shot down
Callsign “Maestro”
Vitaly Ivanovich Popkov, the future Maestro and future Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, went to the front in early May 1942 after several reports.
From the very beginning, the young pilot’s service did not work out. He was almost immediately appointed “eternal orderly”. Vitaly Ivanovich appreciated humor and jokes, and he himself was not a blunder, to laugh. Pilots in one liberated village picked up a puppy, and the future twice hero taught him to carry out combat commands. Continue reading
Member of the Great Patriotic War
Born May 1, 1922 in Moscow in a working class family. My father worked in a special purpose garage at the Council of People’s Commissars. When he was transferred to work in government facilities in the Caucasus, from 1927 the family lived in Sochi and Matsesta, from 1934 in Gagra. In 1938 they returned to Moscow. He graduated from 10 classes at school number 94 in Moscow in 1939. At the same time he graduated from a glider school in Gagra (1937, although according to publications on the Internet, he received a certificate of a glider pilot at the age of 12[4]). In 1940 he graduated from the Krasnopresnensky (according to other sources Tushinsky) flying club. Continue reading
What were they like, those “old men” who went into battle?
The war for the twice Hero of the Soviet Union Guard Captain Gulaev quite unexpectedly ended in early September 1944. By decision of the command, he was forcibly sent to study. Colonel-General Gulaev with an inspection in one of the units of the 10th Air Defense Army.
Formally, the reason for the withdrawal from the front of one of the best fighters, the fastest and most successful pilot of World War II was the desire to save the illustrious ace by sending him to study at the N Air Force Engineering Academy E. Zhukovsky. Continue reading
