The first aerial victories of the first day of the Great Patriotic War. The first air victories of the first day of the Great Patriotic War Air battles at the beginning of the
Recently, it has become fashionable to shake up archives and revise well-known facts. These trends also affected our victory in the Great Patriotic War. For example, myths about the exploits of the “Knights of the Luftwaffe” and tales of “wild Asians on plywood” have become almost a reality. But let’s finally look at how “evidence” of enemy air superiority on the Eastern Front was created.
For the Germans, in order for a victory in an air battle to be counted, the pilot’s report, the testimony of the battle participants, and the filming of a photo-machine gun (this is a movie camera combined with a machine gun; it automatically takes pictures at the moment of shooting) was enough. But not all aircraft had a photo-cinema machine gun, and combatants could, to put it mildly, lie. The Finns demonstrated this back in the Winter War: then they declared victories twice as many as the Soviet Air Force counted losses!
In our army, the counting of victories was organized differently. The pilot's report was not taken into account. Usually (though not always) the testimony of the participants in the battle was not taken into account. The frames taken by the photo-cinema machine gun were also not proof of an aerial victory, since this device, with the exception of cases of an explosion in the air, is only capable of filming a hit. Only the report of the ground troops mattered. If the infantry (or ship crews, when the battle took place over the sea) did not confirm the death of the enemy or saw only damage to the enemy aircraft, it was considered that the enemy was not destroyed.
The most frequently used method of air combat by German aces is “free hunting,” that is, the search and destruction of single or lagging Soviet (or allied) aircraft over territory not controlled by the Nazis. At the same time, naturally, the Germans did not have, and could not have, ground-based confirmation of their achievements. All destroyed aircraft were counted based on the reports of the pilots themselves.
Our aces rarely used the “free hunting” method: firstly, the battle tactics were still lame, and secondly, it was almost impossible to prove victory in this case. Behind enemy lines, only the partisans could see the downed German planes. But our army had no contact with the partisans. Consequently, there were no victories. This order has always been there. Alexander Pokryshkin was missing more than twenty planes that he shot down behind the front line.
The Germans had a system of awarding points for downing enemy aircraft. Thus, three points were awarded for a four-engine bomber (three victories), two for a two-engine bomber, and one point for a fighter. Points were also given for finishing off a plane damaged by another ace. For example, for the downing of a TB-3 bomber, a German pilot could chalk up three victories at once.
At the beginning of the massive retreat of German troops in 1943–1944, the list of victories of the Luftwaffe aces began to grow by leaps and bounds. But our real losses, on the contrary, have decreased sharply. Often no one saw the cars destroyed by the Germans. They were all believed to fall in Soviet-held territory.
In addition to the above reasons, there was one more reason why our pilots’ victories were not counted. Often they were not believed.
The German Me-262 is considered the best fighter of World War II. Released by Germany in the last months of the war, it was unable to have a real impact on its course. The Wehrmacht no longer had any people, no strength, no fuel left. But where the Me-262 appeared, the enemy had little chance. Three such aircraft were shot down on the Eastern Front. For a long time it was believed that there were two. Over the territory of the Czech Republic, the Soviet ace attacked the Messer in a combat turn, set it on fire and sent it to the ground. Returning to the regiment, he reported the victory. Unfortunately, our pilot flew an old Yak-1. Given this, the command simply did not believe him. And only several decades later, when the details of this battle were published in the West and the destruction of the Me-262 was proven, the pilot was able to add the enemy fighter to his combat account.
The Germans had no such problems. Anyone would try not to believe the ace, the Luftwaffe expert! Any plane shot down by the Germans was automatically considered destroyed, even if it returned to its airfield.
And the Luftwaffe aces did not use the concept of “joint victory.” All the vehicles they shot down in one sortie were often added to the personal account of one pilot. As a rule, this was the commander of a pair, or even a group. The wingman could make dozens of sorties, shoot down a plane in every battle, and victories were credited to the commander. The second most successful fascist ace, Erich Barkhorn (301 victories), led 110 combat missions and did not shoot down a single our or allied aircraft! And the Soviet pilot Lev Shestakov personally shot down 25 planes and another 49 in the group. It is easy to calculate that if all the planes were entered into his personal account, there would be 74 victories. And someone would be left without awards.
It is known that countries that lost the war declared that their pilots were responsible for the greatest number of victories in air battles.
Japan especially distinguished itself. The Americans, foaming at the mouth, argued that they lost several times fewer aircraft in the war than the Japanese counted. In the end, Japanese achievements were automatically cut in half, but even the remaining figure gives rise to serious doubts.
The inhabitants of the northern country of Suomi are considered the best (after the Germans) air fighters in Europe. But their merits are also questionable. Firstly, Finnish pilots, again, as in the Winter War, shot down more aircraft than we lost in combat, including accidents and Finnish anti-aircraft artillery. Secondly, it is unknown what exactly they shot down. For example, the best Finnish ace Eino Juutilainen (94 victories) has two American-made Soviet fighters P-51 Mustang and one P-39 Lightning, but it remains a mystery where he dug them up. These fighters were never in service with our army. Here are some more facts. On August 14, 1942, the Finns announced that they had shot down nine Soviet Hurricanes from the Baltic Fleet Air Force. In reality, we lost only one plane that day. On August 16, the Finns announced the destruction of 11 I-16 aircraft from the 4th Guards IAP of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet Air Force in one battle over the island of Seskar. In this battle, only one of our planes was shot down; the pilot, junior lieutenant Rochev, was killed. Hundreds of such examples can be given if we scrupulously compare the data of our archives with Finnish and German claims about “victories”.
In August 1942, in North Africa, the flight of Oberleutnant Vogel, commander of the fourth group of the 27th fighter squadron, shot down 65 enemy aircraft in a month. In fact, when flying out on a mission, German pilots shot their ammunition into the sand, returned to the airfield and reported on the “victories won.” When they were finally discovered, they simply disbanded the unit, leaving all victories intact (an example taken from G. Kornyukhin’s article “Again, Luftwaffe Experts”). The exaggeration of their merits by the Luftwaffe aces often turned into trouble for the Germans themselves. During the now famous Battle of Britain, the Germans claimed about three times as many victories as they actually had. The Reich command decided that British fighter aircraft had long been destroyed, and sent their bombers to certain death. The Germans lost the Battle of England.
The list of German aces killed on the Eastern Front is so extensive that Western authors resort to falsification to hide the achievements of Soviet pilots, these achievements are very significant. For example, the German ace Hans Hahn (108 victories) was captured as a result of a battle with an Il-2 attack aircraft, the pilot of which was making his eighth (!) combat mission. Rudolf Müller (94 victories), pilot of the 5th Luftwaffe Fighter Squadron, was shot down on April 19, 1943 over Murmansk. Then six Me-109s clashed with five of our planes. Participating on our side were: Gorishin, Bokiy, Titov, Sorokin, Sgibnev. Our pilot Bokiy shot down Muller (14 victories). Sorokin won his seventh victory in that battle. It is interesting that from October 1941, after an air ramming by an Me-110, a serious injury and a six-day journey across the ice to reach his own people, Sorokin flew without both legs. But this did not stop him from defeating the German aces. In total he shot down 16 planes. On the “official” account of Alexander Pokryshkin there are 59 enemy aircraft, but in conversations with Felix Chuev he repeatedly said: “From memory, I shot down 90 aircraft.” In more than three hundred missions, Ivan Kozhedub was not shot down even once; Kozhedub was responsible for one of the destroyed Me-262s. Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Golubev personally destroyed 39 enemy vehicles. Once two Messerschmitts attacked a single Golubev plane over the Vystav airfield. Our pilot shot down both enemy vehicles. At the same time, he flew an “outdated” I-16.
During the war years, our pilots performed 590 aerial rams alone. Often they died in the process. But not always. Pilot Boris Kovzan made four air rams and survived.
After 1991, a stream of Western publications devoted to the Second World War poured into our country, and the achievements of German fighter pilots, who, as it turned out, declared an order of magnitude more victories than their Soviet counterparts, were especially fascinatingly described. In many sources, starting with Wikipedia, special attention was paid to the pilot of the 3rd fighter squadron, Lieutenant Robert Oleynik, who allegedly was the first to shoot down a Soviet plane at 03:40 Berlin time. For a long time it was impossible to verify this information, but now, using the works of the German researcher Jochen Prien, as well as data from Soviet and German archives, it was possible to understand this issue. So who won the first aerial victories on the Soviet-German front?
Chief Lieutenant Oleinik versus Senior Lieutenant Gorbatyuk
The squadrons of the V Luftwaffe Air Corps, which on June 22, 1941 was supposed to support Army Group South aimed at Kyiv, were concentrated in Poland, in the regions of Zamosc, Lublin and Rzeszow. Fighter units were represented by all three groups of the JG 3 squadron. These were quite impressive forces: the Soviet airfield network in the zone between Kovel and Przemysl was poorly developed, and the numerous fighter regiments of the Air Force of the Kyiv Special Military District did not have a chance to take part in battles over the border.
MiG-3 from the 28th IAP, abandoned due to malfunctions at the Tsunev airfield, June 1941 (artist Alexander Kazakov)
The main forces of JG 3 were based in Zamosc, where III./JG 3 was located, and further east, at the Khostun airfield (headquarters and II./JG 3). Closest to the border, at the Dub airfield, was I./JG 3. The squadron consisted of 109 Bf 109Fs, of which 93 were serviceable. The mission of the squadron is to destroy Soviet aviation at airfields in the Lvov area.
The opponents of the German fighters were supposed to be pilots of the 23rd, 28th, 164th IAP of the 15th SAD and the 92nd IAP of the 16th SAD - in total about 200 combat-ready aircraft with crews (70 MiG-3, 30 I-16 and 100 I-153). It would seem that the Soviet fighters had a twofold numerical superiority, but the pilots of the newly formed 92nd and 164th regiments were poorly trained, and the materiel (I-153 and I-16 type 5) was frankly outdated. The 23rd and 28th IAP, on the contrary, have not yet fully mastered the difficult-to-fly MiG-3. For these reasons, we have to state the complete superiority of the Germans, who were armed with the latest Bf 109F and, on average, much better trained personnel.
From the history of I./JG 3 it is known that the group, on its first combat mission, was tasked with attacking airfields in the vicinity of Lvov. The order came at about 03:40 am Berlin time, and a total of 23 Bf 109Fs from all three squadrons and headquarters were deployed. Details of the first flight are known from the memoirs of group commander Hauptmann Hans von Hahn (Hptm. Hans von Hahn):
« We were supposed to attack Russian airfields in the vicinity of Lvov. The early morning was gloomy and gray. Deep peace reigned below, there were no planes in the air, there was no anti-aircraft defense. When we saw the airfield, we couldn't believe our eyes. The airfield was full of cars: reconnaissance aircraft, many fighters, bombers. They stood undisguised, as before a parade, lined up in long, even rows. We started shooting at this heap from on-board weapons and dropping 50 kg bombs. Below, many silver-gray airplanes that looked like birds caught fire; they sparkled with their red stars, and this was clearly visible from above. We carried out attack after attack on reconnoitered airfields. These actions continued all day in much the same way, and we did not recover from surprise. What a number of airfields and aircraft the Russians had on our border!
Unlike the group headquarters, flight 1./JG 3 and two flights of 2./JG 3 had to engage in air combat with the enemy already on their first flight - these were several Russian Polikarpov fighters of the I-16 type, better known from the civil war in Spain as "Rata". Three of these broad-headed, small, star-engined fighters were shot down by First Lieutenant Oleinik, Sergeant Major Heesen and Sergeant Major Lüth.”
The target for the combined group, led by Chief Lieutenant Olejnik (Olt. Robert Olejnik), was the Tsunev airfield (near the city of Gorodok, also known as Grudek Jagiellonian), where the 28th IAP was based (43 serviceable fighters: 36 MiG-3 and seven I- 16). Eight 2./JG 3 took off with suspended 50-kg SD-50 fragmentation bombs, covered by a flight of 1./JG 3.
"Messerschmitt Bf 109F-2 of the commander of 1./JG 3, Oberleutnant Robert Oleinik, July 1941. There are marks on the rudder about 20 air victories
Thanks to the archive of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where it was possible to find the memories of the pilots of the 28th IAP, as well as the document confirming the victory of Sergeant Major Heesen, posted by Mark Solonin on his website, it was possible to understand the circumstances of the battle over the airfield of the 28th IAP.
Report of the aerial victory, signed by Feldwebel Heesen (Fw. Ernst Heesen) of 2./JG 3:
“06/22/1941 at 03:35 I started as part of a pair of Bf 109 with bombs in the group of Chief Lieutenant Oleinik. After half an hour of flight time, we noticed a single aircraft near Grodek [Gródek Jagiellonian]. Chief Lieutenant Oleinik turned towards her and ordered me to drop bombs on the Grodek airfield. While diving, I saw cars taking off from the airfield. I dropped the bombs, aimed at the rear car and set it on fire with a burst of fire. Falling onto the left wing, she began to fall, and the pilot jumped out with a parachute. I couldn’t watch her fall to the ground, because I turned away, noticing that the other vehicles were turning on a combat course in my direction.”
The German pilot was credited with victory over the I-16 at 04:10 Berlin time (05:10 Moscow time) in the area northeast of Grodek. Naturally, having taken off at 03:35 in the morning, the German group could not possibly be over Tsunev, which was 100 km away, in five minutes, and Robert Oleinik could not achieve his victory at 03:40. The fact that the battle took place around 05:00 Moscow time is confirmed by documents from the Soviet side and the memories of participants in the events.
From the history of the 28th IAP:
“At 04:00 on June 22, the camp was filled with nervous sounds of a combat alarm. People jumped up, dressed as they went, took weapons and gas masks and ran to the airfield. The technical staff quickly prepared the vehicles, and the pilots prepared for takeoff. Nerves were tense to the limit, everyone was waiting for the order to take off in order to teach the two-legged animals from Hitler’s gang a lesson. We have already received a message that the Sknilov airfield was bombed. Everyone knew that the war had started, but at the same time they didn’t want to believe it.
Suddenly, three enemy bombers appeared at low altitude away from the airfield. The regiment commander, Lieutenant Colonel Cherkasov, gave the command, and our falcons flew into the air like a whirlwind to block the path of the fascist reptiles. At this time, 8 Me-109 aircraft dive from the direction of the sun with the task of attacking the airfield. A hot air battle ensued over the airfield. Apart from the hum of engines and machine gun fire, nothing was heard. Hundreds of eyes looked with alarm at the first, unequal air battle at low altitudes. In this battle, our young Stalinist falcons showed their confidence and readiness to fight for every inch of Soviet land, for every cubic meter of our air. Unable to withstand the bold and decisive attacks of our fighters, the fascist “aces” began to run away. It was at 05:00..."
Skipping the pathos, it is worth noting the details: the battle took place around 05:00, and the takeoff of the regiment’s aircraft began at the moment of the Messerschmitt attack. These data are confirmed by a direct participant in the battle, at that time deputy commander of the 3rd squadron of the 28th IAP, senior lieutenant Evgeniy Gorbatyuk (interview taken in 1942):
“It all started interestingly, unexpectedly. We were in camps, some of the pilots were resting at home. The regiment commander Osadchiy left the regiment just a few days later. At dawn, according to an alarm, the sound of which was started and turned off - they thought it was an ordinary drill. But then, I feel in my mood that something is wrong! Cherkasov, the lieutenant colonel, rushes about - “take off!” I was the first to take off from the entire airfield. Five of us flew out, a team from the entire regiment, and they gave us the order to go to the border. I still had no idea there was a war. We arrived at the border - everything was on fire. Then I began to understand something. For the first time I plucked up the courage to fly across the border. We flew there, went deeper, walked along the front line. We see that everything is burning, there are a lot of troops on both sides. There were intense battles. I decided that all this was a border incident; it didn’t immediately fit into my head that a war had started. We returned to report this. But at the airfield they already knew that it was not an incident, but a war.
We refueled and took off again to attack enemy troops. But he had only managed to gain a height of 500 m when the Messerschmitt attack took place. I recognized them immediately, I saw them entering the airfield. But my followers didn’t understand who they were at first. I broke away from them, turned the plane, and they were already coming in single file, in a chain, to storm the airfield. I didn’t have time to fall over the first one, but I fell over the second one. And he fell well, in a dive at top speed, with darkness in his eyes, all the way to the ground. I caught up with him and killed him - he crashed into the forest. My machine guns had excellent fire. We had just received the MiGs and had just put them into operation, everything was brand new. But when I began to pull out of the dive, still at the same enormous speed, their leader fell right on my forehead. Just as I wanted to give a turn, he fired at me with guns, as I understood, at the charging boxes. He rolled me a plane, then my shells exploded. The car is uncontrollable, I sat down with a sin...”
Gorbatyuk’s memories fit well into the chronicle of events: the five MiG-3s, led by him, managed to fly to the border and return - that is, the battle could not have taken place before 05:00. By analyzing data from both sides, it is possible to build a chronology of the battle. Obviously, the Germans identified Gorbatyuk’s MiG-3 as a “single vehicle”. He was actually able to turn around and tried to interfere with the German attack, but when he dived into the attack aircraft, he was shot on a collision course by Chief Lieutenant Oleinik. Gorbatyuk's plane was fatally damaged, and he barely managed to land on his stomach. The story about the downed Messerschmitt should be taken as an attempt to brighten up an unsuccessful episode for oneself. In that situation, Gorbatyuk did everything he could - he tried to repel the attack and allow his comrades to gain height. Another thing is that his opponents were shot sparrows. Experienced Chief Lieutenant Oleinik worked professionally on a collision course, and for Senior Lieutenant Gorbatyuk it all ended in the loss of his vehicle and a slight injury.
Reconstruction of the appearance of the Messerschmitt by Robert Oleinik from the previous photo (artist Vladimir Kamsky)
However, some pilots of the 28th IAP were less fortunate. One of Gorbatyuk’s wingmen, pilot of the 3rd squadron, junior lieutenant Alexander Maksimovich Shakhrai, jumped out of the burning plane with a parachute, but died - the fire spread to the dome. Judging by the mention in the application for victory of the pilot who jumped out with a parachute, it was he who was shot down by Sergeant Major Heesen. The pilot of the 1st squadron, junior lieutenant Grigory Timofeevich Churchill, did not return to the airfield after the battle - apparently, he was shot down by sergeant major Lüth. In addition, the pilot, junior lieutenant Boris Aleksandrovich Rusov, was killed while taxiing in the cockpit.
According to the documents of the 15th SAD, the deputy commander of the 1st squadron, Lieutenant A.P. Podryatov, and the acting commander of the same squadron, Senior Lieutenant D.I. Illarionov, were each credited with one Me-109; the headquarters of the 28th IAP did not record any other victories. However, these two claims are not confirmed by German data.
Robert Oleinik won his 20th victory on July 3, 1941 - at that time this was enough to qualify for the Knight's Cross. The mechanics hastened to “award” the commander with his plywood copy, although Oleinik received the real award on July 30, after 32 aerial victories
Thanks to the courage of the pilots of the 28th IAP, despite the extremely difficult battle conditions, targeted bombing and an effective attack on the airfield were foiled. The price for this was heavy losses: a total of three MiG-3s were shot down, three pilots were killed, and one was wounded. This was a completely logical result, given the poor training of the pilots on the MiG-3: they were practicing their piloting techniques, and only a few personnel managed to start shooting and air combat. On the contrary, the Bf 109 was well mastered by the Germans; they had excellent flight and tactical training, and for the most part, combat experience. The Messerschmitt was superior to the MiG-3, especially in low-altitude combat; numerical superiority was also on the side of the attackers.
Thus, Robert Oleinik won his first victory in the East at about 04:10 Berlin time, and not at 03:40, and cannot claim the first air victory of the Luftwaffe on the Soviet-German front.
Two aces - holder of the Knight's Cross Robert Oleinik and Hero of the Soviet Union Evgeniy Gorbatyuk
Surprisingly, both pilots, Ukrainian by blood, who shot at each other that morning, survived and went through the entire war. On March 4, 1942, Yevgeny Mikhailovich Gorbatyuk was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. By May 1945, he was a lieutenant colonel, commander of the 3rd Guards Fighter Aviation Division, carried out 347 successful combat missions, shot down five personally and five in a group of enemy aircraft. After the war, E. M. Gorbatyuk rose to the rank of Colonel General of Aviation and died on March 2, 1978. A descendant of a Ukrainian emigrant, Major Robert Oleinik flew 680 combat missions, scoring 42 victories, 32 of them on the Eastern Front. Since the fall of 1943, he participated in testing the Me 163 jet fighter, ending the war as the commander of group I./JG 400. Oleinik died on October 29, 1988, outliving his “godson” by 10 years.
The Mystery of Major Shellman
According to a textbook study on the history of Luftwaffe fighter aircraft by Jochen Prien, the first victory in air battles on the Eastern Front was declared at 03:15 Berlin time by the commander of JG 27, Maj. Wolfgang Schellmann. He was a participant in the battles in Spain, an experienced commander and ace pilot, who on the morning of June 22 already had 25 air victories, including 12 in Spain. Starting at about 03:00 from the Sobolevo airfield (Suwalki region), a group of Bf 109Es from the squadron headquarters and III./JG 27, led by Shellman, attacked the Grodno airfield. At the same time, some of the planes carried SD-2 bombs. The returning pilots reported that at 03:15 Major Shellman shot the “Rata”, after which he crashed into the wreckage of the plane he had just shot down and left the “Messerschmitt” by parachute.
Major Wolfgang Schellmann, commander of the JG 27 squadron, in the cockpit of a Messerschmitt, autumn - winter 1940
Unfortunately, no documents clarifying the circumstances of Major Shellman’s last flight have been published at the moment. The history of JG 27 says that after the capture of Grodno, a search was undertaken for the squadron commander, during which his Messerschmitt was found, next to which lay the wreckage of a downed Soviet aircraft. From the testimony of local residents, it allegedly became known that Shellman was captured by local residents who handed him over to Soviet soldiers. A few days later, a German employee of the RAD (Reichsarbeitdienst - Imperial Labor Service) saw in one of the peasant houses the Knight's Cross and the Spanish Cross in gold with diamonds that belonged to Schellmann. Actually, these are all the details of what happened on the German side.
Soviet documents are also laconic. The aircraft of the 122nd and 127th IAP of the 11th SAD, based at the Novy Dvor and Lesishche airfields, did not conduct combat operations at that time, although at 03:30 they were put on combat readiness and dispersed materiel, and the commander of the 127th IAP Lieutenant Colonel A.V. Gordienko even lifted the duty unit into the air. However, German planes did not attack Leishche airfield until 20:00. The airfield of the 122nd IAP Novy Dvor suffered the first attack only at 06:00. The first to be attacked by Luftwaffe aircraft was the Carolin airfield closest to Grodno, which, according to Soviet data, was attacked by nine Messerschmitts. Unfortunately, the exact time of the flight is not indicated in the documents.
The P-10, P-5 and U-2 aircraft from the 10th squadron of the NKVD border troops were based at the Caroline airfield. In addition, shortly before the start of the war, fighter duty was organized at the site to intercept intruder aircraft. In particular, on the morning of June 22, a pair of I-153s of the 127th IAP, consisting of Lieutenant M.D. Razumtsev and Senior Lieutenant I.A. Dolgopolov, were on duty at the airfield. In addition, there is a possibility that I-16 fighters from the 122nd IAP were also on duty at the airfield - at least one I-16 was photographed in the general group of Soviet aircraft captured by the Germans in Carolina.
Crashed Soviet planes at Caroline airfield. In addition to the R-10 and U-2 from the 10th squadron of the NKVD, an I-16 from the 122nd IAP is visible
According to documents from the 127th IAP, after VNOS posts reported that German planes were crossing the border and bombing populated areas and airfields, two flights of the 1st squadron were sent to cover the city of Grodno at 04:40 Moscow time. The couple Razumtsev and Dolgopolov, who were sitting in Carolina, were also involved. A brief history of the regiment describes Lieutenant Razumtsev's air battle at 05:21 over the Carolinas with five Me-109s, after which he did not return. In the combat log of the 127th IAP, Razumtsev’s mission is indicated as “take-off from an operational point to visible enemy aircraft,” and the take-off time is given as 04:50. The following is a brief description: “During takeoff, Lieutenant Razumtsev was attacked by enemy aircraft, after which he disappeared from view and did not return to his airfield.”.
Obviously, the data in the two documents contradict each other: Lieutenant Razumtsev, having taken off against visible enemy aircraft, disappeared from sight, and no one could actually record the time of the battle at 05:21. Actually, the time of departure raises certain doubts: that senior lieutenant Dolgopolov, who supposedly took off after Razumtsev at 04:55, for some reason did not follow his comrade and did not enter into battle, but calmly headed east and landed at the Leishche airfield.
Considering all the circumstances, there is a high probability that it was Razumtsev’s I-153 that was the “army” that Major Shellman encountered at 04:15 Moscow time. It is quite logical to assume that Razumtsev flew out “with sight”, seeing a group of planes approaching the airfield, got close to them, and then his plane disappeared from sight, coming under Shellman’s attack. Considering that other German planes began attacking, it was quite problematic to observe the further fate of the lone fighter from the airfield.
I-153 from the 3rd squadron of the 127th IAP, Zheludok airfield, June 1941 (artist Igor Zlobin)
Senior Lieutenant Dolgopolov could well have stopped taking off due to the attack that had begun and taken off only after the end of the German raid. Considering the confusion of the first day of the war, as well as the obvious filling out of documents, including the combat log of the 127th IAP, in retrospect, there could well have been an intentional or accidental error in the time of Razumtsev’s departure. It is very unfortunate that Ivan Afanasyevich Dolgopolov, who survived the war, did not subsequently leave any memories of the events of that morning.
Thus, it is currently impossible to unconditionally confirm the claim for victory of Major Shellman, submitted by his subordinates. It is well founded: in addition to the pair of Lieutenant Razumtsev, I-16s of the 122nd IAP were present at the airfield. In addition, the 10th squadron of the NKVD from June 22 to 30 lost five P-10s in air battles and did not return from the mission, while the dates of losses, flight times and circumstances are not reflected in the documents. In the future, new data will probably appear, thanks to which it will be possible to determine whether Shellman’s subordinates were cunning, or whether the German ace really managed to win his 26th and final victory in his career, at the same time the first for Luftwaffe pilots on the Eastern Front.
First candidate with confirmation
The next Luftwaffe pilot to claim an aerial victory, or rather, even two, was the commander of 1./JG 54, Oblt. Adolf Kinzinger, who had previously won seven victories on the Western Front. At 03:30 Berlin time, he announced two aircraft, which he identified as DI-6. These victories are confirmed by Soviet documents.
Commander of 1./JG 54 Oberleutnant Adolf Kinzinger. One of the most successful pilots of the first day of the war, claiming four victories, all of which were confirmed by Soviet documents. Died in a disaster five days later, on June 27, 1941
At 04:30, nine Ju 88 bombs were dropped on the Kėdainiai airfield in Lithuania (north of Kaunas). This was already the second raid, so three I-153s from the 61st ShAP managed to take off, but they were unable to prevent the German bombers. "Messerschmitts" from 1./JG 54, accompanying the "Junkers", attacked the taking off Soviet fighters and shot down all of them. The deputy squadron commander, Senior Lieutenant V.G. Andreichenko, died, and the deputy squadron commander, Senior Lieutenant P.I. Kamyshnoy and the flight commander, Lieutenant I.T. Abramchenko, managed to leave the planes by parachute. In addition to Chief Lieutenant Kinzinger, non-commissioned officer Tegtmeier (Uffz. Fritz Tegtmeier) claimed another victory in battle, but for some reason his victory was not counted.
Stormtroopers and Zersterers
In addition to the fighters, among the Luftwaffe units that took part in the invasion on June 22, 1941 were the assault group II.(Schl.)/LG 2, which was armed with Bf 109E fighters, and four groups of heavy Zersterer fighters Bf 110 - I. and II./ZG 26, I. and II./SKG 210.
The first victory among attack aircraft pilots was claimed by the pilot of squadron 5.(Schl.)/LG 2, non-commissioned officer Willi Tritsch. According to the application, already at 03:18 Berlin time he managed to shoot down an I-16. Unfortunately, there are no details of this flight and the circumstances of the battle, as well as the localization of the place where the German pilot distinguished himself. For this reason, it is very difficult to use Soviet data, which themselves are often fragmentary and not always time-bound. Using documents from all Soviet units based in the II.(Schl.)/LG 2 area of operations from Bialystok to Grodno, we note three options for the opponents of non-commissioned officer Trich.
Messerschmitt Bf 109E from attack squadron 5.(Schl.)/LG 2, summer 1941 (artist Vladimir Kamsky)
The first and closest in distance is the I-16 flight from the 124th IAP, based at the Lomza airfield. From the documents of the 124th IAP it is known that this unit lost one I-16 in the air and three on the ground as a result of an attack on German aircraft, but the lack of chronological data does not allow us to reliably attribute the aircraft of this regiment to the German pilot.
The second candidate was the 41st IAP, the regiment was based at the Seburchin airfield, and was also attacked in the early morning. It is interesting that, according to award documents, the attack of five Bf 109s was repelled by one pilot, junior lieutenant I. D. Chulkov. However, as in the previous case, due to the lack of an exact flight time, it is difficult to guess whether Chulkov fought with the pilots of 5.(Schl.)/LG 2, or with someone else. This is how front-line correspondent Nikolai Bogdanov described the first battle of I. D. Chulkov in the article “Masters of the Sky,” published in the newspaper “Stalinsky Falcon” on September 12, 1941:
“At four o’clock in the morning, in the pre-dawn darkness, the Messerschmitts unexpectedly attacked the airfield. Junior Lieutenant Chulkov was the first to rise up against a whole gang of air robbers. The tracks of his bullets flew first into the forehead of one, then into the tail of the other. He defended his native nest with his chest. The Nazis could not stand it and crumbled. Having abandoned the airfield, they flew to look for safer targets..."
The last candidate for battle with German attack aircraft is a group of fighters of the 129th IAP. According to the regiment's documents, already at 04:05 Moscow time, 12 MiG-3s and 18 Chaikas were lifted into the air from the border airfield of Tarnovo. Above Lomza, MiGs entered into battle with a group of Messerschmitts. The Soviet fighters did not suffer any losses. Thus, without additional information from the German side, it is impossible to confirm or refute the claim for the victory of non-commissioned officer Trich.
On the left is non-commissioned officer Willie Trich. On December 23, 1942, he was awarded the Knight's Cross for 580 missions and 20 victories. On April 28, 1943, the headquarters Storch, on which Tritsch was flying as a passenger, crashed. Trich was seriously injured and his leg was amputated at the hospital. Since the summer of 1944, he served as an instructor in the training attack air group I./SG 152. He died on December 19, 1971. On the right is the best ace of the 41st IAP, Hero of the Soviet Union, Ivan Denisovich Chulkov. In total, he completed 200 combat missions, won eight personal and two group victories. Killed in air combat on February 3, 1942
The next contender for the title of author of the first victory is Sergeant Major Otto Rückert from 1./SKG 210. His claim is fully confirmed by the Soviet side. According to the combat log of the 10th SAD, at 04:17 a group of Bf 110s stormed the Malye Zvody airfield northeast of Brest, destroying the aircraft of the 74th ShAP. At this time, I-153s of the 3rd squadron of the 123rd IAP took off from the neighboring Lyshchitsy airfield, and an air battle ensued. The following is a quote from the award list of Lieutenant V.T. Shulika:
“At 04:30, during a raid, a fascistcAfter an alarm, fighter pilot Shulika was the first to fly to the Lyshchytsy site to the rescue of the commander on duty, who was fighting with two Heinkels.
Having noticed the second Soviet fighter, the Heinkels avoided the battle. At this time Comrade. Shulika noticed 12 Me-110s going to storm the nearby Malye Zvody site. Lieutenant Shulika rushed into the attack alone against 12 enemy aircraft marching in formation. With his bold attack and machine gun fire, he forced the fascist planes to scatter in all directions, giving our pilots the opportunity to take to the air and join the battle.
In this unequal battle, the brave patriot of the Motherland lit up one Me-110 with well-aimed bursts. On frontal attacks comrade. Shulika met one enemy after another. When approaching from the side of an enemy aircraft, Comrade. Shulika was wounded. Having wounds, comrade. Shulika continued to conduct an air battle, thereby preventing the enemy from storming the neighboring airfield. In this unequal battle, saving the materiel and pilots of the regiment, he died the death of the brave.”
In general, the circumstances of this battle are clear, but regarding the time there is no complete understanding. Taking off at 04:30, Lieutenant Shulika was shot down a little later, but to what extent is impossible to understand without German requests. The twin-engine Bf 110s from 1./SKG 210, led by Lieutenant Wolfgang Schenck, having destroyed the Malye Zvody airfield, were apparently planning to attack the Lyshchytsy airfield, located literally five kilometers away. At this time, some pilot of the 123rd IAP was fighting a pair of Bf 109Fs, Shulika, who took off to help him, switched to the approaching Bf 110s and died in battle with them.
Heavy Bf 110 fighters from squadron 1./SKG 210, summer 1941 (artist Igor Zlobin)
Thus, using the documents and information currently in scientific circulation, we can state that Major Shellman and non-commissioned officer Tritsch have applications for the first victories from the German side. However, actually confirmed victories were declared around 03:30 Berlin time by Oberleutnant Kinzinger and, apparently, a little later, Sergeant Major Rückert.
As for Soviet pilots, the available documents also provide a wide range of contenders for the first victory in air combat. First of all, these are the pilots of the 129th IAP, senior political instructor A. M. Sokolov and junior lieutenant V. A. Tsebenko, who, based on the results of the battle over Lomza at about 04:05–04:20 Moscow time, were credited with one shot down Me-109. These claims are not confirmed by German data, although the losses of Bf 109E from II.(Schl.)/LG 2 can be attributed to this battle at a stretch, three aircraft of which were irretrievably lost on June 22 “in the Grodno area.” These data should be handled with caution, since it is likely that the area is meant in a broad sense, and due to the lack of descriptions of the circumstances of these losses, it is impossible to give an unambiguous assessment.
The first pilot of the KAAF to achieve an aerial victory confirmed by enemy documents is undoubtedly Lieutenant N.M. Ermak from the 67th IAP, who shot down a Romanian Blenheim over Moldova at 04:15. The circumstances of this battle were given in the article about
INTRODUCTIONThe purpose of my work is to tell about the outstanding air operations of the Second World War. Based on their traditional division of the Second World War, I divided it into 3 periods:
A) strategic defense from 06/22/1941 to 11/18/1942;
B) root pearl from November 19, 1942 to the end of 1943;
B) strategic offensive from 01/1944 to 05/09/1945.
I also divided air operations by type of aviation and periods of hostilities into 3 groups:
A) bomber operations
B) attack aircraft operations
C) fighter aircraft operations.
In the future, continuing the analysis of the topic, I will justify this division.
This work is relevant due to the fact that August 8, 2011 marks the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Berlin.
MAIN PART
Chapter 1
In this chapter I would like to talk about the beginning of the war and about bomber aircraft during the strategic defense. Bomber aviation during the Second World War was the basis of the striking force of the Soviet Air Force. It accounted for over 50 thousand tons of bombs out of 660 thousand tons of bombs dropped on the enemy during the entire war. But especially important were the first bombs of our aviation, dropped in the summer of 1941, during one of the main battles of the first period of the Second World War - the strategic defense of Smolensk, which managed to push back the battle for Moscow until 10.1941 and thwart the Barbaros plan.
The details of what happened in August 1941 in the skies over Berlin were known for a long time only to a narrow circle of people. Then, during heavy defensive battles and the retreat of Soviet troops, it was decided to send our long-range bombers to the German capital.
Exactly a month after the start of the war, German aviation carried out its first massive raid on Moscow. Enemy raids prompted the Soviet military-political leadership to launch retaliatory strikes on Berlin. On July 26, 1941, Admiral Kuznetsov already visited Stalin with a proposal to bomb the German capital. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief liked the idea, which could have a psychological effect. It was necessary to prove that Soviet aviation had not been destroyed, as Germany’s chief propagandist Goebbels trumpeted. That she is capable of returning blow to blow.
From the front line to Berlin more than 1000 km, it was clear that the Soviet long-range bombers DB-3
Ilyushin’s designs with a full bomb load will not be able to overcome such a distance. It was necessary to find a point from where it was possible to reach Berlin. The Baltic states are closest. From the island of Saaremaa, for example, to Berlin is about 900 km in a straight line.
It took several days to check the calculations, approvals, reports to the ministers and the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Finally, on July 29, the go-ahead was received to carry out this operation.
The initiator, Lieutenant General Zhavoronkov, was appointed its leader. On July 30, he flew to the 1st bomber mine-torpedo regiment of the Baltic Fleet, commanded by Colonel Evgeniy Nikolaevich Preobrazhensky. 
The operation was going to be extremely dangerous; it was expected that the bombers would spend at least eight hours in the air! At significant altitudes, the temperature outside the aircraft could reach 50 degrees below zero. Considering that the cabins were not heated, warm fur suits and oxygen masks were prepared for the pilots.
The cars had to be made as light as possible. And due to what? The armor protection was removed. The DB-3 aircraft were slow-moving, so they decided to take off at 21 o’clock in order to return to base at sunrise, around 4 o’clock in the morning. With an interval of 15 minutes, three flights set course for Berlin: the first was led by Preobrazhensky, the second by the captain Grechishnikov, third - Efremov.
The route was difficult and at the limit of aircraft (Rügen Island - the confluence of the Warta River with the Oder River and then straight to Berlin) 
We walked in a diamond formation. At first the weather pleased the pilots. We passed the Danish island of Bornholm. Then there was only the sea and the stars, we had to move only using instruments. We approached the target at almost the maximum altitude - 6.5 thousand meters.
Finally, Stettin, flooded with lights, opened up below. There were flights at the airport. Our pilots noticed how powerful searchlights cast frozen beams along the runway. Soviet planes were invited to land. The Nazis were so confident in their inaccessibility that they mistook our bombers for their own.
Without responding to signals or requests from the Germans on the radio, the first link, without giving itself away, proceeded to Stettin. There were anti-aircraft guns around Berlin within a radius of one hundred kilometers, and hundreds of fighters were on duty at the airfields. But three of our planes reached the capital of the Reich without firing a single shot.
Even in Saaremaa there was an agreement: no radio communications over the target, signals would be given by Preobrazhensky aeronautical lights. Berlin was not waiting for “guests”, it was all in lights, perfectly visible.
Airship navigator G.P. Molchanov recalled the flight to Berlin this way: “Just a few minutes to the goal. Below us is a DAIR OF FASCISM! I'm launching bombs! The pulses of the separating FAB-500 are counted like a heartbeat. 
The ship is turning right, the explosions of our bombs are visible. Berlin has already woken up. A huge number of powerful anti-aircraft searchlights are working. Barrage fire, but fortunately for us the gaps were below the echelons of our bombers. It is clear that the enemy’s air defense did not guess our altitude and concentrated all the fire at approximately 4500-5000 meters altitude.”
Only 35 minutes after the first bombs fell, an air raid alert was announced in Berlin. The city plunged into darkness. Anti-aircraft guns opened fire. Our bombers had to break through a continuous wall of fire. Preobrazhensky ordered the radio operator: “Krotenko, tell the airfield: my place is Berlin. I’ve done the job. I’m coming back.” The bombers set off on the opposite course.
The reference books still say that all our crews returned to the airfield without losses. In fact, there were losses. Lieutenant Dashkovsky's plane did not reach its airfield by a little. It fell on the forest near Cahul and caught fire. The crew died.
On the night of August 8, 1941, an aviation group under the command of E. N. Preobrazhensky, consisting of 15 combat vehicles, dropped 750-kilogram bombs on military-industrial facilities of the fascist capital. And on August 13, 1941, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, E. N. Preobrazhensky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Years later, the German writer Olaf Greller would write: “What had never been possible before and no one else would be able to do until 1945 was accomplished by Preobrazhensky’s pilots: they took the fascist air defense by surprise, the strongest and most equipped it had ever been in 1941.” .
The raids on Berlin turned into a long and complex operation. In total, the air group of Colonel E. N. Preobrazhensky stormed Berlin 10 times, almost 90 long-range bombers took part in the raids. 311 bombs were dropped and 32 fires were recorded. The bombing ended on September 5 only after, on Hitler’s personal order, the airfield in Cahul was completely destroyed by superior aviation forces of Army Group North.
Chapter 2
On the eve of the war, attack aircraft were the smallest in number. But already the first experience of combat use of the Il-2 attack aircraft in WWII showed its high survivability, maneuverability and firepower when affecting ground targets. None of the warring countries had an attack aircraft equal to the IL-2 in its combat effectiveness. 
Therefore, by December 1942. the number of Ilyushin attack aircraft accounted for up to 30% of the total aircraft fleet.
In this chapter, I would like to talk about the operations of attack aircraft during a radical turning point, which includes two main battles: the Battle of Stalingrad from 07/17/1942 to 12/20/1943 and the Kursk Bulge. I chose the battle on the Oryol-Kursk Bulge because it marks the completion of a radical turning point.
The Battle of Kursk occupies a special place in the Great Patriotic War. It lasted 50 days and nights, from July 5 to August 23, 1943. This battle has no equal in its ferocity and tenacity of struggle.
The general plan of the German command was to encircle and destroy the troops of the Central and Voronezh fronts defending in the Kursk area. If successful, it was planned to expand the offensive front and regain the strategic initiative. To implement his plans, the enemy concentrated powerful strike forces, which numbered over 900 thousand people, about 10 thousand guns and mortars, up to 2,700 tanks and assault guns, and about 2,050 aircraft. Great hopes were placed on the latest Tiger tanks 
"Panther" 
assault guns "Ferdinand" 
Focke-Wulf 190-A fighters 
and attack aircraft "NE-129" 
The command of both sides understood perfectly well that the outcome of this battle would have a decisive influence not only on the results of the summer-autumn campaign of 1943, but also on the outcome of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War. That is why the troops prepared for it so carefully and for a long time.
The ongoing battle in the air over the Kursk Bulge was fierce. Air battles continued continuously, developing into air battles in which hundreds of aircraft from each side participated.
On July 5, pilots of the 16th Air Army carried out 1,232 sorties, conducted 76 air battles and shot down 106 enemy aircraft.
Attack aircraft of the 17th Air Army destroyed enemy crossings and prevented the advance of his troops in an eastern direction. During the day they carried out up to 200 sorties, destroyed two crossings in the area of Mikhailovka and Solomino and destroyed up to 40 vehicles with enemy troops.
The effectiveness of the Il-2 aircraft in destroying armored vehicles especially increased after the inclusion of small-sized anti-tank aerial bombs PTAB-2.5-1.5 of cumulative action, developed by I. A. Larionov, in the bomb load of the aircraft. 
Of all these weapons, only PTAB-2.5-1.5 is universal: a bomb with sufficient power to destroy all types of tanks and other moving armored targets. Dropping these bombs from a height of 75...100 m, the attack aircraft hit almost all the tanks in a strip approximately 15 m wide and about 70 m long. 
The pilots of the 291st Assault Aviation Division, commanded by Colonel A. Vitruk, destroyed and damaged 422 enemy tanks in the first five days of the Battle of Kursk alone.
The attack aircraft inflicted serious blows on enemy tanks and reserves, delayed their advance to the battlefield and significantly disorganized control.
As Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky would later say:“The time has come to support ground forces with aviation. The commander of the 16th Air Army was given the order to strike at the enemy who had broken through. Rudenko took more than 350 aircraft into the air. Their attacks slowed down the pace of the Nazis’ advance in this area, which made it possible to transfer nearby reserves here. These forces managed to delay the enemy’s advance.”
During the radical change, Gareev Musa Gasinovich also distinguished himself. 
I want to talk about him because, firstly, because the Ufa cadet corps, in which I study, was named in his honor, and secondly, Musa Gareev is one of the youngest pilots who was awarded the title of Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, and thirdly, he is one of the few pilots who has over 250 combat missions.
I would like to talk about one of Gareev’s combat missions, which he writes about in his book “I Live and Remember”: when in the summer of 1943 his regiment found itself on the so-called Mius Front. He was stationed near the Dolzhaiinskaya station. By that time, Musa Gareev was already considered an experienced pilot among the young ones, because... he had more than 20 combat missions, 11 of them at Stalingrad.
So, taking into account the fact that he was the first in the regiment to be entrusted with a responsible task. The command demanded from the navigators documentary evidence of their work, and it was decided to install cameras on the IL-2, like on reconnaissance aircraft. Musa’s task was this: to fly out with a group of attack aircraft, and when the group had worked and, together with the escort fighters, turned back, without changing altitude and flight speed, fly over the bombing target two or three times and photograph everything that was left of it.
On August 10, 1943, the assault group bombed an enemy artillery position in the Garana area, 8-12 km from Mius, and flew away. Gareev began taking photographs. You flew safely over the impact site twice, and on the third and final approach everything happened.
The shooting had just begun when a shell exploded ahead of us. Immediately, over the intercom, Alexander Kiryanov reports that a shell also exploded behind him. It became clear that they were being taken into the “fork” and that the third projectile should go towards them. And it would seem that now is the time to put the plane in a dive or take it out of the fire with a sharp turn, but no matter what. After all, the order came - without changing altitude or speed!
Shells are exploding all around, the oil radiator is damaged by shrapnel, Kiryanov reports that they are being attacked by two enemy fighters, but because... Everything has already been filmed, Musa Gareev begins to maneuver, Alexander Kiryanov is wounded, the ammunition has run out. Their aircraft flew over the Mius River, which means the plane was on its territory. The propeller finally stopped. Gareev decides to save the plane and lands it on its belly without releasing the landing gear.
After landing, the pilot grabs the film and the wounded Kiryanov and delivers it to headquarters.
From this operation, I would like to note that despite the threat to life, our Soviet officers carried out orders without question, and this, in my opinion, was the decisive factor in our victory over Nazi Germany.
As Air Marshal S.I. Rudenko would later say about the Battle of Kursk:“I have watched a lot of air battles, but I have never seen such tenacity, such swiftness, such courage of our aviators before.”
The summer-autumn campaign of 1943 was completed brilliantly by Soviet troops. During this time, the Red Army finally seized the strategic initiative into its own hands and inflicted heavy blows on the enemy, from which he could no longer recover. Stalingrad and Kursk became symbols of the impending defeat of Nazi Germany.
Chapter 3
1944 is the year of ten “Stalinist blows” of the Red Army, which finally broke the military machine of Nazism. I would like to talk about the Iasi-Kishinev offensive operation on August 20-29, 1944 (7th strike), because this was the last decisive attempt by the Germans to regain air supremacy, and “reign of the skies,” which can only be achieved with the help of fighters, was the main task of aviation during the third stage of the war.
As the English aviation historian R. Jackson wrote in the book “Red Falcons”: “In an attempt to drive the Russians out of Romanian territory, the Germans launched a strong counterattack near the city of Iasi at the end of May. To provide air support, they assembled the best fighter squadrons of the Luftwaffe. Their rivals were several guards fighter aviation regiments, in which such aces as Pokryshkin, Kozhedub, Klubov, Rechkalov served: the list of names of pilots on both sides read like a “Who's Who” reference book, containing information about Heroes of the Soviet Union and holders of the Knight's Cross.
Naturally, when they met in the air, the battle over Iasi was reminiscent of the battles on the Kursk Bulge in its ferocity and intensity.
Strictly centralized aviation control was established for the entire period of the operation. This made it possible to quickly retarget and mass the actions of combat units in the required directions. Plans for interaction with combined arms armies were also developed in detail.
Signalmen were assigned to the troops to mark the front line. Identification marks were applied to the turrets of tanks and vehicles. The signal “I own my plane” was conveyed to the front personnel. For the first time in the history of the Soviet Army Air Force during the entire past period of the war, mass perspective photography of enemy defenses was carried out.
I would like to dwell on our most famous pilot, whose motto was: “Found, shot down, left” - Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin, 
who by the time of the Iasi-Kishinev operation was already acting division commander.
The Iasi-Chisinau Cannes began on the morning of August 20. German and Romanian troops were demoralized by powerful attacks from our aviation and artillery. At 12 o'clock, aerial reconnaissance established the beginning of the withdrawal of enemy troops from defensive positions. Front troops, with the support of aviation, broke through the enemy's tactical defense zone and created conditions for the introduction of formations of the 6th Tank Army and the 18th Tank Corps into the battle.
From morning to evening, the air groaned and hummed from the roar of engines... There were Rudel's Ju-87 dive bombers, and all three groups of the 52nd fighter squadron, among which were participants in the Battle of the Kuban, Lieutenant Erich Hartmann and Major Gerhard Barkhorn.
Intelligence reports from the headquarters of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division reported that on May 30, “in the area of covering ground troops and hunting,” the division’s regiments conducted eight air battles, in which 216 enemy aircraft took part against 88 of our “airacobras” (P-39), of which 10 Yu-88, 103 Yu-87, 59 Me-109 and 46 FV-190.
In the afternoon of August 20, the main efforts of the aviation of both air armies were aimed at covering and supporting tank formations as they entered the battle. At the same time, attack aviation formations launched several concentrated attacks on enemy artillery and tanks in the offensive sector of units of the 6th Tank Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, and in the Tirgu-Frumos, Voineshti area, they destroyed suitable reserves in small groups. In other sectors of the front, formations of the 5th Air Army attacked enemy troops, assisting the 27th and 52nd armies in overcoming defensive lines.
The fighter aviation of the air armies covered the strike groups of the front forces with systematic patrols of groups of aircraft in the air. As A.I. writes in his memoirs. Pokryshkin in the book “Sky of War”: “On the Iasi-Chisinau front, the enemy continued to hold his positions. Our division, operating in the direction of Iasi, continuously flew to cover its ground troops from enemy bombing. During the enemy’s counteroffensive in this area, the division shot down more than a hundred German aircraft over Moldova and Romania, losing 5 of its own.”
And also, it was during the Iasi-Kishinva operation that Pokryshkin’s famous formula justified itself: “altitude, speed, maneuver, fire.” Pokryshkin was convinced: “Flying is an art that requires a person to spend his entire life.”
The merit of A.I. Pokryshkin was the creation of many new tactical methods of combat: the use of vertical maneuver, “falcon strike”, “free hunt”, echeloned formation of a group of aircraft - “stack”.
On August 19, 1944, for 550 combat missions and 53 downed aircraft, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the third time. A.I. Pokryshkin became the first to be awarded this title and remained the only three times Hero until the day of Victory over Germany.
Officially, Pokryshkin is credited with more than 650 combat missions and 59 personally shot down aircraft. The actual figure is apparently even higher.
During the Iasi-Kishinev offensive operation, the division's pilots shot down 28 aircraft (4 Yu-88, 5 Yu-87, 8 Me-109, 11 FV-190) and damaged 10. 
At the same time, in all air battles conducted... enemy fighters conducted active air battles and used vertical maneuver. The enemy’s dispatch of large groups of fighters, both to cover the bombers and to clear the air before a bombing strike, deserves special attention, which indicates the enemy’s desire to firmly gain air supremacy. In the book of an English aviation historian and in archival documents, the battle of Iasi appears intense and furious. The last time the Germans created numerical superiority over the battlefield.
One of the largest and most important in its strategic and military-political significance, the Iasi-Chisinau operation was completed within nine days. Soviet troops defeated one of the largest Nazi groupings that covered the approaches to the Balkans. Conditions were created for the liberation of the peoples of the countries of South-Eastern Europe: Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and the opportunity opened up to lend a helping hand to Hungary.
Soviet aviation made a great contribution to this victory. Only units of the 17th Air Army in this operation destroyed and damaged 130 tanks and self-propelled guns, 1,900 vehicles and armored personnel carriers, 80 railway cars and 9 steam locomotives, scattered and destroyed 4,700 German soldiers and officers. In air battles, our pilots shot down 33 enemy aircraft. Home front workers provided the delivery of 2,813 tons of fuel and lubricants and 1,463 tons of ammunition.
CONCLUSION
In my work, I accepted the classic division of the Second World War into three periods: strategic defense, radical change and strategic offensive. In each of these periods, in my opinion, a certain type of aviation played a decisive role. During the Battle of Moscow, at the stage of the Battle of Smolensk, bombers played a major role. It was especially important to destroy Hitler’s myth about the destruction of Soviet aviation. The bombing attacks of Colonel Preobrazhensky and his military friends on the Nazi lair of Berlin and other cities of the Third Reich clearly demonstrated that our aviation is not only alive, but also capable of striking the most protected cities of Germany.
During the turning point, the final stage of which was the Orlov-Kursk battle, in order to defeat the main striking force of the enemy - tanks, it was necessary to use our “air tanks” Il-2 attack aircraft. Our attack aircraft, armed with the latest PTAB-2.5-1.5 bombs, made a significant contribution to the destruction of Germany's tank potential, taking into account the fact that the guns of the T-34, our main tank, could hit tigers and panthers at a distance of up to 300-500 m , while the enemy fired to kill from 2 km. In such conditions, the use of attack aircraft played a decisive role in the destruction of the tank wedge.
During the strategic offensive, one of the brightest pages was written by the Iasi-Kishinev operation. It was here that the Germans last tried to gain and maintain air supremacy, which can only be gained and maintained with the help of fighter aircraft.
I chose this topic as a development of the program for patriotic education of the younger generation for 2011-2015, approved by D.A. Medvedev, and I also hope that the material I collected will find application in the Wikipedia service, popular among young people.
SOURCES
Family archive of N.G. Kuznetsova. Script.
http://www.airwar.ru
http://militera.lib.ru
Skomorokhov N.M. Tactics in combat examples: Aviation Regiment. - M.: Voenizdat, 1985, 175 p.
Actions of the Air Force in the Iasi-Kishinev operation (August 1944) M., Voenizdat, 1949, pp. 37,105,106.
Archive of the USSR Ministry of Defense, f. 370 op. 6550, no. 37, no. 23.24.
Gareev M.G. I live and remember. – Ufa: Kitap, 1997, – 176 p.: ill.
Gareev M.G. Stormtroopers are heading towards the target. - M.: DOSAAF, 1972, 268 p.
Pokryshkin A.I. the sky of war. - M.: Voenizdat, 1980, 447 p.
Skomorokhov N.M. 17- Airborne Army in battles from Stalingrad to Vienna. - M., Voenizdat 1977, 261 p.
Golubev G.G Paired with the hundredth M., DOSAAF 1974, 245s
Fedorov A.G. Aviation in the Battle of Moscow. - M., Publishing House "Nauka" 1971, 298 p.
Shakhurin A.I. Wings of Victory.-M.: Politizdat,