By the beginning of the Battle of Kursk, the Soviet forces had a considerable superiority in the quantity of fighter planes. Over 2 800 aircraft took part in air combats, including fighters Yak, La-5, Airacobra, attack planes Il-2. The Germans put forward the newest models of the Focke-Wulf FW-190 and Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters, which were piloted by experienced stunt men of the German armed forces.
During the well-known Battle of Kursk, flyers Ivan Nikitich Kozhedub and Alexander Konstantinovich Gorovets distinguished themselves most of all. The whole country was speaking about their feats. Both of them could not live without the Sky and fought every air-to-air combat with desperate determination and selflessness, behind which there were iron self-control, the same iron will, cold-mindedness and ineradicable hatred of the enemy.
Legendary Ivan Nikitich Kozhedub — a stunt pilot, who shot down 64 German planes during the Great Patriotic War. He was born in 1920, in the Chernigov governorate in Ukraine. Before the war, he attended an aero club in Shostka, then he entered the Chuguev military aviation school of flyers. When the war started, he was an instructor, and he managed to go to the front only in November, 1942. He shot down his first enemy plane on July 6, 1943, during the Battle of Kursk. He was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title three times, the first star was given to him for 146 sorties and 20 shot down enemy planes. In 1885 he was promoted to the rank of Air Marshall.
Lieutenant Alexander Konstantinovich Gorovets conducted 75 sorties, having eliminated 11 combat planes of the enemy. During one of the flights, he broke away from the group and faced German Ju-87 dive bombers (in line with different data, there were from 20 to 50 of them). During this air-to-air action, he won nine victories, but when coming back to the home base, he was attacked by four enemy fighters. On that day, Gorovets’ plane was the only one, which did not come back from the flight. For the displayed courage and heroism, he was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title posthumously.
Alexander Gorovets was killed in the skies over the village of Zorinskiye Dvory in the Kursk region on 6 July 1943. He was not even 30 years of age at that time.
During the well-known Battle of Kursk, flyers Ivan Nikitich Kozhedub and Alexander Konstantinovich Gorovets distinguished themselves most of all. The whole country was speaking about their feats. Both of them could not live without the Sky and fought every air-to-air combat with desperate determination and selflessness, behind which there were iron self-control, the same iron will, cold-mindedness and ineradicable hatred of the enemy.
Legendary Ivan Nikitich Kozhedub — a stunt pilot, who shot down 64 German planes during the Great Patriotic War. He was born in 1920, in the Chernigov governorate in Ukraine. Before the war, he attended an aero club in Shostka, then he entered the Chuguev military aviation school of flyers. When the war started, he was an instructor, and he managed to go to the front only in November, 1942. He shot down his first enemy plane on July 6, 1943, during the Battle of Kursk. He was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title three times, the first star was given to him for 146 sorties and 20 shot down enemy planes. In 1885 he was promoted to the rank of Air Marshall.
Lieutenant Alexander Konstantinovich Gorovets conducted 75 sorties, having eliminated 11 combat planes of the enemy. During one of the flights, he broke away from the group and faced German Ju-87 dive bombers (in line with different data, there were from 20 to 50 of them). During this air-to-air action, he won nine victories, but when coming back to the home base, he was attacked by four enemy fighters. On that day, Gorovets’ plane was the only one, which did not come back from the flight. For the displayed courage and heroism, he was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title posthumously.
Alexander Gorovets was killed in the skies over the village of Zorinskiye Dvory in the Kursk region on 6 July 1943. He was not even 30 years of age at that time.
