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It was June 28, 1941 on the outskirts of Leningrad. A group of planes with a swastika, trying to bomb the city of Ostrov (Pskov region), was met by our fighters. A fierce battle ensued, during which Pyotr Kharitonov cut off one enemy bomber from the group and decided to destroy it.

Peter fought his first air battle. More recently, he, a native of the Tambov region, worked as a carpenter, and then, with a Komsomol ticket, he came to aviation. It is not surprising that the young pilot still had too little combat experience. The enemy aircraft with a decrease went further and further ...

Kharitonov increased the engine speed and decided to destroy the enemy at any cost. He aimed his car at the enemy plane - forward and down. With every second, the distance between them decreased, 50 meters remained to the ground. Peter came close to the bomber and hit his tail with a propeller. The wreckage of an enemy vehicle fell into the forest. Kharitonov's plane was shaking violently due to a damaged propeller, it was clear that you could not last far on it. Then he found a landing site and soon landed safely.

In the operational summary of the headquarters of the Air Force of the Northern Front for that day it was noted:

"The pilot of the 158th Fighter Aviation Regiment, Pyotr Kharitonov, while conducting an air battle with an enemy Junkers-88 bomber in the area southwest of Pskov, came under fire from an enemy air gunner. Second Lieutenant Kharitonov's car was damaged, machine guns failed. Then the pilot let down his fighter "I-16 to the tail of the bomber and cut off the elevator with a propeller. Having lost control, the fascist bomber crashed into the ground. Kharitonov reached the airfield and safely landed his damaged car."

And here is what Colonel P. Kharitonov himself recalls about this duel:

“I didn’t run out of ammunition then, but the machine guns didn’t fire! .. I’m patrolling on the Ishachka, I see a single Ju-88. I remembered the advice of one captain from the operational department: “Hit the most vulnerable places!” I attack and aim at the gas tank. But my machine guns don't fire. And suddenly - what the hell - the enemy, smoking, goes down. I reload the machine guns and attack again. Again the machine guns are silent, and the fascist descends, leaving a trail of smoke behind his tail.

I guessed that they turned on the afterburner of the engines, they want to deceive me, they imitate that the plane was shot down and now it will collapse. Well, I don't think that was attacked. I go on the attack again and see that a bomber has leveled off 50-70 meters from me and is leaving to where it came from. I got terribly angry and decided to ram.

I got close to the tail of the Junkers. The distance is shrinking every second. He slowed down, figured out where to hit better, and chopped off his depth rudders with a propeller. At this point, the bomber really went to the ground. Three of the crew burned down, the 4th jumped out with a parachute, he was taken prisoner. He showed that: the crew consisted of experienced aces, for the bombing of the cities of England and France, everyone had Iron Crosses. Well, as they say, I landed on my native land without loss. This fight taught me a lot...

Air Chief Marshal A. A. Novikov recalls those days:

“I returned to Leningrad only in the evening and immediately began to prepare for a trip to Smolny to report to the Military Council of the front. I didn’t have time to get acquainted with the combat summary of the day, when the phone rang. I picked up the phone and recognized Kholzakov’s voice. .

Kharitonov, you say? I shouted excitedly into the phone. - Immediately send all the details of this fight!

Holzakov's message literally stunned me. Courage, bravery, stamina and courage to our pilots was not to take. But this is the first time I came across what the pilot of the 158th Fighter Aviation Regiment, member of the Komsomol, Junior Lieutenant Pyotr Kharitonov, did. It was an air ram, and it was made by a very young pilot in his very first sortie ...

Only those who experienced the first months of the war, when messages came from the front that threw even hardened people into confusion, only he will truly understand what this feat meant for us.

Pyotr Kharitonov's ram was the first sign in the Leningrad sky. This later became known about the numerous manifestations of the heroic self-sacrifice of Soviet soldiers in the first days of the war, and at that time we still did not know about them ... "

By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 8, 1941, Pyotr Kharitonov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (he was awarded the Gold Star medal No. 543). Together with him, the high rank was awarded to Stepan Zdorovtsev and Mikhail Zhukov, who also shot down enemy aircraft with rams on the outskirts of Leningrad. Three fighter pilots were the first among those awarded the "Gold Star" during the Great Patriotic War.

Pyotr Kharitonov was born on December 16, 1916 in the village of Knyazhevo, Tambov Region, into a peasant family. Graduated from high school. In 1932 he left for the Far East. He worked as a carpenter in Ulan - Ude, and after graduating from pedagogical courses - as a teacher at school number 12. Since 1938, he was in the Red Army. In 1940 he graduated from the Bataysk Military Pilot School named after Hero of the Soviet Union Serov. Served in the 158th Fighter Aviation Regiment ...

The next day, the Soviet Information Bureau reported: "Over the past 2 days, the pilots guarding the approaches to Leningrad shot down 101 enemy aircraft in air battles and destroyed 101 enemy aircraft at enemy airfields. During these days, the Hero of the Soviet Union, Junior Lieutenant P. T. Kharitonov, especially distinguished himself."

Colonel P. Kharitonov recalls how all this happened:

"That day, I remember, it was raining. Lieutenant Iozitsa and I - he had a strange surname, Czech, it seems - were sitting on the field in readiness No. 1. Lunch was brought to the planes. But we didn’t manage to eat: it was ordered urgently fly out to intercept Nazi bombers heading towards Leningrad.

Having risen into the air, we immediately discovered enemy aircraft and, approaching them closer, started a fight. The Nazis did not expect such a swift attack and hesitated for a moment. This decided the outcome of the battle. A few minutes later, both bombers were shot down, and the third, also pretty riddled, lay down on the opposite course. I fly over it and fire from as close as possible. The enemy, of course, snarls, and I have to constantly maneuver.

But here the ammunition is used up. What to do?..

I'm circling over this damned Henkel-111, there is especially no time to think, I feel - a little more and it will go away. I make a decision - to ram. I fall down, squeezing all possible speed out of the donkey, hacking with a plane along the tail of the bomber. Of course, both cars lost control. I barely got out of the cab.

I swim under the canopy of the parachute, I hear the bullets whistle. I raised my head: the entire crew of the Henkel was above me, four of their bastards. He tightened the lines to speed up the fall, and hit his feet on hard ground so that the tops of his boots burst!

I didn't feel any heat or pain. Gradually he freed himself from the parachute, reloaded his pistol and began to observe, camouflaging himself in the bushes. God! Am I, a pilot, going to die on the ground! And suddenly - tra-ta-ta-ta! This is Victor Iozitsa covering me from above. Well, I think, together, then we will still fight. My lieutenant flies and pours lead on them at low level, almost pressing himself to the ground. He laid down one, the most nimble fascist, the rest were taken prisoner by our soldiers, who came running to the shots.

Only after that I examined myself, felt myself. I look, the left sleeve and the left pocket of the tunic are pierced by a bullet. I was delighted: there was a death nearby and flew by - which means I'm lucky. He looked down at his feet and gasped. They are swollen like decks, they do not obey, they do not go ... "

Soon, at the front-line airfield, Pyotr Kharitonov was awarded the second Order of Lenin for this feat.

Leningrad radio invited the hero to the microphone, and he said: "We, Soviet pilots, see the meaning of life in a deadly battle with fascism, in its complete extermination ... I already had a chance to ram the enemy's planes twice. I will have to, I'll go for the third."

One more example. Four of our fighters under the command of Major V. I. Matveev, Hero of the Soviet Union, patrolling over the ice track on January 1, 1942 near Zelenets Island, discovered 2 enemy Me-109 fighters flying out to hunt for vehicles. V. I. Matveev gave the command: "2 enemy planes ahead. Attack." At the same moment, a second pair of Me-109s rushed from behind and from above because of the clouds to his plane. The commander did not notice them. But one of the followers of V.I. Matveev - Hero of the Soviet Union P.T. Kharitonov - was on the alert and shot down the attacking Messer with a well-aimed burst. Building a maneuver to attack the second enemy fighter, P. T. Kharitonov noticed that more than 20 Me-109s were already fighting against our four.

The fight became uneven. The group commander, Major V.I. Matveev, was in the thick of the battle all the time. He attacked an enemy aircraft that was diving into a convoy, and shot it down from the very first turn. Then, having chosen a new target, V.I. Matveev began to approach it, but at that time one Me-109 approached from below and opened fire on his aircraft. The comrades saw how the car of V. I. Matveev went into a tailspin and did not get out of it ...

For the death of their commander, 3 of our pilots in this battle forced 2 more fascist pilots to pay with their lives.

Soon Pyotr Kharitonov was appointed squadron commander of the 964th Fighter Aviation Regiment. In one of the air battles he was seriously wounded and returned to service only in 1944. Served in air defense units.

In total, during the Great Patriotic War, Pyotr Timofeevich Kharitonov destroyed 14 enemy aircraft. [ M. Yu. Bykov in his research indicates 2 personal and 4 group victories of the pilot. ]