The mighty will of the Creator of the world.
She called him to a great feat.
And crowns the hero with eternal glory.
She chose him as an instrument of vengeance...

Staff Captain P.N. Nesterov

Aerial ramming as a form of air combat

In 1908, a large article “On the military significance of airplanes” appeared on the pages of the newspaper “Russian Invalid”, the official publication of the military department. In it, the author put forward the idea of ​​​​bringing in special combat airplanes, “intended for squadron combat in the air,” to fight “for state supremacy in the air.”

At the same time, the author believed that: “(an airplane is) a flying machine ... is generally fragile and therefore any collision with opponents in the air, chest to chest, must inevitably end in the death of both aircraft colliding on board. There can be neither a winner nor a loser here, therefore, it must be a battle with maneuvering.” A few years later, the author of the article’s prediction was confirmed. In June 1912, the first air collision in the history of world aviation took place at a military airfield in Douai (France). While performing morning flights in the air at an altitude of 50 m, biplanes piloted by Captain Dubois and Lieutenant Penian collided. When they fell, both aviators died. In October 1912, a similar incident occurred in Germany, in May 1913 - in Russia. At the Gatchina airfield of the aviation department of the Officers' Aeronautical School (JSC OVSh), during training flights at an altitude of 12 - 16 m, the Nieuport of Lieutenant V.V. collided. Dybovsky and “Farman” Lieutenant A.A. Kovanko. The pilots escaped with minor bruises.

In total, during the period from 1912 to the start of the First World War, air collisions accounted for 6% of the total number of accidents in world aviation.

In order to avoid an air collision during troop maneuvers, Russian and foreign pilots were strongly recommended to fight at a certain distance from each other. The idea of ​​an air battle itself was not rejected by the military department. To conduct it, it was proposed to arm airplanes with guns or automatic weapons. This idea was reflected in the already mentioned article “On the military significance of airplanes”: “A gun, maybe a light machine gun, a few hand grenades - that’s all that can make up the armament of a flying projectile. Such weapons are quite sufficient to disable an enemy airplane and force it to descend, because a rifle bullet that hits successfully will stop the engine or put an aeronaut out of action, as will a successfully hit hand grenade, at close ranges thrown by hand, and at longer distances. long distance - from the same gun.”

In the fall of 1911, during large maneuvers of the troops of the Warsaw Military District, according to a pre-approved plan, two airplanes carried out a successful attack on a mock enemy airship. According to the district command, the presence of on-board weapons could lead to the destruction of the controlled balloon. But the absence of this urgently required the search for other forms of influence on the enemy aircraft.

A certain sensation among pilots was caused by the proposal of one of the theorists of domestic military aviation, mechanical engineer Lieutenant N.A. Yatsuka. In the summer of 1911, he published an article “On Air Combat” in the journal “Bulletin of Aeronautics”, where he wrote: “It is possible that in exceptional cases pilots will decide to ram someone else’s airplane with their airplane.”

In his work “Aeronautics in Naval Warfare” (1912), Nikolai Alexandrovich supported the idea of ​​​​an “air ram” that he had previously voiced, but with a different meaning. “It is not impossible,” wrote Yatsuk, “that the next war will show us cases when an aeronautical vehicle, in order to interfere with the reconnaissance of an enemy air force, will sacrifice itself by hitting it in order to cause its fall, at least at the cost of its death. Techniques of this kind are, of course, extreme. The fight in the air will be the bloodiest in terms of the number of people participating in it, since the damaged vehicles will, for the most part, quickly fall to the ground with all their crews.” However, his views remained unclaimed due to insufficient knowledge of the very nature of air combat.

The acting military pilot perceived the idea of ​​an air ram differently than others. commander of the 11th corps aviation detachment of the 3rd aviation company, Lieutenant P.N. Nesterov, seeing in it the possibility of turning an aircraft into a military weapon.

At the autumn large maneuvers of the troops of the Kyiv Military District in 1913, he showed in practice how it was possible to force an air enemy to refuse to carry out his mission. Taking advantage of the advantage in speed (about 20 km/h), Pyotr Nikolaevich, in his Nieuport-IV apparatus, imitated the attack of Farman-VII, piloted by Lieutenant V.E. Hartmann, forcing the latter to periodically change the course of his flight. “After the fourth attack, Hartmann shook his fist at Nesterov and flew back without completing reconnaissance.” This was the first simulation of air combat in domestic practice.

Lieutenant P. N. Nesterov near the Nieuport IV aircraft.
11th Corps Aviation Detachment

After landing, Nesterov was told that such an attack on an enemy airplane was only possible in peacetime, and in war these maneuvers were unlikely to have any effect on the enemy. Pyotr Nikolaevich thought for a moment and then answered with conviction: “It will be possible to hit him from above with the wheels.” Subsequently, the pilot repeatedly returned to the issue of ramming and proved its possibility, while allowing for two options.

The first is to rise above the enemy airplane, and then, in a steep dive, hit the end of the enemy’s wing with its wheels: the enemy airplane will be shot down, but you can glide safely. The second is to crash the propeller into the enemy’s tail and break his rudders. The propeller will shatter into pieces, but it is possible to glide safely. We must not forget that there were no parachutes yet.

In foreign countries in the pre-war years, air combat between airplanes was initially denied. For example, in Germany, where the rapid development of aviation began in 1912, the latter were considered only as means of reconnaissance and communications. The airplanes were armed with light small arms in the form of a revolver or carbine in case of a forced landing behind enemy lines. Meanwhile, the first successful tests of aviation as an air strike weapon during the Tripolitan (1911 - 1912) and 1st Balkan (1912 - 1913) wars convinced many leading European countries of the need to create special combat airplanes. At this time, information appeared that a special metal, high-speed fighter airplane had been built in Germany, which had undergone successful experimental tests. This was the reason for the Frenchman R. Esnault-Peltry to develop, together with artillery specialists, a project for the same fighter. Detailed characteristics were strictly confidential.

After the maneuvers of the St. Petersburg Military District in Russia in August 1913, the question openly arose about the need to form fighter aviation in the Russian army and arm airplanes with automatic weapons to combat enemy reconnaissance aircraft. However, by the beginning of the war, the aviation units of the Russian army remained practically unarmed.

The airplane as a means of armed struggle

The beginning of the First World War was characterized by the intensity of flights by aircraft of the warring parties, mainly for reconnaissance purposes. Already at the beginning of the war, their first combat clashes in the air were recorded. The main means of defeating the enemy used in air combat was the pilot's personal weapon. For pistol fire to be effective, it was necessary to get close to the enemy airplane at a distance of up to 50 m. Simultaneously with the fire, the pilots used the so-called. “intimidation technique,” ​​that is, active maneuvering near an enemy vehicle with the threat of colliding with it in the air in order to force the enemy to abandon the assigned task.

On August 17, 1914, the following information was published on the pages of the daily newspaper “Russkoe Slovo”: “An interesting message has been received about an air fight between Russian and German pilots. An enemy airplane unexpectedly appeared above the line of Russian troops. Our pilot expressed a desire to force the German to come down. He quickly took off, approached the enemy and forced him to land with a series of turns. The German pilot has been arrested." Subsequently, this technique was used repeatedly.

This circumstance led the Russian command to think about the possibility of using captured equipment for the needs of the Russian army. The commanders of aviation detachments at the front were now strongly recommended, if possible, not to destroy, but to forcibly land enemy aircraft. Later, within the walls of the capital’s plant of the Joint Stock Aeronautics Company of V. A. Lebedev, they received a new life. There were reasons for this. Firstly, the military department assessed the cost of restoration and newly built airplanes in the same way. Secondly, familiarity with foreign technologies and technical solutions made it possible to enrich one’s own design experience.

However, according to the pilots themselves, a forced landing could affect only a single enemy aircraft, while their group raid required other methods of influence, up to and including the destruction of the latter. This opinion was also shared by the staff captain of the 9th Siberian Rifle Brigade P.N. Nesterov, at the beginning of the war, commander of the 11th corps aviation detachment of the 3rd Army of the Southwestern Front (SWF). He believed that if the enemy does not stop flying over our territory and refuses to surrender, he must be shot down. To resolve this issue, it was necessary to arm the airplanes with light machine guns, which was confirmed in one of the orders of the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. It stated, in particular: “In order to combat enemy aircraft, it seems necessary to arm the most heavy-duty of our airplanes. For which it is recognized that it is necessary to use Madsen automatic rifles.” However, at that time there were not enough automatic weapons to reach the established kit in field units.

The lack of reliable weapons in aviation, the absurd “valuable instructions” of military officials “to shoot buckshot from hand ...” forced Nesterov and other aviators to invent exotic weapons like a bomb “suspended on a long cable ... to destroy enemy airships”, to lower “thin copper wire from the tail of the aircraft with a load, so that, having cut off the path of an enemy plane, break its propeller”, “adapt a saw-tooth knife to the tail of the plane and ... rip open the shell of airships and tethered observation balloons with it”, throw “artillery shells instead of bombs”.

Without abandoning the views of N.A. Yatsuk on the use of power (ramming) strikes, Pyotr Nikolaevich was still a supporter of technical and maneuverable methods of fighting the enemy. Unfortunately, the tragic death of a remarkable pilot excluded the possibility of implementing his inventions in the Russian school of air combat.

Hunting for the "Albatross" - a step into immortality

During the Battle of Gorodok (September 5 - 12, 1914), the Austro-Hungarian command attempted to defeat the Russian 3rd and 8th armies of the Southwestern Front. But the counteroffensive that followed on September 4 in the zone of our three armies (9th, 4th and 5th) forced the enemy troops to begin a hasty retreat. Within a few days, our advanced units reached and captured the important center of Eastern Galicia - Lvov. Preparations for the upcoming operations required a large regrouping of troops. To reveal their new positions, locations of military command and control bodies, firing points, field airfields, and transport networks, the enemy made extensive use of his air forces. In addition to collecting intelligence information in the near rear of the Russian troops, enemy pilots, whenever possible, bombed our military installations, including the airfield of the 11th corps air detachment. On September 7, one of the Austrian airplanes dropped a bomb on his airfield “(a sample of an artillery shell), which, having fallen, was buried in the sand and did not explode.”

One of the prominent Austrian observer pilots, Lieutenant Baron von Friedrich Rosenthal, owner of vast lands in Eastern Galicia, was involved in combat work. He made his flights on an Albatross-type airplane, designed and built with his personal participation. In the area of ​​special attention of the enemy apparatus was the city of Zholkiev, Lviv region, where the estate of Baron F. Rosenthal was located, temporarily occupied by the headquarters of the 3rd Russian Army. The appearance of enemy aircraft in this area caused extreme irritation among the army command. Senior commanders immediately accused the flight crew of the 3rd Aviation Company of insufficient activity in the fight against enemy air.

On September 7, 1914, Quartermaster General of the Army Headquarters, Major General M.D. Bonch-Bruevich demanded that the pilots exclude Austrian flights in the Russian rear. Staff Captain P.N. Nesterov promised to take drastic measures to solve this problem.

Initially, the issue of air ramming was not raised at all. Considering the possibility of the Albatross appearing unescorted (previously it had flown in a group of three airplanes), it was decided to capture it by force landing. For this purpose, on the morning of September 8, P.N. Nesterov with his deputy lieutenant A.A. Kovanko worked out this option over the airfield. However, further events began to develop according to a different scenario. Already at the start, Nesterov’s single-seat airplane lost its load with a cable, which he expected to use when meeting with the enemy. During landing after a training flight, the engine suddenly malfunctioned, and at the direction of Pyotr Nikolaevich, the mechanics began checking its valves. The appearance of an enemy Albatross in the sky was an unpleasant surprise for Russian pilots. Without waiting for the troubleshooting on his device, Nesterov rushed to Kovanko’s car. In order not to risk his life, Pyotr Nikolaevich categorically refused to fly with his deputy.

Rapidly gaining a height of up to 1500 m on the Morane-Saulnier type (Morane-Saulnier G) (according to other sources - up to 2000 m), he attacked the Albatross from top to bottom. Witnesses of this unusual battle saw that after a sharp collision the enemy airplane nosed down and began to fall randomly. Nesterov’s apparatus swept further, then began to descend in a spiral. At an altitude of about 50 m, the Moran swayed sharply and it fell down like a stone. At that moment, the figure of the pilot separated from the apparatus.

Scheme of P. N. Nesterov’s ram

Map of the airplane crash site

Air ram. World War I period poster. 1914

When examining Nesterov’s corpse, doctors witnessed a fracture of his spine and minor damage to his skull. According to their conclusion, the spinal fracture could not have been caused by a fall on soft ground. Staff Captain P.N. Nesterov died in the air as a result of an airplane collision. The pilots who knew Pyotr Nikolaevich closely immediately doubted his deliberate ramming of the enemy air force. They believed that Nesterov had intentions to force the Albatross crew to land on the airfield, holding it through skillful maneuvering under the threat of using a ram. Pyotr Nikolaevich himself, who was well aware of the statistics of air collisions in the pre-war period and the high percentage of deaths, did not see the ram as a particular benefit for the small Russian aviation, where each device was worth its weight in gold. During the period August - September 1914 alone, the loss of airplanes in the active Russian army amounted to 94 airplanes (45% of the total).

The “Report of the Investigation into the Circumstances of the Heroic Death of the Head of the 11th Corps Aviation Detachment, Staff Captain Nesterov” stated: “Staff Captain Nesterov has long expressed the opinion that it is possible to shoot down an enemy aircraft by hitting the wheels of your own aircraft from above on the supporting surfaces of the enemy aircraft, Moreover, he admitted the possibility of a successful outcome for the ramming pilot.”

Therefore, most experts agreed that he made an attempt to attack the enemy airplane with a glancing blow, counting on the psychological effect. According to theoretical calculations, the tangential impact of a light single-seat aircraft could not lead to the destruction of a heavier airplane, such as the three-seat Albatross with a bomb load. This required either an apparatus of equal weight or a strike with the entire body of the attacking airplane. It seems that Nesterov had technical calculations for carrying out an aerial ramming in relation to a single-seater vehicle based on the attack of an enemy aircraft of equal mass. The possibility of an air attack in this way by heavy types of airplanes was not even discussed. But, ironically, this is exactly the situation that has developed in the skies of Eastern Galicia. Directing his car at the Austrian airplane, Nesterov lost sight of the fact that he had a heavier and less maneuverable two-seater Moran-Saulnier type “J”. As a result, instead of a tangential impact with the wheels on the wings of the enemy car, he crashed into it with the engine between two supporting surfaces, which led to a complete loss of control and destruction of the latter. This blow, according to the official version, caused the death of the Russian pilot himself.

In his book “Khodynka: Russian Aviation Runway,” aviation history specialist A. A. Demin cites an assessment of the tragic event made by the famous Soviet scientist V. S. Pyshnov.

Analyzing the ram, he, in particular, noted that the Moran had a very poor forward-down view and it was difficult to accurately determine the distance and “jewelfully” hit the Albatross with just its wheels. It is possible that turbulent flows from both airplanes and their mutual influence could have contributed. And then, according to Pyshnov, the following could happen: “If the Moran-Zh aircraft had only one elevator of a symmetrical profile, without a fixed part - a stabilizer, the aircraft could not fly with the handle thrown. Since a diving moment acted on the wing in the absence of lift, in the event of a thrown stick, the plane had to go into a dive with a further transition to inverted flight. As is known, after the ramming, which occurred at an altitude of about 1000 m, to the height of P.N. Nesterov was performing a spiral descent, but then the plane went into a dive and fell in an inverted position. This behavior of the aircraft indicates that P. Nesterov lost consciousness and released the control stick; after going into negative angles of attack and negative value... (G) he was thrown out of the aircraft because he was not tied down...".

Based on the analysis, it can be assumed that the pilot lost consciousness not at the moment of the ramming strike, but much later, during a steep spiral due to weakness of the vestibular apparatus. About P.N.’s health problems Nesterov at the front was later mentioned by his colleagues, in particular the military pilot V.G. Sokolov, who witnessed Pyotr Nikolaevich's deep fainting after another flight. The intensity of his work is reflected in the combat activity log of the 11th Corps Aviation Detachment. During the period from August 10 to September 8, 1914, he completed 12 combat missions, the total flight time was 18 hours 39 minutes. The last of them (September 8) took only 15 minutes and cost the Russian pilot his life.

Nesterov’s body was soon discovered 6 km from the town of Zholkiev in a dry field near a swamp between an airplane and a motor. 400 m away from him lay a downed Albatross, partially buried in swampy soil. The corpses of two members of his crew (Lieutenant F. Rosenthal and non-commissioned officer F. Malina) were discovered immediately. According to some reports, the body of the third crew member, whose name has not been established, was found much later.

For his unprecedented feat, staff captain P.N. Nesterov was the first among Russian pilots to be posthumously awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree, and promoted to the rank of captain. The deceased hero was buried on September 13, 1914 at Askold’s grave in Kyiv. Later, the ashes of the Russian pilot were transferred to the Lukyanovskoe cemetery in the capital of Ukraine.

Nesterov's legacy

The tragic outcome of Nesterov’s air ramming at the beginning cast doubt on the possibility of the pilot who carried it out to survive.

Doubts were dispelled by another Russian pilot - Lieutenant of the 12th Uhlan Belgorod Regiment A. A. Kozakov, who during an air battle with the two-seater German “Albatross” S.I on March 31, 1915, managed to shoot it down with a “Nesterov” sliding impact with wheels from above. During the First World War, Kozakov was recognized as the most successful pilot in Russia.

He became acquainted with the advanced views of P. N. Nesterov on the fight against enemy aircraft thanks to the hero’s younger brother Mikhail, a pilot of the Brest-Litovsk corps air squad, who tragically died in the fall of 1914 in a plane crash.

Later, the Allies (the British) recognized the air ram (we are talking about a tangential strike) as one of the forms of Russian air combat, pointing out that when they (Russian pilots) do not have bombs, they rise above the enemy airplane, and, flying over it, they hit him with the bottom of their airplane.

The subsequent equipping of aircraft with automatic weapons relegated aerial rams to the background. It would seem that they inevitably had to go down in history. But in our country they did not abandon the ideas of Pyotr Nesterov, and for a long time the air ram terrified enemies, and the fearlessness of Soviet pilots aroused sincere admiration and respect in the world. The practice of aerial boarding (ramming) was inherent in the flight personnel of fighter aircraft of the Air Force and Air Defense Forces for a long time and has not lost its relevance today (in exceptional cases, such a method of air combat is quite possible).

Back in the fall of 1914, Russian society came up with a proposal to perpetuate the memory of the brave pilot. Mr. A. S. Zholkevich (editor of the newspaper “Novoye Vremya”) took the initiative, starting to collect money with the aim of acquiring several acres of land at the site of the hero’s death for the construction of a memorial obelisk. In the same year, a memorial cross was erected in the area of ​​Zholkiev, and later a monument was erected.

Nowadays, monuments to the brave Russian pilot have been unveiled in Kyiv and Nizhny Novgorod, a memorial bust has been erected in Kazan, asteroid No. 3071 has been named after him. A special state award of the Russian Federation has been established in honor of P. N. Nesterov - the Nesterov Medal.

The grave of P. N. Nesterov in Kyiv. Modern look

Monument to P. N. Nesterov in Kyiv on Pobeda Avenue.
Sculptor E. A. Karpov, architect A. Snitsarev

Memorial plaque in Kyiv on a house on Moskovskaya street,
where the pilot P. N. Nesterov lived in 1914

Monument to P.N. Nesterov in Nizhny Novgorod.
The authors of the project are sculptors Honored Artist of the RSFSR A. I. Rukavishnikov and People’s Artist of the RSFSR, Corresponding Member
Academy of Arts of the USSR I. M. Rukavishnikov

Memorial sign at the site of the death of P. N. Nesterov

The Nesterov Medal was established by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of March 2, 1994 No. 442 “On state awards of the Russian Federation.” It is awarded to military personnel of the Air Force, aviation of other branches and branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation and internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, flight personnel of civil aviation and the aviation industry for personal courage and bravery shown in the defense of the Fatherland and the state interests of the Russian Federation, during combat service and combat duty, when participating in exercises and maneuvers, for excellent performance in combat training and aerial training.

Alexey Lashkov,
senior researcher at the Research Institute
Institute of Military History of the Military Academy
General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,
Candidate of Historical Sciences

Ramming as a method of air combat has never been and will not be the main one, since a collision with an enemy very often leads to the destruction and fall of both vehicles. A ramming attack is only permissible in a situation where the pilot has no other choice. The first such attack was carried out in 1912 by the famous pilot Pyotr Nesterov, who shot down an Austrian reconnaissance aircraft. His light Moran hit the heavy enemy Albatross, on which the pilot and observer were located, from above. As a result of the attack, both planes were damaged and fell, Nesterov and the Austrians were killed. At that time, machine guns had not yet been installed on airplanes, so ramming was the only way to shoot down an enemy airplane.

After the death of Nesterov, the tactics of ramming strikes were carefully worked out; the pilots began to strive to shoot down an enemy aircraft while preserving their own. The main method of attack was hitting the tail of the enemy aircraft with the propeller blades. The rapidly spinning propeller damaged the plane's tail, causing it to lose control and crash. At the same time, the pilots of the attacking aircraft often managed to land their planes safely. After replacing the bent propellers, the aircraft were ready to fly again. Other options were also used - impact with the wing, keel, fuselage, landing gear.

Night rams were especially difficult, since it is very difficult to carry out a strike in conditions of poor visibility. For the first time, a night air ram was used on October 28, 1937 in the skies of Spain by the Soviet Yevgeny Stepanov. At night over Barcelona on an I-15 he managed to destroy the Italian Savoia-Marchetti bomber with a ramming attack. Since the Soviet Union did not officially take part in the civil war in Spain, they preferred not to talk about the pilot’s feat for a long time.

During the Great Patriotic War, the first night air ram was carried out by fighter pilot of the 28th Fighter Air Force, Pyotr Vasilyevich Eremeev: on July 29, 1941, on a MiG-3 aircraft, he destroyed an enemy Junkers-88 bomber with a ramming attack. But the night ram of fighter pilot Viktor Vasilyevich Talalikhin became more famous: on the night of August 7, 1941, on an I-16 plane in the area of ​​Podolsk near Moscow, he shot down a German Heinkel-111 bomber. The Battle of Moscow was one of the key moments of the war, so the pilot’s feat became widely known. For his courage and heroism, Viktor Talalikhin was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. He died on October 27, 1941 in an air battle, having destroyed two enemy aircraft and was mortally wounded by a fragment of an exploding shell.

During the battles with Nazi Germany, Soviet pilots carried out more than 500 ramming attacks; some pilots used this technique several times and remained alive. Ramming attacks were also used later, already on jet vehicles.

It is a well-known fact that the first aviators did not fight in the sky, but greeted each other.
In 1911, both the French and Russians simultaneously equipped aircraft with machine guns and the era of air combat began. In the absence of ammunition, the pilots used a ram.

Ramming is an air combat technique designed to disable an enemy aircraft, a ground target, or an unwary pedestrian.
It was first used by Pyotr Nesterov on September 8, 1914 against an Austrian reconnaissance aircraft.

There are several types of rams: a landing gear strike on the wing, a propeller strike on the tail, a wing strike, a fuselage strike, a tail strike (I. Sh. Bikmukhametov’s ram)
A ram committed by I. Sh. Bikmukhametov during the Great Patriotic War: going out into the enemy’s forehead with a slide and a turn, Bikmukhametov struck the enemy’s wing with the tail of his plane. As a result, the enemy lost control, went into a tailspin and crashed, and Bikmukhametov was even able to bring his plane to the airfield and land safely.
V. A. Kulyapin's ram, S. P. Subbotin's ram, a ram on a jet fighter, used in air combat in Korea. Subbotin found himself in a situation where his enemy was catching up with him while descending. Having released the brake flaps, Subbotin slowed down, essentially exposing his plane to attack. As a result of the collision, the enemy was destroyed, Subbotin managed to eject and remained alive.

1

Pyotr Nesterov was the first to use an aerial ram on September 8, 1914 against an Austrian reconnaissance aircraft.

2

During the war, he shot down 28 enemy aircraft, one of them in a group, and shot down 4 aircraft with a ram. On three occasions, Kovzan returned to the airfield in his MiG-3 aircraft. On August 13, 1942, on a La-5 aircraft, Captain Kovzan discovered a group of enemy bombers and fighters. In a battle with them, he was shot down and injured in his eye, and then Kovzan directed his plane at an enemy bomber. The impact threw Kovzan out of the cabin and from a height of 6,000 meters, with his parachute not fully opening, he fell into a swamp, breaking his leg and several ribs.

3

He directed the damaged plane to a higher target. According to the reports of Vorobyov and Rybas, Gastello’s burning plane rammed a mechanized column of enemy equipment. At night, peasants from the nearby village of Dekshnyany removed the corpses of the pilots from the plane and, wrapping the bodies in parachutes, buried them near the crash site of the bomber. Gastello's feat was to some extent canonized. The first ram in the history of the Great Patriotic War was carried out by the Soviet pilot D.V. Kokorev on June 22, 1941 at approximately 4 hours 15 minutes (for a long time I.I. Ivanov was considered the author of the first ram in the history of the Great Patriotic War, but in fact he carried out his ram 10 minutes later than Kokorev)

4

The Su-2 light bomber shot down one German Me-109 fighter and rammed the second. When the wing hit the fuselage, the Messerschmitt broke in half, and the Su-2 exploded, and the pilot was thrown out of the cockpit.

5

The first used a night ram on August 7, 1941, shooting down a He-111 bomber near Moscow. At the same time, he himself remained alive.

6

On December 20, 1943, in his first air battle, he destroyed two American B-24 Liberator bombers - the first with a machine gun, and the second with an air ram.

7

On February 13, 1945, in the southern part of the Baltic Sea, during an attack on a terminal transport with a displacement of 6,000 tons, V.P. Nosov’s plane was hit by a shell, the plane began to fall, but the pilot directed his burning plane directly into the transport and destroyed it. The crew of the plane died.

8

On May 20, 1942, he flew on an I-153 plane to intercept an enemy Ju-88 reconnaissance aircraft, which was photographing military installations in the city of Yelets, Lipetsk Region. He shot down an enemy plane, but it remained in the air and continued to fly. Barkovsky aimed his plane at the ram and destroyed the Ju-88. The pilot died in the collision.

9

On November 28, 1973, on a MiG-21SM jet fighter, Captain G. Eliseev rammed an F-4 “Phantom” of the Iranian Air Force (when the latter violated the State Border of the USSR in the area of ​​the Mugan Valley of the AzSSR).

10 Kulyapin Valentin (Taran Kulyapin)

He rammed a CL-44 transport aircraft (number LV-JTN, Transportes Aereo Rioplatense airline, Argentina), which was making a secret transport flight on the Tel Aviv - Tehran route and unintentionally invaded Armenian airspace.

Russian pilot Pyotr Nesterov; Nesterov's ram (postcard from the 1st World War); Russian pilot Alexander Kozakov

It is well known that the world's first aerial ram was carried out by our compatriot Pyotr Nesterov, who destroyed the Austrian Albatross reconnaissance aircraft on September 8, 1914 at the cost of his life. But the honor of the second ram in the world has long been attributed either to N. Zherdev, who fought in Spain in 1938, or to A. Gubenko, who fought in China the same year. And only after the collapse of the Soviet Union did information appear in our literature about the real hero of the second air ram - the Russian pilot of the 1st World War, Alexander Kozakov, who on March 18, 1915, shot down an Austrian Albatross aircraft with a ram attack over the front line. Moreover, Kozakov became the first pilot to survive a suicidal strike on an enemy plane: on a damaged Moran, he managed to make a successful landing at the location of Russian troops. The long-term silence about Kozakov’s feat is due to the fact that later this most productive Russian ace of the 1st World War (32 victories) became a White Guard and fought against Soviet power. Such a hero, naturally, did not suit Soviet historians, and his name was erased from the history of domestic aviation for many decades, it was simply forgotten...

Even during the 1st World War, several foreign pilots also carried out aerial ramming. So, in September 1916, British aviation captain Aiselwood, flying a D.H.2 fighter, shot down a German Albatross with a blow from the landing gear of his fighter, and then landed “on his belly” at his airfield. In June 1917, Canadian William Bishop, having fired all his cartridges in battle, deliberately cut off the wing struts of the German Albatross with the wing of his Nieuport. The enemy’s wings folded from the impact, and the German fell to the ground; Bishop arrived safely at the airfield. Subsequently, he became one of the best aces of the British Empire: he ended the war with 72 aerial victories to his name...

But perhaps the most amazing aerial ramming in World War I was performed by the Belgian Willie Coppens, who rammed the German Draken balloon on May 8, 1918. Having fired all the cartridges in several attacks on the balloon to no avail, Coppens hit the Draken's skin with the wheels of his Anrio fighter; the propeller blades also slashed across the tightly inflated canvas, and the Draken burst. At the same time, the HD-1 engine choked due to gas, poured into the hole of the ruptured cylinder, and Coppens literally miraculously did not die. He was saved by the oncoming air flow, which forcefully spun the propeller and started the Anrio engine when it rolled off the falling Draken. This was the first and only ram in the history of Belgian aviation.

Canadian ace William Bishop; Coppens's HD-1 "Henrio" breaks away from the "Draken" it rammed; Belgian ace Willie Coppens

After the end of the 1st World War, there naturally came a break in the history of air rams. Again, the ram, as a means of destroying an enemy aircraft, was remembered by pilots during the Spanish Civil War. At the very beginning of this war - in the summer of 1936 - the republican pilot, Lieutenant Urtubi, who found himself in a hopeless situation, having fired all the cartridges at the Francoist planes that surrounded him, rammed an Italian Fiat fighter from a frontal angle in a low-speed Nieuport. Both planes disintegrated from the impact; Urtubi managed to open his parachute, but on the ground he died from wounds received in battle. And about a year later (in July 1937) on the other side of the globe - in China - for the first time in the world, a sea ram was carried out, and a massive ram at that: at the very beginning of Japan's aggression against China, 15 Chinese pilots sacrificed themselves by attacking enemy landing forces from the air ships and sinking 7 of them!

On October 25, 1937, the world's first night air ram took place. It was carried out in Spain by Soviet volunteer pilot Evgeniy Stepanov, who, under difficult conditions, destroyed the Italian Savoia-Marceti bomber with a blow from the landing gear of his Chato (I-15) biplane. Moreover, Stepanov rammed the enemy, having almost full of ammunition - an experienced pilot, he understood that it was impossible to shoot down a huge three-engine plane with his small-caliber machine guns in one go, and after a long burst of fire at the bomber, he went to ram so as not to lose the enemy in the dark. After the attack, Evgeniy returned safely to the airfield, and in the morning, in the area he indicated, the Republicans found the wreckage of the Marcheti...

On June 22, 1939, the first ram in Japanese aviation was carried out over Khalkhin Gol by pilot Shogo Saito. Pressed “in pincers” by Soviet planes, having shot all the ammunition, Saito made a breakthrough, cutting off part of the tail of the fighter closest to him with his wing, and escaped from the encirclement. And when a month later, on July 21, saving his commander, Saito tried to ram a Soviet fighter again (the ram did not work - the Soviet pilot dodged the attack), his comrades gave him the nickname “King of Rams.” “King of Rams” Shogo Saito, who had 25 victories to his name, died in July 1944 in New Guinea, fighting in the ranks of the infantry (after losing his plane) against the Americans...

Soviet pilot Evgeny Stepanov; Japanese pilot Shogo Saito; Polish pilot Leopold Pamula

The first aerial ram in World War II was not carried out by a Soviet pilot, as is commonly believed in our country, but by a Polish pilot. This ram was carried out on September 1, 1939 by the deputy commander of the Interceptor Brigade covering Warsaw, Lieutenant Colonel Leopold Pamula. Having knocked out 2 bombers in a battle with superior enemy forces, he went on his damaged plane to ram one of the 3 Messerschmitt-109 fighters that attacked him. Having destroyed the enemy, Pamula escaped by parachute and made a safe landing at the location of his troops. Six months after Pamula’s feat, another foreign pilot committed an air ram: on February 28, 1940, in a fierce air battle over Karelia, the Finnish pilot Lieutenant Hutanantti rammed a Soviet fighter and died in the process.

Pamula and Hutanantti were not the only foreign pilots who carried out ramming missions at the beginning of World War II. During the German offensive against France and Holland, the pilot of the British Battle bomber N.M. Thomas accomplished a feat that we today call “Gastello’s feat.” Trying to stop the rapid German offensive, on May 12, 1940, the Allied command gave the order to destroy at any cost the crossings across the Meuse north of Maastricht, along which enemy tank divisions were transported. However, German fighters and anti-aircraft guns repelled all British attacks, inflicting horrific losses on them. And then, in a desperate desire to stop the German tanks, Flight Officer Thomas sent his Battle, hit by anti-aircraft guns, into one of the bridges, having managed to inform his comrades about the decision...

Six months later, another pilot repeated “Thomas’ feat.” In Africa, on November 4, 1940, another Battle bomber pilot, Lieutenant Hutchinson, was shot down by anti-aircraft fire while bombing Italian positions in Nyalli (Kenya). And then Hutchinson sent his Battle into the midst of the Italian infantry, destroying about 20 enemy soldiers at the cost of his own death. Eyewitnesses claimed that Hutchinson was alive at the time of the ramming - the British bomber was controlled by the pilot until the collision with the ground...

British fighter pilot Ray Holmes distinguished himself during the Battle of Britain. During the German raid on London on September 15, 1940, one German Dornier 17 bomber broke through the British fighter barrier to Buckingham Palace, the residence of the King of Great Britain. The German was already preparing to drop bombs on an important target when Ray appeared on his path in his Hurricane. Having dived from above on the enemy, Holmes, on a collision course, cut off the tail of the Dornier with his wing, but he himself was so seriously injured that he was forced to bail out by parachute.

Ray Holmes in the cockpit of his Hurricane; Ray Holmes ram

The next fighter pilots to take mortal risks for victory were the Greeks Marino Mitralexes and Grigoris Valkanas. During the Italo-Greek War, on November 2, 1940, over Thessaloniki, Marino Mitralexes rammed the propeller of his PZL P-24 fighter into an Italian bomber Kant Z-1007. After the ramming, Mitralexes not only landed safely, but also managed, with the help of local residents, to capture the crew of the bomber he shot down! Volkanas accomplished his feat on November 18, 1940. During a fierce group battle in the Morova region (Albania), he used up all the ammunition and went to ram an Italian fighter (both pilots were killed).

With the escalation of hostilities in 1941 (the attack on the USSR, the entry of Japan and the United States into the war), ramming became a fairly common occurrence in air warfare. Moreover, these actions were characteristic not only of Soviet pilots - ramming was carried out by pilots almost

So, on December 22, 1941, the Australian Sergeant Reed, who was fighting as part of the British Air Force, having used up all his cartridges, rammed his Brewster-239 into a Japanese army fighter Ki-43, and died in a collision with it. At the end of February 1942, the Dutchman J. Adam, flying the same Brewster, also rammed a Japanese fighter, but survived.

US pilots also carried out ramming attacks. Americans are very proud of their captain Colin Kelly, who in 1941 was presented by propagandists as the first “rammer” of the United States, who rammed the Japanese battleship Haruna on December 10 with his B-17 bomber. True, after the war, researchers found that Kelly did not commit any ramming. However, the American actually accomplished a feat that was undeservedly forgotten due to the pseudo-patriotic fabrications of journalists. That day, Kelly bombed the cruiser Nagara and distracted all the covering fighters of the Japanese squadron, giving other aircraft the opportunity to calmly bomb the enemy. When Kelly was shot down, he tried to maintain control of the plane until the end, giving the crew the opportunity to leave the dying car. At the cost of his life, Kelly saved ten comrades, but did not have time to save himself...

Based on this information, the first American pilot to actually carry out a ram was Captain Fleming, commander of the Vindicator bomber squadron of the US Marine Corps. During the Battle of Midway on June 5, 1942, he led his squadron's attack on Japanese cruisers. On approaching the target, his plane was hit by an anti-aircraft shell and caught fire, but the captain continued the attack and bombed. Seeing that the bombs of his subordinates did not hit the target (the squadron consisted of reservists and had poor training), Fleming turned around and again dived at the enemy, crashing the burning bomber into the cruiser Mikuma. The damaged ship lost its combat capability and was soon finished off by other American bombers.

Another American who went to ram was Major Ralph Cheli, who on August 18, 1943 led his bomber group to attack the Japanese airfield of Dagua (New Guinea). Almost immediately his B-25 Mitchell was shot down; then Cheli sent his flaming plane down and crashed into a formation of enemy aircraft standing on the ground, smashing five aircraft with the body of the Mitchell. For this feat, Ralph Celi was posthumously awarded the United States' highest honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In the second half of the war, many British also used aerial rams, although perhaps in a somewhat unique way (but with no less risk to their own lives). German Lieutenant General Erich Schneider, when describing the use of V-1 projectile aircraft against England, testifies: “brave English pilots shot down projectile aircraft either in an attack with cannon and machine gun fire, or by ramming them from the side.” This method of fighting was not chosen by the British pilots by chance: very often, when firing, a German shell exploded, destroying the pilot who attacked it - after all, when a V-V exploded, the radius of absolute destruction was about 100 meters, and hitting a small target moving at great speed from a greater distance it is very difficult, almost impossible. Therefore, the British (also, of course, risking death) flew up close to the Fau and pushed it to the ground with a blow from wing to wing. One wrong move, the slightest error in calculation - and only a memory remained of the brave pilot... This is exactly how the best English V-hunter, Joseph Berry, acted, destroying 59 German shell aircraft in 4 months. On October 2, 1944, he launched an attack on the 60th V-V, and this ram became his last...

"Killer Fau" Joseph Berry
So Berry and many other British pilots rammed German V-1 missiles

With the start of American bomber raids on Bulgaria, Bulgarian aviators also had to carry out air ramming missions. On the afternoon of December 20, 1943, when repelling a raid on Sofia by 150 Liberator bombers, which were accompanied by 100 Lightning fighters, Lieutenant Dimitar Spisarevski fired all the ammunition of his Bf-109G-2 at one of the Liberators, and then, rushing over the dying machine , crashed into the fuselage of the second Liberator, breaking it in half! Both planes crashed to the ground; Dimitar Spisarevski died. Spisarevski's feat made him a national hero. This ram made an indelible impression on the Americans - after the death of Spisarevski, the Americans feared every approaching Bulgarian Messerschmitt... Dimitar’s feat was repeated on April 17, 1944 by Nedelcho Bonchev. In a fierce battle over Sofia against 350 B-17 bombers, covered by 150 Mustang fighters, Lieutenant Nedelcho Bonchev shot down 2 of the three bombers destroyed by the Bulgarians in this battle. Moreover, Bonchev rammed the second plane, having used up all the ammunition. At the moment of the ramming strike, the Bulgarian pilot was thrown out of the Messerschmitt along with his seat. Having difficulty freeing himself from his seat belts, Bonchev escaped by parachute. After Bulgaria went over to the side of the anti-fascist coalition, Nedelcho took part in the battles against Germany, but in October 1944 he was shot down and captured. During the evacuation of the concentration camp in early May 1945, the hero was shot by a guard.

Bulgarian pilots Dimitar Spisarevski and Nedelcho Bonchev

As noted above, we have heard a lot about Japanese kamikaze suicide bombers, for whom the ram was virtually the only weapon. However, it must be said that ramming was carried out by Japanese pilots even before the advent of the kamikaze, but then these acts were not planned and were usually carried out either in the excitement of battle, or when the aircraft was seriously damaged, which precluded its return to base. A striking example of an attempt at such a ram is the dramatic description by the Japanese naval aviator Mitsuo Fuchida in his book “The Battle of Midway” of the last attack of Lieutenant Commander Yoichi Tomonaga. The commander of the torpedo bomber squad of the aircraft carrier “Hiryu”, Yoichi Tomonaga, who can well be called the predecessor of the “kamikaze”, on June 4, 1942, at a critical moment for the Japanese in the Battle of Midway, flew into battle on a heavily damaged torpedo bomber, which had one of its tanks shot through in the previous battle. At the same time, Tomonaga was fully aware that he did not have enough fuel to return from the battle. During a torpedo attack on the enemy, Tomonaga tried to ram the American flagship aircraft carrier Yorktown with his “Kate”, but, shot by the entire artillery of the ship, fell to pieces literally a few meters from the side...

Predecessor of the "kamikaze" Yoichi Tomonaga
Attack of the torpedo bomber "Kate", filmed from the aircraft carrier "Yorktown" during the Battle of Midway Atoll.
This is what Tomonaga's last attack looked like (it is quite possible that it was his plane that was filmed)

However, not all ramming attempts ended so tragically for Japanese pilots. For example, on October 8, 1943, fighter pilot Satoshi Anabuki, flying a light Ki-43, armed with only two machine guns, managed to shoot down 2 American fighters and 3 heavy four-engine B-24 bombers in one battle! Moreover, the third bomber, having used up all its ammunition, was destroyed by Anabuki with a ramming strike. After this ramming, the wounded Japanese managed to land his crashed plane “forced” on the coast of the Gulf of Burma. For his feat, Anabuki received an award that was exotic for Europeans, but quite familiar to the Japanese: the commander of the troops of the Burma district, General Kawabe, dedicated a poem of his own composition to the heroic pilot...

A particularly “cool” “rammer” among the Japanese was 18-year-old junior lieutenant Masajiro Kawato, who completed 4 air rams during his combat career. The first victim of the Japanese suicide attacks was a B-25 bomber, which Kawato shot down over Rabaul with a strike from his Zero, which was left without ammunition (the date of this ram is unknown to me). Masajiro, who escaped by parachute, again rammed an American bomber on November 11, 1943, and was wounded in the process. Then, in a battle on December 17, 1943, Kawato rammed an Airacobra fighter in a frontal attack, and again escaped by parachute. The last time Masajiro Kawato rammed a four-engine B-24 Liberator bomber over Rabaul on February 6, 1944, and again used a parachute to escape. In March 1945, the seriously wounded Kawato was captured by the Australians, and the war ended for him.

And less than a year before the surrender of Japan - in October 1944 - kamikazes entered the battle. The first kamikaze attack was carried out on October 21, 1944 by Lieutenant Kuno, who damaged the ship Australia. And on October 25, 1944, the first successful attack of an entire kamikaze unit under the command of Lieutenant Yuki Seki took place, during which an aircraft carrier and a cruiser were sunk, and another aircraft carrier was damaged. But, although the main targets of kamikazes were usually enemy ships, the Japanese also had suicide formations to intercept and destroy heavy American B-29 Superfortress bombers with ramming attacks. For example, in the 27th Regiment of the 10th Air Division, a flight of specially lightweight Ki-44-2 aircraft was created under the command of Captain Matsuzaki, which bore the poetic name “Shinten” (“Heavenly Shadow”). These “kamikazes of the Heavenly Shadow” became a real nightmare for the Americans who flew to bomb Japan...

Since the end of World War 2 until today, historians and amateurs have debated whether the kamikaze movement made sense and whether it was successful enough. In official Soviet military historical works, 3 negative reasons for the appearance of Japanese suicide bombers were usually identified: lack of modern equipment and experienced personnel, fanaticism and the “voluntary-forced” method of recruiting the perpetrators of the deadly mission. While fully agreeing with this, we must, however, admit that under certain conditions this tactic also brought some advantages. In a situation where hundreds and thousands of untrained pilots were dying uselessly from the crushing attacks of superbly trained American pilots, from the point of view of the Japanese command it was undoubtedly more profitable for them to cause at least some damage to the enemy during their inevitable death. It is impossible not to take into account here the special logic of the samurai spirit, which was implanted by the Japanese leadership as a model among the entire Japanese population. According to it, a warrior is born to die for his emperor, and a “beautiful death” in battle was considered the pinnacle of his life. It was precisely this logic, incomprehensible to a European, that prompted Japanese pilots at the beginning of the war to fly into battle without parachutes, but with samurai swords in the cockpits!

The advantage of suicide tactics was that the range of the kamikaze doubled compared to conventional aircraft (there was no need to save gasoline to return back). The enemy's losses in people from suicide attacks were much greater than the losses of the kamikazes themselves; Moreover, these attacks undermined the morale of the Americans, who experienced such horror in front of suicide bombers that the American command during the war was forced to classify all information about the “kamikaze” in order to avoid complete demoralization of the personnel. After all, no one could feel protected from sudden suicide attacks - not even the crews of small ships. With the same grim stubbornness, the Japanese attacked everything that could float. As a result, the results of the kamikaze’s activities were much more serious than the allied command tried to imagine at the time (but more on that in the conclusion).

Similar kamikaze attacks terrified American sailors

In Soviet times, in Russian literature not only was there never even a mention of air rams committed by German pilots, but it was also repeatedly stated that it was impossible for “cowardly fascists” to accomplish such feats. And this practice continued in the new Russia until the mid-90s, until, thanks to the emergence in our country of new Western studies translated into Russian, and the development of the Internet, it became impossible to deny documented confirmed facts of the heroism of our main enemy. Today it is already a proven fact: German pilots during the 2nd World War repeatedly used rams to destroy enemy aircraft. But the long-term delay in the recognition of this fact by domestic researchers only causes surprise and disappointment: after all, to be convinced of this, even in Soviet times it was enough to simply take a critical look at at least the domestic memoir literature. In the memoirs of Soviet veteran pilots, from time to time there are references to head-on collisions over the battlefield, when aircraft of the opposing sides collided with each other from opposing angles. What is this if not a double ram? And if in the initial period of the war the Germans almost did not use this technique, then this does not indicate a lack of courage among the German pilots, but that they had at their disposal quite effective weapons of traditional types, which allowed them to destroy the enemy without exposing their lives to unnecessary additional risk.

I do not know all the facts of ramming committed by German pilots on different fronts of the 2nd World War, especially since even participants in those battles often find it difficult to say for sure whether it was a deliberate ramming, or an accidental collision in the confusion of high-speed maneuverable combat (this also applies to Soviet pilots , with which rams are recorded). But even when listing the cases of ramming victories of German aces known to me, it is clear that in a hopeless situation the Germans boldly entered into a deadly collision for them, often not sparing their lives in order to harm the enemy.
If we specifically talk about the facts known to me, then among the first German “rammers” we can name Kurt Sochatzy, who on August 3, 1941 near Kiev, repelling an attack by Soviet attack aircraft on German positions, destroyed the “unbreakable Cementbomber” Il-2 with a frontal ramming blow. During the collision, Kurta's Messerschmitt lost half of its wing, and he had to hastily make an emergency landing directly along the flight path. Sohatzi landed on Soviet territory and was captured; nevertheless, for the accomplished feat, the command awarded him in absentia the highest award in Germany - the Knight's Cross.

If at the beginning of the war the ramming operations of German pilots, who were victorious on all fronts, were a rare exception, then in the second half of the war, when the situation was not in Germany’s favor, the Germans began to use ramming strikes more and more often. For example, on March 29, 1944, in the skies of Germany, the famous Luftwaffe ace Hermann Graf rammed an American Mustang fighter, receiving serious injuries that put him in a hospital bed for two months. The next day, March 30, 1944, on the Eastern Front, the German assault ace, holder of the Knight's Cross Alvin Boerst repeated the “feat of Gastello”. In the Iasi area, he attacked a Soviet tank column in an anti-tank Ju-87 variant, was shot down by anti-aircraft guns and, dying, rammed the tank in front of him. Boerst was posthumously awarded the Swords to the Knight's Cross. In the West, on May 25, 1944, a young pilot, Oberfenrich Hubert Heckmann, in a Bf.109G rammed Captain Joe Bennett's Mustang, beheading an American fighter squadron, after which he escaped by parachute. And on July 13, 1944, another famous ace, Walter Dahl, shot down a heavy American B-17 bomber with a ramming attack.

German pilots: fighter ace Hermann Graf and attack ace Alvin Boerst

The Germans had pilots who carried out several rams. For example, in the skies of Germany, while repelling American raids, Hauptmann Werner Gert rammed enemy planes three times. In addition, the pilot of the attack squadron of the Udet squadron, Willie Maksimovich, who destroyed 7 (!) American four-engine bombers with ramming strikes, became widely known. Vili was killed over Pillau in an air battle against Soviet fighters on April 20, 1945.

But the cases listed above are only a small part of the air rams committed by the Germans. In the conditions of the complete technical and quantitative superiority of allied aviation over German aviation at the end of the war, the Germans were forced to create units of their “kamikazes” (and even before the Japanese!). Already at the beginning of 1944, the Luftwaffe began forming special fighter-attack squadrons to destroy American bombers bombing Germany. The entire personnel of these units, which included volunteers and... penal prisoners, gave a written commitment to destroy at least one bomber on each flight - if necessary, then through ramming strikes! It was precisely such a squadron that the above-mentioned Vili Maksimovich belonged to, and these units were headed by Major Walter Dahl, already familiar to us. The Germans were forced to resort to mass ramming tactics precisely at a time when their former air superiority was negated by hordes of heavy Allied “Flying Fortresses”, advancing in a continuous stream from the west, and armadas of Soviet aircraft attacking from the east. It is clear that the Germans did not adopt such tactics out of good fortune; but this in no way detracts from the personal heroism of the German fighter pilots, who voluntarily decided to sacrifice themselves to save the German population, who were dying under American and British bombs...

Commander of fighter-attack squadrons Walter Dahl; Werner Gert, who rammed 3 Fortresses; Vili Maksimovich, who destroyed 7 “Fortresses” with rams

The official adoption of ramming tactics required the Germans to create an appropriate technology. Thus, all fighter-attack squadrons were equipped with a new modification of the FW-190 fighter with reinforced armor, which protected the pilot from enemy bullets at the moment of approaching the target closely (in fact, the pilot was sitting in an armored box that completely covered him from head to toe). The best test pilots worked with attack rammers on methods of rescuing a pilot from an aircraft damaged by a ramming attack - the commander of German fighter aviation, General Adolf Galland, believed that attack fighters should not be suicide bombers, and did everything possible to save the lives of these valuable pilots...

The assault version of the FW-190 fighter, equipped with a fully armored cabin and solid armored glass, allowed German pilots
get close to the “Flying Fortresses” and carry out a killer ram

When the Germans, as allies of Japan, learned about the “kamikaze” tactics and the high performance of squads of Japanese suicide pilots, as well as the psychological effect produced by the “kamikaze” on the enemy, they decided to transfer the eastern experience to Western lands. At the suggestion of Hitler’s favorite, the famous German test pilot Hanna Reitsch, and with the support of her husband, Oberst General of Aviation von Greim, at the end of the war, a manned projectile aircraft with a cabin for a suicide pilot was created on the basis of the V-1 winged bomb ( which, however, had a chance to use a parachute over the target). These human bombs were intended for massive attacks on London - Hitler hoped to use total terror to force Great Britain out of the war. The Germans even created the first detachment of German suicide bombers (200 volunteers) and began training them, but they did not have time to use their “kamikazes”. The mastermind of the idea and commander of the detachment, Hana Reich, came under another bombing of Berlin and ended up in the hospital for a long time, and General Galland immediately disbanded the detachment, considering the idea of ​​suicide terror to be madness...

A manned analogue of the V-1 rocket - Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg, and the inspiration for the idea of ​​​​the “German kamikaze” Hana Reich

Conclusion:

So, based on the above, we can come to the conclusion that ramming, as a form of combat, was characteristic not only of Soviet pilots - ramming was carried out by pilots almost of all countries participating in the battles.

Another thing is that our pilots carried out much more rams than the “foreigners.” In total, during the war, Soviet aviators, at the cost of the death of 227 pilots and the loss of over 400 aircraft, managed to destroy 635 enemy aircraft in the air with ram attacks. In addition, Soviet pilots carried out 503 land and sea rams, of which 286 were carried out on attack aircraft with a crew of 2 people, and 119 by bombers with a crew of 3-4 people. Thus, in terms of the number of pilots killed in suicide attacks (at least 1000 people!), the USSR, together with Japan, undeniably dominates the grim list of countries whose pilots extensively sacrificed their lives to achieve victory over the enemy. However, it must be admitted that the Japanese still surpassed us in the field of “purely Soviet form of combat.” If we evaluate only the effectiveness of the “kamikazes” (operating since October 1944), then at the cost of the lives of more than 5,000 Japanese pilots, about 50 were sunk and about 300 enemy warships were damaged, of which 3 sunk and 40 damaged were aircraft carriers with a huge number of aircraft on board .

So, in terms of the number of rams, the USSR and Japan are far ahead of the other countries at war. Undoubtedly, this testifies to the courage and patriotism of Soviet and Japanese pilots, however, in my opinion, it does not detract from the same merits of the pilots of other countries participating in the war. When a hopeless situation developed, not only the Russians and Japanese, but also the British, Americans, Germans, Bulgarians, etc. and so on. went to ram, risking their own lives for the sake of victory. But they only walked in a hopeless situation; regularly use complex expensive technique in the role of a banal “cleaver” is a stupid and expensive thing. My opinion: the massive use of rams speaks not so much about the heroism and patriotism of a certain nation, but about the level of its military equipment and the preparedness of the flight personnel and command, which constantly put their pilots in a hopeless situation. In the air units of countries in which the command skillfully managed units, creating an advantage in forces in the right place, whose aircraft had high combat characteristics, and whose pilots were well trained, the need to ram the enemy simply did not arise. But in air units of countries in which the command was unable to concentrate forces on the main direction, in which the pilots did not really know how to fly, and the aircraft had mediocre or even poor flight characteristics, ramming became almost the main form of combat. That is why at the beginning of the war, the Germans, who had the best aircraft, the best commanders and pilots, did not actually use rams. When the enemy created more advanced aircraft and outnumbered the Germans, and the Luftwaffe lost its most experienced pilots in numerous battles and no longer had time to properly train newcomers, the ramming method entered the arsenal of German aviation and reached the point of absurdity of “human bombs” ready to fall on their heads. civilian population...

In this regard, I would like to note that just at the time when the Japanese and Germans began the transition to kamikaze tactics, in the Soviet Union, which also widely used aerial rams, the commander of the USSR Air Force signed a very interesting order. It said: “Explain to all personnel of the Red Army Air Force that our fighters are superior in flight tactical data to all existing types of German fighters... The use of a “ram” in air combat with enemy aircraft is inappropriate, therefore the “ram” should be used only in exceptional cases." Leaving aside quality Soviet fighters, whose advantages over the enemy, it turns out, had to be “explained” to front-line pilots, let us pay attention to the fact that at a time when the Japanese and German command was trying to develop the line of using suicide bombers, the Soviet was trying to stop the already existing tendency of Russian pilots to commit suicide attacks. And there was something to think about: in August 1944 alone - the month preceding the appearance of the order - Soviet pilots carried out more air rams than in December 1941 - during the critical period of the battles near Moscow for the USSR! Even in April 1945, when Soviet aviation had absolute air supremacy, Russian pilots used as many rams as in November 1942, when the offensive at Stalingrad began! And this despite the “explained superiority” of Soviet technology, the undoubted advantage of the Russians in the number of fighters and, in general, the number of air rams decreasing from year to year (in 1941-42 - about 400 rams, in 1943-44 - about 200 rams , in 1945 - more than 20 rams). And everything is explained simply: with a strong desire to beat the enemy, most young Soviet pilots simply did not know how to properly fly and fight. Remember, this was well said in the film “Only Old Men Go to Battle”: “They don’t know how to fly yet, neither can they shoot, but EAGLES!” It was for this reason that Boris Kovzan, who did not even know how to turn on the on-board weapons, carried out 3 of his 4 rams. And it is for this reason that former aviation school instructor Ivan Kozhedub, who knew how to fly well, never rammed an enemy in 120 battles he conducted, although he had situations that were very unfavorable. But Ivan Nikitovich coped with them even without the “axe method”, because he had high flight and combat training, and his plane was one of the best in domestic aviation...

Hubert Heckmann 25.05. 1944 rams Captain Joe Bennett's Mustang, depriving the American fighter squadron of leadership

Design and research work on the topic: Air ram - a Russian weapon

Plan

I. Introduction
II. What is an air ram?
III. From the history of air rams
A. The first aerial rams
B. Aerial rams during the Great Patriotic War
B. Aerial rams in the USSR in the post-war period
IV. How dangerous is an air ram?
V. Why is an air ram called a “Russian weapon”?
VI. Conclusion
VII. Bibliography

I. Introduction

We very often talk about heroes, but rarely about how they achieved victories that immortalized their names. I was interested in the proposed topic because ramming is one of the most dangerous types of air combat, leaving the pilot with minimal chances of survival. The topic of my research is not only interesting, but important and relevant: after all, the topic of the exploits of heroes who protected our grandparents at the cost of their own lives will never become obsolete. They will not be forgotten! Their patriotism and courage will serve as an example to us!
Subject of research: history of military aviation, mainly of the Soviet period.

Purpose of the study:
. To understand what contribution Russian - Soviet aviators made to the development of the theory and practice of aircraft rams and thus establish how true the statement is that “the air ram is a Russian weapon.” Research objectives:
. Identify the motives that encourage pilots to engage in air ramming;
. Determine how deadly an air ram is and what factors influence its successful outcome;
. To study the dynamics of the use of air rams in wartime and find out why the “lion’s share” of rams occurred in the period 1941 - 1942;
. Compare the rams committed by Soviet pilots during the Great Patriotic War with the rams of Japanese kamikazes.

Hypothesis:
. The air ram is rightly called the “weapon of the Russians.”

Problematic issues:
. The frequency of use of rams in the first years of the Great Patriotic War - is this an indicator of the dedication of Soviet pilots, or proof of the technical backwardness of domestic aviation?
. Is it possible to identify types of air ramming that are safe for a pilot?

Research methods:
. analysis of historical material, comparison and synthesis.

II. What is an air ram?

Taran is an old Russian word. Initially, this was the name of the battering weapon. It is mentioned in the Ipatiev Chronicle under 1234. This is how Vladimir Dal interprets this word in his famous dictionary: “a suspended log bound from the toe, which is swung and hit against the wall.” Dahl does not give other meanings of this term.

Ram - battering ram weapon

Apparently at the end of the 19th century, with the spread of new types of military equipment, new interpretations of this word appeared. In explanatory dictionaries XX we encounter a new, more familiar to us, meaning: “a blow with the fuselage, propeller or wing of an aircraft, the hull of a ship, a tank on an enemy aircraft, ship, tank, as well as a fall in a burning car onto a concentration of enemy troops.”

From this definition we see that there are sea, tank and aircraft rams. History knows three types of rams using aircraft: air, fire and ram of ground objects. Let's look at each of these types separately.

A fire ram is a type of ram in which a damaged aircraft is directed at air, ground or sea targets. The most famous fire ram was committed on June 26, 1941 by Nikolai Gastello.

Fiery ram of Nikolai Gastello

Ramming ground targets - ramming an aircraft into ground targets. The first ramming of a ground object was carried out by Soviet pilot Mikhail Yukin in 1939 during the fighting on the Khalkhin Gol River.

An aerial ram is a deliberate collision with an enemy vehicle in the air with the goal of damaging or destroying it. It is this type of ram that my research is devoted to.

III. From the history of air rams

A. The first aerial rams

The author of the idea of ​​​​using aircraft for ramming is Nikolai Aleksandrovich Yatsuk (1883 - 1930) - one of the first Russian aviators. He was a participant in the Russo-Japanese War, including the Battle of Tsushima and the First World War. In the 1920s, Yatsuk taught at the VVIA named after. NOT. Zhukovsky.

Nikolai Alexandrovich Yatsuk

Nikolai Alexandrovich is the author of several works on the theory of aviation and aeronautics and the book “Aeronautics in Naval Warfare.” In 1911, his article about the possibility of “pilots ramming other people’s airplanes with their airplanes” appeared in the journal “Bulletin of Aeronautics.” It follows from this that the idea of ​​ramming an aircraft appeared thanks to a Russian aviator.

The first to bring Yatsuk's ideas to life was the legendary Pyotr Nikolaevich Nesterov (1887 - 1914) - the great Russian pilot, hero of the First World War, Knight of St. George, founder of aerobatics. On September 8, 1914, near the town of Zhovkva, Pyotr Nesterov accomplished his last feat - he rammed an Austrian reconnaissance plane Albatross, whose pilots were conducting aerial reconnaissance of the movements of Russian troops. The heavy Albatross was flying at a height inaccessible to shots from the ground. Nesterov, in a light, high-speed Moran, crossed his path. The Austrians tried to avoid the collision, but Nesterov overtook them and crashed his plane into the tail of the Albatross. Both planes fell to the ground and the pilots died.

It should be noted that Nesterov’s ram was forced. The fact is that at the beginning of the First World War, the aircraft of all the warring countries (except for the Russian Ilya Muromets) did not have machine guns. The command believed that the main task of aviation was reconnaissance, and the presence of machine guns would distract pilots from performing their main task. Therefore, the first air battles were fought with carbines and revolvers. Under these conditions, ramming was the most effective way to shoot down an enemy aircraft.

Taran of Pyotr Nikolaevich Nesterov

Let us also note that Nesterov did not intend to destroy the enemy’s plane at the cost of his own life. The “Report of the Investigation into the Circumstances of the Heroic Death of the Head of the 11th Corps Aviation Detachment, Staff Captain Nesterov” stated: “Staff Captain Nesterov has long expressed the opinion that it is possible to shoot down an enemy aircraft by hitting the wheels of your own aircraft from above on the supporting surfaces of the enemy aircraft, and allowed for the possibility of a successful outcome for the ramming pilot.” Thus, Nesterov believed in a successful outcome for him from the ram. But due to an incorrectly calculated speed, an impact occurred with the fuselage, which led to damage to the airplane and the subsequent death of the pilot. Those. The reason for the death of the famous pilot was inaccuracy in calculations.

B. Aerial rams during the Great Patriotic War

The air ram was widely used during the Great Patriotic War. Senior Lieutenant Ivan Ivanov opened the account for them. His watch, stopped at the moment of the collision, showed 4 hours 25 minutes on June 22, 1941. Less than half an hour has passed since the start of the war.

Let us dwell on the most noticeable rams of the war years, paying attention to the reasons that forced the pilots to make a deliberate collision.

On the night of August 7, 1941, having consumed all his ammunition and was wounded in the arm, fighter pilot Viktor Talalikhin rammed a German bomber. Victor was lucky: his I-16, which cut off the tail of the Non-111 (enemy plane) with its propeller, began to fall, but the pilot was able to jump out of the falling plane and land by parachute. Let us pay attention to the reason for this ram: due to injury and lack of ammunition, Talalikhin had no other opportunity to continue the battle. Undoubtedly, by his actions, Viktor Talakhin demonstrated courage and patriotism. But it is also clear that before the ramming, he was losing the air battle. The ram became Talalikhin’s last, albeit very risky, means of seizing victory.

Victor Talalikhin

On September 12, 1941, the first aerial ramming attack by a woman took place. Ekaterina Zelenko and her crew on a damaged Su-2 were returning from reconnaissance. They were attacked by 7 enemy Me-109 fighters. Our plane was alone against seven enemies. The Germans surrounded the Su-2. A fight ensued. The Su-2 was shot down, both crew members were injured, and the ammunition ran out. Then Zelenko ordered the crew members to leave the plane, and she continued to fight. Soon she also ran out of ammunition. Then she took the course of the fascist attacking her and led the bomber to approach. When the wing hit the fuselage, the Messerschmitt broke in half, and the Su-2 exploded, and the pilot was thrown out of the cockpit. Thus, Zelenko destroyed the enemy vehicle, but at the same time died herself. This is the only case of aerial ramming committed by a woman!

Ekaterina Zelenko

The ramming carried out by the senior political instructor of the 1st squadron of the 127th Fighter Aviation Regiment, Andrei Danilov, is indicative. It happened in the sky over Grodno. On I-153 aircraft, the pilots of the squadron in which Danilov fought fought an unequal battle with the enemy Messerschmitts. The wingman, having received damage in the previous battle, fell behind and was unable to cover his comrade. And Danilov single-handedly took on nine Messers. A fascist shell hit the wing of his plane, the pilot was wounded. Danilov ran out of ammunition, he directed the plane at the enemy, ramming the wing of the Messerschmitt with its propeller. The enemy fighter began to fall. The I-153 also lost control, but the bleeding Danilov took the plane into horizontal flight and managed to land it with the landing gear retracted.

This incident shows us that even in the most hopeless rams, there was still a chance to survive. The combat pilots knew about this and hoped to escape, save the plane and “return to duty.”

Andrey Danilov

Please note that the above cases have a lot in common:
1. Soviet pilots were left without cover;
2. The enemy had numerical superiority;
3. The pilots were injured;
4. Ammunition is out;
5. Soviet aircraft were inferior in maneuverability and technical parameters to the German Messerschmitts - the best fighters of the first years of the war.

Thus, the rams of Talalikhin, Danilov and Zelenko were forced; only by risking their own lives and the survivability of their aircraft could the pilots shoot down the enemy.

In 1942, the number of rams did not decrease.

Boris Kovzan rammed enemy planes three times in 1942. In the first two cases, he returned safely to the airfield on his MiG-3 plane. In August 1942, on a La-5 plane, Boris Kovzan discovered a group of enemy bombers and fighters. In a battle with them, he was shot down and injured in his eye, and then Kovzan directed his plane at an enemy bomber. The impact threw Kovzan out of the cabin and from a height of 6,000 meters, with his parachute not fully opening, he fell into a swamp, breaking his leg and several ribs. The partisans who arrived in time pulled him out of the swamp. The heroic pilot was in the hospital for 10 months. He lost his right eye but returned to flying duty.

Boris Kovzan

Here's another case. On August 13, 1942, near Voronezh, Lieutenant Sergei Vasilievich Achkasov, together with the squadron commander, entered battle against 9 enemy bombers and 7 fighters. Achkasov was out of all ammunition, and at that time two Messerschmitts came into the tail of the commander’s plane. Then the lieutenant, with a confident and skillful maneuver, forced one fascist to turn away, and went to ram the second. At an altitude of 5000 meters it fell on the enemy. The impact was so strong that the Me-109 began to fall apart while still in the air.

We see that in 1942 the picture did not change: pilots went to ram only in a hopeless situation, when other means of fighting the enemy had been exhausted.

Sergey Achkasov

Now let's see how the number of rams changed with the stabilization of the situation on the Soviet-German front. In total, during the war years, Soviet pilots carried out more than 600 rams (the exact number of rams is unknown; research on this issue is still underway). Of these, more than 2/3 of the rams occurred in 1941-1942. In the subsequent years of the war, rams were used less and less. So in the first year of the war, Soviet pilots carried out 192 rams, in 1945 - only 22. From these statistics we see that the most rams were carried out in the first two years of the Great Patriotic War.

This can be explained by the lack of ammunition (at first the vehicles were not equipped at all with equipment for air combat), the poor maneuverability of Soviet fighters and, at the same time, the dedication of our fighters and their faith in Victory. As soon as the situation in the sky levels out and Soviet aircraft become more “competitive” and the pilots gain experience, the number of rams decreases noticeably.

Let us give an example of one of the last rams of the Great Patriotic War. On March 10, 1945, pilot I.V. Fedorov flew on a Yak-1B fighter and entered into battle with six Bf-109 fighters at once. In an unequal battle, Fedorov’s plane caught fire, and he himself was wounded. Then he directed his fighter to intercept the pair, who were in a turn. One of the Nazis tried to turn away, moving the plane from a left turn to a right turn. At some point, the Bf-109 froze in place. Fedorov took advantage of this. With the left wing of his fighter, he struck the Messerschmitt's cockpit. Both planes began to fall. At the moment of impact, Fedorov, breaking the belts and breaking through the closed canopy, was thrown out of the cockpit and landed by parachute at the medical battalion.

"Yak-1B". Ivan Fedorov fought with the Bf-109 on such a machine

It can be noted that, firstly, the Soviet pilot fought on equal terms with a numerically superior enemy and even shot down two enemy planes. Secondly, unlike the first years of the war, when it was mostly clumsy bombers that were rammed, the target of I. Fedorov’s ramming was one of the best fighters - the Messerschmitt. Thirdly, our pilots, without losing their readiness for self-sacrifice, gained the necessary experience of survival after a ramming.

Interim conclusions on the section “Aerial rams during the Great Patriotic War”

Summarizing the above, we can draw the following intermediate conclusions:

The air ram was used quite often during the Great Patriotic War;

Rams were used by brave pilots who understood that the slightest inaccuracy would kill them;

There were chances to stay alive and land the car. The ramming technique was improved taking into account the characteristics of each type of aircraft. The pilots knew what and where to ram the enemy plane;

For Soviet pilots, rams were the “last resort” to hit the enemy, which they resorted to if it was completely impossible to continue the air battle;

The large number of rams committed by Soviet pilots in the first two years of the war is an indicator of the technical backwardness of Soviet aviation. German aircraft were more maneuverable, better protected and armed;

As the technical characteristics of aircraft improve, the number of aerial rams carried out by Soviet pilots is noticeably decreasing.

B. Aerial rams in the USSR in the post-war period

After the Victory over Nazi Germany, rams continued to be used by Soviet pilots, but this happened much less frequently:

• 1951 - 1 ram
• 1952 - 1 ram
• 1973 - 1 ram
• 1981 - 1 ram

The reason is due to the absence of wars on the territory of the Soviet Union and the fact that powerful vehicles equipped with firearms and maneuverable and light interceptor aircraft appeared.

Here are some examples of the use of rams in the post-war period:

G.N.Eliseev

November 28, 1973 captain Eliseev G.N. carried out combat duty in the Mugan Valley region (Azerbaijan SSR). The state border of the USSR was violated by an F-4 aircraft. Phantom" Iranian Air Force. On command from the command post, Captain Eliseev first took standby No. 1, and then took off in a MiG-21 fighter to intercept the intruder. Captain Eliseev caught up with the intruder not far from the border. An order came from the ground: “Destroy the target!” Eliseev launched 2 missiles, but they missed. An order was received from the command post to stop the enemy’s flight at any cost. Eliseev replied: “I do!” He approached the intruder aircraft and the wing of his fighter struck its tail. He went down. The crew, consisting of an American instructor and an Iranian crew, ejected and was detained by border guards. Eliseev’s plane crashed into a mountain after being rammed, killing the pilot. G. Eliseev was awarded posthumously.

Consider the last ram in the history of the Soviet Union.

On July 18, 1981, the state border of the USSR on the territory of Armenia was violated by a Canadair CL-44 transport plane of an Argentine airline with a Swiss crew, transporting a shipment of weapons to Iran. Two pairs of Su-15 fighters were scrambled to intercept. Guard captain V.A. Kulyapin was directed to the target. He was given the task of putting the offender on our territory. Having discovered the intruder aircraft, Kulyapin set off on a parallel course and began giving signs to the intruder to follow him. He did not react and continued to fly towards the border. Then the command came from the command post to shoot down the intruder. Kulyapin's Su-1 was armed with R-98M long-range missiles. The distance was insufficient to launch them, and there was no longer enough time to make a new attack - the intruder was approaching the border. Then Kulyapin decided to ram. He approached the intruder aircraft and, on the second attempt, struck the right stabilizer of the transport aircraft with his fuselage. After this, Kulyapin ejected, and the CL-44 went into a tailspin and fell 2 km from the border. The crew died. The pilot was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, but was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

Valentin Aleksandrovich Kulyapin

On the issue of the need for Eliseev and Kulyapin rams, different points of view are expressed. I believe that the pilots were completely justified in ramming. The state border is sacred, and it was impossible to stop the intruder aircraft except by ramming them.

IV. How dangerous is an air ram?

This study provides examples of only the most famous rams. But this list can be supplemented with a hundred more names of people who were not afraid to be rammed as certain death.

Meanwhile, the history of aviation knows quite a few examples when pilots who used a ram survived:

Viktor Talalikhin survived after a night ramming in 1941;
. Andrei Danilov not only survived in 1941, but also kept the car;
. Boris Kovzan rammed enemy planes four times in 1941-1942;
. I.E. rammed six times and remained alive. Fedorov in 1945;

In total, during the years of the Great Patriotic War, 35 pilots repeatedly rammed. Consequently, not all rams are as dangerous as is commonly believed. Often the pilots survived; less often, they even landed the planes on the ground with minor damage.

I will name the factors that, in my opinion, contributed to the survival of the pilot who committed the ramming and the preservation of the aircraft:
. A lot depended on the personal qualities of the pilot: courage, determination. If the pilot had changed his mind about ramming at the last moment, then most likely he would have been doomed to failure. Much was decided by such qualities as the restraint and prudence of the pilot, who had to, without panicking, calmly damage the enemy’s car and land his damaged plane on the ground;
. The skill of the pilot played no less a role;
. Thirdly, the correct choice of ramming technique contributed to the successful outcome of the ramming.
. Supporting factors include favorable weather conditions, technical and flight qualities of the vehicle, and the number of enemy aircraft.

Let's think about whether there are relatively safe methods of ramming.

The following methods of air ramming are distinguished:

1. Impact of the landing gear on the wing

Used on early biplanes with fragile wings and non-retractable landing gear. The attacking airplane approaches the target from above and strikes the upper wing of the target with its landing gear wheels.

It was this method of ramming that Nesterov used. Later, this type of ram was successfully used by Alexander Kazakov. With this ram, the pilot’s chances of a successful, but not very soft landing were great. Even with the most terrible performance of this type of ram, the worst thing that could happen to the car is damage to the chassis. In an emergency, the pilot had time to eject from the damaged vehicle. There were still chances to save the emergency plane. It could, for example, be planted on water.

2. Impact of the propeller on the tail unit

The attacking aircraft approached the target from behind and struck the target's tail with its propeller. Such a strike leads to destruction or loss of controllability of the target aircraft.

If performed correctly, the pilot of an attacking aircraft has a fairly good chance: in a collision, only the propeller suffers, and even if it is damaged, it is possible to land the aircraft or leave it with a parachute.

This is the most common type of air ram during the Great Patriotic War. It was widely used on piston aircraft of various designs. Let us remind you that Andrei Danilov used this type of ram and not only remained alive, but was also able to save the plane.

3. Wing strike

It was carried out both during a frontal approach and when approaching a target from behind. The blow was delivered by the wing to the tail or fuselage, including the cockpit of the target aircraft. Sometimes frontal attacks ended with such rams.

Ivan Fedorov and Ekaterina Zelenko used exactly this method of ramming during the Great Patriotic War. Zelenko died, Fedorov remained alive.

In the event of such an impact, the plane could lose balance, and it would be almost impossible to land such a machine, but the pilot could eject, albeit with great difficulty.

4. Fuselage strike

The most dangerous type of ram for a pilot. The fuselage is the body of the aircraft. The fuselage itself contains the most important mechanisms. Such a ram led to the destruction of the aircraft, often leading to immediate fire. The pilot might not have time to leave the car.

However, there are known cases of pilots surviving after such a ramming. Valentin Kulyapin made such a ram in 1981 and managed to eject.

Thus, all rams are extremely risky. But there was always a chance to survive! The greatest chance for the pilot to escape was when the landing gear hit. The most dangerous type of ram is a fuselage strike.

V. Why is an air ram called a “Russian weapon”?

There is an opinion in the literature that the ram cannot be called a Russian weapon. Allegedly, the Russians just came up with a battering ram and that’s it. The exponents of this point of view were, for example, Alexey Stepanov and Pyotr Vlasov, authors of the work “Aerial ram - a weapon not only of Soviet heroes.”

In this section I will present arguments in favor of the fact that the ram is indeed a Russian weapon.

Without a doubt, pilots from many countries have used the ramming technique. On December 22, 1941, while fighting as part of the British Air Force, Australian Sergeant Reed, having used up all his ammunition, rammed a Japanese Ki-43 fighter and died in a collision with it.

In 1942, Dutchman J. Adam rammed a Japanese fighter and survived.

In December 1943, Bulgarian Dimitar Spisarevski, fighting on the side of Germany, crashed into the fuselage of an American Liberator in his Bf-109G-2, breaking it in half! Both planes crashed to the ground. Dimitar Spisarevski died. This ram made an indelible impression on the Americans - after the death of Spisarevski, the Americans feared every approaching Bulgarian Messerschmitt....

Taran Dimitar Spisarevski

Of course, the Japanese kamikazes deserve the greatest fame. This phenomenon arose in October 1944 during air battles over the Pacific Ocean. Kamikaze is a squad of suicide pilots who sent their planes to enemy vehicles, rammed them and died in the process.

They had practically no chance to survive, because... most often their planes were packed with explosives. Despite the initial intention to die while carrying out the mission, there have been recorded cases of suicide pilots returning to base or being picked up at sea. In most cases this was due to faulty aircraft and engines. If the target was not detected, or the attack was disrupted for some other reason, the kamikaze was directly ordered to return.

Let us note that, unlike kamikazes, Russian pilots tried to stay alive after the attacks. This confirms the number of different techniques for striking aircraft against vehicles that were invented during wartime. In addition, the phenomenon of kamikazes appeared much later and this means that they are just followers of Russian hero pilots.

There is no doubt that the use of aerial ramming is typical not only for Soviet pilots - ramming was carried out by pilots from almost all countries participating in battles.

And yet, in my opinion, the ram can be called a “Russian weapon”, because:
. It was the Russians who came up with the idea of ​​​​using a ram in the air (N. Yatsuk).
. The Russian pilot (P. Nesterov) carried out an aerial ram in practice for the first time;
. Nesterov was the first pilot to die during the ramming;
. Russian pilots came up with several technical techniques and theoretically substantiated the dependence of the type of ram on the structure of the aircraft;
. The first woman to perform a ramming attack was Soviet pilot Ekaterina Zelenko; . Viktor Talalikhin was the first to use a night ram;
. The “lion's share” of World War II air rams was carried out by Soviet pilots;
. Even in the peaceful post-war years, our pilots used air rams as a means of combating state border violators.

Soviet wartime propaganda poster

Thus, the aerial ram can be called the “weapon of the Russians,” but not because only the Russians were capable of performing it, but because they made the greatest contribution to the theory and practice of ramming.

VI. Conclusion

We reviewed the history of air rams in our country and can conclude that domestic aviators were the first to come up with this method of air combat and put it into practice. They also have the honor of developing the ramming technique and performing ramming at night. The only woman who committed a night ram is our compatriot. During World War II, Soviet pilots crashed into enemy planes about 600 times. No country can compete with the USSR in this indicator. And finally, cases of ramming were recorded in the USSR even in peacetime.

Thus, our hypothesis was confirmed: the ram can indeed be called “the weapon of Russian heroes.”

A study of the dynamics of the use of rams and the motives that prompted the pilots to use them led us to the conclusion that the Soviet pilots were about to collide with an enemy aircraft when their machine was irreversibly damaged and (or) they themselves were seriously injured. Those. ramming was the last resort to inflict damage on the enemy, even at the cost of one’s own life.

We compared the rams committed by Japanese kamikazes and Soviet pilots and can talk about the fundamental differences between them. Among kamikazes it was considered a shame not to die. Russian pilots were focused on survival and saving the car. Staying alive for them is a sign of skill!

In conclusion, we will answer problematic questions:

. The frequency of use of rams in the first years of the Great Patriotic War - is this an indicator of the dedication of Soviet pilots, or proof of the technical backwardness of domestic aviation?

I believe that the pilots who decided to ram demonstrated true courage and patriotism. They are real heroes, their feat must not be forgotten! However, the frequency of ramming in 1941 - 1942 is an indicator of the superiority of German aircraft in flight performance and firepower.

. Is it possible to identify safe types of air ramming?

I came to the conclusion that there are no safe methods of ramming. The survival of the pilot and his vehicle depended on many factors, and above all, on the accuracy of the maneuver. And yet, the greatest chance of salvation was the impact of the landing gear.

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