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after engaging one of them twice he successfully shot it down but was forced to quickly return to his airfield and not engage any more of them due to a lack of fuel. During a dogfight in May he shot down a Bf 109 and a He 111; with the help of his squadron the remaining group of enemy bombers was dispersed and forced to drop their bombs away from the Soviet troops they had previously attacked. A similar incident occurred in August during a mission to provide cover to Soviet ground troops, during which
Stepanenko's squadron encountered a huge formation containing many as 60 enemy aircraft, mostly Ju 88 and He 111 bombers. During the ensuing battle Stepanenko shared in the destruction of a Fw 190 and personally shot down two more. He was soon nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 18 August for having flown 232 sorties, flown in 75 aerial battles, personally shot down 14 planes and shared in the destruction of seven more aircraft. The title was first awarded to him on 13 April 1944; earlier that year in February he led a group of four Yak-9 aircraft in two missions to intercept groups of Ju 87 and Bf 109s, and managed to inflict losses on the enemy without sustaining any casualties on the Soviet side.
265:, and several other pilots from the 4th Fighter Aviation Regiment were selected to compose a "free-hunting" group in Stalingrad. In early October he and his wingman V.V.Mochin engaged a group of four Bf 109; both of them were eventually forced to make emergency landings, but Stepanenko managed to shoot down two planes before succumbing to his wounds and landing his damaged Yak-7B. When he was released from the hospital and allowed to fly again, he learned that most of the aces in his regiment were transferred to the prestigious 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, composed of pilots that were already aces and those considered potential aces. Stepanenko was offered an opportunity to join the regiment but chose to stay in his unit.
314:. From then until 1961 he commanded the 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, which used the MiG-15, MiG-17, and MiG-19; during that time he was promoted to the rank of General Major in 1958. In February 1961 he was made deputy commander of the 71st Fighter Aviation Corps, which was based in East Germany and flew the MiG-19, MiG-21, and Yak-25. From February 1966 until May 1968 he was the commander of the 30th Air Army, based in the Riga. From 1968 until his retirement he was the deputy commander of the 14th Air Army. He retired from the military in 1976, having accumulated over 3000 flight hours during his career. While a civilian he wrote a memoir before he died on 31 May 2007 at the age of 87 in Ukraine.
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in 1949, and then became commander of the 83rd Guards Air
Defense Regiment; he then served as a pilot-inspector of fighter aviation combat training from April 1951 to September 1951. In that position he flew the La-11, Yak-17, and MiG-15. He then became the commander of the 41st Air Defense Regiment,
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before being sent to fly air defense missions in
December. Stepanenko flew his first sortie in January 1942, but did not gain his first aerial victory until summer 1942. That month, he was suffered multiple shrapnel wounds and badly injured during a dogfight. After making a forced landing he remained
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Stepanenko was nominated for the title Hero of the Soviet Union for a second time on 28 January 1945; by then, he had flown 395 missions, engaged in 112 dogfights, and personally shot down 32 enemy aircraft. He was awarded the title after the end of the war on 18 August 1945. Having entered the war
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In
January 1943 he shot down a Ju 52 in the Stalingrad region while flying a Yak-1. Immediately after landing from a training flight he spotted the plane, so he took off and began to chase it without even refueling his plane. He soon found a group of six Ju 52s dropping cargo to enemy troops, and
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Immediately after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Stepanenko was deployed to the warfront as a pilot in the 4th
Fighter Aviation Regiment. Initially the junior pilots of the regiment were not allowed to fly sorties, and their training took place on the ground. Eventually they were
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Dniprodzerzhynsk, where he also attended an aeroclub that he graduated from in 1939. After entering the military in May 1940 he continued his aviation education and shortly after the start of
Operation Barbarossa in July 1941 he graduated from the Kachin Military Aviation School of Pilots.
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Stepanenko was born on 13 April 1920 to a
Ukrainian family in Nekhayki village before the Ukrainian SSR was incorporated into the USSR. After completing his seventh grade of school in 1936 he worked at a collective farm until he got a job as a mechanic at a car factory in the city of
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as an enlisted junior pilot, he was a squadron commander with the rank of major at the end of the conflict. In total he shared in the destruction of nine enemy aircraft, personally shot down 32, and engaged in 118 dogfights throughout the course of 414 missions. He marched in the
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227:; 13 April 1920 β 31 May 2007) was a Soviet pilot who became a flying ace with over 30 solo shootdowns during World War II. He remained in the military after the end of the war and went on to fly a variety of MiG aircraft and become a Major-General.
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in the hospital for over a week and had to have surgery to remove shrapnel from his forearm. He soon returned to flying and switched to using the
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fronts of the war. He had flown in the battles for
Voronezh, Stalingrad, Rostov, Kuban, Oryol, Riga, Polotsk, and other cities.
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as part of the
Leningrad front column; before his unit was made part of the Leningrad front it had fought having fought under
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where he flew the MiG-15 and MiG-17. He left the position in
November 1955, and in 1957 he graduated from the
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545:] (in Russian). Moscow: Russian Knights Foundation and Vadim Zadorozhny Museum of Technology.
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transferred to the 22nd Reserve Aviation Regiment, where they learned to fly the British-made
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Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union alumni
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366:(31 July 1942, 23 July 1943, 11 May 1945, 22 February 1955, and 30 December 1956)
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359:(1st class - 15 January 1945 and 11 March 1985; 2nd class - 11 February 1943)
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After the war Stepanenko remained in the air force. He graduated from the
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Order "For Service to the Homeland in the Armed Forces of the USSR"
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Combat pilots β twice and thrice Heroes of the Soviet Union
539:ΠΠΎΠ΅Π²ΡΠ΅ Π»ΡΡΡΠΈΠΊΠΈ β Π΄Π²Π°ΠΆΠ΄Ρ ΠΈ ΡΡΠΈΠΆΠ΄Ρ ΠΠ΅ΡΠΎΠΈ Π‘ΠΎΠ²Π΅ΡΡΠΊΠΎΠ³ΠΎ Π‘ΠΎΡΠ·Π°
346:(23 October 1942, 19 September 1944, and 4 June 1955)
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19:For the Kazakhstani ice hockey player, see
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608:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner
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458:. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 81.
416:. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 24.
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331:Honored Military Pilot of the USSR
327:(13 April 1944 and 18 August 1945)
275:Victory Day Parade on 24 June 1945
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375:campaign and commemorative medals
312:Military Academy of General Staff
603:Recipients of the Order of Lenin
257:In late summer 1942 Stepanenko,
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618:Soviet World War II flying aces
633:Frunze Military Academy alumni
623:Lieutenant generals of Ukraine
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537:; Bodrikhin, Nikolai (2017).
307:M. V. Frunze Military Academy
181:4th Fighter Aviation Regiment
28:Eastern Slavic naming customs
16:Soviet flying ace (1920β2007)
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455:Yakovlev Aces of World War 2
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209:Ivan Nikiforovich Stepanenko
53:Ivan Nikiforovich Stepanenko
21:Ivan Stepanenko (ice hockey)
588:People from Cherkasy Oblast
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217:ΠΠ²Π°Π½ ΠΠΈΠΊΠΈΡΠΎΡΠΎΠ²ΠΈΡ Π‘ΡΠ΅ΠΏΠ°Π½Π΅Π½ΠΊΠΎ
85:ΠΠ²Π°Π½ ΠΠΈΡΠΈΠΏΠΎΡΠΎΠ²ΠΈΡ Π‘ΡΠ΅ΠΏΠ°Π½Π΅Π½ΠΊΠΎ
77:ΠΠ²Π°Π½ ΠΠΈΠΊΠΈΡΠΎΡΠΎΠ²ΠΈΡ Π‘ΡΠ΅ΠΏΠ°Π½Π΅Π½ΠΊΠΎ
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598:Heroes of the Soviet Union
452:Mellinger, George (2012).
410:Mellinger, George (2012).
357:Order of the Patriotic War
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350:Order of Aleksandr Nevsky
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173:Major-General of Aviation
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325:Hero of the Soviet Union
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344:Order of the Red Banner
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364:Order of the Red Star
162:Years of service
112:31 May 2007 (aged 87)
352:(19 December 1944)
97:Nekhayki village,
318:Awards and honors
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165:1940 β 1976
68:Native name
40:family name
572:Categories
561:1005741956
382:References
283:Stalingrad
231:Early life
125:Allegiance
44:Stepanenko
32:patronymic
221:Ukrainian
81:Ukrainian
287:Southern
143:Service/
115:Cherkasy
301:Postwar
295:Western
279:Bryansk
213:Russian
202:(twice)
119:Ukraine
73:Russian
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323:Twice
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252:Yak-7B
196:Awards
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
