Vishnyakov’s White-76 “Za Olega Koshevogo”
Lavochkin, La-5FN
1-st Squadron (‘Oleg Koshevoy’ squadron), 171-st ‘Tulskiy’ IAP, 315-th IAD, 14-th IAK, 15-th Air Army, 2-nd Prebaltic Front, circa beginning of 1944, and August of 1944.
Flown by the commander of the 1-st squadron, (future)Hero of the Soviet Union, (future)General-major, Ivan Alekseevich Vishnyakov, Ace with (future) 20-23 victories, depending on the source.
Please Note! Only one known photo of an airplane presumed to be White-76 exists . This photo reveals only a very small part of this airplane. Most of the artwork below is therefore hypothetical.
171-st IAP started to fly La-5 airplanes in battle from 28-th of May 1943[4]. According to a book by Miloš Veštšik called ‘Lavochkin, La-5’ , 171-st IAP flew La-5F planes during the summer of 1943, where it distinguished itself during the battle of Kursk by achieving the highest daily score of any regiment equipped with La-5F airplanes. This daily score was achieved on the 13th of July 1943, when the regiment shot down 31 enemy fighters (10 downed bombers and 21 fighters) [5]. 2 of these victories were achieved by A. Vishnyakov. According to M. Bykov’s research, Vishnyakov scored 4 confirmed victories in total in that month of July 1943, flying a La-5 [6]:
12.07.1943 1 FW-190 юж. хут. Веселый (South of farm ‘Veseliy’)
13.07.1943 1 FW-190 юго-вост.Архангельское (South-east of Arkhangelskoe)
13.07.1943 1 Ju-88 юж. хут. Желябух (South of farm ‘Zhelyabuh’)
16.07.1943 1 FW-190 Алешня (Aleshnya)
In that same month of July 1943, newspaper ‘Pravda’ (Truth) published information describing the horrific atrocities perpetrated by the Nazi forces against the civilian population in the occupied parts of USSR. This is how the pilots of the first squadron of 171 IAP learned about a Soviet youth by the name of Oleg Koshevoy and his friends who formed an underground anti-nazi organization called ‘Young Guard’ in the occupied Krasnodar region and who worked to sabotage the activities of the Nazi invaders. Oleg, who was the founder and the leader of the organization, along with some of his comrades, was caught by the Fascists, cruelly tortured and shot. The suffering experienced by Oleg and the rage towards Hitler’s armies inspired the personnel of the squadron to swear vengeance for the pain inflicted on the Soviet people, and on Oleg and his comrades in particular. At a meeting of the first squadron, it was decided that their planes (11 of them) should be inscribed with a slogan ‘For Oleg Koshevoy’ . A few days later the unit was named after Oleg Koshevoy [1b]
The opportunity for vengeance came on the 20-th of August when twelve IL-2 (Shturmovik) crews were tasked with striking the enemy manpower and armour in the Optukh, Protasov area. the first squadron, commanded by Vishnyakov, was tasked with escorting them. When the airplanes got to their destination and while the Shturmoviks circled in the flack-filled sky taking turns to deliver lethal attacks on their targets, Vishnyakov’s squadron was notified about 9 approaching enemy FW-190’s and 6 BF-109s. A heated air battle ensued, but Vishnyakov’s squadron didn’t let the enemy fighters get through to the Shturmoviks. The enemy lost 7 airplanes in this battle, while the first squadron lost none. One of the enemy planes was shot down from close range by Vishnyakov himself [6]. While the pilots of the first squadron were engaged in this air battle you could hear their exclamations through the headphones as they opened fire, ‘This is for my friends!’ and this is ' For the Young Guards!, and ‘This is for Oleg Koshevoy!’ [1c]
A little later, in September 1943, major Aleksandr Grigorievich Shevtsov (one of the best pilots of 171st IAP) went to Moscow to officially receive his title of the Hero of the Soviet Union award. There he happened to meet Oleg’s mother and told her about the first squadron and the fact that their planes were inscribed with the name of her son. A while later Oleg’s mom wrote a letter to the first squadron addressing I.Vishnyakov. This letter was read not only by the first squadron, but by the whole regiment. The letter said:
“Dear Ivan Alekseevich!
I learned that your squadron is named after my son Oleg Koshevoy. I am touched by your attention and sincerely thank you for the great honour you have shown my son Oleg.
I wish you that your squadron, bearing the name of Oleg, will keep crushing the enemy mercilessly and will remain unharmed until the end of the war.
I ask you, when you have time, write to me. I shake your hand tightly. E. Koshevaya.
My address: Krasnodon, Voroshilovgrad region, Sadovaya st., 6, apt. 1".
After reading the letter, the soldiers vowed to work selflessly towards complete victory over the enemy and to fight the Nazi invaders in a heroic way.
In a response letter to Oleg's mother Vishnyakov wrote:
“Dear Elena Nikolaevna!
We have read your letter with great pride.
Not only the squadron named after your son, but the entire personnel of the regiment is increasing the force of the blow against the enemy day after day. In recent days alone, the pilots of the squadron named after Oleg shot down eight fascist airplanes, and the personnel of the entire regiment - fifteen.
We assure you, our dear mother, that we will not spare our strength and our lives in the struggle for the fastest defeat of the Hitlerite bandits.
We wish you good health. We are always with you. " [1d]
But, back to White-76. It’s hard to know when exactly 171st IAP received their La-5FNs, including the White-76. Based on the photo of White-76 and the winter clothing that Vishnyakov is wearing there, it is evident that at the beginning of 1944 at least (or at the end of 1943) he already flew this La-5FN airplane.
The victory which Vishnyakov scored in January of 1944 seems to already appear as a starlet on White-76 in the photo. This was a victory over a German Focke-Wulf FW-189 Uhu (Eagle Owl) reconnaissance plane.
18.01.1944 1 FW-189 Кривцово (Krivtsovo)
FW-189 spy plane usually operated at high altitudes and was, according to Vishnyakov’s memoir, notoriously difficult to shoot down due to being quite maneuverable, hardy, and lethal, despite its appearance. Vishnyakov helped to dispel the myth that it was “difficult” to shoot down a FW-189, by downing it using his La-5. During this mission Vishnyakov’s plane was damaged. Two shots from FW-189 penetrated it and hit the landing gear’s hydraulic system. Vishnyakov’s wingman joked over the radio about the two holes in Vishnyakov’s La-5 by saying: “ At least you have good ventilation’ :) Luckily for Vishnyakov, the landing gears actually worked when it came time to land the airplane. Nevertheless, Vishnyakov’s La-5 needed some repairs after this. The exact locations of these repairs are unknown to me, so I did not show them in my artwork.
The shooting down of a FW-189 by the White-76 La-5FN was recreated in the form of a commemorative sculpture, featuring life-size airplanes, as part of a memorial called ‘To the Defenders of the Sky of the Fatherland’ in the city of Tula.
Some months later, while flying White-76 in the summer of 1944, Vishnyakov went on to score these confirmed victories:
06.06.1944 1 FW-190 сев. аэродром Рублевка (north of Rublevka airfield)
17.07.1944 2 FW-190 сев.Акиши. (North of Akisha)
26.07.1944 1 BF-109 Бринки — Мерани (Brinki-Merani)
06.08.1944 1 FW-190 зап.Рудзани (north of Rudzani)
07.08.1944 1 FW-190 Лайданы (Laydani)
23.08.1944 1 FW-190 Виэтава. (Vietava)
26.08.1944 1 FW-190 Рашулены (Rashuleny)
Vishnyakov describes many impressive and heroic air battles in his book called ‘In tight turns’, too many to list here. A lot of these battles resulted in air victories for Vishnyakov, as can be seen in the list of confirmed victories above, but not all victories are included in that list, because not all were ‘confirmed’ or attributed to Vishnyakov. An example of one such a victory (though it wasn’t an “Air” victory) happened on a sunny Sunday in July 1944, which quickly “turned grey” for Vishnyakov when he learned that one of his friends, Nikolay Haretonenkov, was killed. Vishnyakov and his comrade Stefan Ivlev, overcome with vengeance, decided to engage in some “vigilante justice” and with their cannons loaded and their hearts burning with rage, took off in their La-5s in the direction of an enemy airfield west of the town of Opochka (Russia), by themselves without notifying their superiors and refusing to reply to their radio calls for the fear of being commanded to return. When they saw the enemy airfield they dove towards it from the hight of 3000 meters. Just as two enemy fighters were about to take off the runway, Vishnyakov and Ivlev showered them with fire causing both enemy planes to burst into flames and crash. Other enemy fighters didn’t dare to take off and engage Vishnyakov and his comrade. To avoid the flack fire that followed this surprise attack, Vishnyakov and Ivlev decided to change course and flew towards the enemy-occupied town of Opochka, to wish the Nazis a ‘Happy Sunday’ from White-76’s cannons. Flying low over the town they spotted a street with enemy vehicles and personnel, and heading towards them opened fire. They continued their strafing attack until they had just enough ammo left for their trip back to the home airfield. When the two ‘hot heads’ returned, Vishnyakov, being the leader and the instigator of this self-initiated sortie, was put under house arrest for 10 days, and Ivlev for 8 days. The two destroyed enemy fighters were included into the overall victory score of the regiment rather than attributed to Vishnakov and Ivlev. And no one knows exactly the extent of the damage caused by their strafing attack.
The last victory in the list above, the one scored on the 26-th of August 1944, was probably the final victory scored in White-76. Because later that day (based on the timeline in Vishnyakov’s memoirs), White-76 was crippled in an air battle and was crash-landed. Here is how it happened:
In the second half of the day, Vishnyakov and three of his comrades, took off on a mission to patrol friendly ground forces in the area of Krustpils (Latvia). During the patrol mission, the two pairs, were jumped by 16 FW-190s from behind, from the direction of the sun. Each pair of Soviet fighters ended up in a pincer made up of a numerically superior enemy force. One of the enemy fighters was positioning itself on Vishnyakov’s tail and could have opened fire any time, but hesitated. Vishnyakov figured that the enemy might have seen a chain of 18 bright red starlets on Vishnyakov’s La-5 and wanted to make sure he destroyed the Soviet Ace from close range. Though Vishnyakov tried to maneuver his way out of the pincer, he was unable to escape a torrent of enemy fire. The first shell exploded in the landing gear wells, the second in the fuselage, the third knocked out the mount of the engine controls and the radio station. The engine began to shake (as it turned out, 15 centimeters of one propeller blade was shot off). Several fragments bit into Vishnyakov’s legs and hands, the blood began to fill his boots and gloves. His head began to spin. His cannons were out of action and he had no way of calling for help. So Vishnyakov turned his plane and went straight for the enemy imitating a head-on attack. The enemy, trying to avoid a head-on collision scattered out of the way but surrounded White-76 again, 4 FW-190s on the right and 4 on the left. Vishnyakov managed to dive down towards the ground and for a short time concealed himself from view in the clouds of smoke raising from the fires of the burning railroad station below. Luckily this was enough to outsmart the pursuing enemy and turn his plane to get away from them. Vishnyakov managed to take his violently shaking machine back to the home airfield of Kauperniki, and land the plane on one wheel (or what was left of it). This was not the first time he did this, he already landed an I-16 on one wheel back in 1941. During this crash-landing however, Vishnyakov’s plane overturned and he was left hanging upside down before he was pulled out of the cabin. He was alive and well, except for the bleeding legs and hands, but his plane was badly damaged. Apart from the damage already described, the enemy rounds tore two gaping holes in the fuselage, large enough for a person to climb through, and of course there was the additional damage from the crash landing.
According to M.Bykov’s research of confirmed victories, there were two other victories scored by Vishnyakov in a La-5 in September 1944, however - Vishnyakov doesn’t seem to mention these victories in his memoir. It’s worth noting that if we’ll include the two confirmed victories from September, that will bring the total amount of Vishnyakov’s ‘personal victories’ up to 18. 18 red starlets on the side on White-76 is exactly as Vishnyakov described it on the day his plane was shot down. It’s hard to explain this discrepancy between the dates of confirmed victories according to M.Bykov’s research and the claim about 18 red victory starlets on White-76 which was shot down in August.
15.09.1944 1 FW-190 сев.Менделе (north of Mendele)
16.09.1944 1 FW-190 Эргли. (Ergli)
Two additional confirmed victories were scored by Vishnyakov in 1945, but by that time the regiment was flying La-7 airplanes.
In total, during WW2, Vishnyakov flew 286 battle sorties, engaged in 52 air battles, and scored 20 personal and 0 shared victories [5]according to M.Bykov’s research, or 20 personal and 3 shared victories according to Vishnyakov’s award list.
Noteworthy Visual Characteristics
The plane as it might have appeared in Feb/March 1944
General. The camo is based on the standard Grey-Grey camouflage pattern introduced in 1943. The stars are in the 6 standard positions. In Feb/March 1944 the plane was most likely no more than a few months old, therefore I have drawn it with relatively light weathering.
1. A ‘red spinner and a white front of the engine cowling’, were allegedly the identification markings of the 171-st IAP, presumably around 1943-1944. However, opinions on this vary. Please refer to the ‘WHAT COLOUR WAS THE “NOSE”?’ section below for more info.
2. The symbol representing the FN model of La-5, a rhombus with the Cyrillic letters F and N inside it. These letters have to do with the improved engine which was given a designation M-82FN (or ASh-82FN). The letter ‘F’ is derived from the word ‘Forsirovanniy’ which means forced/boosted and refers to an improved supercharger (Same as in the La-5F ’s engine), and the letter ‘N’ is derived from ‘Neposredstvenniy’ which refers to the direct fuel injection system (as opposed to the one that used a carburetor in the previous models).
This photo shows a very good close-up of what the logo/symbol looks like, even though it’s on a different airplane https://aviaforum.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/data/attachment-files/2020/02/1489950_8f38b1e8d0f9a9034b786c98474180ff.jpg
3. Note the ‘convex’ canopy. These canopies usually appeared on the earlier series of La-5F/FN planes.
4. ‘За Олега Кошевого’ (Za Olega Koshevogo), translates to ‘For Oleg Koshevoy’. Oleg Koshevoy was a Soviet youth who formed an underground anti-nazi organization called ‘Young Guard’ in the occupied Krasnodar region and who worked to subotage the activities of the Nazi invaders. Oleg, being the founder and the leader of the organization, along with some of his comrades, was caught by the Fascists, cruelly tortured and eventually shot. The suffering experienced by Oleg and the rage towards Hitler’s armies, inspired the pilots, the technicians and the radio operators of Vishnyakov’s squadron to swear vengeance for Oleg’s death. At a meeting of the 1st squadron in August 1943, it was decided that their planes (11 of them) should be inscribed with a slogan ‘For Oleg Koshevoy’ . A few days later the unit was named after Oleg Koshevoy [1a]
The colour of the slogan is debatable. The letter ‘O’ clearly appears to be filled in with a colour that’s different to the background. It appears to be ‘Red’ - a similar tone to the star/starlets. However, the end of the word ‘Koshevogo’ seems to only have the white outline, which is why some have interpreted the entire slogan as only having a white outline without the colour fill.
It is likely that the word ‘Koshevogo’ appears to be the same colour as the background simply because ‘red’ paint had a different reflective quality to the background colours AMT-11 and AMT-12 (both of these were more ‘matt’ than ‘Red’). Because of this the light reflected differently off of ‘Red’ at different angles making the colour appear different in tone depending on its angle to the light. On the other hand, because we clearly see that ‘O’ is “coloured in”, it doesn’t seem likely that the rest of the slogan would not be. For this reason I have made the whole slogan ‘Red’ with a ‘White’ outline.
It is of course possible that only the letter ‘O’ was coloured ‘Red’, it’s hard to tell.
The slogan most likely appeared only on one side of the airplane, because it was hand painted. In most cases, hand painted slogans were not repeated on the other side of the plane, partly due to the time consuming nature of the process involved.
5. The small starlets represent Vishnyakov’s victories. White stars - his personal , and red- his shared victories.
We can clearly see at least 8 personal victories in the photo. This photo must have been taken no later than early spring 1944[2] based on the winter clothing that Vishnyakov is wearing. According to M.Bykov’s research, Vishnyakov had scored 8 confirmed personal victories by late January 1944. Extra victories were scored many months later, in the summer, starting on the 6th of June 1944. If M.Bykov’s research is consistent with the stars which were painted on Vishnyakov’s plane, then there couldn’t have been more than 8 personal victory stars painted on White-76 at the time of the photograph.
Most profile artists draw this airplane with 9 personal victories on it, implying that this is how the plane looked in the summer of 1944. This is correct if the plane is supposed to look as it did that summer. But my goal was to show this airplane as it might have looked at the time of the photograph, which is why I drew it with 8 personal victory starlets.
6. It’s hard to know the correct arrangement of the antena wires of White-76. The one I drew is the most common La-5FN arrangement, and is therefore the safest presumption to make, but it’s still a presumption. Some of the very early La-5FNs had the same antena arrangement as the standard La-5F planes. There is a chance that White-76 had a different antena wires arrangement.
7.The white vertical stripe on the rudder was the identification marking of the planes of the 315th IAD.
This identification marking most likely appeared on White-76 at around the time of White-76’s photograph. Evidence for this is a photo of White-24, La-5F from 171st IAP, from roughly the same time period . There are three men in it, the one in the middle is the commander of the 171st IAP (from 24th of Jan 1944 to 16th of Feb 1944), Hero of the Soviet Union, major Aleksandr Gregorievich Shevtsov. Note the medals on his chest to help us determine the time period. These were his medals from 1942-43. There is no ‘Alexandr Nevskiy’ medal on his chest yet, he received it on the 30th of April 1944. This means that the photo must have been taken before 30th of April 1944, the snow on the ground and the clothing that the men are wearing, suggest that the photo was most likely taken in early spring 1944 or even in late autumn 1943. Note that the white vertical stripe is already present on the airplane at that time- meaning that it must have appeared on the rudders of other airplanes of the 171st IAP in early 1944, including on White-76's rudder. This marking seems to have been present on the rudders of the airplanes of 171st IAP until the end of the war, based on the photos of the airplanes of this regiment taken closer to the end of the war, as you can see by visiting THIS LINK and scrolling town the page.
8. The number of this plane is presumed to be ‘76’. All experts seem to agree on this.
Miloš Veštšík was kind enough to let me know that number ‘76’ is derived from G. Chechelnitskiy’s 1974 book called ‘Летчики на войне’ (Pilots at War) [3]. The book is a chronological recollection of the events connected with 15-th air army during WW2.
I have made the colour of the outline ‘blue’ , as always, which is consistent with the photos of an existing wreckage of a Lavochkin airplane, and Kozhedub’s La-7 at the Monino Museum. The outline of White-76 is sometimes portrayed as ‘red’, but there is no known ‘physical’ evidence to suggest that it was actually ‘red’.
9. Note, the shape of the heat protection panel is that of the early La-5FN.
The plane as it might have appeared on the 26-th of August 1944.
General. The plane is more aged and weathered. All the markings are presumably still the same, except for the victory starlets. There are most likely some repair jobs here and there but it’s impossible to know their exact size and location.
10. Note the 18 red (personal) victory starlets. In his memoirs, Vishnyakov mentions that his airplane had 18 red victory starlets on it on 26th of August 1944. Please read the ‘A Bit of History’ section below about this.
It’s impossible to know how the stars were arranged exactly without seeing an actual photograph.The only clue that I had to work with is that Vishnyakov referred to this marking as a ‘chain of starlets’. In my opinion this implies a line of stars. Obviously 18 red stars do not fit in one line between the slogan and the number 76, so one can only presume that the extra stars may have been placed in a second line/row just to the right of the large star.
In the only photo that we have of White-76, the personal victory starlets appear as white and the shared victories appear as red starlets. By the 25th of August, this might have been reversed (similar to this photo of Vishnyakov after the war), the shared victories might have been painted over with white, and the personal victories might have been painted over with red, plus more red starlets were added of course.
WHAT COLOUR WAS THE “NOSE” ?
As it turns out, there is still some uncertainty about what is the correct colouring of the “noses” of 171st IAP’s Lavochkins. The photos of Lavochkins from this regiment seem to have differently coloured “noses”. Below, I’ll present some options, along with the arguments and the evidence for each.
1) Black/Red/Black.
This was one of the interpretations from before the year 2000. It was based on a photograph in a book by Vishnyakov called ‘Na Ktutyh Virazhah’. That photograph shows a La-5F airplane of the 171st IAP with Vishnyakov and some of his comrades posing in front of it. This airplane appears to have a Black/Red/Black “nose”. However, A higher resolution image of this photograph reveals that the engine cowling is actually lighter than the spinner. I believe that it was most likely painted with AMT-12 Grey rather than black. So a more correct interpretation of this colouring version might be Black/Red/Grey.
It is interesting to note that the ‘F’ symbol is missing on the engine cowling of the plane in the photos above as well as on some other La-5Fs of 171st IAP. This does support the idea that the engine cowlings on at least some airplanes of 171st IAP have been painted over for some reason, maybe even to cover some previous markings? However, it’s also possible that the 'F' symbol was simply never painted onto these La-5Fs, similar to White-12 and White-14 La-5Fs from the 5th GIAP, which are supposedly new ( factory-painted) airplanes, but are also missing the ‘F’ symbol and seem to have their engine cowlings covered with AMT-12 entirely (except for the belly), possibly similarly to those La-5Fs from 171st IAP.
2)Red/White.
Some have interpreted the ‘Red’ part in the photos above as being ‘White’ instead, since the colour appears to be very light. There is indeed a chance that it might have been white and not red. The best piece of evidence that proves that at least one airplane in the 171st IAP had this part of the engine cowling painted ‘White’ is THIS PHOTO. This photograph seems to be the least ambiguous about what the colour of the “nose” was. The propeller spinner was probably ‘Red’ like the star (they both seem to have the same tonal value in the B/W photo). The rest of the engine cowling on this plane is not painted over and we can clearly see the ‘F’ symbol on it. This photo was probably taken in the Summer of 1944 or thereabouts, based on the medals of some of the pilots in it.
In recent years Vishnyakov’s White-76 has been interpreted to have the same colour engine cowling. It seems to be the least speculative option and is therefore the safest. I have therefore chosen this colour scheme for my artwork.
Another photo of a plane from 171st IAP where the ‘nose’ seems to be showing the same Red/White colour scheme is a La-7 in the foreground of THIS PHOTO.
3) Red/Red.
In his book called ‘Na Krutyh Virazhah’ [1a] Vishnyakov describes the"noses" of their airplanes as being 'Red' in 1943. There is no photo evidence of the planes of the 171st IAP to support this colouring, but it was actually a common colouring on some of the Soviet fighters. There might be a small chance that Vishnyakov’s plane had a red spinner and red front of the engine cowling. However, based on the available photo reference, it is much more likely that Vishnyakov simply referred to the colour of the propeller spinners when he said ‘noses’.
4) Unmarked.
It looks like at least one of the airplanes of the 171st IAP doesn’t have any markings on its nose, it simply has a factory-painted , Grey 'nose'. It is the airplane in the foreground of THIS PHOTO. This becomes more clear when one takes note of the light blue (AMT-7) on the underside of the plane. Had the engine cowling been repainted with regimental markings, we would not see any traces of the light blue, since it would have been painted over.
Here are a few closeup images to help illustrate the points above. Full set of closeup images is On Patreon
FOOTNOTES
[1a] Taken from Vishnyakov’s book called ‘На крутых виражах’ ,(Na krutyh virazhah), translates to ‘ In Tight Turns’. Published by ‘Воениздат’ in 1973. page 139
[1b] Same source as above but from page 127.
[1c] Same source as above but from pages 140-141.
[1d] Same source as above but from pages 146-147.
[2] This time period was deduced based on the fact that Vishnyakov is wearing winter clothing in the photo reference and the amount of victory stars on the side of White-76.
Vishnyakov crash landed his La-5FN in August 1944 , and from November 1944 the regiment was re-equipped with La-7 airplanes. This means that the photo is unlikely to have been taken in winter of 1944-45 (it should be showing a La-7 if it was, and White-76 was crashed by then), but was most likely taken in winter 1943-44, or in early spring of 1944 instead.
[3] The mention of number -76- is from ‘Летчики на войне’ , Чечельницкий Г. А. Voenizdat, 1974. page 205
Unfortunately, while describing the events of July 1944 in this book, Chechelnitskiy wrote that White-76 was a La-7. This must have been a typo, because La-7s variant was still being tested at that time. 171st IAP received their first La-7s much later that year and started to fly them in combat from Feb 1945 (according to Modelist Konstruktor’s ‘Aviakllektsiya’ series. ‘Fighter La-7’ , by V. Kotelnikov, M. Orlov and I. Yakubich, published in 2003, page 27)
[4] The website Ava.org.ru indicates that the regiment flew La-5 airplanes from June 1943. http://ava.org.ru/iap/171.htm
[5] Taken from the book ‘Lavochkin, La-5’, by Miloš Veštšik, published by MBI in 2006. Pages 47-48.
[6] According to a book ‘Все Асы Сталина’ (All Aces of Stalin), by M.Bykov, Published by Yauza in 2014, page 210.
[7] It should be noted that this victory on the 20th of August doesn’t match the dates in M. Bykov’s research of confirmed victories. Maybe this was an ‘unconfirmed’ victory?
LINKS TO THE REFERENCE Images and videos
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:)
Special thanks to Alexandr Kazakov, Miloš Veštšik, Darek Paduch and Mikhail Bykov for being kind enough to reply to my questions about White-76.
