“Veseliye Rebyata” white-12
Lavochkin, La-5F (Type 39)
1-st Squadron (The Singing Squadron), 5-th GIAP (‘Berlinskiy’ regiment) , 11-th GIAD. Presented during a ceremony in Moscow in November 1943 (Or March 1944, depending on the source)
Flown by various elite pilots of the 5-th GIAP, including Igor Semenovich Glazkov. (An ace with 5 victories)
‘Veseliye Rebyata’ (Jolly Fellows) are two airplanes (White-12 and White-14) which are associated with a few aspects of the Soviet pop culture. First is that they are named after a 1939 movie called ‘Veseliye Rebyata’ . This was a Jazz comedy staring a Soviet musician/actor- Leonid Utesov and his Jazz band. The movie popularised its theme song called ‘ Legko na serdtse ot pesni veseloy’ (The heart feels light from a jolly song) and this was a song that was sometimes sung by the pilots of the 1-st squadron of the 5th GIAP many of whom were keen musicians themselves and who often entertained their comrades by performing empromptu concerts. For their musical skills they were nicknamed ‘The singing squadron’ and it is said that some of their airplanes (Possibly including ‘ White-12’ ?) featured the notes of the song ‘Veseliye Rebyata’ on their fuselage. For example, as has been interpreted in the movie ‘V Boy Idut Odni Stariki’ .
Utesov’s band performed many free concerts at the front in their support for the war effort, including concerts performed for the 5th GIAP. In 1943 the band went a step further in their support for the war effort and purchased two La-5F Planes which they gifted to the Singing Squardon of the 5-ht GIAP, along with a record player and a collection of records (The latter were gifted by Utesov’s daughter Edith Utesova). The gifting ceremony took place on Moskow’s central airfield ( named after ‘Frunze’). When Utesov with his band and daughter presented these gifts at the ceremony, he wished that the pilots of the 5-th GIAP would: “fly to Hitler’s lair on the wings of the ‘Jolly Fellows’ “. His wish was fulfilled when in the following years his ‘Jolly Fellows’ helped the 5-th GIAP to fight the Germans all the way back to Germany and took part in the storming of “Hitler’s Lair”- Berlin itself (Well, at least the ‘White-12’ did) , performing the latter task so effectively that the regiment received the title of ‘Berlinskiy’!
After the gifting ceremony, the planes were flown from Moscow to the front lines by two experienced pilots of 5-th GIAP - deputy regiment commander for political affairs Victor Petrovich Rulin and one of the best fighter pilots of the regiment - Alexandr Masterkov [1] (one of the streets in Moscow is named after him). When the planes arrived at the front they were assigned to the squadron of the senior leutenant Vitaliy Popkov who was nicknamed ‘Maestro’ after the main character in the movie ‘Veseliye Rebyata’ played by Utesov. This squadron consisted of elite fighter pilots, mostly from Moscow. Especially outstanding in air battles were Aleksandr Masterkov, Sergey Glinkin, Ivan Sytov (who was shot down and died a month prior) and the commander of the squadron Vitaliy Popkov himself [2]. Out of 14 pilots in the squadron, 11 were eventually awarded the title of the Hero Of the Soviet Union[3] - the country’s highest honour. The ‘Veseliye Rebyata’ planes were allowed to be flown by only the best pilots and each of the pilots considered it an honour to fly them into battle.
Three months after receiving the airplanes, the pilots of the 5thGIAP wrote a letter to Utesov and his band, saying:
"Since receiving your gift, the guardsmen-pilots have destroyed nine enemy aircraft in aerial battles and on airfields. There is no doubt that this score will keep growing. Your machines are in good hands. They will continue to be a threat to the Nazis."[4]
Another connection that the ‘Jolly Fellows’ airplanes have to the Soviet pop culture is that in 1973 a very popular movie came out which was loosely based on the stories and the pilots of the ‘Singing Squadron’ . This Soviet classic is called ‘V Boy Idut Odni Stariki’ which translates to ‘Only the old men go to battle’. The title of the movie implies that only the experienced pilots “old men” were allowed to engage in air battles in the 5th GIAP, which is partly why this regiment finished the war with relatively fewer casualties than many other regiments. Unfortunately, since the movie was only inspired by the ‘Singing squadron’ and isn’t explicitly about this particular squadron, the airplanes used in the movie are not replicas of the airplanes that the ‘Singing Squadron’ flew during the war. Had they been exact replicas then undoubtedly White-12 and White-14 would have featured prominently in the film, because in real life these planes became a very special part of the squadron for the rest of the war.
‘White-12’ (and White-14) were highly regarded by the pilots of the 5-th GIAP. These planes were most probably a ‘lightened’ version of the La-5F(meaning that they had duralumin wing spars) which increased their performance characteristics. Such La-5F and La-5FN planes were produced in small numbers and were intended to be flown only by the best pilots. ‘White-12’ was used by various aces of the 5-th GIAP, including I.S.Glazkov. Towards the end of the war, in the skies of Germany, Glazkov flew ‘Free Hunting’ sorties in this ‘Jolly Fellow’. ‘White-12’ survived the war.
Noteworthy visual characteristics
1) Note the absence of the ‘F’ logo which usually appears on the engine cowling in the area indicated by the arrow, as well as at the top of the tail.
2) The engine cowling seems to be covered with the same colour all over. This is a deviation from the standard camouflage pattern introduced in 1943. Infact, the camo pattern of ‘White-12’ is not perfectly consistent with either the usual ‘Grey-Grey’ nor the ‘Green-Black’ camo pattern standards, which makes it harder to know what colour this plane was in real life exactly. Based on the design of the stars (With the white/red border) which was introduced along with the Grey-Grey camouflage pattern in 1943, the camo pattern on the side of the plane (visible on the side of ‘Veseliye Rebyata’ ‘White-14’), and the fact that these planes (White-12 and White-14) were built in late 1943 or early 1944, implies that it is more likely that they were Grey-Grey, rather than Green-Black.
3) ‘Веселые ребята’ (Veseliye rebyata) translates to ‘Jolly Fellows’. This is a title of a popular Soviet jazz comedy starring Leonid Utesov. It is also a title of one of Utesov’s Jazz albums. It was an appropriate slogan to appear on the two airplanes purchased and gifted to the 5-th GIAP by Utesov and his band.
4) The antena mast looks slightly more pointy 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 technical markings are very hard to see in the black and white photographs. Maybe they were painted in darker colour, such as ‘yellow’ or ‘red’ rather than the usual white, it’s also possible that they were completely absent.
6) The exact serial number of this plane is unknown to me. According to Aleksandr Stankov, the serial number of ‘White-14’ was 3811014 (White-14 is the other ‘Veselie Rebyata’ plane gifted by Utesov . A.Stankov is a researcher of Soviet Aviation among other things), which means that the serial number of ‘White-12’ was most likely 3811012. This is consistent with the claims that the gifting ceremony took place in March 1944 (22 of March to be precise). And these two serial numbers are listed amongst the airplanes produced by factory 381 in THIS LINK .
However, most sources I found claim that the ceremony took place in November 1944. After having consulted Miloš Veštšík (An expert on Lavochkin planes) about this, I was told that it’s unlikely that either one of these two planes was a series 10 machine if the ceremony did take place in November. The series number is usually the second to last two digits in the serial number, indicated in bold here - 3811012. Miloš informed me that if these planes were gifted to the 5-th GIAP in November 1943 that means that they were produced sometime before November 1943. By November 1943 factory number 381 had only produced series 01 to 05 La-5F machines, not series 10 machines. The series 10 La-5F of factory 381 were produced later - in February 1944. If we will presume that White 12 was produced in October 1943 (a month before it was gifted to the 5-th GIAP) then its series number was probably 04, which follows that its serial number should be 3810412.
In my artwork, instead of drawing a potentially wrong number I made the series number of the serial number slightly illegible for the time being, until more information will become known/confirmed. If anyone reading this can confirm the exact series number of this plane then please be so kind as to share it in the comments below.
7) Note that the AMT-7 (Light Blue) runs as a thin line along the bottom edge of the fuselage in this photo. Because the photo is ‘cut off’ on the right side we can’t tell if AMT-7 keeps running as a thin line all the way to the rudder (As per the Green/Black camouflage pattern design), or if it curves up to meet the front of the horizontal stabiliser just past number 12 (As per the Grey/Grey camouflage pattern design variation of some Lavochkins, as I drew in my artwork). I went with the latter design option because I believe this plane is more consistent with the Grey-Grey camo pattern. Here is a good example of a variation of the ‘Grey-Grey’ camouflage with a similar demarcation line on the fuselage. But please note, although the position of the demarcation line between the Greys and the AMT-7 around the areas indicated by the arrows is likely to be correct in my artwork, it is still hypothetical.
8) The tail wheel probably had a cover around the suspension mechanism. This assumption is based on the fact that White-14 seemed to have this ‘covering’ . ‘White-12’ and ‘White-14’ were presumably almost identical airplanes (but we know that they were not exactly identical, - the camouflage pattern on the fuselage is proof of that for example) and therefore it follows logically that ‘White-12’ might have had this cover present also.
9) От джаз-оркестра Л.Утесова (Ot djaz-orkestra L.Utesova) translates to ‘From the jazz-orchestra of L.Utesov’.
10) On Patreon
11) On Patreon
A hypothetical interpretation of what ‘White-12’ might have looked like just before the end of the war in Late April/Early May 1945 , with the identification markings of the 5-th GIAP and Glazkov’s 5 victory starlets.
12) The tips of the propeller blades on the La-5F planes of the 5-th GIAP seem to have been striped, as can be seen in this photograph of Popkov in front of a La-5 or this photo of P.T. Kalsin for example. Note that the white stripes seem to be separated by another colour, clearly visible in the photo with Popkov, most likely red - based on its tone in the b/w photos. The tone of the “red” is darker than the propeller blades. In the photo of Kalsin we see that the blades are painted a lighter colour, possibly AMT-11. The propeller blades of the plane in the photo with Popkov were probably painted the same (lighter) colour too, which is why the “red ” appears darker than the blades. In my artwork I painted the propeller blades a lighter grey also to keep them consistent with the two photos I just mentioned.
In these same photos, as well as in many other photos of the Lavochkins of the 5-th GIAP, we can see that their spinner and the front of the engine cowling were painted white- these were the identification markings of the 5-th GIAP.
Having said all this, please note that the markings indicated by ‘12’ in my artwork are still hypothetical, they are based on the photos of other La-5Fs of the 5-th GIAP.
13) The 5 small, white stars most likely represent the 5 solo victories of I.S.Glazkov. In this photo we can clearly see three small stars to the right of the large red star, we can see a couple of points of the 4-th star visible behind Glazkov’s neck and as suggested to me by Miloš Veštšík- at the time the photo was taken there was most probably a 5-th victory star below the one obscured by Glazkov’s neck. The reason Miloš suggested this is because the photo was taken in the last couple of weeks of the war or just after, by which time Glazkov had already scored all of his 5 victories. M. Veštšík has deduced the time when the photo was taken based on the fact that Glazkov is wearing an ‘Order of the Red Banner’ on his chest in the photograph. He received this decoration on the 24-th of April 1945, meaning that the photo could not have been taken before then.
14) There is a white patch at the bottom of the hatch visible in this photo. It is difficult to determine what this is, but it seems to me that it is most likely an improvised, bare metal, locking mechanism - a replacement for the original lock which might have broken at some stage, possibly through wear and tear, since by the time the photo was taken the plane was already in operation for roughly a year and a half.
15) Lavochkins of the 5-th GIAP seem to have had a white line painted along the trailing edge of the rudder, as can be seen on all the photos I have seen of the tails of the Lavochkins of the 5-th GIAP (I could only find three), as I’ve shown in the close-up images below. Some experts question this, suggesting that it could be a reflection of light instead of white paint, but personally, when looking at the photographs I can’t help but feel convinced that there was a white line painted on the tail of the planes in the photos I’ve shown. Which means that there might have also been a white line painted on the tail of White-12, so I drew it in my artwork. But please note - this is hypothetical.
Here are a few closeup images to help illustrate the points above. Full set of closeup images is On Patreon
FOOTNOTES
[1] Info taken from the fifth paragraph of this article http://delovoy-m.ru/vse/item/1344-samolety-leonida-utesova
[2] Based on the info taken from the sixths paragraph of this article http://delovoy-m.ru/vse/item/1344-samolety-leonida-utesova
[3] It is what Popkov said in an article published here https://kp.ua/life/336421-yz-vospomynanyi-dvazhdy-heroia-sovetskoho-souiza-vytalyia-popkova-fylm-v-boi-ydut-odny-staryky-snialy-o-moei-eskadryle
[4] Taken from a book by Nikolay Illyin called ‘Guardsmen in the air’ https://libking.ru/books/nonf-/nonf-biography/23460-54-nikolay-ilin-gvardeytsy-v-vozduhe.html#book
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