Boris Kovzan became a real legend of Soviet fighter aviation, who committed four such rams, and in three cases even managed to land a crippled car at his airfield.
Hero of the Soviet Union Boris Ivanovich Kovzan
Born to fly and fight
A native of the city of Shakhty, Rostov Region, he was born on April 7, 1922. He grew up in the Belarusian city of Bobruisk, where he moved with his parents. He graduated from the 8th grade of secondary school there.
In 1939 he entered the Odessa Military Aviation School, from which he graduated a year before the war, having mastered the principles of air combat and precision bombing.
He continued his military service in the Western Special Military District on the territory of the Gomel region (Belarus), honing his flying skills and preparing for an imminent confrontation with the fighters of Nazi Germany. He flew on an outdated I-15 bis fighter, which should have become an easy target for the German aces who passed all of Europe.
Soviet fighter I-15 bis
The beginning of the Great Patriotic War was overwhelming. The Soviet Union lost a huge amount of its military equipment. The loss of aircraft, many of which the Germans did not even give the opportunity to take off from their airfields, were simply catastrophic, so each fighter was worth its weight in gold.
Boris Kovzan entered the first direct clash with the enemy on June 24, on the third day of the war. In his I-15 bis, he attacked the German Heinkel-111 bomber (according to other sources, Dornier-215), sending it burning to the ground.
German bomber Dornier-215
In the fall of 1941 he was transferred to serve near Moscow. Boris "saddled" the more modern Yak-1 aircraft, which for several months became his real friend and savior.
Cut off the fascist's tail
The pilot, as part of the group, repeatedly flies on combat missions, driving off German bombers trying to break through to the capital. He enters air battles, but cannot boast of a new star on the fuselage of his fighter.
About his first ram, committed on October 29, 1941, various sources report differently. Some say that Boris was returning from a combat mission, during which he shot all the ammunition. Others argue that our pilot ran out of ammunition already during the battle with Hitler's Me-110 reconnaissance aircraft.
Whatever it was, but not wanting to miss the enemy, Boris Kovzan cut off his tail unit with the propeller of his plane. You need to understand what kind of virtuoso flight technique the pilot had to possess for this.
The German reconnaissance officer who entered the peak exploded on the ground, and the Soviet pilot returned to the airfield, reporting to the command on the results of the sortie. At the same time, he did not consider a perfect ram to be a special feat.
The enemy will not pass
On February 21 (according to some sources, 22), 1942, the Yakov group flew out to cover the movement of troops along the Moscow-Leningrad highway to the area of the city of Torzhok, Tver region.
Seeing three German Ju-88 bombers in the air, Boris Kovzan courageously attacked one of them, dodging the oncoming fire. In the whirlwind of air combat, he did not even notice how he shot all the ammunition, and did not complete the task.
Then Junior Lieutenant Kovzan decided to repeat his favorite trick. And he succeeded! Having lost the tail unit, Junkers crashed into the ground, and the Soviet pilot returned safely to the airfield.
The story of how Boris Kovzan shot down German planes quickly became overgrown with various details and flew around the entire North-Western Front. It was rumored that Goering himself gave the order never to approach the "deranged Russians" in order to prevent the latter from making an air ram.
But when on July 7, 1942, the junior lieutenant Boris Kovzan, presented for the award of the Order of Lenin, cut off the tail of the third enemy fighter with a propeller, he became a real legend. And the most interesting thing - again, as if nothing had happened, he returned to the airfield on his Yak-1.
Soviet fighter Yak-1
I am ready to give my life for the Motherland
But Boris Kovzan was not lucky with the fourth ram. Although it turned out to be great luck that he survived.
On August 13, 1942, in the skies over Staraya Russa, Novgorod Region, his plane was returning from a combat mission. As always, with ammunition, shot to the last bullet.
Suddenly, a link of German Me-109 fighters emerged from the clouds. Quickly realizing that the Soviet pilot had nothing to shoot back with, the Nazis began to play cat and mouse with him, using the Yak-1 as an air target.
Methodically shooting Kovzan's fighter, performing unthinkable aerobatics, they managed to smash the canopy of his cockpit, seriously wounding the pilot himself (the bullet knocked out his eye). Wanting to give his life at a higher price, the pilot turned around and tried to make a head-on ram.
Surprisingly, the fascist did not shy away either. The head-on collision was of such force that both aircraft flew into small pieces. The German died on the spot, and Kovzan was thrown out of the crashed cockpit.
Frontal ram
Thank you guardian angel
Subsequently, he could not remember for sure whether he pulled the parachute ring, or it was opened by an unknown force. Well, I opened it … Not completely. The pilot rushed to the ground at high speed and fell into a local swamp.
He would certainly have drowned if it were not for the peasants working nearby, who pulled Boris Kovzan out of the swamp and hid him literally a few minutes before the German search team arrived at the scene (the battle was going on over the occupied territory).
Policemen and fascists believed the words of the former collective farmers, who claimed that the Soviet pilot was swallowed up in a quagmire. Moreover, we ourselves did not want to smear our boots with “Russian mud”.
After a couple of days, Boris was transported to the partisans, from where he was evacuated to the mainland.
Get your way at any cost
The doctors still managed to save the seriously wounded pilot, although the damaged right eye had to be removed for this. Later, Boris Kovzan said that the 10 months spent in the hospital were the most difficult in his life.
He almost completely recovered his health, but the medical commission found the pilot unfit for service in fighter aviation. This came as a severe blow to the guy who was barely 21 years old.
But that was not the character of the hero, he so "got" the members of the medical commissions that, in the end, he was allowed to fly without restrictions. And this is with one eye !!!
Small cog of the big Victory
Until the end of the war, Hero of the Soviet Union Boris Kovzan had 28 aerial victories, four of which were rammed.
True, the brave prowess subsided a little, and he did not go to ramming anymore.
After the war, he flew in jets and taught this to the young recruits. Colonel Kovzan retired in 1958 as a result of the massive reduction of the Soviet Army.
For some time he lived in Ryazan, where he headed the local flying club, after which he moved to the capital of Soviet Belarus. He died on August 31, 1985.
Streets in several cities of the former USSR were named after him, and in 2014 the Russian Post issued a postage stamp dedicated to the feat of this extraordinary man.
