CourageTurning point
Air battles over Kuban
The skies over Kuban
- times Pokryshkin was made a Hero of the Soviet Union
- 3
- times Pokryshkin was made a Hero of the Soviet Union
In spring 1943 huge air battles raged over the Kuban, sometimes hundreds of planes at once. Pilot Alexander Pokryshkin became famous here with his combat formula: “Altitude, speed, manoeuvre, fire.” He would later be three times Hero of the Soviet Union.
Hundreds of aircraft fought at once in the sky over the Kuban. Pokryshkin had his fighters fly in tiers at different heights, and pilots called it the “Kuban bookcase”. He taught them not to wait for the enemy but to attack first, from above, at high speed.
After these battles Soviet aviation was no longer weaker than the enemy in the air. Pilots who came through the Kuban later fought all the way to Berlin.
See it on the map