Stele
«To the Soviet pilots who died in 1941 while defending the southern approaches to the capital of our Motherland, the city of Moscow»
On the night of October 11-12, 1941, a high-speed bomber of the 177th Air Defence Regiment flew on a combat mission. It was necessary to defeat the column of Hitler’s tanks. There was a low cloud cover of 300 meters, and in order to get into position, they were forced to fly under clouds. The Soviet plane was shot down by a German bomber over Biryulyovo and fell nose-first, crashing deeply into the ground, on the territory of the modern district of Severnoye Chertanovo. The crew completed the combat mission, but the plane did not reach the airfield. Two pilots were buried at the nearest local cemetery in Biryulyovo, and the third could not be removed, as the plane was smoking and was about to explode. Local residents installed a modest monument on the grave of the pilots, on which a diving plane was painted, and the inscription was printed in black paint: “To the heroes – pilots who died for the liberation of this village.” It is worthwhile to say that the inscription was not quite correct in meaning, because Biryulyovo had never been captured by the fascists, but it reflected the love of the home front workers for the defenders of their native land. Thanks to the search work carried out, the names of the heroes became known. These are the pilots of the 177th aviation regiment:
– Yuri Petrovich Tikhomirov – flight commander, 1919-1941
– Pavel Aleksandrovich Voronov – radio operator, 1919-1941
– Alexey Yakovlevich Onchurov – shooter-bombardier-observer, 1918-1941
In the year of the 35th anniversary of the Victory, at the request of local residents, the remains of the pilots from the Biryulevsky cemetery were reburied to the newly built Biryusinka cinema. A granite monument with the words was erected on the grave: “To the Soviet pilots who died in 1941 while defending the southern approaches to the capital of our Motherland, the city of Moscow.” The monument was created by sculptor N.E. Sarkisov according to the project of students of the 7th “B” class of the nearby former school No. 928. The grand opening of the stele “To Soviet pilots who died in 1941 while defending the southern approaches to the capital of our Motherland, Moscow” took place in 1980.
Address: Moscow, Biryulyovo Zapadnoye district, Medynskaya str.
