Alexey Stepanovich
Khlobystov
1918-1943
Alexey Stepanovich Khlobystov was a fighter pilot, captain of the Guards, Hero of the Soviet Union. He made 355 combat sorties, shot down 6 enemy aircraft personally and at least 18 as part of a group. Alexey Stepanovich Khlobystov fighted on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War from the first day. He fought on the Karelian Isthmus. Alexey Stepanovich Khlobystov opened his combat account on June 28, 1941, destroying a Ju-87 dive bomber. He shot down his fourth plane in an air battle, but he himself was forced to sit on the tops of pine trees in the autumn of 1941. Alexey Stepanovich Khlobystov was in the hospital for a month. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Subsequently, he fought on the Volkhov Front. In January 1942, he arrived at the 147th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Karelian Front, based in the village of Murmashi, Murmansk region. Alexey Stepanovich Khlobystov was enlisted in the squadron «Komsomolets of the Arctic», created with funds raised by the workers of the Murmansk region. On April 8, 1942, in a group battle, he shot down three enemy aircraft: one by machine-gun fire, two by using a battering ram, after which he was able to land the car at his home airfield. On May 14, 1942, Alexey Stepanovich Khlobystov made the third ram. Wounded in the first minutes of the battle, Khlobystov sent his burning plane to the Me-109, and he managed to jump out with a parachute. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 6, 1942, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. He died on December 13, 1943 on a P-40 aircraft, flying on a combat mission in a pair with his wingman Alexander Kolegaev. According to one version, he died in an air battle. According to another, based on the testimony of a captured German pilot, commander of the 9th detachment of the 5th fighter squadron of Hauptmann Hans Hermann Schmidt, the planes of Khlobystov and Kolegaev accidentally collided in the air over German territory. Both pilots flew American P-40 («Kittyhawk») fighters. This was one of the first sorties for Kolegaev, perhaps the collision was his fault. The monument to A. S. Khlobystov is a bronze bust on a pedestal. He is depicted in full dress uniform with awards on his chest. A solid bronze memorial plaque is mounted on the pedestal: «Hero of the Soviet Union Khlobystov Alexey Stepanovich. Sixteen downed fascist planes as part of a group and four personally, three rammed: two in one battle and the third on a burning plane. Fighter pilot communist Khlobystov A. S. he was and will forever remain in the memory of the people a man of great courage, a high sense of duty, who loved his Homeland infinitely».
Address: Moscow, Ryazan Ave., 8A, p. 1 (on the territory of JSC “AHK VNIIMETMASH named after Academician A.I.Tselikov”)
