Kostylev’s “Dragon head” White-15

Written By Anton Petrov

LAVOCHKIN, LA-5 (TYPE 37)

4-th GIAP, Baltic Fleet (KBF) VVS. circa late 1943-1953 at the ‘Defence of Leningrad’ exhibition.

Flown by Guards captain (Future Guard’s major) Georgiy Dmitrievich Kostylev, and Ace with (future) 36-46 victories (7-11 personal and 29-35 shared)

 

"White-15” was an airplane gifted to Kostylev by his comrades from the 4-th GIAP, to mark his leaving for the position of Chief inspector of Fighter Aviation of the VVS KBF in October 1943 (or soon after). This airplane was one of the retired La-5s which were held in reserve because by this time the 4-th GIAP was re-equipped with the newer La-5 modifications (La-5F and La-5FN planes). This machine, like most Type-37 La-5s, was originally painted in Green/Black camouflage while it served with the 4th GIAP, but to present it to Kostylev the technicians repainted it with a uniform grey colour, a roughly equal mixture of AMT-11 and AMT-12 greys.  Some theorise that White-15 had jaws with rounded teeth painted on it while it was still used by the 4th GIAP and while it was still covered in its original GREEN/BLACK camouflage, similar to this plane with the pilot by the surname of Alpatov posing in front of it. The regiment had three airplanes which were decorated with these same jaws with rounded teeth, one plane in each of the three squadrons and these planes became the machines which were used by the regiment for proficiency flying only. The jaws on all three planes were painted by the senior technician of the first squadron, P. D. Makarov. [1] To get the yellow paint for the ‘guards’ badge and the H.S.U. medal the technicians have swapped some of the pure alcohol (which was usually used for airframe deicing) for a few jars of yellow paint on the black market[9], because “Yellow” colour was not often used in Soviet VVS and was therefore not easy to get hold of.

Kostylev flew this repainted fighter only once, probably just around the airfield, in a non-combat, ‘farewell flight’. It’s not known if this plane was actually one of the machines that Kostylev flew while serving with the 4th GIAP. It is quite possible that it was.

After the plane was presented to Kostylev it became a part of the museum exhibit called ‘Defence of Leningrad’ which opened on April 30, 1944 and was probably scrapped after the war[10]. In the context of Communist USSR “Gifting” something like an airplane didn’t actually mean that it became a private property of the recipient, it still belonged to the state, the ‘gifting’ was only symbolic in Kostylev’s case.

It’s worth noting that allegedly the painters at the museum have embellished some of the paintwork a little after Kostylev’s last flight. For example, it is often said that the sharp/fanged teeth we see in the photos of White-15 were added by the painters at the museum. If this is true, it means that when Kostylev flew this plane on his ‘farewell flight’ the plane might have still had similar  rounded teeth as the ones which were painted on three other airplanes of the 4-th GIAP by the technician P.D.Makarov. This also means that White-15 might have actually never been flown at all in the exact paint scheme as the one in the photos from the Exhibition and in the illustrations on this page.

A little about Kostylev and his service.

Georgiy Dmitrievich Kostylev was a legendary fighter pilot whose talent, skill , courage and character propelled him into the ranks of the Heroes of the Soviet Union (almost twice!), and whose courage and character also caused him to lose it all (temporarily).

Upon finishing ‘flight school’, on August 18-th, 1934 young Georgiy was awarded an honorary badge “For excellent piloting technique and aerobatic skill" [3]. He improved that skill during the Winter War with Finland in 1939, and by the time USSR was invaded by Germany he was not only an able pilot but also an able fighter pilot. His first (shared) victory was scored on 15th of July 1941, only a few weeks after the start of the war with Germany. Just over a couple of weeks later his score stood at 7 (1 personal and 6 shared) downed enemy airplanes, all scored while flying an I-16!

His battle score grew rapidly and so did his popularity. Sometimes the sailors observing from their ship would see a successful air battle of a Soviet fighter with two or three enemy planes and would say: ‘It’s evident: Kostylev is fighting!’ and even if it turned out that Kostylev wasn’t even flying at all that day - you couldn’t convince them otherwise [4].

After almost a year and a half of many successful air battles while flying I-16, MiG-3, LaGG-3 and Hawker Huricane, On 23-rd of October 1942, having brought his victory score to 33 victories (4 personal and 29 shared according to the research by Mikhail Bykov), or much higher according to other sources, Guards captain G. D. Kostylev was awarded the title of the Hero Of The Soviet Union.

In February 1943 Guards captain G.D. Kostylev was nominated for the H.S.U title for the second time, but a tragic incident got in the way of him receiving a second gold star of the H.S.U. On the occasion of the nomination for the award, Kostylev was given leave during which he visited his mother who lived in besieged Leningrad. He was shocked to the core to see how the people there were surviving during the blockade. Many of them were dying of hunger and cold. Having ran out of food they ate whatever they could in their desperate struggle to stay alive - they even ate leather belts! and to get water they had to summon enough strength to be able to get to the river Neva which was frozen, and carry the water back.
Shortly before the end of the vacation, Kostylev met a major (based in the rear) and was invited to visit him in Oranienbaum (This town on the outskirts of Leningrad is where Kostylev was born). Kostylev was astonished at the major’s affluently decorated flat and the table which was lavishly set with food and rare alcohol. Having just witnessed his countrymen and women dying of starvation in Leningrad, Kostylev honestly expressed to the officer what he though of such contrast in living conditions and of the officer himself. When the offended officer reached for his gun Kostylev struck him with a chair and after smashing some of the expensive crockery in a bout of rage Kostylev stormed out of the building.

For this incident Kostylev was stripped of his rank, his decorations, his nomination for the second H.S.U. title, and was sent to a penal infantry battalion (Shtrafbat) - which in many cases were ‘meat fodder’ for the Germans.

However, just over a month later, in April 1943, helped by some of his friends, he was back to flying again, but this time as a ‘private’ having been stripped of his high rank. This time he flew with the 4-th GIAP because the 3-rd GIAP(his previous unit) refused to take him [5]. 4-th GIAP was recently re-trained and was completely re-armed with La-5 planes at the end of March 1943[6] which was shortly before Kostylev joined it. Though I have not been able to confirm it, it makes sense to suppose that White-15 might have been one of these new La-5 planes that the regiment was re-armed with and some have speculated that Kostylev might have even flown it during some of his time with the 4-th GIAP. But even if Kostylev did fly it (which is only a speculation) then the airplane would have had a different paint scheme at that time, it wouldn’t have looked as it does in the profile art on this page. (more on this is in the ‘Noteworthy visual characteristics’ section)

In his first air battle as part of the 4-th GIAP Kostylev downed a Finnish Fiat G-50 and having pinned the second one to the water , he enabled his wingman to shoot it down. While flying La-5, he downed 9 airplanes, including three FW-190 [7] . Please note that the amount of victories seems to vary greatly. According to the dates of victories in Mikhail Bykov’s research Kostylev scored only two victories during this time with 4-th GIAP. These victories being:

21.04.1943, 1 FIAT (G-50?) island of Gogland (Finland)
02.06.1943, 1 FW-190 island of Kirkkomansaari (Finland?)

An interesting piece of trivia to know about Kostylev from around that time is that even though he was demoted to an ordinary ‘private’, due to his exceptional and irreplaceable abilities he was allowed to command a squadron. In the words of a writer N. Chukovskiy: ‘This was a unique, probably one-of-a-kind situation when a private was in command of a squadron’. [8]

In August 1943, for the courage Kostylev displayed in battles during his time with the 4-th GIAP, his medals and title (but not his nomination for ‘twice’ H.S.U. title) were returned to him. Soon after that, in October 1943, he was made Chief inspector of Fighter Aviation of the VVS KBF which meant that he needed to leave the regiment to take up this new position. It was to mark this occasion that his comrades have presented him with the “fanged” White-15, La-5. Kostylev returned back to the front in 1944 and scored at least one more victory. He ended the war as a Guards Major.

After the wat, Kostylev’s acts and tales of heroism have inspired the writer by the name of N. Chukovskiy to base the main character of his novel called ‘Baltic Sky’ on G. Kostylev. This novel was about the heroic pilots of the Baltic Fleet who defended the besieged Leningrad during its 2.4 year blockade, it was published in 1955. In 1960 a movie by the same name and based on Chukovskiy’s novel hit the screens.

Noteworthy Visual Characteristics

The plane as it appeared early on during the exhibition. Photo reference for it can be found HERE and HERE.

1) The jaws as they appear in the photos (and in my artwork) were allegedly touched up by the painters at the exhibition, to give the jaws the iconic ‘‘pointy/sharp/fanged’ appearance, as was already mentioned above. Some sources claim that originally the jaws on this airplane had rounded teeth, the same as on this plane with the pilot V.M.Dmitriev posing in front of it.

2) Note the ‘snake-skin’ scales pattern behind the upper jaw and behind the eye of the dragon. It’s very difficult to know how far back the snake-skin pattern extended. Based on what I could see in THIS PHOTO it seemed to me that it might extend all the way to the canopy, since it looks like there is a hint of scales still visible in the top right corner of the exhaust panel and just above it. In other photos, such as THIS PHOTO, the snake skin is not visible except for a hint of it on the exhaust flap. Maybe the ‘snake skin’ was a different colour -other than black or grey, which is why it blends into the grey more in some photos then in others? This is difficult to know.

3) The photo reference seems to show a hint of exhaust stains on the airplane. This plane was supposedly flown only once after it was repainted, so the exhaust stains should be quite light.

4) ‘Gvardiya’ (Translates to ‘Guards’) badge painted with the usual ‘gold/yellow’ colour which the technicians purchased on the ‘black market’ , paying for it with pure alcohol which was usually used for airframe deicing.
It’s important to note that the word ‘ГВАРДИЯ’ (Gvardiya) which always appears on the banner, has been replaced with the word СЛАВА (‘SLAVA’ - translates to ‘GLORY’). It’s not known if the Gvardiya badge appeared on the right side of the plane or not. Given the fact that it looks hand-painted implies that it might have appeared only on one side, since painting it by hand (meaning- without a stencil) on both sides would have required much work/time.

5) 42 victory starlets represent Kostylev’s victories (personal and shared, combined). These were painted around the time when the plane was gifted to Kostylev because he scored at least one more victory when he returned back to the front in 1944. This was a victory on the 4th of August, 1944, when he shot down a FW-190 in the area of Kahula. This victory appears as a 43rd starlet on his airplane in this photo.
It’s important to note that various sources do not agree on Kostylev’s amount of victories. From the info that I found here are two varying claims about Kostylev’s final victory tally:
a) This excerpt from a newspaper which shows Kostylev receiving his ‘Commmunist Party membership’ in 1942, claims that Kostylev had destroyed 46 enemy airplanes.
Official records confirm that during the war Guards major G.D. Kostylev had 11 personal and 35 shared victories (46 victories in total) [2]

b) Mikhail Bykov in his research published in his book ‘All of Stalin’s Aces’ indicates 7 personal and 29 shared (36 victories in total)

It is not known (To me at least) if the victory starlets appeared on both sides of the plane or not. In my artwork I followed the same logic as with the Guards Badge and painted these only on one side of the plane. The victory starlets, in most cases, appeared on one side of the airplane only.


6) The font of the tactical number looks a little unusual. Number ‘1’ has quite a long “beak/nose” and is also longer at the bottom than number ‘5’ is. The numbers probably didn’t have the usual outline around them since this plane was repainted.

7) The technical markings , the most prominent of which usually appear in the areas indicated by ‘7a’ and ‘7b’ , have been covered with paint when the plane was repainted.

8) The ‘Gold star’ medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union. It was a common practice to paint this medal along with a small image of a leafed branch behind it. Upon closer examination of the photo reference it appears that there is a lighter, blurred shape behind the medal, which might indicate that Kostylev’s plane was not an exception to this common practice. Please have a look at the close-up images below to get a better idea of what I mean.

9) The white spinner and the white rudder were the identification markings of the airplanes of the Baltic Fleet (KBF).

10) The stars appear to be larger than usual, especially the one on the tail. The painters most likely used the original stars with a thin black outline as their guide, and simply added a thick white (with thin red) outline around those original stars, which is why they ended up looking larger than one might expect.

11) The bomb attachment mechanism is exposed (has no cover). As can be seen in THIS photo.

12) The wheel disks appear to be quite dark in the photo reference. The wheel disks, as well as the tail wheel, were most likely painted grey.

13) The usual camouflage has been painted over with uniform grey colour. Allegedly, according to one of the people who took part in repainting this airplane, the grey was a mix of roughly equal parts of AMT-11 (Blue-grey) and AMT-12(Dark grey).

14) The stars on the lower wings appear to be a bit larger than usual. Note that the front of the star is cut off and overlaps the slats. As can be seen in THIS photo

The plane as it appeared some years later, after the exhibition was closed (shortly after 1953?). The best photo for it can be found HERE

15) The plane appears to have deteriorated. The paint came off in some areas, especially noticeable in the areas indicated by ‘15a’ and ‘15b’. ‘15a’ looks like the exposed paint is black, which makes sense, but ‘the colour of the exposed paint in ‘15b’ is much more difficult to figure out. The exposed paint in ‘15b’ appears to be lighter than grey - it might have been exposed nitroputty primer (dirty yellow), and maybe some leftovers of AMT-4 Green? Note that the back glass panel just under ‘15b’ in the photo reference seems to have some marks on it too. Maybe some plaque was glued to the glass and the area ‘15b’ above it, and then later it was ripped off taking some of the paint with it and leaving some of the left-over glue on the glass? It makes sense to make this assumption since most of the '“deterioration” is concentrated in a rectangular area that covers the glass and ‘15b’. Of course, this could simply be a defect in the photo itself, but I don’t think it is.

16) Note the dents in the exhaust panel. The photo from earlier on in the exhibition doesn’t seem to show these dents, so it’s likely that they have been inflicted on the plane at some stage later. But of course, maybe they are just not very noticeable in the first photo because of the angle and the lighting, so maybe the dents have been there all along, it’s very hard to tell.

17) There is a small number that has been drawn under the dragon lip on the left, possibly with chalk. The number appears to be 3938. It’s hard to know what this number represents - It’s possible that it was the number of the exhibit item or some other museum/exhibition related marking.

Here are a few close-up images to help illustrate the points above. Full set of close-up images is On Patreon

FOOTNOTES

[1] The info describing ‘point #1’ is based on the write-up in this link. http://scalemodels.ru/articles/138-vektor-1-48-la-5-gss-g-kostyleva-p--1942-1943-Vector-La-5.html , and on the information on page 86 of Miloš Veštšik’s book called ‘Lavockin La-5’, published by MBI in 2006.

[2] This information is according to the website airaces.narod.ru http://airaces.narod.ru/all1/kostylev.htm

[3] Info taken from airaces.narod.ru http://airaces.narod.ru/all1/kostylev.htm

[4] Info taken from airaces.narod.ru http://airaces.narod.ru/all1/kostylev.htm

[5] The comment about the ‘his previous unit refusing to take him’ is taken from Massimo Tessitori’s website page dedicated to Kostilev’s ‘White-15’ http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/la5/la5/sharkmouth/sharkmouth..html

[6] This info is taken from Ava.org.ru http://ava.org.ru/iap/4gm.htm

[7] Info taken from airaces.narod.ru http://airaces.narod.ru/all1/kostylev.htm

[8] Info taken from airaces.narod.ru http://airaces.narod.ru/all1/kostylev.htm

[9] Most of this paragraph is based on the information on page 86 of Miloš Veštšik’s book called ‘Lavockin La-5’, published by MBI in 2006.

[10] The date and some of the info in this sentence is taken from Massimo Tessitori’s website page dedicated to Kostilev’s ‘White-15’ http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/la5/la5/sharkmouth/sharkmouth..html

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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