P-39 Airacobras of Glinka brothers

[KL]

Hi Misos,
it's good to organize information, but you may consider following:

-  Glinka wasn't necessarily shot down in "his" Airacobra. Sometimes he flew several times in a day -  in one extreme case he flew 9 combat missions in a single day. Obviously he flew planes that were ready/available, there was no time to wait for "his" Airacobra to be prepared/repaired for the mission.  Airacobra no. 21 (serial no. 42-4403) could have been "Glinka's" plane before he was shot down on April 15.  It is only your assumption that Glinka started flying no. 21 on April 21, after he returned to the regiment.  

-  Gun compartment panel from "his" old damaged plane could be reused on "his" new plane. This was definitively a case with the same panel on two  Airacobras flown by G. Rechkalov.  

[learstang]

On the other side it shows quite high protection and probability to survive for pilot. I read that soviet pilots considered P-39 safe even after being hit and preferred forced landing rather than bale out. D.B. Glinka at least once, Sukhov twice, P-39 in Finland museum (combination of two force landed Cobras) etc.

Regards,
    66misos

I've read that it was sometimes difficult to bail out of the Kobra and there was the possibility of being struck by the tailplane (although wasn't this last a possibility with many aeroplanes?).  Perhaps this led to Soviet pilots preferring to crash land rather than bail out.

Regards,

Jason

[66misos]

Hi KL,

-  Glinka wasn't necessarily shot down in "his" Airacobra. Sometimes he flew several times in a day -  in one extreme case he flew 9 combat missions in a single day. Obviously he flew planes that were ready/available, there was no time to wait for "his" Airacobra to be prepared/repaired for the mission.  Airacobra no. 21 (serial no. 42-4403) could have been "Glinka's" plane before he was shot down on April 15.  It is only your assumption that Glinka started flying no. 21 on April 21, after he returned to the regiment.  

you are absolutely right, it was only my assumption. Unfortunately without access to archives or without confirmation by somebody with acces to archives we can only assume, guess, believe. 
Regards,
    66misos

[KL]

Quality and reliability of profiles also depend on available photographic evidence.

In this case photographic evidence is "sketchy" - there is only one photo of Boris Glinka's Airaobra taken from the "wrong, right side", there is one photo showing Dmitry Glinka's No21 (again showing wrong, right side).  This means that you can only make profiles of the right (less interesting...) side of both Airacobras.  Everything else, like 14 stars or 21 stars is a guesswork...  

At least we have figured that D. Glinka's portraits were made in early March, not end of April.  Also, there is a probability that Airacobra no. 21 (serial no. 42-4403) originally had 11 stars painted on its left side gun compartment panel...  we only need confirmation that D. Glinka flew on this plane starting from early/mid March...  

Cheers,
KL    

[66misos]

Hi,
here is another profile of D.B. Glinka's Cobra "21".
It is based on two photos - the first one showing him as Leutenant with P-39K S/N: 42-440x behind and the second one with P-39 with 11 (8+3) victory stars behind while no board number visible and on assumption that D.B. Glinka started flying no. "21" already in March, e.g. S/N: 42-440x represents  42-4403.



I have got email from V.Roman that it is OK how we do it now with photos from his book, e.g. we put refference there as requested.
Unfortunately he did not response to my question about 11 victory stars on P-39K-1 "21" S/N: 42-4403.
Regards
     66misos

[Flavio]

Hi 66misos,

this is exactly how I imagine P-39 42-4403, excellent profile!
In my opinion this plane was used by Glinka to obtain his three victories of 15 April '43; probably the plane already displayed 8 kill markings (claimed by other pilots, who knows ?) and Glinka just added his three kill markings with a white dot inside (or something similar to a 3D pentagonal object).

Flavio

[KL]

Hi Misos, excellent profile!
I would date it as early March 1943 (not April 1943...),  11 victories were all scored in 1942 when D. Glinka flew Yak-1.  3 stars with dots are for 3 Ju-87 Stukas shot down on May 05, 1942.
Cheers,
KL

[66misos]

Hi,
thank you for your kind posts. 

KL,
that last profile already was dated as March 1943. I hope I can use some of your outcomes and formulations for P-39 update on mig3 pages.

Regards,
    66misos

[Massimo Tessitori]

Hi Misos,
I've uploaded your article on the site. Please have a look.
http://mig3.sovietwarplanes.com/lendlease/p-39/p-39.html
There is a citation in cyrillic, it would be better to write the English translation.
Regards
Massimo

[KL]

Hi Misos,

the same number 31 also appears in the text that is posted at http://airfighters.ru/glinka_d.php
paragraph at the end of the text and before the list of D. Glinka victories says:

Спустя некоторое время и старший брат, Борис Глинка, был также удостоен звания Героя Советского Союза. Беззаветно сражаясь за нашу Советскую Родину, братья Глинки к этому времени сбили 31 немецкий самолёт. Дмитрий сбил 21 немецкую машину, и Борис - 10.

signed by "Главное политическое управление Красной Армии"    (maybe "Krasnaya Zvezda" newspaper?)

This text was probably Yakovlev's source.  How would, otherwise, Yakovlev know about the Glinka brothers score that was actual between April 21st and May 26th?     Although, Yakovlev may have visited Kursk front (not Kuban!!!) in June 1943 related to the famous "срыв обшивки" problem:

http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/yakovlev-as/25.html

about Glinka brothers in Yakovlev's book:

http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/yakovlev-as/27.html

HTH,
KL   

[66misos]

Hi,
I received mail from Valery Roman where he wrote:
- he think we are right with 11 victory stars originally painted on D.B.Glinka's P-39K-1 "21" S/N: 42-4403,
- he also think that crashed Cobra S/N: 42-4410 was only randomly flown, because D.B. Glinka always paint no. "21" on his planes. And that Glinka latter added another victory stars according to the actual score. But unfortunately is it not confirmed.

V. Roman looked for evidence about thoughts mentioned above in Russian archives, documents such Orders for fixing aircraft to pilots, or
financial documents about payments for 50 or 100 combat flights without accidents. But both types of documents from 45 IAP for spring 1943 are missing in archives. 
First one simply absents, second one - because D.B. Glinka fulfilled less than 50 cambat flights on 24410 or 24403.

Regards,
     66misos

[KL]

Hi Misos,
your page about D.B. Glinka's Airacobras is very good. 



If this Airacobra has 28 victory stars, you may definitively date this movie as being made in June 1943.

- D. Glinka won his 28th victory on June 02, 1943
- 29th victory on June 16, 1943

Movie was made before 45 iap was renamed into 100 giap and before red "pilotkas" were introduced.

HTH,
KL

[Flavio]

Very interesting and well done research on Glinka's planes,

Thank you 66misos,

Flavio

[66misos]

Hi,

I found in Tabachenko's book Pokryshkinskij Aviapolk http://sovietwarplanes.com/board/index.php?topic=1367.msg10178#msg10178 following info about Boris. B. Glinka.
On July 14, 1944, B.B. Glinka in rank of Major and as Commander of 16 GIAP was shot down in P-39N-1, serial no. 42-9215. Next months he spent in hospitals due to serious insures and he did not fly combat flights by the end of War.

Regards,
     66misos