Yuri Nikolaevich
Zykov

1922-1944


Yuri Nikolaevich Zykov was the Deputy commander of the air squadron of the 59th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment (2nd Guards Assault Aviation Division, 16th Air Army, 1st Belorussian Front), a senior lieutenant of the Guards. He was born on November 15, 1922 in the city of Bryansk. He was Russian. Since 1926 he lived in Moscow. In 1940 he finished 10 grades of the school and the Leningrad Aero Club of Moscow. He was in the army since July 1940. Until July 1941, he studied at the Gostomel Military Aviation School of pilots, in the autumn of 1941 he graduated from the Engels Military Aviation School of pilots. He served in the Air Force as a pilot of the 5th reserve Aviation Regiment (the city of Kuibyshev, now Samara). He was a participant of the Great Patriotic War: in August-November 1942 – a pilot of the 694th assault aviation regiment, since November 1942 – a pilot, the flight commander and deputy commander of the air squadron of the 688th (from February 1943 – 59th Guards) assault aviation regiment. He fought on the Stalingrad, Don, Central, Belorussian and 1st Belorussian fronts. He participated in the Battles of Stalingrad and Kursk, Oryol, Chernihiv-Pripyat, Gomel-Rechitsa and Rogachev-Zhlobin operations. He flew more than 175 combat sorties on an IL-2 attack aircraft to strike at enemy manpower and equipment. He destroyed 150 vehicles with manpower and cargo, 40 tanks, 18 aircraft at airfields, a ferry, 2 railway echelons and 20 fuel tanks, suppressed the fire of 32 enemy anti-aircraft artillery points. He died on February 21, 1944 on an IL-2 aircraft while performing a combat mission near the city of Rogachev (the Gomel region, Belarus). For the courage and heroism shown in the battles, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated July 1, 1944, Senior Lieutenant Yuri Nikolaevich Zykov was posthumously awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union. He was awarded the Order of Lenin (posthumously), 2 Orders of the Red Banner, the Orders of Alexander Nevsky, the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree, the medal “For the Defence of Stalingrad.

Address: Moscow, Vrubelya str., 6