On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, a new edition of the famous autobiographical book of the Mordovian pilot Mikhail Devyataev, who made an unprecedented escape from a Nazi concentration camp on a plane stolen from the Germans, is being prepared for publication. The history of the feat of the Soviet ace, entitled by him as "Escape from Hell", will be preceded by a story about the further fate of all participants in the famous flight. The book will include many unknown facts that could not previously be published.
Why, after escaping, did Mikhail Devyatayev again have to return to the camp bunk? How did it happen that the pilot, who fought in Pokryshkin's division, never again took to the skies after the war? Who introduced him to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union 12 years after the feat? The son of the legendary ace and one of the authors of the new edition, Alexander Devyatayev, told the RG correspondent about this and many other things.
There won't be a movie?
In Saransk, where his father is considered a national hero, Alexander Mikhailovich Devyatayev, a doctor of medical sciences from Kazan, came to collect materials for a book. A whole exposition is devoted to the famous pilot and nine of his comrades in the local Memorial Museum of military and labor feat.
Just don't ask me about the fate of the film dedicated to the feat of his father, - the interlocutor immediately warned. - As far as I know, the shooting has not started yet. Cause? Money issue - looking for investors ...
About the script "Escape to the sky. Devyatayev" "RG" wrote three years ago. According to the film's producer Denis Filyukov, the presentation of the project made a splash. It was planned that Vasily Pichul, the creator of "Little Vera", would shoot the movie, and Oleg Taktarov would play the main role. The leadership of Mordovia also announced its intention to act as a co-investor of the picture, but the project arose.
It's a pity - the fate of Mikhail Devyatayev is more striking than the screenwriter's most incredible fantasy. At one time, he was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the only pilot in the world who, for the same feat, was first put behind bars and then awarded the highest state award. However, those who are well acquainted with the biography of the hero consider this formulation, to put it mildly, incorrect.
Listed as executed
"Mordvin" - this was the call sign of the fighter pilot of the Pokryshkin air division, senior lieutenant Devyatayev. The last time he got in touch was on July 13, 1944, during an air battle near Lvov: that day his plane was shot down, and he himself was captured with severe burns, unconscious. After the first attempt to escape, which ended in failure, the fate of the prisoner was decided - the Sachsenhausen stoves were waiting for him. Mikhail was saved from certain death by a chance - in the sanitary barracks, a hairdresser from among the prisoners replaced the suicide tag on his robe with a penalty tag that belonged to the deceased teacher from Ukraine Grigory Nikitenko. Under this name, he was listed in the camp archives - and the pilot Devyatayev was listed there in the lists of the executed.
There were many such twists of fate in my father's life, ”recalls Alexander Devyataev.
The next "circle of hell" was the Peenemünde death camp on the Baltic island of Usedom. It was there that the training ground was located, where the Nazis tested the "weapon of retaliation", which means that the prisoners could leave the island only through the crematory pipe. The one who nevertheless decided to take a desperate step was expected by a demonstrative execution - right on the parade ground in front of the formation of prisoners, shepherd dogs were lowered onto the captured fugitive, who tore him to shreds alive ...
Michael and nine of his comrades managed the impossible. The day of February 8, 1945, many years later, in the book of memoirs, he will restore every minute: how, at his command, having dealt with the guard, the prisoners rushed into the standing bomber, how the unfamiliar car at first refused to take to the air, cutting circles along the runway, how they were already running from all on the sides, the SS men, as comrades shouted: “Mishka, what are you ?!”, how he felt the chilling cold of the bayonet between the shoulder blades, how the helm did not give in to his hands, weakened by hunger, and the fugitives had to tame him with the three of us - until, finally, the captured plane soared into the sky over the island ...
"Comrade Sergeev"
Historians will call what happened a miracle - the Henkel-111 bomber, which Devyatayev mastered almost in the air, could not shoot down either German fighters raised on alarm or Soviet anti-aircraft guns. The Focke-Wulf that came across them had a sure chance to shoot the fugitives at close range - but the gas tank of the Nazi aircraft returning to the airfield was empty, the ammunition was used up. Having landed on the other side of the front, the crew in striped overalls handed over to theirs the exact coordinates of the V-2 rocket launchers, thanks to which the secret test site was destroyed. When this was reported to Goering, he became furious and ordered that the camp authorities of Peenemünde be brought to trial.
However, the homeland in those years did not favor the former prisoners. Mikhail again went behind the barbed wire - to the painfully familiar Sachsenhausen, where at that time there was already a Soviet filtration camp.
Seven of his comrades, who were privates or did not serve at all, were sent to the front a month later. Only one of them survived to victory. And the officers - father, Ivan Krivonogov and Mikhail Yemets - were on the check for a long time. At that time, a meeting with Sergei Korolev took place - he was introduced to his father as "comrade Sergeev," says Alexander Devyataev.
In September 1945, an aircraft designer arrived at Usedom for information about the secret developments of the Wehrmacht, and one of the "special officers" remembered that a pilot who had fled from that very top-secret island was sitting in the camp nearby. At the former training ground Peenemünde, they will spend several days together. Then Korolev, who himself had previously experienced the fate of a prisoner, will go to Moscow, and Devyatayev will return to the camp barracks. However, the designer did not forget that meeting - the information obtained by the fugitive formed the basis for the creation of the first Soviet rocket.
Secret feat
In November 1945, my father was finally demobilized. However, the "authorities" followed him for a long time - the story he told about the escape seemed too incredible, - says the interlocutor. - In the documents that he was given after filtering, in the column "military specialty" was "artilleryman". One can only guess what it was - a mistake or an exquisite revenge of the "Smershevites", thanks to which the father's path to aviation was forever closed. When at the military registration and enlistment office he told that he was a pilot at the front and escaped from a concentration camp on a plane, they simply laughed in his face. For a 27-year-old guy - a combat officer who returned from the war - it was a tragedy.
In Kazan, where the family lived at that time, Mikhail had to get a job on duty at the river port. Later, he worked there as a captain for many years - he drove ships on water wings along the Volga.
Another sharp turn in his fate occurred in 1957, after the successful launch of the first Soviet satellite. About the feat of Devyatayev and his comrades, an essay was published in the Literary Gazette, and soon the pilot was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
The fact that the awarding of the father with the Star of the Hero was the "gratitude" of the Queen is just a hypothesis. However, many details point to this, - Alexander Devyataev explains. - I still haven't seen his award sheet. A few years ago, Yuri Yushkin, head of the Mordovia archive service, and I worked on a biography of my father. All sorts of sources were requested, but nowhere were documents found that would shed light on the history of his award. This suggests that the data is classified to this day - and who could do this? .. In addition, escaping from captivity at that time was not considered a feat.
Shortly before his death, Mikhail Petrovich Devyatayev had to meet with the commander of the Luftwaffe, Gunter Hobom, who in February 1945 received an order to "catch up and destroy" the fugitives from Peenemünde. The German ace failed to do this. "That same Russian" Hobom saw only more than half a century later - in 2002, during the filming of a documentary about the famous escape from the island of Usedom. Then the former enemies first looked into each other's eyes, and then hugged and even drank a glass of vodka - as a sign of reconciliation...
Help "RG"
Mikhail Petrovich Devyataev - Hero of the Soviet Union, honorary citizen of the Republic of Mordovia, as well as the city of Kazan and the German cities of Wolgast and Zinnovitz. After the war, Mikhail Petrovich and his wife Faina Khairullovna raised two sons - Alexei and Alexander - and a daughter, Nelly. He was buried in 2002 in Kazan at the Arsky cemetery. In his native village of Torbeev (now the regional center in Mordovia), the Hero's House-Museum was opened.
Direct speech
Nikolai Kruchinkin, director of the Saransk Memorial Museum of military and labor feats:
Trofim Serdyukov, Ivan Krivonogov, Vladimir Sokolov, Vladimir Nemchenko, Fyodor Adamov, Ivan Oleinik, Mikhail Yemets, Petr Kutergin, Nikolai Urbanovich... We have collected information about the fate of all Devyatayev's comrades. Of the seven participants in the flight sent to the front, six died in April 1945, just a few days before the victory. The only survivor - Adamov - was wounded.
The legendary Soviet pilot Mikhail Devyatayev, who participated in the Great Patriotic War, became famous for his daring escape from under the noses of the German invaders.
For excellent work, the man was awarded the Order of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
Childhood and youth
Mikhail was born in the summer of 1917 in the working settlement of Torbeevo, which at that time was part of the Tambov province. He is a Mokshan by nationality. In addition to him, the family had 12 more children. Although life was difficult, the father of the family, Pyotr Timofeevich, worked all his life, he was a craftsman, he worked for the landowner. Mother Akulina Dmitrievna ran the household and raised the children.
Although Mikhail studied well at school, problems arose with the boy's behavior. But at one point his character changed. This happened after a meeting with a pilot who visited the village by plane. Seeing him, the young man asked how to get such a profession. To this, the man replied that you need to study, be brave, athletic and healthy.
From that moment on, Devyatayev devoted all his time to sports and studies, and after the 7th grade he went to Kazan to enter an aviation technical school. So in the biography of the young man, the story of the formation of the future pilot appears. When submitting an application to the school, Mikhail already imagined how he would begin to master the basics of aircraft control, however, due to confusion with papers, by mistake, he was enrolled in a river technical school, where he remained. But the guy's dream did not die out, so Devyatayev enrolled in an flying club in Kazan.
Sometimes he had to spend time until night in the engine or aircraft class of the club, and in the morning to run to classes at the school. And soon the day happened when the young man was in the sky for the first time. True, the first flight took place with an instructor, but this did not diminish Mikhail's impressions.
After graduating from the river technical school, Devyatayev enters the Orenburg Aviation School, this time the already matured man recalled as the happiest time of his life. When studying, he did not miss a single class, read a lot and trained hard. When the studies ended, the young man's childhood dream came true, he became a military fighter pilot. In his youth, he had to serve first in Torzhok, and later he was transferred to Mogilev.
By the beginning of the war, out of 12 children of the Devyatayev family, only 8 survived, and all contributed to the defense of the Motherland. 4 brothers of Mikhail died at the front, the rest of the children also died before reaching old age.
Military service
In June 1941, a man goes to the front, and 2 days later he opens a combat account by shooting down an enemy bomber diving near Minsk. Devyatayev also had other successful sorties. The pilot, along with other distinguished ones, is called to Moscow to defend the approaches to the capital.
In the course of another military operation on Yak-1 aircraft, pilots intercept the enemy, who was about to drop a deadly cargo on the capital. However, the man was not always so lucky. Once he received a military assignment, upon returning to Moscow, he was attacked by fascist bombers. One "Junkers" of the enemy was still shot down, however, Devyatayev's plane was also damaged. The pilot managed to land despite being wounded in his left leg. So Michael gets to the hospital, where he is being treated. And later, by the unanimous decision of the medical commission, he is assigned to low-speed aviation.
For some time, Devyatayev worked as part of a regiment of night bombers, then he was transferred to an air ambulance. And only in 1944, after meeting with A.I. Pokryshkin, the man returned to the fighter squad. After that, he more than once took his plane into the air, being in the rank of senior lieutenant, in total, Mikhail shot down 9 enemy planes.
In July 1944, the fate of Devyatayev is in the hands of the enemy. Making another sortie, a man shoots down a German plane in the west of the Ukrainian city of Gorokhov. In this dogfight, he gets injured and his plane catches fire. Leading pilot Vladimir Bobrov orders him to leave the air car by jumping out with a parachute. However, after completing the command, the man is captured.
Captivity and escape
Once in the hands of the Nazis, Devyatayev was sent to the intelligence department of the Abwehr, and later to the Lodz prison camp. All the time there was spent in bullying, torture and starvation, therefore, having teamed up with the POW pilots, the men plan an escape that did not take place.
After they were caught, the whole group was declared suicide bombers and sent to the Sachsenhausen camp. Everyone who ends up there with this status goes to certain death, but Mikhail managed to survive. Having bribed the camp hairdresser, Devyatayev convinces him to change the number on the robe, so he changed the status of a "suicide bomber" and became an ordinary "penalty man", who was no longer in danger of death.
Along with the man’s number, the name under which he goes to the island of Usedom has also changed. In this place, super-powerful weapons were created, which, according to the Nazis, should have helped them win the war, we are talking about ballistic and cruise missiles. People who got to this island did not return alive. Therefore, the prisoners are ripening the idea of a new escape.
Aerial view of Usedom Island. Escape from there was considered impossible A group of 10 people, including Mikhail Devyatayev, spotted the planes at the nearby Pnemünde airfield. The Soviet pilot took over the piloting.
After the hijacking, a bomber was sent for the prisoners, tasked with shooting down the lone Heinkel. And although an experienced pilot sat at the helm, it was not possible to destroy the fugitives. And flying up to the front line, Devyatayev's plane was attacked by Soviet anti-aircraft guns.
Despite the difficulties, the man landed the plane on the territory of the Polish artillery unit. Mikhail rescued nine people and delivered strategically important information about a secret German center for the manufacture of rocket weapons. The man even provided the exact coordinates of the launch pads located along the coast. They were checked and confirmed, and later they attacked the island of Usedom from the air.
Like other prisoners of fascist Germany who returned to the territory of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Devyataev was placed in the NKVD check-filtration camp, and after the check was completed, he was sent to serve in the Red Army.
Later, the famous designer of the rocket and space industry of the Soviet Union tracked down Devyatayev and called him to the airfield from which he hijacked the aircraft. On the spot, Mikhail showed him where the missile assemblies were made and where they were launched from. For the assistance provided and the accomplished feat, in 1957 Devyatayev was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR.
At the end of hostilities, Mikhail returned to Kazan and already there began to develop a career in river navigation in the Kazan port. Already having a diploma as a captain of a ship, a few years later a man becomes a captain of a boat.
Personal life
Despite the difficult war and post-war years, the man's personal life has developed well. The pilot's wife was Faina Khairullovna, who gave birth to her wife of three children - two sons and a daughter. And although the marriage was strong, the woman was jealous of Michael. After all, when he became famous throughout the Soviet Union, women often wrote to him. Already at an advanced age, the man admitted that he would not have exchanged his wife for any other beauty.
In 1946, a woman gave birth to her first child, who was named Alexei. He chose medicine to study, worked in an eye clinic as an anesthesiologist, and later became a candidate of medical sciences. After 5 years, his brother Alexander was born, who also chose this area. The man worked at the Kazan Medical Institute and also became a candidate of medical sciences.
The daughter of the Devyatayevs was born in 1957. Nelya did not follow in the footsteps of her brothers; her talent was discovered in another area. The girl graduated from the Kazan Conservatory and taught music at the theater school.
After the war, Mikhail wrote the book "Escape from Hell", in which he described the most striking events of his stay in the German death camp, and also told the story of the escape itself. On the cover of the book there is a photo of Devyatayev, which is crossed by barbed wire.
Death
Until the last days, Mikhail Devyatayev lived in Kazan and, despite his health being undermined in the war, worked as long as his strength allowed. In the summer of 2002, he even came to the same airfield from which he had once escaped. They filmed a documentary film about the feat of a man.
In November of the same year, Mikhail Petrovich died, the exact cause of death is unknown, probably age (85 years) and concomitant diseases contributed to this.
In memory of the hero-pilot, more than one documentary film was shot during his lifetime and after his death. Among them are “Catch up and destroy”, “Not a fact. The feat of the Soviet pilot "and others.
Awards
- Order of the Hero of the Soviet Union
- The order of Lenin
- Order of the Red Banner
- Order of the Patriotic War
- Medal "For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945"
- Zhukov medal
- Medal "For the Defense of Moscow"
- Medal "Veteran of Labor"
- Order "For Merit to the Fatherland"
- Honorary Citizen of the Republic of Mordovia
The hero and the actor are similar in appearance and characters, coming from the same places. The nationality of both, as well as the call sign of the pilot Devyataev, is Mordvin.
“To play such a person is already a feat!” - says the actor about his hero. A prisoner of a concentration camp, weighing 38 kg, a pilot who managed to steal a heavy bomber from a top-secret fascist base. It would seem that we know everything about him. He himself told about his daring escape in his books Escape from Hell and Flight to the Sun. The little-known pages of the hero's life are told by his relatives.
Mordvin, jump!
Mikhail Devyataev was the 13th child in the family. His father died early, and his mother raised the children alone. She was a strong person spiritually and physically, lived to be 105 years old. And although the family was starving, she was able to teach her children kindness and care for others. In the 90s, when devastation began in the country, Mikhail Petrovich continued to help people - he created a fund to help orphans, the elderly and lonely people. At the age of 70, he himself drove, carried money and food.
The future Hero of the Soviet Union came to Kazan from a Mordovian village on foot and barefoot. He entered the river technical school, at the same time he studied at OSOVIAKhIM. He decided to become a pilot when, as a child, he saw a plane land near their village. Having received a diploma as an assistant captain, Devyatayev entered the Orenburg Flight School. When the war started, he flew from day one. After being seriously wounded in one of the battles, his leg was almost amputated. Did not give. He returned to the front and by July 1944, when his plane caught fire in battle, he had three military orders.
“Mordvin, jump,” the commander ordered. The wounded, burnt pilot landed already unconscious. I woke up in captivity. For attempting to escape from the camp, he was sentenced to death. The surviving camp documents recorded: on December 5, 1944, he was burned in an oven. The pilot was saved by a hairdresser who replaced his tag with that of the deceased gunner Nikitenko. Under this name, Mikhail Petrovich got to the top-secret Peenemünde facility on the island of Usedom. It was the base where the Germans tested the V-1 and V-2 rockets and from which they bombarded London with rockets every day. The base, guarded by fighters and anti-aircraft guns, the SS service, had its own airfield.
Life force
... For some reason, the German pilot wanted to demonstrate to the goner cleaning the airfield how the aircraft engine starts. This goner turned out to be fighter pilot Mikhail Devyatayev, who was preparing his legendary escape and for whom it was super important to understand how to fly this plane. After all, a Soviet fighter and a German bomber are completely different equipment. And you need to go through serious training to master it. And you also need physical strength to lift the plane. Exhausted from hunger, sentenced by camp criminals to 10 days of life (during these days he was supposed to be brought to death), but not broken spiritually, Mikhail Petrovich decides to escape. On the sixth day of daily beatings, when there was no more physical strength left for life, the pilot and his nine comrades take off on the Heinkel-111.
The pilot directs the plane towards the Sun so that it would be difficult for the German anti-aircraft gunners to see the target. It turns towards the border of the USSR later. Behind the front line, the plane is fired upon by Soviet anti-aircraft guns. We had to land quickly. Flight training, will, composure made it possible to land the plane on an arable field.
The fugitives were placed in a filtration camp, the soldiers were then sent to a penal battalion, where only one of the six survived. The officers were left in the filtration camp, from where Mikhail Petrovich was rescued by Sergei Korolev in September 1945. The general designer of Soviet missiles needed information about how missiles were launched from the Peenemünde base.
Alien among their own
Mikhail Petrovich, as a former prisoner of war, could not get a job. Since all the men in his family had “golden” hands, he began to lay stoves. His wife said that only once she saw her husband's tears - when he was given a job. In the river port, a duty officer at the station was found to have pulmonary tuberculosis in an open form. Everyone refused to work with him in a pair. And then they remembered the unemployed assistant captain - he went to work without hesitation.
In 1957, Khrushchev instructed to find the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, undeservedly forgotten during the years of the cult of personality. Krasnaya Tatariya journalist Yan Vinnetsky, himself a former pilot, went to the military registration and enlistment offices and found out if they had such heroes. He was told that there is one strange gunner who claims that the plane was stolen from the Germans. Vinnetsky came to Devyatayev. They talked until morning. But they did not print the journalist's essay, they were afraid. Then Vinnetsky sent the material to Moscow, to the Literaturnaya Gazeta. On the second day after the publication of the article, Mikhail Petrovich arrived from Moscow. The hero was written about in every issue of the Red Star.
Devyatayev was returned military awards and military rank, and was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The whole world learned about his feat, pilots and astronauts idolized him. Border guards and customs officers in Germany, where he often flew, saluted as the head of state. And the hero, as he was before universal recognition, remained so. And those who used to tell him: “Well, you are a liar,” and then came up to apologize, answered: “Yes, I understand everything.” On one of the "Lights", where Mikhail Petrovich was invited along with other heroes of the division of Alexander Pokryshkin. When he was given the floor, he began with the role of the party. Alexander Ivanovich stopped him and said: “The main thing, Misha, is that you took off.”
Mikhail Devyatayev considered it his duty to meet with children and tell them about the war. He traveled a lot in juvenile colonies. After leaving the colony, the guys came to visit him, wrote letters. He was an example for them, proving that in any situation a person can remain a person and go all the way to his goal.
... Journalist Vasily Peskov wrote the story "Escape" about the legendary pilot. He published it on the 30th anniversary of the Victory, then on the 40th anniversary. Then to the 50th anniversary, where he wrote in the introduction that much has changed in our country, and we look at many things with different eyes. Only in the story of Devyatayev's feat does he need to change anything. The truth, as it was the truth, so it remained.
| tombstone | ||
| Memorial plaque in Torbeevo | ||
| Bust in the village of Torbeevo | ||
| Memorial plaque in Kazan | ||
| Monument in Saransk |
Devyataev Mikhail Petrovich - commander of the 104th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, 2nd Air Army, 1st Ukrainian Front), Guards Senior Lieutenant.
Born July 8, 1917 in the village of Torbeevo (now a town in Mordovia) in a peasant family. Mordvin. He was the thirteenth child in the family. When he was 2 years old, his father died of typhus. In 1933 he graduated from the 7th grade of a secondary school and went to Kazan, intending to enter an aviation technical school. Due to a misunderstanding with the documents, he had to study at the Kazan River Technical School, which he graduated in 1938. At the same time he studied at the Kazan flying club.
In 1938, he was drafted into the Red Army by the Sverdlovsk district military commissariat of the city of Kazan of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1940 he graduated from the Chkalovsky Military Aviation School named after K.E. Voroshilov. Sent to serve in the city of Torzhok. Later transferred to the city of Mogilev in the 237th Fighter Aviation Regiment (Western Special Military District).
Member of the Great Patriotic War from June 22, 1941. Already on the second day, junior pilot M.P. Devyatayev took part in an air battle on his I-16. He opened a combat account on June 24, shooting down a Ju-87 dive bomber near Minsk. Then he defended the skies of Moscow. In one of the air battles in the Tula region, paired with J. Schneier, he shot down a Ju-88, but his Yak-1 was also damaged. Devyatayev made an emergency landing and ended up in the hospital. Not fully cured, he fled to the front in his regiment, which at that time was already based west of Voronezh.
On September 23, 1941, when returning from a mission, Devyatayev was attacked by Messerschmitts. One of them was shot down, but he himself was wounded in the left leg. By this time, he had made 180 sorties, in 35 air battles he personally shot down 9 enemy aircraft.
After the hospital, the medical commission identified him in low-speed aviation, where he commanded a unit of U-2 communications aircraft, made 280 flights to communicate with advanced units. From September 1943, he served in the 1001st Separate Medical Regiment, completed 80 sorties to advanced landing sites, took out 120 wounded soldiers, delivered 600 liters of blood and 1,500 kilograms of medicines and other cargo.
After a meeting in May 1944 with A.I. Pokryshkin, he again became a fighter. Commander of the 104th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, 2nd Air Army, 1st Ukrainian Front), Senior Lieutenant Devyataev M.P. On the evening of July 13, 1944, he flew out as part of a group of P-39 fighters under the command of Major V. Bobrov to repel an enemy air raid. In an unequal air battle near Lvov, he was wounded in the right leg, and his plane was set on fire. At the last moment left the falling fighter with a parachute. Captured with severe burns.
Interrogation followed interrogation. Then he was sent on a transport plane to the intelligence department of the Abwehr in Warsaw. Not having obtained any valuable information from Devyatayev, the Germans sent him to the Lodz POW camp. Later transferred to the New Königsberg camp. Here, in the camp with a group of comrades, Devyatayev began to prepare an escape. At night, with improvised means - spoons and bowls - they dug a tunnel, dragged earth on a sheet of iron and scattered it under the floor of the hut (the hut stood on stilts). But when there were already a few meters to freedom, the dig was discovered by the guards. At the denunciation of a traitor, the organizers of the escape were seized. After interrogation and torture, they were sentenced to death.
Devyatayev with a group of suicide bombers was sent to Germany to the death camp Sachsenhausen (near Berlin). But he was lucky: in the sanitary barracks, a barber from among the prisoners replaced his death row tag with the tag of a penalty box (No. 104533), killed by the guards of a teacher from Darnitsa Grigory Stepanovich Nikitenko. In the group of "treadmills" he broke in the shoes of German firms. Later, with the help of underground workers, he was transferred from a penal barrack to a regular one. At the end of October 1944, he, as part of a group of 1,500 prisoners, was sent to a camp on the island of Usedom, where the secret Peenemünde training ground was located, where rocket weapons were tested. Since the landfill was secret, there was only one way out for the prisoners of the concentration camp - through the pipe of the crematorium. In January 1945, when the front approached the Vistula, Devyatayev, together with prisoners Ivan Krivonogov, Vladimir Sokolov, Vladimir Nemchenko, Fedor Adamov, Ivan Oleinik, Mikhail Emets, Pyotr Kutergin, Nikolai Urbanovich and Dmitry Serdyukov, began to prepare an escape. A plan was developed to hijack an aircraft from an airfield located near the camp. While working at the airfield, Devyatayev furtively studied the cockpits of German aircraft. Instrument plates were removed from damaged aircraft lying around the airfield. In the camp they were translated and studied. Devyatayev distributed duties to all participants in the escape: who should remove the cover from the pitot tube, who should remove the blocks from the landing gear wheels, who should remove the clamps from the elevators and turn, who should roll up the cart with batteries.
The escape was scheduled for February 8, 1945. On the way to work at the airfield, the prisoners, having chosen the moment, killed the guard. So that the Germans would not suspect anything, one of them put on his clothes and began to portray the escort. Thus, we managed to get into the parking lot. When the German technicians went to lunch, Devyatayev's group captured the He-111H-22 bomber. Devyatayev started the engines and began taxiing to the start. So that the Germans would not see his striped prisoner's clothes, they had to undress to the naked. But it was not possible to take off unnoticed - someone discovered the body of the murdered guard and raised the alarm. In the direction of the Heinkel, German soldiers fled from all sides. Devyatayev began to take off, but the plane could not take off for a long time (later it turned out that the landing flaps had not been removed). With the help of his comrades, Devyatayev pulled the steering wheel towards himself with all his strength. Only at the end of the strip "Heinkel" broke away from the ground and at low altitude went over the sea.
Coming to his senses, the Germans sent a fighter in pursuit, but he failed to find the fugitives. Devyatayev flew, guided by the sun. In the area of the front line, the plane was fired upon by our anti-aircraft guns. I had to go on forced. "Heinkel" landed on the belly south of the village of Gollin at the location of the artillery unit of the 61st Army.
Specialists did not believe that the prisoners of the concentration camp could hijack the plane. The fugitives were subjected to a rigorous check in the NKVD filtration camp in the city of Nevel, Pskov region, a long and humiliating one. Then they were sent to penal battalions. In November 1945, Devyatayev was transferred to the reserve. He was not hired. In 1946, having a captain's diploma in his pocket, he hardly got a job as a loader in the Kazan river port, then on duty at the river station. For 12 years he was not trusted. He wrote letters addressed to Stalin, Malenkov, Beria, but to no avail. The situation changed only in 1957, when the first article about him was published in March.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 15, 1957, for the courage, courage and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War, senior lieutenant Devyataev Mikhail Petrovich He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
In 1957, the brave fighter pilot became one of the first captains of the Rocket hydrofoil passenger ships. In 1959 he joined the CPSU. Later he drove Meteors along the Volga, was a captain-mentor. After retiring, he actively participated in the veterans' movement, created the Devyatayev Foundation, and provided assistance to those who needed it most.
He was awarded the Order of Lenin, 2 Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1st and 2nd degrees, and medals. Honorary citizen of the Republic of Mordovia, the cities of Kazan (Russia), Wolgast and Tsinovichi (Germany).
In the village of Torbeevo, a museum of the Hero was opened, a memorial plaque was installed on the house where he lived, and a bust near the house. In February 2010, in Kazan, on the house where the Hero lived (Sechenov Street, 5), a memorial plaque was opened. The monument "Escape from Hell" was erected in Saransk at the Memorial to the soldiers of Mordovia who fell during the Great Patriotic War.
Compositions:
Flight to the sun. - M.: DOSAAF, 1972.
Escape from hell. - Kazan: Tatar book. ed., 1988.
On February 8, 1945, an amazing event occurred: ten Soviet servicemen escaped from German captivity ... and not somehow - but on a combat aircraft ... and not from anywhere - but from the Peenemünde camp, the very one where the Fau missiles were tested.
Senior Lieutenant Mikhail Devyataev led the group and piloted the car ... (Although his real name is Devyataykin, and an accidental substitution occurred in his youth ... But - in order.
Mikhail Devyataev, the thirteenth peasant son, was born in Mordovia - he graduated from seven classes, and then the Kazan River College (here he was “baptized”). During his studies, he went to the flying club - therefore, after being drafted into the army, he ended up in the Chkalovsky military aviation school. He started the war on June 22, 1941 - and already on the 24th he shot down a Junkers near Minsk, and was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Soon the pilot was wounded, and continued to serve in low-speed aviation - however, in May 1944, thanks to Pokryshkin, he returned to fighters ...
... Unfortunately, this did not last long - already on July 13 near Lvov, Devyatayev was shot down, jumped out with a parachute, and was captured. He was sent to the camp - exactly a month later, on August 13, the pilot tries to escape - he is caught and transferred to the sinister Sachsenhausen. Probably, this death camp would have become the last line in the biography for Devyatayev - but a certain sympathetic camp hairdresser changes his patch ... in this way, the "suicide bomber" Devyatayev really disappears - and the "penalty box" Nikitenko appears ...
Under this name, he will soon end up on the German island of Usedom - in the Peenemünde camp. According to Devyataev himself, the idea of escaping on a plane came to him almost immediately - however, it took some time to assemble the team. (I must say, here the senior lieutenant was very lucky - he tried to recruit a friendly-looking German anti-aircraft gunner - he refused; just before the escape, one of the group members also broke away ... so many in the camp knew or suspected about the plan - but no one betrayed the conspirators! )
So, on February 8, ten prisoners find themselves on the airfield, and begin to look after the plane - to the alert, it was, they would explain to the escort that they had received an assignment for some earthwork - and then, when the watchman calms down, they will finish him off with sharpening. (Frankly, the security system in the top secret Peenemünde was not very well debugged ... After the escape, Goering will want to shoot the commandant - but Hitler, for some reason, will cancel the order).
The flight personnel were at dinner - and the fearless ten managed to penetrate the Heinkel bomber without any problems. The problems began later - at first it turned out that there were no batteries on the plane (they were quickly found somewhere nearby); then Devyataev could not take off! The plane ran along the runway - but the steering wheel did not want to rise! The pilot turned the car around and drove it back - scaring away the Germans who ran out to inquire - in the process of a new approach, it turned out that the steering wheel was in landing mode; he was forcibly squeezed out - and the Heinkel took off! According to Devyatayev's memoirs, the whole operation took twenty-one minutes.
From that moment on, ours were completely lucky - in any case, Hobih, who was sent to intercept, simply did not find (Devyatayev will meet with him in Peenemünde shortly before his death, in 2002); another ace, Dahl, was returning from a mission without ammunition, and could only see the hijacked plane off with a dreary look. But the Soviet anti-aircraft gunners did not let us down - when approaching the front line, the Heinkel will be met with accurate fire; it will catch fire and make a hard landing. The entire "crew" will again be captured ...
Some sources claim that Devyatayev thundered into the camps for a long time - but everything was different ... True, he himself recalled the check as “long and humiliating” - but it was during these two-month interrogations that the pilot would indicate the exact coordinates of the V installations, and in a matter of days they successfully bombed. As for his comrades, they will all return to the front - but, unfortunately, only one from him ...
In September, ours will be on Peenemünde, and Devyatayev will be brought to a meeting with Colonel Sergeev (that is, Korolev). Subsequently, he is demobilized - and returns to his first profession; it is the captain of the Kazan river port, Mikhail Devyatayev, who will be the first to start driving the legendary hydrofoils: the Raketa and the Meteor. In 1957, he (as they say, at the suggestion of Korolev) was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union ...
PS: ... It is not entirely clear why the Chief Designer was so slow - of course, we do not know what he and Devyatayev were doing on the island, but the fact remains: our first rocket is an exact copy of the V. Let's add: the stolen "Heinkel" was not just a plane - it had the most secret radio equipment to accompany these same "V"! Unfortunately, Mikhail Devyatayev did not tell how conscious the choice was (after all, the fugitives at first almost got into the Junkers standing nearby! ..) However, this is a completely different story.
