1917 - 12 August 1942

Aleksandr Fedorovich Avdeyev was born on 23 July (or 5 August) 1917 in the village Bolshaya Talenka. He lived in Lyubina near Moscow and worked in a factory. He learned to fly in a civilian aeroclub where he received his license in 1937. In 1937, he joined the army and attended the Borisoglebsk Military Air College.

During the Winter War, Avdeyev served in the Leningrad area in the 153 IAP (Polikarpov I-153) as a leytenant and was later promoted to starshiy leytenant and Flight commander.

After the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the 153 IAP defended Leningrad City using I-153 Tchaika biplanes.

On 23 September 1941, he attacked AA guns position near Pushkino together with others and destroyed them.

The next day he led a formation of fighter-bombers from 153 IAP in an attack on an enemy motorised column on the eastern outskirts of Leningrad and they shot up more than ten vehicles.

In 1941, he was awarded with the Order of the Red Banner.

Avdeyev was decorated with the Order of the Red Star on 3 December 1941 after having discovered a disguised German long-range artillery battery during a reconnaissance mission.
By January 1942, Avdeyev had flown 189 combat missions, taken part in 16 air combats, shot down two enemy aircraft and destroyed four aircraft on the ground.

153 IAP was the first regiment to be re-equipped with the Bell Airacobra (Mk.Is produced for the RAF but shipped to the USSR instead). The first sorties with the new fighters were flown on 30 June 1942 and the unit was also later re-based to Lipetsk Airbase.

On 4 July, the Airacobras from 153 IAP fought with Bf 109s in the Vyaznovatovka area. Starshiy leytenant Mikhail Ivanov and Adam Amkoladze claimed one each west of Vyaznovatovka while Avdeyev claimed one north of Vyaznovatovka.

In August 1942, his unit fought over the Voronezh area.

On 12 August 1942, the unit attacked enemies in the Novaya Usman area. During this combat, he was killed when ramming a Bf 109.
It seems that most probably this combat was against Bf 109s from II/JG 77, which was the only Luftwaffe fighter unit based in the Voronezh area in August 1942, but this has not been possible to verify. Hungarian Re.2000 fighters were stationed south of Voronezh, but they didn’t suffer any losses on this date.
According to some Russian sources his victim was 46-victory ace Feldwebel Franz Schulte of 6./JG 77, who went missing during the day but this is neither confirmed by the operational documents of the Air Force nor the combat losses of the Luftwaffe.

He was awarded a posthumous Order of the Red Banner on 13 September 1942.

On 10 February 1943, he was posthumously awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin.

At the time of his death, Avdeyev was credited with 2 biplane victories and a total of 5.
These had been claimed during more than 200 combat missions and about 30 air combats.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1941
1	05/10/41		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	I-153		Leningrad area	153 IAP
2	01/12/41		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	I-153		Tolmachi	153 IAP
	1942
3	30/06/42		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	Airacobra		Matviyivka	153 IAP
4	30/06/42		1	Ju 88	Destroyed	Airacobra		W Matviyivka	153 IAP
5	04/07/42		1	Bf 109	Destroyed	Airacobra		N Vyaznovatovka	153 IAP

Biplane victories: 2 destroyed, 4 destroyed on the ground.
TOTAL: 5 destroyed, , 4 destroyed on the ground.

Sources:
Aces of the Reich - Gordon Williamson, 1989
Aerokobry vstupayut v boy - V.Roman, 1993, kindly provided by Ondrej Repka
Aeroram
Air Aces Home Page - Jan Safarik
All aces of Stalin 1936-1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Black Cross/Red Star Volume I - Christer Bergström and Andrey Mikhailov, 2000 Pacifica Military History, ISBN 0-935553-48-7
Hrdina tambovske oblasti - A.Zhuravlyev, Letectvi + kosmonautika kindly provided by Ondrej Repka
Luftwaffe Claims Lists - Tony Wood
Messerschmitt Aces - Walter A Musicano, 1989(1982)
Soviet Aces 1936-1953
Soviet Fighter Pilots 1936-1953 - Mikhail Bykov
Stalin's Falcons - Tomas Polak and Christhoper Shores, 1999 Grub Street, London, ISBN 1-902304-01-2
Additional information kindly provided by Csaba Becze and Ondrej Repka.