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.

CH AP TE R THREE 48 landing. Neither side had suffered unsustainable losses in the battle over Murmansk. Orlov and Kurzenkov both achieved their fifth victories on 29 April. At 0447hrs the latter was one of four Hurricane pilots who took off to patrol the frontline following fierce fighting on the ground. At 0530 hrs the Soviet fighters encountered three Bf 110s and four Bf 109s, the four Hurricane pilots attacking the twin-engined fighters head-on in line-abreast formation. Kurzenkov launched four rockets from a range of 1000 m and then opened fire with machine guns from 400 m. According to eyewitness reports from fellow pilots, his victim crashed near the frontline. Guards Snr Lt Amosov and Guards Sgt Cheprunov also shot down a Bf110 in the head-on attack. German sources, however, state that two Bf 110s of 10.(Z)/JG 5 (Wk-Nrs. 3528 and 2547) were seriously damaged. Both were able to make emergency landings at their airfield, but they were later written off. One could have been the Bf 110 credited to Kurzenkov. At noon that same day 12 Hurricanes drawn from 2nd GKAP and 78th IAP provided an escort for six I-153 attack aircraft. The formation was intercepted close to the target area by Bf 109Fs of 6./JG 5, which attacked the slow-moving biplanes head-on and broke up their formation. The German fighters then re-formed into pairs to set upon individual I-153s. Three were quickly downed, killing one pilot and seriously wounding two others. Only four Hurricanes from the escort group engaged the enemy, as according to a report from the Commander- in-Chief of the Northern Fleet Air Force, the rest of the covering force was ‘distracted from their principal objective by enemy aircraft’. Put simply, there was a lack of coordination between escort and escorted. Among those who did ‘carry out his principal objective’ and engage the enemy fighters was Pavel Orlov. He attacked a Bf 109 from behind and poured two long bursts of machine gun fire into it. The pilot later reported that ‘the aircraft caught fire and fell towards the ground’. This victory, however, remained unconfirmed. Based on the final results of this air battle, Orlov was awarded his first military honour in the form of the Order of the Red Banner, a decoration his squadronmate Sergey Kurzenkov had received earlier in the month. During a sortie on 9 May to intercept enemy aircraft, Orlov and Kurzenkov each reported shooting down a Bf 109 in a confrontation with single- and twin-engined fighters escorting Ju 87s that were targeting troops in the Soviet frontline. Orlov led five Hurricanes from the 2nd Squadron, while Kurzenkov joined a group of four led by the 3rd Squadron’s Guards Capt Shvedov. While manoeuvring during the aerial battle, Guards Sgt Savin from Orlov’s group collided with Shvedov’s Hurricane and cut off its tail. Both aircraft crashed to the ground, taking their pilots with them. Orlov and Kurzenkov were lucky to survive the next day’s difficult and bloody confrontation with the ‘polar hunters’ of JG 5. Troops of the 12th Independent Marine Brigade had suffered heavy losses in an encounter with German alpine troops, and lacking reserves, they were down to 100-150 combat-capable soldiers. In an effort to annihilate the remaining Soviet troops, the Luftwaffe pounded their defensive positions with three raids of 20-25 aircraft. The Marine Brigade commander called © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com