"Sabers" against MiGs. Evgeny Pepelyaev - "Migi" vs. "Saber Migi vs. Saber Pepelyaev"

I. Gogol's ancestors. - The first poetic personalities imprinted in his soul. - Characteristics and literary abilities of his father. - The first influences to which Gogol's abilities were subjected. - Excerpts from his father's comedies. - Memoirs of his mother In Little Russian

Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev "MiGs" against "Sabres" "MiGs" against "Sabers": Eksmo, Yauza; Moscow; 2005 ISBN 5-699-14274-6 Annotation 55 years ago, the first Russian-American war began - in 1950, in the skies of Korea, Soviet pilots first met in battle with American pilots. The symbols of that war were the Soviet MiG-15 and the American F-86 "Saber" - the best fighters of their own the battle was decided only by the skill of the pilots. And "Stalin's falcons" came out of this fight as winners. We bring to your attention the best to date book of memoirs about the air war in Korea (1950-1953), the author of which personally shot down 20 American aircraft, becoming the second most successful ace of the Korean War and deserving the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev "MiGs" against "Sabers" Preface to the first edition Today it is no secret to anyone that in 1950-1953 in the skies of North Korea and China against the multinational forces of the UN, mainly US aviation, on the side of the joint Korean-Chinese troops, dressed in the form of the Chinese army and under pseudonyms, fought Soviet pilots who were part of the 64th Fighter Aviation Corps. One of these aces pilots, who shot down 20 enemy aircraft in the sky of Korea, was the commander of the fighter Yevgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "Migs" against the Sabers" of the 3rd Aviation Regiment, Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev - the author of this book. The book "MiGs" against "Sabres" (A Pilot's Memoirs) offered to the reader has its own history, special depth, contains many unique details of those unforgettable days, opinions and conclusions of a military professional that have not lost their significance at the present time. Equally, the book is of interest to both a wide range of readers and a narrow circle of specialists. It can be successfully placed in the ranks of memoirs, to a certain extent used to study the basics of air combat tactics, the principles of combat training of aviation formations, units and subunits, the history of military art, and also for the education of young people. The title of the book "MiGs" against "Sabres" was chosen by the author very well. This gives a special emphasis to those distant events and to the greatest extent characterizes that historical period, the confrontation between the two systems, sciences, technologies, people and military equipment. The adopted title directly reflects the main content of the book, shows the acuteness of the struggle for dominance in the skies of Korea by Soviet and American pilots. The only thing that causes some regret is the fact that Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs" against "Sabres" 4 the book offered to the reader was somewhat late with the publication due to the veil of state secrets that existed for many years, shrouding those distant times. At the same time, in terms of the significance and brightness of the events of those distant years, historical military details, vivid examples showing the ability of Soviet pilots to fight the enemy and defeat him in battle, the special depth and spirit of the events conveyed by the author, the book is designed for modern perception by the reader. It will be read with interest by both young readers and war veterans. Head of the Air Force Academy named after Yu. A. Gagarin, Colonel-General V. P. Kozlov Preface to the second edition description of air battles. In this new type of duel - air combat - soon their champions appeared - Guynemer and Richthoffen, Udet and Fonck, Mennok and Bishop. During the years of World War II, the number of aces was already in the thousands. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs against Sabers” 5 The war in Korea (1950-1953) became a fundamentally new stage in the struggle for air supremacy - the first war of the jet era, during which jet technology was massively used on both sides, for which the United States was clearly not ready. The relatively easy victory over Germany, exhausted in a deadly confrontation with the USSR, and the early, not expected so soon, capitulation of Japan, whose elite ground forces were defeated by the Red Army, turned the Americans' heads. Has it not now been the turn of the Russians themselves, who do not respect "sacred private property", are proud, wild and intractable? With hundreds of vehicles in service, such as the B-29 strategic bomber, capable of carrying 10 tons of bombs at speeds in excess of 600 kilometers per hour, the United States can dictate terms to the whole world! But in Korea, the Americans were in for a fiasco. On the ground, they faced the stubborn resistance of the Korean people and the millions of Chinese mobilized by Mao Zedong. In the air they were met by Russian pilots dressed in Chinese uniforms. However, the Americans preferred not to raise a fuss about this - their aviation, primarily bombers, suffered painfully heavy losses in Korea. Among those who stopped the aggressive, self-confident, well-equipped enemy was the author of this book, Evgeny Georgievich Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs against Sabers” 6 Pepelyaev, who then commanded the 196th Fighter Aviation Regiment, which won in the skies of Korea 108 victories, losing only 10 aircraft and four pilots. E.G. himself Pepelyaev shot down at least 23 enemy fighters and, together with N.V. Sutyagin, acquired the laurels of the best ace of the Korean War. Impressed by the successes of Soviet aviation, the Truman government did not dare to attack the USSR from the air - and after all, such an attack, as part of a preventive war, was provided for by the Dropshot plan: the Americans intended to strike 73 Soviet cities with three hundred atomic bombs. However, the skill, valor and will of the Russian pilots, demonstrated in Korea, forced the enemy to abandon these plans ... The hero of the Korean War, Yevgeny Pepelyaev, was born in 1918 in Paris. "Paris" - this is how one of the two large barracks was called (the other was called, naturally, "London"), set up by gold prospectors in Bodaibo on the right bank of the Vilyui. From childhood, Evgeny was surrounded by courageous people who lived in exceptionally difficult conditions, familiar to us from Shishkov's "Gloom River" and the stories of Jack London. These harsh and courageous, sometimes cruel, and more often naive people played a decisive role in the upbringing of the future Hero of the Soviet Union. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs vs. Sabers” 7 Evgeny's father addicted him to hunting since childhood. This is where his ability to plan a duel, instantly make a winning decision and, of course, excellent sniper abilities come from. E.G. Pepelyaev was an exceptionally strong shooter - from 70-80 meters he could hit a goose neck with a bullet! I note that the avid hunter Pepelyaev developed and applied several times a unique method of hunting a bear. It was in Zhelty Yar, where Eugene served in the hungry 42nd and 43rd years. It was hardest of all then for technicians, minders, support staff and - especially - their families. Once, returning to the airfield after a training flight, Pepelyaev noticed a bear below, among the trees. A moment - and I-16 rushed to the bear. The frightened beast shied away. The pilot built his attacks in such a way as to drive the bear to the airfield. After making a few more runs and noticing landmarks, he removed the machine guns from the fuses and stopped the bear throwing in a short burst. The gratitude of the "techies", and especially their children, who for the first time in many months ate their fill, was forever remembered by Evgeny Georgievich ... In choosing a flying profession, his elder brother Konstantin had a decisive influence on him. A handsome man, a merry fellow, an excellent athlete and a talented pilot, left by an instructor at a flight school, before the war he worked as a tester, then fought in the glorious 402nd regiment and Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "Migis" against "Sabrov" 8 died in 1941, in a battle with the Messerschmitts over Ilmen Lake. Following the example of his brother, Evgeny Pepelyaev combined his studies at the Odessa Flight School with intensive sports: gymnastics, especially popular with pilots, football, shooting, parachuting. His successes in each of these types were very significant. At the end of the flight school, Pepelyaev was sent to the 29th Red Banner IAP in the Far East. All his active service in aviation was connected with this region. There was also a memorable meeting with E. Savitsky, with whom relations did not work out. In a training air battle against the future Marshal, Pepelyaev won a “victory” so obvious that the annoyed Savitsky left for another airfield. “After this fight, he just stopped noticing me,” recalls Pepelyaev. Is it not this long-standing hostility of the proud marshal that explains the mistakes made in Korea in 1952, and the “unnoticed” submissions for awards, and the glaring fact that the Hero of the Soviet Union Pepelyaev, the best ace and commander of the most productive regiment of the Korean War, is a sober man, disciplined, demanding, military to the marrow of his bones, who subsequently successfully commanded a division, thirty years later he was sent to the reserve in the same rank of colonel in which he fought in Korea. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs" against "Sabers" 9 But all this will happen later, and in November - December 1943, Senior Lieutenant Pepelyaev was seconded for an internship in the active army, in the 162nd IAP of the 1st VA. However, there was a period of calm at the front and, having made 10 sorties, he had no victories. Soon, despite requests to leave him in the regiment and the consent of the regimental authorities, Pepelyaev was returned to the Far East. After the war, Evgeny Georgievich graduated from the Higher tactical flight courses in the city of Lipetsk. Then he got married. This happy marriage is already 58 years old. His wife Maya Konstantinovna also grew up in an "aviation" family, as a child she lived in the same house with the famous pilot, the first twice Hero of the country S.I. Gritsevets, played with his daughters. From Spain, Gritsevets brought her a toy egg, which has been carefully preserved to this day. Maya Konstantinovna's father was an engineer of the aviation regiment and died at the Odessa airfield during training flights. Her cousin A.A. During the Patriotic War, Barsht made more than 300 sorties for reconnaissance and artillery fire adjustment, shot down 6 enemy aircraft in air battles and, at the personal request of Marshal I. S. Konev, was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. And for Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev, the Korean War became the high point, which he spoke about in detail in this book. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs against Sabers” 10 According to the regiment’s forms, Pepelyaev made 108 sorties in Korea, conducted 39 air battles and scored 23 victories, shooting down 18 of the latest American F-86 Saber fighters, 2 Thunderjet » F-84, 2 F-94 Starfires and one jester - F-80 Shooting Star fighter. It was thanks to Pepelyaev that the Soviet Union received an invaluable trophy - almost a whole Saber, shot down by Yevgeny Georgievich on October 6, 1951 and made an emergency landing on North Korean territory, on the seashore, right in the surf, from where it was promptly taken out and delivered to the USSR, where it has been studied in detail. The value of such a trophy is hard to imagine! Moreover, there is every reason to believe that in that memorable battle, Pepelyaev “flunked” not a simple enemy pilot, but the first US Air Force ace James Jabara - a photograph has been preserved in which he gives an interview against the background of his Saber F-86A-5 under number FU-318. But it was precisely this number that was discovered on board the captured American fighter jet shot down by Pepelyaev! It is clear why the Americans are hushing up this fact - such a blow to their conceit! - but we should know our heroes better ... Today Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev lives in Moscow nearby son-in-law and granddaughter, goes to the store, to the savings bank - to pay for the apartment, from time to time is selected for celebrations, walks, meets with friends. And it is not known to the boys sitting on a bench near his house and lamenting the football news that a warrior is walking next to them, whose name will be remembered through the centuries, that this short old man in a dark coat is the best jet ace in history. N.G. Bodrikhin From the author Sometime in early January 1999, after new year holiday , Nikolai Bodrikhin and Felix Chuev came to me. The conversation was about airplanes, about flights, in general, about aviation. I told some episodes from my life in general and aviation in particular, and these guys began to persuade me and convince me that, having such a great and interesting life experience, I should write a book about my life, service and work in aviation. I refused and denied for a long time, because I never wrote anything, and I didn’t want to stir up the past in my memory, especially Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migs” against “Sabres” 12 period of the war in Korea, when in air battles for air supremacy comrades were dying - young healthy guys who still had to live and live. In many cases, the death of my guys could have been avoided, but war is war, and in air combat, especially with a strong enemy, it doesn’t always work out the way you want. For 10 months of continuous air battles with enemy fighters, the regiment lost four pilots. This is not so much, especially since we had many more victories, but still it lies like a heavy stone on my soul, and you especially experience it with age. The more years, the harder it is to remember both the dead, and even more so the pilots who died in battles and training flights. A lot has been written about the air battles of fighters both in official and fiction literature, but it is very difficult for a person, even a pilot, if he himself did not participate in air battles, to understand this. How an air battle goes, how pilots act, what they think about and how they interact, can only be understood when you see this battle from the ground or participate in a group battle yourself not for the first time. It is very difficult to describe the free group air combat of fighters with fighters, since each pilot sees the same battle in his own way. And if you describe the actions of each pilot of one pair, Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migis against Sabers” 13 in an air battle, if 30 aircraft participate in this battle, for 20 minutes of the battle, then you get a whole report in which even a specialist finds it difficult figure out. It seems to me that only individual episodes of air combat and the final result of this combat can be understood. So I decided to write my vision of individual episodes of air combat and what happened in the aviation units where I served and flew from 1936 to 1962. About the life, study, flights of fighter pilots, their work in peacetime and wartime, paying more attention to the Korean War, since for many this war is a muddy spot in the history and combat work of aviation, both for the military and civilians of our countries. The Korean War began in the summer of 1950 and ended in the summer of 1953. The Koreans of the North and the South fought among themselves, two systems fought. The socialist system and the capitalist system. As a result of this three-year war, in which the Americans and their satellites got involved under the UN flag - on the one hand, China and the Soviet Union - on the other, nothing has changed, since both the borders between the warring countries and their state structure remained the same. At the same time, this war was distinguished by exceptional bloodshed and claimed the lives of 4 million people. With the start of the war, the North Korean troops as a result of Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "Migis" against "Sabers" 14 fierce battles defeated the main grouping of South Korean troops, quickly moved south and were close to completing the offensive operation, and therefore, to victory in this war . They were interrupted by the Americans. Under the flag of the United Nations, the Americans, I mean the United States, successfully held the largest landing operation, having landed in the region of the 38th parallel, in the west and east of the Korean Peninsula, large groupings of troops. These groups cut off the advancing troops from the bases for supplying weapons, food, and fuel. But the war, again, did not end there. The leadership of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, having lost the main forces of its army in the south of the country, turned to its friends - China and the Soviet Union for help. China took upon itself the solution of combat missions by ground forces, and the Soviet Union - the task of air cover from air strikes of the most important objects and communications on the territory of North Korea. The assistance provided to the DPRK by China and the Soviet Union was very significant and played a decisive role in the fact that the state border between North and South Korea returned to the 38th parallel. Unfortunately, the experience of the Korean War still remains Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs" against "Sabres" 15 practically unclaimed. American military officials, knowing much more about this war than we do, invited me to the Air Force Command and Staff Training Center to clarify many questions of interest to them. Our Air Force and Air Defense officials were not interested in the Korean War, being content with superficial conclusions and tendentious assessments of aviation combat operations, issued hastily by motley commissions. In our country, most people know very little about the Korean War. But air war in Korea, in terms of scope, intensity of air battles and losses, it was many times more significant than the air wars in Spain and China, Afghanistan and Vietnam. In order to somehow close the remaining blank spots, to show in fragments the real picture of combat operations in the air, I decided to write this book, which, in my opinion, will be interesting and useful not only for aviation enthusiasts and pilots, but also for patriots and even the military. officials. I want to thank my colleagues N. K. Shelamonov, L. N. Ivanov, and L. E. Krylov, who provided me with some reference and photographic materials for this book. 1. Roots Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs" against "Sabres" 16 My ancestors are from the Don. In the sixties of the 19th century, my great-grandfather Akim Pepelyaev (I don’t know his patronymic) with all his relatives, which consisted of several families, left one of the villages of the middle Don in twenty carts for a settlement in Siberia. According to the grandfather's stories, the Pepelyaevs traveled for several years, leaving individual families on the way. Two sons with their families fell behind and settled in the Urals. The third family stopped in the Krasnoyarsk region. My grandfather Yegor was the youngest of all the brothers, an unmarried and obviously hooligan guy. Passing through Transbaikalia, in one of the villages he cut off the braids of the local ataman's daughter. He was convicted and sent to hard labor at the Lena mines. Since my grandfather was a brave and cheerful guy, my grandmother Praskovya Afrakova went after him. The last two Pepelyaev brothers, Mikhail and Innokenty, went further east and settled in the village of Vysokoye, Amur Region, not far from the city of Belogorsk. Grandfather Yegor performed at the Lena mines various works: was a miner, blacksmith, groom, worked on the harvesting and rafting of timber. My father, Yegor Yegorovich Pepelyaev, was born in December 1879 at the logging camp. He was an observant boy and from the inside saw the whole mining life of the exiles and free people , their Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs" against "Sabres" 17 hard courageous work, hopeless life, drunkenness, fights and even murders. Once, when he was 5-6 years old, he came to his father, my grandfather, to the forge and asked: - Dad, make me a shovel and shackles. - I’ll make a spatula, but “shackles”, brother, when you grow up, you’ll earn money yourself, ”grandfather grinned. Father recalled that, the next day, playing with a new spade near his hut, he began to dig the ground. Dug a few times, saw a piece of yellow metal. When he showed the find to his father, he asked: “What can you buy for this gold?” The boy answered: "Landrin" - that was the name of the then popular candy canes. A few days later, grandfather brought a whole cart of groceries, a few quarters of vodka and a large can of Landrin sweets from the buying shop. The whole day the hut "buzzed", washing the find of little Yegor. My father started working early. He was 17 years old when his grandfather died, who did not live to be 40 years old. I had to feed my two younger sisters. It helped my father a lot that he was under the influence of decent people. Working a lot, he was engaged in self-education, mastered the professions of a locksmith, turner, blacksmith, locomotive driver, even an accountant. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs vs. Sabers" 18 My mother's name was Apollinaria Eduardovna. She was the daughter of an exiled Pole named Tyl and a local native from a family of immigrants. After the October Revolution of 1917, the life of the working people at the Lena gold mines did not become sweeter. My mother, having two children, decided to abandon the third child. One autumn day in 1917, she hired a cab and went to the hospital to have an abortion. On the way to the hospital, the baby stirred in the womb, and then the mother ordered the cab driver to turn back. Soon my mother gave me life. This happened on March 18, 1918 in the city of Bodaibo, Irkutsk region. I had a brother Konstantin, born in 1912. Like probably most people, my older brother seemed to me a very interesting person. Throughout his short life, he was always looking for and finding something new. From childhood, he was engaged in music a lot and enthusiastically, had a good voice and hearing. He sang in the church choir, played in a string band, then in a brass band on many musical instruments, although his "horse", an instrument that he mastered, as it seemed to me then, masterfully, was the balalaika. He loved sports, introduced his sister and me to it. At home, we formed a gymnastic ground group. After graduating from school, some Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migis versus Sabers” For 19 years he studied at the Omsk Railway Construction College, which, like me, did not finish. He also studied at the Mining Institute in Irkutsk, which he also did not graduate from. In 1932 he went into aviation. He studied at the Osoaviakhim flight school, then at the military pilot school, and in 1934 he graduated from the pilot school in Odessa. He served in the Odessa Pilot School as an instructor, flight commander. Before the war, he served in the flight detachment of the Monino Air Force Academy. Since the beginning of the war, as part of the 402nd IAP, he was in the army. In August 1941, he was shot down over Lake Ilmen while returning from a combat mission. My sister Lyudmila, born in 1914, graduated in 1933 from the railway construction college in the city of Omsk, where my brother Kostya and I had studied. In 1939, in Odessa, she married an aviation military weapons engineer M. Dyudin. Until 1955, she traveled with her husband to aviation garrisons, mastering the professions that were required there. Since 1968, she has been a pensioner and lives in the Moscow region, in the village of Belye Kolodezi. 2. Bodaibo In the twenties, the city of Bodaibo was a small provincial town. Along with the fact that the city was an administrative and economic center, it was also the main transshipment base for supplying everything necessary for the work and life of several gold mines. The city is located in the permafrost zone, on the banks of the fast-flowing Vitim River. Vitim, which flows into the Lena, flows among not very high mountains, covered with mixed forest and wild rosemary. This river is navigable, not very deep, 600-800 meters wide. The higher the mountains, the less vegetation on them. High mountains where there are no trees at all, in those parts they are called loaches. All buildings in the city were wooden and one-story, as, among other things, they were in a kind of climatic and seismic zone. The city is located on a low, 6-10 meters platform, which stretches along the river for 3-4 km. The width of the platform from the river bank to the base of the mountains is about 500-600 m. A narrow-gauge railway, built at the beginning of the 20th century by the British, stretches through the entire city, from the pier and warehouses. The narrow-gauge railway goes to the mines, winding around and along the mountains. The streets of the city are always littered with snow in winter, in summer, in dry weather, they are covered with dust, in bad weather, especially in spring and autumn, impenetrable mud. Along the streets, as a rule, from one, sometimes from two Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs” against “Sabres”” Wooden sidewalks were made on 21 sides. There were no cars in the city at that time. There was only horse-drawn transport. These are carts, carriages, sledges, sleds, etc., drawn by horses. So the head of the horse yard was a big man in the city, because the townspeople did not have their own horses. I still remember the name of Belousov, who at that time was the head of the horse yard. In 1943, at the Zheltyy Yar airfield, during daytime flights, being at the start and talking with the commander of the 300th regiment, at that time Major Belousov, I said that when I lived with my parents in Bodaibo, the head of the horse yard was his namesake Belousov. Imagine my surprise when he answered me that he was not a namesake, but his father. In addition, in the city, all adults and children knew such eminent citizens as Kazakov, the head of a small power plant intended only for lighting urban housing, or the regent of the church choir, who is also an amateur theater director named Mostets, or local athlete V. Kopyev, who, without any insurance, alone crossed the Vitim River. There were no water pipes and wells in the city, since the permafrost did not allow them to be arranged. Water carriers carried water from house to house. A horse harnessed to a sledge or a cart with a barrel supplied the population with drinking water. Water carriers took water from the river, since there was not a single settlement upstream for hundreds of kilometers. In the summer they drove a cart with a barrel into the river and took water with a bucket. In winter, it was more difficult - they had to draw water from the hole, and by March, the ice on the river froze to a depth of two meters. Who lived near the shore, he himself dragged water from the river. The same water carrier always brought water to our house - an elderly man of about fifty. He often told how he fought with the Japanese, how he played in a military band on the second cornet "B". Sometimes he would take my brother's cornet, who also played in a brass band, and try to play a march he called "Old Friend." Although it turned out badly, the water carrier was pleased. After that, his mother gave him tea, and the water carrier drove on. I also remember that every spring, when there was dirt on the roads, I would definitely fall into it. The last time it was like this: I, a cheerful and neat student of the 1st grade, go to school on a wooden sidewalk. It was spring and some kind of religious holiday - probably Easter. At that time, religious holidays were no longer celebrated. It's warm and sunny outside. The snow has melted, the ground is still wet, and the roads are muddy. I am dressed in everything clean: short pants, stockings and boots. Nearby, on the road, a water carrier overtakes me. I decided to ride. Behind Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs" against "Sabres" 23 barrels on the cart there was a small place on which I sat down. Having traveled no more than 200-300 meters, the wheel of the cart fell into a pit, the cart shook violently, I could not resist and, together with my school bag, fell into a deep dirty puddle. I learned so that instead of school I had to go home to wash and change. It was my last fall into the mud, but by no means the last fall in general. The first time I decently fell, not yet in school, when I was 3-4 years old. Imitating adult children, I also decided to jump from one platform free of logs to another. But he did not jump and landed between the cars with his head on the rails. The first unsuccessful landing greatly confused my parents: I was treated with home remedies for a long time, they even corrected my skull ... Every winter or autumn, especially after a cold, I always had a high fever, a headache, up to loss of consciousness, and this went on for up to 14 years. break my arm and leg, fall from the horizontal bar. However, at the age of 18, when I entered the flight school, I passed all the doctors of the medical commission without restrictions. ...There were a lot of mushrooms and berries in the forests around Bodaibo. Berries - lingonberries, currants, blueberries, blueberries, etc. - were collected with scoops with teeth in front, poured into baskets and buckets, and at home they were poured into barrels, where they were stored. Sometimes stocks were enough until spring. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev was in the forests: “Migis against Sabers” 24 there were many animals, even bears were found. Once, on the outskirts of the city, where my brother and I were picking berries, we also happened to meet face to face with a young bear, who, seeing us, quickly ran towards the mountains, and we ran in the opposite direction. It was worse with the birds in those parts. Basically, sparrows were found there, in the summer there were wagtails, owls, owls, nutcrackers, partridges, swifts and hawks. There were no starlings, no nightingales, not even gray crows. It was tight with fruit. Only bird cherry and sea buckthorn grew there. I don’t know if they can be attributed to a paradise species? I ate my first apple in Novosibirsk when I was 10 years old. Behind every house in the city there was a garden where vegetables and potatoes were grown. In those days, fresh vegetables, potatoes and any fruits were not imported to Bodaibo. Fresh meat was rare. They mostly sold corned beef. Therefore, many residents, like my father, were engaged in hunting and fishing in their free time. My father always took a vacation in the fall to prepare game, fish, mushrooms, berries, and pine nuts for the winter. We all helped him with this. I remember that in the fall, after harvesting potatoes and vegetables, my father, his comrades and my older brother went hunting or fishing. Upon arrival, fish or game were processed, mainly ducks and geese. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs vs. Sabers" 25 In the hungry year of 1922, my father was very lucky: at the beginning of winter he managed to shoot a young deer. Therefore, our family avoided starvation: deer meat was stretched in stews and cabbage soup for more than a year. ... In 1926 or in 1927, the father with his two fellow amateur hunters Stebakov and Bezrukov, according to what data, I don’t know, received information about the place where the bear hibernated. They began to prepare for the hunt for this beast, about which a well-known person in the city, a good friend of my father, regent Mostets, found out. He was not a hunter and a fisherman, but he always talked about hunting and fishing incidents, passing off all the hunting stories he heard as factual, internally processing, streamlining and supplementing, presented on his own behalf as from the main actor. His father and his comrades refused to take him to the bear. He insisted and finally persuaded, pledging to provide the company with transport - a horse and a sleigh. When the hunters left for the taiga, I did not see, because I was still sleeping. The weather was favorable - windless, with a slight frost. After lunch, I went outside, with my friends we went sledding down the hill. I remember that it was not yet dusk when I saw a horse and next to the sleigh of my father walking with his comrades. The bridge was sitting in the sleigh. The horse with the sleigh did not go to our house, but turned to Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "Migis" against "Sabres" 26 polyclinic, which was located nearby. A few minutes later a horse and sleigh drove up to our house. Father with Stebakov and Bezrukov pulled out the carcass of the bear and began to butcher it. From the conversation between my father and his comrades, I learned what happened then on the hunt. The hunters reached the bear's lair before dark. Responsibilities were distributed: who would stand where, who would lift the bear with a pole, who would shoot and how. Mostets was placed where the bear, for all reasons, should not rise from the lair. At the command of the elder, that is, Stebakov, they began to raise the bear. He did not keep himself waiting. He got up from the den in the place where he was not expected, just opposite Mostets. Mostets was very frightened, fired aimlessly and shouted so loudly that his jaw popped out of his joints. The bear, of course, was killed. But they had another problem - with Mostets. He could not speak, mumbled and cried, unable to put his jaw in place. Doctors quickly corrected his jaw. Before the skin was removed from the bear, Mostets reappeared and began to talk about the hunt, how he shot and wounded the bear, how the bear almost tore off his jaw. Such an event took place in Bodaibo in the mid-twenties of the XX century. It is also characteristic that in those parts in winter the air temperature at times dropped below 50 ° C, and in the summer in the sun, it happened, Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs against Sabers” 27 rose above 40 ° C. The water in the river heated up to 12-13°C in summer, but we, the kids, still swam, only in a peculiar way. Before getting into the water, they collected dry whips and sticks on the shore, lit a fire, and only after that they climbed into the water, and out of the water to the fire. In a peculiar way, we determined the temperature of the frosty air. We didn’t have a thermometer, so, not knowing what the temperature was outside, we put skis or skates on our feet. If the temperature was below 45°C, neither the skis nor the skates slipped or rolled, and the legs moved as if on sand. They went hunting or simply to the taiga on skis lined with kamos - these are dressed strips of skins from the front of a deer leg. Such skis easily glide forward on the snow, regardless of the air temperature. In the summer of 1928, our whole family left Bodaibo on a barge, which was pulled by a tug along the Vitim and then along the Lena to the village of Zhigalovo on the Lena. Steamboats did not go higher along the Lena, passengers were transferred to carts, and horses carried them to the nearest station of the Siberian railway . From Bodaibo, the main supply base for the Lena mines, our family left in 1928, first to the village of Tulun, then to Novosibirsk, then there was the Stepnyak mine in the Petropavlovsk region, Shumerlya to Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migis” against the Sabers” Chuvashia, the Belousovsky mine Semipalatinsk 28 region, Glubokoe village. My father went to construction sites, mounted and repaired diesel engines, steam boilers and generators. Brother and sister studied in Omsk, Irkutsk, in other cities and towns of the Union. I traveled with my father and mother, studying every year in different schools. He graduated from the 7th grade in Stepnyak, in Shumerla he studied at the FZU, in 1934-1935 he studied at the Omsk Railway Construction College, but did not graduate from it. In the autumn of 1935, my brother, returning from vacation, took me with him to Odessa, where he served as an instructor pilot in the 8th military pilot school. 3. Beginning Since I dreamed of becoming a pilot since childhood, then, having arrived in Odessa, I went to work in car repair shops and began to study at the Odessa flying club, which I also did not have a chance to graduate from. In August 1936, a special recruitment was carried out for the Odessa Military Pilot School, I was enrolled as a cadet, and on October 2, 1936, I began my studies. Studying at a military school began with the passage of a course for a young soldier: combat, fire, tactical, physical and political training, as well as general subjects: mathematics, physics, Russian language in the volume of secondary school. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs vs. Sabers" We finished the course of a young soldier, having passed 29 tests in military and general education disciplines, at the end of the year. The special recruitment included about 40% of cadets from Ukrainian cities - Kiev, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Nikolaev, 30 percent from Russian cities - Moscow, Leningrad, Yaroslavl, Smolensk and others, and about the same from the Caucasian republics - Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan. Half of the guys were called up from institutes and technical schools, the other half - from those who graduated from high school, and a small percentage of the cadets were leaders in production. We began our service and study at a military school in a special company. This unit of 240 young cadets was organized organizationally into a detachment, which was called a special company. The company was commanded by Art. lieutenant Voznesensky, the political instructor of the company was Nikolaev. The special company consisted of 8 departments of 30 cadets in each. The commanders of the training departments were junior commanders, mostly Ukrainians from the infantry. All squad leaders lived in the barracks with the cadets. Our 5th squad was commanded by a junior commander (two triangles in the buttonhole) Urban, I don’t remember his name anymore. The daily routine and study was a soldier's. The established routine was carried out very strictly: getting up at 6.00, at any time. Lights out at 23.00. In the autumn of 1936, when the cadets had not yet flown, a tragic event occurred. Three Czechoslovak pilots flew to Odessa, I don't know on what occasion, in sports planes, led by Captain Novak. The engines on these aircraft were adapted for a long flight upside down. On the day appointed for demonstration flights, representatives of the city authorities, the command of the nearest units, and production leaders gathered at the airfield. Demonstration flights were planned. The program included aerobatics at low altitude by pilots of the aerobatics squadron on I-5, I-16 aircraft and Czechoslovak pilots on their sports aircraft. Before the flights, we, the cadets of the special company, were brought to the airfield as a whole group and put on the ground to watch the minutes on the combat aircraft of the upcoming demonstration flights. After a few I-5s, aerobatic pilot Lieutenant Evgeniev took off. Having dispersed the plane, at an altitude of 40-50 meters he walked along the audience located at the airfield and began to perform a combat turn with a barrel. He performed this complex aerobatics maneuver very poorly, since the I-5 aircraft with Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migis against Sabers” with 31 M-2 2 engines was too heavy for this figure. Therefore, instead of climbing on a combat turn, the aircraft lost altitude up to 15-20 meters. This, however, did not bother the pilot, and, having entered from the other side, dispersed his plane and, having caught up with the public, from a height of 30-40 meters decided to perform the same aerobatics, that is, a combat turn with a barrel in the process of turning. But instead of climbing at runtime complex figure the plane lost it again and hit the ground at the exit from the turn. Pilot Evgeniev died. After the crash of the I-5 aircraft, the I-16 demonstration flight was canceled. The Czechs took off in their sports planes. Very carefully, at an altitude of 200-300 meters, they demonstrated aerobatics, and this was the end of the demonstration flights. All this tragedy happened in front of the audience present at the airfield, including young cadets. As a result, a year later, during the formation of squadrons for training on combat aircraft, only one of 80 cadets from Transcaucasia went to study in a fighter squadron. I think that this was influenced not only by the crash of the I-5 aircraft, but also by the funeral of the commander of the aerobatics squadron, captain Rogov and the engineer of the aviation school, engineer-captain Fayerman, in which cadets of our recruitment participated, after another happened in August 1937 tragic case. On Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs" against "Sabres" 32 at the main airfield in Odessa during training flights of the aerobatics squadron, the pilot of this squadron, captain Yakushin, while taxiing on an I-16 plane, crashed into a group of people at the airfield. As a result, the commander of this squadron, Captain Rogov, and Chief Engineer Odessa Pilot School Engineer-Captain Fayerman. ... During my stay in the special company, I remember a very characteristic dialogue between the political officer of the company, Art. political commissar Nikolaev and my fellow cadet N. Leskov. Once, Kolya Leskov came back from a city vacation a little “tough”. On this occasion, he was invited to a conversation with the political officer Nikolaev. The political officer asks Leskov: - Where were you? What and how much did you drink? The cadet Leskov replies that he drank two glasses of Cahors with a friend, then another hundred grams of vodka in the "dinner". Art. political instructor made surprised eyes: - How so! Is vodka sold per gram? Leskov answered in the affirmative. Then the political instructor said: - From this, perhaps, I would have become stupefied. 2-3 months after this conversation, we were read an order for the school, in which it was said that “Art. political instructor Nikolaev for Yevgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migis against Sabers” 33 systematic drunkenness is dismissed from the ranks of the Red Army. ... I graduated from the “grater”, that is, the course of a young soldier, I at the end of 1936. From the cadets of the special company, the 2nd training squadron was formed to train on U-2 (Po-2) training aircraft. Organizational and educational processes were built as follows. The training squadron, consisting of 240 cadets, consisted of two detachments of 120 people each. The detachment consisted of 4 units of 30 cadets. The link consisted of 3 groups of 10 cadets. Each flight group had an instructor pilot. For the convenience of flight training, classroom instruction and continuity educational process The group was divided into two parts of 5 cadets. Therefore, every flying day, five cadets were at the airfield and flew, and another group of five people was in class. The next flight day, the second subgroup of five cadets flew, and the first one was engaged in classes. I ended up in the third training group - instructor Lieutenant Gerasimov. The first link was commanded by Art. Lieutenant Sapozhnikov is a big and sophisticated swearer. The second detachment is the commander of the detachment, Captain Pushkarev. The second training squadron - squadron commander Major Stepichev, deputy for political affairs, senior political instructor Zavgorodniy. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev was the squadron's deputy commander for combat operations: "MiGs against Sabers" 34 captain, whose name I forgot. He was a strict combat commander, always shaven, trimmed, neatly and cleanly dressed in uniform. Didn't smoke, didn't drink. Behind his back, all the cadets called him "Ivan Tsarevich". This nickname has been carried over from the previous set. In fact, he was the commander and controller of the earthly activities of the cadets of the squadron. He was always on the territory of the squadron and maintained the statutory order from rise to lights out. Almost always, before leaving for the city, he lined up cadets in one line and checked their appearance by turning right or left, after which, one at a time, each dismissed person had to jump over the gymnastic “horse” or “goat”. Who jumped - goes on dismissal, who did not jump - did not go to the city. I, along with many other cadets, spent my free time from classes and flights, as a rule, in the gym on sports equipment, and in the summer, if the weather allowed, at the stadium, doing jumping, throwing and running. We were happy to participate in sports games, preferring football. Friendships were formed at trainings and in games, which still, after more than 60 years, have the warmest memories. How alive I see my dear comrades in front of me: Volodya Tsebenko, Vasya Rozhkov, Tolya Gruzdev, Vasya Abramov, Viktor Volkov, Seryozha Veselovsky, Sasha Kokkinaki - Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs" against "Sabres" "35 the third pilot in the Kokkinaki family. All of them fell to fight in the Great Patriotic War, most of them died in the first days of the war. Since January, we have started classes in the specialty. We studied the material part of the U-2 aircraft, the M-11 engine, and aviation instruments. Special disciplines appeared: flight theory (aerodynamics), aircraft navigation, aerial shooting theory, NPP (manual on flight operations), NSHS (manual on navigational service), history of the CPSU (b) and other subjects. Training flights began only in April, because in the winter months in Odessa the weather is always bad: rains, fogs, slush. In addition, all unpaved airfields became limp in winter. From April to November, our detachment flew from the western airfield, located 5 kilometers from the main airfield of Odessa. In 1937, I was among the first to take off on my own on a U-2 aircraft and also, among the first cadets of the squadron, I completed the flight training program. On the U-2 aircraft then flew 25 hours, made 163 landings. At the end of the 1st course program, all cadets of our squadron were given leave for 20 days. During our vacation, very intensive work was carried out at the Odessa school: Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs against Sabers” - they graduated cadets who had completed their 36th training on combat aircraft; - carried out a set of cadets for training at school; - formed educational units of the 1st and 2nd years of study. At the end of 1937, after completing the training course for our release on U-2 aircraft and the formation of new units for training on combat aircraft, the cadets of our detachment were sent on a twenty-day vacation. Shortly before my vacation, my parents left Odessa for Northern Kazakhstan, where my father was offered a job, and he, a lover of nature and hunting, without hesitation, went with his mother to live there. I didn’t want to go to Kazakhstan to my parents, especially in winter, because I recently parted ways with them. I accepted the offer of my friend, with whom we had friendly relations, to go on vacation along the Black Sea together on a ship. Twenty days was just enough to sail on a ship across the Black Sea from Odessa to Batumi and back with stops in large Black Sea cities. Moreover, my friend Alexander Kokkinaki's parents lived in Novorossiysk and we had to live in this city for a short time. I have never sailed on a ship by sea, so I really wanted to experience and feel everything myself. I literally dreamed that during the voyage our ship would get into a storm. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs vs. Sabers" 37 I don't remember what date of December we set sail from Odessa in the evening on the Abkhazia ship. Our seats were in a 3rd class cabin. A cabin for twenty people was in the hold of the bow of the ship. Bunk beds for passengers were covered with beds. There were few passengers in the cabin, and I remember one characteristic episode - how one elderly man in the clothes of a civilian sailor without a mirror shaved his bald head with a dangerous razor. Many years passed, and when my bald head appeared, I also began to lather and shave my head without a mirror, though not with a dangerous razor, but with a safety razor, and later with an electric razor. The next morning the ship arrived in Sevastopol. The weather was wet, rainy and cold. We went ashore only in Yalta. It was already dark - the city shone with bright lights near the coast and gradually fading on the slopes of the surrounding mountains. A couple of days later, our ship moored in the Novorossiysk Bay. The one-story house in which the Kokkinakis lived was a ten-minute walk from the seaport. At one time, the head of the family, K. Kokkinaki, worked in this port all his life. Alexander's father and mother lived alone in a large house and were very happy about the arrival of their son. They did everything to make us happy. The Kokkinaki family had six sons and one daughter. The eldest son, Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs vs. Sabers” 38 Georgy is a sailor, he was already over forty then. The second son, Vladimir, is a test pilot known throughout the country and around the world, who set many world aviation records and achievements on various Soviet aircraft. It seems to me that the most significant and difficult, almost unbelievable, was the altitude record of fourteen thousand meters, set by him on an I-15 aircraft with an open cockpit, without a high-altitude suit - only with an oxygen device. In December 1937, for the first time in the Soviet Union, open and direct elections of deputies to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR were held. On this occasion, Vladimir Konstantinovich Kokkinaki came to Novorossiysk, as he was a candidate for deputies of the Supreme Council for the Novorossiysk constituency. Vladimir arrived with his wife, combining a business trip with a visit to his parents. The elections scheduled for Sunday (I don't remember what date) were held in an organized and unanimous manner. The inhabitants of Novorossiysk all voted for their noble countryman, and Vladimir Kokkinaki became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. For me and most young people of that time, he was an indisputable authority, an idol who, through his deeds, achieved universal recognition as an outstanding pilot of a great country. In the thirties of the last century, Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs" against "Sabers" 39, he was still a young man, full of physical and spiritual strength, surprising the world with record flights, which, in fact, everyone observed in the subsequent years of his further aviation life. I remember how, in a conversation with Alexander and me, he said: “If you want to achieve something in life, you have to work very hard and study all your life.” The next in the family were the brothers Pavel and Konstantin. Pavel lived in Novorossiysk, I remember that his work was related to car repairs. Konstantin was the second pilot in the family. At that time he served in one of the combat units of the Air Force fighter aviation on Far East . The third pilot and fifth brother in the Kokkinaki family was Alexander - we, comrades, called him Sasha, which was quite normal in those days. Sasha was a wonderful, sociable, cheerful guy, an honest and conscientious comrade, a good athlete - he played in the aviation school's football team. In 1938, after graduating from the school of military pilots, with the rank of junior lieutenant, Alexander was sent for further service to the combat unit - the city of Vitebsk as a pilot in the bomber regiment based there. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, from the first days he took an active part in the combat operations of the air regiment (on SB aircraft) and in one of the sorties, Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev did not return from a combat mission. The youngest brother, the fourth pilot in the family, Valentin Kokkinaki (I personally did not know him), like his older brothers, graduated from a military pilot school. He worked as a test pilot and died while testing a new jet bomber. Of the six Kokkinaki brothers, four were pilots. Two of them, Vladimir and Konstantin, made a significant contribution to the development of Soviet aviation, entered its history and became Heroes of the Soviet Union, and two younger brothers, Alexander and Valentin, died in their youth, performing one combat mission, another test flight. In the Kokkinaki family, six brothers had a sister, Claudia, in 1937 she lived and worked in Novorossiysk. We stayed in Novorossiysk for about a week, then we sailed further along the Black Sea with stops to the city of Batumi, the turning point of our journey. In Batumi, we settled in one cheap hotel, ran for three days to places of interest, such as the Botanical Garden, the colonnade, etc., etc. Everything was very interesting, especially for me, since I got to the subtropics for the first time, especially at the time when tangerines and lemons were ripe. Alexander and I filled a suitcase and a sack with tangerines, we didn’t have any other containers to treat our comrades in Odessa, with whom Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev had another year to learn the profession of military pilots. Four days later we arrived in Odessa. On the last leg of the route from Sevastopol to Odessa, my dream came true. Our ship "Crimea" got into a storm - we saw how this bulk descended from one huge wave and climbed onto another, at the same time rolling over from one side to the other, we saw how many passengers suffered during the pitching, and we felt it all ourselves, really , pitching did not particularly affect Alexander and me. Arriving in Odessa, due to a storm, our ship moored to the pier for about two hours. In a word, our swimming and vacation went very well, leaving pleasant memories for a lifetime. From our squadron, 240 cadets completed their training on the U-2 aircraft, and there were cadets recruited in 1937 who completed their training in flying clubs on the same aircraft. Two squadrons were formed: the 1st squadron for training on I-16 aircraft, the 2nd squadron for training on R-5 aircraft. The first squadron included two detachments of 120 cadets. The first was formed from the cadets of the special recruitment. The second detachment is made up of cadets who graduated from flying clubs, drafted in 1937. I ended up in the third group of the 1st link of the 1st detachment, where the instructor-pilot was Lieutenant I. Rats, the commander of the link, Art. lieutenant S. Kuzmin, commander of the detachment captain Pugachev, Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs" against "Sabres"" 42 commander of the 1st squadron captain Pechenko, political officer Bakin (two sleepers). A few words about the squadron commander Pechenko. He was a wonderful pilot, a good teacher and organizer of the educational process. A patriot of his craft, who, unfortunately, was not always lucky in flights. As an instructor pilot, in the early 30s, Pechenko got into a flight accident. Taking off in pairs on U-1 (Avro) aircraft, his wingman at an altitude of 20-30 meters damaged the tail of his car with a propeller. The plane crashed but did not catch fire. Pechenko was pulled out of the destroyed plane, considered dead and taken to the city morgue. At night, he regained consciousness and fled home from the morgue, since he lived not far from this sad institution. He confused his wife to hell, as he was covered in blood, with a disfigured face. After several plastic surgeries, when broken bones healed, he returned to the airfield. flew on different types aircraft. In 1941, on a UT-1 plane, he fell into the forest, but survived. At the front he commanded an air division. Killed in 1944. Since January 1938, the cadets of the squadron began to study the I-16 aircraft, the M-25 engine, special equipment and weapons of the aircraft, as well as to study more high level originally known Yevgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs" against "Sabres" 43 subjects: aerodynamics, aerial shooting theory, meteorology, Air Force tactics, history of the CPSU (b), etc. The study of these disciplines was carried out until May, until the very departure to the camps where the flights were to take place. Summer camps Vygoda, 40 km from Odessa, were equipped with everything necessary for combat training flights on combat aircraft, for the study and life of the personnel of one squadron. Flights at two airfields of the Vygoda camps were carried out regularly. The weather was favorable. Our 1st detachment completed the training program on the I-16 aircraft on time. I flew 20 hours on UTI-4 and I-16 aircraft, performed 137 landings. Accordingly, I was taught how to take off and land on an I-16 aircraft; simple and partially aerobatics: loop, coup, combat turn, entry and exit from a spin; orientation, elements of air combat and shooting at ground targets. By November 1938, we had completed the flight training course on the I-16 aircraft and in the tents of summer camps we were waiting for the order to confer a military rank and assignment to a new duty station, since in Odessa, in our former winter quarters, a new set of cadets was being recruited. Only in the second half of December, we were issued documents confirming the completion of the pilot school, we were assigned the military ranks of junior Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "Migs" against "Sabres" 44 lieutenants, equipped in the coveted military uniform and sent to the Air Force units for further service. 4. Service in the Far East In mid-January 1939, at 10-11 am, by train Moscow - Khabarovsk, a group of 10 young pilots from the Odessa school arrived at their destination, in the city of Belogorsk, which is not far from the Kuibyshevka Vostochnaya station, a hundred kilometers from Blagoveshchensk. The weather was cloudless and windless, frost around 40°C. We were greeted, dressed in new short fur coats and felt boots. They brought me to the garrison, put me up in a hotel, and gave me food stamps. The next day we were already at work in our unit. Five, including me, were assigned to the 1st Squadron of the 29th Red Banner Fighter Aviation Regiment, which was armed with I-16 fighters with M-22 engines. The commander of the 29th IAP was Major Shalimov V.M., the commander of our 1st squadron was Captain P. Chistyakov. We were divided into links, and our real study of the skill of a fighter pilot began. The study of maps and credits for knowledge of the flight area, examinations and credits for knowledge of technology and theoretical disciplines. Knowledge of instructions and instructions, verification Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs against Sabers” 45 operational skills. Then flights during the day for simple and complex aerobatics, single and group flights, single and group air battles, shooting at ground and air targets, flights along routes at low and high altitudes ... In the second year, in parallel with flights to develop piloting techniques and combat use , we were trained to fly "under the hood" - according to instruments on the UTI-4, flights at night on the UTI-4 and I-16. The I-16 aircraft was the most famous Soviet fighter of the 30s, created in the design bureau of N. N. Polikarpov. Monoplane with a low wing, on a two-wheeled landing gear, mechanically retracted by the pilot, by turning the handle, with one M-22 engine, then M-25 and by the end of the 30s with the M-63 engine, more powerful and higher altitude. The maximum speed is from 420 to 525 km / h, depending on the motor. Altitude from 7000 to 9000 m. Armament 2-4 ShKAS machine guns or 2-4 BS machine guns, or 2 ShVAK guns and other options. Of no small importance in our development as fighter pilots was the fact that we served in the famous Red Banner Regiment, formerly called the First Red Banner Squadron, which gained military glory back in the Civil War. This squadron was formed and later by Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migis against Sabers” 46 was commanded by an outstanding pilot civil war I. U. Pavlov, later chief inspector of the Red Army Air Force. Outstanding pilots served in this squadron: V.P. Chkalov, the first twice Hero of the Soviet Union S.I. Gritsevets, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Air Marshal E. Ya. Savitsky. My first meeting with Captain E. Savitsky took place in the spring of 1939 in Kuibyshevka-Eastern Amur Region, at a small airfield, under the following circumstances. On a sunny spring morning, when the winter snow that had melted during the day freezes in the morning, a command came from the headquarters of the regiment: "Everyone to come to the building." The personnel of the regiment, including our squadron, were built in a "square" in front of the headquarters of the regiment. At the formation, for the first time, I saw the newly arrived deputy commander of the 29th Red Banner Regiment E. Savitsky. Captain Savitsky, tightened with an army belt with belts and dressed strictly in uniform, after a short introductory speech, put two young pilots who arrived from the school - Lieutenant I. Makeev and Lieutenant A. Moiseev in front of the formation and began to scold them for appearing drunk in a public place. He scolded, insulted and humiliated them in every possible way in a way that I had never heard of. Even back then, I developed a dislike for him, which took root after I received a reprimand from him for aerobatics. In fact, I piloted where I should have piloted. In March 1940, the regiment was based in Vozzhaevka. Our 1st squadron was in winter camps at the Vasilki field airfield. The pilots of the squadron were conducting scheduled flights when the aircraft of the deputy commander of the air regiment Savitsky landed at the airfield. After firing at the cone, I, with Senior Lieutenant Tolmachev and other pilots who participated in the shooting, counted their holes in the cone. There were more holes of my color in the cone (each pilot had bullets painted in his own color) than other pilots. Captain Savitsky and squadron commander Captain P. Chistyakov approached the cone. Savitsky looked at the cone and said: “They learned how to shoot at the cone, but did they learn how to fight?” Komesk Chistyakov replied: - They know how to fight. Then Captain Savitsky said that the one who fired yellow or blue bullets (bullets of my color) would fly to an air battle with him, and set the task: “Take off in pairs, on command, at an altitude of 1500 m we diverge by a 90 ° turn, in a minute , turn 180°, converge. Departure in 10 minutes. I went to my plane. The plane was filled with gasoline. I am Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs vs. Sabers” 48 told the technician to refuel no more than 150 liters, that is, for 30 minutes of flight. They took off as a couple. Captain Savitsky scored a given height. The planes were the same - I-16 with two ShVAK cannons and two ShKAS machine guns. At the meeting, after the very first combat turn, my plane was in a more advantageous position, higher and somewhat behind. Seeing that the battle would be lost, Captain Savitsky headed for Pozdeevka and with a decrease went to the base airfield. I returned and landed at the Vasilki airfield. Komesk praised me, and after this fight Savitsky simply stopped noticing me. It seems to me that I hurt his pride then. In the summer of 1940, the 29th Red Banner Iap was in summer camps. The regimental headquarters and two squadrons, the 2nd and 4th, were based at the airfield Curly in the Amur Region. Two squadrons, 1st and 3rd, were based at the Uspenovka field airfield, 15 km from Zavitaya. The pilots of the 1st Squadron were to perform training parachute jumps under the guidance of regimental paratrooper Lieutenant S. Medovoy. On one of the cloudy summer days, the deputy commander of the regiment, Captain E. Savitsky, with Lieutenant S. Medov, flew to the Uspenovka airfield on a U-2. Lieutenant S. Medova combined two positions - a parachuting instructor of the regiment and a personal secretary of the deputy of the USSR, Major V. M. Shalimov, who commanded Yevgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs" against "Sabres" 49 then 29th IAP and former deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR first convocation. There were no flights that day, and Captain Savitsky decided to make parachute jumps. At the airfield, a landing "T" was laid out for jumping. He ordered the commander of the 1st squadron, Captain P. Chistyakov, to take out his pilots on the U-2 to jump. The weather was cloudy, the height of the lower edge of the clouds was 500 m, visibility was good, windless, and Captain Savitsky decided to jump and throw pilots from a height of 400 m. Captain Savitsky took off on a U-2 with a soldier - parachute stacker, as I remember now, thin growth. Savitsky threw it from a height of 200 m. The soldier, an experienced paratrooper, opened his parachute normally and landed exactly at the "T". After this jump, Savitsky said: - What kind of fighters are you if you don't want to jump with a parachute. Captain Chistyakov began to take out the pilots to jump. My turn came too. At an altitude of 400 m I left the plane. After a couple of seconds, he pulled out the ring. Having opened the parachute, I felt that the rate of descent was much greater than usual. I looked up and saw that the parachute line had crossed the canopy. I wanted to get a knife and cut this sling, but I realized that I would not have time to do this. The ground was rushing towards me. I grouped up and took the necessary pose Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs" against "Sabres" 50 for landing. His feet hit the ground hard, his eyes darkened. When my comrades ran up to me, my eyes already cleared up. I rose from the ground and began to collect the parachute. I was saved by the fact that the parachute line crossed the canopy not in the center, but a little to the side, in addition, there was soft ground, and my weight then was no more than 60 kg. After my jump, Captain Savitsky boarded his U-2 plane and flew to the base airfield Zavitaya, and only from there asked on the phone how junior lieutenant Pepelyaev was feeling. Returning from the Korean War to the Soviet Union, the 324th Air Division became part of the country's air defense forces. Aviation Lieutenant General Savitsky, being the country's air defense aviation commander, often visited the Inyutino airfield in the 196th IAP with a group of officers. Conducted various experiments and studied the experience of combat operations of the regiment. We all knew that after leaving Korea, our relievers, that is, the pilots of the 97th IAP, suffered heavy losses and the Americans freely walked over the Andun airfield. We received this information from our former technicians who came from Korea. General Savitsky did not want to come to terms with the fact that the air defense regiments were fighting worse than the Air Force pilots, so his team tried in every possible way to belittle the successes of the pilots of the 324th Air Division, the former Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs against Sabers” of the 51st Air Force division in Kubinka. Hence Savitsky's attacks on the MiG-15 aircraft. Allegedly, it is much worse in combat than the F-86 aircraft. Savitsky's obstacles in worthy awarding the pilots of the 196th IAP for combat work were significant. Of the six pilots presented for the title of Hero, only I missed. Many pilots for sorties, air battles and victories according to the norms of the Patriotic War deserved military orders, and they were awarded the orders of the Red Star. I.N. Kozhedub personally told me that all the performances that he wrote for the pilots of the 196th IAP were not missed by General Savitsky above. Savitsky has been gone for a long time, and there are no many pilots who have earned awards in Korea. This is already history. Still, it's a shame for the injustice that has existed and exists in our lives to this day. The 29th Red Banner Regiment began combat operations in the early days of the Great Patriotic War. For successful military operations near Moscow, the first in Soviet Air Force its pilots became guards after the regiment, already on December 6, 1941, was transformed into the 1st Guards Iap. During the two years of service in this regiment, I learned a lot. He learned to fly day and night, mastered aerobatics on the I-16 aircraft. He learned to shoot at ground and air targets, conduct a single free Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migs” against “Sabres” 52 air combat, mastered flying under a hood on a UTI-4, flying along a route, etc. For 1939 and 1940 in the 29th Red Banner Regiment I flew 270 hours. It should be noted that in the Far East, both during, and before, and after World War II, fighter aviation units always, day and night, had a link in readiness No. 2 on combat duty. This is when the plane is ready to fly and is at the start, and the pilot, in flight uniforms and in full readiness, is not far from the plane. In the order, especially on paper, the combat duty of fighter aircraft crews seems simple. In fact, this is a very complex, difficult and hard work that requires a high degree of coherence, clarity and discipline. In the pre-war years in the Far East, exceptionally great attention, especially in fighter aviation, was paid to the combat readiness of units and subunits. Regularly, two, three times a year, combat alerts were held for the regiment, and for the squadron they were arranged every two months. Notification, collection of personnel, preparation of aircraft for departure, departure of a regiment or squadron, defense of an airfield, etc. were worked out. Pepelyaev: “MiGs against Sabers” 53 being in the first and second readiness. Particular attention was paid to the combat training of the duty unit. I will tell you how the combat duty of the I-16 fighter unit in the 21st Red Banner Fighter Aviation Regiment was carried out in the winter of 1939-1940. Pilots trained for combat operations during the day in simple weather conditions, trained in simple and aerobatics, flying in a group, able to shoot at air and ground targets, and conduct free air combat were allowed to combat duty. I, like others, was allowed to combat duty after I mastered the indicated elements of flight. Pilots admitted to combat duty were marked with an order for the regiment, they were given personal weapons - a TT pistol. I was admitted to combat duty about six months after my arrival in the regiment. I remember how we, young pilots, envied the "old men" who went on combat duty with personal weapons. ... We already went to the duty link and carried pistols, and junior lieutenant V. Lipatov lagged behind in flights and therefore did not have “his” pistol. Once, wanting to show that he was not so "green", he stuck to junior lieutenant I. Vlasov: - Give me a gun to go to the dance. Well, please give! Vlasov, however, did not give a pistol, cutting off importantly: Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs against Sabers” 54 - Fly with me, you will get a gun. The duty link stepped in at 17 o'clock, for a day. Pilots on their planes taxied to the parking lot, which is 20-30 meters from the duty room, and put the planes in place of the taxied planes of the off-duty link. At the Pozdeevka airfield, the personnel of the duty unit were accommodated in two fanz, interconnected by a vestibule, in which there was a dining room and a corridor. The entrance was into the corridor, from which the door directly into the dining room, and to the right and left the doors to one and the other fanza. Fanza is a prefabricated, round, insulated wooden house that looks like a nomads' yurt from the outside. The fanza, 8-10 meters in diameter, had a wooden floor, two or four small windows, a stove, and everything needed for living and working. One of the fanz housed the flight crew, the other technicians and mechanics. In the pilots' fanza there were three or four metal beds with beds, a table, chairs, a gramophone, as a rule - with one record, a loudspeaker - a round dark plate. There were chess, checkers, dominoes, various instructions, statutory instructions, as well as a field telephone for communication with the headquarters and the operational duty officer. During the day, the pilots were on duty here in fur overalls and fur boots, so they often ventilated the fanza, opened the doors to keep it cool. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs vs. Sabers” 55 Another fanza for the technical staff was equipped more simply. In the fanza, bunks with mattresses for relaxation were made. There was a table with board games and special literature, benches and a small stove. Between the fanz there was a warm room and a corridor with doors to the street, to each fanz and the dining room, where pilots and technical staff had supper, lunch and breakfast in turn. In the dining room there was a table for ten people, covered with oilcloth, a couple of benches, a cupboard with dishes and a stove for heating food. At the appointed time, a waitress brought food in thermoses from the flight and technical canteens, warmed it up on the stove and served it on the table. In the summer, it was easier with airplanes and the life of the personnel on duty. In winter, in the cold, difficulties arose. Warm clothes hampered the movement and work of both pilots and technicians. At temperatures of -20 ° C and below, the motors cooled quickly. The cold engine did not start, so warm, wadded covers with a skirt were put on warmed-up engines. Catalysts were placed under the skirt on the sled - special furnaces in which gasoline was burned very slowly, creating the desired temperature necessary to quickly start the engine. During duty for the purpose of training, combat alarms were often carried out. The actions of the personnel were worked out in order to reduce the departure time. The duty link was raised into the air very rarely. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs vs. Sabers” 56 Only the regiment commander had the right to raise a flight. Most of the time, the personnel of the duty link spent merrily, telling each other tales and anecdotes, joking and bantering with each other. I will give an example of an emergency situation that happened to me during a training flight. In the winter of 1940, the 29th IAP conducted planned tactical exercises. The squadrons of the regiment, each at its own time, took off from the Pozdeevka base airfield and, having completed the task, were supposed to land at the Mikhailovka field airfield. The 1st Air Squadron, under the command of Captain P. Chistyakov, consisting of 10 I-16 aircraft in the “wedge of links” battle formation and one aircraft behind, in which I was as a squadron navigator, took off on time. The flight of the squadron along the route at low altitude, with the aim of landing at the Mikhailovka airfield, began very well. The weather was cloudless and visibility was excellent. After takeoff, after 50-60 km of flight, in front, at an altitude of 400-500 m, rare ragged clouds began to appear. The farther the group went to the northeast, the denser and lower the clouds fell. Mountains rose above the clouds. And when solid clouds began to completely cover the mountains, the squadron commander, shaking his wings, entered the clouds with his link. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs vs. Sabers" 57 At the same time, I joined the fourth to the left link in order to break through the clouds in close formation. There was no radio communication between the planes then. In the clouds, I looked not at the instruments, but at the aircraft in front and felt that the flight of the link in the clouds was not going the way it should be. The link, having broken through the clouds, left them with a large climb angle, with a roll of 50-60 ° and at a very low speed. Since I was the fourth in flight and was inside the group, the speed was insufficient, and my plane broke into a tailspin. This was seen by the flight commander ml. Lieutenant I. Vlasov and other pilots who broke through the clouds. Corkscrewing in the clouds, I pushed the control stick forward, according to the indication of the turning and sliding device, I stopped the rotation of the aircraft and began to withdraw the aircraft from a dive. On the left, in the fog, I saw large green firs. He began to roll the plane to the right, there in the fog the same ate. Keeping the lateral balance of the plane, I added speed and turned it into a climb. In the climb, the flight speed began to fall, I felt it, since the cockpit of the I-16 aircraft was open, I give the handle away from me - the speed increases, so several times - up and down, until I saw the speed device. I set the desired speed on the instrument and took the plane out of the clouds. A bright sun shone behind the clouds, a huge field of white clouds stretched below, and not a single aircraft. I set the desired course and flew to the Mikhailovka airfield, where Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs against Sabers” 58 there were no clouds. When landing, I examined where our squadron had taxied, and, having landed, taxied there. I want to explain why I did not see the speedometer, why I survived, why it happened. I acquired good instrument flight skills on a UTI-4 aircraft (I-16 double-seat aircraft), and completed the hood flight program. Under the cap at UTI-4, he also worked out the recovery of the aircraft from a spin. After the I-16 aircraft pulled out of a spin in the clouds, I did not see the speed gauge, because on the I-16 it is located in the wrong place on the instrument panel than on the UTI-4 aircraft. And I did not crash into the ground because I clearly and quickly brought the plane out of the spin, and the direction of the exit of the plane from the spin coincided with the direction of the valley between the mountains into which the plane fell. I would also like to tell you what seemingly minor inaccuracies lead to, untimely actions of the pilot to turn on any toggle switch, remove the fuse, reload weapons, etc., as well as poor knowledge of everything that is in the cockpit. The pilot must not only know all this well and be able to control it in a normal flight. If he wants to live, he must turn on and off the toggle switch, button, lever in time, and in extreme conditions, when he sees nothing in the cockpit, in conditions of smoke, Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs against Sabers” 59 shaking, overloads. I'll give you an example. In the spring of 1940, in April, with the adjutant of the 1st squadron, senior lieutenant I. Tolmachev, we fired at ground targets. I was led. Before the flight, Tolmachev told me: - We will shoot not one at a time, but in pairs. To be effective, we will fire at the same time. Before me, the fire did not open. While diving at an angle of 40-45°, I took aim at my shield and waited for Tolmachev to open fire. When I finally saw that the leader had opened fire, I pressed the trigger of the machine guns, but the trigger did not move! I looked into the cockpit to remove the fuse, pushed it back and I see that only a few meters remained to the ground. Vigorously pulled the control stick. He crouched, waiting to hit the ground. But this time I got through. The head of firing at the range later noticed: - I saw how the aircraft touched the ground during the withdrawal from the dive, raised a cloud of snow and left with a set. If my shooting flight ended successfully, then in a few days the shooting flight of the pilot of the 2nd squadron ml. Lieutenant Maziy ended in failure. On a dive, when firing at shields, the pilot, obviously, repeated my mistake, did not remove the safety catch in time, and was late with the withdrawal of the aircraft. The I-15 plane hit the ground with its skis, the left wing box (I-15 biplane) and began to collapse. The engine rolled up to a kilometer ahead. The pilot with the seat was pulled out of the cockpit. Having flown 150 meters in the air, he hit a haystack, flying another 50-60 meters with a ricochet from the haystack, and fell onto the next stack. Having rolled over the stack, he remained on it. The direction of the stack coincided with the flight path of the pilot thrown out of the plane. Pilot Maziy was taken to the hospital on a U-2 ambulance plane. He underwent a trepanation of the skull, and he survived. These two cases show that the pilots in both cases did not complete the "trifle" in time - they did not remove the machine gun trigger from the safety lock. There were also reverse cases, when the pilot removed the MiG-15 firing button from the fuse ahead of time and, accidentally pressing it while taxiing, fired from all guns. I want to draw attention to a certain special culture that has developed in the life and life of the flight crew. I don’t want to analyze where and when all this appeared, but I know very well that behavior and some unwritten rules of life, life were traditionally passed on from one generation of pilots to another. Among these unwritten rules were both positive and bad aspects of behavior and life. In pre-war life, during the war and after the war, up to perestroika, Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs against Sabers” 61 k positive aspects education of military pilots can be attributed to such aspects of character as collectivism, sociability, personal courage and courage, patriotism, camaraderie, respect for elders and deserving people, honor for deserving people. As a shortcoming in the life and life of the pilots of the combat units, I must note drunkenness, hooliganism, stupid jokes, which the command and political agencies periodically fought against, but without much success. For example, at the first or second meeting, my flight commander, in addition to kind parting words, uttered the following phrases: - What kind of pilot are you if you don’t smoke or drink ?! - The pilot must always be dressed in uniform, washed, clean-shaven and slightly drunk. Such bravado did not have the best effect on the behavior of some young pilots. An example of imitation and "valor" in the days of my youth was considered such a case. Two good respected pilots - the instructor-pilot in the technique of piloting the regiment of the Red Banner IAP captain P. Semenov and the navigator of the 29th captain S. Savenkov during the distillation of two I-16 aircraft for repair from Kuibyshevka-Vostochnaya to Khabarovsk Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs” against the "Sabres" 62 argued: who will be drunk next after arriving in Khabarovsk! The leader of the pair, Captain Semyonov, after landing in Khabarovsk, was the first to taxi into the parking lot and wanted to run to the buffet. Immediately after him, Captain Savenkov taxied into the parking lot and shouted to him: “Petka, don’t rush! I'm already drunk!" He drank a quarter of vodka after landing, and the second quarter - immediately after he taxied and turned off the engine. Such daring in aviation used to be unfairly considered valor, and such performances sometimes ended sadly. So, in 1939, 5 air crashes occurred in the 29th Red Banner IAP, not counting accidents and breakdowns. Among others, my comrade in the 1st squadron, junior lieutenant V. Myasnikov, died. Performing aerobatics in the zone at an altitude of 1400-2000 meters, after the plane rolled over, the pilot was unable to get the plane out of a steep dive, since in winter the I-16 aircraft did not have enough depth rudders to overcome the aerodynamic drag of the skis, and the plane often dived to the very ground. This was not the only case when, in winter, pilots on a coup were late to take the I-16 aircraft out of a dive, while the skis were sucked in, and rarely anyone got out of this situation. ... For the rest of my life, I remember the peculiar character and life of a wonderful bachelor pilot, Captain Peter Semenov. Semyonov always lived in a small room, which he called "cell". Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "Migis vs. Sabers" 63 hung a soldier's blanket over the window. I slept on a soldier's bed, but without springs. He rarely went to the bathhouse, but every day he thoroughly washed himself and brushed his teeth. He had no close friends, but they were all his comrades. I always went sober, only in military uniform , as a rule, in a technical, that is, in a leather jacket. When receiving uniforms from a warehouse, whether it be a uniform, raglan (leather coat), boots, etc., before putting on a new one, be sure to give it to techies to vilify, so that it can be seen that the clothes and shoes are not new. Only after that he put on himself. He did not spend money on himself, as he was on full army support: food and uniforms. Under the bed he had an old suitcase without a lid, where he threw the money he received for his service. If one of the pilots or technicians came to him to borrow money for a purchase or for a vacation, he turned the blanket on the bed and said: - Take as much as you need and write it down on the stove. There was a tall whitewashed brick stove in the room, on which was written: "The list of beggars." And who really needed money - they took it, wrote down the amount and their last name. Semyonov died in 1939, when two I-16 aircraft collided in a training air battle: he jumped out unsuccessfully. He was hit by the armored back of a collapsing aircraft. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs vs. Sabers” 64 When I served in the 29th Red Banner Aviation Regiment, the engineer-captain L. Patkin, a modest officer who knew his job, was the engineer of the regiment for special equipment. There was a joke among the pilots in the regiment - ask engineer Patkin, they say, I heard that you, comrade engineer, were awarded the rank of major engineer? He will definitely smile broadly, he had a very large mouth and lips almost like a Negro, and he will say: “It's time. My peers have already received this title.” When I asked him: - Comrade engineer, I heard that you were given another rank? - he smiled very broadly, his mouth stretched to his ears, he himself became kinder from his face, raised his head up, tilting it slightly, answered with a cheerful challenge: - It's time, my peers have long received this title. This conversation took place in 1940. In the summer of 1949, in the Stalin's Sokol newspaper, I see a photograph showing Patkin and a group of servicemen, and under the photograph there is an inscription: "Veteran of the 1st Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, engineer-captain Patkin is talking with young conscripts." Here is an example of our life, service, reality. A pre-war joke that caused smiles and laughter, years later caused bitterness. I would like to talk about my observations of the visible side Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migis against Sabers” of the activities of our counterintelligence officers, 65 who were in each military unit of the Red Army and the Soviet Army in the rank of junior officers. I was not afraid of them and did not like them, because I did not know and did not feel any guilt before my comrades and the state. Many of them saw me as an enemy or a traitor, since I had the same surname as some of the leaders of the White movement during the Civil War in the Far East. Some of these officers, in their official zeal, would like to see me behind bars. My first acquaintance with counterintelligence officers happened before the war, about a year after my arrival in the 29th Red Banner Air Regiment. Six people lived in the pilots' hostel in the Pozdeevka garrison. In one of winter evenings I noticed that at 22-23 hours, junior lieutenant L. Egorov quietly left. He returned home an hour and a half later. A couple of days passed, and at the same time junior lieutenant I. Vlasov left. I asked Vlasov: - Where have you been? He didn't answer me. With the same question turned to Yegorov, he said: - None of your business. A few days later, on the street, at a meeting with counterintelligence officer Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migis against Sabers” of the 66th regiment (in different years they were called differently - counterintelligence officer, mansion, smersh, etc.), he appointed me meeting at 23:00 in my office. I arrived at the appointed time. There were two of them - a regimental and a lieutenant from the airfield battalion. They behaved rudely, defiantly, impudently. I was offered to work for them as an informant. I refused. Before I left, they first asked, then demanded, and then threatened that I sign the minutes of the conversation. I refused and left. The next day I had an unpleasant conversation with the secretary of the party bureau, although I was not a member of the CPSU (b), with the deputy regiment commander for political affairs, with other party workers. Only after the regiment commander said that the attacks on Pepelyaev should stop, these figures stopped poisoning me. During my service in the army, I met a lot with representatives of the KGB in the army. Most of the KGB officers before military service were Komsomol and party workers of the regional scale. calling on military service , in the army they were told that they were representatives of the party and the government here. Many of them have established themselves in the opinion that they are authorized by the KGB, they stand head and shoulders above all other army officers. Therefore, army regulations and existing orders were often neglected. As a squadron commander of the 300th air regiment, I had a lot of skirmishes and Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs against Sabers” 67 unpleasant conversations with the KGB authorized officer of the 300th IAP senior lieutenant Zaporozhets. He considered himself in importance a person equal to the commander of the regiment, and very often publicly, without understanding anything in essence, climbed into the affairs of the regiment and units, intervened in the affairs of my squadron. It got to the point that after one unpleasant conversation, he, senior lieutenant Zaporozhets, said that he would put me in jail, since he had a bunch of compromising evidence on me. It happened at the beginning of 1942, at the Zheltyy Yar airfield, after I drove him out of the parking lot of my squadron and reported everything to the regiment commander. On the same days, aviation gasoline leaked from the fuel tank of the technical battalion. An investigator, a young lieutenant, whose name I do not remember, arrived from the prosecutor's office of the 10th Air Army. At one time he dreamed of becoming a military pilot, but it did not work out. He was a decent, honest officer. I became close to him, since he settled with me in the same dugout. His workplace was in the house of the commissioner of counterintelligence. I asked him to write down the names of the informers of my squadron. What he did for me. After the departure of the prosecutor's office investigator, at a meeting with the division commander, I boasted that I knew all the informers of my squadron. Less than a month later, the detective of the 300th air regiment, Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migis against Sabers”, Senior Lieutenant Zaporozhets was replaced by another counterintelligence officer, a modest and decent person, to whom I told everything about my problems. ... It is also interesting that the Air Force, to some extent, had its own jargon, its own expressions, even some words that today have passed into popular use. For example: “sak-net” means a loafer, a loafer, “sacks” - shirks from work or is idle when others are working; “Jitters”, “Jitters” - the pilot's fear in battle or when performing some elements of the flight, which he tries to hide from the commander or from his comrades; "fairing" - the so-called Air Force officers, forcing in uniform, but not flying. These are, as a rule, political workers, staff officers, and rear officers. I'm not talking about such words as "goat", "libation", "bonnet", "liquor-chassis", "million upon a million", etc. ... At the end of 1940, new aviation regiments were formed in the Red Army Air Force. I did not expect any changes in my life and in my service, when in December of the fortieth year I was handed an order with an appointment to a new duty station, to the 300th Fighter Aviation Regiment, formed at the Arkhara station of the Amur Railway, to Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migi "against the Sabers" 69th position of deputy squadron commander. The regiment was formed by my former colleague in the 29th Air Regiment, who served as the political officer of the squadron, then the political officer of the 3rd Fighter Aviation Regiment - the commander of the 300th IAP, Major K. Mikhailov. From the 29th regiment, Captain Vanzha, deputy. regiment commander, pilots - Lieutenant V. Sokolov, ml. Lieutenant A. Levin, Lieutenant A. Moiseev, Lieutenant Mulilov; squadron engineers sent senior technicians T. Titenok, Shesterikov, several flight technicians and aircraft technicians. Pilots - junior lieutenants, pilot sergeants, graduates of military flight schools were the basis of the formed flight personnel. By order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, Marshal of the Soviet Union Timoshenko, all graduates of aviation schools from officers instantly became conscripts. Even the pilots of combat units, who had not served in the army for more than four years, were transferred to military service. They were shaved like soldiers bald and settled in the barracks. It was a very unpleasant blow to aviation. In March - April 1941, having assembled two dozen restored I-16 aircraft from three dozen very old donkeys, the regiment moved to the Zheltyy Yar airfield in the Jewish Autonomous Region, and we began further training of young pilots. I served in the 300th IAP for 4 years: in 1941 I was a deputy. Commander Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs against Sabers” 70 of the 1st Squadron; in 1942 - the commander of the 1st squadron; in 1943-1944 - inspector-pilot of the 254th Fighter Aviation Division; in 1945-1946 - deputy commander of the 300th Iap. Before the start of the Great Patriotic War, I was in Primorye with a group of pilots and technicians with the task of receiving and overtaking old I-16 aircraft for my 300th air regiment. At the Pokrovka airfield, 30 km from Nikolsk-Ussuriysky, as the city of Ussuriysk was then called, my group received four I-16 aircraft from the local aviation regiment, which received new I-16 aircraft with M-63 engines. Technicians were at the airfield, receiving aircraft and eliminating defects, and the pilots and I sunbathed on the banks of the Sufun River, which flowed next to the houses of the garrison, which merged with the village of Pokrovka. It was the afternoon of June 15, 1941, on Sunday. The weather was beautiful - cloudless, windless, air temperature about 30 ° C, water - 20 degrees. Lying on the sand, we saw how a small plane was flying right at us from the side of the Manchurian (Japanese) border at an altitude of 150-200 m. This plane, without identification marks, passed through the airfield in the direction of Ussuriysk. We lay on the sand and were indignant - why the duty link did not take off, the plane was not Soviet. After 5-6 minutes, at the same height of 150-200 m, that Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev appeared: “Migs against Sabers” 71 same monoplane aircraft of unknown origin, flying towards the border. Finally, with enthusiasm, we heard the roar of an aircraft engine taking off and saw an I-16 on the takeoff run. The pilot of the plane that took off chased the foreigner. We watched with excitement and waited to see if he would catch up with the enemy plane to the border or not. It was no more than 30 kilometers to the border. After a minute and a half, we heard a long burst of four ShKASs and saw I-16 attacks in the distance. The intruder aircraft was not visible, as, in all likelihood, it descended to a low altitude. We saw how our fighter returned and landed. And in the evening we learned that the pilot on duty, taking off to intercept the intruder, shot down a plane with a Japanese officer and that the I-16 pilot (unfortunately, I don’t remember his last name) was put in a guardhouse because he shot down an unknown plane. The pilot spent three days in the guardhouse until they figured out and settled this event in Khabarovsk and Moscow. Meanwhile, the commander of the troops of the Far Eastern Military District, General Apanasenko, flew to the Pokrovka airfield, after which this pilot was released from the guardhouse and instead of the tribunal that dealt with him, he was thanked. And on June 22, 1941, at 11 or 12 local time, I was Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migis against Sabers” 72 drove four I-16 aircraft to the airfield of the 300th regiment and found out that the Great Patriotic War had begun. During 1941-1942, I taught the pilots of my squadron aerobatics on I-16 aircraft, free air combat, single and group piloting, shooting at ground and air targets. Prepared for combat operations in simple weather conditions as part of a pair, link. One of these pilots was junior lieutenant L. Bykovets. I remember him as a modest, sociable guy, quick-witted, but not simple. He mastered the profession of a fighter successfully, did not lag behind and did not run ahead of his comrades. His disadvantage was considered weak physical training. During 1941-1942, he, like other pilots, mastered flying the I-16 aircraft during the day in simple weather conditions and combat use as part of a pair and a link. In 1943, I don’t know who bothered for him there (and the question was often posed that way then), L. Bykovets, by order of the commander of the 300th IAP, left for the active army. Having retrained for Yak-7 aircraft, he fought well, shot down 19 enemy aircraft, for which he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Formed at the end of 1940, the 300th IAP did not have political workers in its units for more than half a year. And only in July 1941, when the Patriotic War was already underway, Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev was sent to the airfield: “Migs” against “Sabres” 73 Babstovo JAO, after the institution of commissars was introduced, instead of political officers, young people were sent to the regiment to positions of squadron commissars - political officers (three cubes in buttonholes): S. Gvozdetsky, Borodkin and Podzigun. These guys had just graduated from the school of political instructors for the ground forces and knew absolutely nothing about the work and life of aviation. Once, being at the start during flights, political instructor Borodkin, seeing a flight of fighters passing over the airfield, exclaimed with delight: - Look, comrades, how beautifully our pilots fly in a team! Someone said to him: - Not in a team, but flying in formation. Borodkin replied: - Build - this is a team! After this incident, the pilots laughed for a long time and said: - Now we will fly not in formation, but as a team. Political instructor S. Gvozdetsky was assigned to our squadron. The squadron trained young sergeant pilots for combat operations on the I-16 aircraft. The squadron was commanded by 32-year-old captain P. Gorlanov, who seemed to us already an elderly man. Gorlanov was an old campaigner, the former Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migis against Sabers” 74 tanker, he was very fond of aviation and always tried to organize flights. Politruk Gvozdetsky from the Don Cossacks, who had gained his wits in a political school, began to zealously restore order and discipline in the squadron. Regularly carry out political information, conduct political classes with mechanics and pilots, demand the implementation of the daily routine, movement around the airfield and the garrison only in formation. In a word, he launched an active work in all spheres of study and life, forbade even the pilots to have an afternoon rest, using his disciplinary rights of a commissar, equal to the rights of a squadron commander. In order to at least slightly knock down the superactivity of the commissar, I suggested that he plan and perform a flight on a UTI-4 combat training aircraft for group flying, air combat and aerobatics. Just those elements of the flight that the young pilot-sergeants were practicing at the present time. Our commissar not only agreed, even rejoiced at this proposal. The next day, early in the morning, the weather was fine, warm, cloudless, windless, visibility excellent. According to the plan table, the commissar was put into the front cockpit of the UTI-4 aircraft (double I-16), I sat in the second, instructor's cockpit, where, like in the first cockpit, there was an aircraft control stick. Also in the second Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “Migis vs. Sabers” 75, the cockpit had a handle for cleaning and releasing the landing gear of the aircraft. At the appointed time they took off in pairs. I am the leader, on a spark, that is, UTI-4, with a commissar, and the follower is one of the sergeant pilots on the I-16. After takeoff in a given zone, they began to work out group flying in close formation - turns, turns, climb, descent. Our commissar smiles, shows his thumb to the wingman, in a word, he likes the flight, and he is satisfied. I began to perform turns with a big roll - the commissioner stopped smiling. Further, according to the plan, an air battle began. The planes diverged and converged on combat turns, then turns, descents, climb, and so on. The commissioner lowered his head. I touched him from behind with my hand and asked how he was feeling. The commissar smiled sourly, saliva coming out of his mouth. After the training air combat, the pilot-sergeant went to his zone to perform aerobatics. I did not perform aerobatics in the zone, but went to land. After the flight, the commissar was helped to get out of the cockpit, the parachute was removed from him, an airplane cover was placed under the wing, and he fell asleep on it. I must say that after this flight, the squadron commissar S. Gvozdetsky, without any conversations or hints, realized that flying a fighter is not only pleasure, but also hard work, after which and before which rest is required. Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: “MiGs vs. Sabers” 76 Subsequently, a year after the demonstration flight, political instructor S. Gvozdetsky left for pilot school, which he successfully graduated from, and flew in combat units for several years. At the beginning of 1943 there was a big holiday: I don’t remember whether it was New Year’s Eve or the Day of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army was celebrated. At that time, two significant events took place. The first is that instead of cloth headdresses - “budenovkas” - helmets, as we called them, resembling in appearance the pointed combat helmet of Russian soldiers of the times of Alexander Nevsky and Dmitry Donskoy, gray earflaps were introduced into the uniform of soldiers and officers, and for colonels and generals hats from gray astrakhan fur. The second, when instead of triangles, cubes, sleepers and rhombuses, shoulder straps were introduced in the buttonholes - field, everyday and front, without gaps and with gaps, with small and large stars for officers, with badges - for soldiers and sergeants. After a meeting in the garrison club, I happened to be at a festive feast, which I held on the occasion of the holiday with my officers and individual civilians, the commander of the ATB, Major Kazantsev. ATB is an airfield technical battalion that provided the 300th Fighter Aviation Regiment. The table was served by Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs vs. Sabers" 77 quite decently at that time: plates stood on a white tablecloth, duralumin forks lay, faceted glasses gleamed modestly, into which 100 grams of diluted rectified alcohol had been poured in advance which glowed blue. The bluish alcohol-denatured alcohol was then called the "blue handkerchief", since the song of the same name was then on everyone's lips. In two or three aluminum bowls there was brown bread cut into pieces. The vegetable vinaigrette was pre-arranged on plates, and next to the vinaigrette was a piece of American canned sausage, called the “second front”. Battalion officers sat at the table. There was a place for me and a friend. At the head of the table sat the commander of the ATB with his wife, the deputy for political affairs, the chief of staff. Behind the battalion commander stood foreman Bubukin - a smart and efficient guy, he is also an adjutant, he is also a messenger, he is also an orderly, in a word, a close assistant to the major. When everyone sat down at the table, Major Kazantsev got up and delivered a speech that looked something like this: - Dear comrades! There is a big war - the Patriotic War. The Red Army, under the leadership of the great Stalin, surrounded and destroyed a group of thousands of German troops near Stalingrad ... Bubukin, share in my glass ... And continues to smash the Nazis, moving west. The 300th Aviation Regiment and our Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "MiGs" against the "Sabres"" The 78th battalion, being in the Far East, performs a combat mission, ensuring the rear of our state and the success of the Red Army's military operations in the fight against fascist invaders. ... Bubukin, put the decanter near me ... Dear comrades! I congratulate you on this wonderful holiday! … Bubukin, I don't see an accordion player!.. I wish you all great success in solving the tasks we face. I raise a glass to the victory of the Red Army over fascism. Long live the Red Army! Long live the Communist Party! Long live our leader, beloved comrade Stalin! Everyone rises, Kazantsev clinks a glass with his wife, with those around him and quietly adds: - And to the health of my wife. Everyone in the group ate and drank together. Sergeant Major Bubukin walked around the table with a decanter, pouring another half a glass each for those who wished. Again there was a toast, and again they drank. This time for success in combat and political training. After the feast and dancing, they dispersed, and everything seemed to go well. Soon I left the regiment, having been appointed to the post of inspector-pilot of the formation. Some time later I learned that Major Kazantsev had been convicted and given several years in prison. Since this happened in the Far East, it was far from Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev to go to Kazantsev: “MiGs against Sabers” 79 had to, the places of detention in the east were nearby. After the war, in Khabarovsk, I accidentally met the head of the food service (head of the food service) of the same ATB. He told me that he sat at the same time with Kazantsev, who was convicted and demoted allegedly not for crimes and not for blunders in work, but because at one of the feasts he discredited Comrade Stalin by toasting the health of Stalin and his wife at the same time, putting the leader on the same level as his wife. Such a terrible story happened to Major Kazantsev at the Yellow Yar airfield in early 1943. This version seemed quite true and is especially suitable for the times of perestroika, when all the good that was during Soviet power, began to smear with mud and black paint. In fact, as I later learned, Major Kazantsev was convicted not for political reasons, but for theft. Together with him, they convicted and sent to the camps the head of the battalion's food service and the head of the battalion's fuel and lubricants - this was for theft and sloppiness: more than 30 tons of gasoline were missing. Such stories happened under Soviet rule, when thieves were imprisoned for several years for a ton of food and 30 tons of fuel. Now they are stealing from the state millions of tons of oil, echelons of timber and Evgeny Georgievich Pepelyaev: "Migis" against "Sabres" 80 metals, dispose of labor and blood paid for public property, and thieves are healthy, prosper and are drawn in television programs. In my opinion, discord in our country will continue as long as thieves and corrupt officials walk freely. ... All the time while the Patriotic War was going on, the desire to