Soviet Fighter pilot winner of Order Alexander Nevsky research

[koopyetz]

AWARD CITATION

1. Last, first and middle names Shcherbina Petr Ivanovich

2, Rank Guard Major

3. Position, unit Assistant Commander in charge of Air-Shooting Service of 117th Guard Fighter Aviation Stanislavsky Order of Red Banner Regiment, 236th Fighter Aviation Order of Red Banner Lvov Division.

Is recommended for Order ? Alexander Nevsky?

4. Birth date 1914

5. Nationality Ukranian

6. Party membership VKP (b) since 1943

7. Participation in the civil war and other military actions aimed at the defense of the USSR (where and when) Participant in Patriotic War since 20.8.1942 Consisting of Transcaucas Front Northern Caucasus Front, 4th Ukrainian and 3rd Ukranian Front

8. Wounds or contusions received during the Patriotic War 20.5.44 in aerial combat,bullet wound through right shoulder

9. In Red Army since Since 1938

10. Drafted by what district military commissariat Regular (Kadrovij or Kadr) ? means he was not drafted with Regional Commissariat, instead he finished Military School and received a rank of an officer.

11. Previous awards: Order ?Red Banner? Decree of Black Sea Group (Chernomorskaya Gruppa) Northern

Caucasus Front No. 091/058/n on 11.2.42,

Order ?Patriotic War Second Class by Decree of the 4th Air Army No.-038/n on 5.5.43 and Order ?Red Banner? by the Decree of 8th Air Army,-64/n on 24.12.43

12. Permanent home address of his/her family Georgian SSR, Zakavkazskaya Railroad, Station of Rustavy, Mailbox #1

Wife- Marchenkova Galina Mihailovna

I. Brief description of personal feat or merits

Guard Major Shcherbina for distinguished performance of duties during battle assignment

on front fighting German invaders : Two Orders ?Red Banner? and Order ?Patriotic War

Second Class?.

First governmental award order ?Red Banner? by Decree of Army group Northern

Caucasus Front No.091/058/n on 2.43 for personally completing 91 combat missions, 22- against adversaries in Kavkazsky canyon.

Second governmental award order: Patriotic War Second class by Decree of the 4th Air Army No. 038/n on 5.5.43 completing 70 combat missions, 15 missions in sturmovik

against adversaries on steppes of Kuban.

Third governmental award order:?Red Banner? award by Decree of the 8th Air Army

No.-64/n on 24.12.43 for completing 79 combat missions, 20 in accompanying IL-2 and

for shooting down 2 opponents.

Since awarding third governmental award Guard Major Shcherbina during the period from December 24, 1943 to December 10, 1944 flew 13 combat missions. Seven of those he flew to escort our Il-2 Shturmovik ground attack planes and six missions to cover our front line ground troops. He participated in 2-x aerial combat and knocked out 1 opposing airplane.

In combat for our homeland comrade Shcherbina has demonstrated himself to be a brave aerial combatant, showing technical skill and tactical management during aerial fighting.

Guard Major Shcherbina distinguished himself with good leadership and organizational

ability with troops. As Commander of Airborne Rifle Regiment he trained personnel in tactics against enemy with illustration and organizational training and excellent results of ground based training of troops leading to successful aerial combat.

On 20.5.44 Guard Major Shcherbina departed as lead aircraft of 4 Yak fighters. He encountered group of 8 ME-109?s. Shcherbina and his comrades found themselves at a disadvantage in combat. Over a period of 15 minutes Major Shcherbina fought against this rising force and was wounded in the right shoulder.

All in all for time in Patriotic War Guard Major Shcherbina has flown 253 successful

combat missions shooting down 2 adversaries.

For distinguishing himself with discharge of combat assignments on front against

German invaders, for 13 succesful combat missions and for good management of

Airborne-Rifle Regiment- in a fitting manner he is presented with governmental award

Order?AlexanderNevsky?

Signed Commander 117th Guard Fighter Aviation regiment

21 December 1944

In a fitting manner representing government award order

?Alexander Nevsky?

Signed Commander 236th Exterminator Aviation Order of Red Banner

Division-Colonel

27 December 1944

Decree 17th Air Army No. 02/n on 7.1.46

Award Order- Alexander Nevsky

2nd OTD. OK 17th Air Army

[koopyetz]

Record card

Record Card

Order book No . 486105

1. Last name: Shcherbina

2. First, middle names: Petr Ivanovich

3. Military rank: Lt. Colonel

4. Sex: Male

5. Year of birth: 1914

6. Place of birth: Ukranian SSR, Stalinskaya Oblast, City of Slavyansk

7. Party membership since: KPSS since 5.1943

8. Education: middle

9. Nationality: Ukranian

10. In the Red Army : since 7.10.38

11. Place of service (name of the unit) and position occupied when awarded: 29th Fighter Aviation Division, The Head of Air-Shooting Service (Vozdushno-Strelkovaya Sluzhba).

12. Current place of service and position: 110th Fighter Aviation Division, Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of Control and Pointing Center (Punkt Upravleniya I Navedeniya).

13. Home address of the awardee: Stalinskaya Oblast Kurilsky region, village (poselok) Burevestnik (Stormy Petrel).

14. Record of previous awards

ORB

OGPW 2nd Class

ORB

Alexander Nevsky

CSM

ORS

Defense of Caucasus

Victory over Germany

Liberation of Belgrade

30th Anniversary of Red Army and Navy

Signature of awardee (signed) ________________________

Data correctness

and signature of awardee: Commander 110th Fighter Aviation Division

Colonel Kachanov.

2 November 1954

[koopyetz]

Record card

Order book No . 578381

1. Last name: Shcherbina

2. First, middle names: Petr Ivanovich

3. Military rank: Lt. Colonel

4. Sex: Male

5. Year of birth: 23.07.1914

6. Place of birth: Stalinskaya Oblast, City of Slavyansk

7. Party membership since: KPSS since 5.1943

8. Education: lower

9. Nationality: Ukranian

10. In the Red Army : since 7.10.38

11. Place of service (name of the unit) and position occupied when awarded: 119th Fighter Air Division, Chief Officer on Duty of the Division?s Command Center

12. Current place of service and position: The same

13. Home address of the awardee: Moldavian SSR City of Tiraspol

14. Record of previous awards

ORB

Defense of Caucasus

Liberation of Belgrade

Victory over Germany

30th Anniversary of Red Army and Navy

Signature of awardee (signed) ________________________

Data correctness

and signature of awardee: The head of Personnel Department of 119th Fighter Aviation Division, Major Lomachenkov

April 2, 1957

[koopyetz]

Finally, I want to thank Kristof for the opportunity to try my hand at this Translation.

I also want to extend a BIG thanks to Mondvor for checking my work and making corrections where

necessary.

Regards

Rick

[Guest Rick Research]

One thing-- where you have "airborne rifle regiment" above, he was actually aerial gunnery commander of his fighter regiment.

Excellent job!

[koopyetz]

Rick:

Thank you for the input. I will add it to my copy.

Regards

Rick

[Kristof]

Dear Gentleman.

I would like to thank you for your help with translation .

Special Big Thanks to Rick (koopyetz) for his devoted time

to make this translation ha pend.

Finally, I want to thank Kristof for the opportunity to try my hand at this Translation.

I also want to extend a BIG thanks to Mondvor for checking my work and making corrections where

necessary.

Regards

Rick

[koopyetz]

Kristof:

You are welcome. I also thank Rick Research and other members of the forum who provided key parts of this translation.I enjoy trying my hand at the translation ,learning about the recipient , assembling the results and sharing the results with the forum members.

Regards

Rick

[Ed_Haynes]

Speaking on behalf of myself and the other Russian-language illiterates here, I want to (again) thank Rick, and Rick, and the others on the forum who assist us in the translation and disentangling of these valuable research materials. Only thus is history recaptured and restored. Many thanks! I know how much work it is to produce an accurate and readable translation.

Ah . . . for RNA-based language-acquisition injections . . . or a nice computer chip to plug in behind the right ear . . . or a Babel Fish that worked (unlike the one online) . . . .

Edited January 27, 2008 by Ed_Haynes

[koopyetz]

Ed:

Thank you for the kind words. It is because of you and the other forum members who have help me as a new collector . Knowing how you have helped

other members as a mentor has instilled in me a desire to find a way to also help others and give back to the forum.

Regards

Rick

[Kristof]

Since you have his name, Orders Book numbers and so on, I think it might be possible if you contact Alexei Merezhko to have his researcher see if there is a normal sized photograph in the personnel file.

http://home.netcom.com/~merezhko/research.html

As you will have noticed from posts here, it is MUCH nicer to get actual PHOTOGRAPHIC copies of the records than the xerox copies that you've got, and that were all I ever got in my researching awards days.

Send Alexei the link to this thread so they can see the Russian spelling fof the Colonel's names. I'm old enough that my transcription of Cyrillic seems to have become outdated, so you don't want any confusion (Tscherbina/Shcherbina and so on) about the actual Cyrillic letters.

Rick.

I was contact Alexei but hes researcher find nothing in archive.

I have question did you find Tscherbina photo in your book if yes can you send me scan.

regards

Kristof

[Guest Rick Research]

No photo of him in that book.