Kamanin A. N. is known as the youngest pilot participating in the Great Patriotic War. His name can be found on the pages of the book "Heroes of the War 1941-1945". What is the feat of a young man? What services to compatriots belong to the young pilot?
Biography
Kamanin Arkady Nikolaevich was born on November 2, 1928 in the Far East. Father - Nikolai - was a famous pilot and military commander, Hero of the Soviet Union. He was awarded this title for rescuing the passengers of the Chelyuskin steamer. Kamanin was the commander of the aviation detachment. In the most difficult conditions, the aircraft made a flight of 1,500 km. It was decided to transport polar explorers under the wings of an aircraft in parachute boxes.
Younger brother, Lev Kamanin, did not participate in hostilities. After studying at the Zhukovsky Academy, he worked at the Research Institute of the Air Force. Later he taught at his native academy. With his help, his father's diaries were published under the title "Hidden Space".
After many movesthe family lived for a long time in the famous "House on the Embankment" in Moscow. While still a very young boy, Arkady showed great interest in his father's service. During the summer holidays, the boy regularly visited the airfield where his father served. In addition to flying, he was interested in books, music and sports. He knew how to play the accordion and button accordion.
Before the Great Patriotic War, the family moved to live in Tashkent. The reason is the military transfer of Pope Arcadius to the service. In 1943, the boy joined the ranks of the Soviet Komsomol. At the age of 13, at the beginning of the war, he got a job at an aviation plant, later at an airfield. I used every opportunity to take to the skies with the pilots by plane.
Already at the age of 14, Arkady went to the Kalinin Front to his father, who at that time commanded an aviation corps. It would seem, why was the underage guy not sent to the rear? How could a father let this happen? It turns out that Arkady himself said his firm "no". Nikolai Kamanin reluctantly resigned himself to the desire of his son. Moreover, like no one else, he knew that mechanics with a good knowledge of aviation were needed at the front.
After working as an equipment mechanic at the communications headquarters for a short time, Arkady began flying a U-2 aircraft as a navigator. This aircraft had control in two cabins. After takeoff, the young pilot piloted the plane himself and got practice.
First solo flight
Pilots with a lot of experience sometimes trusted him with the helm for a short period of time. Arkady began to seriously study flying after one incident. The chief pilot was blinded by an explosion from a shell, and the youngest pilot of the Second World War, Arkady Kamanin, landed the plane on his own.
Merit in wartime
In April 1943, with the rank of senior sergeant, Arkady joined the ranks of the Soviet army. And already in July of the same year he made his first solo flight on the U-2.
Kamanin Arkady Nikolayevich made about 400 flights on military assignments during his entire service in the army. Most of them took place in bad weather conditions in close proximity to the front. During the war, he performed various assignments from the headquarters related to the work of signalmen. He handed over radio elements to the partisans, flying over the front line. Since June 1943, the pilot went to serve in the First and then the Second Ukrainian Fronts.
By the end of the war Kamanin Arkady Nikolaevich could boast of six and a half hundred flights. The young man was not afraid of difficult tasks and the unknown. Many sorties were carried out in bad weather conditions and at the risk of being fired upon by the enemy army.
One of the most outstanding flights was carried out on a little-studied route over the Czech Republic. The task was to deliver a secret package to a partisan detachment. For more than an hour and a half, Arkady was in flight over a mountainous area. For the successful completion of the mission, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Kamanin in 1944, as part of the Second Ukrainian Front, receives the Order of the Red Star.
The feat was accomplished during the attack of Bandera on the headquarters. Without a moment's hesitation, the boy raisedthe plane and from the air threw hand grenades at the Nazis. Later he called for reinforcements. The attack was completely eliminated.
Arkady Kamanin: a feat
A young man was awarded the Order of the Red Star for the first time for saving a colleague. Pilot Arkady Kamanin saw an Il-2 shot down by the Germans from a flight altitude. Realizing that the cockpit was closed and the pilot might have been wounded, Arkady decided to save his comrade. Despite the strongest shelling from mortars, Kamanin managed to land the plane next to the broken aircraft. The boy was not distinguished by stature and great strength. However, he managed to transplant a wounded soldier in a short time and take photographic equipment onto the plane. At the same time, artillerymen, attack aircraft and tankers diverted attention from the maize. Kamanin managed to fly away from the shelling and brought to the hospital, as it turned out, an army officer, Lieutenant Berdnikov, who was on a mission to take pictures from an airplane.
The rescue of another comrade happened in Poland. Arkady was waiting for permission to land and saw how the fighter took off into the air with a man on its tail. It was a mechanic who sat on his tail so that the technique did not rest its nose on the ground, taking off on wet ground. Simple practice. But the main thing is to jump off the tail in time, which the mechanic did not have time to do. Kamanin was quick to make decisions, he quickly fired a rocket launcher, thereby warning the pilot about an unwanted passenger.
Post-war
After the victory of the Soviet Army, Kamanin Arkady Nikolaevich began toto engage, thereby filling in the missing school knowledge. With his characteristic perseverance and zeal, he achieved a certificate in 1 year.
After Sergeant Major Kamanin entered the Zhukovsky Air Force Academy as a student for a preparatory course. He began to study the program thoroughly and with great interest, because it was his dream. It would seem that the future of the young guy was brilliant and promised many more feats. The young man could become one of the first astronauts. But life dictated other rules.
At the age of 18, Arkady fell ill with meningitis. The hero died in April 1947. The youngest pilot of the Great Patriotic War was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy cemetery.
In art
The exploits and merits in the Great Patriotic War of Arkady Kamanin became the basis of the plot of the film “And you will see the sky.”
Articles were published in newspapers and magazines. Sculptor G. N. Postnikov made two busts of a young man in 1966.
Conclusion
Arkady Kamanin, whose biography ended so abruptly, could achieve even greater skill in flying and manage other types of aircraft and, possibly, spaceships. During his short and heroic life, the young man managed to do the most important thing - to take part in the defense of the Motherland. He showed himself as a fearless and valiant warrior. In the memory and in the annals of the people, the heroes of the war of 1941-1945. should stay forever.
