1941

  The Germans are considered the best aces pilots of World War II, and it is those of the German pilots who fought with us on the Eastern Front and shot down our planes. Moreover, the numbers are breathtaking. If 15 of our best aces shot down from 41 to 62 German aircraft during the war, then 15 German aces - from 203 to 352 Soviet aircraft. I must say that among Soviet historians these figures have always been doubtful ... Recently I bought a book ... "Encyclopedia of military art. Military pilots. Ases of World War II" ... it was published in Minsk. Soviet historians have long written that our planes, shot down by German aces, are actually planes at which the Germans just shot. At the time of the shooting they were photographed. And the shots of a photo-machine gun mounted on German fighters recorded the fact of shooting, and not real destruction.Without a doubt, that is precisely why, in the Encyclopedia ... the thought is especially carefully suggested that the Germans...

On December 17, 1941 the pilot On December 17, 1941 the pilot Peter Pilytov set out on a mission to escort 9 Li-2 transport planes which carried women and children from Leningrad to an airfield near Novaya Ladoga. Normally transport planes were protected by several fighter planes, especially when they carried passengers. However, these were unusual circumstances and he had to scrable his P-40 "Kittyhawk" alone... Pilyutov led a wing of 4 fighter planes when he arrived at the Komendantsky airfield in Lenignrad, however a couple of planes were urgently recalled to Kronstadt while another one was damaged during a sudden artillery raid. The shelling might have destroyed the planes with the children who had already boarded them, and this prompted the commanders order the planes to take off immediately. The Li-2's were flying at an extremely low altitude while the escorting fighter flew just under the rim of the clouds. This made it more convenient for the pilots to observ...