Gastello brief biography

Maya Biryukova Captain Nikolai Gastello is one of the most famous heroes of the Great Patriotic War: on June 26, he committed the so -called "fiery ram", dying during a military departure. They tried to question the feat, but the fact remains: when it comes to the heroes-heroes, the surname of the Soviet captain was recalled one of the first.

The future pilot worked as a locksmith when he was drafted into the Red Army. This happened before the start of the war - in the year. Nikolai was sent to study at the school of pilots in Lugansk. Before the Great Patriotic War, Gastello managed to participate in battles in Khalkhin-Gol, as well as in the Soviet-Finnish war. In the spring, he began to master the DB-3F bomber: it was on an airplane of this type several months later that he will perform the very feat that will glorify him posthumously.

There were four in the plane: the crew included lieutenants Anatoly Burdenyuk and Grigory Skorobogaty, senior sergeant Alexei Kalinin. The attack began successfully: the plane managed to accurately put a few air bombs in the accumulation of German equipment, and then shelling the scattering soldiers. The chronicle of that day became known thanks to other participants in the military departure - senior lieutenant Fedor Vorobyov and lieutenant Anatoly Rybas.

Before their eyes, Captain Gastello unfolded a broken plane, from which the smoke was coming towards the column. And then he directed the car right into the thick of German tanks and cars. Until the last, the crew fired at the enemy from the plane of the plane of the plane: none of its members tried to leave the bomber. Then an explosion rang out: the plane crashed into a column.

A lot of German equipment burned down. The price of the feat was high: the entire crew of DB-3F died. In early July, the whole country heard the summary of the Soviet Inform Bureau about a fiery ram. A month after the feat, Captain Nikolai Frantsevich Gastello was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. His surname became a symbol of heroism and self -sacrifice: despite the fact that many pilots during the war of the war died in this way, Captain Gastello forever entered history.

After the collapse of the USSR, when the ideological heritage and historical symbols of the country were called into question, there were attempts to debunk the feat of the pilot. At the beginning of X there were publications that the same “fiery ram” was made not by Gastello, but by Maslov. Among the arguments in favor of their version, the authors cited the fact that the fragments of the bomber Maslov and the remains of the crew of this aircraft were found at the scene of the events.

But this find is another proof in favor of the feat of Gastello. Maslov was able to find the plane because he crashed into the ground, and not into a column of equipment. The explosion of the Gastello aircraft after a ram of the column with fuel and ammunition did not leave behind him, except for evidence of eyewitnesses. Despite various versions and theories that still pop up, the surname Gastello became a common and firmly entered the memory of several generations as a synonym for feat, courage and self -sacrifice.