Deputy commander of the squadron of the 2nd Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Red Army Air Force of the Navy the Hero of the Soviet Union Guard Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Didenko (second from left) discussing with his comrades an air battle near the American fighter P-39 Airacobra, supplied in the USSR under the Lend-Lease program. On the fuselage of the P-39 fighter (pilot Pavel Klimov) painted an eagle with a German pilot in his beak and a destroyed German aircraft in the clutches.
Didenko Nikolai Matveyevich – participant of the Great Patriotic War from the autumn of 1941. By July 1944, Guard Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Didenko accomplished 283 successful combat sorties, conducted 34 air strikes, personally shot down 10 aircraft and sunk two enemy schooners. In November 1944, Nikolai Didenko, “for his unprecedented heroism, manifested in the battles against the Nazi invaders” was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Location: Vaenga-1, USSR
Date: 1943