Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello, whose feat will be described in this article, was born in 1907 in the city of 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 a Soviet hero.
Who were the famous pilot's parents?
He was a Soviet military pilot, a participant in three battles, the commander of the second squadron. He died during a military flight. Gastello - Hero of the Soviet Union. This title was awarded to Nikolai Frantsevich posthumously.
Who were the parents of Gastello, the real hero? Nikolai's father's name was Franz Pavlovich Gastello. He was a Russian German. Born in the village of Pluzhiny. When the year 1900 began, he arrived in Moscow to look for work, where he began to work on the Kazan railway in foundries. Nikolai's mother's name was Anastasia Semyonovna Kutuzova. She was of Russian origin and worked as a seamstress.
So why did Nikolai Gastello accomplish the feat? Maybe the answer is in his biography? It should briefly consider the life path of Nicholas.
Youth of Gastello
From 1914 to 1918, Nikolai studied at the third Sokolnikicity men's school named after A. S. Pushkin. The terrible famine of 1918 forced his parents to send him from Moscow for a while, so he was sent to Bashkiria together with a group of Muscovite schoolchildren.
In 1919, Nikolai returned to Moscow, where he again entered school. Nikolai began to work in 1923, became a carpenter's apprentice. 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, where his father also worked. In parallel with work, he graduated from school (today the school exists at number 33). In 1928 he entered the CPSU. In 1930, members of the Gastello family returned to Moscow again, and Nikolai began working 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, Nikolai was drafted into the Red Army by special enlistment. And as a result, he was sent to study at the aviation school of pilots in the city of Lugansk. Training took place from May 1932 to December 1933.
He served in the eighty-second heavy bomber squadron of the twenty-first heavy bomber 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 in a heavy third bomber. And in 1934 (since November), Nikolai already flew the plane on his own. Could he have thought that in the future his perfect feat - the feat of the pilot Gastello - will forever remain in the history of Russia?
Gastello's first battles
Due to the restructuring of the unit, in 1938, Nikolai got into the first heavy bomber air regiment. In 1939, in May, he became commander, and about a year later - deputy squadron commander. He took part in the battles at Khalkhin Gol, along with the 150th fast bomber aviation regiment, to which the squadron of the first TBAP was subordinate. He was also a participant in the Soviet Finnish battle and took part in the procedure for the annexation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union from June to July 1940. Closer to the winter of the same year, the aviation unit will move to Velikiye Luki, to the western borders, and then to the air town near Smolensk. And in 1940, Nikolai was awarded the rank of captain. In 1941, in the spring, Nikolai underwent proper retraining and received a DB-3F aircraft at his disposal. Then he was the commander of the fourth squadron of the 207th long-range bomber aviation regiment.
Gastello accomplished the feat after being promoted, being already the commander of the second squadron of the same unit.
Crash
In 1941, namely on June 26, led by Captain Nikolai Frantsevich, with Lieutenant G. N. Skorobogaty, A. A. Burdenyuk and Senior Sergeant A. A. a sortie was made in order to bomb a German mechanized line on the Molodechno-Radoshkovichi route. The flight took place together with a flight of 2 bombers. The car of Nikolai Frantsevich was shot down by anti-aircraft artillery fire.
An enemy projectile damaged the fuel tank. Nikolai rushed the burning aircraft into the center of the mechanized enemy column. The feat of Gastello (briefly) was to carry out a fiery ram. All crew members were killed.
According to Vorobyov and Rybas
On June 26, 1941, a train 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, Lieutenant Anatoly Rybas flew with him as a navigator. The names of 2 more members of Vorobyov's crew are unknown. At the time of the attack by the concentration of German equipment, Gastello's plane was shot down. According to Vorobyov and Rybas, Gastello's burning car rammed a mechanized column of enemy equipment. At night, peasants from the nearby village of Dekshnyany pulled the dead bodies of the pilots from the plane, wrapped the corpses in parachutes and buried them near the crash site of the bomber.
Everyone learned
Soon Gastello's feat received wide coverage in the press. In 1941, on July 5, in the evening, in the report of the Soviet Information Bureau, the act of Nikolai was mentioned for the first time. Columnists P. Pavlenko, P. Krylov wrote an article "Captain Gastello" as soon as possible, which was published in a newspaper called "Pravda" on the morning of July 10.
At dawn on July 6, at various sites of the front, the pilots met at the loudspeakers. The information was transmitted by the Moscow radio station, the voice of the announcer seemed very familiar - the memory of the house immediately surfaced,Moscow. The announcer read a short information about the feat Gastello had accomplished. 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 together with his father at a Moscow factory, they told about Nikolai that wherever he was assigned, no matter what job he was sent to, everywhere he set an example and was a model of diligence, perseverance and dedication. He was a man who was gathering strength for a big deal.
When he became a combat pilot, it immediately paid off. He was not a celebrity, but he was rapidly striding towards popularity. The feat of Gastello, as they later recalled, was to be accomplished. Why? Yes, because he was such a person! Every day he spent in an effort to do something for his homeland, every day of service was a feat.
In 1939, he bombed the White Finnish military factories, pillboxes and bridges, in Bessarabia he threw out our paratroopers, which were supposed to prevent the plunder of the state. During the Great Patriotic War, Nikolai Frantsevich, the commander-in-chief of his squadron, destroyed fascist tank columns, smashed military targets to smithereens, crushed bridges to pieces. Even then, Captain Gastello was known in the flying units.
A historic act
Gastello's final feat will never be forgotten in his life. On July 3, under his command, Captain Nikolai Frantsevich fought in the air. Far away, below, on the ground, it also wentbattle. Motorized units of the enemy made their way to Soviet territory. The strikes of our artillery and aircraft held and stopped their progress. Carrying out his fight, Gastello did not lose sight of the ground fight.
During the battle, an enemy projectile destroys the gas tank of his plane. The plane caught fire. The situation is essentially hopeless.
Captain Gastello does not leave the flaming car. Down to the ground, to the opponents, like a fiery comet, his plane flies. The fire is already near the pilot. But the ground is near. Gastello's eyes are hot from the flames, but he does not close them, and his singed hands are still hard. A dying plane still obeys the hands of a dying pilot.
Gastello's plane wedged into a cluster of tanks and vehicles, and a thunderous explosion with prolonged peals shakes the air of battle: enemy tanks explode. Thus ends his life - not a shameful captivity, not a collapse, but a feat!
Date in history
We have 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 man who accepted his death, making it a deadly weapon, will forever remain in memory. This event took place on July 3, although it is impossible to assert this unconditionally. But precisely July 3 is 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 loudspeakers. It should be noted that the article in Pravdareceived 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 remained forever in the annals of the Great Patriotic War, and was also widely used as an example in conducting military-patriotic propaganda in order to form the worldview of young people, both during the battle against the fascist invaders and in the post-war period, up to the collapse of the USSR.
Posthumous title
At the end of July 1942, the commander of the 207th 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 the decree of the Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union, Captain Nikolai Frantsevich is permanently 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, the award was awarded not only to N. Gastello. The feat was accomplished by his team. In 1958, all the dead crew members were awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, I degree. Posthumously.
"Gastellites" - pilots who committed a "fiery ram"
Through the efforts of Soviet propaganda, the feat of Nikolai Gastello became one of the most famous in the history of the Great Patriotic Battle, and the surnamethe hero is famous. "Gastellites" began to call those pilots who repeated the feat of Nicholas. So who repeated the feat of Gastello?
In total for the time of the war 1941-1945. five hundred ninety-five "classic" aerial rams were produced, namely by aircraft. Five hundred and six rams by a ground target aircraft, sixteen naval rams, this number includes rams by naval 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 there are some discrepancies in the sources regarding the number of ramming attacks. For example, in the article "Followers of Nikolai Gastello" only fourteen naval and only fifty-two tank rams, five hundred and six ground-target rams, and six hundred atmospheric collisions are reported.
A. D. Zaitsev in his book "Weapons of the Strong in Spirit" describes the number of air rams in the amount of more than six hundred and twenty. In addition, aviation historians state the fact that: “more than twenty rams are indicated in the papers of the enemy, which were produced by Soviet pilots who repeated the feat of Gastello. The pilots have not yet been identified.”
There is no consistency in the assessment of the number of "fire rams" themselves. For example, Yuri Ivanov in his own work "Kamikaze: Suicide Pilots" notes the number of such collisions produced 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. You should at least roughly enumerate the main figures included in the historical chronicle of the war years. Thirty-four pilots used an air ram 2 times, 4 pilots - Nikolai Terekhin, Vladimir Matveev, Leonid Borisov, Alexei Khlobystov - 3 times, and Boris Kovzan - 4 times. These are those who repeated the feat of Gastello, setting themselves a goal - at any cost, even if the price is their own life, to save their homeland and give a free future to other people. Our small contribution to this is to keep the memory of those thanks to whom we now have such a life!
