Ascent from the Il-2 lake. Pilot junior lieutenant V. I. Skopintsev, gunner-radio operator Red Navy V. N. Humennoy
Recently, search engines have often found domestic aircraft and tanks that were damaged during battles and for many years rested on the bottom of lakes or in swamps. By identifying engines, personal belongings of pilots and tankers, it is possible to establish who fought in this technique and died.
Domestic attack aircraft Il-2 during the Great Patriotic War suffered significant losses in comparison with other aircraft. This is explained by the fact that, according to the tactics of their use, they had to attack the Nazis at low altitudes. The Nazis even fired pistols at these aircraft, and in the engine compartments of individual vehicles, technicians sometimes found the caps of fascist officers, which were sucked in during steep dives. During the period 1941-1945, 34,943 of these excellent aircraft were produced, more than 350 regiments were formed, losses amounted to 23,600 aircraft.
According to statistics, it was believed that one irrecoverable loss of the Il-2 attack aircraft fell on 35 sorties. The losses of the pilots of these legendary aircraft during the Great Patriotic War exceeded 7,500 people. The Il-2 was not only a "flying tank", but also a "betonbamber", as the Nazis dubbed it for its high survivability.
Search engines, discovering combat vehicles of the Great Patriotic War, try not only to raise them, but also, after identification through the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, send letters and personal belongings of the crew members to relatives. Among the population of Russia, these messages have already received their name "Letters from the Front". Very distant relatives of crew members of combat vehicles often receive them, time takes its toll - close relatives also die. But this is always a significant event for friends and relatives, such letters are kept, shown to acquaintances, they are proud of them.
Junior lieutenant V. I. Skopintsev and the gunner-radio operator Red Navy V. N. Humennoy
Now let's imagine that such a letter would currently arrive at the house of one of the residents of Ukraine. Quite recently I published in VO the essay “The Price of Betrayal or Incompetence”, in which I tried to reveal the reasons for the tragedy that took place in this former republic of ours. There were more than 10 enterprises in the Ukraine subordinate to the Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of Radio Industry, which I headed. They employed 95 thousand specialists. Currently, these enterprises have ceased to exist. The defense enterprises of the other 8 defense ministries in Ukraine reportedly have virtually scaled back their work. Gorbachev and the drunkard of "All Russia" did not imagine that they were destroying not only the country, but also turned the population of Ukraine "at least 95% of its inhabitants into everyday idiots" ("VO" from 04.24.2016 "About the best country in the world, entertaining mechanics and pollock tail”and enemies of Russia.
What about the Il-2 of junior lieutenant V. I. Skopintseva found himself at the bottom of Lake Krivoye? On November 25, 1943, two squadrons of the 46th Aviation Regiment of the Northern Fleet were tasked with escorting fighters: "to attack the Finnish airfield Luostari, where aviation units of the 5th Luftwaffe Air Fleet (Icemeer squadron) were stationed, which fought in the skies over Murmansk."
View of the Luostari airfield in 1943
As a result of the mission, more than 10 fascist aircraft, 6 anti-aircraft points, 13 fighters were destroyed. But the Il-2, piloted by a junior lieutenant, was damaged. Before the Vaenga airfield V. I. Skopintsev could not hold out and landed the damaged attack aircraft on the ice of Lake Krivoye. Having pulled out the wounded gunner-radio operator, the junior lieutenant carried him on his shoulders to his own for more than 3 kilometers. After the hospital, they fought together until the end of the war.
In 2012, the search engines found IL-2 in the Kryvoy Lake. When the numbers on this car were identified, the crew members were identified. By the time the Il-2 was lifted from a seventeen-meter depth, Elena Viktorovna Skopintseva, the daughter of pilot V. I. Skopintsev. And then the plane appeared out of the water. E. V. Skopintseva closed her eyes with a handkerchief and mentally imagined that her father was rising from the cockpit. The ranks of veterans are shrinking every day. And we can only remember the departed, as well as be proud of their exploits during the Great Patriotic War.
By the nature of my activity, I had to participate in the creation of airfields in our country and in the countries of the Warsaw Pact. At present, Russia has over a thousand airfields with landing sites. In particular, in the Murmansk region: Rogachevo, Murmansk, Kirovsk-Apatity, Monchegorsk, Olenya, Severomorsk-1, Severomorsk-2, Severomorsk-3, Kanevka, Krasnoshchelye, Lovozero, Sosnovka, Tetrino, Umba, Chavanga, Chapoma Afrikan, Alakurt, Guba Gryaznaya, Kachalovka, Kilpyavr, Kirovsk, Koshka-Yavr, Luostari (cosmonaut Y. A. Gagarin began his service here, and this airfield became part of the USSR in 1945), Thaw Stream, Umbozero, Khariusny, Arctic (settlement Rosta), Arctic (Molochny settlement), White Sea, Vaengi, Zapadnaya Litsa, Kildin, Taibola, Kovdor, Ponoy, Pummanki (He defended the formations of our torpedo boats. I published the essay “First Attack” in VO), Salmijärvi, Teriberka, Ura-Guba, Shongui. There are more than 15 thousand airfields in the United States, more than 4 thousand in Brazil, and in China by 2030 the number of airfields will exceed 2 thousand.
Experiencing together with E. V. Skopintseva, the moment of lifting the IL-2 from Lake Krivoye and sharing her feelings, I remembered how my daughter met me after flights in the early 60s. NII-33 had its own flight squadron. In the winter of 1964, as a co-pilot of the LI-2, I had to work out the automatic landing system. I returned home in a flying fur suit and high fur boots. Their daughter called them boots-dogs and always hugged them. It is touching to remember this now.
