In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Chief Pilot of Aeroflot Alexander Golovanov addressed the Supreme Command Headquarter with the proposal to staff the long-range aviation with the pilots of civil aviation fleet.
They did not require any additional training.The initiative of Golovanov was approved and shortly after that he was appointed as the commander of long-range aviation.By the end of war, in August 1944, Alexander Golovanov became the Air Chief Marshall.
The war required the mobilization of all resources.More than hundreds of Ashgabat aviators went through the war voluntary or by the call.Some of them were in the long-range aviation while other served in in other detachments of the Civil Aviation Fleet.
For example, more than 20 pilots from Turkmenistan served in the 10th Guard Air Transport Division based in Moscow’s Vnukovo.They were flying behind the enemy lines as wellas across the spaces of huge country transporting people, cargos, mail.
Aircraft commanders from Ashgabat M.Bidniy, M.Rodnyh and A.Panfilov were assigned to the 332nd night heavy bomber regiment, 81st division.Their deeds are worth of special story.
They were involved as the commanders of the biggest TB-7 bombers of those times and were included to special group of eleven crews that were about to bomb Berlin.
The group chosen for special task force included Division Commander M.V.Vodopyanov, the famous polar pilot, five wing commanders, other experienced pilots and two lieutenants Bidniy and Panfilov.
Please, don’t be confused with their military ranks, they came to the air force from civil aviation where they flew more than million kilometres and had plenty of experience.
What was TB-7 aircrafts, lately named Pe-8, like?Small series was produced in 1938 and were thought to be a flying fortress.The nose, fuselage, midship cowlings had machine guns; it also had air cannons behind the pilots and in the rear.
Work places of eleven crew members were protected by steel armour.The aircrafts with anodized lining, where the pilots seated above each other had good view range and were able to make up to 400 km per hour, to climb up to 11 kilometre height and easily covered 3,000 kilometres.
It is worth reminding that it was TB-7 (Pe-2) with bigger engines that lately Foreign Minister of the USSR V.Molotov used to fly across occupied territories via Island to USA.
In the beginning of the war, the fascists did not even think of the possibility of bombing of their capital.It was repeatedly guaranteed by Hermann Göring and Goebbels propaganda trumpeted all over that Russian aviation is defeated and would never recover.
The absurd of these sayings was proven by the bombing of Berlin by FB-3 aircrafts of the 1st Mine-Torpedo Air Regiment of Baltic Fleet under command of E.
Preobrazhensky, which took off the Kagul Airport on Saarema Island.There was a time for TB-7 after.They had to fly over 2,700 kilometres to Berlin and back under strong air defence.
The biggest part of the flight was above Baltic Sea.That was not easy task!
Air defence system of Berlin looked intimidating indeed.The city was surrounded by three zones of antiaircraft and projector units with barrage balloon five kilometres above.If it was necessary, light fighter interceptors equipped with headlights were taking off.
In addition, other antiaircraft batteries with good communication and able to notify timely of the enemy assault were located all along from the capital to the coastline.Indeed, Berlin was a hard target!
The bombers were taking off separately from Pushkino airfield near Leningrad on August 11, 194.There are some memories from the crew members of Vasiliy Bidniy aircraft.This is how they described what was happening: “Forty minutes after take off, left middle diesel engine was caught on fire.
It was switched off and extinguished.Bidniy continued the flight on three engines.When we were flying over Danzig, left engine was caught on fire too.It was turned off as well.The aircraft was hard to control; two right engines did not give enough power.
It started to descend slowly.It was easier to drop the bombs on some secondary target but Bidniy was pushing forward to Berlin.By the time we approached the city the altitude was only 200 meters.
Finally, we were above the target, the hatches were opened and forty 100-kg bombs gritted down the city.Immediately the projectors on the ground were switched on and antiaircraft cannons started to shoot.
However, lightered aircraft went up and entered the clouds.There was another misfortune the severe icing.We had to descend.Anti-aircraft guns continued shooting but the bursts of the shells were ahead of the course.
We understand this reason afterwards.The Germans were shooting ahead of the course taking into account 300 km/h speed of the plane while it was hardly making 165 km/h.
We managed to escape successfully.After ten hours flight, the bomber of Bidniy made landing at Pushkino Airfield on the last drops of fuel.
Alexander Panfilov did not make it back.The crew fulfilled the objectives and dropped the bombs on Berlin but on the way back the aircraft was shot down over Finland.
They had to make emergency landing in the forest not far from Helsinki.The pilots dug the trenches and put cannons and machine guns that they took off the turrets.
In the morning they were discovered by Finnish soldiers from local patrol squad.And the fight started.The Finns were repeatedly attacking.The battle lasted for four days.
It was only radioman gunner who survived.It was only scarce archive data and him who after the release from captivity told the truth about the light flight of Panfilov.
The losses of the air strikes on Berlin was great.We lost several planes including the aircraft of the division commander M.Vodopyanov.Fuel system shattered by the shrapnel did not allowed crossing the enemy line on the way back and the crew had to make emergency landing 200 km before this.
The crew burnt down the plane and had to make the way back home for many days.
The Germans tried to hide who was bombing them after the attack on Berlin.They even broadcasted that hundreds of British bombers invade German airspace but were dispersed and six planes that managed to break through were shot down.
But they could not hide who TB-7 belongs to and everybody understood that they would lose on the western front.
For many years, the destiny of Heroes of the Soviet Union commander of Ashgabat Air Wing m.Rodnyh was unknown.It turned out that his bomber was shot down behind the enemy lines in the middle of 1943.
Rodnyh was released from the captivity in 1945 and after worked in dispatch service of one of the airports in Volga region.
Turkmen aviators fought bravely.They respected and entrusted with serious assignments.For example, Turkmenistan citizen A.I.Proskurov was the chief pilot of Marshall R.
Malinovsky.Women pilots from Ashgabat M.Anufriyeva and L.Nikolskaya distinguished themselves during the war.Many Turkmen citizens were awarded with medals and orders.By the end of the war, four student of Ashgabat Air club became the Heroes of the Soviet Union.
One of them M.K.Tokarenko returned to Ashgabat after the war and was flying transport aircraft Li-2.In 1985, the air club of the capital was named after Mikhail Tkachenko.
Crew commanders A.Kovalyov, A.Panfilov, V.Bidniy.P.Mosalev, M.Kasparov, G.Atajanov, K.Pyanzin, Ya.Braktengeimer, M.Yakushev, M.
Popovich, V.Mineyev, A.Vasilyev, H.Akimov and other never came back from the war.There is a monument on the service territory of Ashgabat Airport with 21 names of the pilots who did not return from the war.
It was difficult in the war.However, the aviators who left at the home from did not have easy life as well.They were working hard without any days off or leaves.
They were flying a lot making all possible and impossible to bring the victory transported the wounded, provided services to geologists, pollinated the fields, probed the atmosphere, participated in the installation of refinery in Krasnovodsk and did many other different things.
Delivery of sulphur from the desert was one of the dangerous and hard job.The issue of transporting of this strategic material from the Karakums was very vital and the obstacles were taken over.
Pilots used g-2 planes to transport the sulphur.It was civil version of old TB-3 bomber.They distinguished from four-engine fighting aircrafts by the pilot cockpit and additional fuel tanks in cargo compartment.
There were two women T.Slepova and A.Grebennikova among the commanders of these crews.
Some memories remained about epic work of aircraft commander A.D.Kotov. 4,500 tons produced in Karakum Desert were accumulated at one of the takyrs.It is necessary to be taken out but how to do it?
The takyr is small and the runway is too small for heavy planes.The Headquarter demanded to provide the plants with the sulphur by all means.The first plane that was sent there broke down.
Then the flights to takyr were entrusted to A.D.Kotov and he and his crew went to the desert for few months.Everyday he made 15-20 take offs and landings at the tiniest land strip of solid ground risking his life.
All sulphur was taken out to the nearest airfield.For this feat, Kotov was awarded with Order of Honour.The awards were also given to T.Slepova, N.
Radko, A.Amanov and other Turkmen aviators.
This is the way Turkmen pilots fought and worked at home front. To our sorrow, they did not make it to the 73rd anniversary of the Great Victory but the memory of them is sacred.