A very busy day for the regiment was the 29th of June, 1941. They supported Soviet units, from 14th Army, that were under attack by General Dietl's Korps. The pilots made 34 ground strike missions, 20 fighter sweeps, and 30 bomber cover flights. A flight, under command of Lt. S.I. Uvarov, cought German bombers on a bomb run over the 72nd SAP airfield. After the battle, the Soviets reported 3 enemy aircraft shot down. Soon, there appeared a second group of bombers. This time, the Soviets reported 5 kills out of the 10 bombers in that flight.
On July 7th, 1941, Safonov lead a group of 9 I-16's to cover the naval base at
Poliarnoye. They spotted a group of Ju 87's, with Bf 109 escorts. The Soviets
desperately attacked the German dive bombers and scored, at first, 4 of the Ju 87's.
Three more were destroyed after a short pursuit. Kovalienko and Maksimowitch shared
an additional Bf 109 kill. The Soviets had no loses! Soon after that battle, a group
of five aviators from the regiment were awarded the Red Flag Medal. Safonov was
in that group, with a total of 5 reported kills.
On August 6th, 1941, there was another German bombing run on the 72nd SAP airfield. Safonov lead 5 I-16's against this German group. In the first attack, they destroyed two Ju 87's. The Bf 109 covering aircraft had bad luck. They could not defend the bombers well and lost two fighter aircraft (one was killed by A. Kovalienko, and the second one was shared by Maksimowitch and Safonov).
Another great victory day, for the 72nd SAP, was September 15th, 1941. In the morning, a Soviet flight of 9 fighters attacked a German group of 40 bombers and fighters. After the report of the Soviet pilots, German loss in that battle was 5 planes. A few hours later, 7 I-16's and 2 Mig-3's under Sofonov's leadership attacked another German bomber group of 52 planes. The Soviets, this time, reported 7 kills for that combat, without any loss. During the return to the airfield, Safonov encountered alone Hs 126 and added this aircraft to his kill record. The next day, Safonov received his first Gold Star Medal (Soviet Hero Title).
In October 1941, Safonov received command of the newly formed 78th IAP. This unit started to battle in British delivered Hawker Hurricane's. In April 1942 they were equipped with P-40 Kittyhawk's.
Tragic, for Boris Safonov's career was the day of May 30th, 1941. Four P-40 fighters, piloted by Major A.N. Kuharienko, Capt. P.I. Orlov, Lt. W.P. Pokrovskiy, and commander Lt. Co. B.F. Safonov, flew a mission to air cover PQ-16 convoy. Soon after the flight started, Kuharienko had to return to base with aircraft technical problems. Three Soviet fighters spotted a group of Ju 88's from 3/KG 30 near the convoy. During the following battle, Safonov achieved 3 German bombers shot down, but soon his Kittyhawk engine stopped (it is not clear if it was from combat damage or a technical problem?). At 10:35 a.m., Safonov's plane crashed into the water. Of course, in that area, and with the water temperature, an emergency landing in water for any pilot meant death.
On June 14th, 1942, Safonov was posthumously awarded a second Gold Star. He had on his record a total of 20 personal kills, and 6 shared victories (it depends on the record sources... in some his records says 25 personal and 14 shared. Other records report 30 personal and 3 shared kills).
Other details about Safonov's fighter career you can find in the text ' Boris Safonov's "British Show". ' written by Christer Bergstrom.
Few color drawings and photo of Safonov Polikarpov I-16 Type 24 fighter. Compare different colors (white?yellow) on the left board insignia. There is no war time photos of right side, but the probably view is shown on a picture.
