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.

‘Performing a barrel roll over the port, the pilots noticed a series of explosions from anti-aircraft artillery shells, indicating the direction from which the enemy aircraft were approaching. The leader o f the group, Petr Sgibnev, sighted nine Ju 87s approaching at an altitude of 3000 m [10,000 ft]. The leading group decided to attack the dive-bombers head-on. As a result o f the first attack the dive-bombers dropped their bombs in the mountains. They turned and, descending one by one, set course for their own territory. Having dispersed their opponents, the Soviet pilots continued to attack the fleeing dive-bombers from close range. ‘In his first head-on attack, Capt Sgibnev fired five to six bursts of machine gun fire from a distance of 300-100 m at a Ju 87. The dive-bomber caught fire and went down. Having disposed o f one Ju 87, Capt Sgibnev caught up with another. He attacked it from above and behind from a distance of 50-30 m. The enemy aircraft started to descend haphazardly after two bursts of machine gun fire. The crewmembers bailed out. One was shot in the air by Soviet pilots but the other landed safely.’ The following pilots each claimed to have shot down a Ju 87 —Capt Babiy (his fifth victory), Capt Dizhevskiy (his sixth), Snr Lt Shalaev (his fifth) and Lt Dilanyan (his fourth), while Sgibnev claimed two for his 14th and 15th aerial victories. It was also during this battle that Konstantin Babiy and Vasiliy Shalaev became Northern Fleet Hurricane aces. Judging by their reports, they both downed their Stukas during the first attack. They would receive the Order of the Red Banner on 23 July for their successes. This was in fact the second time Babiy had been presented with the award, his first being issued on 22 February 1942. Much o f the credit for the success o f the Northern Fleet pilots on this occasion belongs to their squadron commander, Capt Petr Sgibnev. The following statement describing the leading role he played in dispersing the enemy attack was contained in an official 78th IAP report; ‘As a result o f well-organised observation by the Hurricane pilots, the enemy dive-bombers were immediately intercepted and attacked vigorously. Having lost their leader in the first attack, the dive-bombers scattered and started to depart one by one in a panic, the gunners hardly firing a shot. The personal example o f the leader o f the group, Capt Sgibnev, Also enjoying great success as a Hurricane pilot, Konstantin Babiy was born in 1917 to a peasant family in the village of Sovyetskoe, in the Zhitomir Region of Ukraine, in 1936 he graduated from Pedagogical Secondary School, and the following year Babiy entered Eysk Naval Aviation School. In 1940 he was posted to 72nd SAP of the Northern Fleet Air Force as a junior pilot. Initially seeing combat in a squadron equipped w ith I-15bis, he converted to the Hurricane in early 1942 w ith 2nd GSAP and scored the first of his seven Hurricane victories on 15 April that same year. When the conflict ended Babiy was a squadron commander w ith 54th SAP, W hite Sea Air Fleet Air Force. He received the Order of the Red Banner three times 61 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com AR CT IC WAR HOTS UP