The chronicle of the Caucasian wars contains many examples of how the servicemen of the Russian imperial army, brave people, full of determination and strong spirit, in the course of hostilities sometimes performed such amazing deeds that to this day they amaze the human imagination. The largest number of such kind of "records" falls on the period of the world military conflagration of 1914-1918. Then the operations of Russian troops in the Asia Minor theater of operations in pre-revolutionary domestic historiography were called the second Caucasian war.
Instead of a heart, a fiery motor
Among the people who glorified the banners of a separate Caucasian army, there is the name of the Knight of St. George, pilot of the 4th Caucasian Corps Air Squad, Ensign Vladimir Petrov, who for the first time in the world made a record flight over a distance of more than four hundred miles, conducting aerial reconnaissance in the harshest mountain and climatic conditions of the local theater of military operations.
And he began his combat path in the Kara fortress aeronautical company, which included an aviation link, which consisted of three airplanes. Our hero entered there as a volunteer (volunteer) with the beginning of hostilities as a graduate of the Tiflis flying club.
I had to fly in the Caucasus an incredible amount. After all, as it turned out, on the 1200-kilometer frontal strip, the only acceptable and very effective way to obtain intelligence, which brought a lot of dividends to the headquarters of the Caucasian troops, was flights over the enemy's rear. This was prompted, first of all, by the combat situation of the front edge, which from the Russian side was by no means sufficiently saturated with human contingent and equipment, as required.
If in the European theater of operations of the same length only in the first months of the war the active army consisted of several million active fighters, then on the Caucasian front the number of Russian troops, even at the turn of 1916-1917, did not exceed ten times less.
That is why aerial reconnaissance has become a trump card in the hands of the command of the separate Caucasian army. Moreover, until the middle of the summer of 1917, there was no aviation at all in the battle formations of the opposing 3rd Turkish army.
Sometimes the pilots of the Caucasian corps air detachments were involved in solving combat missions unusual for them - patching holes in the front "fence", "patching up" which there was a lack of ground units. And the whole point is that a continuous line of combat positions stretching from the Black Sea coast to Hamadan (Iran), as such, according to the conditions of the mountainous desert area, was completely absent. Units and formations of the Caucasian troops were grouped into consolidated detachments where there were at least elementary wheeled roads or pack paths, and interacted with each other at the time of military operations.
The commanders had to send into battle to the devil in the middle of nowhere, where there was a shortage, or even the absence of any ground troops, unusual air reinforcements. By their very appearance, they brought chaos and disorder into the enemy's battle formations.
Russian pilots had to fly and fight on obsolete morally and physically models of combat vehicles. With the outbreak of the war, two-thirds of the troops of the Caucasian Military District went to the European theater of operations, taking with them everything that was more or less valuable in combat terms, including aircraft. The rubbish left to the pilots of the Caucasian army could not even be called airplanes. On them, not only to carry out the combat missions assigned by the command, but sometimes it was impossible to simply get up into the air without a certain amount of risk.
The troubles of the Russian pilots were not limited to this. They had to fly in high altitude conditions, which was then beyond the power of even completely perfect airplane models at that time, given their still weak tactical and technical characteristics such as carrying capacity, altitude ceiling, speed and range. And then what to say about the old stuff that the pilots of the 1st and 4th Caucasian corps air detachments had at hand?..
In one of the issues of the illustrated magazine "Niva" for 1915 in a report entitled "Pilots over the Caucasus Mountains", the following was said in this regard: "Air reconnaissance must be carried out over the ridges over eight and a half thousand feet (over three thousand meters. Ed. - Even in peacetime, air flights over such ridges would be record-breaking and would make the press all over the world talk about themselves. enemy chains at a height not exceeding an aimed rifle shot, since it is impossible to climb higher over the ridges."
We strive the flight of our birds
In one of the flights in 1915, making aerial reconnaissance of the Turkish mountain positions, the pilot of the 4th Caucasian corps air unit "freelance" Petrov flew over the enemy trenches at an altitude of only a few tens of meters. The Turks fired at him not only with rifles, but even with pistols. But Petrov coped with his task brilliantly.
Another time, the pilot, on a low level flight, overflying the enemy's patrol line in the Azon-Su river valley, brought panic into the ranks of the Turkish troops by his appearance. He calmly and efficiently, in spite of the fierce machine-gun fire from the ground, bombed the combat positions of the Turks with the help of small-sized aerial bombs, hand grenades and metal arrows. In a report from the headquarters of the Caucasian army on July 19, 1915, it was said about this: "On the Sarykamysh direction, during aerial reconnaissance, one of our pilots dropped bombs on a large camp of the Turks, leading them to frustration."
The command appreciated the military successes of Petrov, for which he was awarded the soldiers' St. George awards - a cross and a medal of the IV degree.
But real fame came to him during the Erzurum offensive operation, which ended with the storming of the Turkish fortress of the same name in January 1916. Anticipating the actions of the ground units, the Russian pilots thoroughly studied from the air the entire mountain plateau of Deve Boynu, on which eleven long-term Turkish forts were located, constituting a whole fortified area with a length of thirty-six kilometers. Our hero got the most difficult section, the high-mountainous Gurdzhi-Bogaz passage, through which units of the 2nd Turkestan corps fought their way through with battles.
Even the Soviet brigade commander N. G. Korsun, critical of his former colleagues, a participant in those long-standing events, in his operational-strategic essay "Erzurum Offensive Operation on the Caucasian Front of the World War", issued by the Military Publishing House in 1939, made the following confession: "Aviation in In winter conditions, I encountered great difficulties in choosing airfields and seats …
The pilot's service was very dangerous. The Passin Valley had an elevation above sea level of 5500 feet (1600 meters), and the belt of forts on the ridge of Deve Boynu rose significantly above it. In the thin air, airplanes could hardly take the required height and often, when flying over the Deve Boynu ridge, they almost hit the last one. After each flight, the airplane returned with numerous new bullet holes. Despite all the difficulties of aviation in these conditions, she gave the command a number of valuable photographs of the Turkish position, and especially the most commanding over the surrounding area of Fort Choban-Dede."
The final phase is entirely at the expense of our hero - Petrov. The situation was aggravated by the fact that a strong wind with snow charges blew in the face of the attacking Russian troops, limiting visibility. Worn-out airplanes with weak engines barely raked in high altitude conditions against powerful and gusty air currents. When viewed from the ground, the illusion was created that they, like large black birds, hover in one place.
Petrov flew not only for aerial reconnaissance, he helped the attacking companies to navigate the terrain from above and adjusted the fire of his artillery. His airplane hovering over the high-mountainous Fort Chobandede instilled confidence in the actions of the assault groups and became a symbol of the military success of the Russian troops in this sector of the front.
The total number of flying hours in this area during the period of the Erzurum offensive operation he had over fifty, more than anyone else. He also had the honor of being the first to inform the commander of a separate Caucasian army, General of Infantry, N. N. Yudenich, that the Turks left the fortress as soon as the Russian troops saddled its forward fortifications.
After the assault and capture of the Turkish stronghold, Petrov was given the nickname Erzurum Eagle, given to him by officers and soldiers of the 2nd Turkestan Corps. Freelance warrant officers with seniority in this first officer rank since September 27, 1915.
Record holder aerial jump
By the beginning of 1917, the Caucasian army finally began to receive samples of modern weapons and allies from the domestic military-industrial complex. By this time, Warrant Officer Petrov had switched to a brand new French-made Codron Zh-4 twin-engine. At this time, according to intelligence received at Yudenich's headquarters, the Turks began to transfer the 2nd Army from the Mesopotamian Front to help their Caucasian grouping. The latter was crowned with the laurels of the winner of the British. The Turks succeeded in defeating the British Expeditionary Force in Iraq, capturing its trapped remnants in the city of Kut el Amar along with its commanding general, Townsend.
The 2nd Mesopotamian army began to concentrate in the rear of the 3rd army grouping of the Turks on the Erzinjan-Ognot-Vastan line. In this connection, General Yudenich assigned the commander of the 4th Caucasian Corps Air Squadron to lift up N. I. Limansky a combat mission: to carry out, as far as possible, long-range aerial reconnaissance. Until that very limiting distance, which the Russian pilots flew, did not exceed two hundred kilometers. At that time, this was not enough.
The candidacy of the performer did not even have to be discussed. The choice of the commander unconditionally fell on Warrant Officer Petrov. On a mission with him flew observer pilot Lieutenant Boris Mladkovsky, among other things, combining the position of a gunner. The same agents warned the Russian side that the Turkish reinforcements following from Mesopotamia had their own aviation. A meeting with enemy fighters is not excluded.
And so, at dawn on August 13, 1917, a Russian reconnaissance aircraft took off from one of the field airfields, lost among the mountain spurs. The daredevils flew into complete obscurity. There were no detailed maps of the area, only a compass was available from navigation devices … The front line flew over without any incident, apart from the fact that the Turks fired at the airplane from small arms.
Already after an hour of flight, the observer's map turned out to be painted with symbols. It all began with a pack mountain battery, which they spotted on the outskirts of an unknown village, near the front line. Then they saw camel caravans loaded with ammunition and shell boxes and a long belt of Turkish infantry, dusting in marching formation. In the area of the villages of Ognot and Chilik-Kigi, the pilots were finally convinced of the veracity of the intelligence information. All the surroundings were overrun by troops with artillery and carts.
The Turks tried to shoot down a low-flying Russian airplane by firing furious fire on it. But the Russian pilots did not remain in debt. On a low level flight, they caught up with fear on the Turkish cavalry of the Suvari, which at first was mistaken for the cavalry of the Kurdish militias. On the way home they ran into an enemy airplane. And although the fuel was running out, Petrov went on a combat course, deciding to give the Turk a fight. But the latter did not begin to get involved in an air duel, turning away.
They sat down at their airfield with empty tanks, one might say, to be honest, barely reaching the strip marked with flags. They no longer hoped to see them alive …
The information delivered was of the utmost importance. In the detachment, colleagues, having measured the flight route on the map, calculated that it was more than four hundred miles! Nobody in the Caucasus has ever made such an ultra-long-distance air travel, moreover, in combat conditions!..
