Taran Pavel Andreevich. Strike aircraft

The names of the pilots who performed air rams are given in alphabetical order. The list is compiled on the basis of materials stored in the Archives of the USSR Ministry of Defense and the files of the Air Force Personnel Directorate. It does not include the names of flight crew members for whom precise data is not available. All data given is indicated in accordance with the text.

Eight years later, in the summer of 1981, the second ramming on a jet plane was carried out by captain, now major Valentin Kulyapin, destroying an aircraft of unknown origin that had invaded USSR airspace.
“I was in my third year at the Higher Military Flight School when I heard about Captain Eliseev’s ram,” says Valentin Aleksandrovich. “All of us, nineteen-year-olds, asked each other in those December days: “Could you do it?” I kept silent then - what's the point, being safe, talking about the feat? But I decided to myself: Eliseev left us, the young, a testament to learn the art of ramming on a jet. So once upon a time Nesterov, with his heroic death, conveyed to the Russian aviators a covenant to make the risky technique discovered by him a weapon in the war with the enemy, and more than 609 Soviet pilots- Nesterov’s heirs are counted today in the history of aviation. In the summer of 1981 I had a difficult situation...
Valentin's voice is quiet, not at all commanding, although he was for many years both the flight commander and the squadron commander's political officer. If you don’t listen to the essence of the words flowing from the tape, it seems that you are having a friendly, unhurried conversation, and not an interview with a brave man, a warrior, a hero of the ram. And one more thing about his voice. He is very similar to the well-known Gagarin to all of us. With his face and especially his smile, Valentin is also surprisingly similar to the first cosmonaut of the Earth, only his eyes are not blue, but blue-gray. Soft, kind.
...On that summer day in 1981, the weather was wonderful - a cloudless velvet sky, a shining ball of sun, a light refreshing breeze... It’s nice now at the sea, where Larisa and her children are now resting. I should be back in five days, Valentin just received a letter from them with little Pavlushka’s hand circled in pencil - look how she’s grown in a month!
Lunch time was approaching, and Valentin and his friends were going to dine. And suddenly the command was heard: - 733 - take off!
- Eh, you’ll have to fly on an empty stomach! - he jokingly said goodbye to his comrades.
“We’ll leave you a double portion,” they answered.
At supersonic speed, at an altitude of 11 thousand meters - into the square where the intruder was spotted.
...And Larisa and the kids are now very close, swimming and basking in the sun.
...Violator over our land. What are his goals? Reconnaissance, testing our strengths and capabilities, the power of our border?
- It was a four-engine plane with unknown identification marks, without portholes, means it’s not a passenger one! - Valentin says quietly. - He did not respond to requests from the “ground”, nor to signals. The excess speed really hampered me - the intruder plane was traveling at a speed of 400 kilometers per hour. I also had to switch to this meager speed, although at supersonic, with its small-area wings, flying at low speed is risky - the plane becomes poorly controlled and can fall into a tailspin. The intruder pilots understood this well; they knew that to attack I needed to move a great distance away from them. During this time, they can sneak abroad.
“Realizing the safety of their position, the intruders behaved fearlessly. Either they came at me with a large list, threatening to catch me with the propellers, or they rushed even further from the border line, as if they were mocking me - what can you do to us? But you can’t do anything.” !
And such evil took over me. What do they need from us? Our land is under our wings! My situation is difficult - keep an eye on the dangerous “game” of the intruder, watch his every maneuver, and look at the speed indicator of your fighter - so as not to show an even lower speed, and also figure out what can still be done to stop the spy, so that others should not walk over our land.
And the “ground” still commands to land him at our airfield. “He” doesn’t want to! It begins to go towards the border. And then I came up with this - it’s already on last minutes There was a fight, but it lasted 13 minutes in total.
Naturally, the plane keeps its balance due to stabilizers - these are on the tail, if you don’t know, such small fixed parts - like small wings. So, if I hit him on the stabilizer, he will have to sit down involuntarily, if he doesn’t want to be picked up. But the jet does not have a striking propeller, and I need, like a skilled diver, to “dive” under the stabilizer and immediately “emerge”, not reaching its wing, and at the same time calculate this “diving” in such a way as to hit only with my fuselage and wing the stabilizer, not the fuselage or wing of the intruder. I still want to swim in the sea! And I want to guard the border for a long time!
But it’s curious: how long did those seconds stretch while I was walking under the right stabilizer (I chose the right one - it’s the right thing!). The speeds are almost equal - mine is a tiny excess, and here I go, I go, diving under the gray, dirty (that’s how it seemed to me) plane of the stabilizer, and it’s literally endless!
At this moment, the “earth” just asks: “What are your actions?” I answer so that there is no hitch: “I’m hanging under the target!” I was really hanging under it! Finally I see a clear sky. This means that my cabin stabilizer has passed through, I should be, according to my calculations, safe, and I can take the handle... Strike! This is the fuselage of my car ramming the stabilizer. Shaking... Quite tolerable. But the glass from the lantern starts to fall and it breaks. I had to eject. The parachute opens and the first thing I do is look at the sky.
But the intruder is not visible! I remember the coldness of fear entering my heart - has it really not knocked me down? After all, I calculated everything exactly! Slowly, slowly I lower my gaze, and “he” tumbles under me, walking toward the ground.
Then he sat down more comfortably and began to examine the ground. Where is the best place to land? Perhaps, in that hollow between the mountains - there is a road nearby. I land, two guys from a passing truck are already running towards me - they saw everything, look at me like I’m a god, with respect. I walk towards them, limping, wearing one shoe - the other one was torn off when landing. I laugh at myself, and so do the guys, and we get to the truck.
In part they lost me and a few hours after my last words“I’m hanging under the target,” we didn’t know what to think. It’s good that Larisa and the children were far away at these hours and did not worry in vain.
But the next day she unexpectedly appeared at the hospital, where doctors were checking me. He sits and is silent, he cannot say a word. Only when I saw the bruises on my arms did I burst into tears: “Couldn’t you have been more careful?” And the friend who brought her says:
- Valentin accomplished a feat!
She is silent again. At this point I explained that I got bruises during the landing, but there were no consequences from the ramming, only the tablet hit me in the rib during the ejection, so that doesn’t count.
Larisa listens to her husband’s story with a smile in her eyes, which are as gray as his, sometimes shakes her head, remembering something of her own, then says:
“I felt some kind of anxiety that day, I decided to urgently return home, I arrived and found out that he was in the hospital. It seems to me that if I were thousands of miles away from him, I would still feel that he was in danger of trouble or that he was sick. Do you know how many years we have known him? All my life! Since childhood. We are both from Perm. And from the seventh grade we generally studied together. He pulled my braids, mimicked me, and I felt even then that he liked me. But he only said this when he graduated from flight school and received an assignment to the border. He explained this by saying that he had no moral right to “disturb my peace”: after all, both were studying, I was studying pedagogical institute, we would still live apart. And he was late for the wedding. All the guests were alarmed, one bride was calm: I knew, I felt that he would come. It turned out that his flight was delayed due to the weather. And when I gave birth to my daughter, my first child, Valentin, after the flights, went to the maternity hospital and stuck out under the window. I even caught a cold and finally got sick for the first time. And my son Pavlik is now five years old. To the question: “Who do you want to become?” - he confidently answers:
- A pilot, like dad!
Valentin pulls his little son towards him and says:
- I, too, decided at the age of six that I would be a pilot. It howled on April 12, 1961, when my father was reading an article about Yuri Gagarin’s flight and I saw his photograph. At school I announced to everyone on the first day that I would be a pilot, and let’s encourage my friends to go to flight school with me. Physics and mathematics were my favorite subjects. I read a lot of books about aviation and pilots. I remember how shocked I was when I found out that Nesterov committed the loop on September 9, and this is my birthday! I considered this a good sign. But it was precisely these nine days, which I lacked until I was 17 by September 1, that almost prevented me from entering the flight school. Thank you, my father helped out - he wrote a letter to the head of the school asking him to allow the son of a Great Patriotic War veteran to take the exams as an exception.
Valentin's father, Alexander Konstantinovich, is a printer. During the Great Patriotic War, I was a boy and was very worried that he would not have time to grow up and fight the Nazis: how would he then look into the eyes of his peers and tell his children about these harsh years? But he managed to fight in 1945. His father's medal "For Military Merit" is one of Valentin's first memories from childhood.
He somehow put it on his jacket and admired himself in the mirror, and his mother said feigningly angrily:
- Earn it first, hero!
“And I will deserve it,” answered the son.
For feat on the border, the commander of the squadron, Major Valentin Aleksandrovich Kulyapin awarded the order Red Banner. On the day of his feat he was twenty-six years old. Now he is a student at the V.I. Lenin Military-Political Academy.
--
Brief biography of Valentin Kulyapin

Born on September 9, 1954 in the city of Krasnokamsk Perm region in the family of an employee. Russian. Member of the CPSU. Soon he and his family moved to Perm. In 1971 he graduated from Perm high school No. 132. Since childhood I dreamed of enrolling in flight school, but did not pass the medical examination. I had to have surgery. Then they refused to accept his documents, since on September 1 he was not yet 18 years old. My father, a war veteran, had to directly contact the head of the school, who allowed Valentin to take entrance exams. In 1975 he graduated from the Stavropol Military aviation school pilots and navigators named after. V.A.Sudets. He served in the 166th Air Defense Fighter Aviation Regiment.
Later, Lieutenant Colonel Kulyapin graduated from the V.I. Lenin Military-Political Academy, after which he was appointed deputy regiment commander for political affairs. Was a delegate XIX Congress Komsomol. Currently, Colonel Kulyapin is in reserve.

From the first days of the war, the Red Army showed massive heroism, trying to slow down the enemy's advance. Didn't stand aside air force. Rams, including fire rams, became widespread, with the help of which they destroyed large number enemy manpower and equipment.

Russian weapons

A classic aerial ram is directing your aircraft at the enemy. It was first used in September 1914 by staff captain Pyotr Nesterov. At an altitude of more than 500 meters, the pilot aimed his monoplane at the Austrian plane. Since then, our pilots began to often use this method of combat.

The ram became especially widespread during the Great Patriotic War. Our pilots used it when they ran out of fuel and ammunition or in the event of a weapon failure.

A type of ram is a fire ram. It was used in cases of significant damage to the aircraft, when it was clear that the aircraft was facing imminent death. The pilot in such a situation stood in front of difficult choice: either fail to complete the task and be captured, or at the cost own life destroy the enemy. Often they chose the second. In this case, the plane was sent to an accumulation of enemy manpower and equipment on the ground or to a water target.

Pilots performed fire rams at all stages of the war. They were present during the summer battles of 1941, and during the defense of Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad, in the battles on the Kursk Bulge and the Dnieper, in Belarus and Poland, and also after the defeat of Germany - in the campaign against Imperial Japan.

Fire ram required special skill from the pilot; it was necessary to have nerves of iron and a readiness for self-sacrifice. Chief Marshal aviation Alexander Novikov said that ramming is the highest manifestation of a moral factor that the enemy could not take into account.

During the Great Patriotic War, about 600 cases of rams were recorded, of which 506 were against ground targets. The list of pilots who committed a fiery ram includes more than 450 people. In total, 237 such rams were carried out over four years. The discrepancies in the number of pilots and cases of fire ramming are explained by the fact that at that moment there were 2-3 people in the aircraft.

In very rare cases, pilots going on a fiery ram survived. One of these lucky ones is Lieutenant S.I. Koldybin. He sent the plane on fire to the German crossing of the Dnieper. The pilot was thrown out of the car by the blast wave. In total, only six pilots survived the fiery ramming.

On the enemy!

The first to direct the blazing plane at the enemy was 27-year-old senior lieutenant Pyotr Chirkin. This happened in the midst of a battle near the city of Stryi in Western Ukraine. It is symbolic that he accomplished his feat on the first day of the war - June 22, 1941. The I-153 fighter burst right into the center of the German tank column.

Forever inscribed in Russian history military glory and the feat of the crew of captain Nikolai Gastello. On June 26, two DB-3f bombers fired at the convoy German tanks near Radoshkovichi-Molodechno. Gastello's plane circled a Wehrmacht armored group standing near the fuel tanks.

The plane was already leaving the target when suddenly a shell hit the fuel tank of the aircraft. A few seconds later the plane was engulfed in flames. At that moment, Gastello turned him around and directed him into a cluster of tanks.

In September 1941, a woman carried out a ram for the first and only time in history. Pilot Ekaterina Zelenko, flying a Su-2 bomber, managed to destroy one Nazi fighter, and then went to ram the second. The impact broke the Messerschmitt in half, and the pilot herself died.

There have also been cases of sea fire rams. So, on March 19, 1945, the crew of Major Merkulov took off to strike a convoy delivering reinforcements to the Courland pocket. The plane attacked the ships, but was damaged by an enemy bullet and caught fire. The crew directed the aircraft towards the German ships. All pilots died.

Rewards for heroes

Despite the fact that rams, including fire rams, were not provided for by the charter, Soviet command had a generally positive attitude towards them and considered them a manifestation of heroism. Accordingly, the pilots who went to ram almost always received a reward.

The Sovinformburo began glorifying the aviators who went to ram after Gastello’s feat. The Red Army command used his example for propaganda purposes. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Ramming as a method of air combat remains the last argument that pilots resort to in hopeless situation. Not everyone manages to survive after it. Nevertheless, some of our pilots resorted to it several times.

The world's first ram

Nesterov had long believed that an enemy airplane could be destroyed by hitting the planes with its wheels. This was a necessary measure - at the beginning of the war, planes were not equipped with machine guns, and aviators flew on missions with pistols and carbines.
On September 8, 1914, in the Lvov region, Pyotr Nesterov rammed a heavy Austrian aircraft under the control of Franz Malina and Baron Friedrich von Rosenthal, which was flying over Russian positions on reconnaissance missions.

Nesterov, in a light and fast Moran airplane, took off into the air, caught up with the Albatross and rammed it, striking it from top to bottom in the tail. This happened in front of the local residents.
The Austrian plane crashed. Upon impact, Nesterov, who was in a hurry to take off and was not wearing his seat belts, flew out of the cockpit and crashed. According to another version, Nesterov jumped out of the crashed plane himself, hoping to survive.

First ram of the Finnish War

The first and only ram Soviet-Finnish War was carried out by senior lieutenant Yakov Mikhin, a graduate of the 2nd Borisoglebsk military aviation school named after Chkalov. This happened on February 29, 1940 in the afternoon. 24 Soviet aircraft I-16 and I-15 attacked the Finnish Ruokolahti airfield.

To repel the attack, 15 fighters took off from the airfield.
A fierce battle ensued. Flight commander Yakov Mikhin, in a frontal attack with the wing of the aircraft, hit the fin of the Fokker, the famous Finnish ace Lieutenant Tattoo Gugananti. The keel broke off from the impact. The Fokker crashed to the ground, the pilot died.
Yakov Mikhin, with a broken plane, managed to reach the airfield and safely landed his donkey. It must be said that Mikhin went through the entire Great Patriotic War, and then continued to serve in the Air Force.

The first ram of the Great Patriotic War

It is believed that the first ram of the Great Patriotic War was carried out by 31-year-old senior lieutenant Ivan Ivanov, who on June 22, 1941 at 4:25 am in an I-16 (according to other sources - on an I-153) over the Mlynov airfield near Dubno rammed a Heinkel bomber ", after which both planes fell. Ivanov died. For this feat he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

His primacy is disputed by several pilots: junior lieutenant Dmitry Kokorev, who rammed a Messerschmitt in the Zambro area 20 minutes after Ivanov’s feat and remained alive.

On June 22 at 5:15, junior lieutenant Leonid Buterin died over Western Ukraine(Stanislav), taking the Junkers-88 to ram.

Another 45 minutes later, an unknown pilot on a U-2 died over Vygoda after ramming a Messerschmitt.

At 10 am, a Messer was rammed over Brest and Lieutenant Pyotr Ryabtsev survived.

Some pilots resorted to ramming several times. Hero of the Soviet Union Boris Kovzan made 4 rams: over Zaraisk, over Torzhok, over Lobnitsa and Staraya Russa.

The first "fire" ram

A “fire” ram is a technique when a pilot directs a downed aircraft at ground targets. Everyone knows the feat of Nikolai Gastello (pictured), who flew a plane at a tank column with fuel tanks. But the first “fiery” ram was carried out on June 22, 1941 by 27-year-old senior lieutenant Pyotr Chirkin from the 62nd assault aviation regiment. Chirkin directed the damaged I-153 at a column of German tanks approaching the city of Stryi (Western Ukraine).

In total, during the war years, more than 300 people repeated his feat.

There is an inconspicuous monument not far from Sinimäe, right next to the Tallinn highway.

Jr. Lieutenant Ismailbek Taranchiev is also not as famous as Captain Gastello. At the site of his feat, a modest monument was erected, which is a memorial slab on a granite stone. The pilot was only 21 years old...

T Aranchiev Ismailbek - pilot of the 566th assault aviation regiment of the 277th assault aviation division of the 13th air army of the Leningrad Front, junior lieutenant.

Born on April 6, 1923 in the village of Bashkungey, now Bishkek region of Kyrgyzstan, into a peasant family. Kyrgyz. Graduated from 8th grade.

In the Red Army since June 1941. In 1943 he graduated from the 3rd Chkalov Military aviation school pilots. In the battles of the Great Patriotic War from January 1944. Member of the CPSU(b)/CPSU since 1944.

Pilot of the 566th Assault Aviation Regiment (277th Assault Aviation Division, 13th air force, Leningrad Front) junior lieutenant Ismailbek Taranchiev by March 18, 1944, carried out thirty-five successful attack sorties on an Il-2 aircraft defensive structures, technology, manpower, railways, airfields and other enemy targets.

On February 26, 1944, as part of a group during an attack on an airfield in the Estonian city of Tartu, Taranchiev personally set fire to three enemy aircraft.

On March 18, 1944, as part of a group of four aircraft, carrying out a combat mission of the command to attack enemy troops and equipment in the Sinimäe area, junior lieutenant Ismailbek Taranchiev sent his winged vehicle engulfed in flames, hit by enemy anti-aircraft artillery, into a cluster of enemy tanks.

To the title of Hero of the Soviet Union glorious son Kyrgyz people introduced in March 1944.

U Order of the President of the USSR dated May 5, 1991 for courage and heroism shown in the fight against German fascist invaders in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945, junior lieutenant Taranchiev Ismailbek was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The Hero's relatives were awarded the Order of Lenin and the medal " Gold Star" (№ 11648).

Awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, the Red Star, and a medal.

First female ram

Soviet pilot Ekaterina Zelenko became the only woman in the world to perform a ramming mission. During the war years, she managed to make 40 combat missions and participated in 12 air battles. On September 12, 1941, she made three missions. Returning from a mission in the Romny area, she was attacked by German Me-109s. She managed to shoot down one plane, and when the ammunition ran out, she rammed the enemy plane, destroying it. She herself died. She was 24 years old. For her feat, Ekaterina Zelenko was awarded the Order of Lenin, and in 1990 she was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

First ram by jet

A native of Stalingrad, Captain Gennady Eliseev carried out his ramming attack on a MiG-21 fighter on November 28, 1973. On this day, the Iranian Phantom-II, which was carrying out reconnaissance on behalf of the United States, invaded the airspace of the Soviet Union over the Mugan Valley of Azerbaijan. Captain Eliseev took off to intercept from the airfield in Vaziani.

The air-to-air missiles did not produce the desired result: the Phantom released heat traps. To carry out the order, Eliseev decided to ram and struck the tail of the Phantom with his wing. The plane crashed and its crew was detained. Eliseev's MiG began to descend and crashed into a mountain. Gennady Eliseev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The crew of the reconnaissance aircraft - American Colonel and the Iranian pilot was handed over to Iranian authorities 16 days later.

The first ramming of a transport aircraft

On July 18, 1981, a transport plane of the Argentine airline Canader CL-44 violated the USSR border over the territory of Armenia. There was a Swiss crew on board the plane. The deputy of the squadron, pilot Valentin Kulyapin, was tasked with imprisoning the violators. The Swiss did not respond to the pilot’s demands. Then the order came to shoot down the plane. The distance between the Su-15TM and the “transport aircraft” was small for the launch of R-98M missiles. The intruder walked towards the border. Then Kulyapin decided to go for the ram.
On the second attempt, he hit the Canadara's stabilizer with his fuselage, after which he safely ejected from the damaged aircraft, and the Argentine fell into a tailspin and fell just two kilometers from the border, his crew was killed. It later turned out that the plane was carrying weapons.
For his feat, the pilot was awarded the Order of the Red Star.

Ram (air)

Poster from the First World War “The feat and death of the pilot Nesterov”

There were often cases when a damaged aircraft was directed by a pilot to a ground or water target (Gastello, Nikolai Frantsevich, Gribovsky, Alexander Prokofievich). Japanese troops during World War II had special units kamikaze pilots rammed enemy ships with planes loaded with explosives.

July 18, 1981 - the Soviet Su-15TM interceptor (pilot - Kulyapin, Valentin Aleksandrovich) rammed a CL-44 transport aircraft (number LV-JTN, Transportes Aereo Rioplatense, Argentina), which was making a secret transport flight on the route Tel Aviv - Tehran and unintentionally invaded the airspace of the USSR over the territory of Armenia. All 4 crew members of the CL-44 were killed, including a British national. Kulyapin successfully ejected, although, according to his later recollections, the plane obeyed the controls, the engine was working, so he could try to reach the airfield and land. For the ram he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. This is the second case of ramming a border violator with a jet in the history of the Soviet Air Force.

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