Vasily Aleksandrovich Zaitsev (Russian: Василий Александрович Зайцев; 10 January [O.S. He worked at a locomotive plant until entering the military in May 1932. He then returned to his hometown, where he headed the Kolomna aeroclub from 1947 to 1953 and was the director of the local tire factory from 1957 to 1959. In 1927 the Kolomna district Komsomolcommittee helped him get into trade school, where he developed a passion for machi… During the battle for Smolensk he remained a squadron commander. 28 December 1910] 1911 to a Russian peasant family in Semibratskoe, Moscow Governorate. He grew up in the Ural Mountains and learned hunting from an early age from his grandfather.
Zaitsev became a flying ace by September 1941, and in January 1942 he was nominated for his first gold star for having engaged in 46 dogfights and shot down 12 enemy aircraft. Vasily Zaytsev was born to a peasant family on 23rd March 1915, in Yeleninskoye, Orenburg Governorate, in the Russian Empire. The tally stated by his award nomination sheet indicated he had the second-highest number shootdowns in 1941 of any Soviet pilot, with Boris Safonov being in first.
Despite being forced to remain in the hospital for a long time with a cast on his leg, he did not fully recover and ended up retiring with the rank of colonel in September 1946 due to the injury. Vasily Zaitsev was born into a family of peasants in the village of Yelenovsk in the Chelyabinsk Region in the Urals. In September 1942 he was promoted to commander of his regiment, and later that year they retrained to fly La-5 aircraft. He left the unit in the month before the war ended to become the deputy commander of the 2nd Guards Assault Aviation Corps. However, he soon went on to be promoted to regimental navigator of the 129th Fighter Aviation Regiment, which became the 5th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment upon receiving the guards designation in December. After leaving his brothers with relatives he began looking for work, but faced challenges due to having only four years of schooling. In November 1939 he transferred to the 42nd Fighter Aviation Regiment. 28 December 1910] 1911 to a Russian peasant family in Semibratskoe, Moscow Governorate.
Zaitsev was born on 10 January [O.S. His parents died before he and his younger brothers finished growing up, leaving him as the head of the family. He brought home his first trophy at the age of 12: a wolf that he shot with a single bullet from his first personal rifle, a large single-shot Berdan, which at the time he was barely able to carry on his back. This helped him develop his marksmanship skills. Eventually by August 1943 he tallied nearly 300 sorties and 22 shootdowns, for which he was nominated for and later awarded his second title of hero on 24 August 1943.
His parents died before he and his younger brothers finished growing up, leaving him as the head of the family. During the war he flew in the battles for many major cities and strategically important areas including Smolensk, Stalingrad, Voroshilovgrad, Kharkov, Belgorod, Donbass, Dnepropetrovsk, Kursk, the Dnieper, and Dresden, accumulating over 323 sorties.
After graduating from the Luhansk Military Aviation School of Pilots in December 1933 he became a pilot in the 16th Fighter Aviation Squadron.
28 December 1910] 1911 – 19 May 1961) was a Soviet Air Forces World War II flying ace who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
[6], https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vasily_Zaitsev_(pilot)&oldid=984980988, Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner, Recipients of the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky (Soviet Union), 2nd class, Articles containing Russian-language text, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 23 October 2020, at 07:16.
In 1927 the Kolomna district Komsomol committee helped him get into trade school, where he developed a passion for machinery and graduated in 1929. After remaining in a Moscow hospital for several months he returned to the front in March 1944, but as deputy commander of the 11th Guards Fighter Aviation Division. Initially a pilot, there he became an assistant squadron commander, and was promoted again in January 1941 when the unit was based in Vilinus.
Three years later he completed flight commander training at the Borisoglebsk Military Aviation School of Pilots, after which he briefly worked as a flight instructor. After leaving his brothers with relatives he began looking for work, but faced challenges due to having only four years of schooling. [4][5], Due to an accident on 2 October 1945 in which a truck hit the car in which he was a passenger, he suffered a badly broken leg.