The Great Patriotic War showed the world courage, stamina, heroism of a Soviet soldier. Millions of defenders of the country of the Soviets stood to death, to the last drop of blood. The memory of them must be eternal. Again and again we open the Book of Memory. Nikolai Markelov, pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union. A short curriculum vitae, a couple of fuzzy photos, military merit ...
Nikolai Markelov in the photo is a young man who did not smell gunpowder. Retouchers completed the uniform with epaulets when they could not find a photograph of the Hero of the USSR.
About life before the war
Kolya was born on June 20, 1920 in Altai, in Barnaul. He received a secondary education certificate in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, the fraternal republic of the Soviet Union. In the same place, in 1938, he entered the Kazakh Mining and Metallurgical Institute at the Geological Exploration Department. Having passed the session for the third year, he celebrated his 21st birthday. Two days later, he learned that the war had begun.
There is no more information in official sources about childhood and adolescence. Ordinary boy, ordinary life. No, there is still a fad, which was crucial in a further biography - an aero club. In the distant past, in DOSAAF flying clubs, teenagers built model airplanes, jumped with parachutes, engaged in physical training and learned to be patriots.
Get up, the country is huge
In the early days of the war, Nikolai received the summons of the military enlistment office, immediately went to the Chkalovsk flight school, where IL-2 pilots were trained in accelerated mode. The children had less than a year to master the profession. In 1942 he was sent to the front. The film "Only Old Men Go to Battle" is about Markelov, a young, inexperienced, combat.
As Nikolai Markelov fought, the awards say: Red Star, Order of the Red Banner (2), World War II degree, medals. There were many heroes, but there were no biographers. It is still impossible to collect information about each soldier of the Second World War, because the lines of the biography of Nikolai Markelov are so meager. What tasks he performed, what medals he received - there is no data in the Memory Book.
Year 1944
Fate was merciful to the young man. Judging by the awards, he did not sit out at alternate aerodromes: he climbed into the thick of fights, deceived the weather, fascist aces, even the laws of aerodynamics. This was written in the award sheet (September 1944), as a car crashed into rubbish returned to its native airfield. At the same time, the pilot in the war was not injured.
In 1944, the lieutenant was already commanding the 806th assault regiment of the 14th Air Army. Behind him are 4 Ukrainian, Southern, 3 Baltic, North Caucasian fronts. The Nazis called the IL-2 "Black Death", a plague, a concrete plane. Soviet designers gave the nickname - "flying tank." But in the first year of the war, the loss of this equipment was very high - the pilots are inexperienced, there are no defensive weapons.
Attacks from low altitudes of 400 m, shaving flights, skillful inclusion of maximum angular velocity, a reliable machine gunner, experience and courage helped the lieutenant in this war. 105 combat successful sorties. During the bombing, it recorded on his account: 25 tanks, 100 vehicles, 70 transports, 20 artillery batteries, 8 fuel and weapon depots, a barge, an airfield with airplanes.
From the award sheet
In September 1944, the commander of the air regiment, senior lieutenant Karpov, sent on the instances an award sheet to Nikolai Markelov. Thanks to him, today it is known how the young soldier of the workers 'and peasants' Soviet army fought. Here are the lines from the document:
... master of assault strikes. Brave, courageous attack pilot. Heroically fought in the Kuban, Mius, Donbass, the Milk River. A participant in the defeat of the Nikopol bridgehead, the Crimean group.
... liberated the Kuban, Dnieper, Crimea, Estonia. Fearlessness and courage of Markelov, assault and bombing strikes are always unexpected and effective. Most sorties are by a leading attack group.
11/27/43 ... destroyed 2 artillery batteries in the area of B. Lepetiha. The plane, steering wheel, depths are damaged at the machine, the steering wheel is jammed, the shields are broken. Thanks to the piloting technique, the plane landed at its own airfield.
04/08/44 ... in the Tarkhan region, 2 volley fire guns, a minbattery, 4 vehicles with cargo were destroyed. April 19 in the Balaklava area shot down the FV-190.
05/07/44 ... in the area of Sevastopol, the group was shelled by anti-aircraft guns, attacked by seven fighters. Markelov made three approaches to the target, completed a combat mission, captivating with a personal example of the followers. His shooter shot down a fighter.
The plane is badly damaged: the right aileron is broken, the shields, keel, steering wheel, center wing are damaged, the cantilever part of the propeller blade is repelled, the other is shot through by a shell, and bulletproof glass is broken. Markelov gathered the followers, brought home, landed.
02/23/1945 Markelov was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR. Gold Star Medal No. 5935 and the Order of Lenin - confirmation of high status.
Remember everyone by name
Nicholas was lucky, he met Victory alive, saw a country free and jubilant. And he is only 24! He did not return to exploration; he remained in the Air Force. Although some sources claim that he went to civil aviation. Then again failure and a short message: Art. Lieutenant Markelov November 16, 1945 tragically died. One source called it a plane crash in office. Most likely, this happened in Ukraine. In the Rivne region, in Chervonoarmeysk, he was buried.
Streets in Barnaul and Almaty are named after Nikolai Danilovich. The name is immortalized on the slab of the Glory Memorial in the capital of the Altai Territory.
The Orenburg pilots VVAKU (disbanded), which became the successor to the Chkalov school of pilots, keeps a memory of its graduates. 309 Heroes of the Soviet Union are listed. A graduate of 1942, Markelov is listed alphabetically under number 181.