My mistake
- Bychkov was the surname...
- This was that Bychkov?
Yes, we had found some propaganda lists sighned by him?
(The memory must have failed Benedikt Ilyich in this case: 937 IAP commander Kolzov was killed on 7.11.43, and Bychkov was captured on 11.12.43, when he was deputy squadron commander in 482 IAP. Bychkov really was in 937 IAP earlier, and in 1942 he was sentenced for a crash, caused by him, what did not become an obstacle for him to become a HSU. According to the interrogation protocols, he did not admott him self guilty, claimimg that he never had any relationship with the ROA, and that Germans just used his name and title. No proof was found of his relationship, but he was stripped of his rank, awards and discharged from the active duty.)
? Did you complete some kinds of forms for kill claims? Or you would just report, and confirmation was non of your business?
All paper work was adjutants responcibility. Of course we had some problems with confirmations... One of my claims was not confirmed. It was almost at the end of war, in Grenau, near Neische. We flew free hunt. Marchenko took me with him, and he shot one down right by the field. It smoked and dissapeared... Another Fokker-190 was there, so I shot at him, and I saw how it rolled over on the ground, burning.
We landed and reported to IAP commander Sobolev: ?Shot down planes near our homebase, send someone to check, we will show where they fell?.
He said:
?You become impudent! If you shot down all Luftwaffe, who?s flying the? Do you want more awards??.
You become impudent! If you shot down all Luftwaffe, who?s flying then?