Remembering Talgat Bigeldinov

history of the country. Throughout the bloody war, he spent his time fighting on the boardof IL-2, and managed to survive thanks to his jet and courage. Talgat Begeldinov was born on August 5, 1922 in the family of a peasant. According to one of the existing sources, he was born in the village of Maybalik of the Akmola region, on the other, he comes from Pishpek (present-day Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan). But the fact that Talgat Begeldinov was a descendant of the glorious Basygara batyr, one of the commanders of Khan Kenesary, who distinguished himself and heroically died in 1837 during the assault of the fortress of Akmola, is known for certain.

As Talgat Begeldinov himself wrote in one of his books: "I was born not to some kind of a maternity home, surrounded by doctors, midwives, not even in a house with a midwife. My mother brought me into the world of light in a tall two-wheeled old vehicle, harnessed by a camel, in general, in an ordinary nomadic way, which, according to the necessity of the Kazakh way of life, my relatives, like most of the Kazakh herdsmen, made through the steppe from one pasture to another.

In this case, the migration was caused by another reason. Known for the whole Akmola district, Bai Galibai, saving from confiscation cattle, instructed my father Tusupbek and some of his relatives from the family of my great-grandfather Biggeldy, among whom was my mother Khadia, to drive him to the Alatau mountains. The nomadic was considerable. Only Bai Galibai cattle in it went to fifteen thousand heads, including more than a thousand horses. Pregnant motheruntil the last moment rode on a camel, like all women in nomadic - it is more comfortable and softer on it. Only when the birth came, it was transferred to a two-wheeled arbus, harnessed by the same camel. Here she also gave birth under the open sky of the future pilot-stormtrooper. It happened on the second or third day of migration, still very near our village, near Akmola, near Lake Maybalyk.

As we are supposed to, in honor of the birth of his son, the nomad stopped. In all the ends, in the nearby villages from the migration, the messengers rushed to convoke people. Father, relatives cut livestock, cooked the one. And then, during the celebration, the aksakals gathered after a long discussion, as it should, defined my name - Talgat. "

Talgat Bigeldinov explains the confusion that came with his birthplace. It turns out that Talgat Begeldinov's native father's name was Tusupbek, but a boy was brought up in a childless family of his younger brother, Yakubek's father, where he was given the Kazakh tradition. Talgat's parents did not die early. The family lived very hard.

"Later it turned out that I, according to the Kazakh custom, was given to relatives in a childless family, and I moved to Pishpek. The new mother disliked me. Practically, I grew up stray. I had to beg alms even. The worst hunger was, my friends and I went to the mountains, we caught lizards, snakes. But I was cocky, with a character, "- will recall the famous pilot. At school, Talgat Bigeldinov did very well, was the best. However, when he moved from the Tatar school to Russian, for him incredible difficulties began. From the honors pupil, he very quickly began to turn into a dvoechnik. He was not given a Russian language. One day after another "stake" the boy went into an empty classroom and wept bitterly. At that moment a teacher of Russian entered the classroom. She regretted Talgat and promised to help him.

"With his friend, a small Arkashka, he also" limped "in declensions and conjugations, we showed up to the teacher. A small house under a thatched roof, poverty peeks out from every corner. But the coldest thing is the worst. Arkashka and I exchanged a conspiratorial look and jumped out of the door. "Where are you boys," the teacher only managed to say in confusion, believing that we were frightened by the cold. But we had other things in mind. Nearby there was a wood warehouse, having swung over the fence, we quickly zatarysya saxaul. We made two walks. The teacher clapped her hands. Half an hour later there was already Tashkent in the room. She rehearsed with us for several weeks, fed up what he sent to God, although she lived on her own. That's why I write correctly in Russian, "Talgat Begeldinov will tell later.

In 1938, Talgat enters an aero club in the city of Frunze, where he was still thinking about taking or not taking because of his small size and a childish face (he was 16 years old, and the commission gave 14). In 1940, he went to study at the Balashov Military Aviation School, then transferred to the Chkalovsky Aviation School in Orenburg, which ends in 1942.On the fronts of the Great Patriotic War Talgat Begeldinov begins to fight since January 1943. After only 11 hours of flying into the IL-2, he sits at his helm and makes 4-6 sorties a day. 

In one of his interviews, twice Hero of the Soviet Union will say about his military machine, which repeatedly saved his life: "There are no perfect planes. But that plane on which you fly, you need to love. And he, though an inanimate object, will reciprocate you. A car was alive. Sometimes you come back - there is no living place, a hole on the hole, and he pulls. It was also called "flying tank", "black death". But such a formidable weapon was made not only by designers, but also by those who fought on it, fought, died and won - pilots and arrows of assault aviation regiments of the Red Army Air Force."

Talgat Begeldinov made 305 sorties to storm the enemy ground forces, 305 times he met face to face with death. Just imagine, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Marshal Anatoly Efimov carried out 244 sorties, and Talgat Bigeldinov is 61 more (!). In addition, on the account of Begeldinov, 7 downed enemy aircraft, including the Messer, at the helm of which was the German virtuoso of air combat, Captain von Dietrich, with crosses on his chest for combat feats in Spain, France, the Balkans. Although the pilots-stormtrains do not fight with enemy aircraft, it is the fighters who make their only task - to bomb enemy troops on the ground. Beggeldinov became the leading pilot after the 9-homing flight, during the years of battles under his command, not a single pilot was killed. This is also one of his personal achievements.

At 22, on October 26, 1944, Senior Lieutenant Begeldinov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the bravery and combat skills shown at the liberation of the cities of Znamenka, Kirovograd, for personally knocked down 4 enemy planes in air battles. Two times Hero, Captain Begeldinov, became on June 27, 1945, for his skilful leadership of the squadron and his combat feats during the storming of enemy troops and equipment in battle for the cities of Krakow, Oppeln (now Opole), Katowice, Breslau (now Wroclaw) and Berlin. In June 1945, he took part in the Victory Parade on Red Square in Moscow. Talgat Begeldinov participated in the most difficult battles, defended Moscow, Kiev, the countries of Europe, took Berlin. He is the only Double Hero in all of Central Asia and Kazakhstan.

He said that he never believed in signs, and his aircraft at number 13 can be that confirmation. The number turned out to be lucky. However, the prayer that his great-grandmother taught him, Talgat Bigeldinov read to himself before each flight. "It was the only person in my childhood who loved me immensely. My great-grandmother lived 101 years. I already went to an aeroclub. I came one time, and she said: "Son, I'll teach you prayer. It will rain, lightning, read, lightning will not fall into you, it will bypass you. " These words also the young man has remembered, having appeared on front.

When peacetime came, Talgat Bigeldinov continued his service in the Armed Forces of the USSR, until 1970 he worked in civil aviation. He graduated from the Moscow Civil Engineering Institute, he worked in senior positions in the system of the State Construction Committee of the Kazakh SSR. He was a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2-3rd and 12th convocations. Was the president of the charity fund, which provides assistance to disabled veterans of the Great Patriotic War and orphans.

More than 40 years the legendary pilot was engaged in his own apiary. He called this case "fun" and "peaceful squadron" and spent almost all his free time on it. Those who knew him say that Begeldinov was very modest, simple in communication, uninterrupted in help. Always distinguished by deep internationalism and never tired of repeating that it was the friendship and unity of the whole people that brought victory in the Great Patriotic War. In 2012, after the death of air marshal Alexander Efimov Talgat Begeldinov became the only surviving twice Hero of the Soviet Union. In recent years Talgat Begeldinov was very sick. November 10, 2014, the land, which was so bravely defended by the legendary pilot, woke up and found out that he was no more. He was again in the sky.

Having lived a long life, Talgat Begeldinov saw with his own eyes what became his homeland without the accursed war. He left a covenant to all of us: "I do not wish anyone a war. But if it happens, do not bring Allah, dashing year, so that you, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, beat the enemies no worse than us. This is our covenant. " Man-legend, man-feat, man-example. So I want to believe that Talgat Begeldinov will be with us forever, as long as memory is alive - a person is alive.

In military reports there is such a graph - irretrievable losses. It is sad, irrevocable losses are in peacetime. Just recently, the legendary pilot-attack plane, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Talgat Begeldinov, left us. Military nugget. In the air, he managed everything. He was able to assault accurately, fly to distant reconnaissance, to shoot down not according to the rules of the Messers. At age 23, he had a full set of top awards - from soldier's Glory to the golden stars of the Hero. Once again we will recall what he was like. In this peculiar obituary, fragments of his interview, excerpts from his books, memoirs of relatives were used. "Perhaps, I do not even know myself when this dream was born in my soul - an airplane. In the reserve aviation regiment in Izhevsk, where I was sent after the Orenburg flight school, I was ready not to get out of his comfortable cab for many hours. But I was not alone. Dozens of other knights of the sky were torn to the helm, but there was not enough airplanes for everyone. So I had to fly mostly in a circle, in extreme cases - on the route. Therefore, in my flight book before coming to the army in force there were only eleven hours of flight. And it's a blessing that I fell into good hands, in the regiment, with the ekadril, where the young did not constitute the majority, as in other divisions. Otherwise, it is difficult to say how my destiny would have turned out. It is estimated that every fourth young pilot-attack plane perished in the first battle. Experienced pilots introduced us one at a time. It is important to endure the first fight, not to squander and return alive."

About the legendary IL-2, on which Talgat Begeldinov fought, it is necessary to say specifically. As early as the beginning of 1938, the aviation designer Sergey Ilyushin applied to the government with the proposal to create an attack aircraft, from which all life centers would be protected, were in an armored cradle. The designer warned that the creation of such a machine is an arduous task and involves a great technical risk. The development of the future of the IL-2 was delayed for many reasons. In part because many aviation officials did not understand at first that a talented designer proposed, in today's language, a breakthrough project. The main serial Il-2 took off only in March 1941. By the beginning of the war, they had managed to scrape together planes into only one regiment.

After Stalin uttered his famous phrase "IL-2 planes are needed by the Red Army as air", the forcible way began to make up for lost time. But Ilu was again unlucky. First, the designer conceived it as a double. But it was released in a single version. Who changed the project, I did not even know Ilyushin. Behind and below the plane was defenseless. Single cars were an easy target, even for second-rate Luftwaffe pilots.

Pilots of single-seat cars were called suicide bombers, they were knocked down like geese, they were afraid to fly to IL-2. And only when the pilot and the rear hemisphere began to cover the regular shooter, the car showed itself in all its terrible power. As the German general Walter Schwabedissen wrote later in his rather objective book "The Stalin Falcons", the IL-2 was characterized by its absolute completeness and the ability to fulfill its own specific tasks. In full, German attack aircraft did not possess these qualities. The pilots of the Luftwaffe called the IL-2 "reinforced concrete" and joked: "Even under continuous fire IL-2 does its job and does not tremble." But there are no ideal planes, IL-2 was not an exception, the car had many shortcomings. Made it a formidable weapon, those who fought, perished and defeated on the Ilah - Stalin's falcons, pilots and air gunners of assault aviation regiments of the Red Army. As the air marshal Krasovsky wrote in his memoirs, it was such pilots as George the Beauty, Mikhail Odintsov, Talgat Begeldinov and others, who became famous for their air battle virtuosos, glorified the IL-2 as a "flying tank" or "hunchbacked", inhaled in his life, they made an excellent car on their flight-technical data an indispensable plane of the battlefield.
"Its first order in the war - the Second World War, it was only introduced - I received for a downed" Messer ", by the way, in a single version, without an arrow. That day was unsuccessful for our squadron. Several of our cars crashed into the ground before my eyes. We seized the Messer. And this desire to knock it down!

Previously, such fights, as a rule, ended with a scorched skeleton of the "humpbacked" on the ground. That's when I remembered the instructions of my cousin Poshivalnikov: "You take him on the forehead, on a bend, whirling around as you please. Remember, you're strong, you can turn it into chips, but do not turn your back on Fritz. They know that your back is not protected, you are struck by the tail. " So I caught it in a bend. The pilot of the downed "Messer" was a major, who had 108 shot down planes, including in Europe. The pilot asked to introduce him to the "yellow-throated" who shot down the ace not according to the rules, but he was immediately sent to the army headquarters as an important bird."

"Over time, I have mastered the long-distance air reconnaissance well. He often flew himself, without cover. An air scout-loner is especially dangerous for the enemy, and therefore is the coveted prey of anti-aircraft guns or German fighters. Flying at high altitudes, he himself is virtually invisible, only the sound produces it. The sound of my engine is smooth, continuous. The Germans were sharp, discontinuous. Studying these sounds, I adjusted myself to forge the sound of my engine under the fascist, periodically moving the gas knob. This focus, as they say now, know-how, mislead the enemy and, to some extent, protected me from antiaircraft guns."

"Especially remember the flight with the photographing of two German airfields. The Germans guarded airfields from the air was set very well. For my "roof" I was calm, on top of me was covered by a link of hawks, "small", as we called them during the radio exchange. In order not to be an easy target for antiaircraft guns, I went to the aerodrome from the rear. When approaching the target, it dropped to three hundred meters under the lower edge of the clouds, set the course and speed for photographing. While the earth is silent.

I turn on the camera ten frames per second. A few more moments - and the earth vomited into me from all sorts of trunks. The shells are torn alongside, but maneuvering is not possible - the flight mode will fail, the picture is smeared. At all costs, it is necessary to withstand these several slow seconds. As we have said, fly without stirring. Multi-colored caps of rips surround the plane. With a sharp turn with a decrease of up to one hundred meters, I leave the firing zone. Red and purple balls of "erlikonov", like beads, run after the plane one after another. Mission accomplished. Time to go home. The escort aircraft lead me to the landing. After landing, my mechanic technician counted more than thirty holes in the planes and fuselage of my IL".

"According to the pilots, the formation of storm troopers is something like a fish joint. He is as cohesive, completely monolithic. In every movement of maneuver, like the fish flock, it is subordinated to a single volitional center. The center's will center is the leader. By his will, in a word, the movement of the flap of his plane makes a maneuver, instantly changes the direction, altitude of the flight, leaving the defeat or attacking. In the history of our regiment, and not only it, there were cases when a group of excellent pilots suffered defeat, or even a complete collapse solely due to the fault of the incapable of commanding the leader. Leader of all honor and glory, all the foam from each attack. He is the first - various incentives, the highest awards, up to the golden asterisk. Despite this, even experienced pilots in every possible way refused such leadership. Too much responsibility, especially for those you lead. Being the lead group at 250 sorties during the assignment, I did not lose a single pilot."

"For my life I was questioned, interviewed by dozens of journalists, and even writers. They asked me to lay them out on the shelves, from which my victories formed, to name that wand-a wand or some kind of amulet that saved me in the sky from fascist bullets and shells. I flew at number 13, and he turned out to be a lucky number for me. On the 13th issue, I flew for the first time on a combat mission. On the plane with the same number, I finished the war, flew to Berlin and Prague. What after that is it worth talking about that dozen brings misfortune? But I'm not an iron man, I confess, I repeated some spells or prayers before the flight. She taught me my grandmother. Of course, good luck in battle is needed. But it accounts for some percentage of the percentage. To survive in battle, you need to be stronger than the enemy in everything: in technology, in the degree of personal preparation, to be firmly confident in victory and then the devil himself is not your brother. Then you only have to win and return to the airfield alive." Talgat Bigeldinov was a great friend of journalists. I remember he came to the "Lenin's shift", where I then worked to personally thank the correspondent who wrote about him for the first time, as no one had written before. He was a member of my department Serezha Dvoinin.

I now have a favorite hoggy - 16 hives. I call it a "peaceful squadron." I was already in the ninth decade, the combat pilots who passed the war have not lived for so long, although there were long-livers in my family. Probably, this Allah prolongs my life for those dead guys, my fighting friends, who by age are now suitable for me in grandchildren. Therefore, we must try to live worthy of their memory. Surprisingly, the war from a distance of so many years, despite all the suffering, blood, the death of such bright children, looks bright. We felt then citizens with a capital letter. People, on whom the fate of the Motherland and of all mankind depends. I do not wish anyone a war, but if it happens, do not bring Allah, dashing year, so that our great-grandchildren beat enemies no worse than us. This is our mandate.