So was there a ram?

By Russian historian Mikhail Timin January 09 2019 published https://warspot.ru/2943-tak-byl-li-taran

Translation by Google Chrome

On the night of August 7, 1941, the junior lieutenant Viktor Talalikhin, deputy commander of a squadron of the 177th Fighter Aviation Regiment, on the approaches to Moscow, rammed a He 111 bomber He 111, which was found in the morning. On August 8, the brave pilot was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and became one of the textbook heroes of the Great Patriotic War, who was as famous as 28 Panfilov , Zoe Kosmodemyanskaya, Nikolai Gastello or Alexander Matrosov.

In recent decades, with the opening of access to domestic and foreign archives, the exploits of the most famous war heroes underwent a tough revision. The situation with the ram of Viktor Talalikhin turned out to be paradoxical - as new and new details of the feat became known, doubts about the official version of events were heard more and more often. As a result, it came to the point that some pseudo-historians said: Talalikhin did not knock anyone down, his rammer and his entire combat biography were invented by propagandists, and the pilot died in his first real battle. In order to dispel all these speculations and outright slander, you will have to use all the latest searches of the search engines and archival documents.

Who did not beat Talalikhin?

Victor Vasilievich Talalikhin was born on September 18, 1918 in the village of Teplovka, now Volsky District, Saratov Region. After the family moved to Moscow, he graduated from the factory school at the AI Meat Processing Plant. Mikoyan, combining further work with studies at the flying club of the Proletarsky district of the capital. In 1937, Victor entered the Borisoglebsk military aviation school of pilots, from which he graduated in December 1938, after which he was assigned to the 27th Fighter Aviation Regiment. This unit, largely staffed by former test pilot, was based in Klin near Moscow.

As part of the squadron of M.I. Korolev, armed with biplanes I-153 "Seagull", Lieutenant Talalikhin took part in the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. He returned from the Karelian Isthmus with the Order of the Red Star, and the first inaccuracy in the most popular version of the pilot's biography is associated with this award. Apparently, in order to give more weight to his actions, the post-war journalists and writers came up with as many as four Finnish aircraft, which Junior Lieutenant Talalikhin shot down either personally or with the help of his comrades.

Junior Lieutenant Viktor Vasilyevich Talalikhin

Alas, we have to admit that Captain Korolev's squadron could hardly have seen so many airplanes with a blue swastika on its wings: in the sector of the front where it operated, the Finns actually had no aircraft. All their activity in the air was limited to sparse reconnaissance flights, and therefore the 'seagulls' squadron, temporarily subordinated to the 80th mixed air regiment, assumed the role of attack aircraft, bombers, and even ... transport aircraft. In this capacity, the fighter pilots, based at the Reboly airfield, dumped bags of breadcrumbs while fighting in the environment of the 54th Infantry Division and the 5th Frontier Regiment of the NKVD.

In total, during the squadron Captain Korolev's participation in the conflict, she completed 434 sorties, and 47 of them fell on Junior Lieutenant Talalikhin ' a result that is worthy of a reward and without imaginary air victories!

After returning from the Finnish front, Victor Talalikhin continued his service in the 27th IAP, and in the spring of 1941 he was appointed as a flight commander in the 78th IAP formed by the 78th IAD air defense. This division was created on the basis of the personnel of the 27th and 120th IAP, which should have become part of the compound, along with the newly formed 177th, 178th and 233rd IAP, and the rank and file pilots came from military schools. The regiment was supposed to be stationed at the village of Budovo between Kalinin and Vyshny Volochek. Like the entire division, the 177th IAP was created to cover the industrial region of Rybinsk-Yaroslavl, as well as Moscow from the north-west.

The 177th IAP was formed in a five-squadron squadron and was to receive long-range twin-engine fighters for service. However, due to the lack of those in production, when deploying parts of long-range fighters, the command decided to temporarily arm these regiments with outdated I-16 and I-153, which had been liberated when re-equipping single-engine fighter regiments with the newest Yak-1, MiG-3 and LaGG-3. However, it was not possible to form the 177th IAP before the start of the war, and already in July 1941 the regiment at the Klin airfield was reorganized into a 'regular' IAP, but already in the new staff of a three-squadron squadron.

The most planned I-16s entered service. At the beginning of July, the first 15 fighters delivered the 27th IAP - these were the 'freshest' cars of the 29th type, produced at the end of 1940, with a slight touch, M-63 engines, protected fuel tanks and rocket launchers. All of them had radios, and partly transmitters. Junior Lieutenant Talalikhin by this time was promoted and became deputy squadron commander. After the formation of the 177th IAP, they were transferred to the Dubrovitsy airfield near Podolsk and reinforced with 15 pilots from the 120th IAP - by the end of July the regiment had 52 I-16 and 116 pilots.

Feat and reward

Despite the complicated process of formation and training of young aircrews, the personnel pilots of the 177th IAP from July 22 took part in repelling Luftwaffe attacks on Moscow. In total, in July, they made 44 combat sorties at night and 93 in the afternoon; one Junkers Ju 88 bomber was shot down in air battles ' the captain ID Dim opened the regiment's account on July 26. Samsonov. Viktor Talalikhin participated in these sorties.

In August, the German raids began to decline, but combat duty continued: in one of the rare sorties to intercept on the night of August 6, Junior Lieutenant Talalikhin south of Podolsk attacked a German bomber identified as 'Junkers' Ju 88 and became the first pilot of the pilot.

The wreckage of the He 111 bomber He 111, shot down with an I-16 ramming attack by Viktor Talalikhin

On the night of August 7, 1941, taking off on patrol, Talalikhin south of Podolsk also intercepted a German bomber. After several attacks, the enemy aircraft continued flying, but the I-16 machine guns were silent, and Victor Talalikhin went to ram. It happened at about 23:30. The bomber fell on the edge of a forest near the village of Dobryniha about 30 km southeast of the Dubrovitsy airfield. The Soviet pilot was lucky - he was able to jump out of a fighter who lost control by parachute and land safely. Literally the next day, the feat was announced on the radio, and on August 9, the newspapers published a portrait of Talalikhin and a decree issued by the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet on the eve of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to the pilot.

The feat of Viktor Talalikhin during the Soviet era was not questioned, including because the wreckage of the He 111 he11 he had shot down was immediately found and examined on August 8. At the same time, both Talalikhin himself and journalists, including foreign ones, who were photographing the result of the ram were present.

The dead crew of the He 111 He 111 bomber, shot down with an I-16 ramming attack by Viktor Talalikhin

The next day, August 8, 1941, by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Viktor Vasilyevich Talalikhin was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal No. 347.

On the hero fell popularity. Already on August 7, a press conference was held at the Mikoyan Meat Processing Plant, to which foreign journalists were invited. About a feat wrote in all central newspapers. So, on August 8, the Red Star published a note about the fight, photos of the downed aircraft and the corpses of its crew, as well as a picture found in the things of one of the dead pilots. Talalikhin spoke to the workers of Moscow enterprises, he was filmed for film collectors. The young fighter pilot almost instantly stood in a row of heroes whose names were known by the whole country.

Journalists inspect the wreckage of a bomber shot down by Talalikhin

Already in our time, some "experts" began to express doubts about the very fact of the ramming by Victor Talalikhin of a German bomber. First of all, the 'unbelievers' were confused by the fact that the pilot was quickly awarded ' opinions were expressed that the decision to assign him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was made in advance, and the plane that was dropped was simply attributed to Talalikhin. Despite all the absurdity of such statements, heated discussions flared up on the Internet. Talalikhin found in the summer of 2014 was added to the fire of the I-16 wreckage, which was piloted on the night of August 7: 12.7-mm cartridges of the BS machine gun and 7.62-mm cartridges of the ShKAS machine gun were left in the fighter's cartridge boxes. Then in 2016, an improvised grave of the Heinkel crew was found, in which only four people were found.

Inconsistencies and inconsistencies

The main complaints were reduced to the following points:

Rapid rewarding Talalikhin, allegedly, could not be for bureaucratic reasons; The crew of the Heinkel He 111 was five people, and since only four remains were found in the grave, which was recorded in the 1941 photo, they were the bodies of German pilots who were killed elsewhere and brought to the crash site of the allegedly shot down by Talalikhin;

Talalikhin said to the camera that he had shot all the cartridges, then rammed the enemy's plane, but there were cartridges in the found fragments of his plane, which means Talalikhin was lying.

Well, as a result of fabrications - Victor Talalikhin did not rammed He 111, which fell near the village of Dobrynikha.

Description of air combat from documents of the 6th IAC Air Defense

Victor Talalikhin himself spoke about the circumstances of the battle and the motives that prompted him to ram, told in several interviews. The set of documents of the 6th Fighter Air Defense Air Corps, which included the 177th IAP, gives a fairly accurate chronology of events. I-16 Talalikhina started at 22:55 Moscow time. After several unsuccessful attempts to shoot down an enemy plane, including missiles, the Soviet pilot rammed a bomber around 23:30. Here's how he himself spoke about what happened just a few hours after the ram:

'A German plane was spotted at an altitude of 4500 meters near the village of N. I was ordered to intercept the enemy, and I immediately flew to intercept him. Soon I saw an enemy car to my left. I had a very large reserve of speed, and I overtook the fascist vulture freely. We even had to turn down the gas so as not to overtake the German, although, as we say, he 'flew the whole piece of metal'. Then I went to the enemy in the tail and the first machine-gun burst damaged the right engine. The bomber turned around and rushed away from Moscow.

In pursuit of the departing aircraft, I shot him with a machine gun. But, apparently, the "fugitive" was from experienced. He stubbornly dodged the fire and went forward, albeit with a decline. By this time I ran out of ammunition. I make a decision: to ram. I try to get closer to the German and screw the tail off with a screw. When 10'15 meters were left to the enemy, a machine-gun burst flashed from the tail point of the enemy aircraft. Bullets flew from the right side of the cabin, burned his hand. Then I angrily told myself: 'You are four, I am alone. Calculate. Gave gas and crashed into a fascist plane.

Air Combat Chart

My plane turned over onto my back from a blow. It is necessary to jump. Height is 2500 meters. I get out of the cockpit with a parachute, take a puff of 800-900 meters. Clearly I hear the rumble of my plane flying past me. When the parachute opened, I saw a burning enemy bomber rushing to the ground. I landed well, and the first thing I wanted to know was what time it was. I peer into the dial of my watch. It turns out that when they hit, they stopped. The arrows show 23 hours 28 minutes. The village near which I sank is 35 kilometers from Moscow. The collective farmers greeted me brotherly: they quickly bandaged my arm, changed my clothes, gave me milk and helped me get to the nearest military unit.

After a short break, we went to the place of the fall of the German bomber. Among the wreckage of the car lay four dead bodies. On the neck of one pilot - probably an arrow - a wound is visible: the bullet went right through. The crew commander turned out to be an officer who was awarded the Iron Cross for the Polish campaign of 1939 and a special distinguishing mark for Narvik. We found a plan of Moscow in the cockpit, personal documents of the crew, weapons taken in case of a forced landing - parabellums, browings, knives. The Germans failed to dump their deadly cargo on Moscow. At the site of the crash of the Heinkel-111 we found many incendiary bombs ... '

One of the many Soviet posters dedicated to the feat of Victor Talalikhin

An extract from the political announcement of the 177th Fighter Aviation Regiment: 'I inform you that on the night of August 6-7, 1941, at about 11:30 pm, Junior Lieutenant Comrade. Talalikhin, a member of the Komsomol, when patrolling in the 7th light zone at an altitude of 4,500'5,000 meters, discovered an enemy plane He-111. After the attack with missiles (three volleys), the enemy's aircraft began to smoke in the right engine ... [The pilot ] repeated the attack several times and used up machine-gun bullets. Decided to ram it.

Approaching 5-6 meters to the tail end of the enemy aircraft with the calculation of the propeller of the enemy aircraft with the propeller of your aircraft, at that time a turn was made on the aircraft from the rear turret. Lieutenant Talalikhina. Ml. Lieutenant Talalikhin received a burn of his right hand. Seeing that the enemy plane could leave him, he gave full throttle to his plane and crashed the engine into the tail of the enemy plane.

The plane burned down with a full bomb load, the crew of four enemy men died, including one lieutenant colonel who was awarded the Order of the Iron Cross and a medal for Narvik. Ml. Lieutenant Talalikhin, dropping out on a parachute, landed safely, plane jr. Lieutenant Talalikhin burned down when he hit the ground ... '

An iron cross, a narukavniy shield for Narvik and a nameplate - trophies, photographed at the site of the fall of one of the German bombers. With great probability, these are souvenirs from the 'Heinkel' shot down by Talalikhin.

An iron cross, a narukavniy shield for Narvik and a nameplate - trophies, photographed at the site of the fall of one of the German bombers. With high probability, these are souvenirs from the 'Heinkel' shot down by Talalikhin.

According to the report of the quartermaster general of the Luftwaffe, on the night of August 7, the crew of squadron 7./KG 26 in the following composition did not return to Moscow:

Feldwebel pilot Rudolf Schick;
Navigator Lt. Josef Taschner;
the observer (operator) Lieutenant Hans-Joachim Goetz (Hans-Joachim Goetz);
flight attendant non-commissioned officer Hans Franke;
Feldwebel mechanic Gottfried Purschke.
"Klepushek" and compassionate peasant

Of course, there were no lieutenant colonels and colonels in the crew of the downed Heinkel. Actually, the bodies of Josef Tashner, Hans-Joachim G'tz, Hans Franke and Gottfried Purske were found near the plane, and the pilot Rudolf Schick left Moscow for 21 days towards the front, which at that time was held in the Yartsevo and Yelni regions, but was taken captured in the area of ??Vyazma. Below are the results of the survey of the pilot, whose actions also deserve respect for the desire to get to his. Did not work out:
'Protocol of interrogation of prisoner of war Rudolph Schick.
Rudolf Schick, sergeant major of the 26th Squadron, directly subordinate to the front. Her commander - Major Ferlustberg [probably a fictional character - approx. editor]. Pilot.

Fragment of the interrogation report of the pilot of the downed 'Heinkel' Feldwebel Rudolf Schick

August 1 this year flew from Paris. In Bobruisk were August 2 (at this airport there were 30 bombers). On the evening of August 5, we flew a Heinkel-111 plane to Moscow. Near Smolensk made an emergency landing due to damage to the engine. On another plane, also the Heinkel-111, on 6 August they flew again to Moscow. At about 11 o'clock their plane near Moscow was hit by a Soviet fighter. He jumped off the plane, the others probably broke along with the plane. Until the death of their aircraft squadron had no losses.

From August 6, he walked from under the Moscow to the front line, and only on August 27 he was taken prisoner. He walked on our territory for 21 days, and ate potatoes, dug in the field, and bread, which he was given 8-10 times by local peasant women. I came into the village early in the morning, asked for a 'rivet', complementing this word with facial expressions and gestures. During the interrogation, many bread crumbs were found in the pocket. Destroyed all his documents and insignia after landing, wanting to hide his name and title (if he were captured). Once I crossed the asphalt road (diagonally), before that I took off my boots and left them in the forest, because corns formed on his legs, and otherwise he could not go on.

On the war with the USSR, which neither he nor his comrades had expected, found out on June 22. The reasons for the war are explained by the following: 1) Russia concentrated 220 divisions on the border with Germany in order to attack it; 2) Russia threatens Finland and wants to seize it. He wants the victory of Germany - otherwise, he says, in case of defeat from Germany, nothing will remain. I am sure that Germany will win this war. For raids on the cities of England presented to the award - the Iron Cross 2nd degree.

August 28, 1941. The survey was made by the younger political officer Shmakov.

Feldwebel Rudolf Schick - photo taken in captivity. The pilot died in a camp for prisoners of war from tuberculosis in 1942

Now let's deal with the cartridges remaining on the plane. As already mentioned, Victor Talalikhin piloted the I-16 of the last modification - type 29 with serial No. 2921570. One of the features of this modification was the installation of a machine gun UBS caliber 12.7 mm. Unfortunately, the UBS machine guns installed on the later I-153 and I-16 series, type 29, could not be brought to acceptable reliability, the situation was resolved only due to the rapid loss of most aircraft in the summer of 1941. In the ribbons of the ShKAS rifle caliber, ordinary cartridges were found, which were strictly forbidden to be used to equip aircraft machine guns - only specialized ones, marked with the letter '?', were required. The fact that Talalikhin, in the heat of battle, had incorrectly determined the reason that the machine guns stopped firing was completely forgivable - to check in the air

The history of the 'walk' of Feldwebel Shik on the Soviet territory for 21 days is undoubtedly an extraordinary story, but the plane piloted by the traveler is equally interesting. Practically everyone who wrote in recent years about Talalikhin's ram always had a question: why are there two observers in the crew of a German aircraft?

The tail of the He 111H-6 at the exhibition of captured weapons in Gorky Park. Gorky

The casket opens simply: the plane that rammed Viktor Talalikhin was equipped with the X-Ger't navigation system and was used to target other groups of bombers ' the observer Lt. Hans-Joachim G'tz was the operator of this system. Visually, these planes differed additional antenna mast. Three groups of bombers equipped with a similar system - I./KG 28, III./KG 26 and KGr 100 - and united by the KG 28 squadron headquarters were deployed to the Soviet-German front on July 19-20, 1941, specifically to participate in the raids on Moscow . Squadron 7./KG 26, to which the crew of Tischner belonged, was part of group III./KG 26.

Downed "Heinkel" was seriously injured in the fall, and there was little left of him. The tail of this aircraft was exhibited at the exhibition of captured weapons in the Moscow Park of Culture and Rest. Gorky. Unfortunately, the documents do not indicate the factory number and the on-board code of this aircraft, and in the photographs taken at the crash site and the exhibition, it is clear that the code is shaded, as was often done with airplanes participating in night flights. The remnants of the tail section exhibited at the moment in the Central Museum of the Armed Forces and presented as an airplane rammed by Talalikhin, with a general similarity of damage and identification stripes, have spots of the lower fuselage that are different from the spots that are on the aircraft, which was photographed on August 7 At the exhibition, in addition, the exhibit has a part of the board code XX, moreover,

He 111H-6 with the factory code KI + XW and serial number number 4115 of 8./KG 26 - probably immediately after joining III./KG 26. Next, the plane received the warhead code 1H + GS

It is noteworthy that from a sample of 25 cars with factory codes KI + XA - KI + XY several pieces fell just in III./KG 26: for example, one of these aircraft from 8./KG 26 with factory number 4111 and code KI + XW was lost on the night of July 28, 1941. Interestingly, during the interrogation, Rudolf Schick told that he arrived in the East on August 1, and there is a possibility that he did not deceive and that day simply overtook the new bomber received at the factory, which did not have time to apply the code on August 6 divisions.

Finishing the story, we note that the 'instant' rewarding of Victor Talalikhin and the accompanying grandiose campaign happened for a well-defined and simple reason. By August 7, the Germans had already raided the capital of the USSR for more than two weeks and could well have influenced questions of the USSR's military-technical assistance from the United States and Great Britain, which were discussed at that time. The arrival of allied delegations to Moscow was being prepared.

In response to the Luftwaffe actions, the Soviet military-political leadership planned and carried out the bombing of Berlin the very next day. It was necessary to show the effectiveness of Moscow's air defense to the western partners, as well as the determination of the Soviet pilots to fight the enemy. In this situation, the ram, which carried Talalikhin, was just what we needed. As a result, it was he who was chosen as an example of a reference heroic fighter who is ready to fight the enemy, not sparing his own life.

Heinkel He 111H6 8./KG26 Stkz KI+XW WNr 4115 factory fresh later coded 1H+GS not applied 1941

Reconstruction of the appearance of He 111H-6 with the factory code KI + XX and serial number ?4116; the tail of this aircraft is on display at the Central Air Force Office in Moscow Viktor Talalikhin was not the first pilot to commit a ram in the night sky over Moscow - as early as July 29, former brother-soldier Talalikhina, deputy commander of the squadron of the 27th IAP, senior lieutenant P.V. Yeremeyev at a MiG-3 fighter with a ram attack brought down a Junkers 88 bomber. By decree of the President of the Russian Federation of September 21, 1995, Eremeev was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Russia. Nevertheless, the feat of Talalikhin was undoubtedly worthy of the highest award, and the pilot rightly received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Unfortunately, Victor Talalikhin lived a short life and died the death of the brave in a dogfight, defending Moscow, on October 27, 1941. His memory has always been honored in our country: hundreds of articles were written about Victor's life, streets and settlements were named, in the village of Kuznechiki near Podolsky and Moscow monuments were erected to the hero - the author has the pleasure to walk past the beautiful monument at the intersection of Talalikhin and Malaya Kalitnikovskaya.