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.

Another pilot who claimed five victories w ith the Hurricane, Vasiliy Strelnikov was born in 1919 in the Krasnodar region, the son of a peasant family. After his second year at Taganrog Aviation Technical School he entered Eysk Naval Aviation School, graduating in late 1942. Strelnikov then transferred to the Northern Fleet Air Force for conversion training onto the Hurricane. Posted to 78th IAP in December 1942, he scored his first aerial victory while flying a Hurricane on 23 June 1943. On 6 M ay 1945 Strelnikov was awarded the title of HSU and received the Order of the Red Banner, by which tim e he was serving as a squadron commander name was about to become widely reported for all the wrong reasons in the pages of the Bulletin. On 13 April four 78th IAP Hurricanes, led by Snr Lt Veryovkin, took off together with two Kittyhawks from 2nd GKAB. Strelnikov and Veryovkin were flying the leading pair of Hurricanes, and they sighted five Bf 109s approaching from out of the sun. Strelnikov failed to warn Veryovkin because he assumed that the element leader could see them too. This carelessness was to cost the regiment dearly, as the Messerschmitt pilots were able to position themselves on the Hurricanes’ tails and attack them. Strelnikov attempted to counter an attack by a pair of Bf 109s, and again he failed to warn his leader of the danger. Moments later Strelnikov was shot down by another pair of enemy aircraft. His wingman, Sgt Ilya Kostenyuk, was also attacked, but his opponents were poor shots and missed their target. Having dodged the attack, he dived away not only from the Messerschmitts but also from his own flight. However, when he saw Strelnikov bailing out of his stricken aircraft, Kostenyuk covered his landing before returning to base. Strelnikov had struggled to escape the cockpit of his aircraft, which had burst into flames when enemy fire had holed the forward fuel tank behind the instrument panel. The escaping fuel caught fire and Strelnikov suffered burns to his face and neck. His face was also scratched by the strap of his parachute when he finally jumped free, and he had lost his boots as he tumbled through the air. Strelnikov landed bare-footed and had to walk several kilometres through the snow. He subsequently spent 20 days in hospital. Squadronmate Sgt Aleksander Besputko had not been so lucky. Suffering fatal wounds when his aircraft (JS365) was hit by enemy fire, he was still strapped into his blazing Hurricane when it dived away and exploded upon hitting the ground. Snr Lt Mikhail Veryovkin suffered serious damage to his aircraft too, yet despite the failure of its engine he was able to make a deadstick landing back at base. Even 2nd GKAB incurred a solitary loss when the Kittyhawk of Guards Snr Lt Nikolai Zapalenov was shot down in poor visibility, the pilot being forced to bail out of his burning aircraft. The Bulletin s verdict on the principal cause of these losses was the ‘carelessness and complete lack of good judgment from leaders, and also from the pilots within groups and pairs’. The actions of Snr Sgt Strelnikov in particular were described as ‘criminal inactivity’. Fortunately for Vasiliy Strelnikov, the Northern Fleet Air Force command considered it unnecessary to bring him before a military tribunal, even though other combat pilots had been sent to punishment battalions for lesser offences. This ill-fated mission had been Strelnikov’s 28th operational sortie, and he had just 42 flying hours in combat to his name at the time. In fact all of his operational flying over the past three-and-a-half months had been in the Hurricane. Strelnikov had been a flight commander since January, and had been given the following assessment upon his arrival in the frontline —‘flying training good, combat training inadequate’. It was inevitable that the 24-year-old pilot (who joined the Northern Fleet straight from flying school) would have practically no combat experience, even though he had previously served as an instructor. Strelnikov was, however, able to gain experience sortie by sortie, and this 81 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com B A T T L E SOVER THE OCEAN