Yakov Filimonov was born in 1915.

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June, leitenant Filimonov served with the 147 IAP. This regiment was based in the far north end of the Karelian Front, defending the harbours of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, equipped with Polikarpov I-15bis and I-153s.

On 8 July 1941, he was seriously wounded during a combat mission. He was hospitalised and sent to the rear.

In October 1942, he was posted to 163 IAP on the North Caucasian Front. He started to fly combat missions with this regiment in May 1943.

Starshiy leitenant Filimonov was wounded on 20 July 1943.
He succumbed to his wound the following day.

Filimonov ended the war with 1 biplane victory and a total of 2.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1941
1	28/06/41		1	He 111	Destroyed	I-15bis		Northern Front	147 IAP
	1943
	17/07/43		1/?	FW 189	Shared destroyed			North Caucasian Front	163 IAP
1	19/07/43		1	FW 190	Destroyed			North Caucasian Front	163 IAP

Biplane victories: 1 destroyed.
TOTAL: 2 and 1 shared destroyed.

Sources:
All aces of Stalin 1936-1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Geroi lenigradskogo neba - 1984 Lenizdat kindly provided by Vladislav Arhipov
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