V2-Escape from hell ( Девятаев ) NEW MOVIE !!!

[Martinnfb]

 

[Martinnfb]

Born in 1917 at Torbeyevo, Mikhail was the thirteenth child born to the family of a Mordovian peasant. In 1938 he graduated from a School of River Navigation (Речной Техникум) and worked as the captain of a small ship on the Volga. That same year he was conscripted into the Red Army and began education at a Chkalov Flying School, graduating in 1940.^[1]

Devyataev was an early entrant of World War II, destroying his first Ju 87 on 24 June 1941, just two days after Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Soon he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. On 23 September he was seriously wounded (he was hit in his left leg). After a long stay in the hospital he was assigned to Po-2 unit and then to medical aviation. He resumed his duties as a fighter pilot after his meeting with the famous Soviet ace Aleksandr Pokryshkin in May 1944. Commander of an echelon with the 104th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, Senior Lieutenant Devyatayev destroyed nine enemy planes.

On 13 July 1944 Devyataev was downed near Lviv over German-held territory and became a prisoner of war, held in the Łódź concentration camp. He made an attempt to escape on 13 August but was caught and transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He soon realised that his situation was perilous because as a Soviet pilot, he could expect extreme brutality; therefore, he managed to exchange identities with a dead Soviet infantryman.

With his new identity, Devyataev was later transferred to a camp in Usedom to be a part of a forced labor crew working for the German missile program on the island of Peenemünde. Under hellish conditions, the prisoners were forced to repair runways and clear unexploded bombs by hand. Security was rigidly enforced with vicious guards and dogs, and there was little chance of escape. Even so, by February 1945, Devyataev concluded that, however remote, the chance of escape was preferable to certain death as a prisoner.

Devyataev managed to convince three other prisoners (Sokolov, Krivonogov and Nemchenko) that he could fly them to freedom. They decided to run away in the dinnertime, when most of the guards were in the dining room. Sokolov and Nemchenko were able to create a work gang from Soviet citizens only, as they didn't know foreign languages to communicate freely and coordinate their plans with other inmates.

At noon on 8 February 1945, as the ten Soviet POWs, including Devyataev, were at work on the runway, one of the work gang, Ivan Krivonogov, picked up a crowbar and killed their guard. Another prisoner, Peter Kutergin, quickly stripped off the guard's uniform and slipped it on. The work gang, led by the "guard", managed to unobtrusively take over the camp commandant's He 111 H22 bomber and fly from the island. Devyataev piloted the aircraft.

The Germans tried to intercept the bomber unsuccessfully. The aircraft was damaged by Soviet air defences but managed to land in Soviet-held territory. The escapees provided important information about the German missile program, especially about the V-1 and V-2.

The NKVD did not believe Devyataev's story, arguing that it was impossible for the prisoners to take over an airplane without cooperation from the Germans. After a short time in hospital in late March 1945 seven of the escapees were sent to serve in a penal military unit, of the escapees, five died in action over the following months, while three officers including Devyataev spent time in prison during prolonged investigation. ^[2]

Devyataev was discharged from the army in November 1945. However, his classification remained that of a "criminal", and so he was unable to find a job for a long while. Eventually, though, Devyataev found work as a manual laborer in Kazan. Soviet authorities cleared Devyataev only in 1957, after the head of the Soviet space program Sergey Korolyov personally presented his case, arguing that the information provided by Devyataev and the other escapees had been critical for the Soviet space program. He got a job at the Kazan river port as a duty officer at the river station, then trained as a captain-mechanic. From 1949 he worked as an assistant to the captain of the longboat Ogonyok, from 1952 – the captain of the longboat Ogonyok, from 1955 he was transferred to the position of captain of the motor ship. 

On 15 August 1957, Devyataev became a Hero of the Soviet Union and a subject of multiple books and newspaper articles. He continued to live in Kazan. In the late 1950s, Devyatayev was entrusted with testing the "Raketa", one of the world's first passenger hydrofoil ships; for many years he worked as a captain of river ships and became the first captain of the hydrofoil ship "Meteor"

Member of the CPSU since 1959. In 1972, he published his memoirs.

 

[Martinnfb]

 

 

[Martinnfb]

Soundtrack ( Till Lindemann )

A comrade flies to a distant land,

And native winds fly after him.

Beloved town melts in a blue haze

A familiar house, a green garden and a gentle look. 

Comrade will pass all battles and wars,

Not knowing sleep, not knowing silence.

The beloved town can sleep well

And dream, and be green in the spring.

When my comrade will return home

The native winds will fly after him.

The beloved town will smile at him,

The familiar house, the green garden and the happy look.

 

[Bomber_County]

Thanks Martin, I’ll definitely take a look. Amazing that he wasn’t believed, some German POW’s were not released until the 50’s I believe.

[BlrwestSiR]

Thanks Martin! Very interesting story.

 

[GusMac]

Ah, that makes sense. I listened to the Till Lindemann track the other day and wondered why he was singing in Russian but this puts it in context. 

Looks an interesting film.