Ukrainian Air Force Colonel Yuli Mamjol may remember years later that on March 4, 2014, the day of the Crimean incident, he lined up with his subordinates, unarmed, to negotiate with the Russian forces that controlled the Crimean Belbeck Air Base, which attracted the world's attention for a while.
The front row is Mam joel
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > supported by the United States</h1>
Western journalists followed them, and in their reports, flag-waving and unarmed Ukrainian soldiers marched bravely, unable to stop them from firing their guns into the air by the Russians.
However, the full version of the report and video released by the Russian side later revealed a detail: Ukrainian Major Shapoval in the procession took the lead in shouting "America supports us!" (Америка с нами) "Emboldened these Ukrainian soldiers, which Mamjor was ashamed to talk about, and many witnesses proved that Shapovar did shout this sentence."
In the famous photo above, the flag on the right is the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag, while the left one is not the Soviet flag, but the military flag of the unit in the Soviet era.
Mmajor's unit was originally named the 62nd Regiment of the Fighter Aviation Of the Usser Land Defense Force, which is now called the 204th "Alexander Pokryshkin" Fighter Aviation Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Force, yes, named after the famous Soviet fighter ace, the first three-time recipient of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the father of Soviet air combat tactics, Alexander I Pokreshkin!
Pokreshkin
Fortunately, Pokreshkin died on November 3, 1985, and the army in his name is like this, and it is not known how he would feel if he learned of it.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > father of air combat</h1>
Pokreshkin's official record of 59 aircraft, considering the loss of the wartime archives, the inability to confirm some of the results and the help of the families of the fallen pilots to obtain more pensions, his actual record is more than a hundred. Legend has it that whenever Pokreshkin flew into battle, German pilots would remind each other "Attention! Pokreshkin has lifted off! ”
Of course, his achievements were not only as simple as shooting down 59 enemy aircraft, Pokreshkin was the greatest tactician of the Soviet Air Force during World War II, he took the lead in developing tactics such as "Kuban Bookshelf", "Scissors", "Eagle Strike", "Pincer", "Swing" and "Vertical Maneuver", and proposed the winning formula of "altitude- speed - maneuver - firepower". Even Kuri Dub, who is the number one official record, has said that his record was achieved only according to the tactics advocated by Pokreshkin.
In Soviet times, many place names, educational institutions, subway stations, and even asteroid 3348 were named after Pokreshkin, but the army named after the Air Marshal was after the collapse of the Soviet Union, yes, the 204th Air Brigade.
On the occasion of the 72nd anniversary of the 72nd anniversary of the establishment of the 204th Air Brigade, the unit was awarded the honorary title of Alexander Pokreshkin, in accordance with the Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 531/2013.
If you dig deeper, the remarkable connection between this unit and Pokreshkin may be that they were all equipped with P-39 Flying Snake fighters, but looking back at the history of this unit in the Soviet era, it may not be impossible to bear this honor.
P-39
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > glorious past</h1>
The predecessor of the 204th Fighter Aviation Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Force was the 62nd Regiment, which was part of the Black Sea Fleet during World War II and was a mixed aviation regiment rather than a fighter aviation regiment of the air defense force.
When war broke out, the 1st Squadron of the 62nd Regiment was equipped with the Pega-2, the 2nd Squadron was the Lager-3, and the 3rd Squadron was the MiG-3. In the fierce fighting between Crimea and Sevastopol in 1941, the regiment bore the loss of 40% of its equipment and 25% of its personnel, shooting down 16 aircraft in the air and destroying 26 aircraft, 35 tanks, 45 vehicles, 27 guns and a large number of Axis infantry on the ground.
At the same time, the supplementary aircraft received by this force were not very good, except for a few Yak-1s, mainly the very backward I-15 Biss and I-16s. It was not until September 1943 that the U.S.-made P-40 began to receive fighter jets, but by this time the aircraft was not very advanced.
As for the P-39 fighter, it was on May 15, 1946, after the end of the war.
Although the regiment's armament was not outstanding, 6 pilots were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union throughout the war, and two pilots were permanently inscribed on the list, Lieutenant Borisov Mikhail Alexevich and Lieutenant Lazarev Sergei Ivanovich.
During the Cold War, the 62nd Regiment performed frequent air defense missions along the Black Sea coast, performing well, and thus avoiding being abolished in the disarmament of 6 April 1960 and transferring to the Air Defense Corps.
In 1962, the 62nd Regiment was named the best prepared unit in the Air Defense Force and was awarded the Red Banner of Challenge.
In 1967, the 62nd Regiment was awarded a collective commendation by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
On October 17, 1968, the 62nd Regiment was awarded the honorary title "Named after the 50th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Youth League of the USSR".
At the end of the Soviet Union, the weapons of the 62nd Regiment were replaced by Su-15 interceptors to the then very advanced Su-27s, but with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the good equipment and combat readiness of the 62nd Regiment ceased to exist.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > today's dilemma</h1>
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the 62nd Fighter Aviation Regiment was assigned to Ukraine, and although this regiment was awarded the honorary title of "Sevastopol" on December 10, 1996, the weapons status and combat readiness of the units were declining.
Su-27 inherited by Ukraine
On 1 July 1998, the regiment was renamed the 204th Fighter Aviation Brigade and its formation was nominally upgraded.
In 2001, all Su-27s were handed over to the 9th Fighter Aviation Corps and replaced with the backward MiG-29/MiG-29UB and Czech-made L-39 trainer aircraft.
By the beginning of 2014, the brigade's level of combat readiness was very low, with a nominal number of 52 MiG-29 series and 4 L-39 trainers, but only 12 were actually flyable, of which 3 MiG-29s, 1 MiG-29UB and 1 L-39 were suitable for combat.
Therefore, it is quite embarrassing for this unit to negotiate with the Russian army without weapons on March 4, 2014, if you want to fight, your entire brigade will have 5 aircraft in the air, how to fight?
What's more, whether it is a plane that can fight a war or an aircraft that has been damaged, it has been all captured by the special forces without bloodshed.
Although the negotiations between the two sides were fruitless, the Russian side still returned several aircraft, along with military flags and military documents, to the 204th Air Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Force.
Return of the MiG-29
However, the Ukrainian military is complacent about the support of the United States-led West, but it carries the Soviet-era military flag to cover it, which is undoubtedly an embarrassing scene in the year of civil unrest in Ukraine.
Another close-up
If this incident is a warning to the world, it is that it can never fail, otherwise the heroic troops that were proud of in the past will decline and deteriorate, and some descendants will wantonly squander the honor of the martyrs, while at the same time feeling good about themselves.
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