Photo of the Hero of the Soviet Union, Captain N.F. Smirnov, 1943

The original wartime photo is in good collector's condition. The size is 83*123 mm. There are traces of pasting into the album on the back. Very rare. Guarantee of authenticity.

Nikolai Fyodorovich Smirnov (May 22, 1915, Kineshma — January 4, 2000, Monino) was a Hero of the Soviet Union, flight commander of the 366th Bomber Aviation Regiment (219th Bomber Aviation Division, 4th Air Army, Transcaucasian Front), senior lieutenant. He was born on May 22, 1915 in the city of Kineshma, now in the Ivanovo region, into a working-class family. He graduated from secondary school in his hometown (now the D. A. Furmanov Lyceum)[1]. Russian. Member of the CPSU(b)The CPSU since 1944. He graduated from Kostroma Industrial College. He worked as a mechanic's assistant at the Yakovlevsky flax mill in the city of Privolzhsk, Ivanovo region. He was drafted into the Red Army in 1936 and was assigned to aviation on a Komsomol assignment. In 1937 he graduated from the Voroshilovgrad Military Aviation School of Pilots. He participated in the liberation campaigns of Soviet troops in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus in 1939. He participated in the war with Finland in 1939-1940. He flew an SB bomber, and in the spring of 1941 he mastered the new Pe-2 bomber. He went through the whole war on it.

He met the beginning of the Great Patriotic War on the southern borders. Already in June 1941, he participated in a raid on a river port and a railway station in the Romanian city of Galac. They retreated to the east with heavy fighting. In one of the sorties, he bombed a bridge over the Dnieper River, which delayed the advance of the Nazis on this sector of the front. The target was at the limit of the Pe-2's range, and the crew returned to their airfield with the last drops of fuel. After the battle with the fighters, more than 200 holes were counted on the plane. By November 1942, Senior Lieutenant Smirnov had completed about 300 combat sorties to reconnoiter and bombard important targets and concentrations of enemy troops and was promoted to the heroic rank. Bomber pilot and later scout Smirnov went through a victorious path from the North Caucasus to the city of Stettin. He participated in the liberation of Crimea, Belarus, and fought in the skies of East Prussia and Poland. As a scout, he made 142 sorties into the enemy's deep rear. Smirnov's crew disabled 55 enemy tanks, over 300 vehicles, 45 railway wagons with military cargo and equipment. He destroyed over 500 enemy soldiers. For successful combat operations and high combat capability of the crew, he was awarded several military orders for personal courage. After the war, he remained in military aviation. He graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1949 and the General Staff Military Academy in 1956. He served in the military, then taught at the Gagarin Air Force Academy. Since 1970, Colonel N. F. Smirnov has been in the reserve. He lived in the village of Monino, Shchelkovsky district, Moscow region. He died on January 4, 2000. He was buried at the Garrison Cemetery in the village of Monino.