26 December 1916 – 23 August 1982

Alexei Churilin was born in the secluded village of Shiryavskov, in the Kamensk-Uralskii area in the Ural Mountains on 26 December 1916.
He joined the army in 1940. Attending the Stalingrad Military Air College he graduated during 1941.

He was assigned to the 611 IAP and posted to the front in December 1942.

On 10 January 1943, he claimed his first and 611 IAP’s first victory when he shot down a Bf109 with RS-82 rockets while flying a Polikarpov I-153 in the Agoy area.

He claimed a Bf109 over Uspenskaja on 20 August.

He enjoyed considerable success in a series of though encounters over Krasnodar, the Mius River and at Akhtyrka.

Mayor Churilin was an eskadrilya commander in the 611 IAP by 1944, operating over Rumania, Yugoslavia and Hungary.

During the spring of 1945, he was one of the most successful Soviet pilots over Hungary with eight claimed Bf109s.

In the course of his combat duty, Churilin was wounded in action twice.

On 18 August 1945, he was decorated with the Gold Star of Hero of the Soviet Union.
During the war he was also decorated with the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner (twice), the Order of Alexandr Nevskii, the Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Class and the Order of the Red Star (four times).
Churilin was also a good leader and teacher for young wingmen, 9 of them claimed at least 20 victories.

Churilin ended the war with 1 biplane victory and a total of 23 or 30. These were claimed in 273 sorties and 83 encounters. Among his claims were 12 Bf109s, 2 Fw190s and 3 Ju87s. He also claimed 21 aircraft destroyed on the ground. During the war, he flew I-153s, LaGG-3s, Yak-1s and Yak-3s.

He remained in the VVS after the war. He retired in 1972 with the rank of Polkovnik, following which he lived in Novorossiisk. Churilin passed away on 23 August 1982.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1943
1	10/01/43		1	Bf109	Destroyed	I-153		Agoy area	611 IAP
?	20/08/43		1	Bf109	Destroyed	Yak		Uspenskaja	611 IAP
	1944
13	20/12/44		1	Bf109	Destroyed	Yak		Börgönd	611 IAP
	1945
?	08/03/45		1	Bf109	Destroyed	Yak-3		Kaloz-Ilir	611 IAP
?	10/03/45 (a)		1	Bf109	Destroyed	Yak-3		Hungary	611 IAP
?	10/03/45 (a)		1	Bf109	Destroyed	Yak-3		Hungary	611 IAP
?	15/03/45		1	Bf109G	Destroyed	Yak-3		N Seregeyes, Hungary	611 IAP
?	23/03/45 (b)		1	Bf109	Destroyed			Hungary	611 IAP
?	23/03/45 (b)		1	Bf109	Destroyed			Hungary	611 IAP
?	05/04/45		1	Bf109	Destroyed			Hungary	611 IAP
?	05/04/45		1	Bf109	Destroyed			Hungary	611 IAP
?	11/04/45 (c)		1	Bf109	Destroyed			Hungary	611 IAP
?	11/04/45 (c)		1	Bf109	Destroyed			Hungary	611 IAP

Biplane victories: 1 destroyed.
TOTAL: 23 or 30 destroyed, 21 destroyed on the ground.
(a) Alternatively claimed on 11/03/45.
(b) Alternatively claimed on 29/03/45.
(c) Alternatively claimed on 15/04/45.

Sources:
Le Chaika et l’attaque au sol (Les I-153 dans le Caucaseet au Kouban en 1942-43) – Dmitriy Karlenko, 2003 Air Magazine No.17 dec 2003/jan 2004, kindly provided by Ondrej Repka
Sovetskiye asy - Nikolay Bodrikhin, 1998, 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
Additional information kindly provided by Ondrej Repka.