Russian pilot, future Hero of the Soviet Union assistant commander of the 29th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Red Army Air Force for the air-shooting service of the Guard Major Andrey Chirkov next to the Yak-7 fighter.
Pilot Chirkov Andrei Vasilyevich – participant of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, the Great Patriotic War from the first days. It was the fighter pilot Chirkov attributed the first victory won by Leningrad pilots – on June 23, 1941 he shot down a German bomber Heinkel He-111. Guard Major Andrey Chirkov by June 1943 made 389 combat sorties, in 60 air battles personally shot down 18 (including, committed one ram) and in the group of 9 enemy aircraft. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union will be awarded in February 1944.