Nikolai Semenovich Skripko
Marshal of Aviation Nikolai Semenovich Skripko. He is called the father of the Military Transport Vviation of Russia (VTA). After the Great Patriotic War, Nikolai Semenovich Skripko was the 1st deputy commander of long-range aviation (1946-49), commander of transport-landing aviation (1950-55), military transport aviation (1955-69). Skripko was born on December 5 (in accordance with article 22 of November 22) in 1902 in the village of. Bolderaa of the Livonian province, now the Bolderaya neighborhood in the city of Riga. In the Red Army since 1919. During the civil war he fought as an ordinary soldier in the infantry, then as a junior commander in artillery in the Far East.
In 1923, during military exercises, he flew out on an airplane as an observer, after which he decided to transfer to the service in aviation. In 1924 he achieved such a transfer and sent to study at the Leningrad Military-Theoretical Aviation School. He graduated in 1925 and to master the management of the aircraft sent to the 1st military school of pilots named AF Myasnikov, graduated in 1927. He graduated from the Higher Flight and Tactical School (1938) and the Higher Academic Courses at the Higher Military Academy KE Voroshilov (1950).
Since November 1940 - the commander of the 3rd Air Corps of Long-range Bomber Aviation in the Air Force of the Western Special Military District, stationed in Smolensk, Colonel. In the Great Patriotic War - from the first day. The corps made combat sorties in support of the troops of the Western Front, bearing considerable losses due to the absence of extermination support and the use of obsolete types of bombers. However, even in these conditions, Skripko managed to achieve significant combat results by using a number of innovative combat techniques. He also ordered the installation of additional airborne machine guns in the rear lower hemisphere of the bombers without coordination with the higher command, and, in the absence of full-time machine-gunners, manned them with officers and soldiers of ground and staff units. As a result, their own losses were sharply reduced, and by fire from these machine guns, over 20 enemy fighters were shot down in a short time, trying to attack the bombers from the unprotected.
During the war years he rose four times in military ranks: Major General of Aviation (09.11.41), Lieutenant-General of Aviation (July 21, 422), Colonel-General of Aviation (13.03.44), Marshal of Aviation (19.08.44). He became the commander of the 3rd Air Corps, the commander of the Air Force of the 5th Army, the deputy commander of the Air Force of the South-Western Front (1941-42); Deputy Commander of Long-Range Aviation (March 1942). Participated in military operations near Stalingrad, the North Caucasus, Crimea, Kursk, Belorussia, the Baltic, East Prussia.
The long-range bomber air corps operatively subordinated to the Air Force of the Western Special Military District was entrusted with the release of the airborne corps in the interests of a front offensive operation. To land one air-landing corps, it took 1100 TB-3 heavy ships. They never had such heavy ships before the war. In all the preceding years, the industry was able to produce only about 800 heavy bombers TB-3, whose production ceased as early as 1938.
A special role in the fate of Nikolai Skripko played his appointment as commander of the airborne transport group, which participated in September 1943 in an operation to force the Dnieper. Not all goals and objectives during this operation were fulfilled, but the landing forces thrown at the Bukrin bridgehead distracted the enemy's huge forces, which contributed to the successful crossing of our forces by the Dnieper troops in other directions.
By his own admission, that experience persuaded Nikolai Semenovich "in the need to create military transport aviation." "And I firmly took up my idea to achieve this," he writes in his memoirs. In 1950, after graduating from the Higher Academic Courses at the Military Academy of the General Staff, he asked to be appointed commander of the airborne landing force of the Airborne Forces (VDV).
Soon after the victorious end of the Great Patriotic War, in 1946 long-range bomber aviation was renamed the long-range aviation of the Armed Forces of the USSR. This name was given taking into account the receipt of new, more modern aircraft and as the most appropriate to its direct strategic purpose. The 18th Air Army was disbanded, Marshal Skripko was appointed First Deputy Commander of Long-Range Aviation. In 1950 he graduated from the Higher Academic Courses at the Higher Military Academy named after KE Voroshilov. Since 1950, he had been commander of transport-landing aviation. In 1953, he was Assistant Commander of the Airborne Forces for transport and amphibious aviation. Since 1953 Commander of the Airborne Transport of the Airborne Troops or Transport Landing Aviation (TDA VDV).
Analyzing the numerous problems in landing large airborne formations and increasing the role of the latter in the conditions of modern war, Skripko came to the conclusion that it was necessary to create a new kind of aviation and actively sought consideration of the relevant proposals submitted to them. The leadership of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR agreed with his arguments, in 1955 the Military Transport Aviation was created in the USSR, and Marshal of the Air Force Skripko became its first commander. He headed the Military Transport Aviation for 14 years, in fact, became its founder in the modern form.
He lived in Moscow, and died on 05/12/1987. He was awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, five Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov 1 and 2 degrees, Kutuzov 1 and 2 degrees, the Patriotic War of 1 degree, "For Service to the Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR" 3 degrees, medals.
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