Who carried out the first air ram in WWII. Night ram of Viktor Talalikhin: shot down and survived

Contrary to frequent statements, the first night air ram was carried out not by Viktor Talalikhin, but by another Russian pilot. Evgeniy Stepanov rammed an SM-81 bomber over Barcelona in October 1937.

He fought in Spain on the Republican side during Civil War. Soon after the start of the Great Patriotic War, the night ram will glorify the young pilot Talalikhin.
Now historians write that during the Great Patriotic War the first night ram was carried out by Pyotr Eremeev, who served in the Moscow region in the 27th air regiment. He shot down a Ju-88 on the night of July 28-29 over the Istra region. Eremeev died a few weeks before Talalikhin - in early October 1941. However, his feat never became widely known, and he received the title of Hero posthumously only in 1995. Talalikhin became a symbol of the heroism of Soviet pilots.

Dreams of heaven

At the age of seventeen in September 1935, Talalikhin enrolled in a gliding club. By this time, the future ace had behind him a high school and a factory apprenticeship school at the Moscow meat processing plant, where the young man later worked. Perhaps his older brothers served as an example for Talalikhin: they were drafted into the army, and both ended up in aviation. But in the 30s, many Soviet boys dreamed of heaven.
A few months after the start of training in the circle, Talalikhin wrote in the factory newspaper that he made his first flight on a glider, completed the first stage of training with “good” and “excellent” marks, and hoped to continue studying. He declared that he wanted to fly like Chkalov, Belyakov and Baidukov - the names of these pilots were well known throughout the Soviet Union.

First flight and military school

In October 1936, Talalikhin was sent to the flying club. Despite his small stature, he successfully passed the medical examination and began training. The instructor noted that the young man has talent, but he needs a “cool head.” Talalikhin will gain composure and prudence during military service.
Talalikhin made his first flight on a U-2 in 1937, a few months before being drafted into the army. There the dream of the future ace came true - he was sent to the Chkalov military aviation school in Borisoglebsk. He studied diligently: Talalikhin later recalled that he got up at sunrise and returned to the barracks right before lights out. In addition to his studies, he spent a lot of time in the library: reading specialized literature, studying maps and instructions.
However, Talalikhin once had to end up in the guardhouse for violating flight safety regulations: during training, he performed several more aerobatic maneuvers than prescribed by the rules.
In 1938, he graduated from college with the rank of junior lieutenant and began serving in the 27th Fighter Aviation Regiment. Officers and teachers of the school noted that Talalikhin has courage, he is difficult situations makes the right decisions.

In the Finnish war

During the Soviet-Finnish War, Talalikhin carried out 47 combat missions. Already in the first battle, the junior pilot of the third squadron destroyed an enemy plane. Then Talalikhin flew the Chaika - I-153 (biplane). For his valor, the future ace received the Order of the Red Star.
In total, during the campaign Talalikhin shot down four planes. In one of the battles, he covered commander Mikhail Korolev, who was trying to intercept a German bomber and came under fire from a Finnish anti-aircraft battery. Talalikhin “separated” from the commander’s plane and destroyed the German Fokker (F-190). After the end of the Finnish campaign
Talalikhin spent about a month on vacation with his parents, and then was sent for retraining - advanced training courses for flight personnel. In the description at the end of them, Talalikhin was called worthy of becoming a flight commander. It was also said that he "flies boldly", is smart in the air, and successfully flies fighter planes.
In the spring of 1941, Korolev and Talalikhin met again: the young pilot was sent to the first squadron of the 177th Fighter Aviation Regiment, commanded by Korolev. His immediate commander was Vasily Gugashin.

The beginning of the Great Patriotic War

Soviet pilots carried out their first rams immediately after the start of the war. It is recorded that on June 22, 1941, seven pilots risked their lives and sent their planes to enemy aircraft. Ramming was a fatal risk for the pilot. Few survived - for example, Boris Kovzan shot down four planes in this way and each time landed successfully by parachute.
The squadron in which Talalikhin served was based near the city of Klin. Pilots began flying combat missions on July 21, after the first German air raid on Moscow. Then, thanks to the successful work of air defense and Soviet aviation, out of 220 bombers, only a few reached the city.
The task of the Soviet pilots was to detect fascist bombers and fighters, cut them off from the group and destroy them.
Talalikhin's regiment took its first battle on July 25. At that time, the ace was already deputy squadron commander, and soon Gugashin was unable to exercise command, and Talalikhin had to take over.

Night ram

On August 7, one of the last major German air attacks on Moscow took place. This was the sixteenth raid.
Talalikhin received an order to fly out to intercept bombers in the Podolsk area. The pilot later told reporters that he noticed a Heinkel-111 at an altitude of 4800 meters. He attacked and knocked out the right engine. The German plane turned around and flew back. The pilots began their descent. Talalikhin realized that he had run out of ammunition.
The search engines that discovered Talalikhin’s plane in 2014 have a version that the firing system was disabled. The ammunition was half spent, and the instrument panel was shot through. At the same time, Talalikhin was wounded in the arm.
He decided to go for a ram: at first there was a plan to “chop off” the tail of the German plane with a propeller, but in the end Talalikhin rammed the bomber with his entire I-16, which he called a “hawk.”
The Soviet pilot parachuted into a lake near the village of Mansurovo (now in the area of ​​Domodedovo Airport). He chose a long jump, fearing that the parachute canopy would be shot through by the Germans.
A German plane crashed near the village of Dobrynikha, its crew was killed. The Heinkel was commanded by a forty-year-old lieutenant colonel. The crash site of the downed plane had to be recorded, otherwise, according to the rules of Red Army aviation, the feat would not have been recognized. The military helped find him local residents. There is even a photograph in which Talalikhin is captured in front of the Heinkel.
Radio interception recorded that the Germans called Talalikhin a “crazy Russian pilot” who destroyed a heavy bomber.
Talalikhin's feat was immediately reflected in newspapers and was talked about on the radio. The Soviet state needed heroes: stories about such actions raised the morale of soldiers. The day after the ram, Talalikhin received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A decree about this appeared in the newspapers on August 9. Ace wrote to his brother Alexander that the award was a great honor for him. However, it seemed to him that he had not done anything special and that his brother in his place would have done the same.
On August 7, the day of Talalikhin’s feat, long-range Soviet aviation carried out the first bombing of Berlin, which infuriated the Nazi government.

Death of Talalikhin

While undergoing treatment, Talalikhin communicated a lot with young people and workers, and spoke at anti-fascist rallies. As soon as he was able to return to duty, he again began to shoot down enemy aircraft. By the end of October, he had shot down four German aircraft.
On October 27, Talalikhin’s group flew to cover the troops in the area of ​​​​the village of Kamenki. Approaching their destination, the pilots noticed Messerschmitts. Talalikhin managed to shoot down one of them, but soon three German planes were very close to him and opened fire. With the help of his partner Alexander Bogdanov, they managed to shoot down the second one, but almost immediately after this Talalikhin received a severe bullet wound to the head and was unable to control the plane.
Fragments of the plane were found. The pilot's body was sent to Moscow. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery.

Exactly 75 years ago, on the night of August 7, 1941, junior lieutenant Viktor Talalikhin was one of the first in Soviet aviation to ram an enemy bomber at night. The air battle for Moscow was just beginning.

Sinister plane

That night, the deputy squadron commander of the 177th Air Defense Fighter Aviation Regiment, Viktor Talalikhin, received an order to intercept the enemy who was heading towards Moscow. At an altitude of 4800 meters, the junior lieutenant overtook the enemy plane, came up behind it with lightning speed and began shooting at it.

However, it was not easy to shoot down the Heinkel 111 long-range bomber. Of the five crew members, three fought with the fighters. During flight, the ventral, rear and side gunners constantly kept their field of fire in sight and, if a target appeared, opened furious fire on it.

The ominous silhouette of Heinkel-111 was well known to residents of Poland, Denmark, Norway, France, and Great Britain. This bomber was considered one of the main ones in the Luftwaffe and took an active part in all military campaigns of the Third Reich in Europe. He took an active part in the attack on the USSR from the very first minutes.

Deprive the USSR of Moscow

In 1941, the Germans tried to bomb Moscow. They pursued two strategic objectives: firstly, to deprive the Soviet Union of its largest railway and transport hub, as well as the center of command and control of troops and the country. Secondly, they hoped to help their ground troops break the resistance of the defenders of Moscow.

This task was entrusted by Hitler to the commander of the German 2nd Air Fleet, Field Marshal Albert Kesselring. This task force, numbering 1,600 aircraft, supported the advance of Army Group Center, whose main goal, according to the Barbarossa plan, was the Soviet capital.

The bomber crews had extensive combat experience in attacking major cities, including at night.

Unpleasant surprises for the Luftwaffe

The Fuhrer demanded that the pilots “strike the center of the Bolshevik resistance and prevent the organized evacuation of the Russian government apparatus.” Strong resistance was not expected, and therefore the military and political leadership of Germany was confident in their imminent parade on Red Square.

On the night of July 22, 1941, the first raid on Moscow took place. The Germans discovered that the Russians had many anti-aircraft guns, barrage balloons, which were installed much higher than usual, and a lot of air defense fighter aircraft, which were actively operating at night.

Having suffered significant losses, the Luftwaffe pilots began to rise to new heights. Heinkeli-111 also actively participated in massive raids.

Trophies of the 177th Fighter Regiment

The German Air Force command did not learn a lesson from the air Battle of Britain in 1940, in which the Germans lost two and a half thousand aircraft. Of these, almost 400 are Heinkel 111s. Like a gambler, in the battles over Moscow the Nazis bet on their own luck, ignoring the combat potential of the enemy.

Meanwhile, the air defense fighter regiment under the command of Major Mikhail Korolev, in which Talalikhin served, opened a combat account of enemy losses on July 26, 1941.

On this day, the deputy regiment commander, Captain Ivan Samsonov, shot down a German bomber. Soon this military unit acquired other “trophies”.

Young but experienced pilot

The “impenetrable” Heinkel-111, which Talalikhin met in the night battle, did not have time to drop bombs on the target and began to leave. One of its engines caught fire. The Soviet pilot continued to shoot, but soon the air machine guns fell silent. He realized that the cartridges had run out.

Then the junior lieutenant decided to ram the enemy plane. At almost 23 years old, Victor had a low rank, but by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he was already an experienced pilot. Behind him was the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939/40 and the Order of the Red Star for four downed Finnish aircraft.

There, a young pilot fought on an obsolete I-153 biplane, nicknamed the “Chaika”. However, in the first battle he won an aerial victory. Another enemy plane was shot down by him when Talalikhin was covering his commander Mikhail Korolev.

Don't let the bastards get away

In a lightning-fast battle in the Moscow night sky, when the Soviet pilot aimed his plane to ram, his hand was suddenly burned. One of the enemy shooters wounded him.

Talalikhin later said that he “made the decision to sacrifice himself, but not to let the reptile go.” He gave full throttle and crashed his plane into the enemy’s tail. Heinkel 111 caught fire and began to fall down randomly.

The damaged I-16 fighter lost control after a terrible impact, and Talalikhin left it by parachute. He landed in the Severka River, from where local residents helped him get out. The entire German crew was killed. The next day, Viktor Vasilyevich Talalikhin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Hellish air defense

Having lost 172 Heinkel-111 aircraft in a short time (not counting a significant number of bombers of other types), by the tenth of August 1941, German aviation abandoned the raid tactics in large groups from one or two directions.

Now the Luftwaffe pilots tried to “infiltrate” Moscow from different directions and often attacked the target, entering in turn, one after another. They had to strain all their strength and skill in the fight against the hellish air defense of the USSR capital for the Nazis.

The air struggle reached its climax in the fall of 1941, when a grandiose ground battle unfolded on the outskirts of Moscow. The Germans relocated their airfields closer to the city and were able to increase the intensity of sorties, alternating night raids with daytime ones.

Death in battle

In fierce battles, the ranks of the 177th Fighter Aviation Regiment thinned. On October 27, 1941, Viktor Talalikhin died in an air battle, and on December 8, Ivan Samsonov died.

However, the Germans also suffered significant losses, breaking through a wall of anti-aircraft fire and fighting off Soviet fighters. During the period from July 26, 1941 to March 10, 1942, 4% of enemy aircraft broke through to the city. During this period, Moscow's air defense systems destroyed over a thousand enemy aircraft.

Those of the crews of German bombers who managed to drop bombs did so chaotically, rushing to quickly free themselves from the load and leave the shelling zone.

Failure of the air blitzkrieg

British journalist Alexander Werth, who was in the USSR since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, wrote that in Moscow the shrapnel of anti-aircraft shells drummed through the streets like hail. Dozens of spotlights illuminated the sky. He had never seen or heard anything like this in London.

The pilots, and not only the fighters, did not lag behind the anti-aircraft gunners. For example, the squadron commander of the 65th Attack Aviation Regiment, Lieutenant Georgy Nevkipely, during his 29 combat missions, burned not only six enemy aircraft, but also several tanks, and more than a hundred vehicles with infantry.

He died a heroic death on December 15, 1941 and was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The power of the air defense of the capital of the Soviet Union turned out to be generally insurmountable for the Luftwaffe. The air blitzkrieg that Goering's pilots were counting on failed.

Ramming as a method of air combat remains the last argument that pilots resort to in a hopeless situation. Not everyone manages to survive after it. Nevertheless, some of our pilots resorted to it several times.

The world's first ram

The world's first aerial ram was carried out by the author of the “loop”, staff captain Pyotr Nesterov. He was 27 years old, and having flown 28 combat missions at the beginning of the war, he was considered an experienced pilot.
Nesterov had long believed that an enemy airplane could be destroyed by hitting the planes with its wheels. This was a necessary measure - at the beginning of the war, planes were not equipped with machine guns, and aviators flew on missions with pistols and carbines.
On September 8, 1914, in the Lvov region, Pyotr Nesterov rammed a heavy Austrian aircraft under the control of Franz Malina and Baron Friedrich von Rosenthal, which was flying over Russian positions on reconnaissance.
Nesterov, in a light and fast Moran airplane, took off into the air, caught up with the Albatross and rammed it, striking it from top to bottom in the tail. This happened in front of the local residents.
The Austrian plane crashed. Upon impact, Nesterov, who was in a hurry to take off and was not wearing his seat belts, flew out of the cockpit and crashed. According to another version, Nesterov jumped out of the crashed plane himself, hoping to survive.

First ram of the Finnish War

The first and only ram of the Soviet-Finnish War was carried out by senior lieutenant Yakov Mikhin, a graduate of the 2nd Borisoglebsk military aviation school of pilots named after Chkalov. This happened on February 29, 1940 in the afternoon. 24 Soviet I-16 and I-15 aircraft attacked the Finnish Ruokolahti airfield.

To repel the attack, 15 fighters took off from the airfield.
A fierce battle ensued. Flight commander Yakov Mikhin, in a frontal attack with the wing of the aircraft, hit the fin of the Fokker, the famous Finnish ace Lieutenant Tatu Gugananti. The keel broke off from the impact. The Fokker crashed to the ground, the pilot died.
Yakov Mikhin, with a broken plane, managed to reach the airfield and safely landed his donkey. It must be said that Mikhin went through the entire Great Patriotic War, and then continued to serve in the Air Force.

The first ram of the Great Patriotic War

It is believed that the first ram of the Great Patriotic War was carried out by 31-year-old senior lieutenant Ivan Ivanov, who on June 22, 1941 at 4:25 am in an I-16 (according to other sources - on an I-153) over the Mlynov airfield near Dubno rammed a Heinkel bomber ", after which both planes fell. Ivanov died. For this feat he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
His primacy is disputed by several pilots: junior lieutenant Dmitry Kokorev, who rammed a Messerschmitt in the Zambro area 20 minutes after Ivanov’s feat and remained alive.
On June 22 at 5:15, junior lieutenant Leonid Buterin died over Western Ukraine (Stanislav), ramming a Junkers-88.
Another 45 minutes later, an unknown pilot on a U-2 died over Vygoda after ramming a Messerschmitt.
At 10 am, a Messer was rammed over Brest and Lieutenant Pyotr Ryabtsev survived.
Some pilots resorted to ramming several times. Hero of the Soviet Union Boris Kovzan made 4 rams: over Zaraisk, over Torzhok, over Lobnitsa and Staraya Russa.

The first "fire" ram

A “fire” ram is a technique when a pilot directs a downed aircraft at ground targets. Everyone knows the feat of Nikolai Gastello, who flew the plane towards a tank column with fuel tanks. But the first “fiery” ram was carried out on June 22, 1941 by 27-year-old senior lieutenant Pyotr Chirkin from the 62nd assault aviation regiment. Chirkin directed the damaged I-153 at a column of German tanks approaching the city of Stryi (Western Ukraine).
In total, during the war years, more than 300 people repeated his feat.

First female ram

Soviet pilot Ekaterina Zelenko became the only woman in the world to perform a ram. During the war years, she managed to make 40 combat missions and participated in 12 air battles. On September 12, 1941, she made three missions. Returning from a mission in the Romny area, she was attacked by German Me-109s. She managed to shoot down one plane, and when the ammunition ran out, she rammed the enemy plane, destroying it. She herself died. She was 24 years old. For her feat, Ekaterina Zelenko was awarded the Order of Lenin, and in 1990 she was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

First ram by jet

A native of Stalingrad, Captain Gennady Eliseev carried out his ramming attack on a MiG-21 fighter on November 28, 1973. On this day, the Iranian Phantom-II, which was carrying out reconnaissance on behalf of the United States, invaded the airspace of the Soviet Union over the Mugan Valley of Azerbaijan. Captain Eliseev took off to intercept from the airfield in Vaziani.
The air-to-air missiles did not produce the desired result: the Phantom released heat traps. To carry out the order, Eliseev decided to ram and struck the tail of the Phantom with his wing. The plane crashed and its crew was detained. Eliseev's MiG began to descend and crashed into a mountain. Gennady Eliseev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The crew of the reconnaissance aircraft - an American colonel and an Iranian pilot - were handed over to the Iranian authorities 16 days later.

The first ramming of a transport aircraft

On July 18, 1981, a transport plane of the Argentine airline Canader CL-44 violated the USSR border over the territory of Armenia. There was a Swiss crew on board the plane. The deputy of the squadron, pilot Valentin Kulyapin, was tasked with imprisoning the violators. The Swiss did not respond to the pilot’s demands. Then the order came to shoot down the plane. The distance between the Su-15TM and the “transport aircraft” was small for the launch of R-98M missiles. The intruder walked towards the border. Then Kulyapin decided to go for the ram.
On the second attempt, he hit the Canadara's stabilizer with his fuselage, after which he safely ejected from the damaged aircraft, and the Argentine fell into a tailspin and fell just two kilometers from the border, his crew was killed. It later turned out that the plane was carrying weapons.
For his feat, the pilot was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

It is a well-known fact that the first aviators did not fight in the sky, but greeted each other.
In 1911, both the French and Russians simultaneously equipped aircraft with machine guns and the era of air combat began. In the absence of ammunition, the pilots used a ram.

Ramming is an air combat technique designed to disable an enemy aircraft, a ground target, or an unwary pedestrian.
It was first used by Pyotr Nesterov on September 8, 1914 against an Austrian reconnaissance aircraft.

There are several types of rams: a landing gear strike on the wing, a propeller strike on the tail, a wing strike, a fuselage strike, a tail strike (I. Sh. Bikmukhametov’s ram)
A ram committed by I. Sh. Bikmukhametov during the Great Patriotic War: going out into the enemy’s forehead with a slide and a turn, Bikmukhametov struck the enemy’s wing with the tail of his plane. As a result, the enemy lost control, went into a tailspin and crashed, and Bikmukhametov was even able to bring his plane to the airfield and land safely.
V. A. Kulyapin's ram, S. P. Subbotin's ram, a ram on a jet fighter, used in air combat in Korea. Subbotin found himself in a situation where his enemy was catching up with him while descending. Having released the brake flaps, Subbotin slowed down, essentially exposing his plane to attack. As a result of the collision, the enemy was destroyed, Subbotin managed to eject and remained alive.

1

Pyotr Nesterov was the first to use an aerial ram on September 8, 1914 against an Austrian reconnaissance aircraft.

2

During the war, he shot down 28 enemy aircraft, one of them in a group, and shot down 4 aircraft with a ram. On three occasions, Kovzan returned to the airfield in his MiG-3 aircraft. On August 13, 1942, on a La-5 aircraft, Captain Kovzan discovered a group of enemy bombers and fighters. In a battle with them, he was shot down and injured in his eye, and then Kovzan directed his plane at an enemy bomber. The impact threw Kovzan out of the cabin and from a height of 6,000 meters, with his parachute not fully opening, he fell into a swamp, breaking his leg and several ribs.

3

He flew the damaged plane to a higher target. According to the reports of Vorobyov and Rybas, Gastello’s burning plane rammed a mechanized column of enemy equipment. At night, peasants from the nearby village of Dekshnyany removed the corpses of the pilots from the plane and, wrapping the bodies in parachutes, buried them near the crash site of the bomber. Gastello's feat was to some extent canonized. The first ram in the history of the Great Patriotic War was carried out by the Soviet pilot D.V. Kokorev on June 22, 1941 at approximately 4 hours 15 minutes ( long time I. I. Ivanov was considered the author of the first ram in the history of the Great Patriotic War, but in fact he completed his ram for 10 minutes. later Kokorev)

4

The Su-2 light bomber shot down one German Me-109 fighter and rammed the second. When the wing hit the fuselage, the Messerschmitt broke in half, and the Su-2 exploded, and the pilot was thrown out of the cockpit.

The first used a night ram on August 7, 1941, shooting down a He-111 bomber near Moscow. At the same time, he himself remained alive.

6

On December 20, 1943, in his first air battle, he destroyed two American B-24 Liberator bombers - the first with a machine gun, and the second with an air ram.

7

On February 13, 1945, in the southern part of the Baltic Sea, during an attack on a terminal transport with a displacement of 6,000 tons, V.P. Nosov’s plane was hit by a shell, the plane began to fall, but the pilot directed his burning plane directly into the transport and destroyed it. The crew of the plane died.

8

On May 20, 1942, he flew on an I-153 plane to intercept an enemy Ju-88 reconnaissance aircraft, which was photographing military installations in the city of Yelets, Lipetsk region. He shot down an enemy plane, but it remained in the air and continued to fly. Barkovsky aimed his plane at the ram and destroyed the Ju-88. The pilot died in the collision.

9

On November 28, 1973, on a MiG-21SM jet fighter, Captain G. Eliseev rammed an F-4 “Phantom” of the Iranian Air Force (when the latter violated the State Border of the USSR in the area of ​​the Mugan Valley of the AzSSR).

10 Kulyapin Valentin (Taran Kulyapin)

Made a ram transport aircraft CL-44 (number LV-JTN, Transportes Aereo Rioplatense airline, Argentina), making a secret transport flight on the route Tel Aviv - Tehran and unintentionally intruding into Armenian airspace.

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

Staff Captain P.N. Nesterov

Aerial ramming as a form of air combat

In 1908, a large article “On the military significance of airplanes” appeared on the pages of the newspaper “Russian Invalid”, the official publication of the military department. In it, the author put forward the idea of ​​​​bringing in special combat airplanes, “intended for squadron combat in the air,” to fight “for state supremacy in the air.”

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 to chest, must inevitably end in the death of both colliding on board aircraft. There can be neither a winner nor a loser here, therefore, it must be a battle with maneuvering.” A few years later, the author of the article’s prediction was confirmed. In June 1912, the first air collision in the history of world aviation took place at a military airfield in Douai (France). While performing morning flights in the air at an altitude of 50 m, biplanes piloted by Captain Dubois and Lieutenant Penian collided. When they fell, both aviators died. In October 1912, a similar incident occurred in Germany, in May 1913 - in Russia. At the Gatchina airfield of the aviation department of the Officers' Aeronautical School (JSC OVSh), during training flights at an altitude of 12 - 16 m, the Nieuport of Lieutenant V.V. collided. Dybovsky and “Farman” Lieutenant A.A. Kovanko. The pilots escaped with minor bruises.

In total, during the period from 1912 to the start 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 troop maneuvers, Russian and foreign pilots were strongly recommended to fight at a certain distance from each other. The idea of ​​an air battle itself was not rejected by the military department. To conduct it, 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 gun, maybe a light machine gun, a few hand grenades - that’s all that can make up the armament of a flying projectile. Such weapons are quite sufficient to disable an enemy airplane and force it to descend, because a rifle bullet that hits successfully will stop the engine or put an aeronaut out of action, as will a successfully hit hand grenade, at close ranges thrown by hand, and at longer distances. long distance - from the same gun.”

In the fall of 1911, during large maneuvers of the troops of the Warsaw Military District, according to a pre-approved plan, two airplanes carried out a successful attack on a mock enemy airship. According to the district command, the presence of on-board weapons could lead to the destruction of the controlled balloon. But the absence of this urgently required the search for other forms of influence on the enemy aircraft.

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

In his work “Aeronautics in Naval Warfare” (1912), Nikolai Alexandrovich supported the idea of ​​​​an “air ram” that he had previously voiced, but with a different meaning. “It is not impossible,” wrote Yatsuk, “that the next war will show us cases when an aeronautical vehicle, in order to interfere with the reconnaissance of an enemy air force, will sacrifice itself by hitting it in order to cause its fall, at least at the cost of its death. Techniques of this kind are, of course, extreme. The fight in the air will be the bloodiest in terms of the number of people participating in it, since the damaged vehicles will, for the most part, 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.

The acting military pilot perceived the idea of ​​an air ram differently than others. commander of the 11th corps aviation detachment of the 3rd aviation company, Lieutenant P.N. Nesterov, seeing in it the possibility of turning an aircraft into a military weapon.

At the autumn large maneuvers of the troops of the Kyiv Military District in 1913, he showed in practice how it was possible to force an air enemy to refuse to carry out his mission. Taking advantage of the advantage in speed (about 20 km/h), Pyotr Nikolaevich, in his Nieuport-IV apparatus, imitated the attack of Farman-VII, piloted by Lieutenant V.E. 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 reconnaissance.” This was the first simulation of air combat in domestic practice.

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

After landing, Nesterov was told that such an attack on an enemy airplane was only possible in peacetime, and in war these maneuvers were unlikely to have any effect on the enemy. Pyotr Nikolaevich thought for a moment and then answered with conviction: “It will be possible to hit him from above with the wheels.” Subsequently, the pilot repeatedly returned to the issue of ramming and proved its possibility, while allowing for two options.

The first is to rise above the enemy airplane, and then, in a steep dive, hit the end of the enemy’s wing with its wheels: the enemy airplane will be shot down, but you can glide safely. The second is to crash the propeller into the enemy’s tail and break his rudders. The propeller will shatter into pieces, but it is possible to glide safely. We must not forget that there were no parachutes yet.

In foreign countries in pre-war years a dogfight 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 carbine in case of a forced landing behind enemy lines. Meanwhile, the first successful tests of aviation as an air strike weapon during the Tripolitan (1911 - 1912) and 1st Balkan (1912 - 1913) wars convinced many leading European countries 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 undergone successful experimental tests. This was the reason for the Frenchman R. Esnault-Peltry to develop, together with artillery specialists, a project for the same fighter. Detailed characteristics were strictly confidential.

After the maneuvers of the St. Petersburg Military District in Russia in August 1913, the question openly arose about the need to form fighter aviation in the Russian army and arm airplanes with automatic weapons to combat enemy reconnaissance aircraft. However, by the beginning of the war, the aviation units of the Russian army remained practically unarmed.

The airplane as a means of armed struggle

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

August 17, 1914 on the pages of the daily newspaper “ Russian word"The following information was placed: "An interesting message was received about an air fight between Russian and German pilots. An enemy airplane unexpectedly appeared above the line of Russian troops. Our pilot expressed a desire to force the German to come down. He quickly took off, approached the enemy and forced him to land with a series of turns. The German pilot has been arrested." Subsequently, this technique was used repeatedly.

This circumstance led the Russian command to think about the possibility of using captured equipment for the needs of the Russian army. The commanders of aviation detachments at the front were now strongly recommended, if possible, not to destroy, but to forcibly land enemy aircraft. Later, within the walls of the capital’s plant of the Joint Stock Aeronautics Company of V. A. Lebedev, they received a new life. There were reasons for this. Firstly, the military department assessed the cost of restoration and newly built airplanes in the same way. Secondly, familiarity with foreign technologies and technical solutions made it possible to enrich one’s own design experience.

However, according to the pilots themselves, a forced landing could only affect a single enemy aircraft, while their group raid required other methods of influence, up to and including the destruction of the latter. This opinion was also shared by the staff captain of the 9th Siberian Rifle Brigade P.N. Nesterov, at the beginning of the war, commander of the 11th corps aviation detachment 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. It stated, in particular: “In order to combat enemy aircraft, it seems necessary to arm the most heavy-duty of our airplanes. For which it is recognized that it is necessary to use Madsen automatic rifles.” However, at that time there were not enough automatic weapons to reach the established kit in field units.

The lack of reliable weapons in aviation, the ridiculous “valuable instructions” of military officials “to shoot buckshot from hand ...” forced Nesterov and other aviators to invent exotic weapons like a bomb “suspended on a long cable ... to destroy enemy airships”, lower “thin copper wire from the tail of the aircraft with a load, so that, cutting off the path of an enemy plane, break its propeller”, “adapt a saw-tooth knife to the tail of the plane and ... rip open the shell of airships and tethered observation balloons with it”, throw “artillery shells instead of bombs”.

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

Hunting for the "Albatross" - a step into immortality

During the Battle of Gorodok (September 5 - 12, 1914), the Austro-Hungarian command attempted to defeat the Russian 3rd and 8th armies of the Southwestern 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 begin a hasty retreat. Within a few days, our advanced units reached and captured the important center of Eastern Galicia - Lvov. Preparations for the upcoming operations required a large regrouping of troops. To reveal their new positions, locations of military command and control bodies, firing points, field airfields, and transport networks, the enemy widely used his air force. In addition to collecting intelligence information in the near rear of the Russian troops, enemy pilots, whenever possible, bombed our military installations, including the airfield of the 11th corps air detachment. On September 7, one of the Austrian airplanes dropped a bomb on his airfield “(a sample of an artillery shell), which, having fallen, was buried in the sand and did not explode.”

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

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

Initially, the issue of air ramming was not raised at all. Considering the possibility of the Albatross appearing unescorted (previously it had flown in a group of three airplanes), it was decided to capture it by force landing. For this purpose, 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 lost its load with a cable, which he expected to use when meeting with the enemy. During landing after a training flight, the engine suddenly malfunctioned, and at the direction of Pyotr Nikolaevich, the mechanics began checking its valves. The appearance of an enemy Albatross in the sky was an unpleasant surprise for Russian pilots. Without waiting for the troubleshooting on his device, Nesterov rushed to Kovanko’s car. In order not to risk his life, Pyotr Nikolaevich categorically refused to fly with his deputy.

Rapidly gaining a height of up to 1500 m on the Morane-Saulnier type (Morane-Saulnier G) (according to other sources - up to 2000 m), he attacked the Albatross from top to bottom. Witnesses of this unusual battle saw that after a sharp collision the enemy airplane nosed down and began to fall randomly. Nesterov’s apparatus swept further, then began to descend in a spiral. At an altitude of about 50 m, the Moran swayed sharply and it fell down like a stone. At that moment, the figure of the pilot separated from the apparatus.

Scheme of P. N. Nesterov’s ram

Map of the airplane crash site

Air ram. World War I period poster. 1914

When examining Nesterov’s corpse, doctors witnessed a fracture of his spine and minor damage to his skull. According to their conclusion, the spinal fracture could not have been caused by a fall on soft ground. Staff Captain P.N. Nesterov died in the air as a result of an airplane collision. The pilots who knew Pyotr Nikolaevich closely immediately doubted his deliberate ramming of the enemy air force. They believed that Nesterov had intentions to force the Albatross crew to land on the airfield, holding it through skillful maneuvering under the threat of using a ram. Pyotr Nikolaevich himself, who was well aware of the statistics of air collisions in the pre-war period and the high percentage of deaths, did not see the ram as a particular benefit for the small Russian aviation, where each device was worth its weight in gold. During the period August - September 1914 alone, the loss of airplanes in the active Russian army amounted to 94 airplanes (45% of the total).

The “Report of the Investigation into the Circumstances of the Heroic Death of the Head of the 11th Corps Aviation Detachment, Staff Captain Nesterov” stated: “Staff Captain Nesterov has long expressed the opinion that it is possible to shoot down an enemy aircraft by hitting the wheels of your own aircraft from above on the supporting surfaces of the enemy aircraft, Moreover, he admitted the possibility of a successful outcome for the ramming pilot.”

Therefore, most experts agreed that he made an attempt to attack the enemy airplane with a glancing blow, counting on the psychological effect. According to theoretical calculations, the tangential impact of a light single-seat aircraft could not lead to the destruction of a heavier airplane, such as the three-seat Albatross with a bomb load. This required either an apparatus of equal weight or a strike with the entire body of the attacking airplane. It seems that Nesterov had technical calculations for carrying out an aerial ramming in relation to a single-seater vehicle based on the attack of an enemy aircraft of equal mass. The possibility of an air attack in this way by heavy types of airplanes was not even discussed. But, ironically, this is exactly the situation that has developed in the skies of Eastern Galicia. Directing his car at the Austrian airplane, Nesterov lost sight of the fact that he had a heavier and less maneuverable two-seater Moran-Saulnier type “J”. As a result, instead of a tangential impact with the wheels on the wings of the enemy car, he crashed into it with the engine between two supporting surfaces, which led to a complete loss of control and destruction of the latter. This blow to official version caused the death of the Russian pilot himself.

In his book “Khodynka: Russian Aviation Runway,” aviation history specialist A. A. Demin cites 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 forward-down view and it was difficult to accurately determine the distance and “jewelfully” hit the Albatross with just its wheels. It is possible that turbulent flows from both airplanes and their mutual influence could have contributed. And then, according to Pyshnov, the following could happen: “If the Moran-Zh aircraft had only one elevator of a symmetrical profile, without a fixed part - a stabilizer, the aircraft could not fly with the handle thrown. Since a diving moment acted on the wing in the absence of lift, in the event of a thrown stick, the plane had to go into a dive with a further transition to inverted flight. As is known, after the ramming, which occurred at an altitude of about 1000 m, to the height of P.N. Nesterov was performing a spiral descent, but then the plane went into a dive and fell in an inverted position. This behavior of the aircraft indicates that P. Nesterov lost consciousness and released the control stick; after going into negative angles of attack and negative value... (G) he was thrown out of the aircraft because he was not tied down...".

Based on the analysis, it can be assumed that the pilot lost consciousness not at the moment of the ramming strike, but much later, during a steep spiral due to weakness of the vestibular apparatus. About P.N.’s health problems Nesterov at the front was later mentioned by his colleagues, in particular the military pilot V.G. Sokolov, who witnessed Pyotr Nikolaevich's deep fainting after another flight. The intensity of his work is reflected in the combat activity log of the 11th Corps Aviation Detachment. During the period from August 10 to September 8, 1914, he completed 12 combat missions, 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 discovered 6 km from the town of Zholkiev in a dry field near a swamp between an airplane and a motor. 400 m away from him lay a downed Albatross, partially buried in swampy soil. The corpses of two members of his crew (Lieutenant F. Rosenthal and non-commissioned officer 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 unprecedented 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 Askold’s grave in Kyiv. Later, the ashes of the Russian pilot were transferred to the Lukyanovskoe cemetery in the capital of Ukraine.

Nesterov's legacy

The tragic outcome of Nesterov’s air ramming at the beginning cast doubt on the possibility of the pilot who carried it out to survive.

Doubts were dispelled by another Russian pilot - Lieutenant of the 12th Uhlan Belgorod Regiment A. A. Kozakov, who during an air battle with the two-seater German “Albatross” S.I on March 31, 1915, managed to shoot it down with a “Nesterov” sliding impact with wheels from above. During the First World War, Kozakov was recognized as the most successful pilot in Russia.

He became acquainted with the advanced views of P. N. Nesterov on the fight against enemy aircraft thanks to the hero’s younger brother Mikhail, a pilot of the Brest-Litovsk corps air squad, who tragically died in the fall of 1914 in a plane crash.

Later, the Allies (the British) recognized the air ram (we are talking about a tangential strike) as one of the forms of Russian air combat, pointing out that when they (Russian pilots) do not have bombs, they rise above the enemy airplane, and, flying over it, they hit him with the bottom of their airplane.

The subsequent equipping of aircraft with automatic weapons relegated aerial rams to 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 ram terrified enemies, and the fearlessness of Soviet pilots aroused sincere admiration and respect in the world. The practice of aerial boarding (ramming) was 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 a method of air combat is quite possible).

Back in the autumn of 1914 in Russian society came up with a proposal to perpetuate the memory of the brave pilot. Mr. A. S. Zholkevich (editor of the newspaper “Novoye Vremya”) took the initiative, starting to collect money with the aim of acquiring several acres of land at the site 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, and later a monument was erected.

Nowadays, monuments to the brave Russian pilot have been opened in Kyiv, and Nizhny Novgorod, a memorial bust was erected in Kazan, his name was given to asteroid No. 3071. A special state award was established in honor of P. N. Nesterov Russian Federation- Nesterov medal.

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

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

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

Monument to P.N. Nesterov in Nizhny Novgorod.
The authors of the project are sculptors Honored Artist of the RSFSR A. I. Rukavishnikov and folk artist RSFSR, corresponding member
Academy of Arts of the USSR I. M. Rukavishnikov

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

Alexey Lashkov,
senior researcher at the Research Institute
institute military history Military Academy
General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,
Candidate of Historical Sciences