Photo-reconstruction of the feat of Senior Lieutenant Anatoly Andrianovich Kuksin, who saved Sergeant N.F. Yevseyev from inevitable German captivity.
On January 14, 1943, a group of six I-153 “Chayka” fighters from the 611th Fighter Aviation Regiment (5th Air Army) led by the squadron commander, Senior Lieutenant Anatoly Kuksin, stormed the enemy troops in the village of Abinskaya-Akhtyrskaya.
At the end of the attack in the engine of the aircraft of the senior sergeant N.F. Evseev hit anti-aircraft shell. The pilot was forced to land a car in the enemy’s territory. The Nazis noticed this and ran to the Soviet aircraft. Seeing this, Senior Lieutenant Anatoly Kuksin, under the cover of other pilots, immediately flew to the rescue and landed at the wrecked plane. The four I-153 “Chayka” remaining in the air, standing in a circle above Kuksin and Yevseyev, shot down the German soldiers who were running up with machine guns. Kuksin ordered the sergeant to lie down on the left wing of his plane and took to the air. He flew over a hundred kilometers with N. Yevseyev on the wing and landed safely at his airfield.
The commander of the 5th Air Army awarded Senior Lieutenant Anatoly Kuksin with the Order of the Patriotic War, I Degree, and Senior Sergeant N. Yevseyev with the Order of the Patriotic War, II Degree. These were the first orders received by the pilots of the 611th Fighter Aviation Regiment.
Sources of information about the N. Yevseyev photo:
- allaces.ru
- Award sheet A.A. Kuksin
Location: USSR
Date: 1943