A-20 Boston of Hero of the Soviet Union A. M. Gagiev, 1st Guards Torpedo Aviation Regiment, 1944

October 7, 2025 - Reading time: 4 minutes

Soviet A-20 “Boston” bomber of the 1st Guards Mine-Torpedo Regiment, crew of A. M. Gagiev, after sinking a 6,000-ton German ship, September 1944.

This rare wartime photo shows an American-made A-20 “Boston” bomber (board number “30”) from the 1st Guards Mine-Torpedo Aviation Regiment (1st GMTAP) of the Red Army Air Force. The aircraft belonged to the crew of future Hero of the Soviet Union, Captain Alexander Mikhailovich Gagiev.

Just a day before this photograph was taken, on September 18, 1944, Gagiev’s crew successfully sank a 6,000-ton German naval transport in the Baltic Sea during a daring torpedo strike. Such missions demanded exceptional skill — flying low over the sea under heavy anti-aircraft fire, the pilots released their torpedoes almost at point-blank range.

The A-20 Boston, supplied to the USSR under the Lend-Lease program, proved highly effective in the mine-torpedo aviation units. Fast, maneuverable, and capable of carrying both bombs and torpedoes, it became one of the Red Navy’s key strike aircraft in the final stage of the war.

The photograph was taken by Sergei Shimansky, a front-line photographer of the Soviet Air Force, at the Panevėžys airfield (Lithuania) — then a forward base used by Baltic Fleet aviation.

Technical photo data:
📍 Location: Panevėžys, Lithuania, USSR
📅 Date: September 19, 1944
🛩 Aircraft: Douglas A-20 “Boston”, board No. 30
🧭 Unit: 1st Guards Mine-Torpedo Aviation Regiment (GMTAP)
📷 Author: Sergei Shimansky

• Soviet A-20 Boston
• Mine-torpedo aviation WWII
• Baltic Sea air operations 1944
• Hero of the Soviet Union Gagiev
• Lend-Lease aircraft in the USSR