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A.W.41 Albemarle in the USSRIn 1942, when the Soviet Air Force was suffering from a lack of equipment, the Soviet ambassador in London, I.M. Maisky, agreed to supply 200 of these aircraft to the USSR. On this occasion, in October 1942, a separate agreement was concluded between the British and Soviet governments. The ferrymen for the Albemarles were recruited from among the very experienced specialists of the 1st transport air division under the command of Colonel V.M. Korotkov. All crews consisted of officers from lieutenant to colonel. Among them were the future Heroes of the Soviet Union, famous transport aviation pilots A.S. Shornikov, G.A. Taran, S.A. Frolovsky. For the retraining of crews in January 1943, the British formed a special 305th training unit at Errol airbase near the city of Dundee in Scotland. Before leaving for England, the Soviet pilots were briefly introduced to foreign aircraft. At the "Bostons" in Yoshkar-Ola, they were taught the technique of takeoff and landing on aircraft with a nose landing gear (which was not yet used on Soviet aircraft). Members of this group got to England in different ways. The most successful flew to London in comfort directly from Kratov near Moscow in the belly of the English Liberator. Those who were less fortunate traveled by train to Arkhangelsk, and from there they were taken to Lake Krasnoe, where Catalinas periodically flew in, "shuttle" patrolling the path of movement of the Arctic convoys. And finally, some sailed to England by sea, aboard transports and escort ships in the same convoys. On January 11, the first three Soviet pilots and three flight mechanics arrived in Dundee, and on January 13, the first two aircraft flew to Errol for them. Training flights began on January 21. On January 28, the second group of trainees arrived from the USSR. Since February, Soviet radio operators began to study at another base, in Prestwick. Aircraft were going to overtake on a risky route through the North Sea, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Baltic Sea, through the zone of action of enemy fighters. There was a long way to go at high altitude to avoid interception. For this purpose, the Albemarles in England were specially modified. This mainly concerned the power plant and oil coolers, it was necessary to ensure a long rise of the aircraft overloaded with fuel to a height. This work was carried out by the 27th part of the maintenance in Shawbury. The possibility of a long climb with full tanks was experimentally tested by British testers. To combat icing, they were going to use a special paste resembling Vaseline. By the paste lubricated the plane, but it did not justify itself. The retraining program for our pilots in Scotland was quite short. Two flights with an instructor during the day, two more at night, plus four independent flights and that's it. The “language barrier” was bypassed as best they could, having learned several dozen basic terms and standard phrases for communicating with instructors and flight directors at the control tower. On March 3, 1943, the first crew took off from Errol: pilot captain A.S. Shornikov, navigator lieutenant P.N. Yakimov, radio operator lieutenant A.A. Verderevsky and flight engineer mechanic G.I. Galaktionov. They were flying an Albemarle T.I with tail number P1567. The weather was bad, the plane was icy, the English paste on the leading edge of the wing was mixed with ice. Over the Soviet territory "Albemarle" went on the drive radio beacons. After nine hours of flight, in the morning of the next day, the plane landed at the Vnukovo airfield. This first machine was followed by 12 more Albemarles (four ST.Is, seven ST.IIs and two GT.Is) during March-April. The planes were carrying cargo: tools, spare parts, special equipment. The path was long and dangerous. It lay over the territory occupied by the enemy, and at any moment it was possible to fear an attack by fighters. And weapons were not installed on these Albemarles. Pistols in the pockets of the crew members were the only weapons on board. To protect themselves from interception, the pilots climbed as high as possible. It was they who had the hardest time of all. The Albemarle did not have an autopilot, but there was a second control column, usually tilted to the side so as not to interfere with the passage to the forward compartment. However, each crew included only one pilot, and there was no one to replace him. And 8-10 hours of continuous work at the helm is probably close to the limit of human endurance. And the weather sometimes brought surprises. The plane of Captain I.Z. Kachanov was so iced over that it fell into an uncontrollable fall. On the machine, all the antennas were cut off. The pilot managed to bring the machine into horizontal flight only near the ground itself, and he saw with horror that this was happening over the positions of the Germans, who had opened fire from all types of weapons. Kachanov hurried away into the clouds. The plane, which lost its orientation and communication, moved due to the magnetic compass due east. Only a few hours later the clouds dispersed and the navigator saw that the Volga was below them! In addition to all the troubles, an unfamiliar machine was fired from machine guns by their own anti-aircraft gunners when landing in Kazan. Fortunately, the plane managed to land safely, but the adventures of the crew did not end there. All those who arrived were immediately arrested by airfield security. For an unfamiliar type of aircraft and foreign uniforms, they were mistaken for spies. Two aircraft: Captain A.I. Kulikov (March 2) and Senior Lieutenant F.F. Ilchenko (April 27) - went missing during the transfer. They were searched for by English ships and planes, the Swedish coast guard was requested, but no traces were found. Later it turned out that Ilchenko's "Albemarle" deviated from the course and was shot down by German fighters. One Soviet crew (Captain S.A. Gruzdin) crashed during a training flight in the mountains of Scotland together with English instructors. Captain S.A. Frolovsky managed to make two voyages - on March 27 on T.II and on April 27 on T.I. Until the end of June, 11 machines were overtaken. |
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