(21. 9. 1923 - 8. 6. 1944)
E lkin Valentin commander of the 908 th Fighter Regiment (141 th Fighter Division, Southern Front PVO) Lieutenant. Born September 21, 1923 in the village of Ust-Drilling now Solikamsky district of the Perm region in the family working. Russian. Graduated from high school. In the Red Army in January 1941. Studied in Tsnoris-Tsharenskoy, then in Rustavi military aviation school pilots.
On the Great Patriotic War in March 1943.
8 June 1944 at 8.15 Komsomolets Lieutenant Elkin VI. flew to La-7 from the airport Proskurov to intercept enemy aircraft conducting reconnaissance of the railway Ternopil-Proskurov. Finding Ju-88, he went on the attack. "Junkers" tried to escape on the front line. Elkin overtook him and knocked the fire onboard weapons. He reported to the command, which returns. But at this time jumped out of the clouds couple Me-109. They attacked the plane El'kina from two sides. Machine-gun fire broke the lamp and wounded the pilot in the arm and leg. Overcoming the pain, he ducked the fire and skillful maneuver came at the tail of one of the attackers. After taking an advantageous position, he opened fire from a cannon. Fascist puffed and went down. Then Elkin caught sight of another and pulled the trigger, but the shots are not followed - ran out of ammunition. Then he turned and went into a frontal attack. The blow both aircraft landed at the front line near the village of Kuzhnitsy (40 km west of the city Proskurova now Khmelnitsky). , Watching the battle fighters 1142-Rifle Regiment rushed to the place of fall, but Elkin was dead. His first and last battle lasted only 8 minutes.
. W tion of the Hero of the Soviet Union Valentin Ivanovich Elkin posthumously awarded the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 22 July 1944.
. H agrazhden Order of Lenin
. He was buried in a park in downtown Khmelnitsky, where he erected a monument. In Usolie Perm region erected a stele, the name was of the Pioneer squad school Б•ї 1.
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Biography provided by AE Melnikov
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. Sources:
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1) Abramov A.S. Twelve rams. - Sverdlovsk: Medium-Ur. kn.izd., 1970.
2) The immortal feats. - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1980
3) Rhino EM, Makukhin M.E. Of the cohort of courageous. - Lviv: Kamenyar, 1978.
4) Defense Forces in WWII. - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1981.
5) Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary. V.1. M.: Voeniz.1987.
6) Golden Star Kama. Sat. Perm, 1969
7) On the brink of a possible. - 2 ed., Corr. and additional. - M.: "Limb", 1993.
8) It was the kid at the time ... - Kiev: Young, 1985.
