Sergey Vasilyevich
Milashenkov
1921-1944
Sergey Vasilyevich Milashenkov was the squadron commander of the 109th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment (6th Guards Assault Aviation Division, 2nd Guards Assault Aviation Corps, 2nd Air Army, 1st Ukrainian Front), a Guard senior lieutenant. He was born on September 15, 1921 in the village of Lesovoy, now in the Safonovsky district of the Smolensk region, in a peasant family. In 1932, together with his mother, he moved to his sister in the city of Moscow. Here he finished his seven-year course and began an independent working life. He worked in an artel of musical instruments, and then in the printing house of the newspaper Pravda. He graduated from the aero club on the job. He was drafted into the Red Army in 1940. He was sent to the Engels Military Aviation School of Pilots, which he successfully graduated from in 1942. Since December 1942, he had been fighting the invaders on the Southwestern, 3rd and 2nd Ukrainian fronts on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. In March 1943, during the strike on the railway station, Milashenkov’s plane was hit by anti-aircraft artillery fire and fell outside the territory occupied by the enemy. The pilot and the air gunner were wounded and captured. After interrogations, Milashenkov was sent to Germany. He escaped along the way with two other prisoners. Eleven days he went to the front line. After crossing the Seversky Donets, having gone out to his own, he became seriously ill. He spent almost two months in hospital and then returned to the regiment. Soon he was appointed as a squadron commander. On October 13, 1943, at the head of the six “ILs”, the brave pilot struck at the enemy’s forward positions on the right bank of the Dnieper. The group was attacked by enemy fighters. Covering his comrades, Milashenkov went into a frontal attack and shot down the leader. Our planes returned without losses. By July 1944, he had completed 90 successful sorties. On the personal combat account of the brave pilot there were more than twenty burned enemy tanks, 7 artillery and mortar batteries, 22 anti-aircraft guns and hundreds of enemy soldiers and officers. He led groups of stormtroopers more than 60 times. On July 14, 1944, the six Ilyushins, led by Senior Lieutenant Milashenkov, attacked a column of tanks and self-propelled guns of the enemy near the village of Mikulichi (the Vladimir-Volynsky district of the Volyn region, the Ukrainian SSR). The presenter’s plane was set on fire by anti-aircraft artillery fire. Then the pilot sent his burning plane to a cluster of enemy troops. He was flying at a low altitude, continuously firing cannons and machine guns, hurrying to release all the ammunition on the enemy until he crashed into the thick of enemy equipment. Air gunner Ivan Solop also died. By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 27, 1945, Senior Lieutenant Sergey Vasilyevich Milashenkov was posthumously awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union for exemplary performance of combat missions of the command at the front of the fight against the Nazi invaders and the courage and heroism of the Guard shown at the same time. He was awarded the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree, the Red Star, medals.
Address: Moscow, Yablochkova, 41, building 4
