General Staff Academy
Which school did Alexander Pokryshkin go to from 1948 to 1957?
Alexander Pokryshkin Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin ( ; – 13 November 1985 ) was one of the highest-scoring Soviet aces , and the highest-scoring pilot ever to fly an American aircraft , having achieved the great majority of his kills in the Lend-Lease Bell P-39 Airacobra . During World War II , Pokryshkin earned the title Hero of the Soviet Union three times : 24 May 1943 , 24 August 1943 , and 19 August 1944 . After the war , he reached the rank of Marshal of Aviation . During the war he strongly promoted the training in and use of improved aerial combat techniques that included vertical maneuvers that newer fighter aircraft were capable of carrying out , and he spent much of his time studying aerobatics for combat situations . Early years . Pokryshkin was born in Novonikolayevsk ( now Novosibirsk ) in Tomsk Governorate , son of a Russian peasant-turned-factory worker . He grew up in a poor , crime-ridden part of town , but unlike most of his peers he was more interested in learning than in fighting and petty crime . His nickname in his early teens was Engineer . He caught the aviation bug when he was 12 years old at a local air show , and the dream never left him . In 1928 , after seven years of school , he found work as a construction worker . In 1930 , despite his fathers protests , he left home and entered a local technical college , where he received a degree in 18 months and worked for six more as a steel worker at a local munitions factory . Subsequently , he volunteered for the army and was sent to an aviation school . His dream finally seemed to be coming true . Unfortunately the flight school was suddenly closed , and all students were instead transferred to be trained as aircraft mechanics . Dozens of official requests were denied with a simple explanation : Soviet aviation needs mechanics just as badly . Pokryshkin still strived to excel as a mechanic . Graduating in 1933 , he quickly rose through the ranks . By December 1934 , he became the Senior Aviation Mechanic of the 74th Rifle Division . He stayed in that capacity until November 1938 . During that time his creative nature became clearly visible : he invented improvements to the ShKAS machine gun and the R-5 reconnaissance aircraft among other things . Finally , during his vacation in the winter of 1938 Pokryshkin was able to circumvent the authorities by passing a yearly civilian pilot program in only 17 days . This automatically made him eligible for flight school . Without even packing a suitcase , he boarded a train to flight school . He graduated with top honours in 1939 , and with the rank of senior lieutenant he was assigned to the 55th Fighter Regiment . World War II . Early experiences . He was stationed in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in June 1941 , close to the border , and his airfield was bombed on 22 June , the first day of the war . His first involvement in air combat was a disaster . Seeing an aircraft in the air of a type he had never seen before , he attacked and shot it down , only to notice as it was going down that it had Soviet red stars on the wings . It was a Soviet Su-2 light bomber of the 211th Bomber Aviation Regiment , piloted by squadron commander Mikhail Gudzenko . This was a new bomber type that was kept secret even from other Soviet pilots . He then frantically flew in front of all the other MiG 3 pilots who were lining up on the other Sukhoi bombers , thwarting any other Soviet losses by other pilots of his unit . Luckily , Gudzenko survived , although the navigator was killed . He claimed his first shootdown of an enemy aircraft when he shot down a Bf 109 the next day , while he and his wingman were on a reconnaissance mission , and were jumped by five enemy fighters . On 3 July , having claimed several more victories , he was shot down by German flak behind enemy lines and spent four days getting back to his unit . During the first weeks of the war , Pokryshkin began to see very clearly how outdated the Soviet combat doctrine was , and started slowly drafting his own ideas in his meticulous notebooks . He carefully recorded all details of all air engagements he and all his friends were involved in , and came up with detailed analysis of each . He fought in very complicated conditions : constant retreat , poor- to no-controlling and communication from HQ , and overwhelming odds versus a superior opponent . He would later say one who hasnt fought in 1941–1942 has not truly tasted war . Pokryshkin survived several close calls during this time . A machine gun round drove through the right side of the cockpit , cut his shoulder straps , ricocheted off the left side and scratched his chin , covering the entire windscreen in blood . Twice , unexploded bombs landed between his feet , one time during a dramatic low-level raid on his airfield by a pair of Ju 88s . Pokryshkin tried to defend his fighter , one of the very few remaining serviceable aircraft , by removing a flexible machine gun from the nearby bomber and placing it on top of his fighters fuselage . One of the German bombers saw Pokryshkin firing the only machine gun in the area and flew straight at him , dropping small bombs in a shallow dive . Pokryshkin watched a string of explosions running up to him , but the bomb that landed immediately next to him did not explode . The Ju 88 had dropped it too low ; the bomb had insufficient time to arm itself before hitting the ground . In the autumn of 1941 Pokryshkin , flying a MiG-3 ( possibly winter-camouflaged ) , took off in sleet and rain conditions after two other pilots had crashed on takeoff . His mission was to locate von Kleists 1st Panzer Group , which had been stopped in front of Shakhty , and then their position lost by the Soviet forces . After some time flying at low altitude , low on gasoline , in bad weather , he finally found them , and was able to return safely to base with this critical information . For the successful completion of this mission , he was awarded the Order of Lenin . When the German summer offensive of 1942 began , part of 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment had been re-equipped with the Yakovlev Yak-1 fighter , including Pokryshkins squadron . In that period Pokryshkin flew missions escorting Su-2 and Il-2 Shturmovik aircraft , and frequently was engaged by German fighters . On 17 July 1942 , during a dogfight with Bf 109s , he became separated from his wingman Konstantin Figichov , and was jumped by a Rotte of Bf 109G-2 Gustavs flown by the experte Feldwebel Hans Dammers and his wingman Unteroffizier Kurt Keiser ( 7./JG 52 ) . Initially Pokryshkin dived to escape , but realizing that the heavier and faster Gustavs would catch him , he performed a chandelle and then a barrel roll . This caused the Germans to overshoot , and then Pokryshkin shot down ( and killed ) Keiser at short range . Dammers attacked Pokryshkin shortly afterwards , damaging his Yak-1 . But once more Pokryshkin performed a barrel roll , forced Dammers to slide forward , and then shot down the German ace . In the late summer of 1942 , his regiment was recalled from the front lines to convert to a new fighter type , the Bell P-39 Airacobra . While training in the rear , Pokryshkin frequently clashed with the regiments new commander , Isayev ( the former regimental navigator ) , who could not stand his criticism of Soviet air combat doctrine . Isayev fabricated a court-martial case , accusing Pokryshkin of cowardice , insubordination , and disobeying orders . Pokryshkin was grounded , removed from the regiments headquarters , and had his Party membership cancelled . However , he was helped by his squadron mates , the regimental political commissar , and the divisional commanders , and he was soon vindicated . The 216 Fighter Aviation Divisions leadership dismissed the case against him , and had him reinstated . Kuban . Pokryshkins most significant contribution to the war effort and the most impressive kill record came during the battle for the Kuban region in 1943 . The area east of the Crimean peninsula had seen vicious air combat in the months that led to the Soviet assault on Crimea itself , where the Kuban-based Soviet air regiments flew against Crimea-based Luftwaffe Geschwader . Pokryshkins regiment fought against such renowned German fighter units as JG 52 and JG 3 Udet . The area saw some of the most fierce fighting on the Eastern Front , with daily engagements of up to 200 aircraft in the air . Pokryshkins innovative tactics of using different fighter types stacked in altitude , the so-called pendulum flight pattern for patrolling the airspace , and the use of ground-based radar , forward based controllers and an advanced central ground control system , contributed to the first great Soviet Air Force victory over the Luftwaffe . In the summer of 1942 , the 4th Air Army in which Pokryshkin served received their first mobile radar stations . They were tested in directing interceptions of German and Romanian aircraft over water , and they proved highly successful . In early January 1943 , 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment was sent to 25th Depot Fighter Aviation Regiment , a unit tasked with checking that Soviet-made and Lend-Lease aircraft were ready for combat service ) near the Iranian border , to re-equip with new aircraft , and also to receive new pilots . Many of these planes had to be ferried in from Iran . Whilst there were delays in assembly by the Americans in Iran , the Soviet pilots involved felt that the Americans were willfully impeding the war effort . It was at this time that the unit converted to the P-39 Airacobra which , when all had arrived , transformed the unit into a 3-squadron regiment . 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment received 14 P-39L-1s , seven P-39Ks ( the very last of which was assigned to Pokryshkin ) and 11 P-39D-2s . The unit returned to action on 8 April 1943 . During the remainder of the month , Pokryshkin was credited with 11 Bf 109s and one Ju 88 destroyed . He was credited with a Bf 109 destroyed on his very first Airacobra mission , on 9 April 1943 , and scored four Bf 109 kills on 12 April 1943 , one of his more successful days . He scored again on 15 , 16 , 20 , 21 , and 24 April – one Bf 109 on each day , adding a Ju 88 ( probably in fact an He 111 ) on 29 April , plus one more Bf 109 on 30 April . On 4 May 1943 Pokryshkin gained three confirmed kills two Ju 87 and a Bf 109 . In most subsequent fights , Pokryshkin would usually take the most difficult role , attacking the German flight leader , who was often an aggressive experte . He had learned in 1941–42 that shooting down the flight leader would demoralise the enemy and often cause them to scramble home . Taking that into account , several such experten were almost certainly among his kills during the month of May that year . On 6 May 1943 Pokryshkin shot down a Bf 109 , probably the plane of 9-kills ace Unteroffizier Heinz Scholze ( 4./JG 52 ) , who crashed while trying to land at Kuteinikovo . Two days later , his victim may have been the Bf 109G-4 of Leutnant Helmut Haberda ( an experte of 5./JG 52 with 58 victories to his credit ) , though the Luftwaffe credited the loss to Soviet flak . Pokryshkin received his first Hero of the Soviet Union award on 24 May 1943 , and was promoted to major in June , having become commanding officer of his squadron . On 23 June , he exchanged his old P-39K-1 USAAF Serial Number 42-4421 , White 13 , for the famous P-39N USAAF S.N . 42-9004 , White 100 . He flew aircraft designated 100 for the rest of the war , such as P-39N-5 42-19185 , after 42-9004 was damaged in August or September 1943 , except for the test of the Berlin autobahn as a runway in Konstantin Sukhovs White 50 , which was much photographed . The Campaign in Ukraine . In mid-July the 216 Fighter Aviation Division ( then redesignated 9 Guards Fighter Aviation Division ) was deployed in southern Ukraine to help take the Donbass area . There he continued to defeat German aces – on 23 July 1943 Pokryshkin shot down the 56-kills experte Uffz . Hans Ellendt , of 4./JG 52 . Occasionally his P-39s also escorted the Pe-2 bombers . In that role , he used his nickname Sotka ( One Hundred ) – his radio call sign ) , because he knew very well that the Luftwaffe ordered its airmen to stay on the ground if they knew he was in the air . A Pe-2 pilot of the 36 Bomber Aviation Regiment , Timofey P . Puniov , recalled that because of the heavy casualties inflicted by the German fighters , the 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment was tasked to escort them . Puniov clearly remembers that twice Pokryshkin violated radio silence saying openly in the frequency : Vnimanie ! Ya – sotka . Poedu na rabotu ! ( Attention ! Im 100 . Im going to work! ) . Neither on those two occasions nor after did the German fighters try to intercept the 36th Bomber Aviation Regiment . On 20 August , Isaev , who had been the Unit Navigator , and then Commanding Officer , and with whom Pokryshkin had strong differences , took measures to have Pokryshkin stripped of his Hero of the Soviet Union , expelled from the regiment , and hauled before a tribunal . From 10 PM that night at least through the following day , Pokryshkin , 298th Fighter Aviation Regiments Major Taranyenko , and the 16th Guards Commissar , Gubarevim , and some Osobists ( NKVD people ) completed interrogations and investigations . Gubarevim , with difficulty , was able to clear Pokryshkins name and reputation , and Sasha was thereupon awarded his second Hero of the Soviet Union on 24 August 1943 . On 21 September 1943 , Pokryshkin was involved in another high-profile air engagement . This one happened at low altitudes right over the front line . It was witnessed by dozens of journalists and representatives of the high command . Pokryshkin shot down three Junkers Ju 88s in a single pass , overcomed by hatred , as he had just found out that the entire family of Zhmud , his mechanic , had been killed in German-occupied territories . Only two kills were confirmed , the third Ju 88 being recorded as brought down by the explosion of the second one and not because of Pokryshkins gunfire . All three Junkers are confirmed by German loss records – they were Ju 88A-4s of 5./RummKGr . Earlier that same day Pokryshkin had added two more Junkers Ju 87s to his tally , almost certainly Ju 87D-5s of 6./StG 1 . 1944–1945 . In February 1944 , Pokryshkin was offered a promotion and an easy desk job managing new pilot training . He immediately rejected this offer and stayed at his old regiment and his old rank . However , he did not fly nearly as much as before . Pokryshkin had been made a famous hero by the propaganda machine , and he was not allowed to fly as often because of fear of him being killed . Instead , Pokryshkin spent a lot of time in the radio bunker , directing his regiments fights over the radio . In June 1944 , Pokryshkin was promoted to colonel and given command of 9th Guards Air Division . On 19 August 1944 , for 550 front-line sorties and 53 official kills , Pokryshkin was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union for the third time . He was the first person ever to receive the award three times , and he is the only Soviet soldier to receive the award three times during wartime . Pokryshkin was forbidden to fly altogether , but managed to circumvent the rule a few times and still continued to score an occasional kill . One of such occasions occurred on 30 May 1944 near Jassy , Romania . The whole 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment engaged a large formation of Ju 87s heading towards the Soviet ground forces escorted by Fw 190s and Bf 109s . In the ensuing melée , the Airacobra pilots claimed to shoot down five Stukas , three Focke-Wulfs and one Messerschmitt without losses – three Ju 87s were shot down by Pokryshkin himself . The next time Pokryshkin scored victories was on 16 July , when he got credit for two more Stukas and one Hs 129 of 10. ( Pz ) /SG 9 , probably the Henschel Hs 129B-2 of Hauptmann Rudolf-Heinz Ruffer , credited with 80 tank-kills . His last victory was another Ju 87 , downed on 14 January 1945 . Out of his official score of 65 victories , only six were scored in the last two years of the war . The bulk of Pokryshkins victories came during the time when the Soviet Air Force was still fighting at a disadvantage , including amongst the most of any Soviet pilot during the most difficult first year of the war . After the war . In 1948 he graduated from the Frunze Military Academy . Between 1949–1955 he acted as deputy commander of the 33rd Fighter Air Defense and the commander of the 88th Fighter Aviation Corps in Rzhev . He was repeatedly passed-over for promotion , possibly because he was just too intelligent ( or honest ) for Stalins comfort . Only after Stalins death did he find himself back in favour and finally promoted to Air Marshal . In 1957 he graduated from General Staff Academy . After graduation he served as Chief of Fighter Aircraft of the North Caucasian Military Defense . From 1959 , he served in the 8th Independent Air Defense Army Air ( Kiev ) and from 1961 to 1968 acted as Commanding General of the 8th Army Air Defense and deputy commander of the Kiev Military District Air Defense Forces . In 1968 he became Deputy Chief of the Air Defense Forces . His highest position was as president of DOSAAF ( 1972–1981 ) , a mostly civilian organisation that was largely tasked with training young civilians and preparing them for service with the Air Force . Pokryshkin again found himself ostracized for his honesty . Despite strong pressure , he never wrote about or supported glorification of premier Leonid Brezhnevs role in the battle of Kuban , where Brezhnev was a minor general . Pokryshkin died on 13 November 1985 at the age of 72 . In Novosibirsk , a street , a square and a subway station are named in his honour . He wrote several books in Russian about his wartime experiences . He appeared in an episode of documentaries TV Series , The Unknown War , specifically episode 9 , entitled War in the Air , and , at the beginning and end of the episode , he spoke to the host and narrator , Burt Lancaster . There are two Soviet-made documentaries starring Alexander Pokryshkin ; Pokryshkin in the Sky ( 1945 ) Russian Ace Alexander Pokryshkin ( 1985 ) . Aircraft flown by Pokryshkin . Pokryshkin started the war flying the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 fighter , in which he scored almost twenty victories . The unit was given the honor 16th Guards Fighter Regiment in March 1942 . At this time or soon after , the unit received some Yak-1s , in which Pokryshkin also scored victories , but which are neither identified , nor illustrated , in any known way . In January 1943 , his regiment converted to Lend-Lease Bell P-39 Airacobras . Soviet pilots liked this aircraft , and found it quite competitive with the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and superior to the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 at the low air combat altitudes common on the Eastern Front . Pokryshkin enjoyed the 37 mm cannons destructive firepower , as well as the two upper nose-mounted .50 caliber machine guns , synchronized to fire through the propeller ( airscrew ) , in addition to the pair of .30 caliber machine guns mounted in each wing . He claimed that the cannons trigger , positioned at the top of the joystick , was impossible to push without moving the pilots hand , which made the aircraft deviate from the gunsight , so finally he had his regiments aircraft rigged so that a single button simultaneously fired cannon and machine guns . In his memoirs he describes many enemy aircraft immediately disintegrating upon being hit by a salvo . Pokryshkin and his regiment were repeatedly asked to convert to new Soviet fighters such as the La-5 and Yak-3 . However , Pokryshkin found the Yak-3s firepower insufficient , and personally disliked Yakovlev , so the squadron remained with the P-39 . Finally , in 1944 , he found an aircraft that he deemed a worthy heir : the Lavochkin La-7 . However , one of his close friends , Soviet ace Alexander Klubov , was killed in a landing mishap while converting to the La-7 . The crash was blamed on the malfunction of the planes hydraulic system . Pokryshkin subsequently cancelled his regiments conversion , and there are multiple reports that they instead began flying the Bell P-63 Kingcobra . Through the Lend-Lease agreement with United States , the Soviet Union was not allowed to use P-63s against Germany ; they were given only to be used in the eventual battle with Japan . Thus it is quite understandable that no mention of this appears in any official records . However , personal accounts of German pilots and flak crewmen who encountered P-63s in the skies of Eastern Prussia as well as in the memoirs of one of the pilots in Pokryshkins squadron . It is reported that 9th Fighter Aviation Division was given approximately 36 P-63s but these were not used while the fighting was still in progress . The designations of MiG-3 aircraft used by Pokryshkin were , in the likeliest order of use , 7 , 4 , 01 , White-5 ( with GVARDIYA on the intakes – likely dating to when the unit was awarded this designation ) , and finally 67 . He then flew Yak-1 fighters when the unit partially re-equipped with them . He flew P-39K-1 White-13 42-4421 over the Kuban . He converted in late June to P-39N-0 42-9004 White 100 . White 100 was damaged in August or September 1943 . The only known photograph of 42-9004 dates from around this time : it shows the nose resting on a saw horse with the nose wheel main leg hyper-extended so the nose wheel rests on the ground . According to a VVS color scheme research website , 42-9004 was struck by inadvertent gunfire from a badly damaged Il-2 that had a rough landing , and on one of its last bounces the guns went off and , among other things , the gunfire struck , such as the aircrew dugout , hit the parked Airacobra . About this time Pokryshkin changed to P-39N-5 42-19158 ( or possibly a different N-5 ) . which was also designated White-100 . ( This is according to the document for an award to an aircraft mechanic assigned to 42-19158 , for keeping it airworthy and ready to fly combat missions for 100 flights in a row. ) On 28 May 1943 , Pokryshkin flew P-39D-2 41-38520 ( White-17 ) for a single mission . There is a photo of him post-mission bending to remove his parachute straps in front of the nose of 41-38520 . In the famous photo taken of him using a stretch of German autobahn as a runway , he was flying a P-39Q-15 designated White-50 , with the serial number painted out ( the same aircraft was originally assigned to K . V . Sukhov ) . He used five La-7 aircraft with the inscription , From the Workers of Novosibirsk to Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Ivanovich Pokhryshkin , but did not fly in them himself . A La-7-equipped unit was , in 1945 , made a part of the 9th Guards Division , making it a four-regiment division . At one point in 1944 , he was apparently given a La-5FN for his personal use , pending the hoped-for Lavochkin conversion of the entire unit . The unit apparently flew P-63A or C Kingcobras after the war , and Pokryshkin would have again numbered his aircraft 100 . Finally , one or more of the 9th Guards Fighter Division units may have eventually converted to the Yak-9P before his attendance at the War College in 1948 . After his appointment as DOSAAF director in the early 1950s , he had use of a MiG-15 , and , later , of an Il-12 or Il-14 . Final tally . Pokryshkins score is heavily disputed among historians . Overclaiming was not uncommon in World War II , and Pokryshkins claims in his memoir are much higher than recent estimates by historians and official records , and recent estimates are generally lower than older estimates . In 1986 Oleg Levchenko claimed that Pokryshkin in fact shot down 94 enemy aircraft , damaged 19 and destroyed three more on the ground , and said that no less than 15 victories scored in 1941 were not taken into account , because the documents confirming them were destroyed during the hurried withdrawal from encirclement during the Battle of Uman . However , Levchenkos claims are generally disputed in 21st century estimates , which tend to place Pokryshkins tally in the mid 40s . Thomas Polak and Christopher Shores credited him with 53 solo and 6 shared victories in their 1999 book , however the bibliography of the book cites Pokryshkins memoirs instead of any official documents , and the tallies of several other aviators are heavily inflated to match the official Soviet claims . Russian historian Mikhail Bykov credited him with 43 individual and 3 shared victories in a 2014 book ; a decade earlier , in an article titled Мутное Небо 1941 года ( The Murky Sky of 1941 ) with Aleksandr Rodionov he claimed that Pokryshkin tried to steal Rechkalovs kills during 1941 . Andrey Simonov and Nikolai Bodrikhin credited him with 45 solo and 4 shared shootdowns in a 2017 book . Legacy . A minor planet 3348 Pokryshkin discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1978 is named after him . The character Aleksandra Ivanova Pokryshkin from the anime Brave Witches is based on him . Honours and awards . - Soviet awards - Three times Hero of the Soviet Union ( 24 May 1943 – № 993 , 24 August 1943 – II № 10 , 19 August 1944 – III № 1 ) - Six Orders of Lenin ( 22 December 1941 – № 7086 ; 24 May 1943 – № 9600 ; 24 August 1943 – № 124904 ; 21 October 1967 – № 344099 ; 21 February 1978 – № 429973 ; 5 March 1983 – № 400362 ) - Order of the October Revolution ( 5 March 1973 – № 1793 ) - Order of the Red Banner , four times ( 22 April 1943 – № 66983 ; 18 July 1943 – № 8305 / 2 ; 24 December 1943 – № 448 / 3 ; 20 April 1953 – № 1392 / 4 ) - Order of Suvorov , 2nd class , twice ( 6 April 1945 – № 1484 ; 29 May 1945 – № 1662 ) - Order of the Patriotic War , 1st class ( 11 March 1985 – № 537 850 ) - Order of the Red Star , twice ( 6 November 1947 – № 2762070 ; 4 June 1955 – № 3341640 ) - Order for Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR , 3rd class ( 30 April 1975 – № 0039 ) - Medal for Combat Service ( 3 November 1944 ) - Medal For Development of the Virgin Lands ( 5 November 1964 ) - Medal Veteran of the Armed Forces of the USSR ( 30 April 1984 ) - Medal For Strengthening Military Cooperation ( 31 May 1980 ) - Campaign , jubilee and commemorative medals - Honorary Citizen of : Mariupol , Novosibirsk , and Bălți - Foreign awards - Distinguished Service Medal ( USA ) - Order of the Peoples Republic of Bulgaria , 1st class ( Bulgaria ) - Order of Tudor Vladimirescu , 2nd and 3rd classes ( Romania ) - Order of Karl Marx ( East Germany ) - Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari ( Poland ) - Knights Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta ( Poland ) - Order of Sukhbaatar ( Mongolia ) - Order of the Red Banner ( Mongolia ) External links . - Biography one the website warheroes.ru - Pokryshkins tactic drawings - Pokryshkins tactic drawings ( continued ) - The Unknown War hosted by and narrated by Burt Lancaster ; Episode 9 : War in the Air , 1978