The feat of our soldiers, accomplished during the Great Patriotic War, will always remain a feat. Every day spent at the front was a feat. Every attack with a rifle at the ready deserves respect and memory. Try to imagine what it means to rise above the ground and go on the attack on a shower of lead flying right in your face. Imagine a burning tank, and in this iron shell, which heats up to white - yourself! Imagine your hands gripping the steering wheel and the throttle sector of an airplane, which already has an engine burning, and in the headset's headphones through the crackle of static discharges you hear: - You are burning, burning! Jump! But you cannot answer due to the lack of a transmitter on board the aircraft. And under you is the territory occupied by the hated enemy.
The reason for writing this story was the discovery of the crash site of the Il-2 aircraft and the death of two crews of the 872nd assault aviation regiment of the 281st assault aviation division of the 14th Air Army of the Volkhov Front …
In mid-August 2007, one of the local hunters led the fighters of the Jaguar search detachment from the Nurma village of the Tosnensky district under the leadership of Pyotr Moseichuk to the Ereminskoye swamp area, which is located on the border of two districts of the Leningrad region - Tosnensky and Kirovsky. The places are remote, there are few berries and mushrooms in these swamps, the locals bypass these places, and hunters, hunting for game, mainly move along the ditches that were dug back in the 50-60s for land reclamation. Therefore, the crash site of the plane and its wreckage on the surface of the swamp remained undiscovered for a long time.
Moseichuk Petr Petrovich
Arriving at the place, the search engines determined that in front of them were the wreckage of the Soviet Il-2 attack aircraft. On the surface of the swamp were scattered the remnants of the tail and wings of the aircraft. A part of the left plane protruded from the funnel completely covered with moss.
IL-2 crash site
From all that he saw, it was concluded that the place of the fall was not subjected to any kind of interference, in other words, looting for non-ferrous metal. Search engines constantly have to deal with the fact that in the post-war years, many local residents earned additional income for themselves, collecting aircraft wrecks for scrap metal. But at this point, a picture of the tragedy of sixty years ago appeared before their eyes. The wreckage of the plane was located exactly in those places where they were thrown by the force of the explosion when the plane fell. It seemed that on this place, indeed more than sixty years, no man's foot has stepped.
Beginning of work
During the first examination of the crash site and the wreckage of the aircraft, it was not possible to establish the date of its death, even approximately, since it was not possible to find any significant circumstantial evidence. (Indirect evidence that helps to direct researchers on the right path to the goal of establishing the fate of the deceased aircraft and its crew are various components and structures of the aircraft, its onboard armament, on which the date of their manufacture was stamped. with the release date of 1943, it becomes clear that this aircraft could not have died in 1941 or 1942. This reduces the time frame in which the found aircraft could have died. Knowing the place of the plane crash, its geographic location, we can tie this place to the settlements located in the district, thereby checking exactly those planes that are indicated in the combat reports of those killed in the area of these settlements.) Unfortunately, the first survey of the crash site of such settlements. there was little indirect evidence. We became aware of the type of aircraft - the Il-2 attack aircraft, and the place of its death - the Ereminskoye swamp, located in the triangle of settlements Shapki - Maluksa - Belovo tract. However, due to the fact that in the area of these settlements they were listed as dead in the period from. 1941 to 1944 a large number of Il-2 aircraft, we could not even say approximately which part the aircraft could belong to.
IL-2 1943 (type ЗМ) - double
Every year, search engines from Novosibirsk, the "Courage, Heroism and Will" detachment, pupils of the Siberian Cadet Corps, under the leadership of Natalya Izotovna Nekrasova, come to our Leningrad Region. For more than 10 years, Novosibirsk residents, together with the search engines of the Leningrad Region, have been taking part in expeditions to search for and recover the wreckage of Soviet aircraft. This time we also invited our friends, telling Natalya Izotovna and her guys about the discovery of the Nurmen search engines in the Eremensky swamp. The Siberians agreed to help us. And on August 28, 2007, a combined expedition consisting of the Novosibirsk "MGIV" and the St. Petersburg "Rubin" went to the place of the plane crash. Coming out to the crash site, and quickly deploying a small camp and a bivouac, the guys got down to work. First, moss was removed, which overgrown the entire surface of a large crater in the swamp. It took several hours of hard work. Constantly among the moss and roots came across various small fragments of the aircraft, its tail. After cleaning the funnel from the moss, they began to pump out water. A small portable pump worked, however, the emerging peat had to be constantly selected by buckets. To do this, most of the search engines divided into two groups and began to transfer buckets filled with water and peat along a chain. The depth of the swamp turned out to be no more than one and a half meters, therefore, having reached the bottom of the swamp, the guys took up shovels. After a while, clay mixed with sand and water began to turn into sandy loam, and quicksand formed in the funnel.
Work at the crash site
It was not possible to achieve a complete absence of water in the funnel: water was constantly coming from the swamp, it was a tedious drizzling rain. Despite these difficulties, a lot was done on the first day of work. The entire area of the funnel was completely cleared of moss and roots, it was possible to deepen more than two meters in one of the parts of the funnel. And, most importantly, during the analysis of the clay from the funnel, two fragments of a human skull were found, which indicated that the plane's crew died along with the plane.
ShVAK cannon cartridges
Among the wreckage of the aircraft, sleeves from the ShVAK aviation cannon of 20 mm caliber, dated 1942, began to come across, and this made it possible to narrow the time frame for determining the date of the death of the aircraft. It became clear that this aircraft would no longer be listed in the losses in 1941. On the first day, another interesting find was made. Washing out the fragments of the aircraft's armor plates from clay and peat, on one of them we found number 39 painted with white paint. It was in this way that even at the plant where the aircraft were manufactured, the workers numbered the removable parts of the armor protection of the engine and the aircraft cabin, the same method was passed on to the technicians in the regiments, when they were doing renovations. Basically, in this way, the serial and assembly numbers of the aircraft were applied. So, having found its duplicated serial number on the wreckage of the Il-2 aircraft's armor, we could establish the fate of the crew of the deceased aircraft. But the figures found also caused a little bewilderment, since in our practice of searching for and recovering the wreckage of Il-2 aircraft, we mainly encountered applied four-digit numbers, and not two-digit ones. Still, it could be assumed that these two digits 39 were the last in the numbering of the aircraft's serial number, and therefore we began to carefully study the lists of aircraft killed in this area, which at the end of their number could have the numbers 39.
Studying the information collected on the basis of archival data on the fallen Il-2 aircraft, we found two aircraft that had the number 39 at the end of their serial number:
- Il-2 aircraft No. 1879439 from the 57th Assault Aviation Regiment of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet Air Force, a crew consisting of pilot Sergeant Valery Yaroshevsky and air gunner Junior Sergeant Vasily Mikhailov, who on February 17, 1943, after an attack by enemy artillery batteries in the area north of the village of Nikolskoye, disappeared from view. The other crews did not observe the disappearance of the aircraft. In the act of investigating flight accidents in units of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, the fate of this crew was recorded as follows: “presumably shot down by enemy anti-aircraft artillery in the target area”;
- IL-2 aircraft No. 1874839 from the 7th Guards Attack Aviation Regiment of the KBF Air Force (formerly the 57th Assault Aviation Regiment of the KBF Air Force), as part of the crew: the commander of the guard sergeant Yuri Botvinnikov and the air gunner of the guard petty officer Yevgeny Kotelnikov, who on April 8, 1943 during bombing the Fornosovo road - the Stekolny patrol was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft artillery in a dive, and fell on enemy territory south of Krasny Bor.
The crews of Il-2 attack aircraft are preparing to take off
But the above crews were listed as dead at a fairly large distance from the location of the aircraft wreckage, although they were listed as dead in the Tosno District of the Leningrad Region. It could be assumed that the first crew of Yaroshevsky-Mikhailov, knocked out or attacked by enemy fighters, managed to reach the Shapka-Maluks area and fall in this area. However, the belonging of the found aircraft to these crews was doubtful.
Again, the number we found could have been an assembly number, more precisely, the aircraft assembly number at the factory, and therefore could not have been in the archival documents.
Funnel work
The second day of work, despite the fact that we basically had to go deeper along the entire diameter of the funnel and spend hours pumping out the incoming water with a pump, and scooping up quicksand from sand and clay with buckets, provided additional information. The first find that day was the finding of heavily deformed and broken parts of a 12.7 mm UBT heavy machine gun. This find made it possible to accurately determine that the wreckage of the discovered aircraft belonged to a modification of the Il-2 two-seat attack aircraft.
In addition, expanding the diameter of the funnel, the guys discovered a medal "For the Defense of Leningrad" torn off from the bar and badly dented. This medal was approved only in December 1942, and began to appear in the troops no earlier than May 1943. This means that the crews of the naval aviation had nothing to do with the aircraft we discovered.
While cleaning the edges of the funnel, we found the remains of two high fur boots of one of the plane's crew members, and in them fragments of legs torn off from a terrible explosion. Throughout the working day, badly broken human bones of the pelvis, legs and arms were constantly found in one of the edges of the funnel. From under the moss, scraps of a flight helmet with one earpiece were removed, and in it fragments of a skull … Among the twisted aluminum came across torn lines and scraps of parachute silk. This meant that the plane exploded when it fell. Fragments and fuses from 100-kilogram aerial bombs found in the wreckage indicated that the bombs on board the aircraft detonated when they fell.
The third day was decisive. In the morning, on the railway platform in Malukse, we met search engines from Novosibirsk who had come to the rescue.
… The included motor-pump rattles monotonously. The usual chains of people in camouflage pass from hand to hand buckets filled with peat slurry. The women - doctors of the expedition, who are also cooks in combination - are dexterous at the fire. We gently wipe the fragments of the plane's armor with moss from the funnel. Careful so as not to erase the paint that covered the steel in the distant war year. And here is good luck, on one of the armor plates the yellow paint number is clearly visible: 18/22.
This is exactly the plane number! Now, after returning from the expedition, we are guaranteed to establish the crew of the aircraft, even if there are no documents with the dead. Unfortunately, there was no such number in the printout of the dead Il-2, made by us for work in the forest.
Closer to the middle of the day, at a depth of more than three meters, we reach the cockpit of the air gunner. The wooden frame of the aircraft fuselage made of plywood and delta wood, like a cocoon, clamped the body of the air gunner. The lower armor plates pressed the deceased to the protection plate of the central gas tank. Digging around the perimeter, we find two rocket launchers and an exhaust canopy of the parachute. With our hands, through a small layer of sandy loam, we probe the body of a still unknown aircraft crew member. We dig depressions in one of the edges of the funnel and drain the constantly flowing water there. The body of the air gunner is in front of us. We are trying to lift it with our hands, but we cannot do it: the uniforms soaked in water and the parachute add extra pounds. We pass the rope, fixed on the winch, through the parachute straps, we raise the body from the broken cockpit. Then we take a raincoat-tent and put it under the remains of the deceased. With six of us we can hardly transfer the heavy raincoat-tent upstairs, into the hands of the receiving children …
Air gunner - defender of Il-2 attack aircraft
Comprehending what is happening, we begin to understand that in the first days of the expedition we found the remains of an aircraft pilot. It turned out that the body of the pilot was most damaged in the explosion, and the air gunner, most likely killed or wounded while still in the air, was at the bottom of the cockpit when the plane fell, so his body was not severely damaged in the explosion.
And here is the body of the airplane gunner on the surface. Carefully release it from the parachute straps by unfastening the carbines. He is dressed in a light brown technical jumpsuit with cowhide boots on his feet. From under the overalls, a woolen tunic with a stand on the collar (sample 1943) is visible. Unbuttoning the buttons. On the shoulders are the shoulder straps of a private with a large button with an asterisk, which gleams brightly, reflecting the rays of the sun. The main thing is the documents! After all, if they find themselves at the shooter, then today we will know his name and will be able to say what kind of crew died here.
Carefully take out personal belongings soaked in swamp water. The guys are talking quietly behind their backs. For many, the discovery that after more than sixty years, the human body can survive. Among Novosibirsk residents there are those who first came to the search expedition, for them everything that happens is a shock. In the patch pocket of the overalls we find a soldier's cap, behind it is a folded newspaper. Aviation gasoline played the role of a good preservative, everything is saturated with it, and therefore it is possible to completely unfold the newspaper with your hands. We read the name - "Leningradskaya Pravda". Graduation day - July 23, 1943. Blimey! We are talking loudly: it means that this crew died in the summer of 1943! And, most likely, during the Sinyavinskaya or Mginskaya offensive operations. The main losses of our aviation during these operations were in the area of the settlements of Sinyavino, Mga, Voronovo, Porechye, Slavyanka …
We continue to examine the personal belongings of the deceased air gunner. Here is a small inlaid mouthpiece, two boxes of matches, a spare red star for the headdress. Among the papers there are two envelopes, and enclosed letters are visible in them. Who are they from?.. Most likely, from relatives or friends. One of the envelopes bears a postmark and a stamp “verified by military censorship”. Two small notebooks are empty, no notes are visible on any sheet. On a small piece of paper, partially torn, pencil notes are visible - these are encodings for communication. We read the words: land, guidance station, Sandil, Kolosar, Kipuya - these are the names of our airfields, we read further: division commander, command post, tanks …
German convoy under attack of Il-2
A small booklet in hardcover turns out to be a cadet's book, for some reason there is no first sheet where the owner's data is recorded. The pages begin with a scribbled part: date, flight number, time, flight tasks for the next day, errors noticed by the cadet, cadet errors and instructions from the instructor … Unfortunately, all the pages turn out to be empty, none of them even show the strokes from the entries … Among the pages we find the coupons for breakfast, lunch and dinner enclosed there, on all of them there is an inscription indicating the food norm - flight coupons.
In addition to letters, the purse contains two certificates. Gently picking up with the sharp tip of a knife, open the soggy paper. The text is not visible, but the stamp is clearly read in the upper left corner: USSR Berd technical school of agricultural mechanization of the NARKOMSOVKHOZOV …
Documents found at the air gunner
Berdsky? This is the city of Berdsk in the Novosibirsk region! The news that the deceased graduated from the Berdsk technical school in the Novosibirsk region spreads with great speed. There is genuine surprise on the faces of the Novosibirsk people. Arriving in the Leningrad region from Siberia, several thousand miles from your home and find the remains of your fellow countryman! The girls from Novosibirsk have tears in their eyes.
We carefully analyze the second certificate. This form is typed on a typewriter. The lines for filling are written in special ink, so we read the text right on the spot: “… Prescription. To: Red Army soldier Chuprov K. A. I suggest that on June 13, 1943, you leave at the disposal of the commander of the 281st assault aviation division for further service. Arrival date June 14, 1943. Reason: Order of the 5th department of UV and BP of the Air Force. The commander of the training aviation squadron, Major Rybakov ….
Here it is, it happened! We know the name of the dead air gunner. But the name of the deceased is perplexing! The fact is that Private Kuzma Alekseevich Chuprov was an air gunner in the crew of pilot Gury Maksimov, who, as we know from various memoirs published after the war, sent his burning plane to an enemy ammunition depot in the Borodulino area. This is a well-known crew for people involved in the history of aviation during the Great Patriotic War! We are in a daze! How so? Only after returning to the city, having studied archival documents and memoirs, we will be able to reveal this secret! But there is no doubt, we really found the crew of Maksimov - Chuprov
The Germans inspect the IL-2 shot down at Stalingrad
A week later, on the next weekend, the combined expedition of the Vysota detachments led by Viktor Dudin, Rubin led by Nikolai Mikhailov and the Kingisepp Outpost led by Viktor Kostyukovich raised the fragments of the engine and gearbox of the downed aircraft from the bottom of the funnel. The force of the explosion during the fall of the aircraft was so great that the front four pistons, together with the cooling sleeves, from both rows of the engine were simply pounded into small pieces. Since the plane fell with the engine running, the gearbox with the propeller was torn off, and they were in the funnel much higher than the engine, all three propeller blades were torn off and severely distorted.
Returning from the forest, we immediately sit down to study the available materials and documents. And this story turns out to be no less exciting than the work that was carried out in the swamp when lifting the wreckage of the plane.
Now let's turn to the scientific work that was prepared by a whole team of employees of the Institute of Military History of the USSR Ministry of Defense. This work is called “On the Volkhov Front.1941-1944 ", was published by the publishing house" Science "in 1982. Here is what they say about the feat of the crew of Maksimov - Chuprov by military historians: “… In the fierce battles with the Nazis, the immortal feat was performed by the crew of the Il-2 attack aircraft, consisting of pilot Sergeant G. N. Maksimov and gunner-radio operator Private K. A. Chuprova. In the first six days of the operation, they conducted 13 successful sorties. During the second flight on July 22, 1943, the plane dropped bombs on the target, and then fired rockets. But as a result of a direct hit of an anti-aircraft projectile in the left plane, a huge hole was formed in it. Despite the serious damage to the aircraft, the crew made another attack and returned to the airfield on their own. During the 13th sortie, the crew participated in the attack on enemy troops and equipment in the Borodulin area. At the exit from the attack, the attack aircraft caught fire from a direct hit from an anti-aircraft projectile. The decision was made instantly. The plane, engulfed in flames, turned sharply and crashed into ammunition depots. Fighting friends watched a huge explosion, accompanied by smoke and flames … ".
Let's turn to the documents stored in the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. In the book of accounting for the losses of personnel of the 281st assault aviation division, we read:
Pilot Maksimov G. N. 1940
- Maksimov Guriy Nikolaevich, sergeant, pilot of the 872th ShAP. Born in 1919: Ivanovo region, the city of Vladimir. Mission: Vladimir RVC. On July 27, 1943, he died while carrying out a combat mission. Crashed on a burning plane into an enemy's ammunition depot. Family address: sister Maksimova Galina Nikolaevna, Ivanovo region, city of Vladimir st. Railway 9;
Red Army soldier Chuprov K. A.
- Chuprov Kuzma Alekseevich, Red Army soldier, air gunner of the 872th ShAP. Born in 1925, Born: Altai Territory Bystro-Istoksky District, Verkhne-Tula village. Called by the Bystro-Istokskiy RVC. On July 27, 1943, he died while performing a combat mission with pilot Maximov. Family address: Chuprova's mother Anastasia Yakovlevna. Novosibirsk region Novosibirsk region, the village of Verkhne-Tula.
In the lists of losses of the 281st Assault Division for July 27, 1943, another crew of the 872nd Assault Aviation Regiment, which consisted of pilot junior lieutenant Ivan Panteleevich Lyapin and air gunner senior sergeant Mikhail Mikhailovich Kuzmin, is listed as dead. Opposite their names, the same wording is written: they did not return from a combat mission. Why are we talking about the second crew who died on the same day, when the crew of Maksimov-Chuprov died: both crews are listed as not returning on July 27, 1943.
The next document of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, which we studied, was the logbook of the engineer of the 281st ShAD, in which all losses of the division's materiel, breakdowns, forced landings and other incidents were recorded every day:
“… July 27, 1943.
- Airplane IL-2. Crew pilot junior lieutenant Maksimov, air gunner sergeant Chuprov.
- Airplane IL-2. Crew pilot junior lieutenant Lyapin, air gunner sergeant Kuzmin.
- Objective: Free hunting for reconnaissance and destruction of enemy manpower and equipment on the road sections: Shapki - Lyuban, Mga - Shapki, Tosno - Lyuban, Lezier - Nurma.
- Place of occurrence: not known.
- Circumstances of the incident and reason: did not return from a combat mission.
- Condition of the aircraft and crew: not known.
- Note: did not return from a combat mission ….
From the above, we can conclude that the crews of Maksimov-Chuprov and Lyapin-Kuzmin performed the same combat mission - free hunting along the roads where the German units were moving. Both crews did not return from the combat mission. Some time later, it becomes known that the crew of Maksimov-Chuprov sent their plane, hit by anti-aircraft fire, to the enemy ammunition depot, and these documents do not indicate the place where the ram was made and the source of information, how did it become known about the ram?
IL-2 in attack
The ram was! This is confirmed by a resident of the city of Lyuban Leonid Aleksandrovich Semyonov and his brother, who were still boys during the war with their parents in the village of Borodulino. Here, perhaps, it is necessary to explain to the reader about the village of Borodulino itself. The fact is that even in the pre-war years, in the fields near the village of Borodulino, which still exists and is located just on the Lyuban-Shapki road, 2 km north of the city of Lyuban, Tosnensky district of the Leningrad region, there was a small airfield. With the seizure of this territory by the Germans in August 1941, this airfield was re-equipped, and became one of the numerous centers of concentration of enemy aircraft near Leningrad and belonged to the so-called "Siversky air center". It is clear that the airfield itself and its surroundings were well equipped with anti-aircraft batteries. Both enemy fighter aircraft and bomber aircraft were based at the airfield. Borodulinsky airfield until January 1944 was marked on the maps of the Soviet General Staff as the primary target for destruction. How many Soviet aircraft crews were killed in bombing attacks on this airfield? This is probably known only to God alone.
Explosion of "Heinkel" struck during the Il-2 attack
So, in the summer of 2006, we talked with Leonid Alexandrovich and his brother. The fact is that Leonid Aleksandrovich himself, having heard about the work of the search detachment to search for downed Soviet planes, found the search engines and said that in the Borodulino area he saw the wreckage of the plane. It was in 1945, when he and his family returned from the forced German evacuation to Estonia. We wandered together for a long time in the swampy forest near the village, and only then it turned out that the plane, the wreckage of which Leonid Alexandrovich had seen in 1945, was German and was dug out by an excavator during reclamation work in this area. When we returned to the village, and Leonid Aleksandrovich told a lot of interesting things about life in Borodulino during the war under occupation, I asked: "And about the land ram, committed in the summer of 1943, have you heard anything …?" Leonid Alexandrovich's answer amazed me: “Yes, what are you? It was so "shandarahnulo" that the Germans walked around with a lot of money for two days. All the women in the village washed their trousers …!”. Leonid Alexandrovich showed us the place where the Germans had hangars and caponiers. It is clear that local residents were simply not allowed to the airfield, they basically drove to level the airfield after our bombing. But boys are boys, they were interested in everything, and the airfield with its airfield adjoined the village. Unfortunately, my grandfather could not tell us the details of this feat, since during the bombing all the local population always hid in basements, where they were evicted by the Germans or in dug-out dugouts, in their gardens. The fact is that, according to Leonid Alexandrovich, during the bombing, the village also got it, often our Russian bombs fell on houses …
A blow to the accumulation of equipment. Photo from the IL-2 cockpit
Based on the stories of local residents of the village of Borodulino, we knew for sure that there was a fact of accomplishing a heroic feat - a fire ram in Borodulino! Now, the question was asking itself. So who rammed the Germans' ammunition depot in Borodulino? After all, we found the wreckage of the plane of the Maksimov-Chuprov crew 24 kilometers north of Borodulino. But, this does not almost implore the feat accomplished by the crew of Guriy Maksimov and Kuzma Chuprov. No, it didn't seem to you! They also accomplished the feat! Only one fact of death in the terrible sky of war is already a feat. Judging by the results of the search expedition to lift the wreckage of their aircraft, we can say with confidence that they were shot down during the attack on the Borodulino airfield …
The bombardment armament of their Il-2 aircraft consisted of two 20-mm ShVAK cannons, two machine guns of 7, 62 mm ShKAS that were in the wings of the aircraft, six rockets of 82 mm caliber, which were also located under the wings, and four 100 kg bombs. So, when lifting the debris from the swamp, we found fragments of a hundred-kilogram bombs, which detonated when the plane fell, but did not find a single fragment from rockets, but only their guides that were terribly twisted from the explosion. This just suggests that the first approach to the target, just like in the manual for the Red Army assault aviation, was performed using rockets! The second approach was to be performed with the release of air bombs, then, if the situation was favorable, the crew had to storm with cannons and machine guns. So it was written in the manual for attack pilots, when bombing the enemy. Moreover, when lifting the wreckage of the aircraft, we constantly came across spent cartridges from the UBT machine gun, which was standing at the air gunner of the aircraft. After shooting, these shells were dropped into a special canvas bag, which was in the gunner's cockpit, and the scraps of which we also found in the funnel. This could also indicate that the air gunner Kuzma Chuprov, when leaving the attack of the aircraft, fired at the target from his rear cockpit. …
Air battle
Operational bulletin No. 303, headquarters 281 ShAD, Vyachkovo village by 23.00 July 27, 1943.
872 ShAP in the period 9.04–20.20 July 27, 1943, with five Il-2 aircraft, under the cover of 4 fighters for each pair, using the free hunt method, they searched for and destroyed the enemy's mobile railway and vehicles on the roads: Mga, Shapki, Lyuban, Tosno, Lyuban, Lezier, Nurma and destroyed enemy fire weapons and manpower in an area of an unnamed height 1 km south-west of Porechye.
6 aircraft made 10 sorties. Flight time 9 hours 10 minutes.
Ammunition expended: 12 FAB-100, 18 FAB-50, 6 AO-25, 34 RS-82, 1000 ShVAK, 700 ShKAS.
Destroyed and damaged: 4 guns of different caliber, 4 mortars. Scattered and partly destroyed up to 30 enemy soldiers and officers.
Losses: did not return from combat mission 2 Il-2, pilots - sergeant Maksimov and junior lieutenant Lyapin, air gunners - sergeants Chuprov and Kuzmin. According to the reports of the covering fighters, it is known: in the Borodulino area, Sergeant Maksimov's leading Il-2 plane was shot down by fire, the latter turned the plane around and sent it to the enemy's ammunition depot, blew it up. The crew - Sergeant Maksimov and Sergeant Chuprov - were killed.
The second Il-2 plane of junior lieutenant Lyapin turned around and went north. Results are unknown. Accompanying fighters at this time were associated with the battle. 6th FV-190.
Now it becomes clear why the fighter pilots could not trace the fate of the second Il-2 aircraft, which left the target in a northern direction. They were fighting an air battle! Moreover, as they say in the operational report, four fighters flew to cover a pair of hunters (Maksimov's and Lyapin's planes). The air battle took place with a numerically superior enemy - it was indicated that our fighters were fighting a six FV-190. Now, let's think logically! Four of our fighters are fighting with six of the enemy. The altitude where the battle took place was most likely much higher than the altitude at which the attack aircraft worked, striking the enemy. This is a common truth. During the bombing strike, the Il-2 aircraft operated at altitudes from 25 to 1200 meters, depending on the mission and bombing weapons. Covering fighters, in order not to fall under enemy anti-aircraft fire, rose higher and provided the attack aircraft with a way out of the attack. In archival documents and memoirs, there are confessions of fighter pilots, who say that they often lost visual observation of attack aircraft with a large difference in altitude, attack aircraft were lost against the background of the earth …
IL-2 at the exit from the attack
This suggests that it is very difficult for a fighter pilot to visually observe the aircraft being escorted, and even more so in the operational report it says that the fighters were engaged in air combat with a numerically superior enemy! On the basis of what the fighters concluded that it was Maksimov's plane that turned around and went to the ammunition depot? And Lyapin's plane began to leave in a northern direction? And now the most important thing: the Il-2 plane we discovered with the remains of Gury Maksimov and Kuzma Chuprov was located just north of Borodulino in the direction of Lake Ladoga! From the above, it can be assumed that the escort fighters, observing the death of one aircraft and losing visual contact with the second aircraft, concluded that Maksimov's aircraft went to the warehouse,and Lyapin's plane went north! How this statement was confirmed is not clear to us yet? Did the fighters see the aircraft side numbers? Did you hear the message of the dying crew on the radio? An operational summary of the 269th Fighter Aviation Division, whose fighters in July 1943 covered the attack aircraft of the 281st Assault Aviation Division, may help to understand this. But the fact that the wreckage of Maksimov's plane was found more than 20 kilometers north of Borodulino suggests that the ammunition depot was rammed by the crew of junior lieutenant Ivan Lyapin and sergeant Mikhail Kuzmin.
The circumstances of the death of two of our planes, which are now being clarified, do not nearly belittle the greatness of the accomplished feat of Guriy Maksimov and Kuzma Chuprov. This bitter and tragic truth makes us think even more about the cruelty and vicissitudes of war! The Il-2 plane of Guriy Nikolayevich Maksimov with the aerial gunner Kuzma Alekseevich Chuprov did not reach the road leading from Maluksa to Shapki only 300 meters. The fact is that along this road the Germans had equipped and had warehouses for rear services, dugouts for personnel, caponiers for equipment.
Attack of tanks "T-34, Il-2".
Let us try again, to briefly describe the combat sortie on July 27, 1943. Two Il-2 attack aircraft, consisting of the crews of Maksimov-Chuprov and Lyapin-Kuzmin, take off from the 872nd assault air regiment for free hunting. To escort and cover them, a troika of Yak-1 b fighters from the 287th Fighter Aviation Regiment under the command of Senior Lieutenant Borisov are flying out. Around 18 o'clock, attack aircraft find targets for an assault bombing strike in the area of the Borodulino airfield and begin an attack. The altitude from which the Il-2 aircraft strike is from 50 to 1200 meters. At the same time, the three Yak-1 b fighters, which were supposed to cover the attack aircraft when leaving the attack, engage in aerial combat with a numerically superior enemy. As follows from the documents of the fighter aviation regiment, our aircraft were attacked by a FV-190 and one Me-110. The characteristic mixed layout of the German air group suggests that, most likely, German fighters accompanied their scout, who was returning or taking off on a combat mission from the Borodulino airfield. Air combat between fighters was much higher in height than the one at which the attack aircraft were operating. The conducted air battle was unsuccessful on both sides. But at this time, both of our Il-2 attack aircraft were knocked out by enemy anti-aircraft fire. Some of the escort fighters manage to notice that one of the damaged attack aircraft turns around and deliberately crashes into an ammunition depot located at the edge of the enemy airfield.
The second Il-2 attack aircraft, when exiting the attack, knocked down, leaves in a northern direction from the airfield towards Lake Ladoga. But since the escort fighters are chained by the battle with German planes, they do not have time to track (not to mention the fact that they were supposed to escort) the second Il-2, which does not return to its airfield. Thus, at the headquarters of the 872nd Assault Aviation Regiment, both aircraft are classified as not returning from a combat mission. When our fighters returned to their airfield, they report what they saw: one Il-2 crashed into a warehouse, the second left in a northern direction. Most likely, they could not indicate exactly what side number the plane had crashed into the ammunition depot, and which plane left the target hit, since the following factors greatly influenced this: the difference in altitude, the merger below the flying plane against the background of the terrain, (let's not forget that we are talking about summer) and air combat with superior enemy forces. Therefore, it was only at the headquarters of the 872nd Assault Aviation Regiment that the headquarters of the 872nd Assault Aviation Regiment could indicate that it was the Maksimov-Chuprov plane that rammed the ammunition depot, when compiling the next operational report. Divisional and army operational reports simply duplicated the message and conclusions of the regiment. But the fact remains! The wreckage of the aircraft and the remains of the Maksimov-Chuprov crew were found 24 km from the Borodulino airfield, and it was the place of detection that was located to the north of the airfield. The fact that a fire ram took place in the summer of 1943 at the Borodulino airfield is also confirmed!
From the above, it turns out that the fire ram on June 27, 1943 was carried out by the crew of the Il-2 aircraft, consisting of:
- pilot, junior lieutenant Lyapin Ivan Panteleevich (born in 1918, native of the Voronezh region, Budenovskiy district, Khutorsky farm, Lyapin's wife Nina Gavrilovna lived in the Kazakh SSR, Uralsk city, Pochitalinskaya street, 54. Mobilized by the Taganrog RVK of the Rostov region);
- air gunner, senior sergeant Mikhail Mikhailovich Kuzmin (born in 1915, native of the Tatar ASSR Lapinsky district of the village of Sredne-Devyatovo, wife of Byrikov (Byrinov) Alexandra Pavlovna lived in the Tatar ASSR Tenkovsky district Grebenevsky glass factory. Mobilized by Molotovsk RVK) …
The morning of November 8, 2007 in Novosibirsk turned out to be extremely warm, but rainy by winter standards. It was as if nature itself mourned the remains of its compatriot delivered to their homeland. Drops of drizzle like tears froze on the black overcoats of the cadets of the Siberian Cadet Corps. After the farewell mourning meeting in the building of the House of Culture in the village of Verkh-Tula, at which many touching words were said about Kuzma Alekseev Chuprov, a huge procession of villagers lined up on the street, who came to say goodbye to their fellow countrymen. At the head of the column with a lowered red banner was a company of the guard of honor. Behind her, on the shoulders of young children, they carried a coffin with the remains of the hero. According to the Orthodox tradition, the abbot of the local church held a panikhida, and the last words of the prayer for eternal memory sunk into the souls of all the people around. The red-bodied coffin gently sank into his native Novosibirsk land, right next to a small mound of his dear mother.
It was just that the soldier returned home, returned to his mother in the people's land. It is not for nothing that Kuzma Alekseevich Chuprov's monument has the last line inscribed with the words: "… Mom, I'm back …".
On May 12, 2008, the funeral service for Gury Maksimov took place in the Prince Vladimir Church. The touching words of the prayer: "Create Eternal Memory for him." Within the walls of the church, next to the ashes of the deceased pilot, there was a photograph of him and a planchette made by the hands of Novosibirsk search engines with his only lifetime award - the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad".
To the sound of the national anthem and farewell fireworks, the native Vladimir land received the remains of its son, the pilot of the 872nd assault aviation regiment, junior lieutenant Gury Nikolaevich Maksimov. He was buried in the new city cemetery in Vysokovo, next to the graves of his sisters and brother, who never saw him return home. But the most touching words were engraved on the erected monument: "Mom, I'm back …".
This is how the souls of two young boys from the 43rd, junior lieutenant Gury Nikolaevich Maksimov and the Red Army soldier Kuzma Alekseevich Chuprov, who left their mark in the memory of people, finally calmed down …
Yes, they were not the ones who made the fire ram at the Borodulin airfield, but did they not deserve from this the right to be awarded military orders, for which they paid with their young lives? Both crews who died on the summer day of July 27, 1943 deserve a heroic title because they were going to certain death on a combat mission! We have already told what the German airfield at Borodulino near Lyuban was like. Upon departure for a combat mission, both crews were given the task of "free hunting". They could choose a target and less protected by anti-aircraft guns, they could bomb and shoot any enemy column on the supply roads, they could drop bombs on small enemy garrisons and leave alive, return to their airfield! But! They, the crews of Maksimov - Chuprov and Lyapin - Kuzmin, chose the most difficult, the most difficult target for the attack aircraft! They understood that they were going to certain death! This is the greatness of their FEAT!
