Video: How a legless pilot fought in the skies in World War I, and then fulfilled his "American dream"
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In literature, the feat of the pilot who fought for the Motherland was captured by Boris Polevoy in The Tale of a Real Man. Historians call the prototype of the protagonist the Soviet pilot Alexei Maresyev. History knows a lot of pilots who performed a similar feat, continuing to serve the Motherland even after the amputation of their legs. During the First World War, Alexander Prokofiev-Seversky ascended into the sky with a wooden prosthesis. He became a real hero in Russia, and after that he fulfilled the American dream in exile.
Alexander was a descendant of a noble family and was educated in the Naval Cadet Corps. True, he had a real passion not for the sea, but for the sky. Moreover, my father had his own plane, and his brother learned to fly. Alexander made the decision to become a naval pilot, underwent training and in the first couple of weeks of his combat missions he suffered from enemy bullets. In one of the battles, his seaplane landed on the water, Sasha had a bomb on his knees, there was an explosion, and he received severe damage to his foot. At the hospital, he was awaiting amputation.
In the future, it seemed that for Alexander the career of a military pilot should be completed, but that was not the case. As a result of lengthy training, he managed to master the control of an airplane, even with a prosthesis. All his requests to sit down at the helm again were rejected by the army leadership, instead he was offered the position of inspector. Then Prokofiev-Seversky decided to take a desperate step: during a demonstration of the aircraft, he arbitrarily sat in the cockpit, climbed into the sky and began to go into dangerous turns, demonstrating a brilliant level of control of the machine.
The incident had such a resonance that information about it reached the Emperor Nicholas II, and he personally ordered to allow Alexander Prokofiev-Seversky to continue combat missions. The talented pilot justified the hopes placed on him: on his account there were many battles, during which he fought heroically, helped his partners, shot down enemy seaplanes.
Once again, Alexander was hospitalized with a broken leg. He was injured not in the sky, but on the ground, riding a motorcycle. After recovering, he went to work in Moscow, where he trained young pilots and tested new models of aircraft, and also continued to fly combat missions. In particular, he distinguished himself in the battles on the sharp Ezel. When it came time for Russian aviation to leave the location, Alexander found himself at the helm of a hastily repaired aircraft. During the flight, the engine failed, the pilot was forced to sit down and then - to get 16 km to the location of his troops through neutral territory, carrying a machine gun and other valuable things from a seaplane in his hands. This feat was the final one in the career of the pilot Prokofiev-Seversky.
Alexander received a new appointment, a position awaited him at the Russian Embassy in Washington. He left Russia just during the revolution and even almost became a victim of the sailors who seized the train in which he was traveling to Vladivostok. The anarchists recognized the legendary pilot by a prosthetic leg and kept him alive.
When Alexander nevertheless got to the United States, he found that the Russian embassy was not working, since the USSR concluded the Brest Peace with Germany. It would be madness to return home, the Civil War was raging in the country. Then de Seversky (this is how his name was entered in his passport) decided to stay in America. Initially, he got a job in a design bureau, then won the favor of General William Mitchell, giving some valuable advice during training bombers. Mitchell appreciated the knowledge and experience of the Russian pilot so highly that, under his patronage, de Seversky soon became an adviser to the US Air Force under the Secretary of War.
De Seversky's American career took off. He was able to design a new model of the sight, sell the development to the government, and with the funds received, open his own design bureau. This bureau is responsible for the development of several models of fighters. For his contribution to the development of American aircraft construction, de Seversky was repeatedly awarded with certificates of honor.
De Seversky predicted the beginning of World War II, expressed valuable analytical remarks about the potential of the belligerents, called on the Americans to support the USSR, although he did not support the Bolshevik regime. During the war, Alexander de Seversky had to carry out many unique assignments. In particular, he was present at the interrogation of Heinrich Goering, studied the consequences of the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as on the Bikini Atoll.
In America, Alexander also found personal happiness. He married Evelyn Olliphant, a well-educated and talented girl who later also became interested in piloting and learned to fly an airplane. Together they lived a happy life, flew a lot, and a dog with the Russian nickname Vodka lived in the house with them.
The true story of pilot Alexei Maresyev it was not easy. What is true and what is fiction in the legendary book of Boris Polevoy, you can find out from our article.
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