Aleksandr Ivanovich Pokryshkin

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Aleksandr Ivanovich Pokryshkin with his children Svetlana and Sasha

Aleksandr Ivanovich Pokryshkin (March 6, 1913 - November 13, 1985) was a marshal of the Soviet Air Force. He was made a Hero of the Soviet Union on three separate occasions (1943, 1943, 1944).

Contents

1 Introduction

2 Early Years

3 World War II

3.1 Early Experiences
3.2 Kuban
3.3 1944-45

4 After the War

5 Aircraft Flown by Pokryshkin

6 Pokryshkin's WWII record

7 Incomplete list of engagements and victories, based on Pokryshkin's memoirs

7.1 1941
7.2 1942
7.3 1943
7.4 1944
7.5 1945
7.6 Summary of victories

Introduction

Pokryshkin was the great tactician of the Soviet Air Force during the Second World War, a Russian Werner Mölders. He almost single handedly fought to change the obsolete Soviet tactics that were in place in 1941 when the war started. Going against the establishment and openly defying the party-approved combat doctrine almost cost him his career and possibly his life. After openly criticizing the official tactics that led to huge losses and teaching his fellow pilots new tactics he himself invented, he was grounded and scheduled to be court martialed. However the word of his inventions reached some higher ups in Moscow, and instead of a court martial Pokryshkin was awarded and promoted. By the end of the war his writings have been published and distributed to all Soviet pilots, and he toured fighter regiments extensively lecturing young pilots on his techniques.

Early Years

Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin was born in Novosibirsk on March 6th of 1913, son of a peasant turned factory worker. He grew up in the poor, crime infested part of town, but unlike most of his peers he was more interested in learning than in fighting and petty crime. His nickname in his early teens was 'Engineer'. He caught the 'aviation bug' when he was 12 years old at a local air show, and the dream has never left him after that. In 1928, after seven years of school, he found work as a construction worker. In 1930, despite his father's protests, he left home and entered a local technical college, where he received a degree in 18 months and worked for six more as a steel worker at a local munitions factory. After that he volunteered for the Soviet Army, and was sent to an aviation school. His dream finally seemed to be coming true. Unfortunately the flight school was suddenly closed, and all students were instead transferred to be trained as aircraft mechanics. Despite dozens of official requests were denied with a simple 'Soviet aviation needs mechanics just as badly'.

Pokryshkin still strived to excel as a mechanic, and graduating in 1933 quickly rose through the ranks. By December of 1934 he became the Senior Aviation Mechanic of the 74th infantry division. He stayed in that capacity until November of 1938. During that time his creative nature became clearly visible - he invented improvements to the ShKAS machine gun, and the R-5 reconnaissance aircraft among other things.

Finally, during his vacation in the winter of 1938 Pokryshkin was able to circumvent the authorities by passing a yearly civilian pilot program in only 17 days. This automatically made him eligible for flight school, and without even packing a suitcase he got on a train and went to flight school. He graduated with top honors in 1939, and in the rank of Sr. Leitenant he was appointed to the 55th Fighter Regiment.

World War II

Early Experiences

He was stationed in Moldavia in June of 1941, in close proximity to the border, and his airfield was bombed on June 22, 1941, the first day of the war. His first air combat was a disaster. Seeing an aircraft in the air of a type he's never seen before, he attacked and shot it down, only to notice as it was going down that it had Soviet red stars on the wings. It was a Soviet Su-2 light bomber, a new bomber type that was kept in secret even from other Soviet pilots.

He claimed his first victory, the famed Bf-109 fighter the next day, when he and his wingman on a reconnaissance mission were jumped by five enemy fighters. On July 3rd, having claiming several more victories, he was shot down by German flak behind enemy lines and spent four days getting back to his unit. During the first weeks of the war Pokryshkin began to see very clearly how outdated the Soviet combat doctrine was, and began slowly drafting his own ideas in his meticulously kept notebooks. He carefully recorded all details of all air engagements he and all his friends were involved in, and came up with detailed analysis of each event. He fought in really complicated conditions - constant retreat, poor to no control and communication, overwhelming odds against superior opponent. He would later say 'one who hasn't fought in 1941-1942 has not truly tasted war'.

Pokryshkin survived several close calls during this time - a machine gun round drove through the right side of the cockpit, cut his shoulder straps, ricocheted off the left side and scratching his chin covered the entire windscreen in blood. Twice unexploded bombs landed literally between his feet, one time during a dramatic low-level raid on his airfield by a pair of Ju-88s. Pokryshkin tried to defend his fighter, one of the very few remaining serviceable aircraft, by removing a flexible machine gun from the nearby bomber, and placing it on top of his fighter's fuselage. One of the German bombers saw Pokryshkin firing the only machine gun in the area and flew straight at him, dropping small bombs in a shallow dive. Pokryshkin watched a string of explosions running up to him, but the bomb that landed right next to him did not explode. Ju-88 dropped it too low, and it didn't have time to arm itself before hitting the ground.

In the summer of 1942 his regiment was recalled from the front lines to convert to a new fighter type, the P-39. While training in the rear Pokryshkin frequently clashed with the regiment's new commander. CO hated Pokryshkin's honesty and could not stand his criticism of the Soviet air combat doctrine. He fabricated a court martial case, accusing Pokryshkin of cowardice, insubordination and disobeying orders. Pokryshkin was grounded, removed from the regiment's headquarters and had his Party membership cancelled. However he was soon vindicated, when an intervention from higher ups had him reinstated and the case was thrown out.

Kuban

Pokryshkin most significant contribution to the war effort and the most impressive kill record came during the battle for the Kuban region in 1943. The area east of the Crimea peninsula has seen heated air combat in the months that led to the Soviet assault on Crimea itself, where Kuban-based Soviet air regiments went against Crimea-based Luftwaffe geschwadern. Pokryshkin's regiment went against such well known German regiments as JG 51 'Molders', JG 52 and JG 3 'Udet'. The area saw some of the most heated fighting of the Eastern Front, with daily engagements of up to 200 aircraft in the air. Pokryshkin's innovative tactics of using different fighter types stacked in altitude, the so-called 'pendulum' flight pattern for patrolling the airspace, and use of ground-based radar, forward based controllers and advanced central ground control system led to the first grand Soviet Air Force victory over the Luftwaffe.

One of the most famous engagements he was involved in took place on April 29, 1943. Eight of Pokryshkin's Airacobras were directed by ground control towards a large group of enemy planes. Three whole squadrons of the obsolescent Junkers Ju-87 Stukas were being escorted by a geschwader of Bf-109s. Attacking from the sun, a pair of P-39s attacked the fighters while the remaining six dove through the bomber formation, repeating the attack twice using Pokryshkin's method of swapping dive directions. 12 Stukas were shot down, with Pokryshkin claiming five.

In most subsequent fights Pokryshkin would usually take the most difficult role, attacking the leader of the German fighter escorts. As he learned in 1941-42, shooting down the flight leader would have a very strong demoralizing effect on the enemy and often would cause them to scramble home. On September 21st Pokryshkin was involved in another high-profile air engagement. This one happened at low altitudes right over the front line, and was witnessed by dozens of journalists and representatives of high command. Pokryshkin shot down three Ju-88s in a single pass, either showing off or overcome by hatred as he had just found out a close friend's entire family has been killed in German occupied territories. Only two kills were confirmed, the third Ju-88 being recorded as brought down by the explosion of the second one and not Pokryshkin's gunfire.

1944-45

In February of 1944 Pokryshkin was offered a promotion and an easy desk job managing new pilot training. He immediately rejects the offer, and stays at his old regiment and his old rank. He however does not fly nearly as much. Pokryshkin has been made a famous hero by the propaganda machine, and he is not allowed to fly as often at the fear of him being killed. Pokryshkin spends a lot of time in the radio bunker, directing his regiment's fights over the radio.

In June of 1944 Pokryshkin was promoted to Colonel and given command of 9th Guards Air Division.

On August 19th of 1944, for 550 front-line sorties and 53 official kills, Pokryshkin is awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union for the third time. He is the first ever person to be given the award three times, and is the only Soviet soldier to be awarded this during wartime. Pokryshkin is forbidden to fly altogether, but manages to circumvent the rule a few times and still continues to score an occasional kill.

Out of his official score of 65 victories, only 6 were scored in the last two years of the war. The bulk of Pokryshkin's victories came during the time when the Soviet Air Force was still fighting at a disadvantage, including some of the highest scores for any Soviet pilot during the most difficult first year of the war.

After the War

When the Second World War ended Pokryshkin found himself shunned due to his war-time preference for non-Soviet aircraft. He was repeatedly passed up for promotion. Only after Stalin's death he found himself back in favor, and finally given the rank of Air General. However he never reached very high positions in the Soviet Air Force, mostly serving in regional commander roles. His highest position was a president of DOSAAF, a mostly civilian organization that was largely tasked with training young civilians and preparing them for service with the Air Force. Pokryshkin again found himself ostracized for his honesty. Despite strong pressure he never wrote anything or supported glorification of premier Brezhnev's role in the battle of Kuban, where Brezhnev was a minor general. Pokryshkin died on November 13, 1985 at the age of 72.

He wrote several books about his war-time experiences, none of which appear to be translated into English. He appeared in several episodes of the Unknown War documentaries narrated by Burt Lancaster.

Aircraft Flown by Pokryshkin

Pokryshkin started the war flying the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 fighter, in which he scored almost twenty victories. In August of 1942 his regiment, now renamed 4th Guards Fighter Regiment, converted to lend-lease Bell P-39 Airacobras, which despite a persistent myth the Soviets have never been used in the ground attack role. Soviet pilots liked this aircraft, and found it quite competitive with the Messerschmitt Bf-109 and superior to the Focke-Wulf FW-190 at the low air combat attitudes common on the Eastern Front. Pokryshkin really enjoyed the 37mm cannon's destructive firepower, and had his own aircraft rigged so that the single button simultaneously fired both the main cannon and the wing-mounted .50 caliber machine guns. In his memoirs he describes any enemy aircraft immediately disintegrating upon being hit by the salvo. Pokryshkin and his regiment have repeatedly been asked to convert to new Soviet fighters such as the La-5 and Alexander Sergeyevich Yakovlev's Yak fighter series. However Pokryshkin found La-5's firepower insufficient and personally disliked Yakovlev so he never did.

Finally in 1944 he found an aircraft that he was willing to convert to, Lavochkin La-7. Unfortunately one of his close friends, Soviet 50-kill (31 personal and 19 group ) ace Alexander Klubov was killed in a landing mishap while converting to the La-7. The crash was blamed on the malfunction of the plane's hydraulic system. Pokryshkin subsequently cancelled his regiment's conversion, and there are multiple reports that they instead began flying Bell P-63 Supercobras. By the lend-lease agreement with United States the Soviet Union was not allowed to use P-63s against Germany; they were given only to be used in the eventual battle with Japan. Thus it is quite understandable that no mention of this appears in any official records. However personal accounts of German pilots and flak crewmen who encountered P-63s in the skies of Eastern Prussia as well as the memoirs of one of the pilots in Pokryshkin's squadron appear to confirm that fact.

Pokryshkin's WWII record

560 combat missions
156 air fights
Official score: 59 enemy aircraft shot down personally, and 6 together with other pilots

Note: based on Pokryshkin's memoirs and personal notebooks, his score stands above 100. Soviet air force did not officially confirm kills whose wreckage could not be found, thus many aircraft shot down over enemy territory were never confirmed. Pokryshkin, as most other Soviet aces, also engaged in the common practice of giving his kills to fallen comrades. Each kill was rewarded with a substantial monetary bonus, and on of the day of a pilot's death all regiment kills would often be credited to him in order to give his family some support. Note that the vast majority of Pokryshkin's kills have been scored before 1943, and since the summer of 1944 he had been forbidden to engage in air combat completely. His score could have been significantly higher had he been allowed to fly in the last year of the war, when Soviet Air Force dominated the air over the Eastern Front.

Incomplete list of engagements and victories, based on Pokryshkin's memoirs

1941

06.22.41 - 'friendly' kill, Su-2; killed the plane's navigator
06.23.41 - Bf-109E
06.24.41 - Bf-109E
reconnaissance flight, shot down two Hs-126
fought with four Bf-109s, shot down 1 Bf-109
fought a group of Ju-88s and Bf-109s, shot down 1 Ju-88
escorted SB-2 bombers, shot down Bf-109
ground attack against enemy airfield, destroyed Bf-109 on the ground
ground attack against Kishinev airfield, destroyed Ju-87 on the ground
escorted SB-2s, shot down 1 Bf-109 personally and one Bf-109 in group;
fought with four Bf-109s, shot down 1 Bf-109
attacked reconnaissance Ju-88, shot up but unable to shoot down due to problems with armament
fought 3 Ju-88s, shot down one by air-to-ground rockets (not officially confirmed), officially credited for the second
reconnaissance flight, shot down Hs-126
fought four Ju-88s, shot down one
escorted SB-2s, shot down one Bf-109
reconnaissance flight, shot down one Bf-109

Total for 1941 - 14 confirmed victories (plus several unconfirmed)

1942

January and February - reconnaissance flights only, no air combat
early March - shot down Hs-126
special reconnaissance missions flying a captured Bf-109 in German markings
May - escort mission, shot down one Bf-109 and damaged another
reconnaissance mission, shot down Bf-110
escorted Il-2s, shot down Bf-109
escorted Il-2s, shot down Bf-109
fought a group of Bf-109s, shot down one
fought a group of Ju-88s, shot down one

Total for 1942 - 7 confirmed victories

1943

Before April 17

fought a group of Bf-109s, shot down one
shot down Bf-109 and Ju-88
April 11
- four Bf-109s in a single engagement
- another sortie, shot down Ju-87
- third sortie, shot down Ju-88
April 12(?) - three Bf-109s in two engagements
three Ju-87s in a single engagement
one Bf-109

Between April 18 and April 21