Рыбин, Ю. В. Советские асы на Харрикейнах в годы Второй Мировой Войны / Юрий Рыбин . – [Б. м. ] : Osprey Publishing, 2012. – 97 с. : ил., портр. – Англ. яз.

Following this mission Gavrilov reported accounting for two more ‘Brewsters’, one of which was destroyed on the ground. He was also among a group of Soviet fighter pilots credited with destroying another two Fokker D.XXIs later that month. In February the regiment’s pilots fought three aerial battles with Finnish Brewsters of LeLv 24, and Vladimir Basov distinguished himself once again. On 6 February he was at the controls of one of five Hurricanes that flew a reconnaissance mission to Tiliksjarvi. Appearing suddenly over the airfield at low level, the Soviet pilots saw enemy fighters scrambling to take off. Yet the Finnish pilots were able to avoid the losses that seemed inevitable. A single Brewster was making a training flight around the airfield, and Sgt Marrti Solovaara not only broke up the Soviet attack but also damaged one of the Hurricanes, holing its main fuel tank and wounding 152nd IAP ace Lt Gavrilov in the shoulder. The Hurricane pilots were in no hurry to leave, however, and they attacked a Fokker D.XXI that had appeared over the airfield upon its return from a combat sortie. Having ‘destroyed’ it, they then returned to base. The Brewsters that had been scrambled to intercept them did not pursue the Hurricanes. Lt Basov was able to add a third downed enemy aircraft (a Brewster) to his tally following this mission. In the early months of 1942 many of 152nd IAP’s pilots received the Order of the Red Star and the Red Banner for their combat successes, but only Pavel Gavrilov, now a senior lieutenant, was awarded the Soviet Union’s highest honour, the Order of Lenin, which he received on 20 March. By that time he had amassed a total of five individual and three shared victories. 152nd IAP continued to see action through to April, when a sharp rise in the temperature brought the spring thaw. This rendered Letnyaya airfield inoperable as the previously compacted snow turned to mud, resulting in a brief halt in operations (text continues onpage 28). On 4 February 1942, Lt Feodosiy Zodorozhniy of 152nd IAP was conducting an armed reconnaissance mission of enemy territory when he was jumped by Finnish fighters. Although he managed to shake off his attackers, the engine in his Hurricane (Z2585) had been damaged and Zodorozhniy was forced to belly-land the fighter. Although he escaped capture to return to his unit, Soviet fighters failed to destroy his Hurricane and it duly fell into enemy hands. Z2585 was subsequently recovered by the Finns to Tampere, where the 28 bullet holes in the fuselage and wings were repaired, the engine and propeller replaced and the Hurricane issued to the Finnish Air Force as HC-45 The remains of Hurricane II AP588 were photographed at Poduzhemye airfield on 7 April 1942. The CO of recently formed 767th IAP, Maj L P Yuryev, took off on his first flight in a Hurricane w ithout realising that a groundcrewman who had been sat on the tail during power runs had failed to get off prior to takeoff. Upon realising w hat had happened, Yuryev hastily attempted to make a turn in order to land, but the aircraft stalled and crashed due to the shift in its centre of gravity. The pilot was killed and the groundcrewman badly injured 19 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com ON THE K AR E LIA N FRONT