The best Soviet pilots-aces of the Great Patriotic War (6 photos). Great Patriotic War: the best pilots are heroes of the Soviet Union
Comparing the number of victories won by German and Soviet pilots, disputes about the authenticity of the given numbers of their victories still do not subside. Indeed, the accounts of German pilots are an order of magnitude higher! And obviously there are explanations for that. In addition to large raids (and each sortie potentially increases the chance of shooting down an enemy aircraft) of German aces and a greater likelihood of finding an enemy aircraft (due to its more) the tactics of the German experts also contributed to the success. Here, for example, is what the most productive pilot of World War II E. Hartman wrote in his book:
« ... I never cared about air combat issues. I just never got into a duel with the Russians. My tactic was surprise. Climb higher and, if possible, go from the side of the sun ... Ninety percent of my attacks were sudden, in order to catch the enemy by surprise. If I succeeded, I quickly left, paused a little and re-evaluated the situation.
The detection of the enemy depended on ground combat operations and on the capabilities visual inspection. From the ground, we were told by radio the coordinates of the enemy, which we plotted on our maps. Therefore, we could search in the right direction and choose the best height for our attacks. I preferred an effective attack from below, so that against the background of a white cloudy sky one could detect enemy aircraft from afar. When a pilot sees his enemy first, that's half the battle.
Making a decision was the second stage of my tactics. When the enemy is in front of you, you need to decide whether to attack him immediately or wait for a more favorable moment. And it was possible to change position or completely abandon the attack. The main thing is to keep yourself under control. There is no need to immediately, forgetting about everything, rush into battle. Wait, look around, use all the benefits of your position. For example, if you have to attack the enemy against the sun, and you have not gained enough altitude, and, in addition, the enemy aircraft is flying among torn clouds, keep it in sight, and in the meantime change your position relative to the sun, rise higher above the clouds, or, if necessary, dive in order to achieve an advantage in speed at the expense of height.
Then attack. Well, if you come across an inexperienced or gape pilot. This is usually not difficult to determine. By knocking him down - and this must be done - you thereby weaken the morale of the enemy. The most important thing is to destroy the enemy aircraft. Maneuver quickly and aggressively, open fire at close range to secure a hit with point-blank range and conserve extra ammo. I always advised my subordinates: "Press the trigger only when your sight is full of enemy aircraft!"
After shooting, immediately move to the side and leave the battlefield. Hit or not, now think only about how to carry your legs. Do not forget what is happening behind you, look around, and if everything is in order and your position is comfortable, try to repeat it again..
By the way, A.I. used the same tactics of warfare. Pokryshkin, his famous “falcon strike” and the “altitude-speed-maneuver-strike” formula are essentially a repetition of the tactics of the German aces and the effectiveness of such tactics was confirmed by his victories.
Here is what Ivan Kozhedub wrote about his tactics after the war:
“By shooting down a plane, especially the leading one, you demoralize the enemy group, almost always put it to flight. This is what I was trying to achieve, trying to seize the initiative. distance, and succeed from the first attack, and always remember that in air combat every second counts".
As you can see, both German and Soviet aces pilots achieved high performance using the same methods. Despite the substantial difference in the number of shot down (we will not question the official data of the parties, if there is any inaccuracy in them, it is obviously approximately equal for both sides), the skill of the best Soviet aces is no worse than the skill of the German ones and in terms of the number of shot down per sortie the gap is not that big. And in terms of the number of shot down per air battle, sometimes even higher, for example, Hartman shot down his 352 aircraft in 825 air battles, while Ivan Kozhedub destroyed his 62 in 120 air battles. That is, the Soviet ace during the entire war met with an air enemy more than 6 times less often than Hartman.
It is worth noting, however, the much higher combat load of German pilots, because the intensity of their use and the number of sorties they have is higher than that of the Soviet aces and sometimes significantly. For example, having started fighting six months earlier than Kozhedub, Hartman has 1425 sorties against 330 for Kozhedub. But a person is not an airplane, he gets tired, exhausted and needs rest.
Ten of the best German fighter pilots:
1. Erich Hartman- 352 downed aircraft, of which 347 were Soviet.
2.Gerhard Barkhorn - 301
3. Gunther Rall - 275
4. Otto Kitel - 267,
5.Walter Novotny - 258
6. Wilhelm Batz - 242
7. H.Lipfert -203
8. J. Brendel - 189
9.G.Shak - 174
10. P. Dutmann- 152
If we continue this list for ten more, then A. Resh will be in 20th place with the number of downed aircraft in 91, which once again shows high efficiency German fighter aviation as a whole.
The top ten Soviet fighter pilots look like this:
1. I.N. Kozhedub - 62
2. A.I. Pokryshkin - 59
3.G.A. Rechkalov - 56
4. N.D. Gulaev - 53
5.K.A. Evstigneev - 53
6. A.V. Vorozheikin - 52
7. D.B. Glinka - 50
8.N.M. Skomorokhov - 46
9.A.I. Koldunov - 46
10. N.F. Krasnov - 44
In general, when calculating the ratio of sorties (not air battles, namely sorties) for one credited air victory for a German ace from the top ten, there are approximately 3.4 sorties, for the Soviet - 7.9, that is, about 2 times the German ace turned out to be more effective in this indicator. But we repeat that it was much easier for a German ace to meet a Soviet aircraft than for a Soviet one to find a German one, in view of the quantitative superiority of the Soviet Air Force, and since 1943. many times, and in 1945 in general by an order of magnitude.
A few words about E. Hartman. 
During the war, he was "shot down" 14 times. The word "shot down" is in quotation marks because he received all the damage to his aircraft from the wreckage of Soviet aircraft shot down by him. Hartman did not lose a single wingman throughout the war.
Erich Hartmann was born on April 19, 1922 in Weissach. He spent much of his childhood in China, where his father worked as a doctor. But Erich followed in the footsteps of his mother, Elisabeth Machtholf, who was a sports pilot. In 1936, she organized a gliding club near Stuttgart, where her son learned to fly a glider. At the age of 14, Erich already had a gliding license, becoming a fairly experienced pilot, and by the age of 16 he had already become a highly qualified gliding instructor. According to brother Alfred, he was generally an excellent athlete and achieved almost everywhere good results. And among his peers, he was a born leader, able to lead everyone along.
On October 15, 1940, he was assigned to the 10th Luftwaffe Training Regiment at Neukuhren, near Königsberg, in East Prussia. After receiving primary flight training there, Hartmann continued his studies at the flight school in Berlin-Gatow. He completed the basic flight training course in October 1941, and at the beginning of 1942 he was sent to the 2nd Fighter Pilot School, where he trained on the Bf. 109.
One of his instructors was expert and former German aerobatic champion Erich Hogagen. The German ace encouraged Hartmann in every possible way to study the maneuvering characteristics of this type of fighter in more detail and taught his cadet many tricks and tricks of its piloting. In August 1942, after a long training in the art of air combat, Hartman joined the JG-52 squadron, which fought in the Caucasus. At first, Lieutenant Hartman was unlucky. During the third sortie, he found himself in the thick of an air battle, got confused and did everything wrong: he didn’t keep his place in the ranks, got into the firing zone of the leader (instead of covering his rear), got lost, lost speed and sat down on a sunflower field, putting the plane out of action. Once 20 miles from the airfield, Hartman got to him on a passing army truck. He received the most severe scolding and was suspended from flying for three days. Hartman vowed never to make the same mistake again. Having received permission to continue flying, on November 5, 1942, he shot down his first aircraft (it was an Il-2 attack aircraft). Excited by such a victory, Hartman did not notice that a LaGG-3 fighter approached him from behind, and was immediately shot down himself. He jumped out with a parachute.
The second victory (MiG fighter) Erich Hartman was able to record on his combat account only on January 27, 1943. German fighter pilots used to say that those who started slowly got "newbie fever". Erich Hartmann recovered from his "fever" only in April 1943, when he shot down several planes in one day. This was the beginning. Hartman broke through. July 7, 1943, during the Battle of Kursk Bulge, he shot down 7 Soviet aircraft. The air combat techniques that Hartman used were reminiscent of the tactics of the Red Baron. He tried to get as close to the enemy as possible before opening fire. Hartman believed that a fighter pilot should not be afraid of a mid-air collision. He himself recalled that he pressed the trigger only when "... when the enemy plane was already covering the whole wide world with itself." This tactic was extremely dangerous. Hartman was pressed to the ground 6 times, and repeatedly his plane received severe damage from flying debris from his victims. Surprisingly, he himself was never even hurt. Hartman narrowly escaped death in August 1943 when his plane was shot down over Soviet territory and he was taken prisoner. To weaken the vigilance of the guards, the quick-witted pilot pretended to be seriously wounded. They threw him into the back of a truck. A few hours later, a German dive bomber Ju. 87. The driver threw the truck into a ditch, and he, together with two guards, ran for cover. Hartman also ran, but in the opposite direction. He walked to the front line at night, and hid in the woods during the day, until he finally reached the German trenches, where he was fired upon by some nervous sentry. The bullet tore through Hartman's trouser leg, but did not hit him himself. Meanwhile, the fame of Erich Hartmann grew every day on both sides of the front. Goebbels' propaganda dubbed him "the blond German knight." In early 1944, Hartman became commander of the 7th Squadron, JG-52. After 7./JG52 he commanded the staffs of 9./JG52 and then 4./JG52. His battle score continued to grow by leaps and bounds. In August 1944 alone, he shot down 78 Soviet aircraft, 19 of them in two days (August 23 and 24). Thereafter, in recognition of the extraordinary number of his victories, Hitler personally awarded Hartmann the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords to him.
Hartman then took a leave of absence and on September 10 married Ursula Patch, who had been his sweetheart since he was 17 and she was 15. Then he returned to the Eastern Front, where the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe were already on the verge of defeat. Hartman received the extraordinary rank of major (he was 22 years old) and was appointed commander of I./JG52. Major Hartmann won the last, 352nd victory on May 8, 1945 in the sky over Brune in Germany. Having completed the last, 1425th sortie, he ordered the surviving aircraft to be burned, and with his subordinates, accompanied by dozens of refugees fleeing the Russians, headed towards the American positions. Two hours later, in the Czech city of Pisek, they all surrendered to soldiers of the 90th Infantry Division of the US Army. But on May 16, the entire group, including women and children, was handed over to the Soviet occupying authorities. When the Russians discovered that Erich Hartmann himself had fallen into their hands, they decided to break his will. Hartman was kept in solitary confinement in complete darkness and was denied the opportunity to receive letters. Therefore, he learned about the death of the three-year-old son Peter Erich, whom Hartman never saw, only after 2 years. Major Hartman, despite all the efforts of the jailers, did not become an adherent of communism. He refused to cooperate with his tormentors, did not go out to construction works and provoked the guards, apparently hoping that they would shoot him. Perhaps it will seem surprising, but, having gone through all the trials, Erich Hartmann was imbued with great sympathy for the Russian people.
Finally, in 1955, Hartman was released, and after 10 and a half years in prison, he returned home. Erich's parents were already dead, but the faithful Ursula was still waiting for his return. With the help of his wife, the emaciated ex-Luftwaffe officer quickly recovered and began to rebuild his life. In 1958, a daughter was born in the Hartman family, who was named Ursula. In 1959, Hartman joined the newly created German Air Force and received under his command the 71st Fighter Regiment "Richthofen", stationed at the Ahlhorn airbase in Oldenburg. In the end, Erich Hartmann, having risen to the rank of Oberstleutnant, retired and lived out his life in the suburbs of Stuttgart. Harman passed away in 1993.
The legendary Soviet pilot, Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub was born on June 8, 1920 in the village of Obrazheevka, Sumy region. In 1939, he mastered the U-2 at the flying club. AT next year entered the Chuguev military aviation school of pilots. He is learning to fly UT-2 and I-16 aircraft. As one of the best cadets, he is left as an instructor. In 1941, after the start of the Great Patriotic War, together with the school staff, he was evacuated to Central Asia. There he asked to join the active army, but only in November 1942 he was sent to the front in the 240th Fighter Aviation Regiment, commanded by a participant in the war in Spain, Major Ignatius Soldatenko.
He made his first sortie on March 26, 1943 on La-5. He was unsuccessful. During an attack on a pair of Messerschmitt Bf-109s, his Lavochkin was damaged and then fired upon by his anti-aircraft artillery. Kozhedub was able to bring the car to the airfield, but it was not possible to restore it. The following sorties were made on old aircraft and only a month later received a new La-5.
Kursk Bulge. July 6, 1943 It was then that the 23-year-old pilot opened his combat account. In that duel, having joined the squadron in a fight with 12 enemy aircraft, he wins the first victory - he shoots down a Ju87 bomber. The next day he wins another victory. July 9 Ivan Kozhedub destroys two Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighters. In August 1943, the young pilot became a squadron commander. By October, he already had 146 sorties, 20 downed aircraft, he was presented to the title of Hero Soviet Union(assigned 4 February 1944). In the battles for the Dnieper, the pilots of the regiment in which Kozhedub is fighting met with Goering's aces from the Melders squadron and defeated him. Increased his account and Ivan Kozhedub.
In May-June 1944, he fought on the received La-5FN for No. 14 (a gift from the collective farmer Ivan Konev). First shoots down Ju-87. And then over the next six days it destroys 7 more enemy vehicles, including five Fw-190s. The pilot is presented for the second time to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (awarded on August 19, 1944) ...
Once, a group of German pilots led by an ace who won 130 air victories (of which 30 were withdrawn from his account for the destruction of three of his fighters in a fever), dozens of victories had his colleagues. To counter them, Ivan Kozhedub arrived at the front with a squadron of experienced pilots. The result of the fight is 12:2 in favor of the Soviet aces.
At the end of June, Kozhedub transferred his fighter to another ace - Kirill Evstigneev and transferred to the training regiment. However, in September 1944, the pilot was sent to Poland, to the left wing of the 1st Belorussian Front, to the 176th Guards Proskurov Red Banner Order of Alexander Nevsky Fighter Aviation Regiment (deputy commander) and fought in the "free hunting" way - on the latest Soviet fighter La-7. On the machine with number 27, he will fight until the end of the war, knocking down another 17 enemy vehicles.
On February 19, 1945, Kozhedub destroys a Me 262 jet aircraft over the Oder. He shoots down the sixty-first and sixty-second enemy aircraft (Fw 190) over the capital of Germany on April 17, 1945 in an air battle, which is studied as a classic model in military academies and schools. In August 1945, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the third time. Ivan Kozhedub finished the war with the rank of major. In 1943-1945. he completed 330 sorties, conducted 120 air battles. The Soviet pilot did not lose a single fight and is the best Allied aviation ace. The most productive Soviet pilot Ivan Kozhedub during the war was never shot down or wounded, although he had to land a damaged aircraft.
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Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub
Ivan Kozhedub was born in 1920 in the Chernigov province. He is considered the most successful Russian fighter pilot in personal combat, with 64 aircraft shot down.
The beginning of the career of the famous pilot was unsuccessful, in the very first battle his plane was seriously damaged by the enemy Messerschmit, and when returning to the base, Russian anti-aircraft gunners fired on him by mistake, and only by a miracle did he manage to land.
The plane was not subject to restoration, and they even wanted to retrain the unlucky newcomer, but the regiment commander stood up for him. Only during his 40th sortie on the Kursk Bulge, Kozhedub, having already become a “batya” - deputy squadron commander, shot down his first “lappet”, as ours called the German Junkers. After that, the score went to tens.
The last battle in the Great Patriotic War, in which he shot down 2 FW-190s, Kozhedub fought in the sky over Berlin. In addition, Kozhedub also has two shot down in 1945 on his account. American aircraft"Mustang", which attacked him, mistaking his fighter for a German aircraft. The Soviet ace acted on the principle that he professed even when working with cadets - "any unknown aircraft is an enemy."
Throughout the war, Kozhedub was never shot down, although often his plane received very serious damage.
Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin
Pokryshkin is one of the most famous aces of Russian aviation. Born in 1913 in Novosibirsk. He won his first victory on the second day of the war, shooting down the German Messerschmitt. In total, he accounted for 59 personally shot down aircraft and 6 in the group. However, this is only official statistics, because, being the commander of an air regiment, and then an air division, Pokryshkin sometimes gave downed planes to young pilots in order to encourage them in this way.
His notebook, entitled "Fighter Tactics in Combat", became a real guide to air warfare. They say that the Germans warned about the appearance of a Russian ace with the phrase: “Akhtung! Achtung! Pokryshkin in the air. The one who knocked down Pokryshkin was promised a big reward, but the Russian pilot turned out to be too tough for the Germans.
Pokryshkin is considered the inventor of the "Kuban whatnot" - a tactical method of air combat, the Germans called him the "Kuban escalator", because the planes arranged in pairs resembled a giant staircase. In battle, German aircraft leaving the first stage were hit by the second, and then the third stage. His other favorite tricks were "falcon strike" and "high-speed" swing ".
It is worth noting that Pokryshkin won most of his victories in the early years of the war, when the Germans had a significant air superiority.
Nikolai Dmitrievich Gulaev
Born in 1918 in the village of Aksayskaya near Rostov. His first battle is reminiscent of the feat of the Grasshopper from the movie “Only Old Men Go to Battle”: without an order, for the first time in his life, taking off at night under the howling of an air raid on his Yak, he managed to shoot down a German Heinkel night fighter. For such arbitrariness, he was punished, while presenting him for a reward.
In the future, Gulaev was usually not limited to one downed aircraft per flight, he scored four victories three times a day, destroyed three aircraft twice, and made a double in seven battles. In total, he shot down 57 aircraft personally and 3 in the group.
One enemy plane Gulaev, when he ran out of ammunition, took to ram, after which he himself fell into a tailspin and barely managed to eject. His risky manner of fighting became a symbol of the romantic trend in the art of aerial duel.
Grigory Andreevich Rechkalov
Born in 1920 in the Perm province. On the eve of the war, at the medical flight commission, he was found to have a slight degree of color blindness, but the regiment commander did not even look at the medical report - the pilots were very needed.
He won his first victory on an outdated I-153 biplane number 13, unlucky for the Germans, as he joked. Then he got into Pokryshkin's group and was trained on the Aerocobra, an American fighter, which became famous for its tough temper - it very easily went into a tailspin at the slightest pilot error, the Americans themselves were reluctant to fly on such.
In total, he shot down 56 aircraft personally and 6 in the group. Perhaps, none of our other ace on a personal account has such a variety of types of downed aircraft as Rechkalov, these are bombers, and attack aircraft, and reconnaissance aircraft, and fighters, and transport workers, and relatively rare trophies - "Savoy" and PZL -24.
Georgy Dmitrievich Kostylev
Born in Oranienbaum, now Lomonosov, in 1914. He began flying practice in Moscow at the legendary Tushino airfield, where the Spartak stadium is now being built.
The legendary Baltic ace, who covered the sky over Leningrad, won the largest number victories in naval aviation, personally shot down at least 20 enemy aircraft and 34 in the group. He shot down his first Messerschmitt on July 15, 1941. He fought on a British Hurricane received under lend-lease, on the left side of which there was a large inscription "For Russia!".
In February 1943, he landed in a penal battalion for having arranged a rout in the house of a major of the commissary service. Kostylev was struck by the abundance of dishes with which he regaled his guests, and could not restrain himself, because he knew firsthand what was happening in the besieged city. He was deprived of awards, demoted to the Red Army and sent to the Oranienbaum bridgehead, to the places where he spent his childhood.
The prisoner saved the hero, and already in April he again lifts his fighter into the air and defeats the enemy. Later he was reinstated in the rank, the awards were returned, but he never received the second Star of the Hero.
Maresyev Alexey Petrovich
A legendary man who became the prototype of the hero of Boris Polevoy's story "The Tale of a Real Man", a symbol of the courage and stamina of a Russian warrior. Born in 1916 in the city of Kamyshin, Saratov province.
In a battle with the Germans, his plane was shot down, the pilot, wounded in the legs, managed to land on the territory occupied by the Germans. After that, for 18 days he crawled out to his own, in the hospital both legs were amputated. But Maresyev managed to return to duty, he learned to walk on prostheses and again took to the skies.
At first, they did not trust him, anything can happen in battle, but Maresyev proved that he can fight no worse than others. As a result, 7 more German aircraft were added to the 4 German aircraft shot down before being wounded. Polevoy's story about Maresyev was allowed to be printed only after the war, so that the Germans, God forbid, would not think that there was no one to fight in the Soviet army, they had to send invalids.
Popkov Vitaly Ivanovich
This pilot also cannot be ignored, because it was he who became one of the most famous incarnations of an ace pilot in cinema art - the prototype of the famous Maestro from the film “Only Old Men Go to Battle”. The "Singing Squadron" really existed in the 5th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, where Popkov served, it had its own choir, and Leonid Utyosov himself presented two aircraft to it.
Popkov was born in Moscow in 1922. He won his first victory in June 1942 over the city of Holm. Participated in battles on the Kalinin front, on the Don and the Kursk Bulge. In total, he made 475 sorties, conducted 117 air battles, personally shot down 41 enemy aircraft plus 1 in the group.
On the last day of the war, Popkov shot down the legendary German Hartman, the most productive ace of World War II, in the sky over Brno, but he managed to land and stay alive, however, this still did not save him from captivity. Popkov's popularity was so great that a monument was erected to him during his lifetime in Moscow.
Grigory Shuvalov
Actually, the problem is this: 104 German pilots have an account of 100 or more downed aircraft. Among them are Erich Hartmann (352 wins) and Gerhard Barkhorn (301), who showed absolutely phenomenal results. Moreover, Harmann and Barkhorn won all their victories on Eastern Front. And they were no exception - Gunther Rall (275 victories), Otto Kittel (267), Walter Novotny (258) - also fought on the Soviet-German front.
At the same time, the 7 best Soviet aces: Kozhedub, Pokryshkin, Gulaev, Rechkalov, Evstigneev, Vorozheikin, Glinka were able to overcome the bar of 50 downed enemy aircraft. For example, Three times Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Kozhedub destroyed 64 German aircraft in air battles (plus 2 American Mustangs shot down by mistake). Alexander Pokryshkin, a pilot about whom, according to legend, the Germans warned by radio: "Achtung! Pokryshkin in der play!", chalked up "only" 59 air victories. The little-known Romanian ace Constantin Contacuzino has about the same number of victories (according to various sources, from 60 to 69). Another Romanian, Alexandru Serbanescu, shot down 47 aircraft on the Eastern Front (another 8 victories remained "unconfirmed").
The situation is much worse for the Anglo-Saxons. The best aces were Marmaduke Pettle (about 50 wins, South Africa) and Richard Bong (40 wins, USA). In total, 19 British and American pilots managed to shoot down more than 30 enemy aircraft, while the British and Americans fought on the best fighters in the world: the inimitable P-51 Mustang, P-38 Lightning or the legendary Supermarine Spitfire! On the other hand, the best ace of the Royal Air Force did not have a chance to fight on such wonderful aircraft - Marmaduke Pettle won all his fifty victories, flying first on the old Gladiator biplane, and then on the clumsy Hurricane.
Against this background, the results of the Finnish fighter aces look completely paradoxical: Ilmari Yutilainen shot down 94 aircraft, and Hans Wind - 75.
What conclusion can be drawn from all these figures? What is the secret of the incredible performance of the Luftwaffe fighters? Maybe the Germans just didn't know how to count?
The only thing that can be asserted a high degree confidence - the accounts of all aces without exception are overstated. To extol the successes of the best fighters is a standard practice of state propaganda, which, by definition, cannot be honest.
German Meresyev and his "Thing"
As an interesting example, consider incredible story bomber pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel. This ace is less known than the legendary Erich Hartmann. Rudel practically did not participate in air battles, you will not find his name in the lists of the best fighters.
Rudel is famous for having made 2530 sorties. He piloted a Junkers-87 dive bomber, at the end of the war he moved to the helm of a Focke-Wulf 190. During his combat career, he destroyed 519 tanks, 150 self-propelled guns, 4 armored trains, 800 trucks and cars, two cruisers, a destroyer and heavily damaged the battleship Marat. In the air he shot down two Il-2 attack aircraft and seven fighters. He landed six times on enemy territory to save the crews of wrecked Junkers. The Soviet Union placed a reward of 100,000 rubles on the head of Hans-Ulrich Rudel.
Just the epitome of a fascist
He was shot down 32 times by return fire from the ground. In the end, Rudel's leg was torn off, but the pilot continued to fly on a crutch until the end of the war. In 1948, he fled to Argentina, where he became friends with the dictator Peron and organized a mountaineering circle. He climbed the highest peak of the Andes - the city of Aconcagua (7 kilometers). In 1953 he returned to Europe and settled in Switzerland, continuing to talk nonsense about the revival of the Third Reich.
Without a doubt, this outstanding and controversial pilot was a tough ace. But for any person accustomed to thoughtfully analyze events, one important question should arise: how was it established that Rudel destroyed exactly 519 tanks?
Of course, there were no camera guns or cameras on the Junkers. The maximum that Rudel or his gunner-radio operator could notice was the covering of a column of armored vehicles, i.e. possible damage to tanks. The exit speed of the Yu-87 from a dive is more than 600 km / h, while overloads can reach 5g, in such conditions it is unrealistic to see anything accurately on the ground.
Since 1943, Rudel moved to the Yu-87G anti-tank attack aircraft. The characteristics of this "lappet" are simply disgusting: max. speed in level flight - 370 km / h, rate of climb - about 4 m / s. The aircraft's main weapon was two VK37 cannons (caliber 37 mm, rate of fire 160 rounds per minute), with only 12 (!) rounds of ammunition per barrel. Powerful guns mounted in the wings, when firing, created a large turning moment and rocked the light aircraft so that firing in bursts was pointless - only single sniper shots.
And here is a funny report on the results of field tests of the VYa-23 aircraft gun: in 6 sorties on the IL-2, the pilots of the 245th assault aviation regiment, with a total consumption of 435 shells, achieved 46 hits in the tank column (10.6%). It must be assumed that in real combat conditions, under intense anti-aircraft fire, the results will be much worse. Where is the German ace with 24 shells on board the Stuka!
Further, hitting a tank does not guarantee its defeat. An armor-piercing projectile (685 grams, 770 m/s) fired from the VK37 cannon pierced 25 mm of armor at an angle of 30° from the normal. When using sub-caliber ammunition, armor penetration increased by 1.5 times. Also, in view of own speed aircraft, armor penetration in reality was about 5 mm more. On the other hand, the thickness of the armored hull of Soviet tanks was only in some projections less than 30-40 mm, and there was nothing to dream of hitting a KV, IS or heavy self-propelled gun in the forehead or side.
In addition, breaking through the armor does not always lead to the destruction of the tank. Echelons with damaged armored vehicles regularly arrived in Tankograd and Nizhny Tagil, which were restored in a short time and sent back to the front. And the repair of damaged rollers and chassis was carried out right on the spot. At this time, Hans-Ulrich Rudel drew himself another cross for the "destroyed" tank.
Another question for Rudel is related to his 2530 sorties. According to some reports, in the German bomber squadrons it was accepted as an encouragement to count a difficult sortie for several sorties. For example, the captured captain Helmut Putz, commander of the 4th detachment of the 2nd group of the 27th bomber squadron, explained the following during interrogation: "... in combat conditions, I managed to make 130-140 night sorties, and a number of sorties with a difficult combat mission was credited to me, as well as to others, for 2-3 departures. (protocol of interrogation dated 06/17/1943). Although it is possible that Helmut Putz, having been captured, lied, trying to reduce his contribution to attacks on Soviet cities.
Hartmann vs everyone
There is an opinion that aces-pilots inadvertently stuffed their accounts and fought "on their own", being an exception to the rule. And the main work at the front was carried out by pilots of medium qualification. This is a profound misconception: in a general sense, pilots of "medium qualification" do not exist. There are either aces or their prey.
For example, let's take the legendary Normandy-Neman air regiment, which fought on Yak-3 fighters. Of the 98 French pilots, 60 did not win a single victory, but the "chosen" 17 pilots shot down 200 German aircraft in air battles (in total, the French regiment drove 273 aircraft with a swastika into the ground).
A similar pattern was observed in the 8th US Air Force, where out of 5,000 fighter pilots, 2,900 did not win a single victory. Only 318 people chalked up 5 or more downed aircraft.
The American historian Mike Spike describes the same episode related to the actions of the Luftwaffe on the Eastern Front: "... the squadron lost 80 pilots in a fairly short period of time, of which 60 did not shoot down a single Russian aircraft."
So, we found out that aces pilots are the main force of the Air Force. But the question remains: what is the reason for that huge gap between the performance of the aces of the Luftwaffe and the pilots of the Anti-Hitler coalition? Even if you divide the incredible accounts of the Germans in half?
One of the legends about the failure of large accounts of German aces is associated with an unusual system for counting downed aircraft: by the number of engines. Single-engine fighter - one downed aircraft. Four-engine bomber - four aircraft shot down. Indeed, for the pilots who fought in the West, a parallel offset was introduced, in which for the destruction of the "Flying Fortress" flying in battle formation, the pilot was credited with 4 points, for the damaged bomber, which "fell out" of the battle formation and became easy prey other fighters, the pilot was recorded 3 points, because. he did most of the work - breaking through the hurricane fire of the "Flying Fortresses" is much more difficult than shooting a damaged single aircraft. And so on: depending on the degree of participation of the pilot in the destruction of the 4-engine monster, he was awarded 1 or 2 points. What happened then with these reward points? They must have been converted into Reichsmarks somehow. But all this had nothing to do with the list of downed aircraft.
The most prosaic explanation for the Luftwaffe phenomenon is that the Germans had no shortage of targets. Germany fought on all fronts with the numerical superiority of the enemy. The Germans had 2 main types of fighters: Messerschmitt-109 (34 thousand were produced from 1934 to 1945) and Focke-Wulf 190 (13 thousand were produced in the fighter version and 6.5 thousand in the attack aircraft version) - a total of 48 thousand fighters.
At the same time, about 70 thousand Yaks, Lavochkins, I-16s and MiG-3s passed through the Red Army Air Force during the war years (excluding 10 thousand fighters supplied under Lend-Lease).
In the Western European theater of operations, Luftwaffe fighters were opposed by about 20 thousand Spitfires and 13 thousand Hurricanes and Tempests (this is how many aircraft visited the Royal Air Force from 1939 to 1945). And how many more fighters did Britain get under Lend-Lease?
Since 1943, American fighters have appeared over Europe - thousands of Mustangs, P-38s and P-47s plowed the skies of the Reich, escorting strategic bombers during raids. In 1944, during the landings in Normandy, the Allied aviation had a sixfold numerical superiority. "If there are camouflaged planes in the sky, it's the Royal Air Force, if there are silver ones, it's the US Air Force. If there are no planes in the sky, it's the Luftwaffe," the German soldiers joked sadly. How could British and American pilots have big bills under such conditions?
Another example - the Il-2 attack aircraft became the most massive combat aircraft in the history of aviation. During the war years, 36154 attack aircraft were produced, of which 33920 Ils entered the army. By May 1945, the Red Army Air Force included 3585 Il-2 and Il-10, another 200 Il-2 were part of naval aviation.
In a word, the Luftwaffe pilots did not have any superpowers. All their achievements are explained only by the fact that there were many enemy aircraft in the air. Allied fighter aces, on the contrary, needed time to detect the enemy - according to statistics, even the best Soviet pilots had an average of 1 air battle for 8 sorties: they simply could not meet the enemy in the sky!
On a cloudless day, from a distance of 5 km, a WWII fighter is visible like a fly on a window pane from the far corner of the room. In the absence of radars on aircraft, air combat was more of an unexpected coincidence than a regular event.
It is more objective to count the number of downed aircraft, taking into account the number of pilot sorties. Viewed from this angle, Erich Hartmann's achievement pales in comparison: 1,400 sorties, 825 dogfights, and "only" 352 aircraft shot down. This figure is much better for Walter Novotny: 442 sorties and 258 victories.
Friends congratulate Alexander Pokryshkin (far right) on receiving the third star of the Hero of the Soviet Union
It is very interesting to trace how aces pilots began their careers. The legendary Pokryshkin in the very first sorties demonstrated piloting skills, audacity, flight intuition and sniper shooting. And the phenomenal ace Gerhard Barkhorn did not win a single victory in the first 119 sorties, but he himself was shot down twice! Although there is an opinion that Pokryshkin also did not go smoothly: the Soviet Su-2 became his first downed plane.
In any case, Pokryshkin has his own advantage over the best German aces. Hartman was shot down fourteen times. Barkhorn - 9 times. Pokryshkin was never shot down! Another advantage of the Russian miracle hero: he won most of his victories in 1943. In 1944-45. Pokryshkin shot down only 6 German aircraft, focusing on training young personnel and managing the 9th Guards Air Division.
In conclusion, it should be said that one should not be so afraid of the high scores of the Luftwaffe pilots. This, on the contrary, shows what a formidable enemy the Soviet Union defeated, and why the Victory is of such high value.
Throughout the Great Patriotic War, with the exception of perhaps its last months, the Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 87 dive bomber was one of the main opponents of Soviet fighter pilots, especially during periods of active hostilities. Therefore, in the lists of victories of many of our aces, the “lappeters” (this is precisely the nickname that the German dive bomber received from us for the characteristic non-retractable landing gear in massive fairings) occupy a prominent place.
A Ju 87B-2 from III./ St.G., which made an emergency landing due to engine damage. 2, autumn 1941,
Chudovo station area, Leningrad region (http://waralbum.ru)
Since there were a lot of victories over the Yu-87 (as the aircraft was designated in Soviet staff documents) - for 3000 aces pilots there are about 4000 applications for the destruction of enemy dive bombers - their presence in the battle accounts of aces is, in fact, directly dependent on the total number downed aircraft, and the top lines of the list are occupied by the most famous Soviet aces.
The most productive fighter pilot shares the first place among the hunters for "lappets" anti-Hitler coalition, three times Hero of the Soviet Union Kozhedub Ivan Nikitovich and another famous ace - twice Hero of the Soviet Union Arseniy Vasilyevich Vorozheikin. Both of these pilots have 18 Yu-87s shot down. Kozhedub shot down all his "Junkers" as part of the 240th IAP (the first victory over Yu-87 - 07/06/1943, the last - 06/01/1944), flying a La-5 fighter, Vorozheikin - as part of the 728th IAP on the Yak- 7B (the first downed "lappet" - 07/14/1943, the last - 04/18/1944). In total, during the war, Ivan Kozhedub won 64 personal air victories, and Arseniy Vorozheikin - 45 personally and 1 in pairs, and both of our outstanding pilots have the Yu-87 as the first in the extensive lists of the aircraft they shot down.
Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub, the best ace of the anti-Hitler coalition, destroyed the most Yu-87s - on e
count of 18 German dive bombers ( http://waralbum.ru)
The second line in the conditional rating of destroyers of "pieces" is occupied by another pilot of the 240th IAP, who flew the La-5 - twice Hero of the Soviet Union Kirill Alekseevich Evstigneev, who scored 13 personal victories over the Yu-87 during his combat career, also having one more knocked down in a group. In total, Evstigneev shot down 52 enemy aircraft personally and 3 in the group.
Pilots of the 205th Fighter Aviation Division Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Pavlovich Mikhalev from the 508th IAP (213th Guards IAP) and twice Hero of the Soviet Union Nikolai Dmitrievich Gulaev (27th IAP / 129th Guards IAP), having on account of 12 destroyed "laptezhnikov" (Vasily Mikhalev, in addition, has 7 dive bombers shot down in the group). The first one began his combat career on the Yak-7B, “filling up” 4 Yu-87s on it, and shot down the rest while in the cockpit of the Lend-Lease P-39 Airacobra fighter; the second - the first 7 "pieces" sent to the ground, piloting the Yak-1 (moreover, Gulaev shot down two "Junkers" with ramming), the rest of the victories were won on the "Aerocobra". Mikhalev's final combat score was 23+14, and Gulaev's - 55+5 aerial victories.
The fourth position in the rating with 11 personal victories over the Yu-87 is occupied by the “magnificent five” of fighter pilots of the KA Air Force, which is headed by the Hero of the Soviet Union Fedor Fedorovich Arkhipenko, who also has 6 “lappeters” shot down in the group. The pilot won his victories over the Yu-87 in the ranks of two air regiments - the 508th IAP and the 129th Guards IAP, shooting down two bombers personally on the Yak-7B, the rest - on the Aerocobra. In total, during the war, Arkhipenko shot down 29 enemy aircraft personally and 15 in the group. Further in the list of pilots who shot down 11 Yu-87s, it looks like this: Trofim Afanasyevich Litvinenko (fought as part of the 191st IAP on the P-40 Kittyhawk and La-5, the final combat score was 18 + 0, Hero of the Soviet Union) ; Mikhalin Mikhail Fedorovich (191st IAP, Kittyhawk, 14+2); Rechkalov Grigory Andreevich (16th Guards IAP, "Aerocobra", 61 + 4, twice Hero of the Soviet Union); Chepinoga Pavel Iosifovich (27th IAP and 508th IAP, Yak-1 and Airacobra, 25+1, Hero of the Soviet Union).
Five more pilots have 10 personally shot down Yu-87s: Artamonov Nikolai Semenovich (297th IAP and 193rd IAP (177th Guards IAP), La-5, 28 + 9, Hero of the Soviet Union); Zyuzin Petr Dmitrievich (29th Guards IAP, Yak-9, 16+0, Hero of the Soviet Union); Pokryshkin Alexander Ivanovich (16th Guards IAP, Directorate of the 9th Guards IAD, "Aerocobra", 46 + 6, three times Hero of the Soviet Union); Rogozhin Vasily Aleksandrovich (236th IAP (112th Guards IAP), Yak-1, 23+0, Hero of the Soviet Union); Sachkov Mikhail Ivanovich (728th IAP, Yak-7B, 29+0, Hero of the Soviet Union).
In addition, 9 fighter pilots were sent to the ground by 9 dive Junkers, 8 people had 8 downed Yu-87s, 7 - 15 pilots each.
Ivan Kozhedub is considered the record holder for the number of downed German aircraft. He has 62 enemy vehicles on his account. Alexander Pokryshkin was 3 planes behind him - it is officially believed that ace No. 2 can draw 59 stars on his fuselage. In fact, the information about the championship of Kozhedub is erroneous.
There are eight of us, two of us. The layout before the fight
Not ours, but we will play!
Series, hold on! We do not shine with you.
But the trump cards must be equalized.
I will not leave this heavenly square -
I don't care about numbers right now.
Today my friend is protecting my back
So the chances are equal.
Vladimir Vysotsky
A few years ago, in the archive of the three times Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Pokryshkin, records were discovered that allow you to take a different look at the merits of the legendary pilot. It turns out that for decades the true number of Nazi aircraft shot down by him was greatly underestimated. There were several reasons for this.
Firstly, the very fact of the fall of each downed enemy aircraft had to be confirmed by reports from ground observers. Thus, by definition, all aircraft destroyed behind the front line were not included in the statistics of Soviet fighter pilots. Pokryshkin, in particular, missed 9 “trophies” because of this.
Secondly, many of his comrades recalled that he generously shared with his followers so that they could quickly receive orders and new titles. Finally, in 1941, the flight unit of Pokryshkin was forced to destroy all documents during the retreat, and more than a dozen victories of the Siberian hero remained only in his memory and personal records. The famous pilot after the war did not prove his superiority and was satisfied with 59 enemy aircraft recorded on his account. Kozhedub had, as you know, 62 of them. Today we can say that Pokryshkin destroyed 94 aircraft, 19 - shot down (some of them, no doubt, could not reach the airfield or were finished off by other pilots), and 3 - destroyed on the ground. Pokryshkin dealt primarily with enemy fighters - the most difficult and dangerous targets. It happened that he and two of his associates fought with eighteen opponents. The Siberian ace shot down 3 Fokkers, 36 Messers, knocked out 7 more, and burned 2 at the airfields. He destroyed 33 light bombers, 18 heavy bombers. He was rarely distracted by smaller targets, shooting down 1 light reconnaissance aircraft and 4 transport aircraft. For full truth it should be said that he began his combat account on June 22, 1941 by shooting down our Su-2 light two-seat bomber, which, due to the stupidity of the command, was so classified that not a single Soviet fighter knew its silhouette. And the slogan of any combat pilot is not original: "You see an unfamiliar aircraft - take it for the enemy."
American President Franklin Roosevelt called Pokryshkin the most outstanding ace of World War II. It is difficult to disagree with this, although the military merits of Kozhedub are no less significant. Surely he also has unrecorded aircraft on his account.
Even less fortunate in this regard was a Soviet pilot named Ivan Fedorov. He shot down 134 enemy "sides", carried out 6 rams, "captured" 2 planes - he forced them to land on his airfield. At the same time, he himself was never shot down and did not lose a single wingman. But this pilot remained completely unknown. Pioneer squads were not named after him, no monuments were erected to him. Problems arose even with the awarding of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to him.
For the first time, Ivan Fedorov was presented for this high award back in 1938 - for 11 aircraft shot down in Spain. With a large group of officers from Spain, Fedorov arrived in Moscow for a solemn presentation. Among the awarded, in addition to the pilots, were sailors and tankers. At one of the "banquets" representatives of friendly branches of the armed forces began to find out which type of armed forces is better. The argument escalated to a fight, and then to a gunfight. As a result, 11 ambulances transported the victims to Moscow hospitals and morgues. Ivan Fedorov did not take much part in the fight, but, having raged beyond measure, he hit the NKVD officer assigned to him. The pilot was a first-class boxer - on the second day, the special officer, without regaining consciousness, died. As a result, Fedorov was declared one of the instigators of the scandal. The leadership of the People's Commissariat of Defense hushed up this incident, but no awards were given to anyone. Everyone was scattered across military units with completely unsuitable for further career characteristics.
As for Fedorov, he and several other pilots were summoned by the Chief of the General Staff of Aviation, Lieutenant General Smushkevich, and said: “They fought heroically - and all in vain!” And left alone with Fedorov, he confidentially and in a friendly way warned that the NKVD had brought a special file on him on the personal order of Lavrenty Beria. Then Stalin himself saved Fedorov from arrest and death, ordering Beria not to touch the pilot, so as not to complicate relations with the Spaniards, for whom Ivan was national hero. However, Fedorov was fired from the Air Force and transferred as a test pilot to S.A. Design Bureau. Lavochkin.
Deprived of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, Fedorov just a few months before the invasion Nazi Germany in the USSR managed to get the highest military award Third Reich. It turned out like this.
In the spring of 1941, the USSR and Germany, which were then in a very friendly relations, exchanged delegations of test pilots. As part of the Soviet pilots, Fedorov went to Germany. Wanting to show a potential enemy (and Ivan never doubted the inevitability of war with Germany) the power of Soviet military aviation, the pilot demonstrated the most complex aerobatic maneuvers in the air. Hitler was stunned and amazed, and Reich Marshal Goering sullenly confirmed that even the best German aces could not repeat the "aerial acrobatic tricks" of the Soviet pilot.
On June 17, 1941, a farewell banquet was held at the residence of the Reich Chancellor, where Hitler presented awards to Soviet pilots. Fedorov from his hands received one of the highest orders of the Reich - the Iron Cross with oak leaves 1st class. Fedorov himself recalled this award reluctantly: “They gave me some kind of cross, I don’t understand, I don’t need it, it was lying in my box, I didn’t wear it and would never wear it.” Moreover, a few days after the return of Soviet pilots, the Great Patriotic War began ...
The war found Fedorov in Gorky, where he worked at the plant as a tester. For a whole year, the pilot unsuccessfully “bombarded” the higher authorities with reports with a request to send him to the front. Then Fedorov decided to cheat. In June 1942, on an experimental LaGT-3 fighter, he made 3 "dead loops" under the bridge across the Volga. The hope was that the air hooligan would be sent to the front for this. However, when Fedorov went on the fourth approach, anti-aircraft gunners from the bridge guard opened fire on the plane, apparently thinking that he could destroy the bridge. Then the pilot decided that he would not even return to his airfield, and flew straight to the front ...
It was almost 500 km to the front line, and Fedorov was not only fired upon by anti-aircraft guns, but also attacked by two MIG-3s of the Moscow air defense forces. Happily avoiding danger, Ivan Evgrafovich landed at the airfield near Moscow Klin, at the location of the headquarters of the 3rd Air Army.
Army commander Mikhail Gromov, a famous polar pilot, after listening to a detailed report of the “volunteer”, decided to keep him. Meanwhile, the leadership of the Gorky aircraft plant declared Fedorov a deserter and demanded that he be returned from the front. He sent them a telegram: “I didn’t run away then to return to you. If guilty, give it to the tribunal. Apparently, Gromov himself stood up for the "deserter": "If you had escaped from the front, then they would have been tried, and you would have gone to the front." Indeed, the case was soon closed.
In the first month and a half, Fedorov shot down 18 German aircraft and in October 1942 he was appointed commander of the 157th Fighter Aviation Regiment. He met the spring of the 43rd already as the commander of the 273rd air division. And from the summer of 1942 until the spring of 1943, Fedorov commanded a unique group of 64 penal pilots, created on Stalin's personal order. He considered it unreasonable to send even seriously guilty pilots to ground penal battalions, where they could not be of any use, and the situation at the front then developed in such a way that every trained and experienced pilot was literally worth its weight in gold. But none of the aces wanted to command these "air hooligans". And then Fedorov himself volunteered to lead them. Despite the fact that Gromov gave him the right to shoot everyone on the spot at the slightest attempt at disobedience, Fedorov never took advantage of this.
The penitentiaries showed themselves brilliantly, shooting down about 400 enemy aircraft, although the victories were not counted for them, like for Fedorov himself, but were distributed among other air regiments. Then, after the official "forgiveness", several of Fedorov's wards became Heroes of the Soviet Union. The most famous of them was Alexei Reshetov.
In May of the 44th, Fedorov, having voluntarily resigned from the post of commander of the 213th air division, not wanting to do “paper”, in his opinion, work, became deputy commander of the 269th air division, having received the opportunity to fly more. Soon he managed to assemble a special group of nine pilots, with whom he was engaged in the so-called "free hunt" behind the front line.
After a thorough reconnaissance, a group of Fedorov’s “hunters”, who knew the location of enemy airfields well, usually flew over one of them in the evening and dropped a pennant, which was a can of American stew with a load and a note inside. In it on German Luftwaffe pilots were invited to fight, and strictly according to the number of those who arrived from the Soviet side. In the event of a violation of numerical parity, the "superfluous" simply lost their way on takeoff. The Germans, of course, accepted the challenge.
In these "duels" Fedorov won 21 victories. But, perhaps, Ivan Evgrafovich held his most successful battle in the sky over East Prussia at the end of the 44th, shooting down 9 Messerschmitts at once. Thanks to all these outstanding achievements, the ace got the front-line nickname Anarchist.
All pilots of the "Fedorov group" received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and Vasily Zaitsev and Andrey Borovoy were awarded it twice. The only exception was the commander himself. All Fedorov's ideas for this title were still "wrapped up".
After Great Victory Fedorov returned to the Lavochkin design bureau, where he tested jet aircraft. He was the first in the world to break the sound barrier on the La-176 aircraft. In general, this pilot has 29 world aviation records. It was for these achievements that on March 5, 1948, Stalin awarded Ivan Fedorov the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
As for the obscurity of the most productive ace of the Soviet Air Force, Ivan Evgrafovich never sought to debunk this delusion: “I always knew how to stand up for myself and I will be able to, but I will never bother and write to higher authorities in order to return undelivered awards. And I don’t need them anymore - the soul lives on other matters. ”
So the very best Soviet aces World War II - what a delusion! - Pokryshkin and Kozhedub are still considered.
