Interview with HSU Sturmovik pilot Alexei Batievskii

[engarde]

Originally Posted by FPSOlkor

http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/pilo...batievskii.htm
As always - comments, discussions welcome. Feel free to post on other forums

with anything internet based, i do have a slight question as to its authenticity, but for that matter little gems like this keep my interest in this forum.

nice work.

[engarde]

"Infantry was not covered by AAA, soldiers had to fight strong wind blowing them into the faces, so they were not looking at the sky, and that same wind did not allow them to hear my engine. I simply pressed the trigger and saw blue traces disappearing in the column. When first soldiers disappeared under the nose of my Il I released bombs. That time my bomb bays were loaded with 16 AO-25 fragmentation bombs with a delay set for 5 seconds. I kept firing, but there was no end to this mass of infantry, so I fired all eight RSs"

Killing humans has never been so dispassionate.

Imagine the havoc created on the ground, I doubt every soldier hit died instantly.

A subtle reminder of the mindset required to do this grim work day after day.

[Blackdog_kt]

It's true, dirty tricks are used all the time in war, at least in this case it was used against combat forces and not civilians. Let's bear in mind however that WWII, especially in the east, was a totally different and much more brutal affair than the "clean" and sanitized version we have today.

For example, i don't know how i would react if an opposing military force had declared all the people in my country as only being suitable for slave labor and extinction and set out to accomplish just that. Eventually, this is the vicious circle of human nature...the more brutality one receives, the more of it he's ready to dish out. In this sense we don't differ much from dogs

Going silent on the attack run is practiced today as well. My country has a mix of professional and conscript soldiers (conscripts are the majority) and i served for a year as an AA gunner in the air force. When we were training in boot camp we had about 11 roll-calls/assemblies during the day for various reasons. If it was time to eat we assembled and marched to the mess hall, if it was time for the guard duty briefing we assembled and marched to the guard control center and so on. During our training there were frequent visits by F-16 block 50/52 units and during one of those times i actually, truly realized how powerless a foot soldier is against the air force. We were assembled and about to march out, when i suddenly caught a silhouette with my peripheral vision. Turning my eyes to see better, i could clearly make out a F-16 making a mock attack run against our assembled company. It was less than a kilometer away and that thing was freaking silent as a sleeping baby!

I suppose they used to come in low, pop up a little further away from us and then dove in with the engine at idle and you couldn't hear a thing until he was less than 500m from us, by which time he would already have dropped whatever he wanted on our heads. Scary

[FPSOlkor]

Originally Posted by Flanker35M

S!

Rakinroll, what do you mean? A VVS pilot, even a decorated Hero of the Soviet Union, gives critics to Russian designs and that should be neglected? How about an aircraft mechanic one of squad member knew..this guy had been an IL-2 mechanic during war and said the engine on it was crap. After a few flights it was a heap of scrap and needed to be changed. But usually the plane was just put aside as at that point production kept up more than enough with losses etc.

Here is an interview with Il-2 mech I took...
http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/pilo...hangelskii.htm

Originally Posted by engarde

with anything internet based, i do have a slight question as to its authenticity, but for that matter little gems like this keep my interest in this forum.

Well, I keep all sound files on my PC...

Originally Posted by engarde

Killing humans has never been so dispassionate.

Imagine the havoc created on the ground, I doubt every soldier hit died instantly.

A subtle reminder of the mindset required to do this grim work day after day.

Well, they were not invited for a cup of tea, weren't they? Speaking of mindset - he was twice shot down, crash landed several times without a "replay" button either. If there would be no war - he might as well ended his life as a village school teacher, without any chance of becoming a Hero.

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

It's true, dirty tricks are used all the time in war, at least in this case it was used against combat forces and not civilians. Let's bear in mind however that WWII, especially in the east, was a totally different and much more brutal affair than the "clean" and sanitized version we have today.
Going silent on the attack run is practiced today as well. My country has a mix of professional and conscript soldiers (conscripts are the majority) and i served for a year as an AA gunner in the air force. When we were training in boot camp we had about 11 roll-calls/assemblies during the day for various reasons. If it was time to eat we assembled and marched to the mess hall, if it was time for the guard duty briefing we assembled and marched to the guard control center and so on. During our training there were frequent visits by F-16 block 50/52 units and during one of those times i actually, truly realized how powerless a foot soldier is against the air force. We were assembled and about to march out, when i suddenly caught a silhouette with my peripheral vision. Turning my eyes to see better, i could clearly make out a F-16 making a mock attack run against our assembled company. It was less than a kilometer away and that thing was freaking silent as a sleeping baby!

I suppose they used to come in low, pop up a little further away from us and then dove in with the engine at idle and you couldn't hear a thing until he was less than 500m from us, by which time he would already have dropped whatever he wanted on our heads. Scary

I wouldn't call it a dirty trick, it was one of a life time chance, that he used at best. But if he would not take off due to bad weather or returned from his route as his wingman did there would be no such luck at all.

Speaking of attacks by airplane - in late 80's I worked for pocket money at Fornosovo railway station for a couple of summers, unloading incoming carts. I did not know that this station was used for training purposes by ShAP from Siverskaya. When I once raised my head towards sky and saw a falling planes at me, I shited my pants... Those were Su-22s or something, and they scared me to death... But two month later I didn't even look at the sky when I heard jet engine sound.