THE RUSSIAN ACE PILOT IVAN
KOZHEDUB
This program is devoted to the legendary Russian ace pilot Ivan Kozhedub
who became an Air Force Marshal in  1985.
He finished the war as a 25-year-old Major and a three times Hero of the
Soviet Union. He personally downed 62 enemy planes in 120 dogfights – the
best such result Soviet and allied pilots could boast.
Ivan Kozhedub was born the fifth child of a big peasant family. His father
was a hard working man who after long hours of toiling out in the field
still found time and energy to read books and even write poems in his free
time. A religious and intelligent man, he was a demanding mentor
instilling in the little Ivan a strong desire to work, to be diligent and
perseverant. Once, ignoring his wife’s protestations, Ivan’s father sent
his five-year-old son to guard the family garden during the night. Ivan
later asked his dad what was the use of assigning such a task to a toddler
because if something had really happened he would hardly be able to do
anything. “I was testing you, that’s why,” his father said.
After finishing school Ivan entered a chemical college and in 1938 he joined
the local pilots’ club. It was there that he made his first flight
and the sight of his native land seen from the altitude of fifteen hundred
meters got him forever hooked. Ivan later enrolled in a flyers’ school
which he finished shortly before the 1941-45 war against Nazi Germany.
The hardworking attitude and tenacity instilled in him by his father came
in very handy here as Ivan diligently studied the tactic of air combat
and practiced quick reaction and good memory. Ivan Kozhedub flew his first
combat mission in 1942 assigned to keep German bombers away from his airfield.
Halfway through the mission he was attacked by enemy fighters and, severely
thrashed, still managed to land safely. It wasn’t until his 40th sortie
that Ivan finally managed to make his first kill though. From then on his
list of downed enemy planes started getting longer every day. There was
no stopping him now and soon he was a living legend, a dream fighter whose
daring and maneuvering excellence was the talk of the whole air force and
his lightning, short-distance attacks absolutely devastating. He was a
born fighter pilot and each time he was going to take off he would come
up to his plane and say a few tender words to the machine. During the flight
he used to chat with his plane as if it were a human being, a comrade-in-arms
sharing a very important job. And with pretty good reason too because in
the aviation business, like maybe in no other business, your life fully
depends on the machine you fly. During the war Ivan Kozhedub changed six
planes and none of them ever let him down. He never lost a single
plane, even though he burned several times and was forced to land on runways
peppered with craters left by enemy shells. One of his biggest victories
came on February 19 of 1945 high in the skies over Germany. On that day
he attacked and shot down a Messerschmitt 262 – one of the first cases
of a jetfighter downed by a regular, propeller-driven, plane.
The war now over, the famed pilot remained fully determined to continue
his service in the air force. In 1949 Ivan Kozhedub graduated from a military
academy and was entrusted an air force division equipped with the brand
new MiG 15 jetfighters. Kozhedub personally test flew one of the new planes
and gave it a thumbs up. Still a division commander, Ivan Kozhedub graduated
from the General Staff Academy and was moving up the air force ladder.
He regularly flew fighter jets up until 1970 and mastered dozens of new
planes and helicopters. The last plane he flew was the then top-of-the
range supersonic MiG 23 jetfighter. The accidence rate in the units he
commanded was always very low, although unpleasant things did happen from
time to time. Once, the plane Ivan Kozhedub was flying, hit a flock of
birds one of which got right into the air inlet and clogged the engine,
so the pilot had to use all his mastery to safely land his damaged aircraft.
Ivan Kozhedub was a model officer and an impeccable fighter pilot.
A man of honor, he never flattered anyone and never allowed anyone to sweet
talk to him. A living legend, he never showed off and always carried out
his duty in good faith. The only time he used his high status was to help
an ordinary citizen.
During his ebbing years Ivan Kozhedub was seriously ill – the stress of
the war years and the post war pressure were having their toll. On
August 8 of 1991 as Ivan Kozhedub was recuperating in his country house
outside Moscow he suffered a heart attack from which he never recovered…
He could have died hundreds of times fighting the enemy during the war
but Fate was kind to this great hero…
04/11/2005
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