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 50 then became the quarry as he came under fire from another German fighter. Breaking off his attack, he turned sharply away and then went into a steep dive. At this point Kurzenkov spotted another Bf 109 diving in front of him. Latching onto its tail, he fired two bursts but then ran out of ammunition. The German fighter levelled off, but immediately came under a head-on attack from another Hurricane. Then, according to Kurzenkov, the Bf 109 flew into a hill and exploded. Its destruction, however, was attributed to Kurzenkov, who was able to add the fighter to his score. Pilots of 78th IAP also distinguished themselves in this battle by claiming the destruction of two Bf 109s and a Bf 110, one of the single- engined fighters being added to Sgibnev’s tally. The official report states that he ‘attacked a single Me 109 from the rear from a range of 100 m and opened fire with four machine guns. The aircraft went into a steep dive before crashing somewhere near Malaya Zapadnaya Litsa’. The report added that Sgibnev’s aircraft suffered damage to its cooling and lubrication systems. The cost for 78th IAP was a high one. Three Hurricanes were shot down and their pilots, Snr Lt I L Zhivotovskiy, Lt V I Bukharin and Sgt E A Evstegneev, were killed. Two more pilots were forced to make emergency landings in their damaged aircraft. Despite these losses, the total number of victories attributed that day to Northern Fleet pilots was two Bf 110s and four Bf 109s. Two hours after this battle had been fought the Guards pilots were back in the air, nine Hurricanes in two groups escorting five SB bombers to the frontline. The first group was led by Kurzenkov, while Orlov headed up the second, the escorting fighters flying above and to the right of the bombers. On their way to the target they were told that a large number of enemy aircraft were awaiting their arrival. Moments after they had received this radio warning from the regimental command post, the Soviet pilots sighted ten Bf 110s heading for them at a higher altitude. Behind them, approaching out of the sun, were several flights of Bf 109s. The enemy fighters broke up into groups and pairs and then proceeded to attack the bombers in a pincer movement. Orlov’s fighters met the Bf 110s head-on, which was a brave move as each of the German machines had two 20 mm cannon and four 7.92 mm machine guns in the nose. Although some of the Hurricanes were fitted with 20 mm ShVAK cannon and 12.7 mm heavy machine guns, most were armed with 7.7 mm Brownings. The Soviet Hurricanes were clearly at a disadvantage as the opposing fighters rushed towards each other. The consequences were inevitable, with two Hurricanes being immediately shot down and their pilots, Guards Capt L L Mozerov Seven-victory Hurricane ace Snr Lt Aleksey Dizhevskiy poses w ith his fighter at Vaenga-2 airfield in the spring of 1942. Note the aircraft's unusual combination of weapons - tw o ShVAK 20 mm cannon and tw o BK 12.7 mm and four Colt-Browning 7.7 mm machine guns, all mounted in the wings. When configured in this way, the Hurricane packed the heaviest punch of any fighter then in service in the USSR © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com