Kirill A. Yevstigneyev
Encyclopedia
Guards' Captain Kirill Alekseyevich Yevstigneyev (17 February 1917 – 29 August 1996) was a Soviet fighter pilot
and one of the top Soviet aces
of World War II. During is career he claimed 56 aerial victories.
province, in Russia's
trans-Urals. He attended the Shumikhin elementary school, completing seven of the requisite eight years of study, before moving on to the Chelyabinsk industrial school. He trained as a fitter-turner and, upon graduation, moved on to work at the Chelyabinsk
Tractor Plant, where he joined the local aeroclub and got his first taste of flying.
with the aim of becoming a military aviator. In 1941, he graduated from the Bijsk military pilot academy, in the far-eastern Amur
region, and was posted as a flying instructor to Serashevo - a support role and an inauspicious start for a future leading ace. At the end of 1942, he was reassigned to the Moscow headquarters of the VVS
, where he was put to work in management of the procurement of Bell P-39 Airacobras from the United States under the Lend-Lease program. While important - over 4,000 Airacobras were ferry-flown from Alaska to the Soviet Union during the war - this was even further from an active role than Yevstigneev's previous posting as an instructor. However, for one reason or another, while in Moscow, Yestigneev came to the attention of I. S. Soldatenko, who saw him posted to the front on the 17th of March, 1943.
province, southwest of Moscow near the border with the Ukraine, he shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 109
("Messer" in Soviet Air Force parlance), followed by his first Junkers Ju 87 Stuka
.
On the 12th of April, he brought down a Messerschmitt Bf 110
, and became an ace three weeks later, on the 6th of May, when he shot down a Junkers Ju 88
and another Bf 110.
In the huge aerial engagements during the Battle of Kursk
in July, 1943, Yevstigneev scored six more victories. On the 7th of July, he brought down the leader of a ten-strong bomber formation. The following day, July 8, he engaged a formation of 9 Stukas, and again brought down the leader. The remaining Stukas turned and fled. Yevstigneev pursued and scored a manoeuvre kill when the Stuka he engaged struck the ground. A subsequent sortie the same day saw him bring down one more Stuka. On the 9th, he scored his second Bf 109 kill, followed by two more on the 13th and the 16th of July.
On the 5th of August, flying a close-air-support sortie on the approach to Belgorod, Yestigneev's eight-aircraft formation engaged opposing German fighters. In the ensuing dog fight, Yestigneev was badly wounded in both feet, and had to be sent to a field hospital ("medsanbat" in Soviet military-speak). There, he had to repeatedly dissuade surgeons from amputating at least one of his feet. He ended up escaping after nine days and crossing the 35 km to the nearest airfield - on crutches. He found his way back to his assigned airfield and finished his recovery there. A month after being wounded, and still on crutches, he flew his next combat sortie.
Between March and November, 1943, the then-Senior Lieutenant Yevstigneyev is recorded as having completed 144 combat sorties, with 23 enemy aircraft shot down, with a share in another 3.
On the 2 August 1944, the squadron commander 240 Fighter Air Regiment (302nd Fighter Air Division, Fighter Air Corps, 5th Air Army
, 2nd Ukrainian Front) Senior Lieutenant Kiril A. Yevstigneyev was awarded the Title Hero of the Soviet Union
with the presentation of the Order of Lenin
and medal "Gold star" (№ 2284).
Yevstigneyev continued to serve until October 1944, and completed 83 additional combat mission, claiming 20 aircraft shot down.
On 23 February 1945, the squadron commander of 178th Guard Fighter Air Regiment (14th Guard Fighter Air Division, 3rd Guard Fighter Air Corps, 5th Air Army, 2nd Ukrainian Front) guards captain Kirill A. Yevstigneyev was awarded second Title Hero of the Soviet Union with the medal "Gold star" (№4039).
Kirill A. Yevstigneyev finished World War II as the commander of 178th Guard Fighter Air Regiment.
Evstigneyev's World War II record:
Fighter pilot
A fighter pilot is a military aviator trained in air-to-air combat while piloting a fighter aircraft . Fighter pilots undergo specialized training in aerial warfare and dogfighting...
and one of the top Soviet aces
Fighter Ace
Fighter Ace was a massively multiplayer online computer game in which one flies World War II fighter and bomber planes in combat against other players and virtual pilots...
of World War II. During is career he claimed 56 aerial victories.
Early life
Yevstigneyev was born into a peasant family on 17 February 1917, in the village of Khokhly, in what is now the Shumikhin region of KurganKurgan
Kurgan is the Turkic term for a tumulus; mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves, originating with its use in Soviet archaeology, now widely used for tumuli in the context of Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology....
province, in Russia's
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
trans-Urals. He attended the Shumikhin elementary school, completing seven of the requisite eight years of study, before moving on to the Chelyabinsk industrial school. He trained as a fitter-turner and, upon graduation, moved on to work at the Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk is a city and the administrative center of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located in the northwestern side of the oblast, south of Yekaterinburg, just to the east of the Ural Mountains, on the Miass River. Population: -History:...
Tractor Plant, where he joined the local aeroclub and got his first taste of flying.
Early Military Career
In September 1938, Yevstigneyev joined the Red ArmyRed Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
with the aim of becoming a military aviator. In 1941, he graduated from the Bijsk military pilot academy, in the far-eastern Amur
Amur Oblast
Amur Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , situated about east of Moscow on the banks of the Amur and Zeya Rivers. It shares its border with the Sakha Republic in the north, Khabarovsk Krai and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the east, People's Republic of China in the south, and Zabaykalsky...
region, and was posted as a flying instructor to Serashevo - a support role and an inauspicious start for a future leading ace. At the end of 1942, he was reassigned to the Moscow headquarters of the VVS
Soviet Air Force
The Soviet Air Force, officially known in Russian as Военно-воздушные силы or Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily and often abbreviated VVS was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces...
, where he was put to work in management of the procurement of Bell P-39 Airacobras from the United States under the Lend-Lease program. While important - over 4,000 Airacobras were ferry-flown from Alaska to the Soviet Union during the war - this was even further from an active role than Yevstigneev's previous posting as an instructor. However, for one reason or another, while in Moscow, Yestigneev came to the attention of I. S. Soldatenko, who saw him posted to the front on the 17th of March, 1943.
World War II Combat Service
Evstigneyev gained his first pair of victories not two weeks after his arrival at the front. On the 28th of March, 1943, near the village of Urazovo in the BelgorodBelgorod
-Twin towns/sister cities:Belgorod is twinned with: Wakefield, England, United Kingdom Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia Opole, Poland Vyshhorod, Ukraine Kharkiv, Ukraine-External links:...
province, southwest of Moscow near the border with the Ukraine, he shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 109
Messerschmitt Bf 109
The Messerschmitt Bf 109, often called Me 109, was a German World War II fighter aircraft designed by Willy Messerschmitt and Robert Lusser during the early to mid 1930s...
("Messer" in Soviet Air Force parlance), followed by his first Junkers Ju 87 Stuka
Junkers Ju 87
The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka was a two-man German ground-attack aircraft...
.
On the 12th of April, he brought down a Messerschmitt Bf 110
Messerschmitt Bf 110
The Messerschmitt Bf 110, often called Me 110, was a twin-engine heavy fighter in the service of the Luftwaffe during World War II. Hermann Göring was a proponent of the Bf 110, and nicknamed it his Eisenseiten...
, and became an ace three weeks later, on the 6th of May, when he shot down a Junkers Ju 88
Junkers Ju 88
The Junkers Ju 88 was a World War II German Luftwaffe twin-engine, multi-role aircraft. Designed by Hugo Junkers' company through the services of two American aviation engineers in the mid-1930s, it suffered from a number of technical problems during the later stages of its development and early...
and another Bf 110.
In the huge aerial engagements during the Battle of Kursk
Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...
in July, 1943, Yevstigneev scored six more victories. On the 7th of July, he brought down the leader of a ten-strong bomber formation. The following day, July 8, he engaged a formation of 9 Stukas, and again brought down the leader. The remaining Stukas turned and fled. Yevstigneev pursued and scored a manoeuvre kill when the Stuka he engaged struck the ground. A subsequent sortie the same day saw him bring down one more Stuka. On the 9th, he scored his second Bf 109 kill, followed by two more on the 13th and the 16th of July.
On the 5th of August, flying a close-air-support sortie on the approach to Belgorod, Yestigneev's eight-aircraft formation engaged opposing German fighters. In the ensuing dog fight, Yestigneev was badly wounded in both feet, and had to be sent to a field hospital ("medsanbat" in Soviet military-speak). There, he had to repeatedly dissuade surgeons from amputating at least one of his feet. He ended up escaping after nine days and crossing the 35 km to the nearest airfield - on crutches. He found his way back to his assigned airfield and finished his recovery there. A month after being wounded, and still on crutches, he flew his next combat sortie.
Between March and November, 1943, the then-Senior Lieutenant Yevstigneyev is recorded as having completed 144 combat sorties, with 23 enemy aircraft shot down, with a share in another 3.
On the 2 August 1944, the squadron commander 240 Fighter Air Regiment (302nd Fighter Air Division, Fighter Air Corps, 5th Air Army
5th Air Army
The 5th Air Army was the Russian Air Force's smallest Air Army, with the headquarters located in Yekaterinburg, its zone of responsibility being the Volga-Ural Military District, on the border between Europe and Asia...
, 2nd Ukrainian Front) Senior Lieutenant Kiril A. Yevstigneyev was awarded the Title Hero of the Soviet Union
Hero of the Soviet Union
The title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society.-Overview:...
with the presentation of the Order of Lenin
Order of Lenin
The Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
and medal "Gold star" (№ 2284).
Yevstigneyev continued to serve until October 1944, and completed 83 additional combat mission, claiming 20 aircraft shot down.
On 23 February 1945, the squadron commander of 178th Guard Fighter Air Regiment (14th Guard Fighter Air Division, 3rd Guard Fighter Air Corps, 5th Air Army, 2nd Ukrainian Front) guards captain Kirill A. Yevstigneyev was awarded second Title Hero of the Soviet Union with the medal "Gold star" (№4039).
Kirill A. Yevstigneyev finished World War II as the commander of 178th Guard Fighter Air Regiment.
Evstigneyev's World War II record:
- more than 300 combat missions
- 120 aerial engagements
- 53 enemy aircraft shot down + 3 shared
After WWII
In 1949 he finished Tactical Aviation Courses, into 1955 - Military Aviation Academy, in 1960 - Military Academy of General Staff (High Commandґs Academy). Major General of aviation (1966). Since 1972 - in the reserve. He lived in Moscow, where he died on the 29th of August, 1996. He is buried at the Kuntsevskoe cemetery in Moscow. A bronze bust of him stands in Shumikha, Kurgan province, near the village of his birth.Awards and decorations
Kirill A. Yevstigneyev awards:- 2 Hero of the Soviet UnionHero of the Soviet UnionThe title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society.-Overview:...
- 2 Order of LeninOrder of LeninThe Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
- 4 Order of the Red BannerOrder of the Red BannerThe Soviet government of Russia established the Order of the Red Banner , a military decoration, on September 16, 1918 during the Russian Civil War...
- Order of SuvorovOrder of SuvorovThe Order of Suvorov is a Soviet award, named after Aleksandr Suvorov , that was established on July 29, 1942 by a decision of the Presidium of Supreme Soviet of the USSR. This decoration was created to award senior army personnel for exceptional leadership in combat operations...
3rd class, - Order of the Patriotic WarOrder of the Patriotic WarThe Order of the Patriotic War is a Soviet military decoration that was awarded to all soldiers in the Soviet armed forces, security troops, and to partisans for heroic deeds during the German-Soviet War, known by the former-Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War.- History :The Order was...
1st and 2nd class - Order of the Red StarOrder of the Red StarEstablished on 6 April 1930, the Order of the Red Star was an order of the Soviet Union, given to Red Army and Soviet Navy personnel for "exceptional service in the cause of the defense of the Soviet Union in both war and peace". It was established by Resolution of the Presidium of the CEC of the...
- numerous medals
- 2 foreign Orders.