A lot of personal belongings of the future Lieutenant General of the Air Force Dodonov V.Ya.

The lot includes a pair of shoulder straps of an Air Force colonel of the 1946 model (they belonged to him when he was commander of the 246th Fighter Division), a flight book in which both the pre-war flight hours and combat sorties during the Second World War are recorded, as well as a typographic congratulation on being awarded the rank of Lieutenant General of aviation with Marshal R. Malinovsky's handwritten autograph.. The price for the whole lot. Guarantee of authenticity.

Valentin Yakovlevich Dodonov (June 5, 1910, Tabory village, Arkhangelsk Province, Russian Empire — April 23, 1972, Kalinin, RSFSR, USSR) was a Soviet military commander, Lieutenant General of aviation (05.26.1959). Born on June 5, 1910 in the village of Tabory, now the village of Tabory in the city district of Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk region, Russia.  Before serving in the army, he worked as an oiler at the 24th state Cotton Gin plant in the city of Kokand, from January 1926 as an assistant machinist on boats of the State Shipping Company in Samara, from September 1927 as an oiler and assistant machinist at the Samara State Mill.

In August 1928, he was drafted into the Red Army and enlisted in the 38th Aviation Fleet of the PriVO Air Force in the city of Kazan. Since November, he has been a cadet at the school of junior aviation specialists at the 42nd separate aviation squadron in Kazan, then served there as a mechanic. In November 1929, he was sent to study at the 8th Military Pilot School in Odessa, after which, in December 1930, he was appointed a junior pilot in the 13th Fighter Squadron of the 15th Air Brigade of the BVI Air Force. From January to September 1940, Major Dodonov studied at the Lipetsk Aviation Advanced Training Courses of the Red Army Air Force, then he was appointed commander of the 170th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Airborne Forces. On May 27, 1941, he was transferred to the post of deputy commander of the 287th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 76th Mixed Aviation Division of the KHVO Air Force, and on June 15, 1941, he assumed command of this regiment.

The Great Patriotic War. Since the beginning of the war, Lieutenant Colonel Dodonov fought with the regiment on the Southwestern Front, covering the Moscow—Donbass railway. After retraining the flight personnel on the new material, the regiment was sent to the Moscow Air Defense as part of the 6th Fighter Aviation Corps of the Air Defense. In addition to performing tasks in the capital's air defense system, he also covered the troops of the Kalinin and Western fronts during the Battle for Moscow. In early June 1942, the regiment was relocated to the Bryansk Front and fought as part of the 287th and 288th Fighter divisions. In total, from July 5 to July 12, his pilots shot down 27 enemy aircraft in aerial battles. On July 7 alone, while repelling massive raids on the city of Voronezh, 12 Yu-87 aircraft were shot down bombing our tank units, and in total, 20 enemy aircraft were shot down by the regiment that day. At the end of July 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Dodonov was appointed deputy commander of the 288th Fighter Division. On August 19, the division became part of the 8th Air Army of the Stalingrad Front. From August 21 to October 28, 1942, its units from the Verkhnepogromnoye, im. Kirov, Demidovo and Stolyarovo conducted intense combat work, interacting with formations of the 62nd, 64th, 5th combined arms and 4th tank armies, and performed escort tasks for attack aircraft and bombers of the 226th Assault and 270th bomber divisions.

On October 21, 1942, Lieutenant Colonel Dodonov was appointed deputy commander of the 226th Mixed Aviation Division. In December, he was transferred to the same position in the 269th Fighter Aviation Division, which in mid-December was relocated to Buturlinovka airfield in the Voronezh Region, where it became part of the 2nd Air Army. During the counteroffensive near Stalingrad, its units covered the combat formations of the troops of the right wing of the front from enemy air raids, and were accompanied by Il-2 attack aircraft. In April 1943, the division was withdrawn from the 2nd Air Army to the Red Army Air Force Reserve. In early July, she left for the 14th Air Army of the Volkhov Front, where she participated in the Mginsk offensive operation. In January—February 1944, its units distinguished themselves during the defeat of German troops near Leningrad and Novgorod during the Novgorod-Luga operation. On January 21, 1944, for the liberation of the city of Novgorod, she was given the name "Novgorodskaya". In March—May 1944, the division was part of the 13th Air Army of the Leningrad Front.

On May 18, 1944, Colonel Dodonov assumed command of the 269th Fighter Aviation Novgorod Division. In the same month, she was redeployed to the 3rd Baltic Front and participated in the Pskov-Ostrovsky, Tartu and Riga offensive operations. On December 11, 1944, the division was transferred to the 4th Air Army of the 2nd Belorussian Front. Until the end of the war, she served with two regiments to escort attack aircraft of the 4th Assault Aviation Corps, participating in the East Prussian, Mlava-Elbing, East Pomeranian and Berlin offensive operations.

In the period from December 1941 to May 1945, Dodonov personally flew 158 combat missions and shot down, according to various sources, from 3 to 6 enemy aircraft. During the war, Commander Dodonov was personally mentioned 23 times in the commendations in the orders of the Supreme Commander. Participant of the Victory Day Parade on Moscow's Red Square on June 24, 1945. After the war, he continued to command the 269th Fighter Aviation Division. In June 1946, he was transferred to the post of deputy commander of the 265th Fighter Aviation Division of the 16th Air Army of the SSOVG, and from August 10 he simultaneously served as head of the army training center.

In February 1947, he was appointed commander of the 286th Fighter Aviation Division. In February 1948, he was transferred to commander of the 15th Guards Fighter Aviation Division as part of the 78th Guards Fighter Aviation Corps of the 64th Air Defense Army. From November 1949 to December 1951, Major General of Aviation Dodonov studied at the Voroshilov Higher Military Academy, after which he was appointed commander of the 72nd Guards Fighter Aviation Corps of the 42nd Air Fighter Army of the Baku Air Defense District. Since March 1957, he served as Deputy Commander of the Baku Air Defense District for Combat Training and head of the district's Combat Training Department. Since December 1961, Lieutenant General of Aviation Dodonov has been the head of the Department of Correspondence Studies at the Military Air Defense Command Academy. On August 22, 1967, Lieutenant General of Aviation Dodonov was discharged. He died on April 23, 1972. He was buried at the Bolshye Peremerki cemetery in Tver.