One of the most famous examples of the heroism of Soviet soldiers was considered the feat of the crew of a bomber aircraft under the command of Nikolai Gastello, who rammed a column of German equipment on the ground. The surname of its commander is immortalized in the names of many streets, factories and ships. In the USSR, the image of Gastello was actively used for the military-patriotic education of young people. But the creators of the myth about the fearless pilot were not interested in the truth - but only in the interpretation of events necessary for a given time.
Downed plane
Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello was born in 1907 in Moscow. His father, Franz Pavlovich Gastillo, came to the capital from Belarus. Here the surname of the Russified German began to be pronounced in a manner more familiar to Russians - Gastello.
At the age of 16, Nikolai began his career, becoming a carpenter's apprentice, and a year later, when the family moved to Murom, he got a job as a mechanic at a local steam locomotive plant.
In 1932, Nikolai was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army and sent to the Lugansk pilot school, after which he served in the bomber aviation. He took part in the battles on Khalkhin Gol, later in the Soviet-Finnish war. In 1940 he was awarded the rank of captain.
By the time the Great Patriotic War began, Nikolai Gastello was the squadron commander of the 207th Long-Range Bomber Aviation Regiment (DBAP) stationed in the Smolensk region. Already on June 22, 1941, its crew was alerted and took part in the bombing of columns of German equipment near Minsk. On June 25, the squadron commander managed to distinguish himself. An enemy bomber appeared over the airfield of the regiment, which at low level flight led machine-gun fire. Captain Gastello jumped into his plane in the place of the gunner and shot down an enemy vehicle from the ground with a machine gun.
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The last task
And already on June 26, Nikolai's last flight took place.
The regiment received a combat mission: to bomb the columns of German tanks moving along the Radoshkovichi-Molodechno highway. The commanders of the three DB-ZF bombers that flew on the mission were captains Nikolai Gastello and Alexander Maslov, as well as senior lieutenant Fedor Vorobyov.
According to the official version, Vorobyov's plane successfully bombed and flew back over the front line. Two other bombers were hit by German anti-aircraft guns. One of them, according to the testimony of Vorobyov and his navigator, Lieutenant Rybas, left in an unknown direction. Another plane, also on fire, made a U-turn and dived into the thick of a German tank column. Vorobyov and Rybas pointed out in a joint report: Captain Gastello piloted the car that committed the fiery ram, the crew members were navigator Lieutenant Anatoly Burdenyuk, radio operator Sergeant Alexei Kalinin and lower hatch gunner Lieutenant Grigory Skorobogaty.
All three crews operated without fighter cover, because of this they had to fly at extremely low altitude, which led to the fact that two of the three cars were hit.
The main thing is to report on time
Some historians believe that further events were largely due to the actions of the regiment command.
In the house-museum of Nikolai Gastello, located in the city of Murom, there is a copy of the pilot's presentation for the state award, signed by the regiment commander Lobanov and the regiment commissar Kuznetsov. It bears little resemblance to dry official documents. Here are some excerpts: "Captain Gastello Nikolai Frantsevich, for his short military activity in the fight against an arrogant enemy - Hitler's fascism, wrote glorious lines in the history of our brave pilots and deserves that the Soviet people know one of the most loyal sons of their Motherland." “A column of fire engulfed the tanks and fascist crews in flames. The German fascists paid such a dear price for the death of the pilot, Captain Gastello. " “Infinitely devoted to the son of our Motherland and the Party, to the courageous, brave falcon of Soviet aviation, who died a hero's death in the fight against German fascism,we are applying for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union."
The performance was made on the day of the fiery ramming - July 26, 1941. On this day, 15 aircraft of the regiment did not return from combat missions. The regiment actually ceased to exist, and after a few days it was disbanded.
In order to somehow divert attention from obvious managerial mistakes, the commander and commissar of the 207th DBAP regiment, without the necessary verification, urgently and colorfully reported on the unprecedented feat of one of the pilots.
And Pravda may be wrong
In the early days of the war, the country was in dire need of front-line heroes whose actions would become a role model.
Very soon a decree was issued to confer the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to Captain Gastello Nikolai Frantsevich (posthumously).
On July 10, 1941, the Pravda newspaper published an article by the war correspondents Pyotr Krylov and Pyotr Pavlenko, dedicated to the heroic deed of Nikolai Gastello. Journalists were also in a hurry: the essay mixed up the date of the event (instead of June 26, July 3 is indicated) and the hero's surname (it was printed with one letter "l"). In addition, the article did not say anything about the other crew members, because of this, many thought that Nikolai Gastello performed the feat alone.
Only in 1958 G. Skorobogaty, A. Kalinin and A. Burdenyuk were posthumously awarded the Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree.
Few people were interested in the fate of the bomber crew under the command of Alexander Maslov - the plane was considered missing. The relatives received notification of this only in May 1942. The wording “missing” implied that a person could surrender and even betray his Motherland.
When Captain Maslova's wife Sofya Evgrafovna returned from evacuation to Kolomna, her daughter was not taken to kindergarten. Also, the family did not receive a survivor's pension.
Tablet and medallion
Due to confusion in the documents, Nikolai Gastello's father and the pilot himself were considered Belarusians.
In 1951, the authorities of the Byelorussian SSR decided to perpetuate the memory of the great countryman and erect a worthy monument to him on a beautiful place in the village of Radoshkovichi, having reburied the remains of the crew there. Until that time, they were buried in the place where the ram was committed - near the village of Dekshnyany. The village was occupied by the Nazis in 1941, local residents at night wrapped the bodies of the dead in parachutes and buried them.
The procedure for the solemn reburial was led by the Radoshkovichi district military commissar, Lieutenant Colonel Kotelnikov.
On June 26, 1951, the mass grave was opened in front of a huge crowd of people. But in the pilot's tablet, the documents of Alexander Maslov were found. They also found in the ground a medallion with the name of the gunner-radio operator of his crew Grigory Reutov.
That is, the fiery ram was committed by the crew not of Nikolai Gastello, but of his colleague and friend Alexander Maslov!
Vorobyov and Rybas, who flew to the scene, mixed up the planes. Moreover, they had to make excuses: why two bombers were killed and the third left the battlefield unharmed? The pilots were simply obliged to report that until the last moment they were nearby and helped the actions of other crews. And what they actually saw remained unknown.
They could no longer change their testimony: over the next few months, Senior Lieutenant Vorobyov died, and Lieutenant Rybas went missing.
Consider dead
Lieutenant Colonel Kotelnikov immediately sent a letter to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus: what to do?
The answer was obvious: not to tell anyone. The remains of Maslov's crew must be secretly reburied at the cemetery in Radoshkovichi. Place fragments of his plane in a museum under the guise of a Gastello plane. Take a non-disclosure agreement from all eyewitnesses of the event.
At about the same time, Nikolai Gastello's plane was removed from a swamp near the neighboring village of Matski - a letter was found in it, which Lieutenant Skorobogaty did not have time to send to his wife, as well as a medallion of the shooter Kalinin. Another proof that the bomber was piloted by Gastello's crew was the found engine tag with a serial number.
To the credit of Lieutenant Colonel Kotelnikov, he found the widow of Captain Maslov and told her everything. Sofya Evgrafovna wrote a petition to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The appeal did not go unanswered, in 1952 the widow was given an official certificate: to consider Captain Maslov not missing, but dead during the execution of a combat mission. The woman received a well-deserved pension. But after that, KGB workers came to her and demanded that she not tell anyone else about her husband.
Heroes of Russia for the events of 1941
The frightened widow only in the year of her death (1985) again turned to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Perestroika has already begun, and the Maslov case was taken into consideration. But political turmoil and the subsequent collapse of the country led to the fact that the final decision on it was made only in 1996. By the decree of the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin, Captain Maslov and all crew members were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia. A monument to Captain Gastello still stands over the place where Captain Maslov died. It’s not fair. But Nikolai Frantsevich is not to blame for this. The story of the fiery ram was a tragedy that was started by the war and ended by the Soviet propaganda machine.
Magazine: Secret Archives # 3, Elina Pogonina