I've started reading about the German/Soviet airwar ( a completely new area for me - there's always something new !
). Vol II of
'Black Cross / Red Star' by Bergstrom/Mikhailov is currently available cheaply in UK book warehouses and it makes for absorbing reading.
I was completely unaware, for instance, that the Red Air Force had its very own 'Douglas Bader' - Lt. Aleksey Maresyev.
On April 4, 1942, Maresyev's Yak-1 was engaged in combat with a number of III./JG3's Bf109Fs and was shot down into pine trees.
Thrown clear, he regained consciousnes in deep snow ; both his legs were shattered. He survived in the wilderness for 19 days, his only source of food apart from a few frozen berries being a hedgehog which he caught.. Found by a detachment of Soviet partisans, he was picked up by his own Eskadrilya commander who flew into an improvised forest airstrip. At a military hospital in Moscow, doctors could not save Maresyev's legs due to gangrene ; they were both amputated below the knee.
In 1943, Maresyev returned to frontline service over Kursk and ended the war with 11 victories.
Although one could argue that Bader's injuries were more extreme ( amputation below the hip ), Aleksey Maresyev's ordeal and recovery must mark him out as a very determined individual.
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