Nikolai Gastello - Official Details of The Final Mission

Official Details of The Final Mission

In the first three days of the war, the commanders of the Soviet 3rd Air Corps still attempted to use their DB-3 bombers in their primary role, as a medium altitude level bomber, operating mainly at night. However the losses the Soviet aviation suffered were too heavy to allow such luxuries. By the 25th the 207th BAP (Bomber Aviation Regiment) of the 3rd DBAK (Long-Range Bomber Corps) was forced to launch small flights of unescorted DB-3s on low-level ground attack missions that these large lumbering aircraft were hardly suitable for. Having flown three conventional night-time bombing missions, Gastello was facing increasingly unfavorable odds. The day before his final sortie he returned to base with heavy battle damage, and his regular navigator heavily wounded.

The next day, the 26th of June, Gastello's regiment, the 207th flew multiple sorties targeting enemy transport columns along the Molodechno - Radoshkovichi highway. Bombers were launched in single pairs, without fighter escort, with about two hour intervals between pairs. The day's first sortie took off at 0830, led by Captain Maslov. Senior Lt Viskovsky's pair took off at 1000. Captain Gastello's zveno (flight) of DB-3F's took off at 1200. Gastello's wingman was Lt Vorobiev.

A total of four people were in Gastello's aircraft: Gastello himself, his navigator lieutenant Anatoly Burdenyuk, sergeant Aleksy Kalinin in the dorsal gunner turret, and lieutenant Grigory Skorobogaty in the ventral gunner position. Skorobogatov was the squadron adjutant, a staff officer, and gunner stations were usually manned by NCOs; however Skorobogatov decided to jump into Gastello's bomber at the last minute, for uncertain reasons.

The only surviving aircraft of Gastello's flight, Lt Vorobiev's bomber, returned to base sometime after 2 pm. The only known crewmen of the second bomber are lieutenant Vorobiev and his navigator lieutenant Rybas. They reported that after about an hour in the air, they located a large armored column on the highway near the village of Dekshany, and conducted a bombing run from 400 meters of altitude. Having expended his bomb load, Gastello then flew a low-level pass, with his defensive gunners firing their 12.7mm (.50 cal) machine-guns at enemy vehicles. Gastello's plane received a direct hit in the fuel tank and caught fire. Initially set on a return course, his burning bomber then turned around, headed back to the transport column, and dove straight in, causing a "powerful explosion that shook the gaggle of enemy armored vehicles, and caused a burning storm that engulfed other enemy tanks".

The report of a large number of German tanks destroyed in the suicide attack apparently was deemed important enough to require independent proof. The next day regiment HQ ordered a reconnaissance flight to photograph the strike area. The photos it brought back reportedly showed a typical large crater, with multiple burned-out German tanks surrounding it.

On July 6, 1941, a report of Gastello's mission was read all over the Soviet Union in the official daily radio news report. Soviet newspapers immediately took up the story, praising Gastello's heroism, but leaving most of the details very scarce. The accuracy of these early reports varies greatly, and even the date of Gastello's final mission is often incorrectly given as June 28 and sometimes even July 3.

On July 25, Gastello was posthumously awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. His other crew members received only minor medals.

Gastello's regiment meanwhile continued to suffer very heavy losses. In the first month of the war they lost 47 bombers with their crews. Out of 148 men lost, the details of only 12 are known; the rest are lost over enemy-held territory with no witnesses. Out of 27 planes sent to Radoshkovichi only one plane returned, that of Lt Vorobiev. By September the regiment had lost all of its battle strength and existed only on paper. It was quietly disbanded.