Birthdays of two aces - News

15 October 2013

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15th (28th) of October is a birthday of soviet fighter ace - Arseny Vorozheikin, and 16th - Brendan Finucane, famous RAF wing commander and Spitfire ace.

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Spitfire F.Mk.IX, Spitfire F.Mk.XVI and Spitfire LF.Mk.IX

Arseny Vorozheikin (1912 – 2001)

Arseny Vorozheikin was born on October15th (28th) 1912 in Prokofievka village, now Gorodetsky district of Nizhny Novgorod region from a peasant family.

He joined the Red Army in 1931. In 1937, he graduated from the Kharkov Military Aviation School of Pilots. He participated in battles at the Khalkhin-Gol in 1939, had 30 air battles, shot down six Japanese planes (during one of the fights, he seriously injured his spinal cord and was invalided out of the army, but despite this, he returned into the unit).

During the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-40 – He was an air squadron commander.

In 1942, he graduated from the Air Force Academy.

During the Great Patriotic War from 1942, he participated in battles at the Kalinin and the Voronezh Fronts. Fighting in the ranks of the 2nd Air Army, in January 1944, he fought with the 728th Fighter Aviation Regiment (the 256th Fighter Air Division, the 5th Fighter Air Corps) during which Captain Arseny Vorozheikin made 78 sorties and personally destroyed 19 enemy planes whilst participating in 32 air battles.

By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on February 4th 1944 for courage and heroism in the battles against the Nazi invaders, Arseny Vorozheikin was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

By mid-summer of 1944, Squadron commander Vorozheikin carried out 28 further sorties; participated in 14 air battles, in which he personally shot down 11 enemy planes. In total, as a fighter pilot, he made about 400 combat sorties, shot down 52 enemy planes in person (of which 6 were at Khalkhin-Gol) and 14 shared kills. He received three injuries. Finally, In July 1944, he was appointed commander of the 32nd Fighter Regiment.

By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on August 19, 1944 Captain Arseny Vorozheikin was awarded the second Gold Star medal.

After 1944, he was made a senior training pilot of Combat Training tactical aircraft.

After the war, he commanded the famous Soviet ace aviation regiment, division, and was the first deputy commander of the Black Sea fleet air defence. In 1952, he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. He mastered many types of jet aircraft, including the La-15, the Yak-15 the Yak-17, the MiG-15, and the MiG-17.

Since 1957, Major General of Aviation, A. Vorozheikin – became a reservist, and then retired. He lived in Moscow, engaged in literary pursuits. He died on May 23rd 2001. He was buried in Moscow at Troekurov cemetery.

He was awarded the Order of Lenin (1944), four Orders of the Red Banner (1939, 1943, 1947, 1953), the 1st Class Order of Suvorov (1944), the Order of Alexander Nevsky (1943), the 1st Class Order of the Patriotic War (1985), two Orders of the Red Star (1947, 1955), medals; U.S. Cross “For air combat service” (1945) and other international awards.

A bronze bust of the Hero is set in Gorodets and one of the streets of there is named after him.

Brendan Finucane

Brendan Finucane was born on the 16th October 1920 at Rathmines near Dublin in Ireland. In 1936 the family moved to England and Brendan joined the RAF in 1938. On completing his training he was posted as a Pilot Officer with the Spitfire equipped 65 Squadron at RAF Hornchurch..

Finucane’s first aerial victory was made during the Battle of Britain when on the 12th August 1940 he shot down a Bf 109; this was the first of his 26 confirmed victories. Further victories followed before 65 Squadron was withdrawn from the battle to recuperate its losses.

In April 1941 he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and was posted to 452 Squadron as a flight commander, 452 was the first operational Royal Australian Air Force Squadron to serve with the RAF’s Fighter Command. They commenced operations in July 1941 over occupied Europe and Finucane soon added another 17 enemy aircraft kills to his Tally.

In January 1942 he was promoted to Squadron Leader and was given command of 602(City of Glasgow) Squadron. While leading 602 Squadron he was injured by ground fire but also bagged four of the Luftwaffe’s new FW 190 fighters.

On the 27th June 1942, aged only 21 he became the RAF’s youngest ever Wing Commander and took command of the legendary Spitfire wing based at RAF Hornchurch. His tenure in command did not last long, for on the 15th July 1942, while conducting an offensive sweep near Boulogne his Spitfire was hit by ground fire. Finucane coaxed his damaged plane back towards England but was finally forced to ditch. Unfortunately his Spitfire immediately sank on hitting the channel so bringing to an end Finucane’s short life and meteoric career.