The Ace of the Victory Spring
Alexey Churilin became the most effective pilot of the victorious spring, shooting down 9 Me-109s in March 1945 and another 4 enemy aircraft in April. In Hungary, during battles on March 10 and 23, and April 5 and 11, he four times (!) managed to score a “double,” downing 8 Me-109G-12s, one of the most advanced modifications of the famous “Messer.”
He arrived at the front in late 1942 and opened the combat score for the 611th Fighter Aviation Regiment (IAP), shooting down an Me-109 with an unguided rocket (RS) fired from his “Chaika.” Serious and strict, far from any adventurism, he was at the same time a passionate, quick-tempered person. He literally “created” aerial combat, inventing new aerobatic figures, interaction techniques, defense, and attack both on the ground and in the air, building all his improvisations on precise calculations.
Combat Innovation and Mentorship
His tactics included dogfights with an unexpected and sharp reduction in their radius, and swift attacks on enemy aircraft formations. From a point-blank dive, he would hit an enemy aircraft and, performing a sharp combat turn, attack the next one from below with afterburner. He was a remarkable mentor to young pilots, frequently changing wingmen and tirelessly “training” the youth.
By swapping roles with his wingman, he not only reliably covered him but also prompted the moment and method for an irresistible attack. Nine of Churilin’s wingmen, flying in pairs with him, shot down 20 enemy aircraft. During the last two years of the war, he did not lose a single one of them. A characteristic example of his mentorship occurred on April 11, 1945, when Churilin’s echeloned flight “squeezed” a pair of Me-109s, and he guided his wingman, Junior Lieutenant N. Churikov, to two kills.
Career and Legacy
Churilin became a fighter pilot at a mature age, twenty-five (born in the Shiryavsky farmstead, Southern Urals, on December 26, 1916), graduating from the Stalingrad Military Aviation School of Pilots on the eve of the war. Before being drafted into the army in 1940, he had completed an agricultural technical school and worked as a collector.
As squadron commander of the 611th IAP (288th IAD, 17th Air Army), Major Churilin completed over 300 combat sorties and, in 100 air battles, personally shot down 30 enemy aircraft. He was never shot down himself. As part of a group, he destroyed 21 enemy aircraft on the ground. He flew the I-153, LaGG-3, Yak-1 with the inscription “Metallurg Donbassa” (Metallurgist of Donbass) on its side, and from late February 1945, the Yak-3. Colonel Churilin served in the Air Force until 1972, flying supersonic aircraft. After demobilization, he lived and worked in Novorossiysk, passing away on August 23, 1982.