Air ramming by petr nesterov. Air ramming is a weapon not only for Soviet heroes

Battering ram as a method of aerial combat has never been and will not be the main one, since a collision with the enemy very often leads to the destruction and fall of both vehicles. A ramming strike is permissible only in a situation where the pilot has no other choice. For the first time such an attack was performed in 1912 by the famous pilot Pyotr Nesterov, who shot down an Austrian reconnaissance officer. His light Moran was struck from above by a heavy enemy Albatross carrying the pilot and observer. As a result of the attack, both aircraft were damaged and fell, Nesterov and the Austrians were killed. At that time, machine guns were not yet installed on aircraft, so a ram was the only way to shoot down an enemy airplane.

After the death of Nesterov, the tactics of ram attacks were carefully worked out, the pilots began to strive to shoot down the enemy plane, keeping their own. The main method of attack was the impact of the propeller blades on the tail unit of the enemy aircraft. The rapidly spinning propeller damaged the tail of the aircraft, resulting in loss of control and crash. At the same time, the pilots of the attacking vehicles often managed to land their planes safely. After replacing the bent propellers, the machines were ready to fly again. Other options were also used - a blow by a wing, keel, fuselage, landing gear.

Night battering rams were especially difficult, since it is very difficult to execute a strike in conditions of poor visibility. For the first time a night air ram was used on October 28, 1937 in the skies of Spain by Soviet Evgeny Stepanov. At night over Barcelona on "I-15" he managed to destroy the Italian bomber "Savoy-Marchetti" with a ram strike. Since the Soviet Union did not officially take part in the civil war in Spain, they preferred not to talk about the pilot's feat for a long time.

During the Great Patriotic War, the first night air ram was carried out by the fighter pilot of the 28th fighter Pyotr Vasilyevich Eremeev: on July 29, 1941, he destroyed the enemy Junkers-88 bomber with a ram attack on a MiG-3 aircraft. But the night ramming of fighter pilot Viktor Vasilyevich Talalikhin became more famous: on the night of August 7, 1941, he shot down the German Heinkel-111 bomber on an I-16 aircraft near Moscow Podolsk. The battle for Moscow was one of the key moments of the war, so the pilot's feat became widely known. For his courage and heroism, Viktor Talalikhin was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. He died on October 27, 1941 in air combat, destroying two enemy aircraft and being fatally wounded by a fragment of an exploding shell.

During the battles with Nazi Germany, Soviet pilots performed more than 500 ram attacks, some pilots used this technique several times and remained alive. Ramming strikes were also used later, already on jet vehicles.

The mighty will of the Creator of the world.
She called him to a great feat.
And, with eternal glory crowns the hero.
I chose him as an instrument of revenge ...

Head Captain P.N. Nesterov

Air ramming as a form of air combat

In 1908, a large article "On the military significance of airplanes" appeared on the pages of the Russian Invalid newspaper, the official publication of the military department. In it, the author put forward the idea of ​​attracting special combat airplanes "designed for squadron combat in the air" to fight "for the domination of the state in the air element".

At the same time, the author believed that: “(an airplane is) a flying machine ... generally fragile and therefore any collision with opponents in the air, chest and chest, must inevitably end in the death of both aircraft colliding on boarding. There can be neither a winner nor a loser, therefore, it must be a battle with maneuvering. " A few years later, the prediction of the author of the article was confirmed. In June 1912, the first air collision in the history of world aviation took place at a military airfield in Douai (France). When performing morning flights in the air at an altitude of 50 m, biplanes piloted by Captain Dubois and Lieutenant Penian collided. In their fall, both aviators were killed. In October 1912, a similar incident occurred in Germany, in May 1913 - in Russia. At the Gatchina aerodrome of the aviation department of the Officer Aeronautical School (AO OVSh), during training flights at an altitude of 12-16 m, Lieutenant V.V. Dybowski and "Farman" of Lieutenant A.A. Kovanko. The pilots escaped with minor bruises.

In total, for the period from 1912 to the beginning of the First World War, air collisions accounted for 6% of the total number of accidents in world aviation.

In order to avoid an air collision during the maneuvers of troops, Russian and foreign pilots were urged to fight at a certain distance from each other. The idea of ​​air combat itself in the military department was not rejected. For its conduct, it was proposed to arm airplanes with guns or automatic weapons. This idea was reflected in the already mentioned article "On the military significance of airplanes": "A rifle, maybe a light machine gun, a few hand grenades - that's all that can make up the armament of a flying projectile. Such armament is quite enough to disable the enemy's airplane and force it to descend, for a rifle bullet, which has successfully hit it, will stop the engine's car or disable the aeronaut; far distance - from the same gun. "

In the fall of 1911, in the course of large maneuvers of the troops of the Warsaw Military District, according to a previously approved plan, two airplanes carried out a successful attack on the airship of the conditional enemy. According to the district command, the presence of onboard weapons could lead to the destruction of a controlled balloon. But the absence of such an urgent need to find other forms of influence on the enemy aircraft.

A certain sensation among the pilots was caused by the proposal of one of the theorists of the domestic military aviation, mechanical engineer Lieutenant N.A. Yatsuka. In the summer of 1911, he published an article "On Air Combat" in the "Bulletin of Aeronautics" magazine, where he wrote: "It is possible that in exceptional cases the pilots will decide to ram someone else's airplane with their airplane."

In his work "Aeronautics in a naval war" (1912), Nikolai Aleksandrovich supported the idea of ​​an "air ram", which he had voiced earlier, but with a different meaning. “There is nothing impossible in the fact,” wrote Yatsuk, “that the next war will show us cases when an aeronautical apparatus, in order to interfere with reconnaissance of an air enemy, sacrifices itself, hitting it in order to cause it to fall, at least at the cost of its death. Techniques of this kind are, of course, an extreme. The fight in the air will be the most bloody in terms of percentage of the number of participants in it, since the damaged vehicles will mostly quickly fall to the ground with all their crews. " However, his views remained unclaimed due to insufficient knowledge of the very nature of air combat.

Differently than others, the idea of ​​an air ram was perceived by the military pilot acting. the commander of the 11th corps air squadron of the 3rd aviation company, Lieutenant P.N. Nesterov, seeing in her the possibility of turning an aircraft into a military weapon.

In the autumn large maneuvers of the troops of the Kiev military district in 1913, he showed in practice how you can force an air enemy to refuse to carry out his mission. Taking advantage of the speed advantage (about 20 km / h), Pyotr Nikolaevich, on his Nieuport-IV apparatus, imitated the attack of the Farman-VII piloted by Lieutenant V.Ye. Hartmann, forcing the latter to periodically change the course of his flight. "After the fourth attack, Hartmann shook his fist at Nesterov and flew back without completing the reconnaissance." This was the first imitation of air combat in domestic practice.

Lieutenant P. N. Nesterov near the Nieuport IV aircraft.
11th Corps Squadron

After landing, Nesterov was told that such an attack by an enemy airplane is possible only in peacetime, and in a war, these maneuvers are unlikely to affect the enemy. Pyotr Nikolaevich pondered and then answered with conviction: "It will be possible to hit him from above with wheels." Subsequently, the pilot repeatedly returned to the question of the ram and proved its possibility, while allowing two options.

The first is to rise above the enemy airplane, and then, diving abruptly, hit the end of the enemy wing with your wheels: the enemy airplane will be shot down, and you can plan safely yourself. The second is to crash the propeller into the enemy's tail and break his rudders. The propeller will fly to smithereens, but it is possible to plan safely. We must not forget that there were no parachutes yet.

V foreign countries in the pre-war years, air combat between airplanes was initially denied. For example, in Germany, where the rapid development of aviation began in 1912, the latter were considered only as means of reconnaissance and communications. The airplanes were armed with light small arms in the form of a revolver or a carbine in case of a forced landing behind enemy lines. Meanwhile, the first successful attempts of aviation as an air strike during the Tripolitan (1911 - 1912) and 1st Balkan (1912 - 1913) wars convinced many leading European countries of the need to create special combat airplanes. At this time, information appeared that a special metal, high-speed fighter airplane had been built in Germany, which had passed successful experimental tests. This was the reason for the Frenchman R. Esnault-Peltry to develop, together with artillery specialists, a project of the same fighter. The detailed specifications were highly classified.

After the maneuvers of the Petersburg military district in Russia in August 1913, the question arose about the need to form fighter aircraft in the Russian army and equip airplanes with automatic weapons to fight enemy reconnaissance aircraft. However, by the beginning of the war, the aviation units of the Russian army remained practically unarmed.

Airplane as a means of warfare

The beginning of the First World War was characterized by the intensity of flights of aircraft of the belligerents, mainly for reconnaissance purposes. Already at the beginning of the war, their first combat clashes in the air were recorded. The main means of engaging the enemy, which was used in air combat, was the pilot's personal weapon. For the fire from the pistol to be effective, it was necessary to approach the enemy airplane at a distance of up to 50 m. Simultaneously with the fire effect, the pilots used the so-called. “A method of intimidation,” that is, active maneuvering near an enemy vehicle with the threat of a collision with it in the air in order to force the enemy to abandon the task.

On August 17, 1914, the following information was placed on the pages of the daily newspaper Russkoe Slovo: “Received interesting message about air combat between Russian and German pilots. Suddenly, an enemy airplane appeared over the line of the Russian troops. Our pilot expressed a desire to force the German to descend. He quickly took off, approached the enemy and forced him to land by a number of bends. The German pilot has been arrested. " In the future, this technique was used more than once.

This circumstance led the Russian command to the idea of ​​the possibility of using captured equipment for the needs of the Russian army. The commanders of air squadrons at the front were now strongly advised not to destroy, but to forcibly plant enemy vehicles, if possible. In the future, within the walls of the capital plant Joint Stock Company aeronautics V. A. Lebedev they received new life... There were reasons for this. First, the military department gave the same assessment of the cost of rebuilding and newly built airplanes. Secondly, acquaintance with other people's technologies and technical solutions made it possible to enrich their own design experience.

However, according to the pilots themselves, a forced landing could only touch a single enemy vehicle, while their group raid required other methods of influence, up to the destruction of the latter. This opinion was also shared by the staff captain of the 9th Siberian Rifle Brigade P.N. Nesterov, by the beginning of the war, commander of the 11th corps squadron of the 3rd Army of the Southwestern Front (SWF). He believed that if the enemy does not stop flying over our territory and refuses to surrender, he must be shot down. To resolve this issue, it was necessary to arm the airplanes with light machine guns, which was confirmed in one of the orders of the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. In it, in particular, it was stated: “In order to combat enemy aircraft, it seems necessary to arm the most cargo-carrying of our airplanes. For which it is considered necessary to use Madsen's automatic rifles. " However, automatic weapons at that time were not enough to the installed set in the field units.

The lack of reliable weapons in aviation, the ridiculous "valuable instructions" of military officials "to shoot with canister ..." forced Nesterov and other aviators to invent exotic weapons like a bomb "suspended on a long cable ... to destroy enemy airships" with a load, so that, cutting the road to an enemy plane, break its propeller "," adapt a sawtooth knife to the tail of the plane and ... rip open the shell of airships and tethered observation balloons ", throw" artillery shells instead of bombs. "

Without giving up the views of N.A. Yatsuka on the use of power (ramming) strikes, Pyotr Nikolaevich was still a supporter of technical and maneuverable methods of fighting the enemy. Unfortunately, the tragic death of the remarkable pilot ruled out the possibility of implementing his inventions in the Russian school of air combat.

The Albatross Hunt - A Step Into Immortality

During the Gorodok battle (September 5-12, 1914), the Austro-Hungarian command made an attempt to defeat the Russian 3rd and 8th armies of the South-Western Front. But the counteroffensive that followed on September 4 in the zone of our three armies (9th, 4th and 5th) forced the enemy troops to start a hasty retreat. Within a few days, our forward units reached and captured the important center of Eastern Galicia - Lvov. Preparations for the forthcoming operations required a large regrouping of troops. To uncover their new positions, the locations of military command and control bodies, firing points, field airfields, and the transport network, the enemy made extensive use of its air forces. In addition to collecting intelligence information in the near rear of the Russian troops, enemy pilots, whenever possible, bombarded our military facilities, including the airfield of the 11th corps air detachment. On September 7, one of the Austrian airplanes dropped a bomb on its airfield "(of an artillery shell), which fell, buried itself in the sand and did not explode."

One of the prominent Austrian pilot-observers, Lieutenant Baron von Friedrich Rosenthal, the owner of vast lands in Eastern Galicia, was involved in the combat work. He made his flights on an airplane of the "Albatross" type, designed and built with his personal participation. In the zone special attention The enemy apparatus was the city of Zholkiev, Lvov region, where the estate of Baron F. Rosenthal was located, which was temporarily occupied by the headquarters of the 3rd Russian army. The appearance of enemy aircraft in this area caused extreme irritation in the army command. Senior chiefs immediately accused the flight personnel of the 3rd Aviation Company of insufficient activity in the fight against the air enemy.

On September 7, 1914, the Quartermaster General of the Army Staff, Major General M.D. Bonch-Bruevich demanded that the pilots exclude flights of the Austrians in the Russian rear. Head Captain P.N. Nesterov promised to take drastic measures to solve this problem.

Initially, the question of an air ram was not raised at all. Considering the possibility of the appearance of the "Albatross" unaccompanied (before that he flew in a group of three airplanes), it was decided to capture it by forced landing. To this end, on the morning of September 8, P.N. Nesterov with his deputy lieutenant A.A. Kovanko worked out this option over the airfield. However, further events began to develop according to a different scenario. Already at the start, Nesterov's single-seat airplane broke off a load with a cable, which he hoped to use when meeting an enemy. When landing after a training flight, the engine unexpectedly went bad, and at the direction of Pyotr Nikolayevich, the mechanics began checking its valves. The appearance of the enemy Albatross in the sky was an unpleasant surprise for the Russian pilots. Without waiting for the troubleshooting of his machine, Nesterov rushed to Kovanko's car. In order not to risk his life, Pyotr Nikolaevich categorically refused the deputy to fly with him.

Swiftly typing on the "Morane-Saulnier" type "J" (Morane-Saulnier G) altitude up to 1500 m (according to other sources - up to 2000 m), he attacked the "Albatross" from top to bottom. Eyewitnesses of this unusual battle saw that after a sharp collision, the enemy's airplane pecked its nose and began to fall randomly. Nesterov's apparatus swept further, then began to descend in a spiral. At an altitude of about 50 m "Moran" swung sharply and he fell down like a stone. At this moment, the figure of the pilot separated from the apparatus.

Scheme of the battering ram of P. N. Nesterov

Airplane crash site diagram

Air ram. World War I period poster. 1914 g.

When examining the corpse of Nesterov, doctors testified that he had a fracture of the spine and minor damage to the skull. According to their conclusion, the fracture of the spine could not be the result of a fall on soft ground. Head Captain P.N. Nesterov died in the air as a result of an airplane collision. The pilots who knew Pyotr Nikolayevich closely doubted at once that they were deliberately ramming an air enemy. They believed that Nesterov had intentions to force the crew of the Albatross to descend to the airfield, holding it through skillful maneuvering under the threat of a ram. Pyotr Nikolayevich himself, who knew well the statistics of air collisions in the pre-war period and a large percentage of fatalities, did not see any particular benefit in the ram for the small Russian aviation, where each apparatus was worth its weight in gold. In the period August - September 1914 alone, the decrease in airplanes in the active Russian army amounted to 94 airplanes (45% of the total).

In the "Act of Investigation into the circumstances of the heroic death of the head of the 11th corps aviation detachment, Staff Captain Nesterov," it was stated: "Staff Captain Nesterov has long expressed the opinion that it is possible to shoot down an enemy aircraft with overhead strikes with the wheels of his own car on the supporting surfaces of the enemy apparatus, and admitted the possibility of a successful outcome for the ramming pilot. "

Therefore, most experts agreed that he made an attempt to attack an enemy airplane with a glancing blow, counting on a psychological effect. According to theoretical calculations, the tangential impact of a light single-seat vehicle could not lead to the destruction of a heavier airplane, which was the three-seat Albatross with a bomb load. This required either an apparatus of equal weight, or a blow with the entire body of an attacking airplane. It seems that Nesterov had technical calculations for performing an air ramming in relation to a one-seater vehicle based on an attack of an enemy aircraft of an equal mass. There was no question of the possibility of an air attack in this way for heavy types of airplanes. But, ironically, this is exactly the situation in the sky of Eastern Galicia. Directing his car to the Austrian airplane, Nesterov lost sight of the fact that he had a heavier and less maneuverable two-seater "Moran-Saulnier" type "Zh". As a result, instead of a tangential impact with the wheels on the wings of the enemy car, he crashed into it with a motor between the two surfaces that support it, which led to complete loss control and destruction of the latter. According to the official version, this blow caused the death of the Russian pilot himself.

In his book "Khodynka: The Runway of Russian Aviation", an expert in the field of aviation history A. A. Demin gives an assessment of the tragic event made by the famous Soviet scientist V. S. Pyshnov.

Analyzing the ram, he, in particular, noted that the "Moran" had a very poor view "forward - down" and it was difficult to accurately determine the distance and "jewelry" hit the "Albatross" with wheels alone. It is possible that turbulent currents from both airplanes and their mutual influence could also have contributed. And then, according to Pyshnov, the following could happen: “If the Moran-J plane had only one elevator of a symmetrical profile, without a fixed part - the stabilizer, the plane could not fly with the thrown handle. Since a diving moment acted on the wing in the absence of lift, in the event of a thrown handle, the aircraft had to go into a dive with a further transition to an inverted flight. As you know, after the battering ram, which occurred at an altitude of about 1000 m, up to the height of P.N. Nesterov performed a spiral descent, but then the plane went into a dive and fell overturned. This behavior of the aircraft indicates that P. Nesterov lost consciousness and released the control stick; after switching to negative angles of attack and negative value ... (overload) he was thrown out of the plane, because he was not tied ... ".

Based on the analysis carried out, it can be assumed that the pilot lost consciousness not at the time of the ramming strike, but much later, during a sharp spiral due to the weakness of the vestibular apparatus. About health problems P.N. Nesterov at the front was later mentioned by his colleagues, in particular the military pilot V.G. Sokolov, who witnessed the deep fainting of Pyotr Nikolaevich after the next flight. The intensity of his work is reflected in the combat activity log of the 11th corps squadron. During the period from August 10 to September 8, 1914, he performed 12 sorties, the total flight time was 18 hours 39 minutes. The last of them (September 8) took only 15 minutes and cost the Russian pilot his life.

Nesterov's body was soon found 6 km from the town of Zholkiev on a dry field near a swamp between the airplane and the engine. At 400 m from it lay the downed Albatross, buried partially in the swampy soil. The bodies of two members of its crew (Lieutenant F. Rosenthal and NCO F. Malina) were discovered immediately. According to some reports, the body of the third crew member, whose name has not been established, was found much later.

For his unparalleled feat, Staff Captain P.N. Nesterov was the first among Russian pilots to be posthumously awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree, and promoted to the rank of captain. The deceased hero was buried on September 13, 1914 at the Askold's grave in Kiev. Later, the ashes of the Russian pilot were transferred to the Lukyanovskoye cemetery in the capital of Ukraine.

Nesterov's legacy

The tragic outcome of Nesterov's air ramming at the beginning called into question the possibility of the pilot who committed it to stay alive.

Doubts were dispelled by another Russian pilot - lieutenant of the 12th Belgorod Uhlan regiment A.A. During the First World War, Kozakov was recognized as the most productive pilot in Russia.

He got acquainted with the advanced views of PN Nesterov on the fight against enemy vehicles thanks to the younger brother of the hero Mikhail - the pilot of the Brest-Litovsk corps air squadron, who tragically died in the fall of 1914 in a plane crash.

Later, the Allies (the British) recognized air ramming (here we are talking about a tangential strike) as one of the forms of Russian air combat, indicating that when they (Russian pilots) have no bombs, they rise above the enemy airplane, and, flying over it, hurt him bottom his airplane.

Subsequent equipping aircraft automatic weapons pushed air rams into the background. It would seem that they inevitably had to go down in history. But in our country, they did not abandon the ideas of Pyotr Nesterov, and for a long time the air ramming terrorized enemies, and the fearlessness of Soviet pilots aroused sincere admiration and respect in the world. The practice of air boarding (ramming) has been inherent in the flight personnel of fighter aircraft of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces for a long time and has not lost its relevance today (in exceptional cases, such an air combat technique is quite possible).

Back in the fall of 1914, Russian society came up with a proposal to perpetuate the memory of the brave pilot. Mr. A. Zholkevich (editorial office of the Novoye Vremya newspaper) came up with an initiative, starting to collect money with the aim of acquiring several acres of land at the place of the hero's death for the construction of a memorial obelisk. In the same year, a memorial cross was erected in the area of ​​Zholkiev, later a monument was erected.

Today, monuments have been opened to the brave Russian pilot in Kiev, and Nizhny Novgorod, a memorial bust was installed in Kazan, his name was given to asteroid No. 3071. In honor of PN Nesterov, a special state award of the Russian Federation - the Nesterov medal - was established.

The grave of P. N. Nesterov in Kiev. Modern look

Monument to P.N.Nesterov in Kiev on Pobedy Avenue.
Sculptor E. A. Karpov, architect A. Snitsarev

Memorial plaque in Kiev on the house on Moskovskaya street,
where in 1914 the pilot P.N. Nesterov lived

Monument to P.N. Nesterov in Nizhny Novgorod.
The authors of the project are sculptors, Honored Artist of the RSFSR A.I. Rukavishnikov and People's Artist of the RSFSR, Corresponding Member
Academy of Arts of the USSR I.M.Rukavishnikov

Memorial sign at the place of death of P. N. Nesterov

Alexey Lashkov,
Senior Researcher, Research
Institute of Military History of the Military Academy
General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,
Candidate of Historical Sciences

The air force of the Third Reich (Luftwaffe) from the very beginning of the war with the Soviet Union had to experience the fury of the Soviet "falcons". Heinrich Goering, Reich Minister of the Reich Ministry of Aviation in 1935-1945, was forced to forget his boastful words that "No one will ever be able to gain air superiority over the German aces!"

On the very first day of the Great Patriotic War, German pilots encountered such a reception as an air ram. This technique was first proposed by the Russian aviator N.A. scout.

During the Great Patriotic War, an air ram was not provided for by the military regulations, any instructions or instructions, and Soviet pilots resorted to this technique not by order of the command. Soviet people were driven by love for the Motherland, hatred of the invaders and the fury of battle, a sense of duty and personal responsibility for the fate of the Fatherland. As the Chief Marshal of Aviation (since 1944), twice Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Alexandrovich Novikov, who was commander of the Soviet Air Force from May 1943 to 1946, wrote: “An air ram is not only a lightning-fast calculation, exceptional courage and self-control. A ram in the sky is, first of all, a readiness for self-sacrifice, the last test of loyalty to one's people, to one's ideals. This is one of the highest forms of manifestation of the very moral factor inherent in Soviet people, which the enemy did not and could not take into account. "

During The great war Soviet pilots made more than 600 air rams (their exact number is unknown, since research continues at the present time, new exploits of Stalin's falcons are gradually becoming known). More than two-thirds of the rams fell on 1941-1942 - this is the most difficult period of the war. In the fall of 1941, a circular was even sent out to the Luftwaffe, which forbade Soviet aircraft to approach closer than 100 meters in order to avoid air ramming.

It should be noted that the pilots of the Soviet Air Force used ramming on all types of aircraft: fighters, bombers, attack aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft. Air rams were carried out in single and group battles, day and night, at high and low altitudes, over their own territory and over the territory of the enemy, in any weather conditions. There were cases when pilots rammed a land or water target. So, the number of ground rams is almost equal to air attacks - more than 500. Perhaps the most famous ground ram is a feat that was performed on June 26, 1941 on a DB-3f (Il-4, twin-engine long-range bomber) by the crew of Captain Nikolai Gastello. The bomber was hit by enemy anti-aircraft artillery fire and committed the so-called. "Fiery ram", striking the enemy mechanized column.

In addition, it cannot be said that an air ram would necessarily lead to the death of the pilot. Statistics show that approximately 37% of the pilots were killed in an air ramming attack. The rest of the pilots not only remained alive, but even kept the aircraft in a more or less combat-ready state, so many aircraft could continue air combat and made a successful landing. There are examples when pilots made two successful rams in one air battle. Several dozen Soviet pilots performed the so-called. "Double" battering rams, this is when it was not possible to shoot down the enemy's plane from the first time and then it was necessary to finish it off with the second blow. There is even a case when the fighter pilot O. Kilgovatov, in order to destroy the enemy, had to make four ram attacks. 35 Soviet pilots made two rams each, N.V. Terekhin and A.S. Khlobystov - three each.

Boris Ivanovich Kovzan(1922 - 1985) - this is the only pilot in the world who made four air rams, and three times he returned to his home airfield on his plane. On August 13, 1942, Captain B.I.Kovzan made the fourth ram on the La-5 single-engine fighter. The pilot found a group of enemy bombers and fighters and entered into battle with them. In a fierce battle, his plane was shot down. An enemy machine-gun burst fell on the cockpit of the fighter, the instrument panel was smashed, and the pilot's head was cut by shrapnel. The car was on fire. Boris Kovzan felt a sharp pain in his head and one eye, so he hardly noticed how one of the German planes launched a frontal attack on him. The cars were closing fast. “If the German can't stand it now and turns upwards, then it will be necessary to ram,” thought Kovzan. A pilot wounded in the head on a burning plane went to a ram.

When the planes collided in the air, Kovzan was thrown out of the cockpit from a sharp impact, since the belts simply burst. He flew 3500 meters without opening the parachute in a semi-conscious state, and only already above the ground, at an altitude of only 200 meters, he woke up and pulled the exhaust ring. The parachute was able to open, but the impact on the ground was still very strong. The Soviet ace came to his senses in a Moscow hospital on the seventh day. He had several wounds from shrapnel, his collarbone and jaw, both arms and legs were broken. The doctors could not save the pilot's right eye. Kovzan's treatment continued for two months. Everyone well understood that in this air battle only a miracle saved him. The verdict of the commission for Boris Kovzan was very difficult: "You can't fly anymore." But it was a real Soviet falcon, who could not imagine life without flights and the sky. Kovzan has been pursuing his dream all his life! At one time they did not want to take him to the Odessa Military Aviation School, then Kovzan attributed a year to himself and begged the doctors of the medical commission, although he did not get 13 kilograms of weight to the norm. And he achieved his goal. He was driven by a strong confidence, if you constantly strive for a goal, it will be achieved.

He was wounded, but now he is healthy, his head is in place, his arms and legs have been restored. As a result, the pilot got to the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force A. Novikov. He promised to help. Received a new conclusion of the medical board: "Suitable for flights on all types of fighters." Boris Kovzan writes a report with a request to send him to the belligerent units, receives several refusals. But this time he achieved his goal, the pilot was enrolled in the 144th Air Defense Division near Saratov. In total, during the years of World War II, the Soviet pilot flew 360 sorties, took part in 127 air battles, shot down 28 German aircraft, 6 of them after being seriously wounded and being one-eyed. In August 1943 he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

During the Great Patriotic War, Soviet pilots used various aerial ramming techniques:

A blow with an airplane propeller on the tail unit of the enemy. The attacking aircraft enters the enemy from behind and strikes with a propeller on its tail. This blow led to the destruction of the enemy aircraft or loss of control. It was the most common aerial ramming technique during the Great War. When executed correctly, the pilot of the attacking aircraft had a fairly good chance of surviving. In a collision with an enemy aircraft, only the propeller usually suffers, and even if it failed, there were chances to land the car or jump with a parachute.

Wing kick. It was carried out both with a head-on approach of aircraft, and when approaching the enemy from behind. The blow was inflicted by the wing on the tail or fuselage of an enemy aircraft, including the cockpit of the target aircraft. Sometimes this technique was used to complete a frontal attack.

Fuselage impact. It was considered the most dangerous type of air ram for a pilot. This technique also includes a collision of aircraft during a frontal attack. Interestingly, even with this outcome, some of the pilots survived.

Airplane tail blow (I. Sh. Bikmukhametov's ram). The ram that Ibragim Shagiakhmedovich Bikmukhametov committed on August 4, 1942. He went out into the forehead of the enemy aircraft with a slide and a turn, struck with the tail of his fighter on the enemy's wing. As a result, the enemy fighter lost control, fell into a tailspin and died, and Ibragim Bikmukhametov was even able to bring his LaGG-Z to the airfield and land safely.

Bikmukhametov graduated from the 2nd Borisoglebsk Red Banner Military Aviation Pilot School. VP Chkalov, in the winter of 1939 - 1940 he took part in the war with Finland. The junior lieutenant participated in the Great Patriotic War from the very beginning, until November 1941 he served in the 238th Fighter Aviation Regiment (IAP), then in the 5th Guards IAP. The regiment commander noted that the pilot was "brave and decisive."

On August 4, 1942, six single and single-engine LaGG-Z fighters of the 5th Guards IAP, led by Guards Major Grigory Onufrienko, flew out to cover ground forces in the Rzhev area. The flight commander Ibragim Bikmukhametov was also part of this group. Behind the front line, Soviet fighters met 8 enemy Me-109 fighters. The Germans were on a parallel course. A fleeting air battle began. It ended with the victory of our pilots: 3 Luftwaffe aircraft were destroyed. One of them was shot down by squadron commander G. Onufrienko, two other "Messerschmitts" I. Bikmukhametov. The first Me-109 pilot attacked on a combat turn, hitting him with a cannon and two machine guns, the enemy plane went to the ground. In the heat of battle, I. Bikmukhametov later noticed another enemy aircraft, which entered the tail of his car from above. But the flight commander was not taken aback, he energetically made a hill and with a sharp turn went to the German. The enemy could not stand the attack head-on and tried to turn his plane away. The enemy pilot was able to avoid meeting with the propeller blades of the machine of I. Bikmukhametov. But our pilot contrived and, sharply turning the car, struck a strong blow with the tail of his "iron" (as the Soviet pilots called this fighter) on the wing of the "Messer". The enemy fighter fell into a tailspin and soon fell into the thicket of a dense forest.

Bikmukhametov was able to bring the heavily damaged car to the airfield. It was the 11th enemy aircraft shot down by Ibragim Bikmukhametov. During the war, the pilot was awarded 2 Orders of the Red Banner and the Order of the Red Star. The brave pilot died on December 16, 1942 in the Voronezh region. During a battle with superior enemy forces, his plane was shot down and during a forced landing, trying to save the fighter, the wounded pilot crashed.

The first rams of the Great Patriotic War

Researchers are still arguing about who committed the first ram on June 22, 1941. Some believe that it was a senior lieutenant. Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov, others call the author of the first ram of the Great Patriotic War, junior lieutenant Dmitry Vasilyevich Kokorev.

I.I. Ivanov (1909 - June 22, 1941) served in the ranks of the Red Army in the fall of 1931, then was sent on a Komsomol ticket to the Perm Aviation School. In the spring of 1933 Ivanov was sent to the 8th Odessa Military Aviation School. Initially he served in the 11th Light Bomber Regiment in the Kiev Military District, in 1939 he took part in the Polish campaign to liberate Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, then in the “Winter War” with Finland. At the end of 1940 he graduated from the courses for fighter pilots. He was appointed to the 14th mixed aviation division, deputy squadron commander of the 46th IAP.

At dawn on June 22, 1941, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Ivanov took to the skies on a combat alert at the head of the I-16 flight (according to another version, the pilots were on the I-153) to intercept a group of enemy aircraft that were approaching the Mlynov airfield. In the air, Soviet pilots found 6 twin-engine He-111 bombers from the 7th squadron of the KG 55 "Grif" squadron. Senior Lieutenant Ivanov led a flight of fighters to attack the enemy. A link of Soviet fighters dived into the lead bomber. Bomber shooters opened fire on Soviet aircraft. Coming out of the dive, the I-16s repeated the attack. One of the Heinkels was hit. The rest of the enemy bombers dropped their bombs before reaching the target and began to go west. After a successful attack, both of Ivanov's slaves went to their airfield, since, avoiding enemy fire, maneuvering, they used up almost all the fuel. Ivanov, letting them in to land, continued pursuit, but then, he also decided to land, because the fuel ran out, and the ammunition ran out. At this time, an enemy bomber appeared over the Soviet airfield. Noticing him, Ivanov went to meet him, but the German, firing machine-gun fire, did not turn off the course. The only way to stop the enemy was the ram. From the blow, the bomber (the Soviet plane cut off the tail of the German car with a propeller), which was led by non-commissioned officer H. Volfeil, lost control and crashed into the ground. The entire German crew was killed. But I. Ivanov's plane was also badly damaged. Due to the low altitude, the pilot could not use the parachute and died. This ram took place at 4 hours 25 minutes in the morning near the village of Zagoroshcha, Rivne district, Rivne region. On August 2, 1941, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov posthumously became a Hero of the Soviet Union.

Around the same time, a junior lieutenant rammed Dmitry Vasilievich Kokorev(1918 - 10/12/1941). A native of Ryazan, he served in the 9th mixed aviation division, in the 124th IAP (Western Special Military District). The regiment was stationed at the Vysoko Mazovetsk border airfield, near the town of Zambrov (Western Ukraine). After the war began, the regiment commander, Major Polunin, instructed the young pilot to reconnoiter the situation in the area of ​​the USSR state border, which has now become the line of contact between Soviet and German troops.

At 4:05 in the morning, when Dmitry Kokorev was returning from reconnaissance, the Luftwaffe made the first powerful blow at the airfield, since the regiment interfered with the flight inland. The fight was fierce. The airfield was badly damaged.

And then Kokarev saw the Dornier-215 reconnaissance bomber (according to other information, the Me-110 multipurpose aircraft), leaving the Soviet airfield. Apparently, it was a Nazi reconnaissance officer who monitored the result of the first strike on the fighter aviation regiment. Anger blinded the Soviet pilot, abruptly jerking the MiG high-altitude fighter into a combat turn, Kokorev went on the attack, in a fever he opened fire ahead of time. He missed, but the German shooter hit right - a line of breaks pierced the right plane of his car.

The enemy plane was leaving at maximum speed to the state border. Dmitry Kokorev went on the second attack. He reduced the distance, not paying attention to the frantic shooting of the German shooter, coming up to the range of the shot, Kokorev pressed the trigger, but the ammunition ran out. For a long time, the Soviet pilot did not think, it was impossible to let go of the enemy, he sharply increased speed and threw the fighter at the enemy vehicle. "MiG" slashed with a propeller near the tail of the "Dornier".

This air ramming occurred at 4:15 am (according to other sources - at 4.35 am) in front of the infantrymen and border guards who defended the city of Zambrov. The fuselage of the German plane snapped in half, and the Dornier crashed to the ground. Our fighter went into a tailspin, its engine stalled. Kokorev came to his senses and was able to pull the car out of the terrible rotation. I chose a clearing for landing and landed successfully. It should be noted that Junior Lieutenant Kokorev was an ordinary Soviet private pilot, of whom there were hundreds in the Air Force of the Red Army. Behind the shoulders of the junior lieutenant was only a flight school.

Unfortunately, the hero did not live to see Victory. He made 100 sorties, shot down 5 enemy aircraft. When his regiment fought near Leningrad, on October 12, intelligence reported that a large number of enemy Junkers had been found at the airfield in Siverskaya. The weather was bad, the Germans did not take to the air in such conditions and did not wait for our planes. It was decided to strike at the airfield. A group of 6 of our Pe-2 dive bombers (they were called "Pawns"), accompanied by 13 MiG-3 fighters, appeared over the Siverskaya and came as a complete surprise to the Nazis.

Incendiary bombs from low altitude hit right on target, machine-gun fire and fighter rockets completed the rout. The Germans were able to lift only one fighter into the air. The Pe-2s had already been bombed and were leaving, only one bomber lagged behind. Kokorev rushed to his defense. He shot down the enemy, but at this time the air defense of the Germans woke up. Dmitry's plane was shot down and crashed.

The first ...

Ekaterina Ivanovna Zelenko(1916 - September 12, 1941) became the first woman on the planet to carry out an aerial ram. Zelenko graduated from the Voronezh flying club (in 1933), the 3rd Orenburg military aviation school named after V.I. K. E. Voroshilov (in 1934). She served in the 19th Light Bomber Aviation Brigade in Kharkov, was a test pilot. Within 4 years, she mastered seven types of aircraft. This is the only female pilot who participated in the "Winter War" (as part of the 11th Light Bomber Aviation Regiment). She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner - she flew 8 combat missions.

She participated in the Great Patriotic War from the first day, fighting as part of the 16th mixed aviation division, was the deputy commander of the 5th squadron of the 135th bomber aviation regiment. She managed to make 40 sorties, including night ones. On September 12, 1941, she made 2 successful reconnaissance sorties in a Su-2 bomber. But, despite the fact that during the second flight her Su-2 was damaged, Ekaterina Zelenko flew out for the third time on the same day. Already returning, in the area of ​​the city of Romny, two Soviet planes were attacked by 7 enemy fighters. Ekaterina Zelenko was able to shoot down one Me-109, and when she ran out of ammunition, she rammed a second German fighter. The pilot destroyed the enemy, but at the same time she died.

Viktor Vasilievich Talalikhin(1918 - October 27, 1941) carried out a night ram, which became the most famous in this war, shooting down an Xe-111 bomber on the night of August 7, 1941 on an I-16 near Podolsk (Moscow region). For a long time it was believed that this was the first night ram in the history of aviation. Only later did it become known that on the night of July 29, 1941, the fighter pilot of the 28th IAP Peter Vasilievich Eremeev on a MiG-3 plane, he shot down an enemy Junkers-88 bomber with a ramming blow. He died on October 2, 1941 in an air battle (September 21, 1995 Eremeev for courage and military valor, posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia).

On October 27, 1941, 6 fighters under the command of V. Talalikhin flew to cover our forces in the area of ​​the village of Kamenka, on the banks of the Nara (85 km west of the capital). They collided with 9 enemy fighters, in the battle Talalikhin shot down one Messer, but another was able to knock him out, the pilot died a heroic death ...

The crew of Viktor Petrovich Nosov from the 51st mine and torpedo regiment of the Baltic Fleet Air Force carried out the first ram of a ship in the history of the war with the help of a heavy bomber. The lieutenant commanded the A-20 torpedo bomber (American Douglas A-20 Havoc). On February 13, 1945, in the southern part of the Baltic Sea, during an attack by an enemy transport of 6 thousand tons, a Soviet plane was shot down. The commander directed the burning car directly into the enemy transport. The plane hit the target, an explosion occurred, the enemy ship sank. The crew of the aircraft: Lieutenant Viktor Nosov (commander), junior lieutenant Alexander Igoshin (navigator) and sergeant Fyodor Dorofeev (radio operator), died a heroic death.

This happened on June 26, 1941, on the fifth day of the war, when the plane of Captain Nikolai Gastello was shot down during the bombardment of a column of enemy tanks. The squadron commander did not leave the battle and continued to fight the Nazis to the end. The pilot with a firm hand sent the bomber engulfed in flames into the midst of enemy tanks and petrol tanks. There, in the raging fire of enemy vehicles, he completed his last flight together with the commander and his combat crew (Lieutenants Grigory Skorobogaty, Anatoly Burdenyuk and Sergeant Aleksey Kalinin).

The name of the hero gained fame. The central newspapers wrote about the feat and talked about it on the radio. The throwing of an ignited bomber on a ground target, first performed by the regiment commissar M. Yuyukin back in 1939, and the feat of Captain Gastello showed the Soviet pilots the last means of struggle, which nothing could take away from them - neither damage to the aircraft, nor an exhausted supply of shells, nor heavy wound.

For many years it was believed that the crew of Captain N. Gastello was the first to ram a ground target in battles with the Nazis. But the work of historians made it possible to make adjustments. It has been established that one of the first to fire a ramming of a ground target was the bomber crew under the command of Captain G. Khrapay. The crew included the navigator Lieutenant V. Filatov and the gunner-radio operator Senior Sergeant G. Tikhomirov. And this happened on June 24, 1941 in the area of ​​the city of Brody, Lviv region. On the same day, senior political instructor S. Airapetov made a fiery ram. He directed his plane at a convoy of enemy vehicles in the area of ​​the city of Taurage in Lithuania.

On June 27, 1941, near the Polish city of Hrubieszowa, a new fiery explosion in a tornado passed through a fascist motorized convoy. It was the farewell salute of pilot Lieutenant D. Tarasov and navigator Lieutenant B. Eremin, who repeated the feat of Captain Gastello's crew. A day later, June 29, 1941, now on Belarusian land the flames of a furious explosion shot up. It was in the very center of a group of Nazi tanks that Senior Lieutenant I. Preseisen brought down his bomber.

On July 4, 1941, on the Rezekne-Ostrov highway, squadron commander Captain L. Mikhailov struck at enemy tanks with his bomber. On August 28, pilot junior lieutenant I. Vdovenko and navigator lieutenant N. Gomonenko sent their burning plane to the enemy's ferry across the Dnieper and destroyed it.

On September 19, 1941, near Leningrad, junior lieutenant V. Bondarenko aimed his downed fighter at the enemy's anti-aircraft battery. On September 23, Senior Lieutenant I. Zolin rammed the Berislav Dam on the Dnieper. On September 28, Sergeant D. Koryazin brought down his plane on a column of fascist tanks near Tula.

Recently, some military historians have begun to encounter the assertion that the ground ram was caused by an accidental fall of aircraft that lost control. But the facts tell a different story. Testimonies of our pilots, who heard the last words of the heroes in the headphones of their helmets through the roar of battle: "For the Motherland, I am going to ram!" and who saw their fiery dive, finally, the very circumstances of the ramming convincingly prove that the wrecked cars were deliberately aimed at the target with the firm hand of the pilots.

“On January 17, 1945, escorting a group of attack aircraft,” reported fighter pilots Major Gontarenko and Captain Makarov about the last combat sortie of Junior Lieutenant A. Kolyado, “we watched as the fourth wingman, whose engine caught fire in the air, turned his“ silt ” and crashed into the accumulation of manpower and equipment of the enemy. According to our observation, the plane was controllable, and the pilot, if he wanted to, could land on the fascist territory. "

Lines of military documents confirm that the roar of explosions and an avalanche of flames that tore apart the tank wedges of the Nazis, lifted their guns into the air, broke bridges and crossings, were not caused by an accidental fall of aircraft that lost control. No, the planes were thrown at the target by living people who decided, even at the cost of their lives, to strike at the hated enemy.

The flame rose above the engine and fuselage of the knocked out bomber, rushed to the gas tanks - senior political instructor A. Anikin did not turn off the combat course. As if not noticing the mortal danger that threatened him, the pilot daringly attacked the fascist tanks, concentrated for crossing the Velikaya River. The pilots led by him broke through a flurry of anti-aircraft explosions and for the second, third time they brought down a deadly cargo on the Nazis. The fourth dive was the last for the senior political instructor - with a fiery comet of his plane, he crashed into a formation of tanks with crosses on their armor. The enemy on that July day in 1941 was unable to reach the right bank of the Velikaya River.

Did those heroes have the opportunity, like A. Kolyado, to save their lives? Certainly. They could land or jump out of flaming machines with parachutes. The last target could not have been chosen by chance. Otherwise, would pilot Lieutenant V. Kovalev have managed to ram on December 14, 1941, an enemy anti-aircraft battery located away from the Rumyantseve station, over which he was hit? The pilot saw that the battery with a flurry of fire blocked the path of his wingmen to the enemy tanks moving along the Volokolamsk highway, and headed for it. A flying bonfire fell on the enemy's firing position, V. Kovalev's fighter crushed the guns along with their crews, and the fascist tanks, having lost their anti-aircraft barrier, were burned by the flight pilots of the heroically deceased commander.

To match the feat of V. Kovalev was a fiery ram of the squadron commander, Captain V. Shiryaev. On September 4, 1942, during the attack of Hitler's tanks, rushing through the Kalmyk steppe to Stalingrad, his plane was overtaken by a volley of anti-aircraft guns. The pilot separated from his group and, finding a large accumulation of enemy vehicles, sent a wounded attack aircraft at them. On October 21, 1943, mortally wounded by a splinter of an anti-aircraft shell, the pilot dived into enemy firing points, which interfered with the advancement of our advancing infantry near the city of Melitopol.

In the name of Victory, ground targets were rammed by Lieutenant V. Aleinikov, Captain S. Borodkin, Captain K. Zakharov, Lieutenant P. Kriven, Senior Lieutenant P. Nadezhdin and other Soviet pilots. A land ram is a feat that only Soviet pilots, brought up on a sense of patriotism and the habit of putting the interests of the country above personal, were able to accomplish.

The path to the feat can be traced along the routes of the battles of Major D. Zhabinsky. October 9, 1943 in one of the sorties to Western front under continuous anti-aircraft fire, together with the wingmen, he attacked the enemy's artillery battery seven times and still suppressed its fire. Wounded in the chest, neck, right arm, D. Zhabinsky struggles with all his last strength for life, for the preservation of the plane, believing that on the formidable "silt" he will "iron out" the Nazis more than once. And the pilot, in spite of all the deaths, returned to duty.

When on February 15, 1945, during the storming of Hitler's airfield, D. Zhabinsky's plane was hit by a burst of an anti-aircraft machine gun, the pilot discarded the opportunity to escape, because this could only mean captivity. Zhabinsky decided to unleash all the steel power of his "silt" on the enemy - to die so that death would be useful. "Farewell, Motherland!" - with these words, heard on the radio by comrades in arms, the pilot gave the control stick of the burning machine away from him.

Yes, ground targets were rammed at the end of the war. And D. Zhabinsky was not the only one. On March 19, 1945, during the attack on the fascist airfield in Heiligenbeil (East Prussia), the plane of Captain K. Ivanov was shot down. The fearless pilot deliberately, without hesitation, directed his attack aircraft at the accumulation of enemy aircraft.

The self-sacrifice of the heroes of the fiery rams was the highest manifestation of heroism, moreover, collective heroism. Indeed, in bombers or attack aircraft, led by pilots to the enemy, all crew members were soldered with them by hatred of the enemy, front-line friendship. Navigators and radio gunners Nazar Gubin, Boris Eremin, Boris Kapustin, Semyon Kosinov, Sergei Kovalsky, Nikolai Pavlov, Pyotr Sologubov, Stepan Shcherbakov and others - all of them were doing their duty to the last second of their lives, to the last breath. During the war, Soviet pilots made 446 fiery rams. Almost all of these heroes did not return from the war, but their memory lives on in the names of streets, factories, schools and courts.

Sources:
Gulyas I. Fragments of Il-4 combat use // Aviation and time. 1998. No. 1. S. 17-18.
Kotelnikov V., Medved A., Khazanov D. Pe-2 dive bomber // Aviation and Cosmonautics. 2004. No. 5-6. P.29-30.
Mikhailov V. Shield and sword of the motherland // Aviation and cosmonautics. 2002. No. 8. C.8.
Zaitsev A. For honor, freedom and independence of the Motherland // Wings of the Motherland: collection of articles. articles. M .: DOSAAF USSR, 1983.S. 162-164.
Larintsev R., Zabolotskiy A., Kotlobovskiy A. Battering ram! // Aviation and time. 2003. No. 5.P. 25.
Kovalenko A., Sgibnev A. Immortal feats. Moscow: Military Publishing, 1980.S. 102-110.

Now neither the Covenant nor the Koran will help.
What to press on an empty trigger? ..
The plane is ahead - I'm going to ram,
Brain feeling every cell.
Frosty

V The air ramming of the Second World War is not always a gesture of despair and heroic suicide.
For an experienced Soviet pilot, this is a type of battle, a maneuver during which the enemy was killed, and the pilot and his car remained unharmed.

On November 5, 1941, the combat units of the German Air Force received a circular Reichsmarshal Goering, which demanded: "... not to approach the Soviet aircraft closer than 100 meters in order to avoid ramming." This decision was made at the direction of Hitler after a long "persuasion" of the commanders of the aviation units, who considered such "tactics" humiliating for the famous aces of the Reich. Indeed, quite recently, the Fuhrer himself told them: "The Slavs will never understand anything in an air war - this is a weapon of powerful people, a German form of battle." "No one will ever be able to achieve superiority in the air over the German aces!" - echoed the commander of the Nazi Air Force Goering.

But the air rams of the first days of the war made these boastful speeches forget. And this was the first disgrace of the "German form of battle" and the first moral victory of the Soviet pilots.

Until June 22, 1941, fascist pilots did not have to meet in Europe with such a tactical technique as an air ram. But on the very first day of the attack on the USSR, the Luftwaffe lost 16 aircraft at once as a result of ram attacks by Soviet pilots.

On June 22, 1941, at 4 hours 25 minutes in the morning, the first air ram of the Second World War was fired near the city of Dubno, Rivne region.

It was made by a native of the village of Chizhovo, Shchelkovo District (now part of the city of Fryazino), Moscow Region, Deputy Squadron Commander of the 46th Fighter Aviation Regiment Senior Lieutenant Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov.

At dawn on June 22, 1941, Senior Lieutenant Ivanov flew on alert at the head of the I-16 flight to intercept a group of German aircraft approaching the Mlynov airfield. Our pilots found 6 Xe-111 bombers in the air. Ivanov led the flight to attack the enemy. The Heinkels opened fire on the fighters. Coming out of the dive, our planes repeated the attack. One of the bombers was hit. The rest, dropping bombs randomly, began to go west. After the attack, both wingmen went to their airfield, since, maneuvering, they used up almost all the fuel. Ivanov also decided to land. At this time, another Xe-111 appeared over the airfield. Ivanov rushed to meet him. Soon he ran out of ammunition and was running out of fuel. Then, in order to prevent the bombing of the airfield, Ivanov went to the ram. From the impact, the "Heinkel", piloted, as it turned out later, by non-commissioned officer H. Volfeil, lost control, crashed into the ground and exploded on its bombs. The entire crew was killed. But Ivanov's plane was also damaged. Due to the low altitude, the pilot was unable to use the parachute and died.

On August 2, 1941, Senior Lieutenant Ivanov I.I. posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Around the same time as Ivanov, near the Polish city of Zambrow Dmitry Kokorev rammed down a fascist intelligence officer leaving to the west with a photographic film. Then the Soviet pilot made an emergency landing and returned on foot to his regiment.

At 5.15 near Galich, destroying one "Junkers" by fire, rammed the second Leonid Butelin. The Soviet leg was killed, but the enemy's bombs did not fall on the combat positions of our troops.

At 5.20, repelling the raid of enemy aircraft on Pruzhany, near Brest, he shot down a He-111, and the second destroyed a mortally wounded man with a ramming ram of his burning "hawk" Stepan Gudimov.

Between six and seven o'clock in the morning, he struck down a fascist plane with a ramming strike Vasily Loboda in the Shavli region in the Baltics. Died ...

At 7 a.m. over the airfield in Cherlyany, shooting down an enemy plane, rammed the second one and died a hero's death Anatoly Protasov.

At 8.30, having driven a group of Junkers away from the airfield and continuing to patrol over it, Evgeny Panfilov and Georgy Alaev entered into battle with a group of "Messers", and when Alaev's plane was shot down, and Panfilov ran out of ammunition, he rammed, driving the enemies away from the airfield. He himself landed by parachute.

At 10.00 in an unequal battle over Brest (four of our planes against eight fascist ones) rammed the enemy Peter Ryabtsev, soon ascended into the sky again.

The list of heroic rams of the first day of the war continued on different sectors of the front, Alexander Moklyak over Bessarabia, Nikolay Ignatiev in the region of Kharkov, Ivan Kovtun over the city of Stryi ...

June 22, 1941 pilot Andrey Stepanovich Danilov single-handedly took the battle with nine enemy aircraft. He managed to shoot down two bombers, but at this time enemy fighters appeared. A fascist shell hit the wing of the "seagull", Danilov was wounded by a shrapnel. The watch in his breast pocket saved his life and protected him from a bullet. The pilot saw the self-confident face of the German pilot and understood that his plane would soon be shot by the Nazis. And then Danilov, having squandered all the ammunition, directed his "seagull" at the enemy and rammed the wing of the "Messerschmitt" with a screw.

The enemy fighter began to fall. The Seagull also lost control, but with a desperate effort of will, the experienced pilot Danilov, bleeding, brought the plane into level flight and, with the landing gear retracted, managed to land it on a field of rye.

The first air ramming in the sky of the Moscow region was carried out by the deputy squadron commander of the 177th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 6th Fighter Aviation Corps of the Air Defense Forces junior lieutenant Viktor Vasilievich Talalikhin. On the night of August 7, 1941, on an I-16 near Podolsk, he shot down a Xe-111 bomber. On August 8, 1941, “for the exemplary fulfillment of the combat missions of the command on the front of the struggle against German fascism and the courage and heroism shown at the same time,” he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The first ramming by an aircraft of a mechanized enemy column was made by a resident of the village of Khlebnikovo near Moscow (now part of the city of Dolgoprudny), during the war years - squadron commander Captain Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello.

On June 26, 1941, a flight under the command of Captain Gastello, consisting of two DB-3f heavy bombers, flew to the Molodechno area. The second plane was flown by Senior Lieutenant Fyodor Vorobyov, flew with him as a navigator Lieutenant Anatoly Rybas. During the attack of a cluster of German equipment, Gastello's plane was shot down. According to the reports of Vorobiev and Rybas, Gastello's burning plane rammed a mechanized column of enemy equipment. At night, peasants from a nearby village removed the corpses of the pilots from the plane and, wrapping the bodies in parachutes, buried them near the crash site of the bomber.

On July 5, 1941, in the evening report of the Soviet Information Bureau, Gastello's feat was first mentioned: “The squadron commander, Captain Gastello, performed a heroic feat. An enemy anti-aircraft gun shell hit the gas tank of his aircraft. The fearless commander directed the flaming plane at the accumulation of enemy vehicles and gasoline tanks. Dozens of German cars and tanks exploded together with the hero's plane. "

On July 26, 1941, Gastello was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In Dolgoprudny, next to school number 3, bearing the name of Nikolai Gastello, a monument to the Hero is erected.