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.

Gavrilov’s luck ran out four days later, however. On 22 March he was leading six Hurricanes that had been scrambled to intercept enemy dive-bombers. The Soviet fighters reached their objective just as the Ju 87s pulled off their target and were setting course for home. As they pursued the Stukas, the Hurricanes were in turn attacked from above by two groups of Bf 109s. By making a left-hand turn and forming a defensive circle at an altitude of about 600 m (1950 ft), the Hurricane pilots started to break away from the fighters. Whilst some of the Messerschmitts fired at the Hurricanes from above, others descended to 200 m (650 ft) and attacked from below. As a result of this pincer movement, the German pilots succeeded in destroying three Hurricanes. The fuel tank of one Hurricane (BN518) exploded in the first attack and the aircraft tumbled out of the sky in a steep dive. The stricken fighter, together with its pilot, squadron commander Snr Lt Ivan Medvedev, penetrated the ice like a hot torch and sank. Another pilot, Snr Lt SA Rogachevskiy, bailed out of his burning aircraft and managed to walk back to his unit, despite having suffered a foot wound. Fatally injured, Capt Gavrilov made an emergency landing near Zhemchuzhnaya station. By the time he was found beside his Hurricane, Gavrilov was dead. Prior to succumbing to his wounds, the ace had written ‘I die for my Motherland’ in his own blood on the fuselage of his fighter. Following this battle, Gavrilov and Medvedev were posthumously credited with the shared destruction of a Ju 87. Without their leader, the remaining 152nd IAP pilots broke off the combat. Snr Lt Pavel Levchuk and Jr Lt Petr Churkin escaped at low level, while Jr Lt Timofey Ryabchenko headed for the clouds, his damaged aircraft leaking hydraulic fluid. As he climbed to safety, Ryabchenko saw six Bf 109s heading west at low level in line astern. After two weeks of active combat 152nd IAP had only two serviceable Hurricanes left. By the time of his death Pavel Ivanovich Gavrilov was the leading Soviet Air Force Hurricane ace serving on the Karelian Front, having claimed one Fokker D.XII, three B-239s, one Blenheim and two Bf 109s destroyed. Five of these aircraft had been shot down while Gavrilov was flying the Hurricane. He was also credited with sharing in the destruction of two more Bf 109s and a Ju 87. There were, of course, many other successful Soviet Air Force fighter pilots on the Karelian Front. Some had higher scores than Gavrilov, but none had claimed as many victories while flying Hurricanes. HSU V I Krupskiy of 760th IAP, for example, claimed to have shot down nine enemy aircraft, but he only accounted for one of them as a Hurricane pilot. All of Krupskiy’s remaining claims were made while he was flying the Kittyhawk. O f the eight individual kills credited to the other famous Karelian Front ace, HSU Aleksander Nikolaenkov, also of 760th IAP, two were made while he was flying the Hurricane —these were his first and last kills. Sandwiched in between these successes were six victories that he claimed while flying the Kittyhawk I. No other aces of the Soviet Air Force who fought in the skies over the polar region and Karelia in this most difficult and bloody period of the war achieved the same level of success as Pavel Ivanovich Gavrilov in the Hurricane. 33 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com ON THE K AR E LIA N FRONT