Nelson Stepanyan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nelson Gevorkovich Stepanyan (1913-1944), - fought as a dive bomber pilot during the second World War in the Soviet Red Air Force. He was twice awarded with the military title of the Hero of the Soviet Union, the highest title in the former USSR.

Stepanyan was born in Shusha, Elisabethpol Governorate in 1913, but moved with his family to Yerevan, Erivan Governorate at an early age. During the war lieutenant-colonel Stepanyan fought on the Baltic Sea front. He carried out 229 flights, and was reported to having destroyed 78 German trucks, 67 tanks, 63 anti-aircraft guns, 19 mortars, 36 railroad cars, 20 merchantmen and warships (including a naval destroyer) 13 fuel tankers, twelve armored cars, seven long-range guns, five ammunition dumps, five bridges.^[1] Although shot down over enemy lines, friendly guerilla fighters aided him to reach back Soviet lines. Stepanyan was called "Storm Petrel of the Baltic Sea" and was awarded twice with the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the latter posthumously. On his final mission sortie, when wounded and with a damaged plane, he rammed his own plane into a German naval warship.

There was three statues dedicated to him: one in Yerevan, second in Liepāja and the last in his home town of Shusha, however, the last one was destroyed. The statue from Liepāja was going to be destroyed too by the order of the new independent Latvian authorities, but it was rescued by the Russian Navy, located in Liepāja until mid-1990es and it was transported to Kaliningrad and now it's placed near the Baltic Fleet Naval Aviation headquater in Kaliningrad, Russia.^[2]

[edit] References