Air ram - the latter chance weapon; Receiving air combat, originated in Russia and repeatedly applied by our pilots, which were in a hopeless situation.
Everyone remembers Peter Nesterov - the Russian pilot, who first rapped the opponent's aircraft on September 8, 1914. But not everyone knows that after 27 years and four days - September 12, 1941, Ekaterina Ivanovna Zelenko became the first and only woman who had committed air ram.
Catherine Zelenko early feared heaven. Already by the end of the seven, she knew that he would be a pilot, and consistently went to his dream. Voronezh Aeroclub, Orenburg Military Aviation School, Diploma with honors. About Kate Zelenko said that it was created for the sky.
Ekaterina Ivanovna came to the Great Patriotic War with solid combat experience. She participated in the Soviet-Finnish war and was on her the only pilot woman. She pulled out eight times to the task, destroyed the artillery battery and the ammunition warehouse, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. From May 1940, Catherine Zelenko served in the 135th bombardment regiment and entered into the position of Deputy Squadron Commander.
In his last combat departure, Ekaterina Zelenko went on September 12, 1941 in the city of Romny. It was her third departure for the day, SU-2, on which she flew was slightly damaged, but it was necessary to urgently refine the scale and the direction of the possible breakthrough of German tanks, and the temple of the pilot went to the task again.
On the way back, the SU-2 steam was attacked by the Seven Messers. The plane of the leading couple - Captain Lebedev was immediately damaged and left the battle, and Ekaterina Ivanovna, together with the nikolay Nikolai Pavlyk, took the battle. She managed to knock down one of the attackers of the Nazis, which is already a feat for slow Su-2. But the plane Zelenko also hooked. The navigator was wounded and received an order to immediately jump off with a parachute and walked to his intelligence, and Ekaterina herself continued to fight.
She did not know the fate of his commander Pavlyk, only after the war from the locals from the village of Anastasyevka, it was possible to find out that Zelenko continued to fight until the cartridges were over. But it did not stop the brave girl, and she rammed the Around Plane of the Nazis.
"Messerschmit" held a couple of kilometers before falling, and the plane of Catherine Ivanovna collapsed immediately and caught fire. The peasants were able to pull out only the burnt heroine corpse. The flyer was buried immediately, and a miraculously surviving documents found next to the plane retained a rural teacher. This is exactly what subsequently establish the course of the last fight Catherine Zelenko.
Ekaterina Ivanovna was posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin, but after the war, for a long time, the title girl of the Hero of the Soviet Union was sought for a brave girl for a long time. It was possible only in 1990, when the corresponding order signed Mikhail Gorbachev.
The name of the heroine was named streets in different cities of the Soviet Union, the ship, the Voronezh Aviaklube and even a small planet. At the site of the death of the heroine, monuments were installed in Berestovka and in Kursk, and at school where she studied, Catherine Zelenko Museum was created.