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.

Commander of the 1st Squadron of 78th IAP, Snr Lt A E Tulskiy scored his first aerial victory on 18 June 1942 when he shot down a Ju 87 by firing four rocket projectiles at it from his I-15bis fighter. In 1943, following his regiment's switch to the Hurricane, Tulskiy reported shooting down three Bf 109Gs attacked by 12 Bf 109s and eight Fw 190s, split into two groups. The Focke-Wulfs made a low-level attack on the convoy while the Bf 109s targeted the escorting fighters. According to Soviet pilot reports, the Germans lost a combined total of seven Bf 109s and one Fw 190 in these two encounters, with a further two described as probables. Snr Lt A E Tulskiy (his second victory), Kukibniy (second), Kravchenko (second), Pilipenko (fifth), Jr Lt N G Kashcheev (second) and Snr Sgts B G Ermolin (first) and N I Kirillov (first) each claimed to have shot down a Bf 109. Capt A A Krasilnikov of 27th IAP also claimed his first kill, an Fw 190. German sources, however, list only one loss over the Gulf of Motovsk that day —Bf 109 Wk-Nr. 7480 of 9./JG 5, killing pilot Leutnant Helmut Steinle. In view of the multiplicity of claims, it is impossible to determine which of the Soviet pilots downed this aircraft. Soviet losses, however, were far greater. Apart from the four 78th IAP Hurricanes already mentioned, five more were lost in the second battle, resulting in the deaths of Capt V A Ageychev and Jr Lt P M Savitskiy. Ageychev was a squadron commander and one of the regiment’s most experienced pilots with 190 sorties and four kills to his credit. Savitskiy had claimed one victory. The cargo, so vital to the defenders of Rybachiy and Sredniy, was safely delivered, although the cost had been high —nine Hurricanes were shot down (BW959, BW984, HW233, JS351, KX106, KX491, KX526, Z2461 and Z5134) and two pilots killed. Pilipenko had joined 78th IAP’s 3rd Squadron at the end of June following the death of fellow Hurricane ace Capt Vasiliy Doroshin. However, the Northern Fleet ace was not to command the unit for long, for he too failed to return from a sortie on the night of 20-21 July. At 2240 hrs Pilipenko had led six Hurricanes aloft to provide close escort for seven Il-2s ordered to attack enemy shipping. Further cover was provided by seven P-39s of 255th IAP. Whilst returning from the target area, the mixed formation was intercepted by 12 Bf 109s. Three Hurricanes were shot down, killing Pilipenko and Jr Lts Sergey Volkov and Ivan Shakhov. This was the ace’s 221st operational sortie, and he had logged a total of 262 flying hours prior to his death. His subordinates Volkov and Shakhov had just 81 hrs and 14 hrs, respectively. In the aftermath of these losses, an official document stated that ‘the lack of coordination between the groups of aircraft in combat was demonstrated by the way the faster fighters did not cover the Hurricanes as they broke off combat. The close escort group, which had engaged a superior force of enemy aircraft, could not disengage. The leading groups ofAiracobra and Il-2 aircraft, instead of assisting the Hurricanes, retreated by themselves’. In other words, the 78th IAP pilots were abandoned by their comrades to be torn to pieces by a superior force of enemy aircraft. Aleksey Pilipenko had died believing that the Hurricane could be successful, provided it was allowed to fight in conjunction with higher 75 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com B A T T L E SOVER THE OCEAN