Black wings of Spain...
Medal "Participant in the Spanish Civil War" in an award box, on the original ribbon with an authentic hairpin. Bronze, gilding, blackening. Kleymo A.M. Excellent collectible condition. The medal, simply…

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Clubs Alexander Fedorovich Twice Hero of the Soviet Union
Klubov Alexander Fedorovich - deputy commander of a fighter aviation squadron (1943), assistant commander for airborne rifle service of the 16th Guards Sandomierz Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 9th Guards…

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Fighter pilot
In 1940 he entered the Chuguev Military Pilot School. After graduating from college, he was left in it for six months as an instructor. In December of the same year…

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Soviet pilot twice Hero of the Union.
Sergei Gritsevets lived a short but unusually bright life and left a noticeable mark in the history of Russian aviation. The son of a poor Belarusian peasant, he was born…

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Lieutenant Colonel

Sky tanker

Air Marshal Efimov Alexander Nikolaevich is one of the most famous pilots of the Russian Air Force. At the age of twenty-two, he was twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. During the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet attack pilot made over two hundred successful sorties on the Il-2 aircraft, nicknamed by the Nazis “Black Death” or “Meat Grinder”. Alone with his shooter and as part of a group, he shot down seven German aircraft in air battles and destroyed more than eighty at airfields. Continue reading

What were they like, those “old men” who went into battle?

Around every celebrity, especially if she is surrounded by a halo of accomplished feats, a lot of oral rumors inevitably arise, gradually turning into legends. Naturally, such a legendary pilot as Nikolai Skomorokhov could not avoid this fate. Leading the Parade of WinnersSource Whatever they told about him! And he carried the Banner of Victory at the Parade, and cruelly avenged the death of his friend, finding and destroying both culprits, and he went through the whole war without a single scratch, and Vysotsky dedicated songs about pilots to him: Someone sparingly and clearly Counted us The hours of our life are short, Like a concrete strip, – And on it – who crashed, Who – took off forever … Continue reading

Double, Triple and Quadruple Heroes

The concept of “twice, thrice, four times Hero” today seems somewhat strange, probably it would be more correct to talk about awarding several Gold Star medals. But this is a fact of our history, and it cannot be bypassed.
For the first time, three pilots became Heroes twice for the feats of arms shown in battles with the Japanese interventionists on the Khalkhin Gol River in 1939: Major Sergei Ivanovich Gritsevets and Colonel Grigory Panteleevich Kravchenko (Decree of August 29), as well as commander Yakov Vladimirovich Smushkevich (Decree dated 17 November). The fate of all three was tragic. Continue reading

Rechkalov Grigory Andreevich
Born on February 9, 1920 in the village of Khudyakovo, now the village of Zaikovo, Sverdlovsk Region, in a peasant family. He graduated from the 6 classes of an incomplete…

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Meeting with Zhukov. “We shoot few scoundrels!”
Meeting with Zhukov. “We shoot few scoundrels!” It was with Stalingrad and Marshal Zhukov that one of the most unpleasant and humiliating memories of the pilot Popkov about the war…

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