Anatoliy Sokolov Fighter pilot Date of Birth: 02.12.1911 Country: Moldova

1. Biography of Anatoly Sokolov
2. The Experiences of a Fighter Pilot

Biography of Anatoly Sokolov

Anatoly Mikhailovich Sokolov was born on December 2, 1911, in the city of Kishinev, in a working-class family. He completed his education at the Kiev Evening Workers' University and worked as a locksmith in the railway workshops. In 1933, he joined the Red Army and a year later graduated from the Kachinskaya Military Aviation School as a pilot. He participated in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940 and was stationed on the front lines during the Great Patriotic War from its first day.

As the military commissar of the 5th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment on the Kalinin Front, Sokolov accomplished 148 combat sorties and personally shot down 8 enemy aircraft in 37 aerial battles by December 1941. On January 25, 1942, he tragically lost his life in an aerial battle. For his bravery and military valor shown in combat, Sokolov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and decorated with the Orders of Lenin and the Red Star.

Sokolov was laid to rest in the village of Lukovnikovo in the Staritsky District of the Kalinin Oblast. His name was given to a street in the Borovaya settlement in the Fastov District of the Kiev Oblast, where he lived. For a long time, a pioneer group in one of the middle schools also carried his name. A memorial plaque was installed in Kiev to honor his memory.

The Experiences of a Fighter Pilot

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, very few of our pilots had experience in combat. Some had gained experience in battles against the German and Italian invaders in Spain, the Japanese samurais at Lake Hasan and the Khalkhin Gol River, and in battles against the White Finns. Those who possessed this experience had a particularly great responsibility in training the young generation of aviators, who had to quickly learn to operate bombers, fighter jets, and conduct strikes against the enemy. Among such instructors was the political commissar of the 5th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, Captain Anatoly Mikhailovich Sokolov.

Having joined the Red Army in 1933, Sokolov had mastered several types of combat aircraft and was highly skilled in piloting. During the war against the White Finns, he participated in aerial battles and was awarded the Order of the Red Star. The Great Patriotic War began for the pilots of the 129th Fighter Aviation Regiment at a makeshift airfield near the western border. Captain Y. M. Berkha, the regiment's commander, set the task for the pilots to repel enemy air raids on the airfield and surrounding settlements. In their first sortie, Captain Sokolov shot down a Messerschmitt directly above the airfield.

Fierce battles unfolded on the Western Front, with particularly tense conditions during the days of the Smolensk battle. Captain Sokolov's squadron included pilots who had just arrived from flight schools, and he did everything possible to transform these young and inexperienced pilots into skilled and courageous combat aviators. Each time he went on combat missions, he took with him as wingmen those pilots who had not yet participated in battles, personally guiding them in the art of air combat, ground attacks against the enemy, and reconnaissance.

The training of the young generation was particularly successful due to the combination of Sokolov's military experience and his political work. He instilled military knowledge in his protégés along with party propaganda, fostering their ideological convictions and patriotism. As the squadron's commissar, Captain Sokolov bore full responsibility alongside the commander for the execution of combat tasks. He fostered his subordinates in the spirit of high aviation discipline, military firmness, and courage, instilling in them a readiness to fight the enemy with every last drop of blood. Thanks to Sokolov's skillful combination of military experience and political work, the squadron quickly became the best within the fighter regiment. In the first six months of 1941, the pilots of the squadron made up to 2,500 combat sorties, engaged in 387 aerial battles, and destroyed 67 enemy aircraft. However, during the same period, the squadron lost 7 aircraft, and 4 pilots were killed in aerial combat.

By the end of 1941, Captain Sokolov had completed 148 successful combat sorties, escorting bombers and ground attack aircraft, covering our ground forces, and conducting strikes and reconnaissance missions. He participated in 37 aerial battles and personally shot down 8 enemy aircraft.

The 129th Fighter Aviation Regiment, in which A.M. Sokolov fought, was among the first aviation units of the Red Army to receive the honorary title of "Guards," and the success of the squadron owed much to the efforts of its commissar. For the pilots of the 5th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, Captain Sokolov was always an example of selfless courage, military skill, devotion to the Motherland, and hatred towards the enemy.

On January 25, 1942, enemy aircraft launched an attack on the airfield where the 5th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment was based. During the defense of the airfield, the squadron's commissar, Senior Politruk A.M. Sokolov, was killed. He was buried near the village of Vardichino. While bidding farewell to his frontline comrade, the squadron commander, Guards Major G.D. Onufrienko, said, "From now on, I will fight the enemy for both of us. I promise you, Anatoly Mikhailovich, in front of all our comrades. I will keep my word..."

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on April 12, 1942, Anatoly Mikhailovich Sokolov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.