Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello, whose feat will be described in this article, was born in 1907 in Moscow, and died in 1941. In this review, an attempt will be made to briefly talk about the most significant moments in the life of the Soviet hero.
Who were the parents of a famous pilot?
He was a Soviet military pilot, participant in three battles, commander of the second squadron. He died at the time of military departure. Gastello - Hero of the Soviet Union. This title was awarded posthumously to Nikolai Frantsevich.
Who were the parents of Gastello, the real hero? Father Nicholas was called Franz Pavlovich Gastello. He was a Russian German. Born in the village of Plugin. When the year 1900 began, he arrived to look for work in Moscow, where he began to work on the Kazan railway in foundries. Nikolai's mother was Anastasia Semenovna Kutuzova. She was of Russian origin, worked as a seamstress.
So why did Nikolai Gastello perform the feat? Maybe the answer is in his biography? It should briefly consider the life path of Nicholas.
Youth Gastello
From 1914 to 1918, Nikolai studied at the third Sokolniki city male school named after A.S. Pushkin. The terrible famine of 1918 forced his parents to transport him from Moscow for a while, so he was sent to Bashkiria with a group of Muscovite schoolchildren.
In 1919, Nicholas returned to Moscow, where he again went to school. Nikolai began to work in 1923, became a student of a joiner. Later, in 1924, the Gastello family moved to the city of Murom, where young Nikolai became a mechanic at the locomotive plant named after Dzerzhinsky, who also worked on his father. In parallel with his work, he graduated from school (today the school exists at number 33). In 1928 he entered the CPSU. In 1930, the members of the Gastello family returned to Moscow again, and Nikolai began to work in the first state machine-building plant named after May 1st. Nikolai lived in the village of Khlebnikovo from 1930 to 1932.
Service in the Red Army
In 1932, in May, according to a special set, Nikolai was drafted into the Red Army. And as a result, he was sent to training in an aviation school for pilots in the city of Lugansk. The training took place from May 1932 to December 1933.
He served in the eighty-second heavy-bombing squadron of the twenty-first heavy-bombing aviation brigade, whose base was in the city of Rostov-on-Don, until 1938. There he began to fly as a pilot on the right side on a heavy third bomber. And in 1934 (since November), Nikolai already independently controlled the plane. Could he think that in the future, his perfect feat - the feat of the pilot Gastello - will forever remain in the history of Russia?
The first battles of Gastello
Due to the restructuring of the unit, in 1938, Nikolai was in the first heavy bomber regiment. In 1939, in May, he became a commander, and about a year later - deputy squadron commander. He took part in the battles at Khalkhin Gol, together with the one hundred and fifty fast bomber regiment, which was subordinated to the squadron of the first TBAP. He was also a participant in the Soviet Finnish battle and took part in the procedure for joining Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union from June to July 1940. Closer to winter of the same year, the aviation unit will move to Velikiye Luki, to the western borders, and then to the air towns near Smolensk. And in 1940, Nikolai was awarded the rank of captain. In 1941, in the spring, Nikolai underwent proper retraining and received the DB-3F aircraft. Then he was the commander of the fourth squadron of the two hundred and seventh long-range bomber aviation regiment.
Gastello accomplished the feat after the promotion, being already the commander of the second squadron of the same unit.
Wreck
In 1941, namely on June 26, led by Captain Nikolai Frantsevich, composed of Lieutenant G.N. Skorobogaty, A.A. Burdenyuk and Senior Sergeant A.A. Kalinin, a flight was made on a DB-3F plane to to bomb the German mechanized string on the path of Molodechno-Radoshkovichi. Departure took place with a link of 2 bombers. By the fire of anti-aircraft artillery, Nikolai Frantsevich’s car was shot down.
An enemy shell damaged the fuel tank. Nicholas sent a burning plane to the center of an enemy mechanized column. The deed of Gastello (briefly) consisted in carrying out a fire ram. All crew members died.
According to Vorobyov and Rybas
On June 26, 1941, a squad headed by Captain Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello flew out. Together with two DB-3F heavy bombers. The second aircraft was flown by Senior Lieutenant F. Vorobyov, and Lieutenant Anatoly Rybas flew with him as a navigator. What was the name of another 2 crew members Vorobyov, is unknown. At the time of the attack concentrating German technology, Gastello’s plane was shot down. According to Vorobyov and Rybas, the burning Gastello machine rammed a mechanized column of enemy equipment. At night, the peasants from the nearby village of Dekshnyany pulled the dead bodies of the pilots out of the plane, wrapped the corpses in parachutes and buried them near the crash site of the bomber.
Everyone recognized
Soon, the feat of Gastello received widespread press coverage. In 1941, on July 5, in the evening, in the summary of the Soviet Information Bureau, the first time was mentioned about the act of Nicholas. Observers P. Pavlenko, P. Krylov wrote as soon as possible the article “Captain Gastello”, which was published in a newspaper called “Pravda” on the morning of July 10.
At dawn on July 6, pilots met at reproducers at various venues on the front. The information was transmitted by a Moscow radio station, the voice of the announcer seemed very familiar - at once the memory of the house, Moscow, surfaced. The announcer read brief information about what feat Gastello performed. Many people in various sectors of the front repeated the name of the hero, Captain Gastello, after the announcer.
Memories
Long before the war, when Gastello worked with his father at a Moscow factory, they told about Nikolai that wherever he was appointed, no matter what job he was sent to, he set an example everywhere and was a model of hard work, perseverance and dedication. This was a man who was building up strength for a big deal.
When he became a combat pilot, it immediately justified itself. He was not a celebrity, but was rapidly striding towards popularity. Gastello’s feat, as was later recalled, was to be accomplished. Why? Yes, because he was such a man! Each day passed in an effort to do something for his homeland, each day of service was a feat.
In 1939, he bombed Belofin military factories, bunkers and bridges, in Bessarabia he threw out our parachute assault forces, which were supposed to prevent the plunder of the state. During the days of World War II, Nikolai Frantsevich - the commander in chief of his squadron - destroyed the fascist tank columns, smashed battle objects to smithereens, and crushed bridges to pieces. Even then, captain Gastello spread fame in flying units.
An act that has become historic
Gastello’s final feat will never be forgotten in his life. On July 3, under his command, Captain Nikolai Frantsevich fought in the air. Remotely, below, on earth, there was also a battle. The enemy’s motorized units made their way to Soviet territory. The strikes of our artillery and aircraft held and stopped their progress. Performing his battle, Gastello did not lose sight of the ground battle.
During the battle, the enemy’s shell carries the gas tank of his aircraft. The plane caught fire. The situation is essentially hopeless.
Captain Gastello doesn't leave the blazing car. Down, to the earth, to the opponents flies like a fire comet, his plane. The fire is already about the pilot. But the earth is already near. Gastello's eyes are hot with flames, but he does not close them, and his scorched hands are still hard. The dying plane still obeys the hands of a dying pilot.
Gastello’s plane crashes into a cluster of tanks and cars, and a thunderous explosion with long peals shakes the air of battle: the enemy’s tanks explode. Thus his life ends - not a shameful captivity, not a ruin, but a feat!
Date in history
We always remembered and will remember the name of the hero - Captain Nikolai Gastello. The feat that he accomplished, deprived his family of a son and husband, but gave the motherland a hero and a chance to win.
The act of a person who accepted his death, making it a deadly weapon, will forever remain in memory. This event occurred on July 3, although it cannot be stated unconditionally. But it is July 3 - the date indicated in the article "Captain Gastello." Most likely, this number was named in the message of the Sovinformburo, which was broadcast on July 5 from reproducers. It is worth noting that the article in Pravda received a wide response, and Gastello’s feat was often used as an example in Soviet propaganda. Nicholas became one of the few main and famous examples of valor. His feat forever remained in the annals of the Great Patriotic War, and was also widely used as an example when conducting military-patriotic propaganda with the aim of shaping the worldview of young people, both during the battle itself with the fascist invaders and in the post-war period, right up to the collapse of the USSR.
Posthumous title
At the end of July 1942, the commander of the two hundred and seventh long-range bomber aviation regiment was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Posthumously, unfortunately, N.F. Gastello, whose feat will live for centuries, was presented to such a title.
By decree of the Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union, Captain Nikolai Frantsevich was forever included in the list of one of the aviation regiments. For a long time this event was classified. Therefore, the crew, which included Skorobogaty G. N., Kalinin A. A., Burdenyuk A. A., for a long period of time was in the shadow of his famous captain. But still, not only N. Gastello was awarded the award. The feat was accomplished by his team. In 1958, all the dead crew members were awarded orders of World War I degree. Posthumously.
"Gastellists" - pilots who committed the "fire ram"
Through the efforts of Soviet propaganda, the feat of Nikolai Gastello became one of the most illustrious in the history of the Great Patriotic Battle, and the surname of the hero became famous. “Gastellovtsy” began to call those pilots who repeated the feat of Nicholas. So who repeated the feat of Gastello?
In total, during the war of 1941-1945. Five hundred and ninety-five “classic” air rams were produced, namely, airplane aircraft. Five hundred and six rams by ground target aircraft, sixteen sea rams, this also includes rams by sea pilots of enemy surface and coastal targets, one hundred and sixty tank rams.
There are different data on the number of rams
It should be noted that in the sources there is a certain discrepancy regarding the number of ram attacks. For example, the article “Followers of Nikolai Gastello” reports only about fourteen sea and only fifty-two tank rams, five hundred and six rams by ground target aircraft, and six hundred atmospheric collisions.
A. D. Zaitsev in his own book “Weapons of the Strong in Spirit” describes the number of rams in an amount of more than six hundred and twenty. In addition, aviation historians ascertain the fact that: “in the papers of the enemy there are even more than twenty battering rams that were made by Soviet pilots who repeated the feat of Gastello. The pilots have not yet been identified. ”
There is no consistency in estimating the number of “fire rams” themselves. For example, Yuri Ivanov in his own work “Kamikaze: Pilots - Suicide bombers” notes the number of such clashes made by Soviet pilots from 1941 to 1945, “about three hundred and fifty.”
At the end of this paragraph
It should also be noted that Soviet pilots rammed the enemy many times. At least approximately the main figures included in the historical chronicle of the war years should be listed. Thirty-four pilots used an air ram 2 times, 4 pilots - Nikolai Terekhin, Vladimir Matveev, Leonid Borisov, Alexey Khlobystov - 3 times, and Boris Kovzan - 4 times. These are those who repeated the feat of Gastello, setting themselves the goal - at all costs, even if this is the price - their own life, to save their homeland and give a free future to other people. Our small contribution to this is to preserve the memory of those thanks to whom we now have such a life!