Legless Russian pilots destroyed healthy Germans
This year Maresiev - 100 years! It is surprising that only in the Volgograd region 2016 the year was declared the year of Maresyev, and not all over Russia. After all, the memory of the feat is nationwide, not regional. I repent, it is a shame to me that I learned about this significant, landmark event quite by accident. And how many people do not know anything about this at all, because, for some unknown reason, the name of Maresyev will be remembered all year in Volgograd only, well, in part, I think, echoes of these festivals will come to some federal media, some people quite accidentally, like me, they learn that in 2016, Maresiev would have turned 100 years.
On the first photo above: Zakhar Sorokin.
В stories Russian aviation examples of the unprecedented courage and heroism of pilots who lost their legs in battle but were able to return to duty thanks to their perseverance and loyalty to the cause, which became the meaning and core of their lives, are known. To this day, evidence of two pilots from the First World War is preserved: these are Alexander Prokofiev-Seversky and Yuri Gilscher. Their destinies were wonderfully intertwined: they became a legend during his lifetime.
Alexander was born into a family that was thoroughly impregnated with military service: his nobleman father, one of the first aircraft builders in Russia, dreamed of making his son a real man and sent him to study first in the naval cadet corps and then at the Sevastopol flight school. With many difficulties, Alexander becomes a military pilot and makes his combat missions, first on a two-seater FBA flying boat, and then as part of naval fighter aircraft on Newpore, bombing German positions during the First World War. It was the bomb that caused a serious injury: during the next flight to the FBA, unexpectedly, a spontaneous bomb explosion occurred. Its fragments seriously wounded the pilot in the leg and fatally injured the mechanic. At the hospital, Alexander demanded that doctors perform an amputation below the knee in order to be able to return to the ranks. Doctors at their own peril and risk did the operation and thus helped the brave pilot to get back into operation. Thanks to active training, he could perform many kilometers of marches and dance. And finally fly again. This opportunity gave him the king, who imposed a resolution on the report of the aviator, who asked to send him to the army. So, Alexander flew again. There were legends about his unique method of detecting the enemy (“I always see the German first”), enemy planes were afraid of him, avoiding meetings with Newport, which Alexander flew at, which turned 23 of the year at that time!
Once he was wounded in the arm, but after recovery he flew again. In one of the flights, he was forced to make an emergency landing and walked several tens of kilometers through deaf slums on his prosthesis, in order to later go to his own slums.
A revolutionary Bolshevik breakthrough, a civil war led to Alexander deciding to emigrate. Along the way of the train, the Red Army officers repeatedly checked his documents, and once nearly irreparable happened. At one station, they decided to shoot Alexander as a representative of the nobility. But he was recognized by one of the Red Army men, who defended the life of a pilot, telling him that he, a Red Army man, was once saved by the Prokofiev-Seversky plane, dropping enemy companies away from their trenches, which were already surrounded by few Russian companies exhausted by long attacks .
Everything ended well: fate allowed Alexander to get to America, to create there several newest models of airplanes, to become a leading military analyst, a big businessman, a writer. His life course, which began in Russia, ended in America: he became an outstanding military figure, whose opinion was heard by leading experts around the world.
And another example of perseverance and courage. Much has been written about Yuri Gilscher, but there are key points that I would like to draw attention to. He began his military service in the cavalry. Handsome, charming, very liked by women. But he liked aviation and everything connected with it. This love led him to the first Gatchina school of pilots, which he graduated from and became one of the leading pilots who were entrusted with the guard of the Tsar's residence. Yuri received his first wound somehow absurdly: just by pure accident when starting the engine to warm up the aircraft - the handle worked, and the pilot inadvertently entered the danger zone, did not manage to remove his hand in time and got the hardest arm fracture: two bones were broken. But the young body was able to defeat these wounds, however, like the other, the most complicated operations that Yuri had to endure after he returned to service and in one of the reconnaissance flights because of a failure of the aileron control system to fall into a tailspin on his plane. Pilots miraculously survived. Yuri had a broken head, and in place of his leg was a bloody mess of bones and tendons hanging from a skin patch. And again the hospital, operations, white coats. And again, Yuri becomes a Russian fighter aircraft in order to, having shot down a dozen enemy aircraft, to accomplish his last feat himself and remain in people's memory as a hero of the war in 22 of the year.
It is interesting that it is about this pilot that the story "On a Real Man" is discussed; it was his example that inspired Maresyev for a long journey of mental and physical rehabilitation. So Russian pilots of the First World War gave vitality to pilots of the Second World War.
Why the question arises today: so much is written about Maresyev, but others have been forgotten? No, do not forget. And to popularize at that time, crystal feats were needed, without captivity and without compromising evidence, which often happened in a war: human fates changed unpredictably under the influence of a whole list of factors, regardless of the person himself.
Levitsky, Mikhail Nikolaevich
Mikhail Levitsky received his well-deserved reward only four years after the end of the war. He was shot down and wounded in 1942 g. He received no awards, and only in 1949, the Kurgan city military registration and enlistment office addressed the award list, according to which he received the Order of the Patriotic War of the II degree.
But all this is a retelling of well-known facts, for completeness, it is necessary to examine official documents. The award list on Levitsky contains the following information: “Comrade Mikhail Nikolayevich Levitsky took direct part in the Great Patriotic War against the Nazi invaders on the Kalininsky front. As a pilot of the third separate air regiment of the Civil Air Fleet, having completed a combat mission to deliver ammunition of the 39 Army, surrounded by Beloye, it was hit by an anti-aircraft missile with its left leg on its way to its airfield. Seriously wounded was in the village Mishelevo BSSR. Being seriously wounded (left leg torn off) was captured and sent to a disabled camp in the city of Dorogobuch. Released by the Soviet Army 26 on July 1944 of the year. After treatment in the evacuation hospital "2788" passed the state test and was restored to the rank of "lieutenant".
Currently, Comrade Levitsky is a disabled 2 group. Works as a navigator 228-th squadron GFV, copes with the work well. The award material is submitted late, as Comrade Levitsky previously lived in Sverdlovsk and did not design the award material in a timely manner. As an active participant in the Great Patriotic War against the German fascist invaders and as a comrade Levitsky M.N., who was seriously wounded in defense of the Soviet homeland. worthy of presentation to the government award, Order of the Patriotic War, II degree ".
Leonid Belousov
In the Patriotic War, he participated from the first days in the post of commander of the aviation squadron on the Hanko Peninsula. Despite severe burns, the faces received in one of the sorties continued to lead his squadron into battle, making 25 successful sorties.
“In the 1942 year, due to burn complications, he developed gangrene and was sent to the rear for treatment, where he had both legs amputated. 426 spent the days Belousov in hospitals, and in 1944, he returned to service.
Subsequently, he will write a book (Military Literature, Memoirs. “I Must Fly!”): “The night passed without sleep. I was painfully thinking about the future. I imagined myself with a piece of wood instead of a leg, on crutches ... In the morning I remembered that on the Black Sea navy there is one pilot who flies without one leg. This means that you can fight without a leg. He felt better at heart. And I mentally answered my daughter’s letter to her: yes, dear, you’re right - you can’t break the Soviet soldiers with anything! Enemies will feel the power of my blows more than once.
The operation suffered well. Quickly went on the mend. And now, when the day of discharge from the hospital was already coming, an even more terrible misfortune struck me. On the left foot, just below the knee, a new ulcer appeared and quickly expanded. Every day she became more and more. Again, the conversation with Syzganov - about the most difficult. As they say in the war, the situation became extremely clear, and I agreed to the second operation, setting only one condition:
- Try to amputate the leg below the knee. I need, you see, it is absolutely necessary that at least one leg can bend.
The professor, of course, did not know, and, in my opinion, could not even imagine at that time why I insistently ask him to perform the operation so that after her leg could bend. And he answered:
- Do not worry, the leg after this operation will certainly bend at the knee.
The appointed hour came, and I, silent and silent, was again taken to the operating room. ”
And he was at this time only 32 year.
Of course, the medical commission did not even want to let him close to the front: there are no two legs, and one was taken away at the very groin, the other was also on the prosthesis, although it was taken away from the knees. But Belousov makes an extremely unusual act: in cold autumn he went to the balcony, threw it open, jumped onto the first snow and swam across the ice pond, and then returned to wet clothes, and the stunned doctors could only wish him to rise again, struck by his courage and desire to be in the sky.
According to award documents, Belousov “after a serious illness, without legs, arrived voluntarily from the rear and revealed a desire to begin combat work on an airplane. Due to his persistent desire to smash the hated enemy, Comrade Belousov overcomes his physical disability, flies to the Yak-1 and La-5, starting combat work. For a short period before demobilization, he managed to make ten sorties and conducted two air battles. His patriotic impulse to defeat the enemy inspired the entire flight structure of the division and caused a great upsurge among them, and only due to aggravated health conditions did Comrade Belousov have no opportunity to be in the ranks of combat pilots until the end of the war. ”
Being without legs, he shot down two enemy planes.
It is a pity that the official documents did not preserve the evidence that the hero’s face was burned, disfigured by wounds, and plastic surgery of that time could only make “patches” of skin. Such operations were done as follows: it was necessary to transplant a piece of skin and the missing “patch” was cut out of the body and Belousov was forced to keep this piece on his face for hours so that he could take root. Terrible ordeals had to endure this man. But he always relied on the support of his family and fellow soldiers. Many times before each operation he reread the letter of his teenage daughter, in which she asks her father to protect her health and smash the Germans. Later Belousov recalled how, when he heard light steps in his ward, he immediately realized that his wife had come to the hospital. She will not depart from him day or night. He valued this loyalty above all else, and to tears he described his inexpressible gratitude to him, in just a few lines, which he always felt for his wife. She became his reliable rear and the same warrior as he. True, she had to go through a lot more. After all, every day it was necessary to support her husband, who had returned from the front, to help him with word and deed. And so - every day. But he, Belousov, became for her that mighty lump, the defense that women always aspire to, at all times they will seek for themselves this male defense of a man-warrior, not broken by tests.
After the war, Belousov also joined the ranks, picking up a ruined country, and when he was a very old man, he always responded to requests for a speech. His speeches, according to eyewitnesses, made an indelible impression. He never talked about himself, he always talked about the exploits of his fellow pilots, covering the Leningrad road of life.
He spoke passionately, with enthusiasm, and at some point he could rip off his black glasses, which covered his half of his face. The effect was unexpected - some people fainted, so shocked by what they saw. And he lived with this for many years.
Zakhar Artyomovich Sorokin
In the spring of 1942, he was injured during the next air battle. “About 30 kilometers I passed from the place of an emergency landing, I froze both legs. For about a year, he was undergoing treatment, underwent an operation, as a result of which he lost both toes. Disease and disability did not break his desire in air battles to destroy the Germans. He is back in the ranks. Quickly mastered the Aero Cobra aircraft and in March 23 again shot down a German fighter Me-109ф. Disciplined, demanding commander, enjoys prestige among the personnel. "
Zakhar Artyomovich Sorokin is the author of 15 books, but did he write about the war and his fate? Yes, he wrote. Here is his excerpt from the book "Duel in a snowy desert": "I have been going for several hours. Trying not to lose direction, I climbed the hills, rested on the top and moved on, stumbled, fell, rose. “We must go, we must go! I’ll go to that boulder, hide from the wind and take a rest ... And now I’ll walk to that birch ... Snow drifts on the way to it. Well, somehow I'll get ... The pale polar sun has risen. It hung over the horizon. It seems that the sixth day of my journey has come.
I heard the distant sound of a siren. From the last forces began to climb the mound. Breaking and climbing again, climbed to the top.
... A lump came to his throat. I see: the coast, the dark strip of the Kola Bay, the haze of ships ...
Having calmed down a bit, I looked at a hut on the shore, and next to it a man. I went down from the hill, took out a pistol and, holding it in my hand, crawled ... Near the house I tried to get up. The man in a fur coat turned in my direction, threw up the automatic ...
- Stop! Who goes?
I tore off the scarf from my head and, through the fog covered my eyes, I saw a cap under the guard of the sentry. ”
Malikov Ilya Antonovich
And here is another amazing fate, scorched by early maturity and early becoming as a person, a real person. Like many adolescents, he sought to get up quickly on his own "legs", to become a support for his parents, who knew the need for the Ryazan region, in the small village of Itobnoye. To get primary and secondary education, Ilya had to walk a few kilometers to a neighboring village. So he graduated from seven classes and went to study at the trade school, which opened on the basis of the plant "Elektrostal" in the Moscow region. At that time, the sky attracted many people, but not many decided to connect their lives with it, and Ilya decided: in 1939, he finished the Noginsk flying club and went to serve in the army. Where, seeing the aspiration of a soldier to fly in the sky, they sent him to study at a military flight school located in Kirovabad.
In the data database “Feat of the People” you can find a presentation for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, which was issued 5 February 1945 of the year. Therefore, the statistics of combat missions here is somewhat different than the final one: after all, the war has not yet ended and the pilots continued to perform combat missions.
Being on the fronts of World War II from July 1942, 57 made successful combat missions on Pe-2 aircraft. All combat sorties produced on the bombing of military facilities, strong points, airfields and enemy firing points.
The government awarded him the Order of the Red Banner in 30 for successfully executing 1942 combat missions. Encouraged by the Government award, accumulating his combat experience, perfecting his flight skills and ability to beat the enemy, Comrade Malikov, not sparing the forces, sometimes being in mortal danger, continues to smash the German invaders with even greater force. It flies in the clouds and in difficult meteorological conditions, leads the plane to a target with a maximum bomb load. In the operation of the material part and flight discipline is an example. In battle, behaves bravely and courageously. Competently maneuvers in the enemy's anti-aircraft fire. Thanks to the excellent grouping, it creates a powerful fire fist of the group. Performs combat missions aggressively with excellent and good results.
Within three days - 26, 27, 28 April 1942 - as part of his flight made three combat sorties in the area of the Rzhevsky bridgehead to bombard heavily fortified enemy firing points. All tasks were completed, while destroyed: 33 vehicles with military cargo and 60-ti infantry of the enemy. This fact is confirmed by photographs.
April 31 bombarded enemy troops and artillery near the town of Rzhev in extremely difficult weather conditions. For the excellent performance of the combat mission received thanks to the commander of the Air Force of the Red Army.
At the beginning of June, 1942 of the year in the same area was bombed by an accumulation of enemy troops, as a result of which an ammunition depot was blown up (this is confirmed by photographs).
And 17 June bombed the railway station "Rzhev-Southern" as part of nine Soviet aircraft. The railway track was destroyed, a train with ammunition, several warehouses and station buildings were set on fire. For this departure was estimated by the commander of the third army.
The next day, 18 June, as part of nine planes, again bombed the same target, where an ammunition depot was blown up, destroyed to 35 cars, destroyed to 25 meters of railroad tracks.
29 June 1942 of the year. This day became a turning point in the military fate of Ilya Malikov. According to official documents, on this day he received another combat mission and flew to the enemy bombing in the Rzhev bridgehead area. On the combat course, Ilya had his right leg broken above the knee with a direct hit by an anti-aircraft projectile. But he kept the course until the navigator dropped bombs on the target. Overcoming the pain in his leg, Illya took the plane home, pulled it across the front line, landed with the landing gear retracted on its territory and immediately lost consciousness. Only exceptional self-control, unshakable will power of Ilya Malikov saved the life of the crew, and his plane was restored a few days later.
But at this time Malikov was taken to the hospital, where he was amputated with his right leg. After his recovery, with a prosthesis on his right foot, he returned to the regiment with the only request: to allow him again to work on the combat aircraft PE-2.
He lost his leg, but was able to return to the line and destroy the living and material strength of the enemy, having flown to Berlin on the PE-2 he had mastered, eventually making 86 combat sorties. He became the Hero of the Soviet Union.
But at first they couldn’t allow him to fly, but decided to test his forces on the PO-2 communications plane, carrying out special command assignments for the delivery of important reports, ammunition, food and medicine. Such flights he made about 100. But this could not calm Elijah’s soul: he wanted to fight. Flying on software-2, he repeatedly wrote reports to the command with a single request: to allow him to combat work on the PE-2. Finally, the last report received a go-ahead and, after conducting relevant training and inspections, he was allowed to combat work on the PE-2.
Its first flight took place on 6 on October 1943 of the year: the leading unit in the squadron bombarded the Gomel railway junction with a dive. Six cars, two cars, a passenger building, warehouses, a depot were destroyed. The pilots observed many fires in the city.
There was a lot of work in 1944 too. Departures followed one after the other. For example, June 24 led Malikov to bombard Tikhinichi. Destroyed: two cars, two machine-gun fire points, marked 10 direct hits in the trenches. The next day, 25 June in the group Malikov destroyed four dwelling houses in the village of Elders, there were direct hits to the plant and warehouse. The second departure on the same day as a part of a group of nine aircraft successfully bombed the point Velikiye Lyady: two guns and a servant of an artillery battery were destroyed.
A day later, on June 27, the leading link bombarded the eastern outskirts of the city of Bobruisk: one car was destroyed, five houses were destroyed.
17 January 1945, leading the nines from a horizontal flight from two rounds, bombarded a train at the зód railway station. Direct hits to railway echelons are noted. A day later, on January 19, single crews, with strong opposition from the enemy's anti-aircraft artillery, dived, from two visits, bombed the railway bridge on the Vistula River in the Plots area. Three breaks were noted at the entrance to the railway bridge, two direct hits into the bridge, one firing point was destroyed.
“A modest, disciplined pilot commander with exceptional willpower, fully committed to the cause of the Lenin-Stalin party — these are the characteristic features of this indefatigable patriot of his homeland, who will continue to be a thunderstorm for the German fascists.
For 86 successfully accomplished combat sorties, of which 22 dived, despite the prosthesis, for courage, bravery and heroism shown in the battles with the German fascist invaders, for the skill and ability to beat the enemy deserve the title Hero of the Soviet Union ", says the award sheet, signed by Hero of the Soviet Union Voronkov, commander of the 128-th Kalinin Bomber Aviation Regiment.
May. Maresyev
There is nothing in this world of chance. I am convinced of this every time. The head of the DOSAAF regional office in the Rostov region, Alexander Krasnikov, the Hero of Russia, during the opening of the month of military-patriotic work in the Rostov House of Pioneers, said that this year marks the 100 anniversary of the birth of Maresyev. May became a symbolic month for Maresyev: 20 May 1916, he was born, 9 May 1945, he celebrated the Victory, and 20 May 2001 he was gone.
For many people, he became a mother. And for me, too, because, like thousands of my peers and all other people who read the book “The Story of a Real Man,” it was all forever bumped into the memory of the extraordinary strength of the human spirit. And it is very good that it was our Russian spirit.
I still can not understand where all these people came from sincere forces, why are they more resilient than we?
It is a pity that today, as a matter of fact, the memory of Maresiev does not become comprehensive. Only 20 May, one day will be held events throughout Russia, and all year only the Volgograd region decided to honor his memory with the help of various events. Are we betraying him a second time? He did not like to remember how, after being shot down, he had to walk for many days and nights, and then crawl to his people. And when, at last, he heard the Russian language - he was asked: “Are you a German?” - he could not respond to weakness. And the people, it was also the Soviet people, were afraid to even come closer to him. They were an adult father and his young son. And only two boys got to him and dragged him to the village, Alexey was able, finally, to take a breath and fell into oblivion. True, this episode was not included in the book of Field, it became known only after a thorough investigation. The route of movement of the wounded pilot is still unknown. Not found his plane.
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