4 weeks, 7 whifs #5: Babak and Yezerskiy's IL-2

[comrade harps]

Moscow Aviation Workers Collective Ilyushin IL-2M3
Blue 9, "From Mariupol Schoolchildren," 144 Escadrille, 14th Aviation Regiment, Ukrainian Red Army Air Force
Personal mount of Escadrille Leader Ivan Babak and Senior Gunner Volodymyr Yezerskiy



The Moscow Aviation Workers Collective (MAWC) emerged from the state-owned Moscow "Aircraft plant #1 named after OSOAVIAKHIM" or "GAZ No. 1" (which itself had emerged from the Czarist-era Dux aircraft factory). Siding with Trotsky's Red Army against Stalin, the GAZ No.1 workers occupied the factory, overthrowing their bureaucratic leaders and creating a Workers Collective dedicated to the success of the Trotskyist Army, Pleasants and Workers Revolution. By the time of the War Against Fascism, the MAWC workers were producing the MiG-3T under licence and a new in-house design by Design Leader Sergey Ilyushin, the IL-2 ground attack aircraft. MAWC and the workers at Ural Mining & Manufacturing Association and the Socialist Unity Aviation Collective production complexes produced 36,183 IL-2s from 1941 to 1945.




The Red Army launched the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive on 13 July 1944 as part of the Operation Bagration series of offensives to liberate large swathes of Eastern Europe from Nazi occupation. The 144 Escadrille, 14th Aviation Regiment, Ukrainian Red Army Air Force was flying in support of this offensive. On the 15th of July, the IL-2M3 crew of Escadrille Leader Ivan Babak and Senior Gunner Volodymyr Yezerskiy posed beside their plane Green 9 "From Mariupol Schoolchildren" on the occasion of their 10th (collective) air-to-air victory over the Fascist invaders.






Babak had been a fighter pilot when the Germans and their allies invaded the Moscow Pact nations on 22 June 1941. Flying a Kyiv Aviation Institute KAI-1, he failed to take to the air before being badly injured in a Luftwaffe attack on his airfield on the 23rd. After recovering he was posted to a series of instructional units, finally landing a job teaching pilots how to fly the IL-2 Sturmovik. Here he met Gunnery Instructor Volodymyr Yezerskiy, who was training IL-2 gunners at the same base, and to two struck up a bond when they realised that they had been to the same school in Mariupol, Ukraine. Although neither had seen combat (Yezerskiy had gone straight from gunnery school to become an instructor), in mid-1943 the pair successfully lobbied to join the Ukrainian 14th Aviation Regiment as a pilot/gunner team. Their flight hours and instructor's discipline now paid off, as the pair's performance in combat and on the ground saw them rise through the ranks together. By the end of the war (in May 1946) and with 487 combat sorties logged, Babak had been promoted to Regiment Pilot Leader and Yezerskiy was a Regimental Gunnery Leader, with both still flying as a team at the head of the 14th Aviation Regiment, Ukrainian Red Army Air Force. By then they had been credited with 17 aerial victories (the most of any Sturmovik pilot/gunner team), plus 5 shared with other crews. Red ace Alexander Pokryshkin had the opportunity to escort the 14th Aviation Regiment on several occasions and witnessed Babak and Yezerskiy "vigorously defend their Sturmovik with the skill, determination and discipline of a fighter ace."







14th Aviation Regiment, Ukrainian Red Army Air Force, consisted of 4 squadrons that rotation through a cycle of combat, rest and regeneration, with two units usually combat assigned at any one time. Each escadrille was identified by a squadron colour represented on the spinner hub and by the colour of the side number: strong azure (141st), yellow (142nd), white (143rd) and green (144th). All escadrille featured a red-painted spinner base. In addition to red stars under wings and on the tail, Ukrainian national markings (a yellow outlined blue shield with yellow Ukrainian trident symbol) were carried by all aircraft on their fuselage sides. Aircraft assigned to Flight, Escadrille and Regimental Leaders also carried the Ukrainian national markings on their wing upper surfaces, plus white arrows on the fuselage that increased in size with rank.

[zenrat]

 

Which kit did you use Comrade?

[comrade harps]

Which kit did you use Comrade?

1:72nd Tamiya OOB except for the decals and the 23mm cannon that were fed to the vinyl flooring monster. It goes together really well.

[zenrat]

Thanks mate.