Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel-General Vitaly Ivanovich Popkov, a great ace of World War II, one of the ten best fighter pilots of the USSR and the entire anti-Hitler coalition. His front-line career, from sergeant to captain, spanned 475 combat sorties, 117 air battles, and 41 enemy aircraft personally shot down. His heroic deeds are commemorated with a monument in central Moscow.

Popkov was a great fighter ace, one of the world's finest marksmen and aerobatic pilots. By the end of the war, three shots were enough for him to single-handedly deal with a Messerschmitt or a Fokker. Once, in a single engagement, he shot down four enemy aircraft in a row, using, as was later calculated on the ground, only twelve rounds. Three on each. But he, too, was shot down. And he parachuted out of his wrecked, burning planes. In Romania, near the Danube crossings, an anti-aircraft shell exploded in the cockpit of his fighter, breaking his left leg and right arm. Losing consciousness several times, Popkov finally made it back to his home airfield, landing his wrecked aircraft on its belly. In memory of that battle, Popkov would ring for years at airports around the world with two steel fragments lodged in his head.

From the 1941 sergeant graduating class of the Chuguev Military Pilot School, 59 became Heroes of the Soviet Union, eight twice Heroes of the Soviet Union, and Ivan Kozhedub was awarded three Gold Stars. One of the aces from that graduating class, Guards Captain Vitaly Popkov, marched in the Heroes' formation across Red Square during the Victory Parade on June 24, 1945, and three days later was awarded a second Gold Star. Even among his legendary classmates, this man stands out for his unique character and supreme professionalism.

Whether he was second or seventh in the top ten aces of the anti-Hitler coalition wasn't all that important to Vitaly Ivanovich.

"I never intended to prove anything to anyone before, and now that none of my guys are left alive, even more so," Popkov said, not feeling offended. "Each of us had downed Germans we couldn't confirm. They recorded as many as I mentioned, but we needed objective evidence, confirmation from the ground. And where would we get that from during battles over enemy territory?"

"Quiet and modest on the ground, Comrade Popkov fights in the air with all his hatred and tenacity, crushing the fascist invaders and always emerging victorious from the most difficult air battles"—these lines from his combat record accurately reveal his inner nature.

Pilot Popkov's front-line biography contains many episodes that rise to the level of a brilliant military feat. August 1942. In the skies over Stalingrad, a young pilot downs the famous Luftwaffe ace Hermann Graf (the ninth Luftwaffe ace, with 221 claimed victories, including 202 on the Eastern Front) in a fierce battle.

After the war, Graf spent several years in our camps. Upon his return, he became a staunch anti-fascist. Vitaly Ivanovich and Hermann Graf met repeatedly in Germany and discussed the war, including their personal victories.

"I proved to him, as one professional to another," Popkov says, "that he couldn't have honestly shot down more than two hundred of our fighters in a year and a half. That's a lie. And he, by the way, agreed with my arguments."

In July 1943, in the new La-5FN, Popkov shot down two Me-109G-2 fighters in a row. At the Kursk Bulge, having expended his ammunition in aerial combat, he radioed the ground command frequency and began adjusting artillery fire on a concentration of German tanks. Incidentally, this was a rare case in our aviation, when a senior sergeant commanded a squadron with officers even holding the rank of captain under his command.

Only in March 1943 was he promoted to junior lieutenant, and in July to lieutenant.

"In our regiment, pilots were generally valued not so much by the number of aircraft shot down as by the number of bombers, attack aircraft, and reconnaissance aircraft we escorted," Vitaly Ivanovich said. "We valued not being a lone ace for whom the others worked, but rather for all the pilots in the squadron to be equal, and the best were expected to bring the others up to their level."

That's probably why, by Victory Day, Guards Captain Popkov's squadron had 10 of its 14 pilots awarded Heroes of the Soviet Union. His squadron was also the most musical unit in the frontline Air Force. Leonid Utesov became squadron chief and presented the pilots with two planes with the inscription "Jolly Fellows" on the side, along with forty records of his songs, which the singing squadron used to build its repertoire. It was then that he received the call sign "Maestro." Incidentally, Popkov always sang the song "Smuglyanka" at reunions with his fellow soldiers.

Vitaly Popkov traveled the front lines from Moscow to Berlin, fought in the skies over Rzhev, near Stalingrad, in the Donbass and the Kursk Bulge, participated in battles on the Dnieper border, liberated Poland, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia, captured Romania, Hungary, and Austria, and took part in the Berlin Offensive. He celebrated Victory Day in the skies over Prague.

On the 60th anniversary of Victory Day, at the age of 83, already using crutches, Vitaly Ivanovich made his last flight in a sports plane, dedicating it to the memory of his fellow soldiers. The words he spoke that day, still so relevant today, have stuck in my heart: “Those who have walked the roads of war, the roads of difficult trials, are passing away. The results of their labor, the songs and books about them—inspiring and beautiful—remain, everything that our memory preserves. At the same time, a tremendous moral potential, life experience, and the lessons of history remain. And it is up to the younger generations to comprehend these lessons and understand them. And if someone decides to bestow not glory upon us, but slander, let them remember one thing: we lived and died in the name of the Motherland.”

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When the skinny young man, seemingly a teenager, arrived, with sergeant's shoulder straps on his oversized overcoat, they initially refused to let him near the planes. And when they finally decided to test his flying skills—take off, circle the airfield twice, and land—he misbehaved, performing a series of aerobatic maneuvers at extremely low altitudes. Moreover, the flight was being observed by young female radio operators, albeit along with the commander of the 5th Air Regiment, Vasily Zaytsev. For this misbehavior, Zaytsev appointed him permanent duty officer at the airfield. When the young man was bored on duty, he would catch grasshoppers. The other pilots noticed this and nicknamed him "Grasshopper."
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Popkov earned the respect of his fellow soldiers early one morning in early June 1942, when most of the pilots of the 5th Air Regiment had departed on a mission and only two LaGG-3 fighters were stationed at the airfield. Sergeant Popkov, aka Kuznechik, was peeling potatoes in the field kitchen. Then, two German bombers, escorted by a fighter, attacked the airfield. Popkov, wearing his apron, rushed toward one of the stationed fighters and took off to meet them. Just after takeoff, he turned and, from an extremely awkward position at extreme range, fired a salvo at a Junkers aircraft hurtling toward him. No one expected a hit, but the enemy aircraft was engulfed in flames and crashed to the ground.
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Once Kuznechik returned to the ground, he was met by regimental commander Vasily Zaitsev, who hadn't even had time to put on his tunic. Pleased with the "young man's" success, he jokingly asked, "Why didn't you take down the second bomber, Kuznechik?" The sergeant, having scored his first victory, also responded jokingly: "So, Comrade Commander, you scared off all the Fritzes with your underwear…"
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At the end of 1942, Popkov, who had already shot down 13 enemy aircraft, was appointed squadron commander and promoted to senior sergeant. He also commanded pilots with officer stars. Vitaly Ivanovich was promoted to junior lieutenant a year later, when he shot down his 16th enemy aircraft.
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During an air battle over Dnepropetrovsk, Popkov's squadron destroyed 10 Nazi aircraft, three of which were claimed by the squadron commander himself. While flying to the airfield, one of his subordinates radioed to the commander to ask permission to sing a song. The pilot choir began singing, "Oh, Dnieper, Dnieper, you are wide and mighty..." When they finished, a female voice from the ground said, "Thank you very much, maestro!" Popkov asked, "What is this for? For the concert or for the battle?" The girl replied, "For both..." It was after this episode that the commander was nicknamed "Maestro."
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During the Great Patriotic War, Vitaly Ivanovich Popkov flew 345 (according to other sources, 358) combat sorties in LaGG-3, La-5, and La-7 fighters. In 85 air battles, he personally shot down 41 enemy aircraft, one of them by ramming – the result of a collision. For courage and heroism displayed in battles with the Nazi invaders, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 8, 1943, Vitaly Popkov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. Honored Military Pilot of the USSR, Lieutenant General of Aviation Vitaly Ivanovich Popkov is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
A bronze bust of Vitaly Popkov has been erected in Moscow. Schools in Moscow and Gagra are named after him.
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Bibliography

• "The Last Great Ace" /Petr Kamenchenko/
• "Maestro's Callsign" /Red Star No. 25, March 6, 2019/
• "Aces vs. Aces" /O.S. Smyslov/