In the collection of the Urazovo Local History Museum there is a painting ‘In the sky over Urazovo’, which was painted by a little-known artist D. Nikitin. He depicted there some moment of an air battle near the Urazovo airfield in 1943.

In March 1943, the regiment returned to the front. It was based at the Urazovo airfield, carried out combat missions, in particular, in the area of the towns of Kharkov, Kupyansk, Belgorod, Valuyki, Chuguev. The airfield was built here even before the Great Patriotic War, but its runway was unsuitable for aircraft landing and takeoffs. During the occupation of the settlement by the Germans, the prisoners of war, whose three camps were located here, not only repaired it in a short time, but also built hangars for their aircraft.

The settlement was liberated in January 1943 and in March the 240th Aviation Fighter Regiment arrived here, which was later awarded the title ‘Guards Regiment’ for deeds of arms. Therefore, it became known as the 178th Guards Fighter Regiment.

Many glorious pilots fought in this regiment: Ivan Kozhedub, Kirill Evstigneev, Alexey Amelin, Nikolay Olkhovsky, Fedor Semyonov and many others. The regiment was commanded by Ignatiy Soldatenko, a native of the city of Konotop, Sumy region. From the military profile, you can find out that he was well prepared, disciplined and skillfully led the regiment. He enjoyed authority and respect among the fighters. On April 12, 1943, during the bombardment of the Urazovo airfield, the regiment commander Soldatenko was killed. All the pilots were bitterly worried about the loss of the ‘wardaddy’.