Alexander Ivanovich Pokryschkin
Alexander Pokryshkin ( Russian Александр Иванович Покрышкин ., Scientific transliteration Aleksandr Ivanovich Pokryškin ; born March 6, jul. / 19th March 1913 greg. In Novonikolajevsk ; † 13. November 1985 in Moscow ) was a Soviet pilot , Marshal of the flyer and three-time Hero the Soviet Union .
Life
Pokryshkin was already enthusiastic about flying as a schoolboy. So he became a member of the Krasnodar Aeroclub and learned to fly there. In 1932 he joined the Soviet Army. After the basic training, he registered for training as a military aviator, but it was determined that the participants in the course should be trained to become aircraft mechanics. In 1933 he graduated from the Technical School in Perm . However, he was interested in flying, and after the intercession of the test pilot Stepan Suprun , whom he had met in autumn 1935 during a spa stay in Chost near Sochi on the Black Sea, he was approved for pilot training, which he completed in Kachinsk from 1936 . Subsequently, in autumn 1939 he was assigned to the 55th IAP (Fighter Pilot Regiment) under the command of Viktor Petrovich Ivanov, of which he was a member until April 1944. In 1941 he was appointed deputy squadron commander Anatoly Sokolov.
In World War II
A few weeks before the German invasion of the Soviet Union , his unit was one of the first to be equipped with the MiG-3 fighter . Pokryschkin's chain acted as one-flyer. She took over the MiGs assembled in Belzy and transferred them to the unit location in Majaki. With this type he achieved his first aerial victory over a Bf 109E at Ștefăneşti on June 26, 1941 . Shortly thereafter, Pokryschkin became a squadron leader in the rank of first lieutenant. During a combat flight, his MiG-3 was shot down by enemy flak near Iași . Pokryschkin managed to return to his own lines after the emergency landing, in which he sustained injuries to his right foot. During his recovery he began to work intensively on improving aerial combat tactics, in particular criticizing the pre-war tactics and maneuvers that were still in use. He also spoke openly about the weaknesses of the Soviet fighter planes, their lack of radio equipment and their insufficient armament. This met with displeasure from his superiors and resulted in discrimination. At the instigation of his new regimental commander - Ivanov had been replaced in the summer of 1942 due to an injury by Major Krajew - he was even temporarily expelled from the Communist Party, dismissed as a squadron leader and brought to court. With the intervention of the division commander Colonel Volkov, the allegations were dropped. In the end, his innovations, which had been tried and tested in practice, were able to prevail and Pokryschkin became an important role model for Soviet fighter pilots with the attack tactics he developed, "Height-Speed-Maneuver-Fire!"
In the autumn of 1941 Pokryshkin was shot down a second time - this time by Bf-109 fighters - and landed in the middle of the front line. With the help of some Soviet soldiers, he transported his damaged aircraft to the east, hanging on a truck, but had to leave it behind and burn it when the retreating troops were surrounded. After a successful breakthrough attempt, he returned to his unit. He was then assigned to the flying school in Sernograd to train new pilots for his unit. There he was able to perfect the tactics he had developed and convey them to the young pilots. On March 7, 1942, his regiment was given the title of Guard and renamed the 16th GwIAP. Such successful pilots as Grigory Retschkalow , Boris Glinka and Andrei Trud flew in the regiment .
In the spring of 1942 Pokryschkin tested captured Bf-109 fighters together with other pilots as part of a special group under General Naumenko in Novocherkassk and familiarized themselves with the flight characteristics of the type. He then returned to his unit, retrained to the Jak-1 , which his regiment had received as a replacement for the MiG-3, and was used again as a squadron leader. In the summer of 1942 he turned down the offer of the Army Commander-in-Chief, General Naumenko, to be transferred as deputy commander to a regiment equipped with the new La-5 type, also because he had his future wife Maria, a nurse, at his location. had got to know. They married in the fall of 1943; in the winter of 1944 their daughter Svetlana was born, who was followed by son Sascha. In 1942 he also joined the Communist Party .
A short time later, Pokryschkin switched to the American Bell P-39 "Airacobra", which was given to the Soviet Union by the USA in large numbers as part of the lend lease contract, after the American, British and French armed forces had this type refused for lack of performance. Pokryschkin himself therefore traveled to Tehran a few times to transfer copies of the model to Krasnodar. He flew this type for about two years and scored most of his kills on it. During the battles for the Kuban bridgehead Pokryschkin usually flew the number 13, later he switched to the 100. On May 24, 1943, he received the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union" for the first time in the rank of captain after 354 combat flights and 54 aerial battles with 19 aerial victories. the second followed with the rank of major on August 24, 1943 after 455 flights and 30 kills. In October 1943 Pokryschkin took over the 16th GwIAP instead of Commander Krajew, who was injured in a crash landing. In the winter of 1943/44 he was called to Moscow, where the Marshal of the Air Force Novikov suggested that he take over the training department for fighter pilots. Pokryshkin refused again and insisted on sticking with his unit. In Moscow he also had the opportunity to test the Yak-3 and got to know its designer, Alexander Yakovlev . He praised the maneuverability of the machine, but criticized its weak armament. This was not surprising, as he otherwise flew a heavily armed aircraft with the P-39. He also came into contact with Semyon Lavochkin and praised his La-7 .
On August 19, 1944 he was promoted to colonel, at the same time he was given command of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division (GwIAD) and was named "Hero of the Soviet Union" for the third time. His deputy was his former superior, Krajew, who was soon transferred at Pokryshkin's request due to the ongoing tension. From now on Pokryschkin devoted himself to the management of the division and flew only very rarely combat missions. In October 1944, the regiment retrained to the La-7. With the 9th GwIAD Pokryschkin came to Germany as part of the 1st Ukrainian Front within the 2nd Air Army on May 2nd, 1945, where he was stationed initially in Großenhain and from mid-May to June in Riesa . On 560 enemy flights, Pokryschkin achieved 59 aerial victories, six of them as group kills, 48 of them on the P-39. This made Pokryschkin the second most successful Allied pilot - after Ivan Koschedub - in World War II .
After the end of the war
After the end of the war he was deputy of the Supreme Soviet several times . Pokryshkin graduated from the Frunze Academy in 1948, and the General Staff Academy in 1957 . From 1968 to 1971 he was Deputy Supreme Commander of Air Defense . In January 1973, Pokryshkin became Marshal of the Aviator. From January 1972 to 1981 he was chairman of the DOSAAF , then from November 1981 a member of the group of inspectors general of the Ministry of Defense.
Pokryschkin wrote three books, of which Heaven of War was translated into German in 1974.
literature
- Wilfried Copenhagen : Lexicon Soviet Aviation. Elbe – Dnjepr, Klitzschen 2007, ISBN 978-3-933395-90-0 .
- Waldemar Trojca: Soviet flying ace 1941–1945. (= History of the Great Patriotic War ), VDM, Zweibrücken 2019, ISBN 978-3-86619-152-5 .
- Alexander I. Pokryshkin: Heaven of War . Military Publishing House , Berlin 1974 (Russian: Небо войны . Moscow 1970. Translated by Helmut Heinrich).
- Александр Иванович Покрышкин: Крылья истребителя . Москва 1948.
- Александр Иванович Покрышкин: Познать себя в бою . Москва 1986.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Stefan Büttner: Red places. Russian military airfields Germany 1945–1994. Air bases – aerodromes – military fallow areas . Ed .: Lutz Freundt. AeroLit, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-935525-11-4 , pp. 161, 200 .
- ↑ In memoriam . In: Fliegerrevue . No. 2/1986 (obituary for A. Pokryschkin).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Pokryschkin, Alexander Ivanovich |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Покрышкин, Александр Иванович (Russian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | soviet pilot |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 19, 1913 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Novonikolaevsk |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 13, 1985 |
| Place of death | Moscow |