Nikolai Chelnokov

During the first two months of Operation Barbarossa, Chelnokov flew in defensive missions in the Baltic, commanding his squadron of DB-3s; he made his first sortie on 24 June and flew his last mission of the DB-3 in late July. During that time the participated in the bombing of a German naval base and on multiple occasions flew without fighter escorts, resulting in intense clashes with enemy aircraft that resulted in heavy losses, which were worsened by fuel shortages. After the initial blow the regiment was withdrawn from the front to Voronezh to retrain on the Ilyushin Il-2. Being one of the first pilots to master the new plane, he was kept away from the front to train other naval pilots. In August was part of a flight to ferry ten of the new planes to the Black Sea Fleet, and later that month he returned to the Baltic fleet with a group of new Il-2s. From then until April 1942 he was a squadron commander in the 57th Assault Aviation Regiment, during which he flew in the Siege of Leningrad and was nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 28 December 1941 for accumulating 58 sorties on the Il-2; however, the title was not awarded until 14 June 1942. In April 1942 he was made deputy commander of the 1st Mine-torpedo Aviation Regiment, and in August he was promoted to regimental commander.[5]

On 2 May 1943, the master-of-armament was killed in an accidental explosion while trying to remove bombs from an old DB-3; the explosion also badly damaged several Yak fighters in addition to destroying two DB-3s. He was put under tribunal along with two other engineers from his regiment; he was given a demotion to major, removed from command of the regiment, and a suspended sentence of five years that he was supposed to serve upon the end of the war. However, in April 1944 a tribunal decided he would not have to serve the sentence. In June 1943 he took on the role of assistant commander for flight training in the 8th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment. Shortly thereafter in August he was made squadron commander in the 47th Assault Aviation Regiment. During a mission on 18 August 1943 he led his squadron in a sortie over Anapa that resulted in the destruction of 11 enemy aircraft. In October he became a flight inspector in the 11th Assault Aviation Division. In December he returned to the 8th Guards Regiment as commander, where he remained until August 1944. Despite his high position he continued to fly in combat; on 11 March 1944 he led a formation of 19 Il-2s in an attack on Axis naval vessels in Feodosia, resulting in the destruction of transport, patrol, and torpedo boats. From January to April 1944 the aviators under his command sank 15 ships and damaged 37 more. In August that year he was nominated to receive a second gold star for flying 277 sorties. That month, he was promoted to commander of the 9th Assault Aviation Division, but he left command of it in November, before he graduated from the Leningrad Naval Academy in 1945.[6]

After graduating from the Naval Academy in 1945 he commanded the 9th Assault Aviation Division, which he remained in command of until December 1947. From 1946 to 1950 he was a member of the Supreme Soviet. In May 1949 he was promoted to the rank of major-general, After graduating from the Military Academy of General Staff in December that year he was made assistant commander of the air force of the 4th Navy. In 1950 he became inspector-general of air defense; from 1951 to 1953 he was a senior aviation inspector for the navy, and in July 1953 he became the main navigator of the navy. From March 1954 until his retirement from the military a month later he headed the department of navigation services.[7]

• Simonov, Andrey; Bodrikhin, Nikolai (2017). Боевые лётчики — дважды и трижды Герои Советского Союза [Combat pilots – twice and three times Heroes of the Soviet Union]. Moscow: Russian Knights Foundation and Vadim Zadorozhny Museum of Technology. ISBN 9785990960510. OCLC 1005741956.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)