For the Rodina! Campaign AAR

[FlatSpinMan]

Thanks. I thought that might be the case.

Stay tuned till November 7th, when the pics will be viewable again!

[79_vRAF_Friendly_flyer]

EDIT: I'm going to have to limit my pics dramatically in future, I can see. Apparently they'll be viewable again on the 7th, when my free monthly 10GB of photobucket Bandwidth rolls over.

Darn.

 

You could resize the pictures a bit, and there's other picture hosting sites than Photobucket. You don't need to host only one place.

[FlatSpinMan]

(Sorry, been a bit busy doing other things and looking at different image hosting sites.)

 

 

Entry 5

 

Dearest Natasha

How are your studies faring? It must be examination time soon, yes? Actually, forgive me but is the university even operating anymore? I've completely lost touch with the normal world since enlisting.

Do let me know more about your world. As much as I love this fighting life, it is always so good to read about you and our old friends. I wait everyday for any news from home, but nothing much seems to be getting through. Still, at least I can look forward to a sudden glut of mail once the situation improves.

 

I'll keep today's letter brief. If you happen to drop in on mother you could perhaps exchange news to catch up on what you've missed- there's been so much I've had to tell that I've been writing bits and pieces to different people. Perhaps after the war maybe I'll put them all together in my memoirs, eh? At the rate I'm going, it'll be a ten-volume series! 

I've already written to my parents about my ground attack escapades and I'm sure they'll tell you all about it next time you meet. 

 

In the last couple of days we've been kept busy with aerial activity in the south of Stalingrad. The Nazis are trying to blast our men out of their strong points by the Volga with anything they have - Stuka's (you know, the bent-wing plane), heavy bombers, and I swear I've even seen one of the hot new Focke-Wulf's, though no-one else has spotted them in this area of operations. Anyway, to get on with the big news I've been struggling to contain for these past few sentences - I'm an ACE! Me?! Semyon Petrovich Andronikov an Ace fighter pilot! Please, forgive my boasting - in person I am far more restrained about it, but on the inside I'm jumping with excitement! I've downed four more enemy aircraft in the past two days. Two confirmed, the others are still awaiting confirmation. They'll take me to 7! The fellows in the squadron are gobsmacked - I'M gobsmacked! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would find such success! The veteran pilots say they've never seen someone take to this sport so quickly. As I'm still the new boy I've tried to play things low key, of course. No sense getting too jumped up and ruffling feathers. Do you think I'll be decorated for this? I hope so. I must ask the commander tomorrow.

 

I can't really account for my success. I think my new (old) warhorse has something to do with it though. Seeing the legend "Moscow" emblazoned beneath my cockpit fills me with energy and determination to punish the swine for what they've done. Thankfully they didn't get a chance to do such a number on our beloved home like they did to Stalingrad. My ground crew are a great bunch of lads. They pretend to be grumpy, miserable buggers, but I know they respect their cocky young charge, really. Why else would they have named my bird?

I suppose the casualties we've incurred (2 pilots killed or injured taking off in two days!!) have helped boost my flying hours a bit, too, come to think of it.

 

 

As I mentioned, I've taken down two heavy Heinkel bombers. The Teutonic precision has helped us in doing this. For the past week, a flight of two to three of them has appeared in virtually the same spot about three times a day. All we have to do is make sure we're in the right place, then we just swat them down like flies. It's not quite as easy as all that of course. We've lost three pilots in the process, and you know of my misadventures. We've run into all sorts of things en route on almost every occasion. Stuka's if we're lucky, but more often than not it's a swarm of Nazi fighters and THEN all hell breaks loose, I tell you. We try not to tangle with them though, leaving that to our friendly Yak escorts while we forge ahead to take on the big boys.

 

Time to go again. It's already nearly dark here and I can barely see the paper to write. No electricity here, of course, and I'm too tired to bother messing about with the bloody lantern right now.

I think I'll head over to the mess for dinner - there's this new kind of ham from the Americans that I'm rather partial to - then turn in early again. There'll be more Fascists to kill tomorrow, so I need to stay sharp.

 

Keep me in your thoughts, my darling. Perhaps I'll get leave once I'm decorated. If so, you can be sure I'll be on the first train bound for Moscow.

 

With all my love

S.

[FlatSpinMan]

Entry 6

 

 

 

Hello again Sergei Ivanovich!

The sods haven't killed this old dog yet! From your letter I see you're still very much alive and kicking. Glad to hear it, my friend.  Sorry I haven't written in so long - must be what, 3 months now, I s'pose. You are now comrades with an exalted acting squadron leader. I will not forget you humble peasants though.  Not that I've achieved this through any talent of course, just the last man standing. Can't say I'm thrilled to be doing this. It is a huge amount of paperwork on top of all the flying we have to do here, plus I have to deal with all the stupid pilots' crap. Sending home personal effects, pensions, writing letters to families, and punishing those who can't handle their vodka properly. Flying hungover is usually punishment enough.

Anyway, all this will hardly be news to you though, eh? How is the crew going? Still commanding a platoon? I've seen a few of those new versions of the T-34 around the place on some of the accursed ground attack missions we've been landed with recently. No doubt you've managed to wangle some for your boys.

We're still stationed at [CENSORED], along with the {CENSORED] regiment, but those boys have got the new Yakolev's - lucky dogs! - while we're still stuck with the winged coffins. We're getting the job done, despite that, but what I would give for something to help us level the playing field. There's talk of a modification to the LaGG that'll do just that, but so far it is all just talk.

 

No news on the marriage front I'm afraid. I've hardly heard a word from Velira, and I don't think it's all down to the post service. I suspect the wench has another fella, but obviously I can't be sure. Enough of that, anyway. Who has time for women these days?!

Did you hear that dear Dimitri caught it back in August?  I don't know if you knew, but he was with the artillery up near Leningrad way. His C.O. sent me a note with my unopened letter to him. Apparently his position was wiped out by some of those Finnish fiends in their Nazi-supplied bombers. I hated them when we were up there 'in 41, and I hate 'em even more now. Once we've finished with the Germans, I think there'll be some unfinished business that will need to be taken care of. His wife replied to my letter of condolence. Sounds like she's struggling with the two young ones, and she said that they're living in a corridor of her sister's apartment. They had to evacuate there after their house got hit.

I don't know who has it harder in this war - us men at the front (some of the girls here would slap me for saying that!), or the women and children at home?

 

Speaking of children, we seem to have something of a prodigy on our hands here. A fighter pilot prodigy, to be exact.  Andronikov. Remember the name. If he stays alive, it's one you'll be hearing a lot more about. He's the most up-himself, smug Muscovite prick you could imagine (even his ground crew hate him - the cheeky sods wrote "Go back to Moscow!!" on his plane but I told them to remove the first part before he saw it. Of course, HE is too dim to pick up on it and thinks they're honouring him.), but he's a holy terror in the skies. I've not seen anything like it. He's been here just under two weeks and has already outstripped me.  If he wasn't so unpopular, he'd probably be all over the news by now. 7 kills in 12 days is good for any pilot, but miraculous for a rookie. Even with his bourgeois smugness (he's in Komsomol, but you can hear the breeding in his speech), the unit politruk will have no choice but to praise him and get him decorated. I can't stand the thought of how unbearable he'll be when it happens! I know we need all the Nazi-killers we can get, but I tell you, this lad...

By the way, did I say he's already written off three of our planes? The most recent one was today - he clipped the top of a tree on take off but managed to put her down more or less safely. Certainly safer than the two unlucky fellows who bought it last week in the same manner. I tell you it's a race to see which side he runs out of aircraft first! Wonder if they'll mention that in Pravda when they 'discover' a new hero?

 

Well, time to get back to the paperwork. I've got to try and explain how exactly it is that we need yet more replacement aircraft. While I'm at it I might throw in a plea for Yak's, just on the off chance.

 

Goodbye for now, Sergei. Keep your eyes open and your guns cocked, and maybe we can drink together again when this is all over. 

Your friend,

Yevgeny.

[heinkill]

[FlatSpinMan]

           NOOSE CLOSES AROUND STALINGRAD!

                        Heavy fighting in northeast

                                         Assault imminent

Stalingrad, October 1942

(Staff)

 

Time grows shorter, ever shorter for the Fascist serpents who have been infesting the great Soviet city of Stalingrad.

But, as these dramatic pictures taken from the corpse of one slaughtered Nazi oppressor show, their infestation is about to end! 

 

 

 

The heroic men of the great Russian armed forces slay the beasts at every step, crushing them into the blood-stained snow and blasting their louse-ridden flesh to atoms -  be it from the air or in brutal hand to hand fighting. The noose is nearly complete and it can only be a matter of time until they are trapped in a witch's cauldron, there to await the death blow.

The heroes are legion, but today we introduce you to one young, inexperienced pilot, Semyon Andronikov, who has seized his chance at vengeance by the throat. Although he has not yet been at the frontlines for three weeks, he has already amassed a highly impressive list of kills on his way to becoming a confirmed Ace!

The young Mladshiy Leytenant abandoned the study of Mechanical Engineering as soon as he was able, in order to enroll in the ranks of the glorious Soviet Armed Forces, even though it meant leaving behind all he held dear, including the love of his faithful Russian beauty, Natasha S. (20).

 

A proud Muscovite through and through, his loyal ground crew saw to it that his personal aircraft bears the name of the Capital of the International Proletariat.

In the picture above, our young hero is winging his way to deal death to fascists guarding an airfield. Heedless of the danger, he proudly flies a highly distinctive LaGG-3 aircraft. Let the Fascist find him!

 

By an astounding coincidence, the airfield the attacked after this picture was taken was overrun in a dashing assault by our ground forces shortly after, revealing the stunning scenes of the base under attack!

Thanks to the superb accuracy and determination of our pilots in driving home their aerial bombardment, the lads of the infantry took the field with minimal casualties. 

One more airfield denied to the Enemy. One more avenue of escape and resupply cut off!

 

Mladshiy Leytenant Andronikov - the Soviet People salute your efforts in throwing back the forces of Fascism and Capitalism!

Onwards to Victory!

[FlatSpinMan]

Saturday

XXth November

Illiarionovsky. 

I hate this stupid damned base. 

Nazis were welcome to  it, if you ask me.  At least they built good dug-outs for us before we kicked them out. Very kind of them.

 

What a wash out this A.M. has been.  Soon as I left the dugout to get brekkie I could tell it was going to be a bad

 day, and it was.  Even breakfast was poor, too. No coffee once again, just that foul Nazi "ersatz" muck.

Like yesterday, that same icy hurricane coming across the strip. Btw that & the ice, how the hell is a 

man supposed to take off? 

 

I hope the boys do OK escorting the Sturmi's w/out me. AND I hope the entire sqdn will quickly 

forget I damaged another plane. Why do I keep doing this?! They're never going to let me live this down, especially not 

after that damned newspaper article. Starting to regret that a bit now. And my poor "Moscow". 

 

Suppose I may as well get some sleep for an hour or two. Nothing to do until they're all back and debriefed anyway.

By then the chief may have calmed down a bit and I can calmly and sensibly explain why I need

 him to patch her up asap. He's been most unreasonable so far. It could have happened to anyone.

[FlatSpinMan]

I note that there are still a fair few viewing this daily, so I'll keep going. I mostly do it for myself, but if it's purely my own thing I'd just do it offline. However, if people are interested in reading I'm happy to keep updating (till I get bored or the "campaign" ends).

[Trooper117]

I feel there may be an obituary notice shortly...

[FlatSpinMan]

Finally found this beast. Update coming soon.

[FlatSpinMan]

Hmm. Now my other image hosting site's pics are down. 

[FlatSpinMan]

November, 1942

 

For the attention of: Kapitan Falin, Commanding Officer [CENSORED] Regiment, Military Air Forces of the Soviet Union

 

CC: Political Officer Dolinsky [CENSORED] Regiment, Military Air Forces of the Soviet Union

 

RE: Last known flight of Mladshiy Leytenant Semyon Petrov Andronikov 

 

As requested, please find below a summary of events leading up to the last sighting of Mladshiy Leytenant Andronikov.  

Two flights took off at 0720, XX November, 1942. He was no.3 in 2nd flight on a ground attack mission 25km WSW of Stalingrad. A third flight tasked with escort had taken off five minutes earlier. 

All aircraft were signed off as airworthy, flight crews had reported no issues prior to flight. Weather conditions were better than typical for this time of year - scattered cumulus at 1000m, mild winds from SE. 

 

The flight in to the target area was routine. Mild ineffectual flak was encountered shortly before the initial point. Upon sighting the locomotive, I indicated for the first section to engage. Simultaneously, third flight called in 3 H/A at 1500m coming in rapidly. I ordered all other elements of flights 1 and 2 to commit to the ground target as they were armed with rockets, which I felt would impair their maneuvering ability. All sections engaged the locomotive with rockets, then with guns. There were no reported hits on target. Mobile flak defences mounted onboard the locomotive and the arrival of 4 additional Messerschmitt fighters deflected all attacks, shot down 2 LaGG-3's, and inflicted damage to 2 others. 

Mladshiy Leytenant Andronikov was seen to approach the target at low level from the SW and engage it with rocket fire. In the ensuing smoke and amidst the general confusion of the battle, the precise events of his final moments are uncertain. Leytenant Russak saw his aircraft attempt a successful unpowered forced landing immediately to the east of the railway lines before losing visual contact shortly thereafter, at approximately 0800. It is possible that he clipped his propellor while making his attack run, however this cannot be ascertained. Serzhant Kovaleski noted enemy troop movement towards the aircraft from the tree line 50m south of Andronikov's position and determined to carry out a strafing run. Unfortunately he was engaged from the rear by 2 H/A's and forced to withdraw. 

There were also unconfirmed sightings of 2 red signal flares in the vicinity of Andronikov's aircraft.

 

The evidence stated above has led to the reclassification of Mladshiy Leytenant Semyon Petrov Andronikov's status from "Active" to "Missing in action - presumed dead". 

 

 

 

[heinkill]

Great stuff even without the pix! Glad to see pilot is MIA, not KIA...

 

Flickr recently upgraded their free storage to 1TB and their GUI, so I started using that service again lately.

Edited January 4, 2015 by heinkill

[FlatSpinMan]

Thanks heinkill. Actually I note the pics are back now - the site did go down for a while though. Anyway, I was going to take some pics of flares but the damned plane disappeared and the mission ended on me. Ah well.

More tomorrow - assuming my family leaves me alone for 2 seconds.

[FlatSpinMan]

Aagh! Clipped trees and lawn-darted 3 out of the last 4 missions. The other one I got distracted at home and just lawn-darted without hitting any trees!