In addition, Zhong Ming, who was born in the field army, is extremely physical (on the one hand, he is naturally talented, and on the other hand, because of the tempering of countless rapid marches. Even though he averaged nearly three battles to shoot down an enemy plane, his almost 100 percent attendance and safety that he would barely be shot down allowed him to shoot down more and more without hindrance. And perhaps more importantly, he has never been able to cultivate any leadership skills, and he is not qualified for the job of an instructor because he is not good at words, so he has been able to stay on the front line for a long time, and he can brush the number of crashes to an unprecedented level

Because of Zhong Ming's birth, Chinese pilots will not have much psychological disadvantage in the face of the excellent Soviet Air Force aces, coupled with the two new aircraft that are currently being developed quite smoothly, Hu Weidong has a little more confidence to take advantage of the fire to rob after the outbreak of the Soviet-German war in the future, of course, these careful thoughts can not be said to anyone for the time being

By the end of June 1938, Zhong Ming had the most downs among the air force pilots, shooting down a total of 27 enemy planes, followed by Pokryshkin with 19, and Lechkalov and Gao Zhihang tied for third with 17, but more than 10 of Gao Zhihang's records were achieved before the Soviet aid air force came to China, and in fact, the gap between the three young men had been widened, and Li Guidan, the deputy commander of the first division who was already an excellent instructor during the Jianqiao Aviation School, could only rank eleventh with 11 falls. Between him and Gao Zhihang were five Soviet pilots and one Chinese pilot. This made him feel "incorruptible and old" for a while. Soon after, he resigned as deputy commander of the 1st Division and used his extensive flight experience to serve as a full-time test pilot at the Luoyang Aircraft Factory. Some veteran pilots followed suit and made an indelible contribution to the development and improvement of the two new aircraft, and indeed the jet aircraft that followed

The Soviets did not believe the Red Party's war report at first, because the Soviet-aided air force they sent to help not only had twice as many planes as the Second Division of the Border Air Corps, but also had experienced Soviet active aviation units. However, the border aviation corps produced sufficient physical evidence, and the liaison officer of the Soviet aid air corps could not bear to bury the young men's exploits. Resolutely risking being imprisoned in a concentration camp and reporting directly to Moscow, he alarmed Stalin in the Kremlin.

Although Stalin was arbitrary, his insight was not comparable to that of ordinary people, and it was clear at a glance that the liaison officer's report was justified. And he had always preferred young people, so he squeezed out a little time to read the report carefully, and was shocked by the fact that he had been trained for many years and was already a moody city, and he could not help but blurt out, "These young people are the treasures of the Soviets!" Especially that Pokryshkin"

Molotov, who was accustomed to seeing the wind and steering the rudder, immediately realized that Pokryshkin had fallen into Stalin's eyes, and immediately suggested that Pokryshkin and other pilots with meritorious service be promoted and awarded

Among them, the eight ace pilots who shot down more than 10 planes were awarded the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union". However, Stalin calmed down at this time, and did not directly order commendations, but sent several observers to the border areas to confirm their performance on the spot before commending them. The reply of the observers pleased Stalin, who was never hesitant to reward those he admired. Pokryshkin, who had been in the army for less than a year, was able to rise to the top of the ranks, and was directly promoted to the acting commander of the 2nd Division and was awarded the rank of colonel, and most of his comrades-in-arms were also promoted, but compared to Pokryshkin, who was like a helicopter, he was still far behind...,

It is worth mentioning that during this period, Stalin ordered to award the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union" to those eight pilots, but Pokryshkin took the lead in refusing it, because they thought that "Hero of the Soviet Union" was an incomparable honorary title, and their merits were not enough to receive it. Stalin was not displeased with this, but accepted Pokryshkin's proposal to clearly stipulate the conditions for pilots to receive the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union", so as to motivate the vast number of Soviet soldiers and civilians to work hard to serve the country on all fronts. Take, for example, fighter pilots. To be eligible for the glorious title of "Hero of the Soviet Union", one must single-handedly shoot down 20 enemy aircraft, or lead a squadron to shoot down 100 enemy aircraft, or lead a group to shoot down 200 enemy planes, or if these conditions are not met, their heroic deeds are deeply moving. And to be awarded the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union" for the second time. Then it will be more difficult, if you still rely on your own personal record. Fighter pilots had to shoot down another 30 enemy planes, a third time they had to shoot down another 50, and so on

Although the bar was set so high, genius is genius, and Pokryshkin succeeded in shooting down two more Japanese planes in a battle in early July, becoming the first "Hero of the Soviet Union" in the Soviet-aided air force, and Rechkalov, who regarded him as a mentor, also achieved his personal goal of shooting down 20 planes within this month. By the time the Soviet-aided air force was later ordered to leave China, the total number of "Heroes of the Soviet Union" had exceeded 100, including Pokryshkin, and 12 people had won this honor twice, and despite the ups and downs in Sino-Soviet relations since then, their help to China will always be engraved in the hearts of the Chinese people

In addition, it is worth mentioning that because of the superhuman reference such as Pokryshkin, Stalin was very dissatisfied with the Soviet aid air force sent to help, but after the investigation of the NKVD, it was found that it was not that the Soviet aid air force performed too badly, but that Pokryshkin and their performance was too good

The NKVD report also pointed out that the performance of the two Soviet-aided air teams was so much worse than that the Chinese gave them far from each other, and the impact was even greater. For example, many Soviet pilots sent to one side have so far been killed by Japanese planes during liftoff or even at airfields, and many of them have been killed in accidents due to inattentive maintenance or non-compliant procedures of ground crews, both of which are difficult to see in the border air corps (to be continued). If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )