14 June 1914 – 23 May 1985.

Vladimir Abramov (in the aircraft) and I. Serbin (300 combat missions and 9 victories).
Image kindly via Sergey Abrosov.

Vladimir Abramov was born on 14 June 1914 in Kuznetsk. When he was 3 years old he lost his parents.

He enrolled for service in the VMF in 1939 and completed his training at Yeysk Naval Flying School a year later. After completion of training he joined the 71 IAP-KBF (Baltic Sea Fleet Air Force) and he was to stay on the Baltic Front during his whole career.

He claimed his first victory during the second week of the war when he shot down one Ju88 bomber, flying in an I-153.

During the first year of the war he used a 'Tchaika' with the number 42.

In July (possibly on 2 July), he took part in the shooting down of a rare plane when he claimed a shared Focke-Wulf Fw200. After Abramov’s initial attack the German aircraft was smoking and tried to escape but was then attacked and shot down by two other famous aces, Antonenko and Petr Brinko (flying I-16s) of 13 IAP-KBF. After this claim Antonenko and Brinko claimed it for Abramov but Abramov said the two former aces shot it down. This means that the Condor is not included in Abramov's total claims.

On 18 August 1941 he shot down a Bf110 and damaged another. His 'Tchaika' was however damaged but he managed to return to base successfully.

He claimed two shared enemy aircraft on 10 September.

On 27 March 1942, Finnish forces invaded Gogland. This resulted in some heavy air combats over the island. In the morning on 28 March, luutnantti Osmo Kauppinen’s five Brewsters of 3/LLv 24 fought against ten Chaikas claiming half of them shot down. Lentomestari Ilmari Juutilainen claimed two:

At 07:45-08:15, altitude 2,000-10m. I flew in the top patrol with kersantti Huotari. Over the Suurkylä shore at Gogland I observed beneath me enemy fighters and we went to attack. During the combat I followed one I-153 shooting at it several time from 50m, until it suddenly flipped from 200 metres altitude to the ice. Then I chased with kersantti Huotari two I-153s to Lavansaari, Where I shot the aircraft burning on the west shore. The Russians were shooting rocket projectiles, which when exploding created a black cloud reminding an explosion of heavy flak, though a bit bigger. They exploded 100-200m ahead of my plane. I-153s had four of them under both wings. My plane BW-364.”

“At 09:05 Kapitan Konstantin Solovev’s ten I-153 fighters of 71 IAP had just commenced the second pass of strafing the enemy troops, when four Curtiss and eight Fokkers attacked from above. The enemy was flying staggered in three altitudes: two Finnish I-153s were at 500m, the Fokkers were at 1,000m and the Curtiss were at 2,000m. The Soviet aircraft were in two groups, five planes in both the strike and escort groups. The aerial battle was fought in two altitudes, 100 and 1,000m. Two I-153s were shot down piloted by Starshiy Leytenant Mazurenko and Serzhant Aleksander Pavlov. In addition Starshiy Leytenant Vladimir Abramov made a forced landing near Seiskari with his damaged I-153 fighter.”

In April 1942 he was wounded twice.

On 13 July 1942, I-153s from 71 IAP-KBF were involved in combat with a reported group of “Severskies” north-east of Someri. One of them was claimed as a shared by Kapitan Nikolay Korolyov, Starshiy Leytenant Abramov, Starshiy Leytenant Ivan Minayev and Starshiy Leytenant Ivan Tsapov.
It seems that they had been involved in combat with luutantti Joel Savonen’s swarm of Buffaloes from 1/LeLv 24, which reported that they intercepted eight Chaikas in the Lavansaari area between 20:20-21:20. One of the I-153s was shot down over the island by ylikersantti Reino Malin (BW-366).

In the autumn of 1942 he became flight commander in the 71 IAP-KBF.

From 22 June 1941 to 22 April 1942 he flew 306 sorties of which 70 were ground attack missions and 87 were reconnaissance missions. During these sorties he claimed 2 and 7 shared victories.

On 31 May 1943 the 71 IAP-KBF was designated 10 GIAP-KBF.
He subsequently was occupied with armed reconnaissance and in early 1944 re-equipped with La-5 fighters.

On 19 March 1944 he managed to claim one of the unit's initial victories with the new fighter when he was leading five fighters against a formation of 27 enemy aircraft and downed one of them personally.

On 22 July 1944 he was decorated with the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

His last sortie of the war he flew in the same area as his first one. This was very typical for Baltic Front Air Regiments. He ended the war as Kapitan and CO of an eskadrilla.

During the war he was also decorated with the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner (four times), the Order of Patriotic War 1st Class, the Order of Patriotic War 2nd Class and the Order of the Red Star (twice).

Abramov ended the war with at least 2 biplane victories and a total of 21 and 8 shared victories. He claimed victories over He-111s, Ju88s, Bf110s, Bf109s, Fw200, Fw190s and also a rare He177. Totally during the war he flew 600 sorties with I-153s, I-16s, Yak-7Bs and La-5s.

Abramov continued to serve for 30 years in the Air Force and was one of the first "Navy" flyers who flew with jets.

He retired 1974 and passed away on 23 May 1985.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1941
1	??/06/41		1	Ju88	Destroyed	I-153	"42"		71 IAP-KBF
	02/07/41		1	Fw200 (a)	Shared destroyed	I-153	"42"		71 IAP-KBF
2	18/08/41		1	Bf110	Destroyed	I-153	"42"		71 IAP-KBF
	18/08/41		1	Bf110	Damaged	I-153	"42"		71 IAP-KBF
	10/09/41		1	Enemy aircraft	Shared destroyed	I-153			71 IAP-KBF
	10/09/41		1	Enemy aircraft	Shared destroyed	I-153			71 IAP-KBF
	1942
	13/07/42	20:20-21:20	1/4	Buffalo (b)	Shared destroyed	I-153		NE Someri	71 IAP-KBF
	1944
?	19/03/44		1	Enemy aircraft	Destroyed	La-5			10 GIAP-KBF

Biplane victories: 2 and 4 shared destroyed, 1 damaged.
TOTAL: 21 and 8 shared destroyed, 1 damaged.
(a) Possibly claimed on 2 July. Not included in his total.

Sources:
Polikarpov I-15. I-16 and I-153 Aces - Mikhail Maslov, 2010 Osprey Publishing, Oxford, ISBN 978-1-84603-981-2
Russian Fighter Aces of 1914-1953 years
Sovetskiye asy - Nikolay Bodrikhin, 1998, Moscow, kindly provided by Ondrej Repka
Stalin's Eagles - Hans D. Seidl, 1998 Schiffer Publishing, ISBN 0-7643-0476-3
Stalin's Falcons - Tomas Polak and Christhoper Shores, 1999 Grub Street, London, ISBN 1-902304-01-2
Suomen Ilmavoimat part IV – 1942 – Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman, 2007, ISBN 978-952-99743-2-0
Additional information kindly provided by Ondrej Repka.