Mikhail Devyatayev: a former prisoner of friends and foes. Devyataev, Mikhail Petrovich

(07/08/1917-11/24/2002) - fighter pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union (1957), guard senior lieutenant.

Participant of the Great Patriotic War from the first day. He fought as part of the 237 IAP and 298 (104 Guards) IAP, and was a flight commander. Shot down 9 enemy aircraft. On July 13, 1944, in an air battle over Lvov, he was shot down and captured. He was imprisoned in the camps of Lodz, Sachsenhausen and on the island. Usedom. On February 8, 1945, he hijacked a He-111H-22 from Peenemünde airfield and took out 9 more people on it.

In 1957 he became the first captain of the hydrofoil ship "Raketa". Then he drove Meteors along the Volga. Honorary citizen of the Republic of Mordovia, the cities of Kazan, Wolgast and Tsinovichi (Germany).

Mordvin.

Member of the CPSU since 1959. He was the thirteenth child in the family. When he was 2 years old, his father died of typhus. In 1933, he graduated from the 7th grade of high school and went to Kazan, intending to enter an aviation technical school.

Due to a misunderstanding with documents, he had to study at a river technical school, from which he graduated in 1938. At the same time he studied at the Kazan flying club.

In 1938, the Sverdlovsk RVC of Kazan was drafted into the Red Army. In 1940 he graduated from the Orenburg Military Aviation School named after. K. E. Voroshilova.

Sent to serve in Torzhok.

Later transferred to Mogilev to the 237th Fighter Aviation Regiment (Western OVO). Participant of the Great Patriotic War since June 22, 1941. Already on the second day, he took part in an air battle in his I-16. He opened his combat account on June 24, shooting down a Ju-87 dive bomber near Minsk. Then he defended the sky of Moscow.

In one of the air battles in the Tula region, together with J. Schneier, he shot down a Ju-88, but his Yak-1 was also damaged.

Devyatayev made an emergency landing and ended up in the hospital.

Having not fully recovered, he fled to the front to join his regiment, which at that time was based west of Voronezh. On September 23, 1941, while returning from a mission, Devyatayev was attacked by Messerschmitts. He knocked down one of them, but he himself was wounded in the left leg. After the hospital, the medical commission assigned him to low-speed aviation.

He served in a night bomber regiment, then in an air ambulance.

Only after a meeting in May 1944 with A.I. Pokryshkin did he again become a fighter.

Flight commander of the 104th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, 2nd Air Army, 1st Ukrainian Front) Guard, Senior Lieutenant Devyatayev M.P. shot down 9 enemy aircraft in air battles.

On the evening of July 13, 1944, he took off as part of a group of P-39 fighters under the command of Major V. Bobrov to repel an enemy air raid.

In an unequal air battle near Lvov, he was wounded in the right leg, and his plane was set on fire.

At the last moment, the falling fighter left with a parachute.

Captured with severe burns. Interrogation followed interrogation.

Then he was sent by transport plane to the Abwehr intelligence department in Warsaw.

Having failed to obtain any valuable information from Devyatayev, the Germans sent him to the Lodz prisoner of war camp.

Later transferred to the New Koenigsberg camp.

Here, in the camp with a group of comrades, Devyatayev began to prepare an escape. At night, using improvised means - spoons and bowls - they dug a tunnel, pulled out the earth on a sheet of iron and scattered it under the floor of the barracks (the barracks stood on stilts). But when there were already a few meters left to freedom, security discovered the tunnel.

Based on a denunciation from a traitor, the organizers of the escape were captured.

After interrogation and torture, they were sentenced to death.

Devyatayev and a group of suicide bombers were sent to Germany to the Sachsenhausen death camp (near Berlin).

But he was lucky: in the sanitary barracks, a hairdresser from among the prisoners replaced his death row tag with the tag of a penal prisoner (No. 104533), who was killed by the guards of a teacher from Darnitsa, Grigory Stepanovich Nikitenko.

In the group of “stompers” I wore out shoes made by German companies. Later, with the help of underground workers, he was transferred from a penal barracks to a regular one.

At the end of October 1944, as part of a group of 1,500 prisoners, he was sent to a camp on the island of Usedom, where the secret Peenemünde training ground was located, where rocket weapons were tested.

Since the site was secret, there was only one way out for the concentration camp prisoners - through the crematorium pipe.

In January 1945, when the front approached the Vistula, Devyatayev, together with prisoners Ivan Krivonogov, Vladimir Sokolov, Vladimir Nemchenko, Fedor Adamov, Ivan Oleynik, Mikhail Yemets, Pyotr Kutergin, Nikolai Urbanovich and Dmitry Serdyukov, began to prepare an escape. A plan was developed to hijack a plane from an airfield located next to the camp.

While working at the airfield, Devyatayev secretly studied the cockpits of German aircraft.

Instrument plates were removed from damaged aircraft lying around the airfield.

In the camp they were translated and studied.

Devyatayev assigned responsibilities to all participants in the escape: who should remove the cover from the pitot tube, who should remove the chocks from the landing gear wheels, who should remove the clamps from the elevators and steering wheels, who should roll up the cart with batteries.

The escape was scheduled for February 8, 1945. On the way to work at the airfield, the prisoners, choosing the moment, killed the guard.

So that the Germans would not suspect anything, one of them put on his clothes and began to pose as a guard.

Thus, they managed to enter the aircraft parking lot.

When the German technicians went for lunch, Devyatayev’s group captured a He-111H-22 bomber. Devyatayev started the engines and began to taxi to the start. To prevent the Germans from seeing his striped prison clothes, he had to strip naked.

But it was not possible to take off unnoticed - someone discovered the body of the murdered guard and raised the alarm.

German soldiers were running towards the Heinkel from all sides.

Devyatayev began his takeoff run, but the plane could not take off for a long time (later it was discovered that the landing flaps had not been removed). With the help of his comrades, Devyatayev pulled the helm with all his might. Only at the end of the runway did the Heinkel take off from the ground and fly over the sea at low altitude. Having come to their senses, the Germans sent a fighter in pursuit, but it failed to detect the fugitives.

Devyatayev flew, guided by the sun.

In the area of ​​the front line, the plane was fired upon by our anti-aircraft guns.

I had to go forced. The Heinkel made a belly landing south of the village of Gollin at the location of the artillery unit of the 61st Army. Special officers did not believe that concentration camp prisoners could hijack the plane.

The fugitives were subjected to a harsh test, long and humiliating.

Then they were sent to penal battalions.

In November 1945, Devyatayev was transferred to the reserve. He was not hired.

In 1946, with a captain's diploma in his pocket, he found a job as a loader in the Kazan river port with difficulty. They didn't trust him for 12 years.

He wrote letters addressed to Stalin, Malenkov, Beria, but all to no avail. The situation changed only at the end of the 50s. On August 15, 1957, M. P. Devyatayev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1957, he became one of the first captains of the Raketa hydrofoil passenger ships. Later he drove Meteors along the Volga and was a captain-mentor.

After retiring, he actively participated in the veterans’ movement, created the Devyatayev Foundation, and provided assistance to those who especially needed it.

Awarded the Order of Lenin, 2 Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of the Patriotic War 1st and 2nd degrees, medals.

Honorary citizen of the Republic of Mordovia, the cities of Kazan (Russia), Wolgast and Tsinovichi (Germany).

A Hero Museum has been opened in Torbeevo. Died November 24, 2002. He was buried in the Alley of Heroes of the Arsk Cemetery in Kazan.

Many pilots of the Great Patriotic War were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But Lieutenant Mikhail Devyatayev accomplished a feat that truly has no equal. The brave fighter escaped from Nazi captivity on a plane that he captured from the enemy.

When the Great Patriotic War began, 24-year-old fighter pilot Mikhail Petrovich Devyatayev was a lieutenant and flight commander. In just three months, he shot down 9 enemy aircraft until he himself was shot down and seriously wounded.

After the hospital, the Soviet ace flew on a liaison plane and then on an ambulance plane. In 1944, Mikhail Devyatayev returned to fighter aviation and began flying the P-39 Airacobra in the 104th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment. On July 13, Devyatayev shot down the 10th enemy plane, but on the same day he himself was shot down. The wounded pilot left the burning car with a parachute, but landed in territory occupied by the enemy.

After capture and interrogation, Mikhail Devyatayev was sent to a prisoner of war camp in Lodz (Poland), from where he tried to escape. The attempt failed, and Devyatayev was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. The Soviet pilot miraculously managed to escape death because he obtained the uniform of another person. Thanks to this, he managed to leave the death camp. In the winter of 1944-1945. Mikhail Devyatayev was sent to the Peenemünde missile range. Here, German engineers designed and tested the most modern weapons - the famous V-1 and V-2 missiles.

When Mikhail Devyatayev arrived at an airfield full of planes, he immediately decided to escape, and fly away in a German car. He later claimed that this thought arose in the very first minutes of his stay in Peenemünde.

Over the course of several months, a group of ten Soviet prisoners of war carefully planned their escape. From time to time, the Germans from the air unit brought them in to work on the airfield. It was impossible not to take advantage of this. Devyatayev had been inside a German bomber and was now confident that he could lift it into the air.

On February 8, ten prisoners, under the supervision of an SS man, cleared the airstrip of snow. At Devyatayev’s command, the German was eliminated, and the prisoners rushed to the stationary plane. The removed battery was installed on it, everyone climbed inside, and the Heinkel-111 bomber took off.

The Germans at the airfield did not immediately realize that the plane had been hijacked. When this became clear, a fighter was scrambled, but the fugitives were never found. Another German pilot flying past heard a report of a hijacked Heinkel. He only fired one burst before he ran out of ammo.

Devyatayev flew 300 kilometers to the southeast, towards the advancing Red Army. When approaching the front line, the bomber was fired upon by both German and Soviet anti-aircraft guns, so it had to land in an open field near a Polish village. Of the ten people who flew away from German captivity, three were officers. Until the end of the war, they were tested in a filtration camp. The remaining seven were enrolled in the infantry. Only one of them survived.

Mikhail Devyatayev reported in detail to the Soviet command about German missile technology and the infrastructure of the Peenemünde test site. Thanks to this, Germany's secret program fell into the “right” hands. Devyatayev’s information and assistance to our rocket scientists was so valuable that in 1957 Sergei Korolev managed to award the brave pilot the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

And while some Soviet citizens armed themselves and began to fight to the death against the enemy, others collaborated with the Germans and even organized at home

Mikhail Petrovich Devyataev - Guard senior lieutenant, fighter pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union, one of the first captainshydrofoil motor ships - “Raketa” and “Meteor”.

Escaped from a German concentration camp on a bomber he had stolen.

Mikhail Petrovich Devyataev was born on July 8, 1917. in the large Mordovian village of Torbeevo, Penza province, in a peasant family and was the 13th child in the family. Moksha by nationality. Member of the CPSU since 1959. In 1933 he graduated from 7 classes, in 1938 - Kazan River Technical School, flying club. He worked as an assistant captain of a longboat on the Volga.

In 1938, the Sverdlovsk Regional Military Committee of the city of Kazan was drafted into the Red Army. Graduated in 1940 from the First Chkalov Military Aviation School named after. K. E. Voroshilova.

In the active army since June 22, 1941. He opened his combat account on June 24, shooting down a Junkers-87 dive bomber near Minsk. Soon those who distinguished themselves in battle were called from Mogilev to Moscow. Mikhail Devyatayev, among others, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

On September 10, 1941, he shot down a Junkers-88 in the area north of Romen (on a Yak-1 as part of the 237th Fighter Aviation Regiment).

On September 23, 1941, while returning from a mission, Devyatayev was attacked by German fighters. He knocked down one, but he himself was wounded in the left leg. After the hospital, the medical commission assigned him to low-speed aviation. He served in a night bomber regiment, then in an air ambulance. Only after a meeting in May 1944 with A.I. Pokryshkin did he again become a fighter.

The flight commander of the 104th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, 2nd Air Army, 1st Ukrainian Front) Guard, Senior Lieutenant Devyatayev, shot down a total of 9 enemy aircraft in air battles.

On July 13, 1944, he shot down an FW-190 in the area west of Gorokhov (on an Airacobra as part of the 104th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, on the same day he was shot down and captured).

On the evening of July 13, 1944, he took off as part of a group of P-39 fighters under the command of Major V. Bobrov to repel an enemy air raid. In an air battle in the Lvov area, Devyatayev’s plane was shot down and caught fire; at the last moment, the pilot left the falling fighter with a parachute, but during the jump he hit the plane's stabilizer. Having landed in an unconscious state on enemy-occupied territory, Devyatayev was captured.

After interrogation, Mikhail Devyatayev was transferred to the Abwehr intelligence department, from there to the Lodz prisoner of war camp, from where, together with a group of prisoner-of-war pilots, he made his first escape attempt on August 13, 1944. But the fugitives were caught, declared death row and sent to the Sachsenhausen death camp. There, with the help of the camp hairdresser, who replaced the number sewn on his camp uniform, Mikhail Devyatayev managed to change his status as a death row inmate to the status of a “penalty inmate.” Soon, under the name of Stepan Grigoryevich Nikitenko, he was sent to the island of Usedom, where the Peenemünde missile center was developing new weapons for the Third Reich - V-1 cruise missiles and V-2 ballistic missiles.

On February 8, 1945, a group of 10 Soviet prisoners of war captured a German Heinkel-111 bomber and used it to escape from a concentration camp on the island of Usedom (Germany). It was piloted by Devyatayev. The Germans sent a fighter in pursuit, piloted by the owner of two Iron Crosses and the German Cross in Gold, Lieutenant Gunter Hobom, but without knowing the plane’s course it could only be found by chance. The plane was discovered by air ace Colonel Walter Dahl, returning from a mission, but was ordered by the German command to “shoot down the lone one.”Heinkel" he could not carry out due to lack of ammunition. In the area of ​​the front line, the plane was fired upon by Soviet anti-aircraft guns and had to make an emergency landing. The Heinkel landed on its belly south of the village of Gollin (now presumably Golina (Stargard County) in the commune of Stargard Szczecinski, Poland) at the location of the artillery unit of the 61st Army. As a result, having flown just over 300 km, Devyatayev delivered strategically important information to the command about the secret center on Usedom, where the Nazi Reich’s missile weapons were produced and tested, and the exact coordinates of the V-2 launch sites, which were located along the seashore. The information provided by Devyatayev turned out to be absolutely accurate and ensured the success of the air attack on the Usedom training ground.

Devyatayev and his associates were placed in a filtration camp. He later described the two-month test that he had to undergo as “long and humiliating,” and there were even rumors that he had been in prison for fifteen years. After completing the inspection, he continued to serve in the ranks of the Red Army.

In September 1945, S.P. Korolev, who was appointed to lead the Soviet program for the development of German rocket technology, found him and summoned him to Peenemünde. Here Devyatayev showed Soviet specialists the places where rocket assemblies were produced and where they launched from. For his help in creating the first Soviet rocket R-1 - a copy of the V-2 - Korolev in 1957 was able to nominate Devyatayev for the title of Hero.

In November 1945, Devyatayev was transferred to the reserve. In 1946, having a diploma as a ship captain, he got a job as a station attendant at the Kazan river port. In 1949 he became a boat captain, and later one of the first to lead the crews of the very first domestic hydrofoils - “Raketa” and “Meteor”.

Mikhail Devyatayev lived in Kazan until his last days. I worked as long as my strength allowed. In the summer of 2002, during the filming of a documentary about him, he came to the airfield in Peenemünde, lit candles for his comrades and met with the German pilot G. Hobom.

Mikhail Devyatayev died on November 24, 2002 in Kazan, and was buried in Kazan in the section of the Arskoye cemetery, where the memorial complex for soldiers of the Great Patriotic War is located.

In 1957, thanks to the petition of the Chief Designer of ballistic missiles Sergei Korolev and after the publication of articles about Devyatayev’s feat in Soviet newspapers, Mikhail Devyatayev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on August 15, 1957.

He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of the Patriotic War I and II degrees, and medals.

Honorary citizen of the Republic of Mordovia, as well as the cities of Russian Kazan and German Wolgast and Zinnowitz.

Memory of the hero:

Watch documentaries about M.P. Devyataev - Escape from Usedom And

Grigory Aleksandrovich Lyubimov, professor at Moscow State University

On February 8, 1945, pilot Mikhail Devyatayev accomplished an unheard-of feat - he organized the kidnapping of a German plane, lifted it into the air and took ten Soviet soldiers out of captivity.

In July 1944, the plane of experienced pilot M.P. Devyatayev was shot down by a German fighter behind the front line. By order of the commander, Devyatayev jumped out with a parachute and was captured. In November 1944 he was transferred to a special prisoner of war camp that served the secret military base of Peenemünde. New German missiles were tested here and V-2 missiles launched from here towards England. The base had an airfield located on the seashore. The base and airfield were under heavy security.

Usually, prisoners of war were tasked with filling craters at the airfield and restoring the runways. While performing this work, Devyatayev noticed that a Heinkel-111 twin-engine bomber, which belonged to one of the base managers, was always standing on the field, ready for takeoff. Dreaming of escape, he began to notice how the plane was prepared for takeoff, and what actions the pilot performed before takeoff. Gradually, a plan to hijack the plane and escape from captivity took shape in Mikhail’s head.

And so on February 8, 1945, when all the personnel left the takeoff field for a lunch break, Soviet prisoners of war kill a guard, start the plane and take off. Realizing that there will be a chase, Devyatayev takes his plane north towards the sea, and only then turns east.

There was panic at the base. Fighters were sent in pursuit. They looked for the hijacked plane along the coast and... did not find it.

Imagine for a moment the situation in which this escape took place, and you will understand how much courage, self-control, ingenuity and skill you had to have to accomplish your plan. After all, Devyatayev was a fighter pilot and had never flown a heavy aircraft. In addition, it was clear that the movement of the aircraft across the field would be instantly noticed by the security and unexpected actions on its part, etc., were possible. etc.

Having safely flown over the front line, the hijacked plane came under fire from our anti-aircraft artillery. At this time, Devyatayev realized that he had to sit down urgently. However, all around were muddy spring fields. Devyatayev decided to land on the “belly” and successfully completed this maneuver.

It is easy to understand the amazement of the Soviet soldiers who approached the “fallen” plane when, instead of the expected German crew, they found ten “living corpses” in prison clothes on the plane, who could barely move without outside help.

Once at his side, Devyatayev informed the command of the exact coordinates and principles of camouflage of the Peenemünde base, and this made it possible to “raze it to the ground” as a result of a five-day bombardment by our aircraft and allied aircraft.

In terms of its design and complexity of execution, Devyatayev’s feat hardly has any analogues in military history.

Mikhail Petrovich Devyataev was born on July 8, 1917 in the working-class village of Torobeevo (Mordovia) into a working-class family. He graduated from the River Technical School and the Orenburg Aviation School. Since 1939 M.P. Devyatayev served in the army as a fighter pilot.

From the first day of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. pilot Devyatayev was on the front line. For military successes in 1941, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. After the second wound in September 1941, he was transferred by a medical commission to “low-speed aviation” and served in the air ambulance until 1944.

In May 1944, at the request of A.I. Pokryshkin Devyatayev was transferred to his regiment as a fighter pilot. Here he successfully fought until July 13, 1944, when, on the orders of the commander, he left the burning plane and was captured.

After a heroic escape from captivity on February 8, 1945, Devyatayev, suspected of espionage, ended up in a Soviet concentration camp, where he spent about a year. After the end of the war, Devyatayev was brought under guard to the former Peenemünde base to assist Soviet scientists and engineers who were studying German enterprises that produced missiles and collecting the remaining missile parts for scientific analysis. Here he met S.P. Korolev, who later became the creator of Soviet missiles. It was at the request of S.P. Korolev that in 1957 the documents related to the heroic feat of M.P. were again examined. Devyatayev, and he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and his comrades in the escape were awarded orders.

Since 1957 M.P. Devyatayev lived in Kazan, drove river boats, and became a respected person - an honorary citizen of Kazan. M.P. Devyatayev died in 2002.

This is the unusual fate of a simple Soviet soldier, one of those who bore all the difficulties of the war on their shoulders and brought the Great Victory to our country.

Hero of the Soviet Union. Next to the Golden Star, the Hero has the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees, and many medals. Mikhail Petrovich Devyatayev - Honorary Citizen of the Republic of Mordovia, the cities of Kazan, Wolgast and Tsinovichi (Germany).

Born on July 8, 1917 in Mordovia, in the working-class village of Torbeevo. He was the thirteenth child in the family. Father, Petr Timofeevich Devyataev, a hardworking, artisan man, worked for a landowner. The mother, Akulina Dmitrievna, was mainly busy taking care of the children. At the beginning of the war there were six brothers and one sister alive. All of them took part in the battles for their homeland. Four brothers died at the front, the rest died prematurely due to front-line wounds and adversity. His wife, Faina Khairullovna, raised the children and is now retired. Sons: Alexey Mikhailovich (born 1946), anesthesiologist at the eye clinic, candidate of medical sciences; Alexander Mikhailovich (born 1951), employee of the Kazan Medical Institute, candidate of medical sciences. Daughter, Nelya Mikhailovna (born 1957), graduate of the Kazan Conservatory, music teacher at the theater school.

At school, Mikhail studied successfully, but was too playful. But one day it was as if he had been replaced. This happened after the plane arrived in Torbeevo. The pilot, who seemed like a sorcerer in his clothes, the fast-winged iron bird - all this captivated Mikhail. Unable to restrain himself, he then asked the pilot:

How to become a pilot?

You need to study well, came the answer. - Play sports, be brave, brave.

From that day on, Mikhail changed decisively: he devoted everything to studies and sports. After 7th grade, he went to Kazan, intending to enter an aviation technical school. There was some misunderstanding with the documents, and he was forced to enter the river technical school. But the dream of heaven did not fade away. She captured him more and more. There was only one thing left to do - sign up for the Kazan flying club.

Mikhail did just that. It was difficult. Sometimes I would sit until late at night in the airplane or motor class of the flying club. And in the morning I was already in a hurry to the river technical school. One day the day came when Mikhail took to the air for the first time, albeit with an instructor. Excited, beaming with happiness, he then told his friends: “Heaven is my life!”

This lofty dream brought him, a graduate of a river technical school who had already mastered the Volga open spaces, to the Orenburg Aviation School. Studying there was the happiest time in Devyatayev’s life. He gained knowledge about aviation bit by bit, read a lot, and trained diligently. Happy as never before, he took off into the sky, which he had only dreamed of just recently.

And here is the summer of 1939. He is a military pilot. And the specialty is the most formidable for the enemy: fighter. First he served in Torzhok, then he was transferred to Mogilev. There he was lucky again: he ended up in the squadron of the famous pilot Zakhar Vasilyevich Plotnikov, who managed to fight in Spain and Khalkhin Gol. Devyatayev and his comrades gained combat experience from him.

But war broke out. And on the very first day - a combat mission. And although Mikhail Petrovich himself failed to shoot down the Junkers, he, maneuvering, brought it to his commander Zakhar Vasilyevich Plotnikov. But he did not miss the air enemy and defeated him.

Mikhail Petrovich soon got lucky too. One day, in a break in the clouds, a Junkers 87 caught his eye. Devyatayev, without wasting a second, rushed after him and a moment later saw him in the crosshairs. He immediately fired two machine-gun bursts. The Junkers burst into flames and crashed to the ground. There were other successes too.

Soon those who distinguished themselves in battle were called from Mogilev to Moscow. Mikhail Devyatayev, among others, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

The situation became increasingly tense. Devyatayev and his comrades already had to defend the approaches to the capital. Using brand new Yaks, they intercepted planes rushing to drop their deadly cargo on Moscow. One day, near Tula, Devyatayev, together with his partner Yakov Schneier, entered into battle with fascist bombers. They managed to shoot down one Junkers. But Devyatayev’s plane was also damaged. Still, the pilot managed to land. And he ended up in the hospital. Not fully cured, he fled from there to his regiment, which was already located west of Voronezh.

On September 21, 1941, Devyatayev was assigned to deliver an important package to the headquarters of the encircled troops of the Southwestern Front. He carried out this assignment, but on the way back he entered into an unequal battle with the Messerschmitts. One of them was shot down. And he himself was wounded. So he ended up in the hospital again.

In the new part he was examined by a medical commission. The decision was unanimous - to low-speed aircraft. So the fighter pilot ended up in the night bomber regiment, and then in the air ambulance.

Only after meeting Alexander Ivanovich Pokryshkin did he manage to become a fighter pilot again. This was already in May 1944, when Devyatayev found “Pokryshkin’s farm.” His new colleagues greeted him cordially. Among them was Vladimir Bobrov, who in the fall of 1941 gave blood to the wounded Mikhail Petrovich.

Devyatayev took his plane into the air more than once. Repeatedly, together with other pilots of the division, A.I. Pokryshkina entered into battles with fascist vultures.

But then came the fateful July 13, 1944. In an air battle over Lvov, he was wounded and his plane caught fire. At the command of his leader Vladimir Bobrov, Devyatayev jumped out of a plane engulfed in flames... and ended up captured. Interrogation after interrogation. Then transfer to the Abwehr intelligence department. From there - to the Lodz prisoner of war camp. And there again - hunger, torture, bullying. Following this is the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. And finally - the mysterious island of Usedon, where super-powerful weapons were being prepared, which, according to its creators, no one could resist. The prisoners of Usedon are actually sentenced to death.

And all this time, the prisoners had one thought in their minds - to escape, to escape at all costs. Only on the island of Usedon did this decision become a reality. There were planes nearby, at the Peenemünde airfield. And there was the pilot Mikhail Petrovich Devyatayev, a courageous, fearless man, capable of carrying out his plans. And he did it, despite incredible difficulties. On February 8, 1945, a Heinkel with 10 prisoners landed on our soil. Devyatayev delivered strategically important information to the command about the classified Usedon, where the Nazi Reich's missile weapons were produced and tested. There were still two days left before the reprisal against Devyatayev planned by the fascists. He was saved by the sky, with which he had been endlessly in love since childhood.

The stigma of being a prisoner of war took a long time to affect. No trust, no worthwhile work... It was depressing and created hopelessness. Only after the intervention of the already widely known general designer of spacecraft, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, did the matter move forward. On August 15, 1957, the feat of Devyatayev and his comrades received a worthy assessment. Mikhail Petrovich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and the participants in the flight were awarded orders.

Mikhail Petrovich finally returned to Kazan. In the river port he returned to his first profession - riverman. He was entrusted with testing the first high-speed boat "Raketa". He became its first captain. A few years later he was already driving high-speed Meteors along the Volga.

And now the war veteran can only dream of peace. He is actively involved in the veterans' movement, created the Devyatayev Foundation and provides assistance to those who especially need it. The veteran does not forget about the youth; he often meets with schoolchildren and soldiers of the garrison.

Next to the Golden Star, the Hero has the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees, and many medals. Mikhail Petrovich Devyatayev - Honorary Citizen of the Republic of Mordovia, the cities of Kazan, Wolgast and Tsinovichi (Germany).