was decided to capture it by force landing. For this purpose, on the morning of September 8, P.N. Nesterov with his deputy lieutenant A.A. Kovanko worked out this option over the airfield. However, further events began to develop according to a different scenario. Already at the start, Nesterov’s single-seat airplane lost its load with a cable, which he expected to use when meeting with the enemy. During landing after a training flight, the engine suddenly malfunctioned, and at the direction of Pyotr Nikolaevich, the mechanics began checking its valves. The appearance of an enemy Albatross in the sky was an unpleasant surprise for Russian pilots. Without waiting for the troubleshooting on his device, Nesterov rushed to Kovanko’s car. In order not to risk his life, Pyotr Nikolaevich categorically refused to fly with his deputy.

Rapidly gaining a height of up to 1500 m on the Morane-Saulnier type (Morane-Saulnier G) (according to other sources - up to 2000 m), he attacked the Albatross from top to bottom. Witnesses of this unusual battle saw that after a sharp collision the enemy airplane nosed down and began to fall randomly. Nesterov’s apparatus swept further, then began to descend in a spiral. At an altitude of about 50 m, the Moran swayed sharply and it fell down like a stone. At that moment, the figure of the pilot separated from the apparatus.

Scheme of P. N. Nesterov’s ram

Map of the airplane crash site

Air ram. World War I period poster. 1914

When examining Nesterov’s corpse, doctors witnessed a fracture of his spine and minor damage to his skull. According to their conclusion, the spinal fracture could not have been caused by a fall on soft ground. Staff Captain P.N. Nesterov died in the air as a result of an airplane collision. The pilots who knew Pyotr Nikolaevich closely immediately doubted his deliberate ramming of the enemy air force. They believed that Nesterov had intentions to force the Albatross crew to land on the airfield, holding it through skillful maneuvering under the threat of using a ram. Pyotr Nikolaevich himself, who knew well the statistics of air collisions in the pre-war period and large percentage deaths, did not see any particular benefit in the ram for the small Russian aviation, where each device was worth its weight in gold. During the period August - September 1914 alone, the loss of airplanes in the active Russian army amounted to 94 airplanes (45% of the total).

The “Act of Investigation into the Circumstances of the Heroic Death of the Head of the 11th Corps Aviation Detachment, Staff Captain Nesterov” stated: “Staff Captain Nesterov has long expressed the opinion that it is possible to shoot down an enemy aircraft by hitting the wheels from above own car along the supporting surfaces of the enemy aircraft, and allowed for the possibility of a successful outcome for the ramming pilot.”

Therefore, most experts agreed that he made an attempt to attack the enemy airplane with a glancing blow, counting on the psychological effect. According to theoretical calculations, the tangential impact of a light single-seat aircraft could not lead to the destruction of a heavier airplane, such as the three-seat Albatross with a bomb load. This required either an apparatus of equal weight or a strike with the entire body of the attacking airplane. It seems that Nesterov had technical calculations committing an air ram in relation to a single-seater vehicle based on an attack by an enemy aircraft of equal mass. The possibility of an air attack in this way by heavy types of airplanes was not even discussed. But, ironically, this is exactly the situation that has developed in the skies of Eastern Galicia. Directing his car at the Austrian airplane, Nesterov lost sight of the fact that he had a heavier and less maneuverable two-seater Moran-Saulnier type “J”. As a result, instead of a tangential impact with the wheels on the wings of the enemy car, he crashed into it with the engine between two supporting surfaces, which led to a complete loss of control and destruction of the latter. This blow, according to the official version, caused the death of the Russian pilot himself.

In his book “Khodynka: Russian Aviation Runway,” aviation history specialist A. A. Demin cites an assessment of the tragic event made by the famous Soviet scientist V. S. Pyshnov.

Analyzing the ram, he, in particular, noted that the Moran had a very poor forward-down view and it was difficult to accurately determine the distance and “jewelfully” hit the Albatross with just its wheels. It is possible that turbulent flows from both airplanes and their mutual influence could have contributed. And then, according to Pyshnov, the following could happen: “If the Moran-Zh aircraft had only one elevator of a symmetrical profile, without a fixed part - a stabilizer, the aircraft could not fly with the handle thrown. Since a diving moment acted on the wing in the absence of lift, in the event of a thrown stick, the plane had to go into a dive with a further transition to inverted flight. As is known, after the ramming, which occurred at an altitude of about 1000 m, to the height of P.N. Nesterov was performing a spiral descent, but then the plane went into a dive and fell in an inverted position. This behavior of the aircraft indicates that P. Nesterov lost consciousness and released the control stick; after going into negative angles of attack and negative value... (G) he was thrown out of the aircraft because he was not tied down...".

Based on the analysis, it can be assumed that the pilot lost consciousness not at the moment of the ramming strike, but much later, during a steep spiral due to weakness of the vestibular apparatus. About P.N.’s health problems Nesterov at the front was later mentioned by his colleagues, in particular the military pilot V.G. Sokolov, who witnessed Pyotr Nikolaevich's deep fainting after another flight. The intensity of his work is reflected in the combat activity log of the 11th Corps Aviation Detachment. During the period from August 10 to September 8, 1914, he completed 12 combat missions, the total flight time was 18 hours 39 minutes. The last of them (September 8) took only 15 minutes and cost the Russian pilot his life.

Nesterov’s body was soon discovered 6 km from the town of Zholkiev in a dry field near a swamp between an airplane and a motor. 400 m away from him lay a downed Albatross, partially buried in swampy soil. The corpses of two members of his crew (Lieutenant F. Rosenthal and non-commissioned officer F. Malina) were discovered immediately. According to some reports, the body of the third crew member, whose name has not been established, was found much later.

For his unprecedented feat, staff captain P.N. Nesterov was the first among Russian pilots to be posthumously awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree, and promoted to the rank of captain. The deceased hero was buried on September 13, 1914 at Askold’s grave in Kyiv. Later, the ashes of the Russian pilot were transferred to the Lukyanovskoe cemetery in the capital of Ukraine.

Nesterov's legacy

The tragic outcome of Nesterov’s air ramming at the beginning cast doubt on the possibility of the pilot who carried it out to survive.

Doubts were dispelled by another Russian pilot - Lieutenant of the 12th Uhlan Belgorod Regiment A. A. Kozakov, who during an air battle with the two-seater German “Albatross” S.I on March 31, 1915, managed to shoot it down with a “Nesterov” sliding impact with wheels from above. During the First World War, Kozakov was recognized as the most successful pilot in Russia.

He became acquainted with the advanced views of P. N. Nesterov on the fight against enemy aircraft thanks to the hero’s younger brother Mikhail, a pilot of the Brest-Litovsk corps air squad, who tragically died in the fall of 1914 in a plane crash.

Later, the Allies (the British) recognized the air ram (we are talking about a tangential strike) as one of the forms of Russian air combat, pointing out that when they (Russian pilots) do not have bombs, they rise above the enemy airplane, and, flying over it, hurt him bottom your airplane.

The subsequent equipping of aircraft with automatic weapons relegated aerial rams to the background. It would seem that they inevitably had to go down in history. But in our country they did not abandon the ideas of Pyotr Nesterov, and for a long time the air ram terrified enemies, and the fearlessness of Soviet pilots aroused sincere admiration and respect in the world. The practice of aerial boarding (ramming) was inherent in the flight personnel of fighter aircraft of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces for a long time and has not lost its relevance today (in exceptional cases, such a method of air combat is quite possible).

Back in the fall of 1914 in Russian society came up with a proposal to perpetuate the memory of the brave pilot. Mr. A. S. Zholkevich (editor of the newspaper “Novoye Vremya”) took the initiative, starting to collect money with the aim of acquiring several acres of land at the site of the hero’s death for the construction of a memorial obelisk. In the same year, a memorial cross was erected in the area of ​​Zholkiev, and later a monument was erected.

Nowadays, monuments to the brave Russian pilot have been unveiled in Kyiv and Nizhny Novgorod, a memorial bust has been erected in Kazan, asteroid No. 3071 has been named after him. A special state award has been established in honor of P. N. Nesterov Russian Federation- Nesterov medal.

The grave of P. N. Nesterov in Kyiv. Modern look

Monument to P. N. Nesterov in Kyiv on Pobeda Avenue.
Sculptor E. A. Karpov, architect A. Snitsarev

Memorial plaque in Kyiv on a house on Moskovskaya street,
where the pilot P. N. Nesterov lived in 1914

Monument to P.N. Nesterov in Nizhny Novgorod.
The authors of the project are sculptors Honored Artist of the RSFSR A. I. Rukavishnikov and People’s Artist of the RSFSR, Corresponding Member
Academy of Arts of the USSR I. M. Rukavishnikov

Memorial sign at the site of the death of P. N. Nesterov

Alexey Lashkov,
senior researcher at the Research Institute
Institute of Military History of the Military Academy
General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,
Candidate of Historical Sciences