Kozhedub’s white-14

Written By Anton Petrov

Lavochkin, La-5F (Type 39)

240 IAP, (Changed to 178 GIAP on 2-nd July, 1944) of the 302 IAD, 4-th IAK, 5-th Air Army, 2-nd Ukrainian Front
Flown by the (future) highest-scoring (based on personal victories) Allied fighter Ace of WW2 (64 personal victories), three times Hero Of the Soviet Union, Ivan Nikitovich Kozhedub , in May - June1944, Yassi , Romania.
AND
178-th GIAP, 14-th IAD, 3-rd GIAK, 5-th Air Army, 2-nd Ukrainian Front
Flown by the (future) 4-th highest-scoring Allied fighter Ace of WW2 (52 personal + 3 shared), two times Hero Of the Soviet Union, Kirill Alekseevich Evstigneev , circa 1st September 1944 - 17th February 1945, Romania and Hungary.

 

Kozhedub’s ‘White-14’ is a truly heroic plane! It is one of six airplanes which were flown during WW2 by the highest scoring Allied Fighter Ace of all time (based on personal victories), three times Hero of the Soviet Union - Ivan Kozhedub. Kozhedub flew ‘White-14' during a period of 2-3 months from May to July 1944 with most of the battle victories while flying this plane occurring in the month of June, after which Kozhedub earned his second title of the Hero of the Soviet Union. Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in USSR. Kozhedub earned this title three times! Only three people in the world hold the title of ‘three-times H.S.U.’ (only two people hold the title of four-times H.S.U. and one of these two is the commander of the Soviet armies in WW2, Georgy Zhukov himself [2].

Kozhedub’s ‘White-14’ was a lightened* (refer to footnotes for explanation) version of a La-5F that was built with the money personally donated to the Red Army by Vasiliy Konev, a beekeeper from the ‘Bolshevik’ collective farm in the Stalingrad region. The sixty year old farmer was the uncle of Georgiy Nikolaevich Konev - a Soviet Fighter Ace who was killed during an air battle while defending the motherland in 1942. V.Konev donated his savings to the army and sent a request to Stalin himself asking to build a fighter plane named after his fallen nephew, who was posthumously awarded the title of the 'Hero of the Soviet Union'. The request of the patriot was granted. The plane was built and sent to the front to be given to one of the country’s best fighter pilots- that pilot happened to be Kozhedub.

On the 2-nd of May 1944, Kozhedub was presented with his new machine. The letter that came with White-14 read:

“Farmer Konev requests that the pilot who will receive this plane named after the Hero Of The Soviet Union Konev, will mercilessly avenge the death of the hero Konev, that he will strike at the enemy until our complete victory."[3]

In his memoirs Kozhedub wrote:

“That evening I couldn't sleep for a long time. I was thinking about the new plane, preparing for its baptism of fire. I have always carefully and thoughtfully treated the aircraft, each device, screw, and now I felt a special responsibility for this machine. I imagined a distant collective farm "Bolshevik", where a patriotic collective farmer would expect letters from me with stories about successful battles fought in his airplane. I imagined a factory where workers and designers would monitor the combat performance of a machine made by them at the request of an old beekeeper. Before falling asleep I wrote a letter to the collective farmer Konev:

“Dear Vasily Viktorovich!

I am pleased to inform you that your plane was handed over to me today, May 2, 1944, at an airfield near the frontline. This is our new, beautiful domestic aircraft "Lavochkin" with the inscriptions that you asked for.

Let me assure you, Vasily Viktorovich, that I will strike at the enemy from your plane as the great Stalin orders. Currently, my score stands at thirty-seven downed Nazi aircraft. But this is only the beginning of revenge on the enemy for the killed and tortured Soviet people, for the villages and cities destroyed by the enemy. I will inform you about every victory over the enemy. Likewise, I ask of you - do write to me about your life. I would like to know about the successes in your collective farm "Bolshevik", about who out of your relatives and friends is on the frontlines of the Patriotic War.

I wish you health and success.

With military greetings, Hero of the Soviet Union, Ivan Kozhedub. “ “ [4]


The beekeeper’s plane received its baptism of fire the next day, on the 3rd of May, 1944. While flying a sortie in the skies of eastern Romania in order to provide cover to the Soviet ground forces, the group of fighters led by Kozhedub was informed by radio about an approaching group of 30 enemy bombers. The bombers were escorted by 8 Messerschmitt fighters. Kozhedub gave his comrades the command - ‘Attack!!!’ and their group dove into the midst of the bomber formations. An air battle ensued and the bombers, in a state of confusion, started to drop their load on to their own ground forces below. The first wave of bombers was followed by the second. The battle became a ‘ Merry-go-round’ in the air with Soviet planes engaging enemy fighters while also trying to destroy the bombers. During all this, Kozhedub heard over his radio: ‘Hawks, hawks, a third group of bombers is approaching, take out the leader!’

Kozhedub turned his plane towards the approaching third bomber formation and using a small cloud ahead of him to conceal his position, with the bomber's tracer rounds blazing past him, he attacked the leader head on. That Ju-87 (Stuka) bomber became the first victim of ‘Kozhedub’s ‘White-14’ . [5]

Later that month, in the 9 days between the 31-st of May and the 08-th of June, Kozhedub downed another 8 enemy airplanes, taking his score up to 46 air victories. Four of the downed planes were the famed Focke Wulf, FW—190. Some of the destroyed planes were flown by German fighter Aces.

A list of Kozhedub’s 9 air victories while flying his ‘White-14’ is below, starting with victory number 38 according to Kozhedub, or number 35 according to the research by M.Bykov [6] :

38) 03.05.1944, 1 Ju-87, Târgu Frumos — Dumbrăviţa (Romania)

39) 31.05.1944, 1 FW-190, east of Vulturu (Romania)

40) 01.06.1944, 1 Ju-87, Cuza Vodă (Romania)

41) 02.06.1944, 1 Hs-129, west of Stânca (Romania)

42) 03.06.1944, 1 FW-190, Rediu (Romania)

43) 03.06.1944, 1 FW-190, Rediu (Romania)

44) 03.06.1944, 1 FW190, north-west of Iaşi (Romania)

45) 07.06.1944, 1 Ме-109, Pârliţa (Moldova)

46) 08.06.1944, 1 Ме-109, Cârpiţi.


In July 1944 Kozhedub was called to Moscow where it was announced that he is being transferred to the 176-th GIAP, 1st Belorussian Front, where he will be promoted to the role of deputy commander. Kozhedub’s ‘White- 14’ was to remain in the 240-th IAP, where it was flown by other pilots one of whom was Kirill Evstigneev.

Flown by KIRILL EVSTIGNEEV

White-14 is famous not only because of I.Kozhedub, but also because it was flown by Kirill Alekseevich Evstigneev- another one of the greatest fighter aces of all time. With 52(solo)+ 3(shared) victories according to Mikhail Bykov [7], he is the number 4 top-scoring Soviet (and therefore Allied) fighter Ace. Many sources, including Evstigneev’s own book called ‘Winged Guards’ , claim that he flew Kozhedub’s famous White-14 after Kozhedub was transferred to another regiment. In his book, Evstigneev says that he started to fly the airplane with an inscription “From the collective farmer Konev, Vasiliy Victorovich” from 1st September 1944 [9], and mentions that he crash-landed “Kozhedub’s famous plane” after an air battle on the 17th of February 1945.
There is some confusion about this airplane however, as it pertains to Evstigneev, because photos exist of Evstigneev’s White-14 La-5FN and many sources often mistake this La-5FN with the “REAL”/Original White-14 featured on this page - Kozhedub’s White-14, La-5F. It might be a good idea to visit the profile page dedicated to Evstigneev’s White-14 La-5FN to learn more about it, because as it turns out, the La-5FN in the photos might have simply been repainted to look similar to Kozhedub’s White-14, La-5F.
As is often the case, various sources also don’t agree on the amount of victories scored by Evstigneev, including during the time he flew White-14. According to Mikhail Bykov’s research, the following victories were scored by Evstigneev during the period when he flew Kozhedub’s airplane:

07.10.1944, 1 FW-190, Keresh-Tarcha (Hungary ?)
15.10.1944, 1 FW-190, south-east of Nad-Leta (Hungary?)
16.11.1944, 1 Me-109, Jászárokszállás (Hungary)
16.01.1945, 2 Ju-52, west of Pilisvörösvár (Hungary)
17.02.1945, 1 FW-190, west of Soldini (Hungary)

The victory on the 17th of February 1945 (the last in the list of victories above) was very special to Evstigneev. Here is how described it in his memoirs:

”My second-to-last, my 55-th personal victory was memorable to me because it happened on the eve of the 27-th anniversary of the Red Army and on the day of my Birthday. And on the 23-rd of February by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of USSR I was awarded the title of twice Hero of the Soviet Union. [10].

On that day of the 17th of Feb. Evstigneev and his wingman Mudretsov, accompanied by a pair headed by Karpov, were on a mission to confirm the presence of aerostats in the area north-west of Komarno where they met 8 FW-190s. After shooting down one aerostat Evstigneev pounced on the Focke Wulfs and after a couple of attempts to strike the enemy’s leading planes Evstigneev found himself in a position of having to attack one of the FW-190s head on. Don’t forget that unlike Lavochkin’s 2 cannons the armament of the FW-190 consisted of six guns - 4 cannons and 2 machine guns. They don’t call a FW-190 a ‘Butcher Bird’ for nothing! However, in this joust match the 6 guns were no match against the shooting and piloting abilities of one of the greatest fighter aces of WW2. FW-190 opened fire too early, from a distance, while Evstigneev waited until he saw the yellow of his adversary’s belly and only then let out a burst from White-14’s cannons tearing the enemy’s belly apart and sending the FW-190 and its 6 guns falling to the ground. But White-14 didn’t come out unscathed, 3 armour-piercing projectiles penetrated through its surfaces. One projectile passed through the wing and the horizontal stabiliser and two others have pierced the main body knocking out the landing gear mechanism. Evstigneev discovered the latter when he made it back to the airfield after they fought off the Focke Wulfs , and attempted to land. The right landing gear failed to be lowered and though the left landing gear was able to be lowered it got jammed in the ‘down’ position and could not be raised back up again in order for Evstigneev to attempt a belly landing. Evstigneev’s skill in controlling White-14 allowed him to land the plane on one wheel and to slowly collapse the jammed landing gear by using the weight of the airplane thus completing the belly landing. White-14 was in need of serious repairs after the crash-landing and Evstigneev does not appear to have ever flown it again. In his memoirs (Winged Guards) Evstigneev writes:

“The machine was in need of serious repairs. It was sad to part with a tested battle friend, we grew to like each other…
This fighter was built with the funds collected by a bee farmer V.V. Konev and gifted to I.Kozhedub by the collective farm ‘Bolshevik’ of Budarinsk region in the Stalingrad ‘oblast’ .
The patriot asked to give the plane to the best pilot of the front. The ‘Lavochkin’ was gifted to I.N.Kozhedub, and I flew it after Kozhedub was transferred from our unit. The plane served the Motherland gloriously…”[10]

Noteworthy visual characteristics

General: The airplane appears to be loosely consistent with the Grey/Grey camo pattern (Except for the engine cowling possibly, discussed in point ‘11b’), but the demarcation lines between the two colours of the camouflage (AMT-11 and AMT-12) are very blurred and the contrast between them is very low. Upon closer examination of the photo reference (scroll to the bottom of the page) it looks like the camo was applied with a brush, resulting in a slightly uneven application of colour.
In May-June 1944 this airplane was still relatively new and probably had very light “weathering” to it at the time it was flown by I.Kozhedub.

1) The propeller spinner was allegedly painted red - the supposed identification marking of 240 IAP. We do not have photos of White-14’s spinner to confirm this, so I based the colour of the spinner on the work of Russian-speaking researchers  Mikhail Bykov http://ava.org.ru/iap/178g/la-5f_14_kozhedub_prof.png.   and Aleksandr Stankov https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/attachments/0_8b9fa_41e6a9db_orig1-copier-copier-jpg.289388/

2) The propeller blades were probably painted with the usual ‘black’ , as can be seen in this photograph.

3) Note the antena arrangement. This arrangement is more common to the La-5F’s rather than La-5FNs.

4) Note the shape of the antena mast, it appears to be slightly more pointy at the top than usual. This, along with a few other minor variations such as this, seems to be one of the features common to the planes built at factory number 381, which produced 239 out of the 4147 La-5F planes.

5) The slogan on the left side of the plane reads ‘Имени Героя Советского Союза Подполковника Конева Г.Н.’ which translates to ‘Named after the Hero of the Soviet Union Lieutenant Colonel Konev G.N.’  Georgiy Nikolaevich Konev was a Soviet Fighter Ace who was killed in action during an air battle while defending the motherland in 1942. He was the nephew of Vasiliy Konev - a beekeeper who funded the building of White-14.

6) Note the small “beak/protrusion” at the top of number ‘1’. It can be clearly seen in this photo http://soviet-aces-1936-53.ru/abc/k/kozhedub7.jpg

7) All of the white areas in the photo reference appear to be slightly darker than one would expect. This is most likely due to the poor quality of the film/print. Some have interpreted these areas to be painted with ‘aluminium/silver’ colour, but silver would probably show more tonal variation in it due to its reflective qualities and we don’t see this in the photo reference. Because of this I believe that ‘white’ is a more likely option. In my artwork,  to try and stay true to the photo reference I made these areas slightly darker than pure white.

8) The presence and the positioning of the technical markings which usually appear on the hatch  is  hypothetical.

9) The serial number of this airplane was 3811414 [1]. It appeared on the tail and on the horizontal stabilisers.

10) The slogan on the right side of the plane reads: ‘От Колхозника Конева Василия Викторовича’ which translates to ‘From the collective farmer Konev Vasily Viktorovich’

11) Note that I didn’t paint the ‘Ф’ (F) symbol (because of the poor quality of the photo reference it’s not possible to see if there was the “F” symbol on White-14’s nose). There are two reasons for not painting the logo:

a)As discussed further down the page, there is a tiny chance that Kozhedub’s ‘White-14’ might have been fitted with Shevtsov’s M-82FN engine of the La-5FNs. If it was fitted with the La-5FN’s engine then technically it would make this airplane a La-5FN (even though it’s outer appearance is that of a La-5F, more on this is further down the page).  It’s mainly the engine that defines the ‘FN’ or the ‘F’ type airplane and therefore if ‘White-14’ was indeed retrofitted with teh ‘FN’ engine then having the ‘F’ logo on it would seem inappropriate. For this reason I chose to not include the ‘F’ logo which usually appears in the area indicated by the arrow.

b) The ‘Ф’ symbol was not always painted on the La-5F airplanes. The LA-5Fs built at the factory number 381, seem to be missing the symbol/logo. Not only that, the engine cowlings of the planes from factory 381 that I have seen tend to have the nose painted dark grey. This seems to be a consistent deviation from the “standard” camo pattern. White-12 and White-14 are a good example of this, or White-03.

12) These areas are discussed in further detail in the ‘A BIT OF MYSTERY’ section further down the page. ‘12a’ points to the area where the side panel would have been fitted had this been a La-5FN plane. ‘12b’ points to the shape of the exhaust smoke stain, the shape of which suggests that this was a la-5F rather that a La-5FN plane. ‘12c’ points to the air vent which can be seen in the reference below, suggesting that this plane was a La5-F rather than a La-5FN.

Here are a few closeup images to help illustrate the points above. More closeup images are On Patreon

A BIT OF MYSTERY

With all the fame surrounding Kozhedub’s ‘White-14’ there is one glaring question which I am sure has been nagging many people ( including myself ) for a while - a question that doesn’t seem to have been explained with satisfactory clarity by anybody, including Kozhedub himself, and that question is - which La-5 variant was ‘White-14’ exactly? The confusion arises from the fact that most sources claim that this was a La-5FN, but all the photos we have of it point to it being a La-5F. It’s no surprise that the profile artworks online show this plane as being either one of the two La-5 variants! Confusingly.

I found some of the evidence for the claim that this might have been a La-5FN in an Interview which Ivan Kozhedub gave to ‘Aviation History’, where Kozhedub himself stated this about his ‘White-14’ : ‘It was, practically speaking, a lightened version of the La-5 developed in the same year, 1942. It had a boosted engine with direct fuel injection.’ [11] Kozhedub seems to confirm that this was indeed a La-5FN because he names the engine features unique to the La-5FN variant. La-5FN gets its ‘FN’ designation directly from the ‘FN’ in the M-82FN engine name. ‘F’ stands for ‘Forsirovaniy’ which translates to ‘forced/boosted' and ‘N’ stands for ‘Neposredstvenniy’ which translates to ‘direct’ referring to the direct fuel injection. M-82A of the La-5 and M-82F of the La-5F both used a carburettor , but the carburettor in La-5FN was replaced with a direct fuel injection system instead, hence the FN designation. ‘FN’ literally stands for ‘boosted engine with a direct fuel injection’, and that’s exactly what Kozhedub said that his ‘White-14’ had, basically implying that his ‘White-14’ was a La-5FN!

Another piece of evidence is a photo with Evstigneev standing in front of ‘White'-14’ . The airplane in the photo is clearly a La-5FN, but if we’ll compare it to Kozhedub’s White-14 then we’ll quickly see that it’s not actually the same airplane. In fact, some have suggested that the plane was simply repainted to look similar to Kozhedub’s White-14, as was already mentioned above. You can learn more about Evstigneev’s White-14, La-5FN HERE

The evidence that Kozhedub’s ‘White-14’ was a La-5F:

  1. According to this list of known serial numbers of Lavochkin’s airplanes, Kozhedub’s White-14, serial number 3811414 is listed as a La-5F.

  2. The rest is evident from the photos of the plane, particularly the following features:

Kozhedub_White-14_Examination.jpg

A. Indicates the area where a metal heat protection panel would have been fitted over the fuselage had this been a La-5FN. La-5F did not have these side panels. All the photos we have of Kozhedub’s ‘White-14’ show an absence of these side panels.

B. Indicates the area in which the air vents would have been present had this been a La-5FN. The vents appear to be absent in this area. Instead we can see an air vent exactly where one would expect to find one on a La-5F. This is in the area indicated by the letter ‘F’.

C. The narrow shape of the exhaust smoke stain indicates that it came from one combined exhaust pipe (One on each side of the plane). This is just like one would expect from a La-5F and is not in keeping with M-82FN engine’s exhaust stacks arrangement. The exhaust arrangement of the M-82FN engine usually consisted of about 5 individual exhaust pipes on each side of the plane which produced a wider, a more spread out exhaust stain. Here is an image comparing the two exhaust systems (please note that the image on the right in the following link has a very unique positioning of the air vents, the air vents of La-5FNs in almost all cases appear at the back of the heat protection panel , not at the front’ https://aviadejavu.ru/Images6/AK/AK2005-04/21-1.jpg (La-5FN is on the right and La-5F on the left). The best prove that this was a La-5F, based on the exhaust stacks, is THIS PHOTO of White-14, where we can clearly see that Kozhedub’s White-14 had the exhaust and the cowl flap of the La-5F.

D. The antenna arrangement of this plane is what would commonly be seen on a La-5F rather than a La-5FN variant produced around May 1944. It is considered to be the arrangement of the La-5F or the ‘early type’ La-5FNs. But this is not a strong piece of evidence because the antenna arrangements often varied across the different La-5 variants. I have even seen some late type La-5FNs with this same antenna arrangement. But still, this antena arangement does make it more likely that it was a La-5F rather than FN.

E. This is an area where the air intake is located. Unfortunately this area appears quite flat, so we can’t tell exactly what the shape of the air intake is under the cover. I can only assume that if this was a La-5FN than we would expect the air intake to be more visible because La-5FN’s air intakes are more prominent than those of the La-5F.

To conclude: As far as ‘White-14’s outer appearances go, based on the photo reference, Kozhedub’s plane was a La-5F. But comments by people such as Kozhedub lead me to entertain the idea that perhaps this might have been a La-5F with Shevtsov’s M-82FN engine of the La-5FNs, but with the exhaust arrangement of a La-5F. A hybrid of sorts? This seems quite unlikely because La-5F’s with M-82FN engines have been experimented with and produced poor results, therefore such hybrids were never put into production and the airplane mechanics on the airfields were advised that La-5Fs should not be retrofitted with La-5FN’s engines, that this can be done only in cases where no other options were available. It’s hard to imagine that Kozhedub’s ‘White-14’ might have been such a hybrid. But based on the mixed info we are presented with there is a tiny chance that ‘White-14’ might have actually been a hybrid with potentially reduced performance. It’s the only conclusion that seems to reconcile the available evidence, even if it’s extremely unlikely that the two top Aces would be flying an airplane with a reduced performance.

FOOTNOTES

* ‘Lightened’ referred to the plane’s wing spars being made from duralumin rather than wood. This made the plane lighter, giving it increased performance.

[1] This is according to Mikhail Bykov (a Russian researcher). This is also corroborated by Alexandr Stankov in his research, as you can see in this poster showing ‘White-14’ and its serial number , amongst other of Kozhedub’s airplanes. https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1160695617439090&set=a.356457884529538

[2] The three individuals with the title of ‘Three times H.S.U.’ are Ivan Kozhedub, Aleksandr Pokryshkin both of whom were fighter pilots, and Semyon Budyoniy who was a Military Commander. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_of_the_Soviet_Union

[3] Based on the info from chapter 27 of : ‘Служу Родине. Рассказы летчика’, by Кожедуб Иван Никитович. https://biography.wikireading.ru/226708

[4] Based on the info from chapter 27 of : ‘Служу Родине. Рассказы летчика’, by Кожедуб Иван Никитович. https://biography.wikireading.ru/226708

[5] Based on the info from chapter 28 of : ‘Служу Родине. Рассказы летчика’, by Кожедуб Иван Никитович. https://biography.wikireading.ru/226709

[6] Taken from Mikhail Bykov’s book called ‘Все Асы Сталина’ (All of Stalin’s Aces), page 550-551. Youza-press, 2014.

[7] http://airaces.narod.ru/all1/evstign.htm Their info is taken from the book by M. Y. Bykov - "Victory of Stalin's falcons". Publish. "Yauza - EKSMO", 2008.

[8] https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=356460807862579&set=a.356457884529538

[9] This info was found on page 451 of Evstigneev’s book called Крылатая гвардия. «Есть упоение в бою!» Second edition. Published by Yauza, 2013

[10] All the passages marked with ‘10’ are taken from page 565 and 566 of Evstigneev’s book called Крылатая гвардия. «Есть упоение в бою!» Second edition. Published by Yauza, 2013 , PDF/iBooks version.

[11] This was Kozhedub’s answer to Aviation History’s question : ‘On May 2, 1944, you received an La-5FN specially dedicated “In the name of Hero of the Soviet Union Lt.Col. N. Konev.” You allegedly scored eight victories in seven days flying this aircraft. How much of an improvement over the La-5 was that La-5FN?’ https://acesofww2.com/soviet/aces/koz/
Please note that the interpreters of the interview translated the word ‘облегченный’ as ‘simplified’ instead of ‘lightened’. It should be ‘lightened’. ‘Lightened’ referred to the plane’s wing spars being made from duralumin rather than wood. This gave‘White'-14’ better performance.

SUmmary of the LINKS TO THE REFERENCE Images and videos

Kozhedub_White-14_Photo_Planesinprofile.jpg

All the work presented on this is page is subject to updates and revisions in the light of new information which might present itself. If you have any new information relevant to this page or disagree with anything that's presented here, then please feel free to contact me through the Planes in Profile Facebook page. Thanks:)

Anton Petrov
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