Biography of Nikolai Gastello. The feat of Gastello, which went down in history

Nikolai 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 describe the most significant moments in the life of the Soviet hero.

Who were the parents of the famous pilot?

He was a Soviet military pilot, participant of three battles, commander of the second squadron. He was killed at the time of military departure. Gastello is the Hero of the Soviet Union. This title was awarded to Nikolai Frantsevich posthumously.

Who were the parents of Gastello, the real hero? Father Nicholas was called Franz Pavlovich Gastello. He was a Russian German. He was born in the village Pluzhiny. When the year 1900 began, he came to seek work in Moscow, where he began to work at the Kazan railway in foundries. Mother Nicholas was called Anastasia Semenovna Kutuzova. She was of Russian descent, she worked as a seamstress.

So why did Nikolai Gastello accomplish the feat? Maybe the answer is in his biography? We should briefly consider the life of Nikolai.

Youth of Gastello

From 1914 to 1918, Nikolai studied in the third Sokolniki City Men's School named after AS Pushkin. The terrible famine of 1918 forced his parents to temporarily move him from Moscow, so together with a group of Muscovite schoolchildren he was sent to Bashkortostan.

In 1919, Nikolai returned to Moscow, where he again went to school. Work Nikolai began in 1923, became a student carpenter. Later, in 1924, the family of Gastello moved to the city of Murom, where the young Nicholas became a locksmith at the locomotive building plant. Dzerzhinsky, on which his father also worked. In parallel with the work he graduated from school (in present time the school exists under number 33). In 1928 he entered the VKP. In 1930, the members of the Gastello family again returned to Moscow, and Nikolai began to work in the first state machine-building plant named after. 1st of May. Nikolai lived in the village of Khlebnikovo from 1930 to 1932.

Service in the Red Army

In 1932, in May, in a special set, Nicholas was drafted into the Red Army. And as a result, he was sent to the aviation school for pilots in the city of Lugansk. The 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 a pilot from the right side on a heavy third bomber. And in 1934 (since November), Nicholas had already independently operated the aircraft. Could he think that his future perfect feat - the feat of the pilot Gastello - will forever remain in the history of Russia?

The First Battle of Gastello

As a result of the reorganization of the unit, in 1938, Nikolai fell 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 rapid bomber aviation regiment, which was subordinated to the squadron of the first TBAP. He was also a participant in the Soviet Finnish battle and took part in the procedure for joining 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 cities near Smolensk. And in 1940, Nicholas was awarded the title of captain. In 1941, in the spring, Nicholas underwent proper retraining and received a DB-3F aircraft. Then he was the commander of the fourth squadron of the two hundred and seventh long-range bomber aviation regiment.

Gastello's feat was performed after the promotion, 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 GN Skorobogatym, AA Burdeniuk and Senior Sergeant AA Kalinin on the DB-3F aircraft, To make a bomb strike on the German mechanized string on the way Molodechno-Radoshkovichi. The flight took place together with a link of 2 bombers. The machine gun fire of Nikolai Frantsevich was shot down by the fire of antiaircraft artillery.

The enemy projectile damaged the fuel tank. Nikolai directed the burning aircraft to the center of the mechanized column of the enemy. The feat of Gastello (briefly) was to hold a fiery ram. All the crew members were killed.

According to Vorobiev and Rybas

June 26, 1941 flew the squadron led by Captain Nikolai Gastello Frantsevich. Together with two heavy bombers, DB-3F. The second aircraft was run by Lieutenant F. Vorobiev, Lieutenant Anatoly Rybas flew in as a navigator. As they called for 2 more members of Vorobyov's crew, it is not known. At the time of the attack of concentration of German technology, Gastello's plane was shot down. From the words of Vorobiev and Rybas, the burning machine of Gastello produced the ramming of a mechanized column of enemy equipment. At night, peasants from the nearby village of Dekshnyan pulled the dead bodies of the pilots from the plane, wrapped the corpses in parachutes and buried them near the site of the bomber's crash.

Learned all

Soon, the feat of Gastello received wide coverage in the press. In 1941, on July 5, in the evening, in the Soviet Information Bureau's summary, the first mention was made of Nicholas's deed. Observers P. Pavlenko, P. Krylov wrote in an extremely short time the article "Captain Gastello", which was published in a newspaper called "Pravda" on the morning of July 10.

At dawn on July 6, pilots met at the different platforms of the front at the loudspeakers. The information was transmitted by the Moscow radio station, the voice of the announcer seemed very familiar - immediately a memory of the house, Moscow, surfaced. The announcer read a short information about what a feat was committed by Gastello. Many people on various sectors of the front repeated the name of the hero, Captain Gastello, behind the speaker.

Memories

Long before the war, when Gastello worked with his father at a Moscow factory, Nikolai was told that wherever he was appointed, to whatever job he was sent, he set an example everywhere and was an example of diligence, perseverance and dedication. It was a man who was accumulating strength for a big deal.

When he became a combat pilot, this immediately came true. He was not a celebrity, but he quickly moved to popularity. The feat of Gastello, as they recalled later, was to be committed. Why? Because he was such a man! Every day he went in an effort to do something for his Motherland, every day of service was a feat.

In 1939 he bombed the Belinsky military factories, pillboxes and bridges, in Bessarabia he threw out our parachute assault forces, which were to prevent the plunder of the state. During the Great Patriotic War, Nikolai Frantsevich, commander-in-chief of his squadron, crushed fascist tank columns, smashed fighting objects and crushed bridges into a splinter. Even then, Captain Gastello spread fame in the flying parts.

The act, which became historical

The final feat of Gastello will never be forgotten in life. On July 3, under his command, Captain Nikolai Frantsevich fought in the air. Farther down, on the ground, there was also a battle. Motorized enemy units made their way to Soviet territory. The blows of our artillery and aviation held and stalled their progress. Fulfilling his fight, Gastello did not let go of the battle and land battle.

In the course of the battle, enemy shells carry the fuel tank of his aircraft. The plane caught fire. The situation, in fact, desperate.

Captain Gastello does not throw a flaming machine. Down, to the ground, to the adversaries flies, like a fiery comet, of his plane. The fire is already near the pilot. But the earth is already close. Gastello's eyes are hot with flame, but he does not close them, and his scorched hands are still firm. The bending plane still obeys the hands of the dying pilot.

The Gastello plane wedges into a cluster of cisterns and cars, and a thunderous explosion with long rumbles shakes the air of battle: the enemy tanks explode. Thus ends his life - not a shameful captivity, not a wreck, but a feat!

The date that went down in history

We always remembered and will remember the name of the hero - Captain Nikolai Gastello. The feat that he committed, deprived him of his son and husband, but gave the Motherland a hero and a chance to win.

In memory, forever remains the act of a man who took his death, making it a deadly weapon. This event occurred on July 3, although it can not be stated unconditionally. But it is July 3 - the date specified in the article "Captain Gastello". Most likely, this number was named in the message of the Sovinformbureau, which was broadcast on July 5 from loudspeakers. It is worth noting that the article in Pravda received 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 exploit remained forever in the annals of the Great Patriotic War, and was also widely used as an example in the conduct of military-patriotic propaganda with the aim of forming a world outlook for young people, both during the very battle with the fascist invaders and in the post-war period, up to the collapse of the USSR.

Rank received posthumously

At the end of July 1942, the commander of the 124th long-range bomber aviation regiment was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Posthumously, unfortunately NF Gastello, whose feat will live for centuries, was introduced to this title.

By the decree of the Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union, Captain Nikolai Franzevich 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 GN, Kalinin AA, Burdenyuk AA, a long period of time was in the shadow of his famous captain. But all the same the award was awarded not only to N. Gastello. The feat was committed by his team. In 1958 all the dead crew members were awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree. Posthumously.

"Gastellovtsy" - pilots who committed a "fire ram"

Through the efforts of Soviet propaganda, Nikolai Gastello's feat became one of the most famous in the history of the Great Patriotic War, and the name of the hero was famous. "Gastellers" began to call those pilots who repeated the feat of Nicholas. So who repeated the feat of Gastello?

In total, at the time of the war of 1941-1945. Five hundred and ninety-five "classic" air rams were produced, namely by an airplane. Five hundred and six rams by ground plane aircraft, sixteen sea rams, to this number one can also include battering sea-pilots of the enemy's 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 is a certain discrepancy in the sources about the number of ram attacks. For example, in the article "Followers of Nikolai Gastello" only fourteen sea and only fifty-two tank rams, five hundred six rams by a ground-based aircraft, six hundred atmospheric collisions are reported.

AD Zaitsev in his own book "The Arms of Strong Spirit" describes the number of airborne rams in an amount greater than six hundred and twenty. In addition, aviation historians state the fact that: "in the enemy's papers, there are even more than twenty rams that Soviet pilots made, which repeated the exploit of Gastello. Until now, the pilots have not been identified. "

There is no consistency in the estimate of the number of actually "fire rams". For example, Yuri Ivanov in his own work "Kamikaze: suicide pilots" notes the number of such collisions, made 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. At least roughly list the main figures included in the historical chronicle of the war years. Thirty-four pilots used the air ram twice, 4 pilots - Nikolai Terekhin, Vladimir Matveyev, Leonid Borisov, Alexey Khlobystov - 3 times, and Boris Kovzan - 4 times. These are the ones who repeated the exploit of Gastello, setting a goal - at any cost, let this price - own life, save the Motherland and give the free future to other people. Our small contribution to this is to keep the memory of those, thanks to whom now we have such a life!