Russian Aces

Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub

Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub was born in the Sumy region of the Ukraine in 1920. He joined the VVS in 1940 and graduated as a pilot from the Chuguyev military flying school a year later. Due to his outstanding skills as a pilot, he was prevented from joining a combat squadron and was instead retained as an instructor.
He was eventually posted as a First Sergeant to the 240th IAP, which was attached to the Voronezh Front, flying his first combat mission in March 1943.
It was not until July 1943 that Kozhedub, who had by now become a Junior Lieutenant, was flying with three fellow pilots providing ground cover in the Pokrovka area. His group ran into a formation of Ju-87's, with Kozhedub in his La-5, 'White 27' destroying one of them. Within four days he had achieved his fourth kill and met the conditions required for the award of his first Order of the Red Banner.
Kozhedub became a devotee of the surprise attack, closing right in on an opponent before firing and he began to pile up victories at a remarkable pace. Flying in the Kharkov area during August, he was given command of his squadron and promoted to Captain. During October, when his Regiment became involved in the ferocious battles over the Dnepr River, he ran up a string of eleven kills in only ten days. He was wounded during an ariel combat in October, but managed to nurse his damaged aircraft back to its airfield. With 20 kills, he was awarded his first Gold Star and recieved the title 'Hero of the Soviet Union'. By this time, he had already established a reputation for aggressiveness, skill and tenacity, earning the nickname, 'Ivan the Terrible'.
After a short convalescence, Kozhedub returned to duty in January 1944, taking part in the air battles along the Bug River. In March 1944 Kozhedub claimed his 34th victory and was awarded his second 'Gold Star' and title 'Hero of the Soviet Union'.
In July, he was posted to the 1st Belorussian Front as deputy commander of the 176th GIAP Guards Fighter Regiment, flying the new La-7. He achieved his 50th victory in February 1945, during ariel battles along the Oder River and also became the only Russian pilot to shoot down an Me-262 jet on Eastern Front. For these achievements he received the award of his third gold star and honour 'Hero of the Soviet Union'. In March 1945, he reached 60 confirmed kills and became the highest scoring Allied ace of the war. He achieved his 62nd and final victory in April 1945, over the suburbs of Berlin.
Following the end of the war he remained in the Red Air Force. He commanded a squadron during the Korean conflict, where he displayed exceptional leadership with his unit scoring highly. He was later assigned as an inspector of VVS flight training between 1956 and 1963 and in 1964 became deputy commander of the Moscow PVO forces. In 1967 Kozhedub was appointed president of the Aviation Sports Federation and vice president of the International Federation of Aviation. In 1985 he wrote his memoirs entitled, 'Vernost otchizne (Faithfulness to the Fatherland). He later rose to the rank of Air Marshal and was assigned as an inspector of the Soviet Ministry of Defence.
Air Marshal Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub passed away in August 1991, aged 71. Flying the La-5 and La-7 fighter aircraft, he carried out 326 sorties, was involved in 126 aerial combats and was credited with 62 confirmed victories. Ivan was one of only two Russian fighter pilots to be awarded the title 'Hero of the Soviet Union', three times during the war and in addition also recieved the Order of Lenin twice, seven Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, two Orders of the Red Star and the Order of the Patriotic War First Class.

Petr Afanasevich Pokryshev

Petr Afanasevich Pokryshev was born in Golaya Pristan in the Kherson area in 1914. He enlisted the VVS for flight training in 1934 and graduated as a pilot at the Odessa military flying school a year later. He flew during the Winter War against Finland with the 7th Fighter Regiment (7th IAP). Flying an I-153 biplane, he scored his first two kills against the Finns. However he was also shot down twice himself, in November and December 1939.
In June 1941 he was serving with the 158th IAP, stationed near Leningrad. Flying his I-16 he shot down a German Ju88 reconnaissance aircraft over Leningrad on June 25th 1941.
The summer and autumn of 1941 were hard times for the Red Air Force. But nevertheless, Pokryshev managed to score four victories during August 1941.
Following his early successes he was assigned as commander to 154th IAP, which was one of the first Russian units to be equipped with the P-40 Tomahawk fighters. It was behind the controls of this American Lend Lease fighter that Pokryshev´s real success began. During the winter of 1941/42, the 154th IAP were entrusted with fighter cover for the vital ice road to the starving city of Leningrad, across the frozen surface of Lake Ladoga. By June 1942, Pokryshev´s score in his P-40 'White 50', stood at 11 personal and 7 collective victories. During the summer and autumn of 1942, he doubled his score. Partly due to Pokryshev´s feats, the 154th IAP was awarded the title of 'Guards Fighter Regiment' in November 1942.
In February 10 1943, he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star and received the honour 'Hero of the Soviet Union'.
In June that year, now promoted to Guards Mayor, Pokryshev took command of the 159th IAP, equipped with La-5's. In his final 27 aerial combats, Pokryshev shot down another 18 German aircraft. In August 1943, he received his second honour of 'Hero of the Soviet Union'. Shortly after that he was seriously injured during a training flight in an UTI-4 (a two-seat training version of the Polikarpov I-16). The engine suddenly caught fire at low altitude. Pokryshev tried to fly the crippled back to his airfield, but failed. The ensuing crash put an end to his fighter career.
Aircraft constructor Aleksandr Yakovlev made a specially designed Yak-9 for the crippled Pokryshev. He remained in charge of the 159th IAP until the end of the war earning a reputation for cool, decisive leadership. Under his command, the 159th IAP developed into a very successful fighter unit, counting among its pilots famous aces such as Vladimir Serov and Viktor Zotov. In total, the 159th IAP was credited with 387 aerial victories. Pokryshev was also decorated with the Order of the Red Banner three times, the Order of Aleksandr Nevskij, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class and the Order of the Red Star twice. He ended the war with a total of 38 personal and 8 shared victories claimed on more than 300 sorties, which led to 77 aerial combats. Pokryshev remained in the air force after the war and graduated from the General Staff Academy in 1954. He retired with the rank of General Major in 1961. After his military career he became the Director of Leningrad Airport. Petr Pokryshev passed away in August 1967, aged 53.

Grigorii Rechkalov

Grigorii Rechkalov was born in February 1920 in the village of Khudyakovo in the Sverdlovsk region. He learnt to fly in the Sverdlovsk aeroclub before joining the VVS in 1938. In 1939 he graduated from the Pern Military Air College, but was initially grounded after a medical commission had diagnosed Daltonism, a form of colorblindness. Eventually, he was posted to a fighter unit in 1941, joining the 55th IAP, which was based in Moldavia and had a variety of fighters on its establishment, including I-153's and I-16's.
During the opening weeks of the campaign he flew his I-153, 'Blue 13', undertaking 30 sorties in this aircraft and engaging in ten air combats. On the 27th of June he claimed his first kill, a Bf-109 with RS-82 rockets. He was promoted to Lieutenant in late July and at the same time he was allocated an I-16. At the end of July he was shot down, although he survived unhurt.
Flying on the Southern Front, the 55th IAP was attached to the 16th GIAP in March 1942 and the Regiment was re-equipped with Yak-1's. By the end of 1942 he had claimed 4 individual and 2 shared victories in 20 combats. At the end of 1942 the regiment was withdrawn and re-equipped with P-39 Airacobras.
In the spring of 1943 he was transferred to the 216 IAD, attached to the North Caucasus Front in the Kuban River area. On the Regiment's very first mission with the P-39 in April, he claimed a single Bf-109 in a dogfight at Krymskaya. During the rest of April 1943 he claimed a further seven Bf-109's and one Ju-88.
In May 1943 he was decorated with the Gold Star and awarded the honour 'Hero of the Soviet Union. In June he became commander of the 16th GIAP's 1st squadron. He next saw action over the Sea of Azov, where he claimed two Ju-52's and a Romanian Savoia Z501 flying boat over the Black Sea during the autumn of 1943.
In spring 1944 the regiment took part in the Jassy-Kishinev campaign, which took him back to the areas where he had fought during the opening days of the war. In May, he took command of the 16th GIAP, but was often accused of being more concerned with increasing his own personal tally than in the interests of his squadron as whole. Following a disasterous action over Jassy during which, three other pilots were lost, Rechkalov was removed from command for 'losing control, indecisiveness and lack of initiative'. Despite this, in July 1944 he was decorated with a second Gold Star and honour of 'Hero of the Soviet Union' and the same month he was restored to command when his successor was shot down. The Regiment was then transferred to the 1st Ukrainian Front, taking part in the Lvov-Sandomierz operation. It then operated over Poland and over the Weser and Oder Rivers.
Rechkalov resigned command of the 16th GIAP in February 1945 and was appointed Inspector for Flight Training of 9th GIAD. His last arial combat was fought over Berlin in April 1945 flying a Lavochkin La-7.
By the end of the war he had become the highest scoring pilot in the P-39. During the war he was also decorated with the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner four times, the Order of Alexandr Nievskii, the Order of Patriotic War 1st Class and the Order of the Red Star twice. Rechkalov ended the war with a total of 56 and 5 shared victories, earned during 450 sorties and 122 air combats.
Rechkalov remained in the Air Force after the war, graduating from the Air Academy in 1951. He retired in 1959 as a Major General of Aviation. He has written two books about his wartime experiences, Dymnoe Nebo Voiny (The Smoking Skies of War) and V Nebe Moldavii (In Moldavian Skies). Rechkalov lived in Moscow before passing away in December 1990, aged 70.

Aleksandr Ivanovich Pokryshkin

Aleksandr Pokryshkin was born in Novosibirsk, in 1913. A keen student, he caught the aviation bug at the age of 12 during a local air show. In 1932, he volunteered for the army and was sent to an aviation school. Unfortunately the flight school was suddenly closed and all students were instead transferred to be trained as aircraft mechanics.
Pokryshkin still strived to excel as a mechanic and graduating in 1933, he quickly rose through the ranks. By December 1934, he had become the Senior Aviation Mechanic of the 74th infantry division. He stayed in that capacity until November 1938 and it was during this time that his creative nature became clearly visible, as he introduced improvements to the ShKAS machine gun and the R-5 reconnaissance aircraft among other things.
Finally, in the winter of 1938, Pokryshkin was able to circumvent the authorities by passing a year long civilian pilot program in only 17 days. This automatically made him eligible for flight school. He graduated with top honors in 1939 and having gained the rank of Senior Lieutenant, he was transferred to the 55th Fighter Regiment stationed on the Moldavian border. Whilst there he flew a Mig-3, callsign 'white 5'.
His airfield was bombed on June 22nd 1941, the first day of the war. Managing to get airborne, he observed an aircraft of a type he had never seen before. He attacked it, only to notice as it was going down, that it had red stars on the wings. It was an Su-2 light bomber, a new bomber type that was unknown to him.
He claimed his first enemy victory, a Bf-109 fighter, the next day during a reconnaissance mission, when he and his wingman were jumped by five enemy fighters.
On July 3rd, having claimed several more victories, he was shot down by German anti-aircraft fire behind enemy lines and spent four days getting back to his unit. During the first weeks of the war Pokryshkin began to see very clearly how outdated the Russian combat doctrine was and began slowly drafting his own ideas in his meticulously kept notebooks. He carefully recorded all details of his air engagements and provided detailed analysis of each event. During this period he fought in very difficult conditions, with ground forces constantly retreating, operations suffered from poor control and communication, while facing overwhelming odds against a superior opponent. He would later say 'one who hasn't fought in 1941-1942, has not truly tasted war'.
Pokryshkin survived several close calls during this time. A machine gun round drove through the right side of the cockpit, cut his shoulder straps, ricocheting off the left side and cutting his chin, covering the entire windscreen in blood.
Also, during a dramatic low-level raid on his airfield by a pair of Ju-88's. Pokryshkin tried to defend his fighter, by removing a machine gun from a nearby bomber and placing it on top of his fighter's fuselage. One of the German bombers flew straight at him, dropping bombs in a shallow dive. Pokryshkin watched a string of explosions approach him, but the bomb that landed next to him did not explode. The Ju-88 had dropped it too low and the bomb had insufficient time to arm itself before hitting the ground.
In the autumn of 1941, Pokryshkin, flew a mission to locate von Kleist's tank group, which had been stopped in front of Shakhty and then lost by Russian forces. After some time flying at low altitude, low on gasoline and in poor weather, he finally found it and was able to return safely to base with this critical information. For the successful completion of this mission, he was awarded the Order of Lenin.
In the late summer of 1942 his regiment was recalled from the front lines to convert to a new fighter type, the Bell P-39 Airacobra. Pokryshkin flew a P-39K-1 'White 13' prefering the destructive firepower of the aircraft's 37mm cannon's. He had his own aircraft rigged, so that the single firing button simultaneously fired both the main cannon and the two nose-mounted .50 caliber machine guns, synchronized to fire through the propellor, in addition to the pair of .30 caliber machine guns mounted in each wing.
While training in the rear, Pokryshkin frequently clashed with the Regiment's new commander, who could not stand his criticism of the outdated air combat doctrine. The commander fabricated a court martial case, accusing Pokryshkin of cowardice, insubordination and disobeying orders. Pokryshkin was grounded, removed from the Regiment's headquarters and had his Party membership cancelled. However he was soon vindicated, when superiors intervened, dismissing the case against him and reinstating him.
In the spring of 1943, Pokryshkin's Regiment was transferred to the Kuban region, where it saw action against crack German fighter units such as JG-51 'Mölders', JG-52 and JG-3 'Udet'. The area saw some of the most ferocious airiel fighting of the Eastern Front campaign. Pokryshkin's innovative tactics of using different fighter types stacked in altitude, the so-called 'pendulum' flight pattern for patrolling the airspace, in conjunction with the use of ground-based radar, forward based controllers and an advanced central ground control system, helped lead to the first comprehensive Red Air Force victory over the Luftwaffe.
In February 1944, Pokryshkin was offered a promotion and a new job managing pilot training. He rejected the offer, choosing to stay with his Regiment and retaining his rank. However, Pokryshkin had been made famous by the propaganda machine and he was not allowed to fly as often due to fear of him being killed. In June 1944, he was promoted to Colonel and given command of the 9th Guards Air Division. Whilst there he converted to flying a P-39N 'white 100'.
In August 1944, for 550 front-line sorties and 53 official kills, Pokryshkin was awarded the Gold Star and recievd the title 'Hero of the Soviet Union' for the third time. Pokryshkin was forbidden to fly altogether, but managed to circumvent the rule a few times and still continued to score an occasional kill.
In late 1944, it is reported that his squadron converted to Bell P-63 Kingcobras, although not strictly allowed to under the terms of the lend lease agreement.
Following the end of the war, Pokryshkin found himself out of favor due to his war-time preference for flying non-Soviet aircraft. He was repeatedly passed over for promotion and only after Stalin's death, did he return to favor, finally reaching the rank of Air General.
Despite this, he never reached the higher echelons of the Soviet Air Force, mostly serving in regional command roles. His most prominent position was as president of DOSAAF, a mostly civilian organization, that was largely tasked with training young civilians and preparing them for service with the Air Force.
Pokryshkin died in November 1985, at the age of 72. In his hometown of Novosibirsk, a street, a square and a subway station are all named in his honor. He wrote several books about his war-time experiences, none of which appear to be translated into English. He also appeared in several episodes of the 'Unknown War' documentaries narrated by Burt Lancaster.
Having flown 560 sorties and engaged in 156 ariel combats, Aleksandr Pokryshkin recorded a tally of 59 personal and 6 group kills. As well as recieving the award of 'Hero of the Soviet Union' three times, he was also awarded four Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, four Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of Suvorov 2nd class, two Orders of the Red Star and a number of foreign orders, such as the USAAF Distinguished Service Medal.

Lilya Vladimirovna Litviak

During the campaign on the eastern front, hundreds of Russian women courageously fought for their Motherland, many serving in the VVS. In 1942, three air regiments were formed from female volunteers and one of the most famous female pilots to fight amongst their ranks was Lilya Vladimirovna Litviak. She was born in Moscow in August 1921 and by the age of fifteen she had completed her first solo flight. In 1940 she completed flight training at the Chkalov Aero club in Moscow and continued her training at the Kherson flight academy, qualifying to become a flight instructor.
When the war began, many female pilots across Russia offered their services. Initially they were rebuffed, but in the wake of early military disasters, Marina Raskova, the famous Russian woman aviator, was able to persuade Stalin to allow her to organize three regiments formed with female pilots. Lilya was accepted and in training outshone many of her male trainers and coming top in her training course. During a practice dogfight in her PO-2 trainer, Lilya shot down her instructor and on arriving back at her airfield performed a flamboyant manoeuvre that was later to become her trademark. Swooping low over the hangers, she soared up into a victory roll followed by a tight turn and a perfect landing that would signify to onlookers that she had achieved a kill. Upon completion of her advanced training Lilya, along with the other trainees formed the 586th Fighter Regiment, which was equipped with the Yak-1.
In September 1942 one squadron from this regiment was attached to the front at Stalingrad. Lilya, along with seven other female pilots, was included. On the 13th of September Litvyak scored her first victory, helping to shoot down a Ju-88 bomber. During the sortie, Lilya was wingman to the regimental commander and after spotting three Junkers Ju-88's, they attacked. The bombers dropped their bombs and scattered. Taking advantage of this, her leader shot down one Ju-88, while Lilya destroyed a second. Lilya then spotted her friend, Raya Belyaeva, engaged in a dogfight with a Messerschmitt Bf-109. Her comrade ran out of ammunition, so Lilya engaged the German fighter and shot it down. By the end of that year her tally had increased to six German aircraft. The female fighter pilots had to work hard to prove their abilities in order to earn the respect of men. Lilya was very attractive and her flamboyant personality extended to marking her plane with paintings of large White Lily.
Tragically Lilya Litvyak was shot down at the age of 21. Lilya was on a routine patrol when she and her wingman, Ivan Borisenko, ran into a large group of German bombers. Lilya didn't see the Bf-109's flying cover for the German bombers. A pair of them dived on her and finally seeing them too late she tried to turn to meet them. The trio disappeared into cloud but no one saw her aircraft crash. The morning before her flight she found some wild flowers and pinned a little bunch to the side of the instrument panel. Those who loved her like to think that at the end Lieutenant Litvyak's last glimpse was of the flowers in the corner of her cockpit. Lilya was a seasoned fighter ace and flight commander at the time of her death, with 12 personal kills and three shared kills. Sadly she did not receive the honours due to her until many years after the war, as her body could not be found.