Personal records and achievements

Discussions on the Allies and the Neutral States in general and the countries that does not have sections of their own.
Post Reply
User avatar
AVV
Member
Posts: 3849
Joined: 31 Mar 2009, 20:25
Location: Kiev, Ukraine

Personal records and achievements

#1

Post by AVV » 11 Jul 2013, 08:44

Hello!
We have a topic about personal achievements for German Armed Forces in WW2:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=155072
I've come across an interesting information regarding Soviet pilot, and decided to start similar topic here - this time, for Allied side. I hope other Forum members will support my initiative.

Best regards, Aleks

User avatar
AVV
Member
Posts: 3849
Joined: 31 Mar 2009, 20:25
Location: Kiev, Ukraine

Re: Personal records and achievements

#2

Post by AVV » 11 Jul 2013, 08:45

And here is the first record here.
The youngest combat pilot of WW2 - Arkadiy Kamanin:
Arkady Kamanin, Nikolai's son, was born in 1928. He spent most of his childhood on the airfields and at an early age could identify most of the Soviet military airplanes by the engine's sound alone. After the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Arkady worked at one of the aircraft plants in Moscow. Later in 1941, he was evacuated to Tashkent with his mother and younger brother Leo, where they lived until the spring of 1943. In the middle of spring of 1943 he arrived at Andreapol airfield (Kalininsky battlefront), where his father's air division was quartering. Formally enlisted at the age of 14, Arkady served as a mechanic at a liaison squadron, where he learned practical flying skills by hitchhiking rides with real pilots, whom he asked to let him steer. After he managed to land a Polikarpov Po-2 by himself when the pilot was wounded by shrapnel, he passed the official examinations for piloting the Po-2, becoming the youngest pilot of World War II at the age of 15. Soon after that he was granted his personal Po-2 with forked lightning painted on fuselage. On one of these flights, Arkady managed to save the wounded Lieutenant Berdnikov, who crash-landed his damaged IL-2 near the front line, while retrieving the plane's reconnaissance film and returning safely to the base. For his excellent service, Arkady Kamanin received two combat Orders of the Red Star, the Order of the Red Banner, the Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945", the Medal "For the Capture of Budapest" and the Medal "For the Capture of Vienna". After the war Arkady decided to enter the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy, wanting to learn to fly new types of aircraft. Arkady Kamanin died of meningitis on April 13, 1947, at the age of 18.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Ka ... dy_Kamanin
and link in Russian:
http://pobeda.oper.ru/news/read.php?t=1051606222

Best regards, Aleks


Post Reply

Return to “The Allies and the Neutral States in general”