When the summer of 2019 expedition search party “don” went Sailing in search of the bomber, no one expected that it will be possible not only to raise the plane, but also to return from the nothingness of man. The old-timers said that in the summer of 1942 in a field outside the village fell a downed German twin-engine aircraft. Instruments confirmed the presence in the place of a large mass of metal. Began to dig. Unlike tanks, which get from rivers and wetlands relatively intact, the aircraft when it hit the ground crumble to pieces – it happened with “Boston”. Charred fragments of the bomber was found in an area the size of a football field. Deeper than five meters to dig the middle part of the fuselage, got the excavator. Inside found human bones and melted the buckle of the belt of the officer.
At found in one of the wreckage of the engine room defined the plane – it was a bomber “Boston”, obtained under lend-lease and flown in part 453-th bomber regiment of the 2nd air army. In the archives of the Ministry of defense found the report on the death of the bomber 28 July 1942 and a list of his crew: pilot, senior Lieutenant Andrei Hutan, arrows sergeants Ivan Bondarenko and atashikov of Fedot, the Navigator POPs. Gutana, Bondarenko and Atashikov in 1943 buried in a mass grave village Sailing. In 2014 on the initiative of the local historian to the memorial in the village center screwed even a special commemorative plaque dedicated to the crew of Gutana (though instead of “Boston” painted on her double Il-2). But the name of the Navigator she was not.
– However, without a Navigator bomber could not rise into the air. And buckle pointed out that we found his remains – in the crew of “Boston” officers were only the pilot and Navigator, flew the arrows sergeants. Searched the archives and found that pilot by the name of cotton in 453-th regiment was not listed, – said the head of analytical Department of “Dona” Evgeny Popov.
In bringing about the death of the bomber there was a note made by telephone. Search engines suggested that the name of the Navigator distorted due to the imperfections of communication. The matching documents found 21-year-old Benjamin Slabkovskaia Navigator who flew in the crew of Gutana. In the list of the personnel of the regiment against the name assigned by the pencil: “returned from a mission 28.7.42”.
a Resident of Sailing Nina Sotnikova saw fell bomber:
Above us were constantly dogfights. I girl watched from the yard as fighting the Nazis of our aircraft. If hit, they fall on the meadow behind the village. We children suffered greatly, cried, “Our flies! Ours!” When this plane, “Boston”, appeared in the sky, it was already black, it was smoke. The pilot stole the plane from the village to the meadow. There is corganic – that’s his foot, “Boston” and crashed, all in the landwas. We ran to the meadow – I wanted to find something. But there remained only a large Smoking hole.
From the documents of the Ministry of defense: July 28, during the day, 453 BAP bomber strikes with fighter escort destroyed a cluster of tanks and vehicles in the area of Yendovishche – Old Semiluki. Group fire crews “Boston-3” shot down two Me-109 that burning fell near Yendovishche. As a result of attacks of fighters and anti-aircraft fire four crews did not return from combat mission. According to fighter aircrews, three aircraft, “Boston” shot down by enemy fighters.
Finding out the name of the Navigator, Voronezh through the portal of “Immortal regiment” found near Kaluga his great-niece Natalia Storonnikov and invited to the funeral. “My grandmother all his life looking for his brother. I cry – I can’t stop!” – wrote in response, Natalia.
All family Slabkovskaia were fighting. His brother Nicholas fought a tank was twice wounded, shell-shocked, burned, awarded with orders of red Star and Patriotic war, medal “For defense of Caucasus”. Sisters Faith and Hope, as soon as the war started, signed up for nursing courses. At the end asked for the front, but didn’t take them because of young age. Then the girls wrote a letter to Voroshilov. Faith was sent to work in a frontline hospital, Hope became a gunner. Natalia Storonnikov her granddaughter.
our family with great respect for the memory of the grandfather Vienna, we cherish his photos, – Natalya told. She married a military man, aeronautical engineer, and now she became a grandmother. Every year on May 9 they with my grandson go out on the street in the “Immortal regiment” with portraits of Hope and Benjamin.
From a letter to Benjamin Slabkovskaia father:
“Hello, dear daddy, sister Zina and everyone else. You especially don’t miss me and Cola, we perform a sacred FILIAL duty to their Homeland. It is necessary to discourage high-handed to fight the Nazis, to beat the bastards who want to enslave the people. But they will not succeed. We, the pilots and tankers, the chest will rise up to protect our country. And you, dad, should be proud that your sons are at the front and stand up for what is won our fathers and grandfathers. Our people lived freely and their freedom will not give up. Our country was challenged by many. We have them soundly beaten and this Jackal of Hitler then we break up into smithereens. Every day we take off to bomb the enemy, present him some good gifts in the form of the Voroshilov bombs. Goodbye. A whole. Venia”.
