Son of Grigory Rechkalov, Valery, born in 1940. Rechkalov Grigory Andreevich

Rechkalov Grigory Andreevich

One of the most successful Soviet aces, distinguished by his swiftness and indomitability.

Statistics

During the war he flew more than 450 combat missions, conducted 122 air battles, won, according to updated data, 61 victories personally (according to other sources, 56) and 4 in a group, for which he was awarded twice (in May 1943 and July 1944) title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Biography

Born on February 9, 1920 in the village of Khudyakovo, Irbit district, Perm province, into a peasant family. At a young age he learned to fly at a local flying club. He entered and graduated from the military pilot school in Perm in 1939. After promotion to rank, the sergeant was sent to serve in the 55th Fighter Aviation Regiment in Kirovograd. He flew on the I-153 fighter.

Who was

During the war years, he grew up in the regiment (which became the 16th Guards in March 1942) from junior lieutenant to major. He flew out on attack missions, escorted attack aircraft, and for reconnaissance, but considered his main task to be conducting air battles with enemy aircraft, often conducting “free hunts.” He finished combat operations as an inspector of piloting techniques in the 9th Guards Fighter Division, commanded by his teacher, three times Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel A.I. Pokryshkin. After the war he continued to serve in the Air Force. In 1951 he graduated from the Air Force Academy in Monino. Since 1959 in reserve, he lived first in Moscow, since 1980 - in the city of Zhukovsky, Moscow region. He wrote books about military everyday life: “Visiting Youth”, “The Smoky Sky of War”, “In the Sky of Moldova”.

What is he famous for?

In his final years he fought on an Airacobra, decorated with numerous stars on the engine according to the number of victories won, and his own initials RGA, painted on the rear fuselage. According to the ace himself, what he most appreciated in his fighter was its excellent radio station, which allowed him to constantly maintain reliable radio contact with other pilots and the ground. Probably, no other Soviet ace personally has such a variety of types of officially shot down enemy aircraft as Rechkalov: Heinkel and Junkers bombers, Henschel and Junkers attack aircraft, Messerschmitt and Focke fighters. Wulf", liaison "physicallers", reconnaissance and transport personnel, as well as relatively rare trophies - the Italian "Savoy" and the Polish PZL-24, used by the Royal Romanian Air Force.

Battle sites

Fought on the Southern, North Caucasian, 1st, 2nd and 4th Ukrainian fronts.

Cases of manifestation of the highest degree of heroism

During the first two weeks of the battle in Kuban Art. Lieutenant Rechkalov personally shot down 8 enemy aircraft in air battles and was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the first time. He achieved his greatest success on October 1 and November 1, 1943, shooting down three Junkers-87 dive bombers on each of these days in the area of the Molochnaya River and north of Perekop.

Circumstances of death

State awards

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded the Order of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, two Orders of the Red Star, the Order of Alexander Nevsky and the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

The future twice Hero of the Soviet Union, one of the best Soviet aces, Grigory Andreevich Rechkalov, was born on February 9, 1920 in the village of Khudyakovo, Irbitsky district, into an ordinary peasant family. At the end of 1937, on a Komsomol ticket, young Rechkalov went to a military pilot school in Perm, which he successfully graduated from in 1939. After distribution, Grigory, with the rank of junior lieutenant, is sent to serve in the 55th Fighter Aviation Regiment, which has given the country many famous pilots.

At the time Rechkalov joined the 55th IAP, it was equipped with I-153, I-16 and UTI-4 aircraft and was part of the 1st KOVO high-speed bomber brigade. In 1940, the regiment was transferred to the 20th mixed aviation division, which was part of the Air Force of the Odessa Military District. The regiment was located on the outskirts of the small town of Balti near the border with Romania.

On June 22, 1941, Grigory Rechkalov arrived at the disposal of his regiment from Odessa, where he passed a medical flight commission, which wrote him off from flying work; the pilot had color blindness and could not distinguish colors well. By that time, the first losses had already been noted in the regiment, and combat work was in full swing. Having reported his arrival to the unit and decommissioned from flights, Rechkalov immediately receives his first combat mission - to take documents to the neighboring unit in an I-153 fighter. The chief of staff of the regiment, Major Matveev, did not even pay attention to the doctors’ conclusions; there was no time for that. Thus, unexpectedly, a very difficult task was solved for the fighter pilot, which had tormented him all the way on the way to the regiment. On his first combat mission, Grigory Rechkalov met the enemy in battle, survived and was able to help out his comrade.

In the future, chance will intervene more than once in the fate of the ace pilot, which will provide him with the opportunity to return to the skies. Talking about them would take too much time. It is only worth saying that after a month of the war, having 3 downed German planes in his combat account, Rechkalov was seriously wounded in the leg and, wounded, brought his I-16 to the airfield, from where he was immediately transported to the hospital. At the hospital he undergoes a very complex operation on his right leg. This wound put him out of action for almost a year. In April 1942, having escaped from the reserve air regiment, where the pilot was retraining on the Yak-1, he returned to his hometown, now the 16th GvIAP.

From this moment on, a new stage of his flying career begins with the call sign “RGA”. Ahead of him awaits retraining for the American P-39 Airacobra fighter, the menacing sky of the Kuban, the first Golden Star of the Hero, fierce battles in the skies over Iasi, the second Golden Star and finally the sky of Berlin. This segment also included some confrontation with the famous Soviet ace Pokryshkin, which received an unexpected development after the end of the war and which they previously preferred not to talk about out loud.

Grigory Rechkalov entered the list as the most successful ace, having won the most victories on the P-39 Airacobra fighter. By the end of the war, his Cobra had 56 stars, which symbolized the pilot’s 53 personal and 3 group victories. Rechkalov was the second most successful Allied pilot. He had 61 personal victories and 4 group victories.

Among the German planes shot down by Grigory Rechkalov were:

30 Me-109 fighters;
5 FW-190 fighter
2 Me-110 fighters;
11 Ju-87 bombers
5 Ju 88 bombers
3 Ju 52 transport aircraft
2 He-111 bombers
2 light reconnaissance aircraft Fi 156
1 Hs 126 fighter-spotter

Conflict with Pokryshkin

For those who were interested in the history of the 55th IAP, which later turned into the 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, and subsequently the 9th GvIAD, which was commanded by Pokryshkin from July 1944, the strained relationship between the division commander and one of the best Soviet aces twice Hero of the Soviet Union Grigory Andreevich Rechkalov. At one time, the aviation community even waged serious debate on the vastness of the World Wide Web, trying to understand the nature of the relationship between the two famous Soviet aces. Many believed that the reasons lay in their aerial rivalry, while a variety of aspects of their combat interaction were taken into account.

Aces pilots of the 9th Guards Aviation Division at the Bell P-39 Airacobra fighter G.A. Rechkalova. From left to right: Alexander Fedorovich Klubov, Grigory Andreevich Rechkalov, Andrei Ivanovich Trud and commander of the 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment Boris Borisovich Glinka.

Whether this is true or not, over time it began to seem that the strained relationship between the two pilots, which led to a serious conflict, was connected with their personal accounts of downed aircraft. These assumptions were confirmed by Rechkalov’s relatives, in particular his wife Anfisa and daughter Lyubov spoke about this. According to the daughter of the famous ace, after the end of the Great Patriotic War, Grigory Rechkalov, working with TsAMO documents, found 3 of his planes shot down in 1941 on the account of Alexander Pokryshkin. Having learned about this, he most likely called his immediate military superior and expressed everything he thought about him. Alexander Pokryshkin’s reaction was not long in coming; after this conversation, Rechkalov was forgotten, and access to the TsAMO archives was closed to him. Even another Soviet ace Georgy Golubev, who was Pokryshkin’s wingman and was friends with Rechkalov during the war, in his book “Paired with the Hundredth,” writes practically nothing about his wartime friend, building the entire narrative around Pokryshkin’s personality. According to the relatives of Grigory Rechkalov, he maintained his opinion that the 3 planes he shot down were attributed to Pokryshkin until his death in 1990.

Rechkalov’s personal combat account since 06/22/1941 opens with the following enemy aircraft shot down: on June 26 in the Ungheni area he shot down an Me-109 fighter, on June 27 an Hs 126 fighter-spotter and on July 11 a Ju 88 bomber. However, already a month after the start of the war, Grigory Rechkalov receives a serious wound in the leg. During a combat mission on July 26, 1941, to escort seven I-153s that flew out on an attack mission, Rechkalov was part of a flight of I-16 escort fighters. In the Dubossary area, when approaching the target, a group of aircraft comes under intense German anti-aircraft fire. During the shelling, Rechkalov was wounded; the hit on the plane was so strong and accurate that the fighter's rudder pedal was broken in half, and the pilot's foot was seriously damaged.

During the pilot's absence, many documents of the 55th IAP were destroyed during the retreat from Odessa. It is possible that Rechkalovo’s account was “zeroed” also because during his almost year-long absence the regiment transferred to another unit, while information about the pilot’s victories remained in the documents of the 20th Mixed Air Division. The report on the combat work of the new 16th Guards Aviation Regiment was already compiled in the reserve regiment, so there was nowhere to get data for 1941 from. This would be a fairly convincing version, if not for the fact that many pilots of the 55th IAP, even despite the burning of staff documents, the downed planes were recorded again and only the “returnee” Grigory Rechkalov had to start his combat journey from scratch. One way or another, until the end of his life Rechkalov was convinced that 3 victories of 1941 were taken from his combat account, which, by some coincidence, ended up in Pokryshkin’s account.

Bell P-39 "Airacobra"

Many years after the end of the war, Grigory Rechkalov was asked what he valued most in his P-39Q Airacobra fighter, on which he won so many victories: the power of the fire salvo, speed, engine reliability, visibility from the cockpit? To this question, Rechkalov noted that all of the above, of course, played a role and these advantages are important, but in his opinion, the most important thing in the American fighter was... the radio. According to him, the Cobra had excellent radio communication, rare at that time. Thanks to her, the pilots in the group could communicate with each other, as if on the phone. Whoever saw what in the air immediately reported, so there were no surprises during the combat missions.

It is worth noting that the Airacobras have come a long way, constantly modernizing and improving, including taking into account the requirements of the Soviet side. To assemble and fly the fighters that were in the USSR, a special group of the Air Force Research Institute was created, which began a thorough study of the flight performance characteristics of the Airacobra, as well as eliminating various identified defects. The first versions of the P-39D were distinguished by inflated characteristics. For example, the speed at the ground was only 493 km/h, and at an altitude of 7000 m – 552 km/h, the maximum speed that the aircraft managed to reach at an altitude of 4200 m was 585 km/h. The higher the plane climbed, the lower its rate of climb became. At an altitude of 5000 meters it was 9.6 m/s, but at the ground it was already 14.4 m/s. The takeoff and landing characteristics of the fighter were also quite high. The plane's mileage was 350 meters, and the takeoff run was 300 meters.

The plane had a good flight range, which was equal to 1000 km. and could stay in the sky for 3.5 hours. The fighter's fairly good characteristics at low altitudes allowed it to effectively act as an escort vehicle for Soviet Il-2 attack aircraft and protect them from German fighters, as well as successfully fight German dive bombers and work quite confidently against ground targets. Over time, the characteristics of the fighter only grew and were brought to a very high level.

It is worth noting that American engineers, designers and workers were sympathetic to the proposals coming from the Soviet Air Force, which related to improving the design of the fighter. Bell company specialists, when coming to the USSR, visited military units and tried to study the circumstances and causes of accidents on the spot. In turn, Soviet engineers and pilots were also sent to the United States, where they assisted the Bell company in improving the P-39 Airacobra fighter. The largest center of Soviet aviation science, the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after. Zhukovsky known by the abbreviation TsAGI.

Work to improve the aircraft was largely based on improving engine performance and reducing the take-off weight of the fighter. Already from the P-39D-2 version, the aircraft began to be equipped with a new Allison V-1710-63 engine, the power of which, without turning on the afterburner mode, was 1325 hp. To reduce the take-off weight of the fighter, the ammunition load of wing machine guns was reduced from 1000 to 500 rounds per barrel, and for fuselage machine guns from 270 to 200 rounds per barrel. Also, the hydraulic system for reloading the gun was completely removed from the aircraft; it could only be reloaded at the airfield. In addition, units that were installed on the P-40 Kittyhawk aircraft, which also arrived in the USSR under Lend-Lease, were installed in the air, fuel and oil systems.

In 1942, the most massive and best modification of the P-39Q fighter went into production; Rechkalov flew the P-39Q-15 fighter. Unlike other models, the fighter with the letter Q had 2 large-caliber 12.7-mm machine guns installed instead of 4 wing-mounted rifle-caliber machine guns. Among the fighters of this series there were also special lightweight models, for example, the P-39Q-10 version was distinguished by the fact that it had no wing machine guns completely.

Sources used:
www.airwiki.org/history/aces/ace2ww/pilots/rechkalov.html
www.airwar.ru/history/aces/ace2ww/pilots/rechkalov.html
www.airaces.narod.ru/all1/rechkal1.htm
www.vspomniv.ru/P_39

February 9, 1920, Khudyakovo village, Irbit district, Perm province, RSFSR (now the village of Zaykovo, Irbit municipality, Sverdlovsk region) - December 20, 1990, Moscow, RSFSR, USSR.

Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, ace pilot during the Great Patriotic War, lieutenant general of aviation.

Born into a peasant family during a difficult time for the country during the Civil War. When Grigory was in school, his family moved to the village of Bobrovka near Sverdlovsk, and he completed 6 classes there at a school in the village of Bolshoi Istok. At the age of 14 he began working as an electrician at a local mill. Later he moved to Sverdlovsk and entered the factory school of the Verkh-Isetsky plant. At the same time, he began to study in a gliding club.

In 1937, he was sent to Perm on a Komsomol ticket.
military pilot school and in 1939, with the rank of sergeant, he was enlisted in the 55th aviation fighter regiment in Kirovograd. During his service in the regiment, he took part in the campaign against Bessarabia. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, the regiment was based on the outskirts of the city of Balti.

The day before the start of the war, he underwent a medical flight commission and
was rejected due to discovered color blindness. However, on June 22, when he returned to the unit, the regimental chief of staff gave him an urgent task to deliver documents and did not even look at the medical report. At the beginning of the war, he flew the I-153 Chaika fighter. He won his first aerial victory on June 27, shooting down an Me-109 with a rocket.
Already in the first month of the war, Grigory Rechkalov shot down 3 enemy planes, was wounded himself, but brought the plane to the airfield. He was sent to a hospital, and then to a reserve aviation regiment, to master the Yak-1 aircraft, but in April 1942 he fled to his regiment, which by that time had received the rank of Guards and became known as the 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (16 GvIAP) .

In the regiment he mastered the American Airacobra fighter. Since the spring of 1943, the regiment entered into battles with the enemy in the Kuban. In the first two weeks of fighting, he shot down 19 enemy aircraft, and in three
On combat missions he shot down 2 planes, and in one - 3.

By June 1944, deputy regiment commander Rechkalov made 415 combat missions, participated in 112 air battles and personally shot down 48 enemy aircraft and 6 in the group.

Rechkalov’s 3 aerial victories are missing from the award lists,
won by him in 1941 (due to the loss of documents of the 55th
fighter regiment for that period). However, these victories are reflected in the documents of the 20th Mixed Air Division, which gives every reason to include them in the pilot’s combat account.

In total, during the war, Rechkalov flew 450 combat missions and 122 air battles. Data on downed aircraft vary. According to some sources, 56 aircraft and 6 aircraft in the group were shot down. According to M. Bykov, Rechkalov shot down 61+4 enemy aircraft.

After the war, Grigory Andreevich continued to serve in the air force and graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1951. In 1959 he was transferred to the reserve. Lived in Moscow, since 1980 - in the city of Zhukovsky, Moscow region.

He was buried in the village of Bobrovsky (Sysertsky district, Sverdlovsk region).

prizes and awards

Two Gold Star medals.
The order of Lenin.
4 Orders of the Red Banner.
Order of Alexander Nevsky.
Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
2 Orders of the Red Star.

Medals, including:
- Medal "For Military Merit"
- Medal “For victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”
- Jubilee medal “Twenty years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”
- Jubilee medal “Thirty years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.”
- Jubilee medal "Forty years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."

“Rechkalov won his first victory on June 26, 1941 on the I-153 Chaika biplane, shooting down a Messer with a volley of Eres, who considered him easy prey. He increased his combat score by flying the I-16, was seriously wounded, but returned to duty, fought on “yaks” and “airacobras”, received his first Gold Star for an air battle in the Kuban, where in just a month and a half he “killed” 17 German aircraft, and the second - in the summer of ’44, when he brought the count of personal victories to fifty. even among the fearless “Stalinist falcons”, Rechkalov never shied away from battle, and his “Airacobra” stood out with its defiantly bright coloring - a red propeller spinner, seven-row victory stars on the nose, the formidable initials RGA on the rear fuselage..."

In the future, chance will intervene more than once in the fate of the ace pilot, which will provide him with the opportunity to return to the skies. It is only worth saying that after a month of the war, having 3 downed German planes in his combat account, Rechkalov was seriously wounded in the leg and, wounded, brought his I-16 to the airfield, from where he was immediately transported to the hospital. At the hospital he undergoes a very complex operation on his right leg. This wound put him out of action for almost a year. In April 1942, having escaped from the reserve air regiment, where the pilot was retraining on the Yak-1, he returned to his hometown, now the 16th GvIAP.

From this moment on, a new stage of his flying career begins with the call sign “RGA”. Ahead of him awaits retraining for the American P-39 Airacobra fighter, the menacing sky of the Kuban, the first Golden Star of the Hero, fierce battles in the skies over Iasi, the second Golden Star and finally the sky of Berlin. This segment also included some confrontation with the famous Soviet ace Pokryshkin, which received an unexpected development after the end of the war and which they previously preferred not to talk about out loud.

Grigory Rechkalov went down in history as the most successful ace, having won the most victories on the P-39 Airacobra fighter. By the end of the war, his Cobra had 56 stars, which symbolized the pilot’s 53 personal and 3 group victories. Rechkalov was the second most successful Allied pilot. He had 61 personal victories and 4 group victories.

Among the German planes shot down by Grigory Rechkalov were:

30 Me-109 fighters;
5 FW-190 fighter
2 Me-110 fighters;
11 Ju-87 bombers
5 Ju-88 bombers
3 Ju-52 transport aircraft
2 He-111 bombers
2 light reconnaissance aircraft Fi-156
1 Hs-126 spotter fighter

By June 1944, deputy regiment commander Rechkalov made 415 combat missions, participated in 112 air battles and personally shot down 48 enemy aircraft and 6 in the group.

After the war, Grigory Rechkalov continued to serve in the air force and graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1951. In 1959 he was transferred to the reserve. Lived in Moscow, since 1980 - in the city of Zhukovsky, Moscow region. Died on December 22, 1990 in Moscow. He was buried in the village of Bobrovsky (Sysertsky district, Sverdlovsk region).

(February 9, 1920 - December 22, 1990) - twice Hero of the Soviet Union, fighter pilot, major general of aviation.....

Born on February 9, 1920 in the village of Khudyakova (now part of the village of Zaykovo) in Irbitsky district, in the family of a poor peasant. After completing six classes, he entered the factory school of the Verkh-Isetsky Metallurgical Plant. He first took to the skies during initial flight training within the walls of the Sverdlovsk flying club.
In 1937, on a Komsomol ticket, he was sent to the Perm Military Pilot School and in 1939, with the rank of sergeant, he was enlisted in the 55th Aviation Fighter Regiment in Kirovograd.
He participated in the Great Patriotic War from the first to the last day. He worked his way up from an ordinary pilot to the commander of a fighter aviation regiment.
I met the war in Bessarabia and ended it in Berlin. He was seriously wounded. He made more than 450 combat missions, participated in 122 air battles, personally shot down 61 enemy aircraft and four as part of groups.
For courage and bravery G.A. Rechkalov was twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union - on May 24, 1943 and July 1, 1944.
Awarded the orders of Lenin, Red Banner (four times), Alexander Nevsky, Patriotic War 1st degree, Red Star (twice) and nine medals.
After the war G.A. Rechkalov graduated from the Air Force Academy. He completed his military career in 1959 with the rank of major general of aviation. Author of military-patriotic books “Visiting Youth”, “Smoky Sky of War”, “In the Sky of Moldova”. Died December 22, 1990. He was buried in the village of Bobrovsky, Sverdlovsk region.
In the homeland of G.A. Rechkalova in the village. In Zaikovo, a memorial complex was created, including a bust of the Hero, a Cultural Center named after him, and steles at the entrances to the village.

G.A. Rechkalov "The First Day of War"
Excerpt from the story

The day before the war, the district military medical commission declared Grigory Rechkalov unfit for flying work due to color blindness. It seemed that life was over. Upon returning from Odessa to the regiment based near the city of Balti, Moldavian SSR, Rechkalov learned that the war with Nazi Germany had begun.
In the published fragment of his memoirs, Grigory Andreevich describes how he spent the first day of the war.

On this first war morning I reached the airfield at eleven o'clock. The faces of the comrades I met on the way to headquarters struck me with an unusual gloominess.
Two people were walking towards us from the checkpoint. In front, in a blue overalls, with a helmet in his belt, Kryukov was dancing, as if he was dancing. Large drops of sweat streamed down his round purple face. Kolya Yakovlev walked behind him with an open tablet in his hands.
- The devil knows what, have they gone crazy there, or what? - Pal Palych grumbled angrily.
This was the warm name of Senior Lieutenant Kryukov in the regiment, and this name surprisingly suited the entire appearance of the plump little man.
“The general’s personal order, Comrade Senior Lieutenant,” Yakovlev noted with bitter irony in his voice, “can’t be helped.”
“Yes, you understand,” Kryukov interrupted him, “I also can’t fly this MiG properly, but then fly to hell!” This is... - and waving his hand angrily, he trotted on.
- Kolya! - I called out to Yakovlev.
- Oh, great! Where? - he was surprised.
- From Odessa, my friend.
I looked at our Yakovlev and did not recognize him. Nikolai's face, always so carefree, even frivolous, was now unusually serious, somehow internally detached. Unshaven, eyes swollen. A dirty collar, a torn button on a tunic...
Nikolai, in turn, looked at me with a tenacious gaze and, with the same expression with which he spoke with Kryukov, said:
- From Odessa? So how is it?
- What how? - I asked, amazed by his appearance. -Where are you going?
- So, from Odessa? - he repeated, thinking about something of his own. - Why are you showing off?
“Listen,” I got angry, “it’s not a matter of answering a question with a question.” Tell me better: what’s happening to you?
- With me? Nothing. - He looked at me with an absent look and smiled sourly. - Well, Pal Palych and I are flying on reconnaissance.
Yakovlev tried to assume his former carelessness, but even his cap, cocked rakishly at the back of his head, could not hide his concern and anxiety. Stretching out his hand in farewell, Nikolai walked with an uncertain gait after Kryukov, then suddenly turned around and shouted:
-Are you going to fly?
His question stung me painfully. Why did he ask this? However, while I was walking to the regimental command post, I was already asked such questions. I briefly told everyone: “Written off.” But the answers did not entirely satisfy the questioners; moreover, they even caused irony. The technicians were distrustful and suspicious of my words. I couldn't understand what exactly was the matter. Why such mistrust? Perhaps my appearance that morning did not harmonize with the situation? Only Kharkhalup, having learned about my misfortune, pushed me in a friendly direction towards the headquarters and reassured me:
- Oh, if only I had power... And you are bolder, bolder! By God, the commander will understand everything and allow us to fight.
I looked at Yakovlev. He stood in his favorite position: with his hands on his sides, his left leg pointed forward and slightly to the side, tapping the toe of his boot on the ground.
Some kind of evil confidence suddenly took possession of me, and in the tone of his question I suddenly blurted out:
- No, I am not going!..
- That's it! - He whistled slightly. - All clear!
- ...They’re only getting ready, Kolya, to go on the road, and to get married. And I will fly and fight!
Turning sharply, I walked towards the checkpoint.
“We’ll see if we happen to meet,” was heard after him.
Where did I get this confidence?
I knew that my situation was almost hopeless. The medical commission strictly forbade me from flying. Who could now take upon himself the courage to reverse this decision?
They say that in order to gain courage and decide on something, you should think less about your situation. I came to the checkpoint. Major Matveev, having listened to the hasty “Arrived... Unfit... Please...”, took the ill-fated medical report and immediately tore it up.
- Do you see the thirteenth “seagull”? - He pointed to the fighter jet covered with branches. - Quickly prepare for departure, you will take the package to Balti.
Half an hour later I was sitting in the cockpit of the plane, listening to the familiar rumble of the engine, inhaling the painfully familiar smells of exhaust gases and airfield grass.
Two MiGs made noise nearby - it was Pal Palych and Yakovlev who went on reconnaissance. Technician Vanya Putkalyuk pulled out the chocks from under the wheels. Satisfied and smiling, he saluted me and extended his hand towards the takeoff: “The path is clear!”
I'm in the air! Even though my mission is not combat, I am flying, and this is the main thing!
The fighter obediently gained altitude. Below, under the wing, ripening grain flashed, a road stretched like a thin thread, and a tiny bridge could be discerned across a mirrored stream. Slight left turn. There is an unmowed lowland, two unmet heaps, and next to them are they, my fellow travelers. Shaking its wings in greeting, the “seagull” swoops low over our heads. I see them waving their headscarves at me for a long time in response.
“They probably don’t know about anything yet. It's even better. The war is unlikely to come here.”
Left behind is the muddy Dniester with its overgrown banks. The Bessarabian town of Orhei, immersed in greenery, flashed by on a hill; The swampy Reut ran away from it to the northwest - a shallow river that served as a reliable landmark all the way to the airfield.
Fields and fields stretched all around. Golden, bright green, they seemed almost blue, only on the other side of the Dniester they no longer lay in huge squares, but, like a motley patchwork quilt, were cut into small sections by boundaries.
It was as if the war had never happened; it burned on the border, somewhere beyond the blue horizon, beyond the blackening forest in the distance, where swift wings carried Kolya Yakovlev and Pal Palych.
A kite circled ahead like a black shadow. The second was looking for someone in the grain supply. But what is it? Black shadows began to change their shape, turning into silhouettes of enemy fighters! And here is their victim - a lonely “seagull”. Helpless, pecked, she no longer snaps at the fire of her machine guns, but pulls towards the village, weakly dodging the advancing enemy.
One of the German pilots calmly, like a target, takes aim at his victim. Now I see him clearly; my "hawk" is quickly approaching him.
“That's what you are, German! “With my eyes wide open, I look at a living enemy plane. - So skinny and long! Well, I’ll give it to you now!”
From a strafing flight, the “seagull” flies up into the air, towards the fascist. In the sight you can see the silhouettes of chopped off wings, a fragile fuselage, and a yellow nose. It's time!
The machine guns rumbled dully; a nimble flock of fireflies broke away from the “seagull” and rushed towards the enemy. The thin-tailed Messerschmitt paused for a moment, as if thinking, then energetically soared up to the side.
“Yeah, not to my liking! - I grinned as I watched the enemy go. - But where is the second one? I quickly looked to where he was supposed to appear, then back - there was no plane. Meanwhile, the first Messerschmitt tried to get around me from behind. I turned around sharply and at that moment I found the second one below; not paying attention to my presence, the fascist impudently attached himself to the exhausted “seagull” - he was going to finish it off. With a half-flip, I pointed the nose of the fighter at the impudent man. He is already next to my half-dead ally. I try to scare him off with long bursts. What's happened? The enemy is not afraid or does not see my routes? Another second or two - and it will be too late. My plane is already shaking with a slight chill from high speed, the engine is roaring at maximum power, the control stick is very feverish. Somewhere to the right there appears a whitish haze of a short line, probably intended for me. “Yeah, yellow nose, are you scaring me away? Will not work!"
I press the triggers again, again... the Messerschmitt can’t stand it, it goes up.
With a combat turn, I take my “seagull” out of its dive towards the enemy. Strange! The enemy does not accept the attack and eludes me. Smoking with the engine, the second one pulls up to it.
Where is the usual “carousel” of combat that we so diligently and beautifully painted in the training areas? Or maybe the Nazis were scared? No; stretched out in a chain, the Messerschmitts are approaching me. Well, let's take the fight.
The first one just “pecked” from above and immediately avoided the frontal attack. The second tried to attack from behind, but for some reason he also did not accept a frontal attack. ABOUT! The first one opened fire! How did he manage to end up on my tail?
Now the roles are changing. I no longer shoot, but spin around like a snake, making sure they don’t pinch my tail. It’s like I’m between two bandits trying to stick a knife in my back.
The fire trails are becoming more frequent. We are getting so close that I can clearly see the tense faces of my enemies. One of them, a puny wimp with a small head barely protruding from the cabin, aims at me especially diligently.
No fear. Just a little dizzy. There is anger and excitement in my soul.
I had previously read how some pilots described their first combat “carousel”; I was quite surprised by one circumstance: the pilots assured me that in this battle you can’t really see anything, you’re acting almost blindly. Perhaps they did. This was also my first fight, but here everything turned out to be different. For some reason, I clearly saw both this wimp who was “twisting” at me from behind, and that “yellow nose” who was smoking on the left.
Have I finally pissed him off? The first fascist, without turning aside, rushed straight towards me. I pressed the trigger. What the hell is this?! A single string of green fireflies reached out to the fascist! Only later did I realize that the other machine guns were silent. The enemy plane was rapidly approaching me. My breath caught. Don't collapse! From a small airplane it has grown to terrible proportions. Another moment - and... I frantically poked my head behind the visor, towards the instruments. Still not believing that the frontal attack was over, I flew for some time in tense anticipation of a collision, just like that. Then the hand reached out to the reloading mechanism. But then something hit the plane, the controls were torn out of my hands, and the “seagull” spun the “barrel.” And on the right, a squishy car rushed by at top speed, which I managed to forget about for a while. Impudent, he still waved his hand at me: see you next time, they say. Apparently he was running out of fuel. He calmly left before my eyes, following his partner. “You won’t leave, scoundrel!” I quickly turned around - but now all the machine guns were silent. It's a shame!.. I looked with annoyance at the slowly melting trail of smoke left by the Messerschmitts.

Golden stars of Irbitsk residents: A collection of essays and memories about Irbitsk residents - Heroes of the Soviet Union.
Comp. A.S. Eremin, A.V. Kamyanchuk. - Irbit: Printing Shaft Publishing House, 2015. ISBN 978-5-91342-009-1

In the poem “Red Falcon”, which has become a textbook, it is said about G. Rechkalov:

He carried out one hundred and twenty-eight attacks,
I hit sixty-one enemy cars,
Invulnerable red star Yak,
I ended my journey near Berlin.

There is as much truth in it as in the official Soviet version of the Great Patriotic War. One hundred and twenty-eight Grigory Andreevich conducted air battles, not attacks, which is far from the same thing. When talking about the number of aircraft shot down, it is customary to say how many the pilot shot down personally, or to indicate the number of those shot down personally and as part of groups. Rechkalov personally shot down 56 aircraft and 5 in a group. Well, the biggest lie is that our illustrious fellow countryman did not fight on the Yak fighter.
***
G. Rechkalov started the war on the I-16.
As you know, the Soviet Union entered the Second World War as an ally of Germany. England and France were considered enemies of the USSR, allegedly preparing an attack on the Land of the Soviets. The result of the short-sighted policy of the Soviet leadership was colossal losses in manpower, equipment and territory at the beginning of the war. On June 22 alone, the Luftwaffe destroyed 1,200 of our aircraft. Industry, urgently evacuated to the east, could not supply the front with military equipment.
In a critical situation, yesterday’s “enemies” came to the rescue: Great Britain and the United States. England and the USA began to supply military equipment, cars and food to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease. N.S. Khrushchev wrote in his memoirs that without the help of the allies, the USSR could not have won the war.
Particularly famous among those supplied under Lend-Lease were American stew, Dodge, Studebaker and Willys cars, Spitfire and Airacobra fighters.
It was on the “airacobra” that our famous aces A. Pokryshkin, N. Gulaev, G. Rechkalov, D. Glinka fought. This in no way detracts from the aerial feats they accomplished. Those who tried to hide Russian-American military cooperation, which, by the way, dates back to the 19th century, should be ashamed. Before the S.I. rifle was adopted for service in 1891. Mosin, the Russian army was armed with Berdan rifles, and until 1895 (the adoption of the revolver) with Smith and Wesson revolvers. The Russian police remained faithful to the large-caliber American revolver even after 1895. The Maxim machine gun faithfully served the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. Russia and America are doomed to military cooperation in the 21st century, no matter how much other politicians on both sides would like it.
If Rechkalov was inferior to Pokryshkin and Gulaev in the number of downed enemy aircraft, he set a record among the aces of the anti-Hitler coalition for the number of downed aircraft in the Airacobra. Of the 56 aircraft shot down, he shot down 50 in an Airacobra. Pokryshkin and Glinka, respectively: 48 out of 59 and 41 out of 50. Moreover, none of the American or English pilots, even those flying more advanced machines like the Mustang or Spitfire, shot down more than Rechkalov. Thus, he holds the absolute record for the number of enemy aircraft shot down among anti-Hitler coalition pilots who fought on American fighters.
***
Sooner or later, every lie becomes known. The revealed truth only elevated G. Rechkalov, giving him a new reason to be proud of his illustrious fellow countryman.

2007

Unrecognized hero

On the eve of May 9, “Irbit Life” published our material “The Military Secret of Grigory Rechkalov.” However, it omitted the story about the number of enemy aircraft shot down by Rechkalov. On the eve of the Victory Day, I did not want to touch on topics related to the “denigration” and “debunking” of War Heroes.
***
Two famous Soviet pilots of the Great Patriotic War, Alexander Pokryshkin and Ivan Kozhedub, remain in the public consciousness. Both became three times Heroes. (The third three times Hero was the famous commander Georgy Zhukov.)
It would seem that nothing can shake their authority. This would have been the case if there weren’t people willing to sit in archives for years, looking for grains of the true history of the Great Patriotic War.
A group of enthusiastic researchers of aviation history, led by Mikhail Yuryevich Bykov, spent several years in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. The result of their work was the appearance of the reference book “Aces of the Great Patriotic War. The most successful pilots of 1941-1945."
According to confirmed data, Grigory Rechkalov personally shot down 61 enemy aircraft and 4 in the group (and not 56+6, as previously thought). Only I. Kozhedub shot down more - 63 aircraft.
But if additional stars appeared on Rechkalov’s battle account, it means someone has fewer of them.
Alexander Rodionov in the article “Muddy Sky of 1941” writes: “For those who were interested in the history of the 55th Fighter Aviation Regiment, later the 16th Guards IAP, as well as the combat work of 9 1st GIAD [ivizii] (from July 2, 1944, commander A.I. Pokryshkin) and its personnel, strained relations between the division commander and the second most successful ace of the Soviet Air Force, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Grigory Andreevich Rechkalov, are obvious. Some time ago, the aviation community even debated on the pages of online forums, trying to understand the nature of the relationship between the two pilots, believing that the reasons lay in their rivalry in the air. At the same time, various aspects of their combat interaction were considered.
One way or another, it began to seem that the strained relations between the aces, which then resulted in a serious conflict, were caused by their personal battle scores. Recently, this has been confirmed by the words of G.A.’s relatives. Rechkalova, in particular, his wife Anfisa Yakovlevna Rechkalova and their daughter, Lyubov.
According to the latter, in reality, the conflict between Rechkalov and Pokryshkin was that after the war, Rechkalov, working with TsAMO documents, discovered three of his planes shot down in 1941 on the account of... Pokryshkin. Having learned about this, Rechkalov called Pokryshkin and told him about his find and, in all likelihood, what he was thinking about his comrade and boss. Pokryshkin’s reaction was such that after this conversation they forgot about Rechkalov, and he himself was denied admission to TsAMO...”
According to M. Bykov’s calculations, in reality Pokryshkin shot down 46 enemy aircraft personally and 6 in a group (according to other calculations - 43+3).
All this allows us to take a fresh look at the dramatic fate of Grigory Rechkalov and the accusations against him from Pokryshkin.
Unfit for health reasons for service in the Air Force (he suffered from a slight degree of color blindness), it was only thanks to the outbreak of war that Rechkalov was not written off to the reserve. A month later he was seriously wounded in his right leg. He returned to the regiment only in April 1942, having escaped from the hospital. The wound made itself felt - sometimes after returning from a flight, the right boot was full of blood. And yet, Rechkalov, against all odds, became the best pilot of the most famous air regiment of the Second World War.
Rechkalova's Airacobra, which terrified German pilots, did not have a tail number. It was replaced by the pilot's initials - RGA - on the rear fuselage. They were also his call sign.
The post-war oblivion became all the more bitter. It is no coincidence that there is not even a monument in Irbit, not even Rechkalov Street. (Although there is a monument to G.K. Zhukov and a street named after him.) Those signs of attention that are shown to the memory of Grigory Andreevich in no way correlate with his greatness.
However, perhaps the time has come to pay tribute to the greatest pilot of the Second World War. It is necessary to award Rechkalov posthumously the third Star of Hero, although not from the Soviet Union, but from Russia. (Similar precedents already exist.) In the Sverdlovsk region there is a monument to Grigory Bakhchivandzhi, especially since there should be a monument to Grigory Rechkalov. He deserves a memorial museum and other signs of respect for his memory.
As for the “denigration” of the past, A. Rodionov, responding to the “patriots” who, alas, are “numerous and inexhaustible in our country at any time,” noted: “Regarding the problem of the relationship between the two most successful Soviet fighter pilots during and after the Great Patriotic War, we in no way tried to cast a shadow or question the real combat merits of the famous air fighter and talented aviation commander A.I. Pokryshkin. It’s just high time for “hurray-patriots” and other “guardians of the bright past” to understand that events and especially people in Russian history, including aviation, are not necessarily clearly divided into “black” and “white”, and because of this ambiguity they do not lose their greatness, but only become more interesting and attractive for careful study, research and analysis by descendants.”

PS. Another native of Irbit, Captain Pavel Babailov, was among the most successful pilots (aces) of the Great Patriotic War. He personally shot down 24 enemy aircraft and 7 as part of a group.

A. Eremin, Candidate of Historical Sciences
2007