Four air rammer "irresponsible Russian"
The self-sacrifice of the Soviet pilots, who marched en masse to air ramming, forced the command of the Luftwaffe to issue a directive prohibiting their pilots from moving closer to the Russians for a dangerous distance. But this did not always help, and even experienced aces became victims of the beardless youths who went on deadly battering rams with the enemy.
The true legend of the Soviet fighter aviation became Boris Kovzan, who committed four such battering rams, and in three cases even managed to land the crippled car at his airfield.
Hero of the Soviet Union Boris Ivanovich Kovzan
Born to fly and fight
A native of the city of Shakhty, the Rostov Region, was born on April 7 of the year 1922. He grew up in the Belarusian city of Bobruisk, which he moved with his parents. Ibid graduated from high school 8 classes.
In 1939, he entered the Odessa Military Aviation School, from which he graduated a year before the war, having mastered the principles of air combat and accurate bombing.
He continued his military service in the Western Special Military District on the territory of the Gomel region (Belarus), honing his flying skills and preparing for a quick confrontation with fighters from Nazi Germany. He flew an obsolete fighter And-15 bis, which would have been an easy target for the German aces that had passed through the whole of Europe.
Soviet fighter I-15 bis
The beginning of the Great Patriotic War was stunning. The Soviet Union lost a huge amount of its military equipment. The losses of the planes, many of which the Germans did not even give the opportunity to take off from their airfields, were simply catastrophic, so each fighter was worth its weight in gold.
In the first direct clash with the enemy, Boris Kovzan entered June 24, on the third day of the war. On his I-15 encore, he attacked a German bomber Heinkel-111 (according to other sources, Dornier-215), sending him burning to the ground.
German bomber Dornier-215
Already in the autumn of 1941, he was transferred to serve near Moscow. Boris "saddled" a more modern aircraft Yak-1, which for several months became his true friend and savior.
Cut the fascist tail
The pilot in the group repeatedly takes off for combat missions, driving away German bombers trying to break through to the capital. He enters the air battles, but can not boast a new star on the fuselage of his fighter.
On his first ram, committed 29 October 1941, various sources report differently. Some say that Boris was returning from a combat mission, during which he shot the whole ammunition. Others claim that our pilot’s ammunition ended already during the battle with Hitler’s reconnaissance aircraft Me-110.
Whatever it was, but Boris Kovzan, who did not want to miss the enemy, cut off his tail with his propeller propeller. You need to understand what kind of virtuoso flight technique a pilot should have for this.
The German intelligence officer who entered at the peak exploded on the ground, and the Soviet pilot returned to the airfield, reporting to the command about the results of the sortie. At the same time, he did not consider the perfect ramming a special feat.
The enemy will not pass
21 (according to some sources, 22) February 1942, a group of "Yaks" flew to cover the movement of troops along the Moscow-Leningrad highway in the area of the town of Torzhok, Tver region.
Seeing three German U-88 bomber in the air, Boris Kovzan bravely attacked one of them, dodging counter-fire. In the whirlwind of the air battle, he did not even notice how he had shot all the ammunition, without completing the task.
Then Junior Lieutenant Kovzan decided to repeat his favorite trick. And he succeeded! The Junkers who lost their tail plumage crashed into the ground, and the Soviet pilot returned safely to the airfield.
History about how Boris Kovzan knocks down German planes quickly became overgrown with various details and spread all over the North-Western Front. It was rumored that Goering himself gave orders to never get close to the "irresponsible Russians" in order to prevent the latter from making an air ram.
But when July 7 1942, presented to awarding the Order of Lenin, Junior Lieutenant Boris Kovzan cut off the tail with a screw and the enemy’s third fighter, he became a real legend. And the most interesting - again, as if nothing had happened, he returned to the airfield on his Yak-1.
Soviet fighter Yak-1
Ready to give life for the Motherland
But with the fourth ram, Boris Kovzan was unlucky. Although he was already very lucky that he survived.
13 August 1942 of the year in the sky over Staraya Russa of the Novgorod region his plane was returning from a combat mission. As always, with the ammunition round that was shot to the last bullet.
Suddenly, a link of German Me-109 fighter jets emerged from the clouds. Quickly realizing that the Soviet pilot had nothing to shoot, the Nazis began to play with him in the cat and mouse, using the Yak-1 as an air target.
Methodically shooting Kovzan's fighter, who performed unimaginable aerobatic maneuvers, they managed to smash his cockpit light, seriously wounding the pilot himself (a bullet knocked his eye out). Wanting to give his life more expensive, the pilot turned around and tried to make a frontal ram.
To the surprise of the fascist also did not chickened out. The head-on collision was of such strength that both aircraft scattered into small parts. The German died on the spot, and Kovzan was thrown out of the broken cabin.
Frontal ram
Thank you to the guardian angel
Subsequently, he was never able to accurately remember whether he was tugging at the parachute ring, or if an unknown force opened it. Well, as opened ... Not completely. The pilot at high speed rushed to the ground and fell into the local marsh.
He would surely have drowned if the peasants who did not work nearby, dragged Boris Kovzan out of the swamp and hid just a few minutes before the German search team arrived (the battle went over the occupied territory).
The policemen and the Nazis believed the former collective farmers, who claimed that a bog was swallowed up by the Soviet pilot. Especially since the people themselves didn’t want to smear their boots with “Russian mud”.
Within a couple of days, Boris was transferred to partisans, from where he was evacuated to the mainland.
Achieve your own at any cost
The doctors still managed to save the seriously injured pilot, although it was necessary to remove the damaged right eye. Later, Boris Kovzan told me that 10 months spent at the hospital were the most difficult in his life.
He almost completely regained his health, but the medical commission found the pilot unsuitable for the service of fighter aviation. It was a cruel blow to a guy who barely turned 21 a year.
But that was not the character of the hero, he “pulled out” the medical commission members so much that in the end he was allowed to fly without restrictions. And it is with one eye !!!
Small cog big Victory
Until the end of the war, Boris Kovzan, Hero of the Soviet Union, had 28 air victories, four of which were with the help of a ram.
True, the valiant boldness subsided a bit, and he did not go for more rams.
After the war, he flew jet planes and taught this young recruitment. Colonel Kovzan retired in 1958 in the wake of a massive reduction in the Soviet Army.
For some time he lived in Ryazan, where he headed a local flying club, after which he moved to the capital of Soviet Belarus. Died 31 August 1985 of the year.
Streets in several cities of the former USSR are named after him, and in 2014, Russian Post issued a postage stamp dedicated to the feat of this extraordinary person.
The true legend of the Soviet fighter aviation became Boris Kovzan, who committed four such battering rams, and in three cases even managed to land the crippled car at his airfield.
Hero of the Soviet Union Boris Ivanovich Kovzan
Born to fly and fight
A native of the city of Shakhty, the Rostov Region, was born on April 7 of the year 1922. He grew up in the Belarusian city of Bobruisk, which he moved with his parents. Ibid graduated from high school 8 classes.
In 1939, he entered the Odessa Military Aviation School, from which he graduated a year before the war, having mastered the principles of air combat and accurate bombing.
He continued his military service in the Western Special Military District on the territory of the Gomel region (Belarus), honing his flying skills and preparing for a quick confrontation with fighters from Nazi Germany. He flew an obsolete fighter And-15 bis, which would have been an easy target for the German aces that had passed through the whole of Europe.
Soviet fighter I-15 bis
The beginning of the Great Patriotic War was stunning. The Soviet Union lost a huge amount of its military equipment. The losses of the planes, many of which the Germans did not even give the opportunity to take off from their airfields, were simply catastrophic, so each fighter was worth its weight in gold.
In the first direct clash with the enemy, Boris Kovzan entered June 24, on the third day of the war. On his I-15 encore, he attacked a German bomber Heinkel-111 (according to other sources, Dornier-215), sending him burning to the ground.
German bomber Dornier-215
Already in the autumn of 1941, he was transferred to serve near Moscow. Boris "saddled" a more modern aircraft Yak-1, which for several months became his true friend and savior.
Cut the fascist tail
The pilot in the group repeatedly takes off for combat missions, driving away German bombers trying to break through to the capital. He enters the air battles, but can not boast a new star on the fuselage of his fighter.
On his first ram, committed 29 October 1941, various sources report differently. Some say that Boris was returning from a combat mission, during which he shot the whole ammunition. Others claim that our pilot’s ammunition ended already during the battle with Hitler’s reconnaissance aircraft Me-110.
Whatever it was, but Boris Kovzan, who did not want to miss the enemy, cut off his tail with his propeller propeller. You need to understand what kind of virtuoso flight technique a pilot should have for this.
The German intelligence officer who entered at the peak exploded on the ground, and the Soviet pilot returned to the airfield, reporting to the command about the results of the sortie. At the same time, he did not consider the perfect ramming a special feat.
The enemy will not pass
21 (according to some sources, 22) February 1942, a group of "Yaks" flew to cover the movement of troops along the Moscow-Leningrad highway in the area of the town of Torzhok, Tver region.
Seeing three German U-88 bomber in the air, Boris Kovzan bravely attacked one of them, dodging counter-fire. In the whirlwind of the air battle, he did not even notice how he had shot all the ammunition, without completing the task.
Then Junior Lieutenant Kovzan decided to repeat his favorite trick. And he succeeded! The Junkers who lost their tail plumage crashed into the ground, and the Soviet pilot returned safely to the airfield.
History about how Boris Kovzan knocks down German planes quickly became overgrown with various details and spread all over the North-Western Front. It was rumored that Goering himself gave orders to never get close to the "irresponsible Russians" in order to prevent the latter from making an air ram.
But when July 7 1942, presented to awarding the Order of Lenin, Junior Lieutenant Boris Kovzan cut off the tail with a screw and the enemy’s third fighter, he became a real legend. And the most interesting - again, as if nothing had happened, he returned to the airfield on his Yak-1.
Soviet fighter Yak-1
Ready to give life for the Motherland
But with the fourth ram, Boris Kovzan was unlucky. Although he was already very lucky that he survived.
13 August 1942 of the year in the sky over Staraya Russa of the Novgorod region his plane was returning from a combat mission. As always, with the ammunition round that was shot to the last bullet.
Suddenly, a link of German Me-109 fighter jets emerged from the clouds. Quickly realizing that the Soviet pilot had nothing to shoot, the Nazis began to play with him in the cat and mouse, using the Yak-1 as an air target.
Methodically shooting Kovzan's fighter, who performed unimaginable aerobatic maneuvers, they managed to smash his cockpit light, seriously wounding the pilot himself (a bullet knocked his eye out). Wanting to give his life more expensive, the pilot turned around and tried to make a frontal ram.
To the surprise of the fascist also did not chickened out. The head-on collision was of such strength that both aircraft scattered into small parts. The German died on the spot, and Kovzan was thrown out of the broken cabin.
Frontal ram
Thank you to the guardian angel
Subsequently, he was never able to accurately remember whether he was tugging at the parachute ring, or if an unknown force opened it. Well, as opened ... Not completely. The pilot at high speed rushed to the ground and fell into the local marsh.
He would surely have drowned if the peasants who did not work nearby, dragged Boris Kovzan out of the swamp and hid just a few minutes before the German search team arrived (the battle went over the occupied territory).
The policemen and the Nazis believed the former collective farmers, who claimed that a bog was swallowed up by the Soviet pilot. Especially since the people themselves didn’t want to smear their boots with “Russian mud”.
Within a couple of days, Boris was transferred to partisans, from where he was evacuated to the mainland.
Achieve your own at any cost
The doctors still managed to save the seriously injured pilot, although it was necessary to remove the damaged right eye. Later, Boris Kovzan told me that 10 months spent at the hospital were the most difficult in his life.
He almost completely regained his health, but the medical commission found the pilot unsuitable for the service of fighter aviation. It was a cruel blow to a guy who barely turned 21 a year.
But that was not the character of the hero, he “pulled out” the medical commission members so much that in the end he was allowed to fly without restrictions. And it is with one eye !!!
Small cog big Victory
Until the end of the war, Boris Kovzan, Hero of the Soviet Union, had 28 air victories, four of which were with the help of a ram.
True, the valiant boldness subsided a bit, and he did not go for more rams.
After the war, he flew jet planes and taught this young recruitment. Colonel Kovzan retired in 1958 in the wake of a massive reduction in the Soviet Army.
For some time he lived in Ryazan, where he headed a local flying club, after which he moved to the capital of Soviet Belarus. Died 31 August 1985 of the year.
Streets in several cities of the former USSR are named after him, and in 2014, Russian Post issued a postage stamp dedicated to the feat of this extraordinary person.
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