Nikolai Gastello, whose feat will bedescribed in this article, was born in 1907 in the city of Moscow, and died in 1941. In this review, an attempt will be made to briefly describe the most significant moments in the life of the Soviet hero.
He was a Soviet military pilot, a participant in threebattles, commander of the second squadron. He died at the time of military departure. Gastello is the Hero of the Soviet Union. This title was awarded to Nikolai Frantsevich posthumously.
Who were the parents of Gastello, the real hero? Father Nicholas was called Franz Pavlovich Gastello. He was a Russian German. He was born in the village Pluzhiny. When the year 1900 began, he came to seek work in Moscow, where he began to work at the Kazan railway in foundries. Nicholas's mother was called Anastasia Semenovna Kutuzova. She was of Russian descent, she worked as a seamstress.
So why did Nikolai Gastello accomplish the feat? Maybe the answer is in his biography? We should briefly consider the life of Nikolai.
From 1914 to 1918, Nikolai studied in the thirdSokolniki city men's school named after AS Pushkin. The terrible famine of 1918 forced his parents to temporarily move him from Moscow, so together with a group of Muscovite schoolchildren he was sent to Bashkortostan.
In 1919, Nikolai returned to Moscow, whereagain went to school. Work Nikolai began in 1923, became a student carpenter. Later, in 1924, the family of Gastello moved to the city of Murom, where the young Nicholas became a locksmith at the locomotive building plant. Dzerzhinsky, on which his father also worked. In parallel with the work, he graduated from school (today the school exists under number 33). In 1928 he entered the VKP. In 1930, the members of the Gastello family again returned to Moscow, and Nikolai began to work in the first state machine-building plant named after. 1st of May. Nikolai lived in the village of Khlebnikovo from 1930 to 1932.
In 1932, in May, according to a special set, Nikolai wascalled in the Red Army. And as a result, he was sent to the aviation school for pilots in the city of Lugansk. The training took place from May 1932 to December 1933.
He served in the eighty-seconda heavy-bomber squadron of the twenty-first heavy bomber aviation brigade, whose base was in the city of Rostov-on-Don, until 1938. There he began to fly a pilot from the right side on a heavy third bomber. And in 1934 (since November), Nicholas had already independently operated the aircraft. Could he think that his future perfect feat - the exploit of the pilot Gastello - will forever remain in the history of Russia?
As a result of the restructuring of the unit, in 1938,Nikolai was in the first heavy-bomber aviation regiment. In 1939, in May, he became commander, and about a year later - deputy squadron commander. He took part in the battles on Khalkhin-Gol, along with the 150th rapid bomber aviation regiment, which was subordinated to the squadron of the first TBAP. He was also a participant in the Soviet Finnish battle and took part in the procedure for joining Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union from June to July 1940. Closer to the winter of the same year, the aviation unit will move to Velikie Luki, to the western borders, and then to the airfields near Smolensk. And in 1940, Nicholas was awarded the title of captain. In 1941, in the spring, Nicholas underwent proper retraining and received the DB-3F aircraft. Then he was the commander of the fourth squadron of the two hundred and seventh long-range bomber aviation regiment.
Gastello's feat took place after the promotion, being already the commander of the second squadron of the same unit.
In 1941, on June 26, withCaptain Nikolai Frantsevich, with Lieutenant GN Skorobogaty, AA Burdenyuk, and Sergeant AA Kalinin, on a DB-3F airplane, a sortie was carried out in order to make a bomb attack on the German mechanized line on Molodechno - Radoshkovichi. The flight took place along with a link of 2 bombers. The machine gun fire of Nikolai Frantsevich was shot down by the fire of antiaircraft artillery.
The enemy projectile damagedfuel tank. Nikolai directed the burning aircraft to the center of the mechanized column of the enemy. The feat of Gastello (briefly) was to hold a fiery ram. All the crew members were killed.
June 26, 1941 flew the team led byCaptain Nikolai Gastello. Together with two heavy bombers, DB-3F. The second aircraft was operated by Senior Lieutenant F. Vorobyov, in the role of navigator Lieutenant Anatoly Rybas flew with him. As they called for 2 more members of Vorobyov's crew, it is not known. At the time of the attack of concentration of German technology, Gastello's plane was shot down. From the words of Vorobyov and Rybas, the burning machine of Gastello produced a ram of a mechanized column of enemy equipment. At night, peasants from the nearby Dekshniani village dragged the dead bodies of the pilots from the plane, wrapped the corpses in parachutes and buried them near the site of the bomber's crash.
In the near future, Gastello's feat gained widepress coverage. In 1941, on July 5, in the evening, in the Soviet Information Bureau's summary, the first mention was made of Nikolai's deed. Observers P. Pavlenko, P. Krylov wrote in an extremely short time the article "Captain Gastello", which was published in a newspaper called "Pravda" on the morning of July 10.
At dawn on July 6 at various sites of the frontthe pilots met at the loudspeakers. The information was transmitted by the Moscow radio station, the voice of the announcer seemed very familiar - immediately the memory of the house, Moscow, surfaced. The announcer read a short information about what a feat was committed by Gastello. Many people on various sectors of the front repeated the name of the hero, Captain Gastello, behind the speaker.
Long before the war, when Gastello together withfather worked at a Moscow factory, Nikolai was told that wherever he was appointed, to whatever work he was sent, everywhere he set an example and was an example of diligence, perseverance and dedication to business. It was a man who accumulated strength for a big deal.
When he became a combat pilot, this immediatelywas justified. He was not a celebrity, but quickly moved to popularity. The exploit of Gastello, as they recalled later, was to be committed. Why? Because he was such a man! Every day he went in an effort to do something for his Motherland, every day of service was a feat.
In 1939 he bombed the Belinsky military factories,Dotas and Bridges, in Bessarabia, threw out our parachute assault forces, which were to prevent the plunder of the state. During the Great Patriotic War, Nikolai Frantsevich, commander-in-chief of his squadron, crushed fascist tank columns, smashed up combat objects and crushed bridges in a chip. Even then, Captain Gastello spread fame in the flying parts.
The final feat of Gastello will never be forgottenin life. On July 3, under his command, Captain Nikolai Frantsevich fought in the air. Distantly, below, on the ground, there was also a battle. Motorized enemy units made their way to Soviet territory. The blows of our artillery and aviation held and stalled their course. Fulfilling his fight, Gastello did not lose sight of and the battle ground.
In the course of the battle, the enemy shells carry the fuel tank of his aircraft. The plane caught fire. The situation, in fact, desperate.
Captain Gastello does not throw a flaming machine. Down, to the ground, to the adversaries flies, like a fiery comet, of his plane. The fire is already near the pilot. But the earth is already close. Gastello's eyes are hot with flame, but he does not close them, and his scorched hands are still firm. The bending plane still obeys the hands of the dying pilot.
The Gastello plane wedges into a cluster of cisternsand cars, and a thunderous explosion with continuous rattles shaking the air of battle: the enemy tanks explode. Thus ends his life - not a shameful captivity, not a wreck, but a feat!
We always remembered and will remember the name of the hero - Captain Nikolai Gastello. The feat that he committed, deprived him of his son and husband, but gave the country a hero and a chance to win.
In memory, the act of man will remain forever,who took his death, making her a deadly weapon. This event took place on July 3, although it can not be asserted unconditionally. But it is July 3 - the date specified in the article "Captain Gastello". Most likely, this number was named in the message of the Sovinformbureau, which was broadcast on July 5 from loudspeakers. It is worth noting that the article in Pravda received a wide response, and Gastello's exploit was often used as an example in Soviet propaganda. Nicholas became one of the few main and famous examples of valor. His heroic deed remained forever in the annals of the Great Patriotic War, and was also widely used as an example in the conduct of military-patriotic propaganda with the goal of forming a world outlook for young people, both during the period of the battle with the fascist invaders and in the postwar period, up to the collapse of the USSR.
At the end of July 1942, the commander of two hundred and seventhlong-range bomber aviation regiment was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Posthumously, unfortunately NF Gastello, whose feat will live in the centuries, was introduced to this title.
By decree of the Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union, the captainNikolay Frantsevich is permanently included in the list of one of the aviation regiments. For a long time this event was classified. Therefore, the crew, which included Skorobogaty GN, Kalinin AA, Burdenyuk AA, a long period of time was in the shadow of his famous captain. But all the same the award was awarded not only to N. Gastello. The feat was committed by his team. In 1958 all the dead crew members were awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree. Posthumously.
Through the efforts of Soviet propaganda, Nicholas's featGastello became one of the most famous in the history of the Great Patriotic War, and the surname of the hero is famous. "Gastellers" began to call those pilots who repeated the feat of Nicholas. So who repeated the feat of Gastello?
In total, at the time of the war of 1941-1945. five hundred and ninety-five "classical" air rams were produced, namely by an airplane. Five hundred and six rams by ground plane aircraft, sixteen sea rams, to this number one can also include battering rams sea-pilots of the enemy's surface and coastal targets, one hundred and sixty tank rams.
It should be noted that in the sourcesthere is a certain difference in the number of ram attacks. For example, in the article "Followers of Nikolai Gastello" only fourteen sea and only fifty-two tank rams, five hundred six rams by a land-based aircraft, six hundred atmospheric collisions are reported.
A.D. Zaytsev, in his own book, The Weapon of Strong-Spirits, describes the number of air-borne rams in an amount greater than six hundred and twenty. In addition, the historians of aviation state the fact that: "in the enemy's papers, more than twenty rams, which were made by Soviet pilots, repeated the feat of Gastello. Until now, the pilots have not been identified. "
There is no consistency inactually "fire rams". For example, Yuri Ivanov in his own work "Kamikaze: suicide pilots" notes the number of such collisions, made by Soviet pilots from 1941 to 1945, "about three hundred and fifty."
It should also be noted that Soviet pilotsrammed the enemy many times. At least roughly list the main figures included in the historical chronicle of the war years. Thirty-four pilots used the air ram twice, 4 pilots - Nikolai Terekhin, Vladimir Matveyev, Leonid Borisov, Alexey Khlobystov - 3 times, and Boris Kovzan - 4 times. These are those who repeated the exploit of Gastello, setting a goal - at any cost, let this price - their own lives, save the Motherland and give a free future to other people. Our small contribution to this is to keep the memory of those, thanks to whom now we have such a life!
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