They don't like to talk about traitors. Traitors are a disgrace to any country. And war, like a litmus test, sticks out the true qualities of people. Regarding the Great Patriotic War, of course, they remember more Russian pilots who went over to the side of Germany. However, the same defectors were among the German Luftwaffe pilots. Now it is difficult to say who actually voluntarily crossed the border and surrendered, and who did it by force. But for some people there is no doubt.
Count Heinrich von Einsiedel
The most senior among them is Count Heinrich Einsiedel, who was the maternal great-grandson of the Iron Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. In 1939, at the age of 18, he voluntarily joined the German aviation. When the war began, the count was a Me-109 fighter pilot of the elite squadron "von Richthofen", where he was known by the nickname Graf. He shot down several British aircraft, along with other pilots, thwarted a torpedo attack by British torpedo bombers on German ships. In June 1942, Einsiedel was transferred to the Eastern Front as an experienced fighter pilot in the Udet squadron. In just a month of fighting near Stalingrad, he shot down 31 Soviet aircraft, for which he was awarded the German Cross in gold.
Lieutenant Einsiedel was captured by the Soviets on August 30, 1942, his Messerschmitt 109F was shot down near Stalingrad, in the Beketovka area. In captivity, he wrote an open letter home, recalling the words of his grandfather Bismarck, spoken before his death: "Never go to war against Russia." The pilot was sent to the Krasnogorsk camp, where there were other captured Germans. They were opposed to Hitler, and in November 1943, Einsiedel joined the anti-fascist organization Free Germany. After the war, the count became its vice-chairman and propaganda commissar, supervised the release of anti-fascist leaflets.
His mother, Countess Irena von Einsiedel, nee von Bismarck-Schonhausen, wrote a letter to Joseph Stalin asking him to release her son from captivity, and in 1947 he received permission to return to East Germany. The following year, when Einsiedel wanted to go to his mother in West Berlin, a scandal erupted. The count was arrested on charges of spying for the USSR. Due to lack of evidence, he was acquitted, but relations with the communists were rapidly deteriorating. Einsiedel remained to live in Germany, worked as a translator and journalist, published a book of memoirs "The Diary of a German Pilot: Fighting on the Side of the Enemy." At home, he was considered a traitor to the end, and the Soviet Union was indifferent to him.
Franz Joseph Beerenbrock
Franz Josef Beerenbrock was born in 1920. His mother was Russian and she taught her son to speak Russian well. Beerenbrock joined the Luftwaffe in 1938 and initially served in the anti-aircraft troops. At the beginning of 1941, he completed flight training with the rank of non-commissioned officer, and from June 22 he already participated in battles on the Eastern Front. Beerenbrock was a true ace of the Luftwaffe. In just a few months of the war with Russia, he was awarded the Knight's Cross with oak leaves, and in early December he had 50 downed aircraft. In February 1942, Franz Josef was promoted to the rank of sergeant major, and in August to lieutenant. By that time, the number of his "victories" had exceeded a hundred. In early November, Beerenbrock was appointed squadron commander of 10./JG51.
On November 11, 1942, near the city of Velizh, Smolensk region, he shot down three fighters, but in the same battle his plane was shot down, the radiator was hit. Beerenbrock had to make an emergency landing behind the front line, where he was taken prisoner. In total, he made more than 400 sorties and shot down 117 aircraft. His squadron mates realized that the pilot had defected to the enemy when they noticed that the Soviet pilots were using their tactics. In captivity, Beerenbrock and Walter von Seydlitz, former commander of the 51st Army Corps and General of Artillery, were among the founders of the anti-fascist organization "Union of German Officers", created on September 12, 1943. Also in captivity, the Luftwaffe ace advised Soviet pilots on the tactics of conducting a fighter battle. Beerenbrock returned to Germany from captivity in mid-December 1949, and died in 2004.
Herman Graf
The son of a simple blacksmith, worked in a factory before the war. In 1939 he graduated from a military flight school, joined the Luftwaffe and was sent to the first group of the 51st Fighter Squadron stationed on the western border. In 1941, he participated in the Balkan campaign, then was transferred to Romania, where he won his first victory. By May 1942, Graf shot down about 100 aircraft, and Goering personally forbade him to participate in the battles, but the pilot did not obey and soon shot down another plane. On May 17, 1942, the Count was awarded the Order of the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves.
He distinguished himself in the battles near Stalingrad. On September 26, 1942, Graf was the first among all the aces of the Luftwaffe to shoot down his 200th aircraft. From February 1943, he was appointed commander of the Vostok training group in France. In March 1943, he received the task of forming a special unit to deal with reconnaissance aircraft "Mosquito", called the fighter group "South". From October 1944 until the end of the war, he commanded the 52nd Fighter Squadron, the most famous formation of the Luftwaffe.
On May 8, 1945, Graf was taken prisoner by the American military and handed over to the Soviet command. In total, during the war, he made about 830 sorties and shot down 202 aircraft on the Soviet-German front. The count spent five years in Soviet captivity, collaborating with the Bolsheviks. Upon returning to Germany in 1950, he was expelled from the Luftwaffe Pilot Association for his actions in captivity.
Harro Schulze-Boysen
Harro Schulze-Boysen was born in 1912 into a wealthy German nationalist family. His father was chief of staff of the German naval command in Belgium during the First World War, and his mother came from a well-known family of lawyers. From early youth, Schulze-Boysen participated in opposition organizations, in the summer of 1932 he joined the circle of national revolutionaries in Berlin, who opposed all political power. During the war he was a member of the anti-fascist organization "Red Chapel".
In 1936, he married Libertas Haas-Neye, and Marshal Goering himself was a witness at the wedding. At the same time, Boysen began working at the Goering Research Institute, where he met many communists and began to cooperate with Soviet intelligence, passing on information about the course of the war in Spain.
Even before the war, Schulze-Boysen was recruited by the NKVD and worked under the pseudonym "Foreman". Since January 1941, he served in the Luftwaffe Operational Headquarters with the rank of Lieutenant, in the headquarters of Reichsmarschall Goering, where the most secret units were located. Then Schulze-Boysen was transferred to the group of air attachés, and in fact he became an intelligence officer. At the new location, a Soviet spy photographed secret documents coming from the Luftwaffe attaché at German embassies abroad.
Schulze-Boysen had an excellent ability to make the right contacts, and thanks to this he had access to a wide variety of secret information, including the development of new aircraft, bombs, torpedoes, as well as the losses of German aviation. He managed to obtain information about the placement of chemical arsenals on the territory of the Reich. Schulze-Boysen was in a trusting relationship even with one of Goering's favorites, Erich Gerts, who led the 3rd group of the instructions and manuals sector of the training department. The informers of the Soviet agent were a construction inspector, the head of the construction sector and a lieutenant of the Abwehr department involved in sabotage.
Schulze-Boysen transmitted information about many reconnaissance flights of German ghost aircraft, but the Soviet leadership did not attach much importance to them.
The Germans uncovered the traitor, and on August 31, 1942, Harro Schulze-Boysen was arrested. A few days later, the Gestapo also took away his wife. A military court sentenced him to death, and on December 22, Boysen and his wife were executed by hanging in a Berlin prison.
Eberhard Carisius
Carisius was the first Luftwaffe pilot to be taken prisoner by the Soviets. During his first sortie towards the USSR on June 22, 1941, five hours after the start of the war, the engine of his plane failed and Carisius had to make an emergency landing near Tarnopol. The navigator shot himself in fear, and the rest of the crew, led by Eberhard, surrendered. Carisius declared his "disagreement with Hitler's war against the Soviet Union." The rest of his crew died in captivity.
Later, the German pilot himself offered his services and arrived at the front in the winter of 1943. With his knowledge of the German army from the inside, he helped the 7th department of the PU of the 3rd Ukrainian Front to establish meaningful propaganda. With the active participation of Carisius, 32 captured Germans wrote an anti-fascist appeal to the population of Germany. He joined the members of the organization "Free Germany", one of the main tasks of which was to carry out anti-fascist explanatory work among German soldiers at the front. Propaganda was carried out with the help of leaflets, newspapers, records of the speeches of the leaders of the organization. Participants also had the right to talk with captured German soldiers and involve them in cooperation.
After the war, Carisius graduated from the military academy in Moscow and then commanded tank formations of the German national army. He retired with the rank of lieutenant general and was awarded the Order of Karl Marx. He served in the border police of Thuringia, rose to the rank of colonel and chief of police. He taught Russian in Dresden, where he died in 1980.
Willy Frenger
Willy Frenger was considered the best pilot on the Northern Front, a real ace. By the time he was captured, he had made 900 sorties and shot down 36 aircraft. Awarded with the German Cross in Gold. Oberfeldwebel Willy Frenger, a Luftwaffe ace from the 6th Squadron of the 5th Fighter Squadron, was shot down by fighter pilot Boris Safonov near Murmansk on May 17, 1942. He managed to jump out by parachute, and was taken prisoner. During interrogation, Frenger willingly answered all questions, but at the same time he was self-confident, and claimed that he was not shot down by Soviet fighters, but by his own. Gave valuable information about the deployment of German airfields.
In 1943, Frenger, as a saboteur, was thrown into the German rear to steal the new Messerschmitt Bf109G, but as soon as Willy was on German territory, he immediately surrendered to his own. After a check and a confrontation with the former commander, Frenger was reinstated and returned to service, being transferred to the Western Front. The personality is quite obscure, and little is known about him.
Edmund "Paul" Rossman
Having loved aviation since childhood, Rossman graduated from flight school in 1940 and was assigned to the 7th Squadron of the 52nd Fighter Squadron. Participated in the French campaign and in the battle for England, shot down 6 aircraft. In June 1941, Rossman was transferred to the Soviet-German front, and by the end of that year, he already had 32 victories. He was wounded in the right hand, and could no longer conduct maneuver battles, as before. From 1942, Rossman began flying with a wingman, Erich Hartmann. Hartmann is considered the most productive ace of the Luftwaffe. By the end of the war, he had 352 victories, and no one managed to break this record.
On July 9, 1943, the Messerschmitt of Rossmann and Hartmann was shot down near Belgorod. By this time, Edmund Rossman had 93 victories to his credit, and was awarded the Knight's Iron Cross. During interrogation, he willingly answered all questions, spoke about new models of German aircraft. According to Rossman, one of his pilots flew over the front line, and he made an emergency landing to pick up the pilot. But then Soviet anti-aircraft gunners arrived and took Rossman prisoner. However, according to another version, the flight across the border was made intentionally. Rossman actively cooperated with the Soviet authorities, was released from captivity in 1949. He died in Germany in 2005.
Egbert von Frankenberg und Proschlitz
Born in 1909 in Strasbourg, in a military family. He graduated from flight school and in 1932 became a member of the SS. Volunteered in the Spanish Civil War as commander of the Luftwaffe. In 1941, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union, Frankenberg was sent to the Eastern Front already in the rank of major, commodore.
In the spring of 1943, Frankenberg was taken prisoner and immediately agreed to cooperate with the Soviets. After some time, the Germans heard his speech on the radio, in which he called on the German troops not to fight on the side of the "criminal regime", but to unite with the Russians and build a new, socialist life together. Soon Frankenberg became one of the founders of the National Committee of "Free Germany", as well as the "Association of German Officers". Later, both organizations played an important role in the establishment of the government of post-war East Germany.
Frankenberg returned to Germany in 1948 and until 1990 was active in politics as part of the Democratic Party of Germany.
Luftwaffe- a huge organization, including not only fighter pilots, but also mechanics, technicians, engineers, radio operators, signalmen and so on. In addition, anti-aircraft and landing troops also belonged to the Luftwaffe. This military organization included tens, hundreds of thousands of people. Here are only the most famous facts of the betrayal of the Germans, and how many of them there were in fact, it is now difficult to answer. The personal files of many German officers are kept in the archives of the Ministry of Defense and can certainly provide many more interesting materials about the Great Patriotic War.
Captured equipment in World War II was used everywhere. The entire propaganda machine of the Third Reich was broadcasting about the absolute superiority of German technology over the “crafts of the Eastern barbarians”, but Soviet self-loading rifles were widely used in the Wehrmacht, captured guns, tanks and aircraft were adopted. The "barbarians" themselves also often used the weapons of the enemy. In daring raids, "Tigers" and "Panthers" were captured, abandoned armored personnel carriers were repaired, pistols were especially popular. Naturally, the silhouette of an allied trophy could easily be confused with the enemy, but the application of standard identification marks was usually enough. Imagine the surprise of the Luftwaffe aces when they encountered German aircraft with red crosses on their wings. The first mention of strange "colleagues" refers to the beginning of 1945. In the sky over Riga, German pilots noticed the familiar Go.145 and Fw44 aircraft. On their wings one could see the usual Balkenkreuz (Balkan crosses), but only in red, and the fuselages were decorated with stars.
In February, Red Cross pilots switch to more serious cars and in the sky over German cities they increasingly begin to notice the Fw190 and Bf109. It was noted that at first these unusual planes were quite peaceful and limited themselves to scattering leaflets. However, in March there are so many of them that the German command proposes to amend the identification marks of the Luftwaffe, and the Wehrmacht pilots begin to engage in battle with them. In response, the mysterious pilots go on a free hunt and begin to attack the gaping Germans everywhere. Pilots report sudden attacks from their own. Some of the attackers were decorated with red crosses, while others had no identification marks at all.
The only possible explanation was the so-called Seydlitz-Armee. In 1943, units of the Red Army crushed the last pockets of resistance in the army of Field Marshal Paulus. A huge number of both ordinary soldiers and officers were captured. Among them were those who went to war under duress or simply realized the whole pointlessness of their Fuhrer's adventure. The latter included the famous German General Walter von Seydlitz-Kurzbach.
During the war, he proved himself to be a talented general, and when the 6th Army of Paulus was surrounded at Stalingrad, the general developed a plan to break through the ring and rescue the remaining German soldiers. But none of his colleagues, including Paulus, supported his proposal, citing Hitler's insane order to wait for rescue. It was at that moment that Seidlitz realized that he was not fighting for Germany and the people, but for the Fuhrer. After that, he ordered all his soldiers and officers to lay down their arms.
Having been captured, the general made contact with the Soviet command and proposed the creation of a Union of German officers, which included his like-minded people. Back in 1943, Seydlitz proposed creating special battalions from captured German soldiers, which he would lead to liberate his homeland from the tyrant. Naturally, in the USSR such a proposal was appreciated, but it was too dangerous to agree to it. Instead, he was offered to do campaign work.
But Seidlitz's stubbornness knew no bounds, and his idea at the end of the war was nevertheless put into practice - German soldiers also went to liberate Germany from Hitler. They were dressed in the usual German uniform, but with the flags of the Weimar Republic tied on their sleeves. Well, the pilots-Zeydlivtsy went into battle on the usual machines. They were regarded as German soldiers, so they went into battle with German symbols, awards and insignia.
Data on the exact size of Seydlitz's army has not been preserved. It is not known how many soldiers went into battle and how many pilots fought for the skies of Berlin. Data on the "Stalin's Falcons" Seydlitz survived only in the reports of the Luftwaffe pilots.
winged heroes
Against the backdrop of the ongoing dirty and vicious slander of our history, the West continues to talk about the "successes" of the aviation of the countries of the fascist bloc during the Great Patriotic War.
How were things really? Let's try to figure it out.
Lies keep flowing...
70 years have passed since the end of the most terrible war in the history of mankind - the Great Patriotic War, in which the USSR not only defended its independence, but also crushed fascism, the forces of evil. At the same time, the Soviet Air Force made a huge contribution to the Victory over the enemy.
The West continues to promote the theme of the results of the Second World War in a way that is beneficial to itself, trying to present itself as the "savior of the world" from fascism. But the fact that Western politicians, trampling all ethical norms, extol the role of their armies and keep silent about the role of Soviet soldiers - this goes beyond all the boundaries of good and evil.
At the same time, the slander is still tenacious that the aviation of the countries of the Nazi bloc allegedly had an overwhelming advantage on the Soviet-German front. And in this article we will talk about debunking one of the persistent myths of the Second World War - the myth of the so-called "total superiority" of German pilots over their opponents.
Western "historians", not embarrassed by falsifications and distortion of facts, assert the superiority of fascist pilots in skill. True, in this case it is not clear why only Soviet pilots bombed Berlin before 1943. However, the “allies” themselves were not too famous in the sky. So, the English pilot, Colonel D. Johnson, chalked up only 38 victories.
Most of the so-called foreign "historians" willingly agree with the archival data of the German General Staff. In addition, in addition, they put an equal sign between decommissioned Soviet aircraft and those destroyed by the enemy. During the war, the irretrievable combat losses of the Red Army Air Force amounted to less than 24,000 aircraft. Of these, only 12,500 were shot down in air battles, 8,500 were destroyed by anti-aircraft artillery fire, 2,500 were destroyed at airfields (1,885 of them in 1941), which corresponds to the reports of the Soviet General Staff.
It should also be noted that of the 9200 Soviet aircraft that were concentrated in the border districts on the eve of the war, only 1540 were modern against 4300 German ones. The rest were waiting for replacement as obsolete. But many of them still took to the air and beat the enemy!
Paper "aces" of Hitler and Stalin's falcons of the USSR
In July 1941 Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force of Nazi Germany G. Goering reported to Hitler about the alleged complete destruction of the combat aviation of the Soviet Union. However, on June 22 alone, the Luftwaffe lost more than 200 vehicles. Oil fields in Ploiesti (Romania) were bombed by Soviet aircraft from June 23. On August 7, the bombing of Berlin began. Hitler refused to believe that these were the results of retaliatory raids by Soviet pilots. Already by 1944, the Luftwaffe was losing an average of 300 aircraft per week against 25 Soviet ones, and by the last military winter, they rarely appeared in the sky at all.
How did it happen that they still trust the German data in "43 thousand victories on the Eastern Front"? In the West, they believe that the Germans were very pedantic and it is simply impossible not to believe them. Their planes were equipped with photo-machine guns, which recorded dogfights. In order for the Luftwaffe pilot to be credited with victory, this had to be confirmed either by ground troops or comrades on the flight. In addition, it was necessary to fill out a questionnaire of 21 items. Don't complain!
In the meantime, a nasty story has been made public. A 17-minute air battle was recorded over Lake Ladoga on November 6, 1943. German pilot Erich Rudorffer(a total of 222 "downed") stated that he alone destroyed, neither more nor less, 13 Soviet aircraft. When asked who can confirm this, he, without thinking twice, replied: “How do I know? Search at the bottom of the lake
. Victory, of course, counted.
This is not the only case. For example, Erich Hartmann, after one of the sorties, filled out questionnaires for three Soviet Il-2 attack aircraft. Everything would be fine, but the gunsmiths noticed that the German spent only 120 shells on this. And this is for three "flying tanks", as our attack aircraft were called? It was clear to everyone that this was a real lie. Thus, the Nazis were engaged in banal postscripts, exaggerating the losses of the Soviet Air Force and downplaying their own.
In the Soviet air regiments, until December 1941, individual counts were not carried out, since photo machine guns were only on Lend-Lease vehicles. And it was very difficult to confirm the victory before 1943. For example, only evidence from ground forces was taken into account.
A.I. Pokryshkin
Enthusiasts from Novosibirsk University have made an alternative calculation of the victories of the legendary ace Alexander Pokryshkin. It turned out that he destroyed 116 enemy aircraft.
And this, by the way, became known not from the pilot, or the Ministry of Defense, but from historians.
The Germans were so afraid of Pokryshkin's car with tail number 100 that they did not even try to engage him in battle.
Another famous Soviet ace, Ivan Kozhedub, shot down 102 German aircraft, plus 5 American ones. Total - 107 cars.
Ivan Fedorov, who began his combat career in the skies of Spain, shot down 96 enemy vehicles during the war years. In 1941-1945. 57,000 German aircraft were destroyed by the Soviet Air Force, Navy aviation, and air defense fighter aircraft in the air and at airfields. The total losses of the enemy on the Soviet-German front amounted to 77 thousand aircraft, and on the other fronts - almost two and a half times less. Consequently, enemy aviation was defeated mainly on the Soviet-German front.
By the way, the vaunted aces of the Luftwaffe were well aware of the existence of elite flight formations in the Red Army and their bases. However, the Nazis never attacked them, preferring not to deal with the guards. But the Soviet aces were looking for a more serious enemy.
For example, in the summer of 1944, a squadron of Major Wilch (130 “downed”) appeared in the zone of responsibility of the 3rd Baltic Front. Volunteers were gathered there, who greatly annoyed the Soviet units. The Kozhedub regiment dispersed them within a week with a loss ratio of 6:1 in their favor. Vilkh himself died from the well-aimed turn of Kozhedub.
Our pilots, when the ammunition ran out, went to ram. And the Germans, at the sight of superior enemy forces, abandoned serviceable vehicles with full ammunition and jumped with a parachute. The same Rudorffer was even called a “parachutist” in the Luftwaffe - he jumped 18 times, and not always from a burning fighter.
When the Nazis rushed to Moscow and Leningrad, Soviet pilots took to the air, on whatever they had to, even on decommissioned I-15s, and thwarted the bombing of the most important objects at the cost of their own lives. When the Red Army approached the borders of Germany, German fighters deliberately broke the landing gear of the latest Me-262 jets during landing so as not to fly. Because the Nazis knew that almost all the "victories" of Hartmann and other pilots were pure lies.
The conclusion suggests itself that Soviet aviation fully ensured the success of our ground operations, and here it is appropriate to quote the words of the ardent enemy of the USSR, W. Churchill: "We owe very much to little." Hitler's pilot Gerhard Barkhorn said: "... it must be admitted that the Russian pilots were much better than the pilots of other European countries with whom we had to fight".
V.I.Popkov
And here is what the famous Soviet ace, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Vitaly Popkov recalled: “... with ace Graf, who shot down more than five planes near Stalingrad - he himself was shot down there - we talked in a train compartment when we were going to Volgograd.
And in that compartment, we at the same time checked the number of planes shot down by the German pilot according to the "Hamburg account". There were 47 of them, not 220…”.
Indeed, feats Boris Safonov and Grigory Rechkalov, Alexandra Efimova and Pavel Kamozin, Yuri Gorokhov and Fyodor Archipenko, Vitaly Popkova, as well as many other winged Heroes brought OUR VICTORY SUFFERED closer!
And what are the victories of the Hero of the Soviet Union worth Evgenia Azarova! The whole uniqueness of the situation was that in 1943, due to poor eyesight, the pilot was almost written off from flight work. He was convinced that he could no longer fly. To all the arguments, he answered as follows: “I ask you to leave me at the front until the end of the war. I won't let you down, I give you my word"
. His wingman Andrei Gromov also asked to leave the commander, promising to watch vigilantly for two. And Azarov was left in the regiment. The pilots kept their word - on the personal account of each, the number of downed enemy aircraft grew.
The West spares no expense to create a bad opinion among the townsfolk about our country in general, and about aviation in particular. So, probably everyone heard about the air battle for England. Thousands of publications have been devoted to her, many documentaries and feature films have been shot; very little is said about the exploits of our pilots ...
Such concealment of facts, such vile lies have their own insidious purpose - so that our descendants do not have pride in their Soviet country, which saved the world from the fascist plague. And to the Soviet pilots who showed examples of heroism, patriotism, valor - ETERNAL GLORY TO THEM!
Against the background of numerous publications of domestic researchers about the Eastern troops in 1941-1945. a number of plots related to the history of the combat use of Russian volunteers in the German Air Force (Luftwaffe, hereinafter in the text of the article - LW) remain little known. One of the first eastern volunteer units in LW was a technical company (about 200 people) in the airfield maintenance battalion in Smolensk, formed in the spring of 1942. The company consisted of technical specialists who were used for auxiliary work. In 1942, other similar units arose - the Caucasian field battalion under the 4th Air Force, the propagandist company under the 6th Air Force, etc.
Probably, the first attempt to form a Russian flying unit can be associated with the initiative taken in early August 1942 by a group of former commanders of the Red Army from the cadres of the Abwehrgroup - 203 - This division of the Abwehr, for the formation of which volunteers from the camps were involved prisoners of war, was in the village of Osintorf near Orsha and is better known as the Russian National People's Army (RNNA). One of the initiators of the creation of the flight unit at the RNNA was the captain of the Red Army Air Force F. I. Ripushinsky, the squadron commander of the 13th aviation regiment of high-speed bombers, who was shot down in an air battle in 1941 and entered the RNNA from a prisoner of war camp . In the 4th battalion of Colonel A. N. Vysotsky (Kobzev) there was a group of former pilots whom the commandant of the central headquarters, Colonel K. G. Kromiadi (Sanin) could not use in combat positions due to their peculiar service specialization. Major Filatov, one of Ripushinsky's associates, submitted to the chief of staff of the RNNA, Major V.F. Ril and Colonel K.G. Initially, it was planned to conduct theoretical classes with specialists, and in the future - to ask the headquarters of the Army Group Center in Smolensk to transfer the trophy materiel to the detachment. Despite Riel's skepticism, Kromiadi supported the pilots and gave permission for the formation of a group under personal responsibility. The group included 9 pilots, 3 navigators, 4 gunner-radio operators, 6 engineers and technicians. Educational materials of the Mogilev flying club delivered to Osintorf were used as training aids.
On September 1, 1942, the former commander of the 41st Rifle Division, Colonel V.G. He tried to stop the unsanctioned rally, fearing that Ripushinsky and Filatov's arbitrariness might damage the brigade as a whole. However, a number of other senior officers of the RNNA (A. N. Vysotsky, majors of the Red Army A. L. Bezrodny, A. M. Bocharov (Bugrov), N. P. Nikolaev) convinced Boyarsky not to touch the air group. In early September 1942, classes began on the theory of aviation and flight, navigation, meteorology, the study of materiel, etc. The group continued to exist informally until February 1943, when the Osintorf brigade was finally liquidated from its subsequent reorganization into the 700th Eastern Volunteer Regiment.
The issue of creating an active front-line flight unit, due to the specific conditions for its recruitment and existence, could only be resolved with the active participation of the German side. Moreover, in the history of the Red Army Air Force there were airmen - a phenomenon unprecedented for the traditions of Russian aviation. Flights from the USSR abroad for political reasons
happened in the 1920s and 1930s. On February 1, 1927, the commander of the 17th air squadron Klim, a former ensign of the Russian army, and the senior mechanic Timashchuk flew to Poland in the same plane. True, the latter appeared on February 22 at the Soviet embassy and returned to his homeland, where on May 8 he was sentenced to death, but, given the "sincere repentance", the court commuted the sentence to 6 years in the camps. The further fate of the minder is unknown. Klim received a residence permit in Poland in the name of Rubletsky and then served as a referent for the Polish press. In 1934, G. N. Kravets flew to the territory of the Republic of Latvia from the LenVO, in 1938, on a U-2 plane, to the territory of the Republic of Lithuania, the head of the Luga flying club, senior lieutenant V. O. Unishevsky. By 1943, according to I. Hoffmann, 66 aircraft of the Red Army Air Force flew to the side of the enemy on the Soviet-German front, and in the first quarter of 1944 another 20 were added. Among the "air defectors" 1941-1943. we will name Captain V.K. Rublevik, who flew to the Germans on the LAGG-3, Lieutenant O. Sokolov, who flew on the MiG-3, Senior Lieutenant V.V. Shiyan and others. Shiyan in 1941 - 1943 participated on the Eastern Front in combat operations as part of a special group of four aircraft. According to the newspaper "Voice of Crimea" (Simferopol), on May 10, 1943, a Yak-7 fighter landed in the Pskov region, in which there were two pilots (senior lieutenant Boris A., born in 1915 and Peter F. ), allegedly flying over under the influence of Vlasov leaflets. This episode still needs to be clarified.
The initiative to create an aviation unit from captured Soviet pilots and airmen belonged to the head of the Vostok (Auswertestelle Ost) intelligence processing center of the OKL (Oberkommando der Luftwaffe) headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel G. Holters. Holters took part in the interrogations of downed Soviet pilots and high-ranking prisoners of war from the summer of 1941. On July 18, 1941, he interrogated Senior Lieutenant Ya. I. Dzhugashvili. Probably, he was prompted by the analysis of the materials of interrogations and conversations, in which various manifestations of dissatisfaction with the Soviet socio-political system were recorded, to the idea of the combat use of part of the prisoner-of-war pilots. The range of tasks solved by AWSt. / Ost included interviews of captured pilots, prompt processing of the information received, as well as an analysis of the political and moral state of the respondents. Among the active employees of AWSt. / Ost, it is worth mentioning Lieutenants LW O. Geller and A A Jodl, Professor Bader, as well as regular commanders of the Red Army, the hero of the Chelyuskin epic, the commander of the 503rd assault aviation regiment, Lieutenant Colonel B. A. Pivenshtein, captains K Arzamastsev, A. Nikulin and Tananaki. Functioned AWSt. / Ost in East Prussia in the village of Moritzfelde near Insterburg. In September 1943, Holters proposed the creation of a Russian aviation group (Russisches Fleigergruppe, hereinafter - RAG), later known as the "Holters group". Having received permission, at the end of September-September 1943, Holters began to implement his plan. Colonel V. I. Maltsev of the Red Army Air Force became his first indispensable assistant and Russian leader of the action.
Viktor Ivanovich Maltsev was born on April 13/25, 1895 in Gus-Khrustalny, Vladimir province, into a peasant family. Maltsev joined the Red Army voluntarily and in 1919 graduated from the Yegoryevsk flight school, becoming one of the first military pilots of the RKKVF. During the Civil War he was wounded. At the Yegorievsk school in 1922-1923. he was the instructor of V.P. Chkalov. In 1925-1927. Maltsev served as head of the Moscow Central Airfield, and from February 1927 he served in the Air Force Directorate of the Siberian Military District (SibVO). In 1931, Maltsev became the head of the Air Force of the Siberian Military District, and was later transferred to the reserve. By order of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 1916 of November 26, 1936, he was awarded the military rank of aviation colonel. In 1937, Maltsev headed the Turkmen Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet of the USSR. In the winter of 1938, Maltsev was presented for the award of the Order of Lenin for the leadership and development of civil aviation in the Turkmen SSR, but the colonel did not manage to receive the order. On March 11, 1938, he was arrested by the NKVD on charges of participating in a "military fascist conspiracy" and on March 27 he was dismissed from the ranks of the Red Army Air Force. Under investigation, Maltsev was kept in the Ashgabat UNKVD, where he was subjected to constant beatings, interrogations in the form of a "conveyor" and other tortures, but he did not sign any "confessions" fabricated by the investigators and courageously endured the features of the Stalinist "criminal trial". ". This circumstance saved his life on the eve of Beriev's short-term "liberalization" of 1939. On September 5, 1939, Maltsev was released, then reinstated in rank, and in July 1940 - in the ranks of the CPSU (b). The party membership of the pilot was subjected to various tests during his service in the army. Maltsev joined the Communist Party during the Civil War in 1919, but in 1921 he was expelled from the party on suspicion of being related to Maltsev, a large millionaire factory owner in the Vladimir province. In 1925, Maltsev was reinstated in the RCP(b) and expelled a second time after the arrest of the NKVD 13 years later.
The release and rehabilitation did not bring satisfaction to Maltsev, he was suspended from flying and in fact deprived of the right to return to service in military aviation.
On December 1, 1939, Maltsev took a quiet and inconspicuous position as head of the Aeroflot sanatorium in the resort of Yalta. Here he met his future wife Antonina Mikhailovna. In fact, Maltsev was given the opportunity to improve his health and recuperate after the torture in the Ashgabat UNKVD, but by that time, a fierce rejection of the socio-economic system that had developed in the country, bordering on hatred, was firmly rooted in the mind of the pilot. As he himself later wrote: “The best ideals turned out to be spat upon. But the most bitter was the realization that all my life I had been a blind instrument of Stalin's political adventures. During an interrogation on February 1, 1946, an investigator from the SMERSH Main Directorate of Counterintelligence, Maltsev, sharply stated that his arrival with the Germans was due to "his anti-Soviet convictions, in order to fight against the Soviet regime together with them."
After the German attack on the Soviet Union, Mal-tsev did not hesitate for long. On October 28, 1941, three divisions of the LIV Army Corps of the 11th Army of the Wehrmacht broke into the Crimea. Having taken refuge from the hasty evacuation of Yalta, on the very first day of the occupation on November 8, 1941, V. I. Maltsev, in the form of a colonel of the Red Army Air Force, appeared at the German commandant's office, explained the reasons for his action and immediately proposed the creation of an anti-Stalinist volunteer battalion. It is curious that until May 1943, the heads of the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet of the USSR were sure that Maltsev "according to verified information" was in one of the partisan detachments of the Crimea, occupying a "leading position" in it. However, on June 14, 1943, the secretary of the Crimean Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Leshchiner, reported that the head of the Yalta sanatorium of Aeroflot was not on the lists of Crimean partisans, but died during the evacuation from Yalta in November 1941. on the ship "Armenia", which sank after the bombing. Why the Crimean communists misled Moscow, knowing for sure about Maltsev's open anti-Soviet activities, remains unclear.
The first meeting with potential "allies" turned out to be completely unexpected for Maltsev - from the commandant's office he went ... to a prisoner of war camp, where he spent several days. In mid-November 1941, Maltsev met with SS Hauptsturmführer Heinz, who offered him to work on identifying Soviet party activists in Yalta, but the dubious proposal was resolutely refused - Maltsev referred to "ignorance of the residents." He did not receive a clear answer to his repeated proposals for the creation of a volunteer battalion. He was released from captivity. From December 1941 to June 1942, at the suggestion of the propaganda department of the headquarters of the 11th Army of the Wehrmacht, Maltsev wrote memoirs in Yalta about his experiences in 1938-1939. in the dungeons of the Ashgabat NKVD. In June 1942, the manuscript was handed over in Simferopol to Dr. Maurakh, the head of the propaganda department, and a month later it was published in an edition of 50,000 copies under the catchy title "Conveyor of the GPU." In Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian, the book was distributed in the occupied territories and had some success. March 9, 1942
V. I. Maltsev took over the affairs of the Yalta city administration and for two months served as the mayor of the city, organizing the daily life of Yalta and the work of public services. Colonel Kump, the military commandant of Yalta, removed Maltsev from the post of burgomaster, motivating his decision by the party past of the burgomaster - even former communists, according to Kump, could not occupy such a responsible post. Since October 1942, Maltsev was the Yalta magistrate, often spoke with propaganda anti-Stalinist speeches at meetings of the local intelligentsia in Evpatoria, Simferopol, Yalta.
The decisive turning point in the fate of Maltsev came in the spring of 1943 in connection with the distribution in the occupied territories of an open letter from the former deputy commander of the Volkhov Front and commander of the 2nd Shock Army, Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov “Why did I stand on way to fight Bolshevism. On March 18, 1943, this letter was published by the newspaper of the Simferopol city self-government “Voice of Crimea”, and it aroused certain hopes among that part of the Crimean intelligentsia that collaborated to one degree or another with the occupation authorities. The publication of the letter was perceived as a long-awaited step in the creation of a Russian military-political center. On May 28, 1943, Maltsev wrote a response to Vlasov's letter of appeal, published by Golos Krym on June 4. In his letter, Maltsev wrote in particular: “Prison forged me too. Sitting in it, I observed a lot, changed my mind and experienced all the delights of the “Stalinist” care of the people [..] It became clear to everyone that along with the tormented bodies their souls were trampled ... The result of all this revaluation, a firm decision was born to fight against this system of deceit and lies.
Throughout the spring of 1943, Maltsev persistently tried to achieve a transfer to the "Vlasov army", but even the headquarters of the eastern volunteer units of the 11th Wehrmacht Army in Simferopol could not tell her whereabouts. At the end of June 1943, at the suggestion of the headquarters, Maltsev began in Evpatoria to form the 55th volunteer battalion to fight partisans, numbering about 500 ranks. In August 1943, the formation of the battalion was completed, for the efforts made, Maltsev was awarded bronze and silver medals for the Eastern peoples. The battalion’s belonging to the Eastern troops of the Wehrmacht or national formations needs to be clarified, but at least the “Voice of Crimea” wrote that the battalion formed in Evpatoria, in which a large anti-Soviet rally took place on August 15, belonged to the ROA (that is, to the Eastern troops of the Wehrmacht).
Continuing to seek transfer to the disposal of Vlasov, Maltsev arrived on August 20 at a special interrogation camp of the Eastern troops in Letzen. Soon, the General of the Volunteer Forces, Lieutenant-General X. Gelmikh, met with him here, who later recommended Maltsev and Holters to each other. In mid-September 1943, Maltsev personally met Lieutenant Colonel G. Holters and his adjutant A. A. Iodl. In the end, Holters fully provided Maltsev with the selection of technical and flight personnel for the I eastern LW squadron, and Maltsev agreed to participate in the creation of the squadron, hoping that in due time it would serve as the basis for the deployment of the ROA Air Force. Lieutenant of the ROA Mikhail Vasilievich Garnovsky, the son of a colonel in the Russian army, who participated in the White movement in the South of Russia, became his closest assistant. In October 1943, Mal-tsev, accompanied by Jodl, visited a number of prisoner-of-war camps run by the OKL: in Lodz, Wolfen, Hammelburg and Haseltal. For volunteers recruited into the RAG, Holters created a special "quarantine" camp in Suwalki, where pilots, flight engineers and technicians were sent. Here they underwent a medical examination, many hours of interviews and psychological tests, Maltsev spoke with each individually. Those who passed the selection were transferred to Moritzfeld, where the RAG was directly located.
Formally, the group arose at the end of September 1943 and was staffed by fifteen volunteer pilots who were in the ROA. Among the pilots was Senior Lieutenant Bronislav Romanovich Antilevsky, holder of the Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union. Antilevsky was born in 1916 in the village of Markovtsy, Ozersk district, and came from peasants in the Kovno province. After graduating from the Technical School of Economic Accounting on October 3, 1937, he entered the service in the Red Army. He graduated from the Monino School of Special Purpose Aviation in 1938, and participated in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940. and April 7, 1940 was awarded the Order of Lenin with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1941, Antilevsky graduated from the Kachinsky Red Banner Military Aviation School. A. Myasnikov and from April 1942 he participated in the hostilities on the Western Front. In 1943, with the rank of senior lieutenant, he served as deputy commander of the squadron squadron of the 20th Fighter Regiment of the 303rd Fighter Aviation Division of the 1st Air Army. On August 28, 1943, Antilevsky was shot down in an air battle and taken prisoner, soon becoming acquainted with Maltsev, who made a strong impression with his inner conviction and energy. At the end of 1943, under the direct influence of Maltsev, Antilevsky became not only a RAG pilot, but also one of the specialists in anti-Stalinist propaganda in prisoner of war camps. The ranks of the RAG participated in the transfer of Luftwaffe aircraft from military factories to the airfields of the Eastern Front, studied the material part of German aviation. In particular, Antilevsky in March 1944 underwent retraining near Berlin on German fighters.
In total, until May 1944, three groups for aircraft ferrying functioned as part of the RAG, two of which included 10 pilots each, and one 8. By the end of November 1943, M.V. captain of the ROA, completed the recruitment of personnel, and on December 3, 1943, the I Eastern Aviation Squadron LW completed its formation. All the volunteers selected by Tarnovsky were members of the RAG. Under the command of Tarnovsky, the squadron flew out of Moritzfelde and relocated to the Dvinsk region, where from January 1944 it was part of the Ostland night battle group (11th Estonian wing: 3 squadrons, 12th Latvian wing: 2 squadrons) at the 1st Air Fleet LW, and in March 1944 it became subordinate to the headquarters of the 6th Air Fleet in the Lida region. Es-quadrilla was initially equipped with 9 captured U-2, Gota-145 and Ar-66 aircraft, and later, after losses and replenishments, there were 12 aircraft in it. At the beginning of the summer of 1944, the Russian flight and technical staff consisted of 79 ranks, including 14 pilots and navigators, 6 gunners.
Until July 1944, the pilots of the squadron took part in aerial photography of the area, reconnaissance flights, detection and air attacks on partisan camps, destruction of partisan bases and individual objects from the air in the Dvinsk region, in Nalibokskaya Pushcha, south of Molodechno, on the river. Neman between Lida and Minsk. Combat missions were assigned by anti-partisan officers at the headquarters of the 1st and 6th LW fleets, as well as by the Dvinsk field commandant's office. The combat use of the squadron th - to a large extent justified itself. In total, before disbanding in the summer of 1944, the ranks of the squadron made at least 500 sorties, each of them had an average of 35 to 50 sorties. According to Tarnovsky, as a result of intensive operations of the 1st LW eastern squadron, “the partisans had to make considerable room » . The irretrievable losses of the squadron during the period of stay at the front from December 1943 to July 1944 amounted to 3 aircraft, 9 pilots, navigators and gunners, and 12 squadron officers were injured.
Several reasons led to the disbandment of the squadron in late July - early August 1944. From the spring of 1944, Captain Tarnovsky more and more sharply conflicted with the LW liaison officer at the squadron, Ober-Lieutenant V. Duus, regarding the open sabotage by the military-political circles of Germany of the full-fledged deployment of the Vlasov army and the Russian political center, as well as disastrous consequences of the eastern occupation policy. Tarnovsky's membership in the NTS also played a negative role. Despite the fact that Tarnovsky did not conduct any allied propaganda among his subordinates, membership in the Union sufficiently compromised him before the Germans. By the summer of 1944, the NTS had finally lost political support and cover from the members of the anti-Hitler opposition, and the Gestapo and the SD were preparing repressive actions against members of the NTS. As a result, in June 1944, Captain M. V. Tarnovsky was removed from his post and sent on vacation to Pilsen (Czech Republic). The command was temporarily taken over by Lieutenant V.V. Shiyan. Tarnovsky's vacation expired on July 20, 1944, but instead of returning to the squadron, he was sent to Moritzfeld, where he began to develop the staff of a new Russian aviation reserve training group. On July 28, 1944, an associate of Tarnovsky, the squadron chief of staff, captain V.O. Unishevsky, died in a plane crash. Among some ranks of the squadron, suspicions arose of involvement in the catastrophe of the Germans, and after the death of Unishevsky, three of the 12 crews flew over to the side of the partisans. This incident led to the disbandment of the I Air Squadron LW, whose ranks were interned in Ciechanów, north of Warsaw.
Materials for the staffing of the 1st LW Eastern Squadron in the VI Air Fleet (as of May 1944)
Squadron commander: Captain Mikhail Vasilyevich Tarnovsky.
Chief of Staff: Captain Vladimir Osipovich (Joseph-vich-?) Unishevsky.
Communications Officer LW: Lieutenant Vikand Duus.
Deputy squadron commander: lieutenant Vasily Vasilyevich Shiyan.
Deputy Chief of Staff: Lieutenant Petr Ivanovich Pesigolovets.
Pilots: Captain Vladimir Kirillovich Rublevik;
lieutenants - Vladimir Moskalets, Panteleimon Vladimirovich Chkauseli;
second lieutenants - Aram Sergeevich Karapetyan, Alexander Nikolaevich Skobchenko, Alexander Mikhailovich Solovyov, Viktor Ivanovich Cherepanov.
Navigators: second lieutenants - Yuri Gorsky, Konstantin Konstantinovich Mishin, Nikolai Kirillovich Nazarenko, Vladimir Strokun.
Side shooters: non-commissioned officers Mikhail Ivanovich Grishaev, Vasily Zubarev, Konstantin Sorokin;
Art. sergeant major Ivan Ivanovich Nikonorov;
sergeant majors - Dmitry Kuznetsov, Alexey Chuyanov.
Squadron Engineer: Lieutenant Pyotr Nikolaevich Shendrik.
Squadron Technician: Lieutenant Vasily Ivanovich Trunov.
Unit technicians: sergeant majors Mikhail Mikhailovich Baranov, Alexander Razumov, Pyotr Rodionov.
Mechanics units: non-commissioned officers - Alexander Donetsk, Nikolai Masalsky, Vladimir Sereda;
sergeant majors - Viktor Krakhin, Vladimir Laptev.
Squadron gunsmith: non-commissioned officer Nikolai Mukhin.
Parachute stacker: Art. sergeant major Dmitry Shevchuk.
Colonel V. I. Maltsev in the first half of 1944 spent most of his time in Moritzfeld in the RAG camp. He formed 3 groups to ferry aircraft from factories to front-line airfields, he prepared a number of propaganda speeches and statements, recruited pilots for prisoners of war in the camps of Südauen-Süd (Poland) and Gross Mariengof (Germany). A specialist in the history of military aviation during the Second World War, Dr. Karl Geust (Helsinki), informed the author that German documents confirm the service of 20-25 former Soviet pilots in the unit (squadron-league?) 3. Staffel / Gruppe Ziid des Flugzeuguberfuhrungs- geschwaders 1 as of May 1944. The duties of the military included ferrying Bf 109 (Me 109) fighters from factories to LW front-line airfields. There are known cases of disasters in which former Soviet pilots died while performing official tasks. It is possible that we can also talk about the death of a pilot as a result of air battles, this is especially likely in the last two cases.
List of former Soviet pilots who died on duty in the Luftwaffe
- Lieutenant Alexei Chasovnikov from Novosibirsk - September 3, 1944 near Arber;
- Petty officer (in 1944 - lieutenant of the ROA?) Ilya Filippovich Savkin, who was born in 1918 in Smolensk, served in the 1st squadron of the 691st fighter regiment, flew on the I-16 fighter on January 24, 1942 (or 1940?) on the side of the Finns in the Olonets direction and
- Lieutenant Kirill Karelin from Moscow - September 11, 1944, in Hungary;
In total, Maltsev recruited 33 pilots in the RAG in the first half of 1944. One of his undoubted achievements was the recruitment of the second Hero of the Soviet Union - Captain S. T. Bychkov. Semyon Trofimovich Bychkov was born in 1918 in the village of Petrovka, Khokholsky district, came from peasants in the Voronezh province. In the summer of 1934, the future pilot worked as a horse-racer at the Bokcheev mine in the Voronezh region, and in 1934-1935. - a spillway operator at the Strelica mine. In 1936 he graduated from the seven-year plan and the Voronezh flying club, until June 1938 he worked in the flying club as an instructor and glider pilot. In 1936-1941. was a member of the Komsomol, and since 1943 - a candidate member of the CPSU (b). In September 1938 he graduated from the Tambov School of the Civil Air Fleet and then worked as a flight pilot at the Voronezh airport. Bychkov joined the Red Army on January 16, 1939, and in the same year he graduated from the Borisoglebsk Aviation School. V.P. Chkalov, and in June 1941 - courses for fighter pilots of the Konotop military school. With the outbreak of war, Bychkov served as a pilot in the 42nd and 287th Fighter Aviation Regiments. In 1942, Lieutenant Bychkov was sentenced to 5 years in labor camps for an airplane accident, but then the conviction was expunged. Before being captured, Bychkov made 130 successful sorties, participated in 60 air battles. Participating in the battles near Bryansk, Moscow and Stalingrad, he shot down 13 enemy aircraft, including 5 bombers, 7 fighters and a transport. In 1943, with the rank of captain, Bychkov took the post of deputy commander of the 482nd Fighter Regiment of the 322nd Fighter Aviation Division. The merits of Bychkov were marked by two Orders of the Red Banner.
His friend and immediate superior, Major A. I. Koltsov, soon filed an idea for a brave fighter, in which, in particular, he indicated: “Participating in fierce air battles with superior enemy aircraft from July 12 to August 10, 1943. proved to be an excellent fighter pilot, whose courage is combined with great skill. He enters the battle boldly and decisively, conducts it at a great pace, imposes his will on the enemy, using his weak sides. The pilots of the regiment, brought up by his daily painstaking study, personal example and display, made 667 successful sorties, shot down 69 enemy aircraft, and there were never cases of forced landings and loss of orientation. [...] In the last operation, from July 12 to August 10, 1943, he shot down 3 enemy aircraft. July 14, 1943 in a group of 6La-5 in a battle against 10 Yu-87, Yu-88, 6 FV-190 personally shot down Yu-87, which fell in the Rechitsa area. [...] For the courage and heroism shown in the battles with the German invaders, and shot down personally 15 and in group 1 enemy aircraft, I present to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The authorities supported the idea, especially since a similar idea was filed against Koltsov. "For the exemplary performance of the combat missions of the command and the courage and heroism shown at the same time," by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 2, 1943, Bychkov and Koltsov were awarded the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. On December 10 (according to other sources, 11) December 1943, Bychkov's La-5 was shot down in the Orsha area by anti-aircraft artillery fire, and the wounded pilot, having made an emergency landing on a swamp, was captured. Soon he was transferred to Moritzfeld. Bychkov joined the RAG in February 1944 under the influence of Maltsev and, to an even greater extent, under the influence of BR Antilevsky. Later, during an interrogation at the SMERSH Main Directorate of Counterintelligence on March 8, 1946, in an effort to alleviate his own unenviable fate, Bychkov told the investigators that Anti-Levy with his assistant Varaksin, whose name never appeared anywhere else, beat him in Moritzfelde, forcing him to join the Maltsev group. True, even during interrogation by SMERSH investigators, Bychkov confirmed that Maltsev “sharply expressed his hostile attitude towards the Soviet authorities, towards the leaders of the party and the Soviet government,” and then tried to “discredit the anti-Soviet slander in in my eyes the policy of the Soviet government.
In our opinion, in fact, Bychkov was not beaten by anyone - such methods in the winter of 1944 could not seriously affect a person who had constantly looked death in the face for more than two years. Most likely, Colonel Maltsev "slandered" too convincingly. Or maybe Bychkov's confidence in the "leaders of the party" has been vacillating for a long time, especially since the appearance of the "leaders" when seriously thinking about him made a terrible impression. The author's collection contains testimonies of people who knew both Antilevsky and Bychkov well. In particular, Lieutenant B. P. Plyushchov, Maltsev’s adjutant, in a conversation with the author, in response to a relevant question, laughed and categorically denied the version of the beatings, arguing that both “Vlasov” Heroes of the Soviet Union were distinguished ... by sincere friendship and sympathy for each other. It is worth considering that, having made dozens of sorties in 1944-1945, Bychkov repeatedly had the opportunity to fly to the Soviet side. Was it to force prisoners of war to join the air group with the help of beatings? No, it was only about persuasion and voluntary choice,” Plushov emphasized. Indeed, in April 1945, Lieutenant I. Stezhar, a former Soviet fighter pilot who served in the KONR Air Force, who joined the Vlasov army in the winter of 1945, flew during a training flight, according to one version - to the Soviet side, according to the other is on the side of the Americans. From February 1944, Bychkov became one of Maltsev's closest associates, together with Antilevsky spoke with feeling on the radio, in front of Ostarbeiters and prisoners of war. He shared the fate of almost all pilots of the KONR Air Force, forcibly repatriated by the Allies in 1945 to the USSR
A trusting relationship was established with Maltsev and with Colonel Alexander Fedorovich Vanyushin, a graduate of the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze and former shim and. commander of the Air Force of the 20th Army of the Western Front (1941), who later became his deputy and chief of staff of the Air Force KONR. Maltsev made a strong impression on the communications chief of the 205th Fighter Aviation Division of the 2nd Air Army, Major S. 3. Sitnik. The plane of Serafima Zakharovna Sitnik was shot down on October 29, 1943 by anti-aircraft artillery fire over the village of 5th Nikolaevka in the Kozelshchina region. She landed unsuccessfully with a parachute and was wounded and captured. After some stay in the field hospital, the female major was brought to Moritzfeld, where her five-year-old son and mother, who were presumed dead, were later taken from the occupied territory. This extraordinary circumstance led a female pilot, holder of the Orders of the Red Banner and the Patriotic War and senior, major of the Red Army Air Force to the future Vlasovites. However, due to the consequences of the injury, she was soon expelled from the RAG to one of the Eastern propaganda units. The further fate of S. 3. Sitnik was tragic - she became an accidental victim of a provocation by the SD and died at the end of 1944, which Maltsev learned about after the fact.
On February 20, 1944, in Berlin, Colonel V. I. Maltsev finally met Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov. The impression from each other remained more than favorable. From March 7 to March 14, General Vlasov visited Moritzfeld, accompanied by Captains V. K. Shtrik-Shtrikfeld and S. B. Froelich. According to Fröhlich, “Vlasov’s personal appearance caused a sensation,” Maltsev’s subordinates and Colonel Holters, who had been promoted by that time, were strongly impressed by the weekly communication with the former lieutenant general of the Red Army. Both Holters and Maltsev assured Vlasov of the prospect of deploying an aviation regiment of the ROA on the basis of the RAG.
At the same time, the failure of the anti-Hitler speech on July 20, 1944, the repressions of the Gestapo that followed it, and finally, the state of emergency in the 1st Eastern Squadron, already known to us, only increased the desire of certain people in the OKL headquarters to get rid of the Russian volunteer unit. A group of senior officers LW: the head of the 8th department of the OKL General Staff, Major General G. von Roden, the head of the OKL General Staff, Aviation General K. Koller, and others had every reason to fear that not authorized by the Reichsmarshal G. Goering, the action to create the RAG can create significant complications for them. The formal transfer of the RAG to the Eastern troops of the cavalry general E. A. Kestring would save the OKL from possible troubles. In order to maintain influence on the Holters-Maltsev group and to avoid excessive interference by Koestring in its specific problems, the post of inspector of foreign personnel LW was established at the headquarters of Koestring. The inspector was supposed to be in charge of foreign volunteers in LW and at the same time maintain contact with OKI. The further history of the RAG of Colonels G. Holters and V.I. personnel of LW "Vostok", as well as with the history of the creation and development of the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia in the last 6 months of the war.
Aleksandrov K.
From the book “Russian soldiers of the Wehrmacht. Heroes or traitors: Collection of articles and materials. — M.: 2005.
In 1945 - Major of the Air Force KONR, deputy commander of the 1st Aviation Regiment. See - Alexandrov K. M. Officer Corps of the Army of Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov, 1944-1945. SPb., 2001. S. 336.
Until recently, the participation of Soviet pilots on the side of Germany in the Great Patriotic War was classified information. All archives were classified, there was no public access to them. To date, this page of history has been very little studied, but some of the archival documents were nevertheless declassified.
Long before World War II was declared, some Soviet Air Force pilots used their own vehicles to escape abroad. So, the commander of the 17th air squadron, Klim, and the senior minder, Timashchuk, flew to Poland on the same plane. The pilot of the Civil Air Fleet G. N. Kravets flew to the territory of Latvia. For its own purposes, it was used by the sabotage and reconnaissance "Zeppelin Enterprise" as the head of the reconnaissance group. Their mission was to blow up infrastructure facilities in the Soviet rear - bridges on the railway across the Volga and Kama.
The powerful propaganda campaign carried out by the Germans pushed the Soviet pilots to fly. Leaflets, issued in large numbers, called for the transition to the side of "brothers in arms - the pilots of the Luftwaffe." Referring to the data of German military documents, 20 crews took advantage of the escape for the first time in 3 months of 1944. The first such case occurred during the bombing of Koenigsberg. The navigator jumped from the plane by means of a parachute from his "SB". In this situation, preference was given to desertion instead of returning to the same airfield. It was not possible to fight against flights, even despite the measures taken against covert desertion - a section of the order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR No. 229 of 1941. This trend continued until 1945. [С-BLOCK]
The first instance of the German Armed Forces, who submitted proposals to use Russian pilots from among prisoners of war, was the Abwehr. In 1942, a training air group as part of the RNNA began to operate, led by Major Filatov. It consisted of 22 people. But with a change in leadership, it was closed. The second successful attempt was realized in early October 1943 in the city of Letzen (East Prussia) on the initiative of V. I. Maltsev.
A significant role in the ranks of the Russian Liberation Movement belongs to Viktor Ivanovich Maltsev (05/25/1895-08/1/1946). In the Red Army, he held a number of command and staff positions. In November 1941, he voluntarily went over to the side of the Germans in order, in his words, "to fight against the Bolsheviks." In 1942, he took the post of burgomaster of Yalta in 1942, but stayed for a short time due to his earlier membership in the Communist Party. He worked as a justice of the peace and was engaged in the formation of anti-Soviet military formations. In 1943 he began to work on the creation of the Russian Eastern Aviation Group.
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Selected military aviators were sent to the air base in Suwalki, where they underwent a rigorous professional and medical selection. At the end of 1943, Russian pilots were sent to the Eastern Front, where they fought against their compatriots. The “Auxiliary night assault group Ostland” was created, which was equipped with U-2, I-15, I-153, and other obsolete aircraft. The pilots - “ostfliegers” included 2 Heroes of the Soviet Union: fighter captain S.T. Bychkov, senior lieutenant Antilevsky B.R. The squadron made 500 sorties, there is little data on the content of the tasks performed. Her work was highly appreciated by the German command, some of the flight personnel were awarded the Iron Crosses.
On the same topic:
"Ostfliegers": Soviet pilots who fought on the side of Hitler "Ostfliegers": how Soviet pilots fought for the Third Reich Which Soviet pilots fought on the side of Hitler “Whatever the Germans, it won’t get worse”: which Cossacks fought for Hitler
