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.

This heavily retouched photograph features Hurricane IIB Z3768 adorned w ith the legend 'For the VKPb'. It was regularly flown by eight-victory ace Capt Dmitriy Amosov of 78th IAP, Northern Fleet Air Force, in 1941-42 Malaya Volokovaya Bay, and attacked a large number of enemy troops close to the River Zapadnaya Litsa. In the period between 1 June and 6 July 1943, Comrade Adonkin commanded seven attacks on small enemy vessels, during which two motorboats were sunk, and three motorboats and one transport vessel, displacing up to 1500 tons, as well as a single patrol boat, were set on fire’. Adonkin scored his last Hurricane victory with 78th IAP on 22 August. On that day the Northern Fleet ace led a mixed group of six Hurricanes and four I-16s tasked with strafing enemy aircraft at a frontline airfield on the shores of Varanger Fjord. Having taken off before dawn, the Soviet fighters managed to hit the target accurately, despite difficult weather conditions. The pilots observed one aircraft on fire before engaging about ten Bf 109s. After they had all returned from their sortie the Northern Fleet pilots reported shooting down five enemy aircraft, although this tally was unconfirmed. The following pilots each claimed a Bf 109 - Vasiliy Adonkin (his 11th victory according to the journals of enemy aircraft destroyed), Capt Vasiliy Pronchenko (his fifth victory, making him a Hurricane ace) and Snr Lts Ivan Popovich (second), Semyon Podyachev (second) and Nour (fourth). Like Pronchenko, Adonkin’s victory took his total of Hurricane kills to five. Shortly thereafter he was transferred to 255th IAP and appointed aide to the regimental commander in charge of flying training. He also converted to the P-39. On 22 January 1944 Adonkin was awarded the title of HSU by order of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. During the first three months of 1944 he shot down two more Bf 109s, but on 17 March he failed to return from a sortie. Adonkin had taken off on his 370th operational mission to escort torpedo bombers attacking a large convoy of enemy ships. The following account by a 255th IAP pilot was noted in the official combat report; ‘We ran into a heavy snow shower en route to the target. The leader of the group of escort fighters, Guards Capt Vasiliy Adonkin, gained height to fly over the snowstorm, together with his wingman, Jr Lt Smirnov, who was able to return despite his aircraft being seriously iced up. Guards Capt Adonkin continued to fly on after his aircraft became iced up and he is presumed to have crashed near the Rybachiy Peninsula.’ A little over a month later, on 10 May 1944, fellow 255th IAP Northern Fleet Hurricane ace and squadron commander Dmitriy Amosov was also killed during the course of what would have been his 321st combat sortie. Official records show that he had destroyed eight enemy aircraft, six on them in the Hurricane. Like Adonkin, he had first flown with 27th SAP of the Northern Fleet Air Force in the far north in the early days of the war. He shot down his first aircraft on 23 August 1941 while flying an I-153. German records, 77 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com B A T T L E SOVER THE OCEAN