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42. Pyotr Karev
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42 Pyotr Karev Pyotr Timofeyevich Karev, a Muscovite, was the best flight leader in the regiment . The young pilots idolized him. I always felt safe when he led a mission. He had an uncanny ability to cheat death, despite his recklessness. Right before an attack, he'd tell a joke or make a funny comment, and I would almost forget that we were in the middle of our third or fourth bombing run over the target. He was resourceful as well as audacious. On one occasion, a bomb fell off one of our aircraft on the takeoff run. The pilot and tail-gunner just managed to escape and flatten themselves to the ground before the bomb exploded. But the plane still carried five 100-kilogram bombs. Our takeoff clearance was cancelled. Still, we had a mission to fly. So Karev gave the order to turn the start position around by thirty degrees. The planes began taking off, one by one, passing quite close to the burning airplane loaded with bombs, shells, and missiles. We tensed for the explosion as we passed, but it didn't happen until the last plane, piloted by Karev, was in the air. One night Commander Karev drank 300 grams of vodka before dinner. Each pilot was rationed a hundred grams of vodka per combat flight. So Karev figured, since he had just flown three missions in a row that day, he'd enjoy his three vodka rations in a row as well. Afterward, he made a beeline to the dugout of the anti-aircraft gunners who protected the airfield. He seemed determined to straighten them out. "What's wrong with you guys?" he slurred. "You're flinging too many shells into space without hitting anything during these 'Lapot' raids!l I'll prove it. I'm going to take off in the 'II,' and you shoot at me. I'll shoot back at you, and we'll see who wins." 1 Soviet soldiers called the Luftwaffe's Junkers 87 "Lapot" (or "Bast shoe," a roughlywoven sandal made of tree bark and worn by Russian peasants) because of its fixed gear. The Ju-87, or "Sluka," was a "Stllrzkampff/ugzellg," or dive bomber, with a notorious wailing siren (affixed to some planes). It made its service debut in the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War and terrorized ground armor extremely effectively in Poland, Western Europe, Greece, and the Soviet Union. But the Battle of Britain revealed its vulnerability, as RAF fighters found the sluggish airplane easy to shoot down. As a result, the Focke-Wulf FW 190 fighter began to replace the Ju 87 as a primary ground support fighter bomber in late 1943. 142 RED SKY, BLACK DEATH Although Karev didn't get to implement his experiment, not one witness to that dispute doubted that he would have emerged victoriously. We considered him infallible. We loved him. He was both straightforward and affable, and he wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. He wouldn't think twice about heaving a heavy bomb onto his shoulder and hauling it to the aircraft. The girls who armed the airplanes doted on their volunteer helper and vied with one another to wash his collar liner or his handkerchief. Pyotr always declined, thanking them and smiling as he sang, "So many lovely girls, so many tender names..." Quick with a funny anecdote, Captain Karev was also fearless in battle and was frequently selected for the most dangerous missions. As regimental navigator, he taught us tactics: how to attack a railroad echelon or a tank column, how to bomb bridges and ferries, and how to zigzag along the course. We discussed how to correct for surface winds when bombing or strafing. The regiment adopted his innovative method of maneuvering inside the flight group. Previously, we'd been ordered to remain rigidly in formation, regardless of circumstances. But Karev insisted that we maneuver inside the formation within certain limits-we could fly higher or lower than the flight leader and even change the distance between planes if need be. This tactic sharpened our awareness and made it more difficult for enemy fighters and anti-aircraft guns to take aim at us. On one mission, only two crews out of six made it back home, Captain Karev's and mine. I was his wingman. When we finished our attack and climbed out over the water, we spotted what looked like gigantic white mushrooms floating on the sea-the parachutes of...