"Fire ram" by Nikolai Gastello
Feat N. F. Gastello became one of the most famous in stories The Great Patriotic War, and the surname Gastello is a household name. The pilots who committed the “fire ram” were called “Gastellovtsy”. In total, during the Great Patriotic War, 595 "classic" air rams (by aircraft aircraft), 506 rams by aircraft of a ground target, 16 sea rams (this number may include ramming by sea pilots of surface and coastal enemy targets) and 160 tank battering rams. There are also other numbers.
Origin
Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello was born on April 23 (May 6) 1907 of the year in Moscow, in the working-class area Presnya. His father, Franz Pavlovich Gastello, a Belarusian by origin (according to another version is a Russian German), came from a poor peasant family, arrived in Moscow in 1900 from the village of Pluzhina, Novogrudok district, Minsk province in search of earnings and a better share. He cooked metal in special furnaces (cupola workers) in foundries on the railway. This work was physically extremely hard, but it was well paid. Mother - Anastasia Semenovna Kutuzova, Russian by birth, was a seamstress. The first child in a working family was Nikolay, his sister Nina was born in 1912, and brother Victor - in 1913 (died in September 1942).
In 1915-1918 Nikolai Gastello studied at the Alexander Pushkin Sokolniki City Male School in 3. In 1918, because of the famine, he was evacuated to Bashkiria as part of a group of schoolchildren, but returned to Moscow and to his school the following year, where Nikolai Gastello began his career before 1921, becoming a carpenter in 1923. In 1924, the Gastello family moved to Murom, where Nicholas entered the factory at the Steam Locomotive Plant. F.E. Dzerzhinsky, where he worked and his father. In 1928, he joined the VKP (b). In 1930, the Gastello family returned to Moscow, and Nikolai went to work at the First State Mechanical Works of Construction Machines named for 1 May.
Service
In May 1932 he was drafted into the Red Army. Sent to study in aviation school of pilots in the city of Lugansk. He studied at the 11th military aviation school of pilots named after the Proletariat of Donbass. First flew into the sky on a U-2 aircraft. Then he flew on combat aircraft - R-1 and I-5. In December 1933, the graduation of the Military Pilot School took place. Nikolai masterfully piloted an I-5 fighter, but to the surprise of command, the graduate asked to be sent to serve in bomber aircraft. “My dream is heavy aircraft, big ships,” he said. And his request was granted. In 1933-1938 He served in the 82nd Heavy Bomber Squadron of the 21st Heavy Bomber Aviation Brigade, based in Rostov-on-Don. Starting to fly as a co-pilot on a TB-3 bomber, Nikolay Gastello from November 1934 already piloted an airplane on his own.
In 1938, as a result of the reorganization of the part, N. Gastello ended up in the 1 heavy bombing regiment (TBAP). In May, 1939, he became a flight commander, and a year later with a small - deputy squadron commander. In 1939, he participated in the battles at Khalkhin-Gol as part of the 150-th high-speed bomber aviation regiment, which was given a squadron of the 1-th TBAP. It was necessary to transport more troops to Khalkhin-Gol, equipment, weapons, ammunition, food, to transport the wounded to Chita. It was hard work, the work lasted a day for 12-16. During the breaks, the pilots slept right in the cockpit of their planes or on the grass under the wing. In addition to transport, there were combat missions.
Nikolai Gastello participated in the Soviet-Finnish war and the operation to join Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the USSR. The main task before the pilots on the Karelian Isthmus was to directly support the offensive of our troops by bombing from the air, to help break through the Mannerheim Line. Aviation played a major role in breaking through the fortifications. The TB-3 bombers walked at a low altitude above the front edge of the enemy and, with jeweler's accuracy, only target X-NUMX-500 meters from our troops, delivered targeted bomb attacks on the fortifications of the Finns, breaking and blowing up enemy pillboxes and bunkers. Immediately after the air strike, our infantry went forward and occupied the destroyed fortifications of the enemy, while the enemy had not yet had time to come to his senses. It was a very dangerous operation: it was more suitable not for heavy, but for front-line high-speed attack aircraft, but the fact is that it was necessary to drop heavy bombs in order to break through and blow up the strong defenses of the enemy.
In the autumn of 1940, the aviation unit relocated to the western borders, to the city of Velikiye Luki, and then to the airborne town of Borovskoye near Smolensk. In 1940, N. F. Gastello was promoted to captain. In the spring of 1941, Nikolai Gastello, having passed the appropriate retraining, mastered the DB-3ф aircraft.
He met the beginning of World War II as commander of the 4 squadron of the 207 DBAT 3 of the long-range bomber air corps, then commanded the 2 squadron of the same unit. Early in the morning of 24 June 1941, when engineers, technicians and junior aviation specialists were tensely preparing their bombers to perform a combat mission at Borovsk airfield, a shrill siren was heard. A single Yu-88 bomber flew near the airfield, which reconnoitered in the direction of Smolensk. A few minutes later the enemy bomber appeared from the opposite direction and, flying near the airfield, opened from a low altitude machine-gun fire from all its fire installations on our aircraft. The commander of the 4 Squadron, Captain Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello, bravely rushed to the bomber, jumped on the upper turret unit and hit the enemy that had stormed the airfield in a long machine-gun fire. Wounded "Junkers" was forced to go on the decline and landed on the collective farm field.
German pilots caught. The captured German pilot then stated that he was very surprised by such an unexpected turn of events: “I flew a lot over France, Belgium, Holland, and Norway. As soon as a German plane appeared there, everyone ran in different directions. And your pilots even fire at us from the ground. You have not only soldiers, but local peasants and peasant women rushed at us with dubiem. An incomprehensible country, an incomprehensible war ... ”.
Feat
For the combat initiative shown in repelling the German air raid on our airfield, and the downed enemy bomber, the command of the air division presented Captain Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello to a government award. But they had not yet had time to arrange the documents, as the pilot made a new, truly immortal feat, forever glorifying his name.
On the third day of the war, the 207 th regiment flew to the next combat mission in full force. He bombed the advancing enemy troops in the area of Pruzhany-Kobrin. The regiment accurately bombed, but lost ten aircraft. Captain Gastello's plane was also shot down, the navigator badly wounded. Gastello reached the airfield and put the wrecked car. On the fourth day of the war, the plane was repaired, but Captain Gastello flew on another plane, bombed the enemy's Vilna airfield. On the fifth day of the war, 26 of June, Captain Gastello received an order for a combat mission as a link - to launch a bombing attack against enemy troops moving from Vilna to Minsk.
Departure made in the afternoon. The crew of Senior Lieutenant Fyodor Vorobiev flew in tandem with captain Gastello. He described everything that happened. We walked at an altitude of 1000 meters. An hour later, with a small link, a large enemy motorized convoy was found south of Radoshkovichi. Gastello chose the largest cluster of refueling German tanks and cars and attacked the enemy. Navigator Anatoly Burdenyuk accurately put the bombs on target. The squadron commander makes the second, third approach, the air gunner-radio operator, senior sergeant Alexei Kalinin and the hatch arrow who took the place of the squadron adjutant (chief of staff), Lieutenant Gregory Skorobogaty, fire at the Germans running away.
Leaving from the target, with a turn in the sun, Vorobiev noticed the smoke coming from the plane Gastello. The plane, enveloped in flames, lurched to the right, but Gastello managed to level the car and gave the signal to Vorobyov to return to the base. The deputy commander of the squadron, Senior Lieutenant Fedor Vorobyov and navigator Lieutenant Anatoly Rybas, witnessed the feat of the crew of Gastello. In their eyes, the plane, enveloped in flames, turned on a cluster of German tanks and cars, went into a dive and crashed into the thick of enemy equipment. Until the last moment, from the flaming plane, the enemy was fired by Lieutenants A. A. Burdenyuk, G. N. Skorobogaty and Senior Sergeant A. A. Kalinin. They fought to the end.
As N.S. Skripko, commander of the air corps, recalled (“By targets near and far”): “When the commander of the 42 long-range bomber aviation division, Colonel M. X. Borisenko reported on the heroic deeds of Captain Nikolai Gastello who committed the fire ram, I ordered to send a plane photographic installation and photograph from a low altitude the place of death of the crew. Literally the next day, Brigadier Commissioner A. K. We simultaneously held a picture in which we could clearly see a crater formed at the site of the plane’s impact on the ground, part of the ship thrown off by the explosion and many of the tanks and cars burned down. Expensive price paid by the enemy for the death of the legendary crew of Gastello!
I was holding a picture in my hands and thought, what a huge moral force a person needs to go to such a sacrificial feat! All the pilots of the compound were shocked by the heroic death of the crew, experiencing at the same time deep sadness and pride. The sadness is because they lost such a good, sincere and responsive pilot, like Nikolai Gastello, the members of his crew. And pride - because by their feat Gastello and his crew demonstrated unsurpassed morale, valor and fighting qualities of the Soviet soldier. Nothing, not even the threat of death, can force him to submit to the enemy. Until the last minute of his life, he remembers the high duty to the Motherland and even his death confirms victory! ”
6 July 1941, the message of the Soviet Information Bureau, broadcast by radio, the whole country learned about the pilot's fire ram. Exactly one month after the accomplishment of the feat, on July 26, Captain Gastello was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. The orders of the Patriotic War of I degree Homeland noted the members of the heroic crew - navigator A. A. Burdenyuk, air gunner-radio operator A. A. Kalinin, hatch arrow G. N. Skorobogaty.
The myth of the first "fire ram"
It is worth noting that several myths are associated with the feat of the crew of Gastello. Without questioning or minimizing the significance of the feat of the crew of a Soviet bomber, it is necessary to remember a number of historical facts. So, for a long time it was believed that it was Nikolai Gastello who was the first in the history of aviation to accomplish such a feat. Therefore, the pilots who attacked the enemy vehicles during the war years were called Gustella players, which is why most Soviet citizens knew who Captain Nikolai Gastello was. But, as it turned out, Gastello was not the first, or even the second and not the third pilot, who committed the “fire ram.”
The first in the history of the Soviet case of "fire ram" occurred 5 August 1939 year in the Far East in the valley of the Khalkhin-Gol during the military clash of the USSR and the Mongolian People's Republic on the one hand and Japan and Manzhou-Go - on the other. On this day, Mikhail Anisimovich Yuyukin, battalion commissar of the 150 th bomber regiment, lifted his car into the air to carry out a combat mission. At the time of the bombing of enemy positions in the plane hit a shell, which set fire to the right engine. The pilots failed to bring down the flames, and then the commander made his last decision. He ordered the crew to leave the plane and sent a flaming car full of bombs on the Japanese bunker. As the only member of the crew who managed to leave the cab, navigator Alexander Morkovkin recalls: “I was sure that even losing consciousness in suffocation of the flame, the battalion commissar Yuyukin would direct his dying machine into the center of enemy firing points. And so it happened. ” In August, 1939 was awarded the Order of Lenin for heroism and exemplary performance of a combat mission, and his crew members, Senior Lieutenant Alexander Morkovkin and Senior Officer Peter Rogue, were awarded Orders of the Red Banner.
A similar feat was accomplished in 1940 year already during the Soviet-Finnish war. Then, Captain Konstantin Orlov’s aircraft, which had ignited from being hit by a shell, was sent to the very midst of enemy infantry and equipment. It happened this 11 March 1940 of the year. And the first in the history of the Great Patriotic War, the ram of the ground target was made by the commander of the 62 th link of the assault air regiment P. S. Chirkin 22 June 1941 of the year. He lifted the car into the air from the airfield near the village of Lisyatichi for aerial reconnaissance and came under fire from the Nazis. When P. Chirkin's car was hit, he directed it to the enemy’s tank column. June 24 crew of the commander of the link 33 th high-speed bomber regiment of Senior Lieutenant Gregory Khrapar made another ram. This time the burning plane destroyed the crossing near the town of Brody. And on June 25 a German tank captain Avdeev rammed a burning car. It is obvious that there could be more such cases, since in the conditions of war not all the feats of pilots who completed their lives in fire could be fixed and confirmed.
Thus, the feat Gastello was not the first. However, it was the feat of the crew of Gastello that was taken as a model, and it was used by state propaganda. There is nothing wrong with that, it is a common practice in wartime. Examples of heroism and self-sacrifice, similar to the feat of Gastello, among the Soviet pilots were not isolated cases. According to military researchers, only in the first year of the war was 152 a feat registered, when the last weapons pilots became a dying plane. In total, during the years of the Great Patriotic War, Soviet pilots committed “fire rams” about 500 times. They were attended by 505 crews, among which the first place belongs to the crews of bombers, their number is 288. More than 800 people during World War II became heroes of "fire rams". Therefore, remembering the feat of the crew of Gastello, we should not forget that hundreds more pilots deserve our memory, respect and gratitude.
Another myth, created in works of art, is the opinion that Gastello made a ram, driving a fighter. This misconception arose from the fact that in the post-war fiction the main heroes of aviation were fighter pilots. A number of works were created, for example, the play “Gastello” by I. V. Shtok, (1947 year), in which N. F. Gastello accomplished his feat on a fighter.
Blackening
For a long time the citizens of the USSR air ram was strongly associated with the name of captain Nikolai Gastello. However, when the “era of change” began - the destruction of the USSR, the Soviet civilization, its historical symbols, heroes, Gastello attempted to blacken and exploit.
In 1990-e publications appeared, in which it was stated that the feat was accomplished by the crew of A. S. Maslov. Captain Maslov from the same part as Gastello is the commander of the 1 th squadron of the 207 th long-range bomber aviation regiment 42-th long-range bomber aviation division of the 3 th long-range bomber aviation corps. And his crew also died on 26 June 1941, while striking an enemy convoy on the Molodechno-Radoshkovichi highway. According to one version, Maslov also sent a burning car to the accumulation of enemy equipment on the highway. Through the efforts of supporters of the Maslov ram version, in 1992, he was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree, and in 1996, he was awarded the title “Hero of Russia”.
On According to the grandson of the Hero of the Soviet Union, named after his grandfather - Nikolai Viktorovich Gastello, all this is "the result of ignorance and painful ambitions." On this day, 14 crews of bombers were killed in this area, which attacked the enemy without fighter cover, and all of them were heroes who did their duty to the end. The feat of Gastello had two witnesses - the commander of the leading crew, senior lieutenant Vorobiev and navigator, lieutenant Rybas. In addition, it is noted that the very fact of the discovery of the wreckage of Maslov's bomber and the remains of his crew indicates that the plane did not crash into a convoy of vehicles with fuel and ammunition, but fell on soft ground. Maslov's plane did not ram a mechanized convoy, as it fell 180 meters from the road: the car crashed into the ground on a “low level” flight, or Maslov tried to ram an enemy convoy, but failed.
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