The story of a Russian bomber

So, I have some news from the Archives. First, it was found a document that showed the loss of aircraft with number 5605. This aircraft was registered in the 53rd Air Regiment of 40th Air Division of long-range aircraft. After that, among the documents of this Regiment was managed to find the folder containing the reports of crews after combat missions of this period. You can see the cover of this folder below. Inside this folder were documents describing the circumstances of the death of the aircraft 5605. There were two reports: commander of the crew and navigator officer. You can also see them below. So, I will briefly translate what was written there.
October 22, 1941, this crew had a combat mission to drop bombs on a concentration of German military equipment near the Maloyaroslavets town. Beside this, it was stated that if the sky over the target will clear, it would better to abandon the mission and return to the airfield. When the target was approaching the pilots noticed that there was clear sky. But they decided to perform the task. They climbed to a height of 4500 meters and started dropping bombs on the enemy. At this point, the aircraft was damaged from the fire of anti-aircraft weapons. One gunner-radio operator was killed and another was wounded in the leg. Aircraft 5605 dropped bombs and began to return to their base. At this time, It was attacked by German Me-109 fighter. It got damaging left wing, left engine and the cabin of the navigator. The aircraft began to decline sharply, simulating a fall. Then, at a low altitude, It began to move to the airfield in Ryazan. At this time, the left engine fired up and plane began to fall. The crew commander gave the signal to jump with a parachute. The entire crew, including the wounded man jumped from a height of 250 meters (except the man who was killed). The plane crashed in a swamp near the village.
So, the main thing is done - have identified the unknown soldier, who was left in the plane. This was Nikolay Ionovich Tkachuk. He was originally from Ukraine, from the village not far from Kiev. He was 22 years old. Now we are trying to find his relatives. In addition, in summer, we plan to reburial of the pilot.
And a little more information.
Total, on October 22, 1941 there were 5 aircraft DB-3F flew bombing in the area of Maloyaroslavets. Only one airplane of Lieutenant Vavilov returned.
Airplane of Lieutenant Chekhonin was shot down on the front line. This is his report I posted above.
Airplane of Lieutenant Avdeev missing.
Airplane of Lieutenant Reshetnikov (which was paired with an airplane 5605) was shot down by fighter Me-109.
Airplane 5605 was damaged by antiaircraft fire and fighter attacks. As a result, it fell into the swamp, near Ryazan.
On the German side on this day it stated only a one, downed by fighter, DB-3F. It was recorded at his own expense the pilot Edmund Wagner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Wagner, who was shot down and killed by Air Force plane Pe-2 on November 13, 1941.
The commander of the crew of 5605, Lieutenant Dozmarov, who survived Oct. 22, was died December 1, 1941 in aerial combat.
In the map you can see the place of combat mission (black arrow) and the place of falling (star). The distance between them app. 200km
View attachment 16144

 

Congratulations on finding and preserving this information on this aircraft, now so many can see a piece of the history of this war that remained a collection of mostly hidden facts. Family and other survivors will be able to hear the legendary story of this man that gave his life in the air for his country. Your persistence had a grand pay-off for all of us who have been following this thread and I hope you do some kind of write up of everything you have collected along the way that brought you to this finding. Thank you sir.

 

Excellent. A beginning and (hopefully not) an ending. I congratulate IRu for tenaciously pursuing history. Some really interesting and original content.
Hopefully I (we) will see more of IRu's efforts here.
Signed,
Fanboyo

 

Excellent job IRU, I very much enjoy reading the stories.

 

Thank you for a great story.

 

IRu, Thank you for your tremendous work. Excellent historical research.