Alexandr Avdeev

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Alexandr Fyodorovich Avdeev (Russian: Александр Фёдорович Авдеев), (1917 - August 12, 1942) was a Soviet fighter ace of World War II with 13 victories over German pilots. Participated in Soviet-Finnish War (1939-1940) (Winter War). A Hero of the Soviet Union (February 10, 1943).

[edit] Early life

He was born in the village of Bolshaya Talinka in Tambov Oblast. In the 1930s his family had to move to Lyublino (now a district of Moscow). There he has graduated from factory-and-workshop school and worked as a metalworker in a foundry. After work he attended an Air club in Podolsk.

[edit] World War II

From the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he served as a deputy squadron commander on Leningrad Front. In 1941 he took 7 victories in 189 missions. Piloting a Polikarpov I-153 biplane, he shot down a future famous German ace Walter Nowotny over Saaremaa on July 19, 1941. In that fight Avdeev's plane was also shot down and a pilot stayed at a hospital for a month.

In August, 1942 he served as a P-39 Airacobra pilot on Voronezh Front. On August 12, 1942 he was the first Airacobra pilot who used a ram. His victim was Franz Schulte, a German ace with 46 victories. Both pilots were later buried in Novaya Usman', a village near Voronezh.

Avdeev was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Star.