Sergey Gritsevets Sergey Ivanovich Gritsevets ( ) ( 19 July 1909 , Baranavichy Raion – 16 September 1939 , Vitebsk ) was a Soviet major , pilot and twice recipient of the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union . Biography . In 1931 , Gritsevets joined the army , where he completed pilot training at an Orenburg military school in 1932 and further air combat training in 1936 at a pilot school in Odessa . In spring of 1938 Gritsevets volunteered to go to China , where he was involved in combat against Japanese forces attacking Wuhan and credited with two or three kills in a fierce 30 minutes air battle in which a total of 21 Japanese airplanes were downed . Gritsevets flew a Polikarpov I - 15 biplane or I - 16 monoplane . Later the same year , Gritsevets volunteered to serve in the Spanish Civil War ; he stayed there until the end of 1938 , when all Soviet pilots were recalled . Flying an I - 16 , he claimed 30 victories in Spain , for which he received his first " Hero of Soviet Union " together with a Gold Star on 22 February 1939 . On 29 May 1939 a group of 48 experienced pilots , including Gritsevets , were sent to Mongolia to function as the backbone of a newly established air force to replace the former , which earlier had suffered a crippling defeat at the hands of Japanese forces and been decimated by NKVD arrests . Here Gritsevets was involved in several counts of actions with Japanese planes . On 26 June , during the Battle of Khalkhin Gol , Gritsevets landed his I - 16 alongside his commanding officer , Major V . Zabaluyev , whom an engine failure had forced down deep in hostile territory , 60 kilometers behind enemy Japanese lines . Zabaluyev climbed into Gritsevets airplane and together they escaped . For this , and other heroic action during the conflict , he was awarded a second " Gold Star " of the " Hero of the Soviet Union " 29 August 1939 . All in all Gritsevets claimed 11 downed Japanese airplanes during this time . On 12 September 1939 Gritsevets and 20 other pilots were sent back to Ukraine in preparation of the invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939 . Gritsevets was killed on the 16 September 1939 in an accident in Bolbasovo near Vitebsk , wherein his airplane was rammed by another while taxiing in preparation for take off . Gritsevets is credited with downing 42 enemy planes before he died in an aviation accident in 1939 , two of them while flying biplanes . He was awarded the " Hero of Soviet Union " ( twice ) , the Order of Lenin ( twice ) , the Order of the Red Banner ( twice ) as well as a Mongolian order he received in Ulan Bator before returning . A monument in his honour was later erected in his birth town of Baranovichi . In his book Polikarpov I - 15 , 1 - 16 and 1 - 153 Aces , Mikhail Maslov writes : " During his service in Spain , from 10 June to 26 October 1938 , when all volunteer pilots were recalled to the USSR , Gritsevets commanded 5 Escuadrilla de Caza and then the whole group of I - 16s . Having claimed a single kill over a Japanese aircraft attacking Hangchow on 29 April 1938 , Gritsevets then volunteered for combat in Spain . Here he flew 88 sorties and fought in 42 aerial battles , and according to legend he shot down no fewer than 30 enemy aircraft . However , this tally probably reflects the total claimed by the unit whilst under his command because Gritsevets always stressed that enemy aircraft shot down should be credited to the unit as a whole , rather than to the individual . Nevertheless , official reports credit him with seven personal aerial victories in Spain . " In any case , Snr Lt Gritsevets was judged to be a distinguished fighter pilot , and on 22 February 1939 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union . That summer he became a squadron commander with 70th lAP and participated in the Khalkhin Gol campaign , where he increased his personal score by 12 more kills . On 23 August Gritsevets performed the heroic act of landing his 1 - 16 on the steppe amid enemy troops to rescue his CO , Maj V Zabaluev , who had been forced to bail out 60 kilometres behind Japanese lines . Six days later Sergey Gritsevets was again honoured with the Hero of the Soviet Union Star , bur he was killed in a flying accident at Bolbasovo airfield on 16 September 1939 . "