Biplane fighter aces

Soviet Union

Kapitan Aleksey Kas’yanovich Antonenko HSU

1911 – 25 July 1941

Aleksey Antonenko was born in 1911.

Antonenko took part in the conflict against the Japanese in Khalkhin Gol during 1939 where he flew Polikarpov I-16s in 70 IAP.

When they left Mongolia, Sergey Gritsevets and his pilots handed over their I-153s to fleet aviation pilots. Fleet aviation pilots (ten from VVS KBF and five from the Black Sea Fleet regiments) had been selected and sent by train to fight in Mongolia. Commander of it was mayor Novikov and among the pilots were future aces kapitan Antonenko and Petr Brinko (both from KBF). They had arrived in the middle of June and been dispersed among the fighter eskadrilyas. In the first half of August they were all gathered again and after the recommendation from Gritsevets they reformed as a “fleet” eskadrilya with his unit’s I-153s.

On 27 August, ten I-16s from 70 IAP intercepted Japanese bombers reported as LB-98s (most possibly light Ki-36 bombers from 15th Sentai) and claimed two shot down in the Lake Yanhu area. Three of the pilots taking part were kapitan Antonenko, leitenant Mikhail Nikitin and mladshiy leitenant Vasiliy Bukhteev. Starshiy leitenant Vitaliy Belyakov was also probably part of this intercept even if he’s only credited with one shared bomber on this date. Kapitan Petr Glebov is credited with a bomber shot down during the day.
A Ki-30 (s/n 127) from 10th Sentai was shot down by enemy fighters at ”Uzuru-sui” and the crew was KIA; pilot Staff Sergeant Takeo Okiura and gunner Corporal Isao Azetsu.

Antonenko took part in the Finnish-Soviet Winter War where he flew Polikarpov I-153s in the 10th Aviation Brigade.

On 29 February 1940, the Finnish armoured ships at Turku were attacked by five DB-3s and nine SBs of 10 ABr-KBF, escorted by 16 fighters. The DB-3s dropped 15 500-kg bombs on one ship from 4,700m altitude while the SB-bombers dropped 18 250-kg and 27 100-kg bombs on the other ship (at anchor 1km from the first ship) from 5,100m altitude. Despite fierce AA fire all aircraft returned without losses.
Two “Spitfires” were claimed shot down; one of these claimed as a shared between kapitan Antonenko and another pilot.
The Finnish reported that 30 bombers were observed over Turku in three waves, dropping 207 bombs. No human losses.
The “Spitfires” were in fact Morane MS.406s from LLv 28, which didn’t suffer any losses.

When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, he served in 13 IAP-KBF flying I-16s.

At lunch on 25 June, kapitan Antonenko took off from Laksberg near Tallinn and intercepted a Ju 88 (reported as a Ju 86 in some sources) and shot it down north of Naissaar Island. This claim was witnessed by the whole Tallinn, who saw it go down.
This was KBF’s first victory during the war.

During the following weeks, he successfully teamed with leytenant Petr Brinko over the occupied naval base of Hanko after that they had been transferred there on 2 July.

In July (possibly on 2 July), Vladimir Abramov took part in the interception of a rare Focke-Wulf FW 200. 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, kapitan 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 4 July, kapitan Antonenko claimed two shared Fokker D.XXIs together with leytenant Petr Brinko in the Hanko area.
These claims can’t be verified with Finnish records.

The next day, on 5 July, he claimed a shared Ju 88 together with leytenant Brinko in the Tal'khomarne area.

On 8 July, kapitan Antonenko and leytenant Petr Brinko headed from Hanko for 13 IAP-KBF’s base at Tallinn, which was 62 miles from Hanko across the Gulf of Finland. En route they shot down a German twin-engined aircraft over Porkkalaud that they reported as being either a Ju 88 or a Do 17 (credited as a Ju 86).
This was possibly a Do 17P from 3(F)./10.

At 00:55 on 9 July, sotilasmestari Esko Niemela of LLv 30 (Fokker D.XXI FR-147) was shot down and killed at Vestanfjärd.
He had been shot down by kapitan Antonenko.

At 09:05 on 10 July, kapitan Antonenko claimed a Finnish Polikarpov I-153 reconnaissance aircraft while flying from Hanko.
This was Polikarpov I-153 VH-14 from 3/LLv 6, which was shot down and the pilot luutnantti Veikko Kallio being KIA.

On 14 July 1941, kapitan Antonenko and leytenant Petr Brinko became the first naval pilots to be decorated with the Gold Star of the Hero of Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin.

On 16 July, he claimed two shared Bf 109s in the Kheste area together with leytenant Brinko.

He claimed a Fokker D.XXI over Hanko on 20 July.

At 14:55 on 23 July nine I-153s of 4./13 IAP-KBF led by starshiy politruk Biskup with an escort of two I-16s from 2./13 IAP-KBF (kapitan Antonenko and leytenant Petr Brinko) took off from Täcktom airfield. The I-153s flew at low level the I-16s covered them 2000 meters high.
Over Turku airfield they encountered heavy AA barrage and the I-153 of mladishiy leytenant Mikhail Chernov was shot down in flames on the way to target and crashed into a forest. The rest of the I-153s dropped their bombs aiming on those “dark spots on the ground” and returned to base at 15:55.
On the way home Antonenko and Brinko strafed the seaplane station Ruissalo, situated not far from Turku, and claimed two He 60s destroyed on the ground.

As a revenge for the death of Chernov it was decided to attack Turku one more time during the same day.
A new group of two I-16s (Antonenko and Brinko) and two I-153s (leytenant Aleksey Lazukin and mladishiy leytenant Konstantin Belorustsev) took off from Täcktom at 18:40. They attacked Ruissalo again and claimed five He 60s destroyed.
At 19:05 four Finnish Fokker D.XXIs of 2/LeLv 30 (luutnantti Martti Kalima in FR-148, vänrikki Salomaa in FR-156, Lehto in FR-152 and Järvi in FR-150) scrambled to intercept the Soviet aircraft. North of Turku they spotted a reported four I-153s and attacked. Both the I-16s and I-153s avoided the attack and headed towards Hanko. Kalima however managed to close in on one of the I-153s and claimed it damaged and presumably shot down (later upgraded to a confirmed).
50 km north of Bengtskär Island, in the vicinity of Ere Island, the Soviet fighters turned on the Finnish fighters and a fierce dogfight at 100 meters height started. The Soviet pilots returned claiming several Finnish aircraft shot down into the sea. When they returned at 19:36 they reported combat with six “Spitfires” (later changed to “Fokkers”) of which four was claimed shot down; one each by Antonenko, Brinko, Lazukin and Belorustsev.
When the landed at 19:45 the Finnish pilots reported combat with five to seven I-16s and seven I-153s of which they claimed two shot down; one I-16 and one I-153 both claimed by Kalima.
It seems that no aircraft was shot down. Kalima returned with a damaged fighter when his FR-148 had lost the antenna and suffered several hits in the fuselage and ailerons while one bullet hit was found in the fuel tank on Lazukin’s I-153.

On 25 July, an enemy artillery shell exploded in front of his I-16 as he was landing. The fighter nosed over, throwing its pilot out – Antonenko was killed instantly.
At the time of his death, he had flown around 100 combat missions.

At the time of his death, Antonenko was credited with 1 shared biplane victory and a total of 5.
During the war, he was decorated with one additional Order of Lenin.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1939
	27/08/39		1/10	Ki-36 (a)	Shared destroyed	I-16		Lake Yanhu area	70 IAP
	27/08/39		1/10	Ki-36 (a)	Shared destroyed	I-16		Lake Yanhu area	70 IAP
	1940
	29/02/40		1/2	MS.406 (b)	Shared destroyed	I-153		Turku area	10 ABr-KBF
	1941
1	25/06/41		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	I-16		N Naissaar Island	13 IAP-KBF
	04/07/41		1/2	Fokker D.XXI (c)	Shared destroyed	I-16		Hanko	13 IAP-KBF
	04/07/41		1/2	Fokker D.XXI (c)	Shared destroyed	I-16		Hanko	13 IAP-KBF
	05/07/41		1/2	Ju 88	Shared destroyed	I-16		Tal'khomarne area	13 IAP-KBF
	08/07/41		1/2	Ju 86 (d)	Shared destroyed	I-16		Porkkalaud	13 IAP-KBF
2	09/07/41	00:55	1	Fokker D.XXI (e)	Destroyed	I-16		Vestanfjärd	13 IAP-KBF
3	10/07/41	09:05	1	I-153 (f)	Destroyed	I-16		Hanko area	13 IAP-KBF
	16/07/41		1/2	Bf 109	Shared destroyed	I-16		Kheste area	13 IAP-KBF
	16/07/41		1/2	Bf 109	Shared destroyed	I-16		Kheste area	13 IAP-KBF
4	20/07/41		1	Fokker D.XXI (g)	Destroyed	I-16		Hanko	13 IAP-KBF
	23/07/41	14:55-15:55	1/2	He 60	Shared destroyed on the ground	I-16		Ruissalo	2./13 IAP-KBF
	23/07/41	14:55-15:55	1/2	He 60	Shared destroyed on the ground	I-16		Ruissalo	2./13 IAP-KBF
5	23/07/41	19:05-19:45	1	Fokker D.XXI (h)	Destroyed	I-16		50km N Bengtskär	2./13 IAP-KBF
	23/07/41	18:40-19:45	1/4	He 60	Shared destroyed on the ground	I-16		Ruissalo	2./13 IAP-KBF
	23/07/41	18:40-19:45	1/4	He 60	Shared destroyed on the ground	I-16		Ruissalo	2./13 IAP-KBF
	23/07/41	18:40-19:45	1/4	He 60	Shared destroyed on the ground	I-16		Ruissalo	2./13 IAP-KBF
	23/07/41	18:40-19:45	1/4	He 60	Shared destroyed on the ground	I-16		Ruissalo	2./13 IAP-KBF
	23/07/41	18:40-19:45	1/4	He 60	Shared destroyed on the ground	I-16		Ruissalo	2./13 IAP-KBF

Biplane victories: 1 shared destroyed.
TOTAL: 5 and 9 shared destroyed, 7 shared destroyed on the ground.
(a) One Ki-30 (s/n 127) from 10th Sentai shot down (crew KIA).
(b) Claimed in combat with Morane MS.406s from LLv 28, which didn’t suffer any losses.
(c) These claims can’t be verified with Finnish records.
(d) Possibly a Do 17P from 3(F)./10.
(e) Fokker D.XXI FR-147 from LLv 30 shot down and pilot KIA.
(f) Polikarpov I-153 VH-14 from 3/LLv 6 shot down and the pilot KIA.
(g) This claim can’t be verified with Finnish records.
(h) Claimed in combat with Fokker D.XXIs of 2/LeLv 30, which claimed 1 I-16 and 1 I-153 without suffering any losses. 13 IAP-KBF claimed 4 “Fokkers” without suffering any losses.

Sources:
All aces of Stalin 1936–1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Polikarpov I-15, I-16 and I-153 Aces - Mikhail Maslov, 2010 Osprey Publishing, Oxford, ISBN 978-1-84603-981-2
Red Stars 5 - Baltic Fleet Air Force in Winter War – Carl-Fredrik Geust, Samuil Tirkeltaub and Gennadiy Petrov, 2004 Apali Oy, Tampere, ISBN 952-5026-31-0 Suomen Ilmavoimat part III – 1941 – Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman, 2007, ISBN 978-952-99743-1-3