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.

C H APTER THREE 52 Reaching for a bandage, I cleaned the clotted blood away from my left eye and covered the right one with the palm of my hand. But for a light, misty haze, my vision was much as it had been before I crash-landed. ‘I jumped into the snow and walked up to the fuselage, which had been torn off, as had the tail section. There was a first aid box in there with a packet of food and some skis with sticks —everything I urgently needed. However, there was almost nothing left. Cotton wool had spread like hoarfrost throughout the fuselage and fragments from exploding cannon shells had shredded the bandages, although fortunately the flask of iodine had survived. Cylindrical in shape, it was made from thick, unbreakable glass. I administered first aid in front of the round mirror, then I reached for the food pack. The tins of meat had been peppered with bullets, one having passed through five layers of chocolate before becoming embedded in the sixth. As far as the biscuits were concerned, they had turned into ground-up rusks! ‘I decided to take some refreshment. I took the flask from my pocket and poured myself a few gulps of cognac and ate the half bars of chocolate, but I felt no better. I got into the skis with difficulty and, taking the remains of the food pack with me, as well as rockets and a flare gun, I checked the compass and set off to the east through the virgin snow. The untouched whiteness was painful to my injured left eye.’ Two other pilots from the escort group, Guards Snr Sgt P D Klimov and Guards Sgt M M Chepurnov, had their Hurricanes badly shot up as well, but they also managed to crash-land their crippled aircraft on the tundra and return to their unit on foot. Above them, the three remaining Hurricanes continued to cover the five bombers, repelling the attacks by German fighters. The Bf 109 pilots gave up after a few fruitless attacks, but several Bf 110 crews stubbornly chased the Soviet aircraft as far as the Kola Gulf. Thanks to the efforts of the Hurricane pilots, none of the SBs suffered any damage in this hard-fought engagement. The guards pilots had done their duty right to the very end of the mission, preventing the Messerschmitts from getting anywhere near their charges. The price, though, had been high. O f the nine Hurricanes that took part in the operation, only four made it back home. For the whole of the Northern Fleet Air Force the day’s losses totalled nine Hurricanes and five pilots. The Bf 110 crews claimed to have shot down 16 Soviet fighters without loss. For their part, the guards pilots reported shooting down five enemy aircraft. Guards Capt Mozerov, Capt Orlov and Snr Lt Kurzenkov each claimed a Bf 110 apiece, while Guards Snr Lt Kravchenko and Guards Sgt Klimov were credited with a Bf 109 each. German sources, however, admitted only the loss of Bf 109E-7 Wk-Nr. 5975, which, along with its pilot Unteroffizier Heinz Bausch, disappeared without trace. Three high-scoring aces of 2nd GKAP, Northern Fleet Air Force, come together during a photo opportunity in early 1943. They are, from left to right, Capts Pavel Orlov, and Aleksander Kovalenko and Snr Lt Vladimir Pokrovskiy. The latter was credited w ith 11 victories in total, three of them in Hurricanes. His remaining successes came in the I-16 and P-40 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com