Nikolay Gastello
[May 6, 1907 - June 26, 1941]
A true icon of the Soviet era, Nikolay Gastello’s heroism inspired many young boys to become pilots. But as the iron curtain fell, Captain Gastello’s story became the target of skepticism and debate. Was the legend true or just another Soviet myth?
Nikolay Gastello was a captain in the Soviet air force. He became famous during the Second World War (known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War). Gastello headed the 42nd Bombardment Division and received the Hero of the Soviet Union title for life after his plane was allegedly shot down by Nazi troops and he made a decision to ram a column of German tanks instead of fleeing his airplane to save his life.
During the early days of the Great Patriotic War, the commander of a bomber squadron, Captain Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello, began to carry out combat missions. The aircraft of his squadron, under the 207th long-range bombardment regiment of the 3rd bomber air corps of long-range bombardment aviation, accomplished several combat missions. Gastello made only three satisfactory sorties. On the third flight, the airplane was damaged and hardly flew, and the navigator was badly injured, but Gastello knew how to fly so far to the airfield and to somehow land.
By the fifth day of of the Great Patriotic War almost all Soviet aviation from the boundary to Smolensk had ceased to exist. To cover the Western Front, commanders threw everything which could contribute to stopping the Germans into battle. As a result, long-range aviation was directed to bomb tank column. This was not their usual mission, and they had not trained for it, hence there were heavy losses.
According to the official version of events, on 26 June 1941 a heavy bomber under the command of captain Nikolay Gastello headed a flight team of two bombers to attack a column of Nazi tanks and fuel trucks in Belarus. Gastello delivered bomb attacks on the mechanized column of enemy on a major railway station on the Molodechno - Radoshkovichi route. After delivering one bomb load on the enemy tanks, The reports made by the crew of the second plane suggested that they were already turning back after using up most of their ammunition when Gastello’s Ilyushin-4 bomber suffered a direct hit in the fuel tank by antiaircraft gun projectiles and caught fire. Gastello made another turn, ramming the remaining German troops on the ground, inflicting major damage on the enemy. Reportedly, on the next night locals found the bodies of Gastello and his crew and buried them near the site of the crash, wrapping them in parachutes.
Gastello was nominated Hero of the Soviet Union, one of the first in the period of war awarded this title. The Hero of the Soviet Union was the first of the two highest awards in the Soviet period (the other one was Hero of Socialist Labor). It was established on April 16, 1934 by the Central Executive Committee of USSR. According to the statute, it was awarded for "personal or collective merits before the state, connected with performing an act of heroism." Starting July 29, 1936, the Heroes also received an Order of Lenin. It included the Order of Lenin (the highest Soviet award) and, as the sign of excellence, the Gold Star medal with the certificate of the heroic deed (gramota) from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (highest executive body of the land).
Since the number of Heroes increased, on August 1, 1939, they were also decorated with the Gold Star, to differentiate them from the holders of the Order of Lenin. Around 12,600 people became Hero of the Soviet Union until 1991. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, this title was succeeded in Russia by the title Hero of Russia. The 3 crewmembers of the plane -- Lieutenants A.A. Burdenyuk, G.N. Skorobogatyy and Senior Sergeant A.A. Kalinin -- were awarded with the Order of The Great Patriotic War 1st class.
Soon Nikolay Gastello his legendary act became an example of Soviet heroism during the fight against Nazi Germany. His “fire ram” was widely used in Soviet propaganda both during the war and all the way up to the fall of the USSR. Gastello’s name became so famous that all the pilots who rammed the enemy with their planes were called “Gastellovtsy” and all alternative versions of his act were prohibited.
For Russia, Gastello is a legendary name. The heroic deed of Gastello became well-known, commemorated in a song by Aram Ilyich Khachaturian ["Captain Gastello"], as well as the strategic bomber base named after [ie imeni] Gastello. By the order of the Minister of Defense of the USSR the captain of N.F. Gastello is forever enrolled in the lists of one of the aviation regiments. Monuments to him were established in Moscow, Minsk, into the Radoshkovichi Molodechnenskeyeo region of Minsk region, and in the territory of the Voroshilovgrad highest military air school of navigators. On the building of the Moscow school #270, there was established memorial board. His name was applied to kolkhozes, state farms, factories, plants, streets, pioneer guards, mine #30 in Kizel city the Perm province, and motor ships.
It is possible to say with some confidence that Gastello did not consciously direct the aircraft to the tank column. The burning machine fell downward and it was completely unguided. The fact that it fell onto the German column was only a matter of chance. To leave the falling machine from such low altitude is practically impossible. Parachutes also will not help. Even if by some means it will be possible to leave the burning machine and to satisfactorily go down by the parachute, then they will be immediately gripped by Germans.
In 1951 authorities examined the place of Gastello’s alleged burial but could find neither his nor his crew’s belongings. However, they did manage to find the belongings of the crew of another Soviet bomber also shot down during the Great Patriotic War. Aleksandr Maslov’s plane went missing on the same day Gastello allegedly committed his “fire ram” and a secret investigation revealed that the remains on the site of Gastello’s crash belonged, in fact, to Maslov’s bomber. Despite this new development, the information was not revealed to the public and a monument commemorating Gastello’s heroic act was erected on the same site. It was only after the fall of the Soviet regime that the results of the investigation were declassified.
As soon as the information reached the mass media a new version of Gastello’s story emerged. Some people presumed it was Maslov who committed the “fire ram” and not the Soviet war legend. In 1996 President Boris Yeltsin even ordered Aleksandr Maslov and his crew to be awarded as Heroes of Russia for life. Supporters of the alternative version doubted that the pilots who prepared the reports on Gastello’s act could have seen the ram itself since they were already on their way back.
There were also assumptions that these reports could have been falsified by Soviet propaganda, which sought to present Gastello as an example for Soviet soldiers and pilots. This was backed by the fact that the original copies of the reports couldn’t be found and only references to them existed.
It also became known that remains of another plane were found in the same area of Maslov’s crash, which was also reportedly shot down on 26 June 1941. Locals allegedly found the corpse of one of the crew members and a note addressed to a woman with the last name of Skorobogataya who was thought to be the wife of Gastello’s gunner. The witnesses of this plane crash also reported seeing one of the crew members parachute to the ground where he was captured by German troops. Furthermore, the structure of the Ilyushin-4 bomber was designed in such a way that only the pilot was able to escape, giving grounds to claims that Gastello left the burning plane and his crew before it hit the ground.
Despite the assumptions previously listed, not everyone supports the alternative version. Several investigators including Gastello’s son, Viktor, say there isn’t enough proof that the Soviet hero’s plane crashed in another area. They also think that the fact that investigators were able to find the remains of Maslov and his crew shows they couldn’t have died while conducting a ram and instead their plane went down in a flyby. Finally, the supporters of the official version claim that the absence of Gastello’s body shows that he really was killed in a “fire ram” which caused an explosion that made identifying his body impossible.
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