Biplane fighter aces

Soviet Union

Kapitan Leonid Ignat'yevich Grekov HSU

1913 – 29 October 1941

Decorations
Date Decoration Note
09/08/41 Order of the Red Banner  
27/12/41 Gold Star of the Hero of Soviet Union Posthumous
27/12/41 Order of Lenin Posthumous

Leonid Grekov was born in 1913.

He graduated from Orenburg flight school in 1936.

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, kapitan Grekov served in 169 IAP. This regiment was equipped with Polikarpov I-153s and operated on the Western Front.

On 12 August, the regiment was withdrawn from the front to re-equip with MiG-3s.

On 28 September, 169 IAP became operational on the Volkhov Front with MiG-3s.

Kapitan Grekov was killed in action on 29 October, when he parachuted from his damaged fighter and was killed by enemy fighters.

At the time of his death, Grekov was credited with at least 1 biplane victory and a total of 4.
These had been claimed during 65 combat missions and 14 air combats.
The exact numbers of victories for Grekov had never been fully established due to lack of operational documents.

On 27 December 1941, Grekov was decorated with a posthumous Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin.

Claims:
Kill no. Date Time Number Type Result Plane type Serial no. Locality Unit
  1941                
  ??/08/41   1/? Bf 110 Shared destroyed I-153   Western Front 169 IAP
1 ??/08/41   1 Ju 88 Destroyed I-153   Western Front 169 IAP
2 ??/??/41   1 Enemy aircraft Destroyed       169 IAP
3 ??/??/41   1 Enemy aircraft Destroyed       169 IAP
4 ??/??/41   1 Enemy aircraft Destroyed       169 IAP
  ??/??/41   1/? Enemy aircraft Shared destroyed       169 IAP
  ??/??/41   1/? Enemy aircraft Shared destroyed       169 IAP
  ??/??/41   1/? Enemy aircraft Shared destroyed       169 IAP
  ??/??/41   1/? Enemy aircraft Shared destroyed       169 IAP
  ??/??/41   1/? Enemy aircraft Shared destroyed       169 IAP

Biplane victories: 1 and 1 shared destroyed.
TOTAL: 4 and 6 shared destroyed.

Sources:
All aces of Stalin 1936-1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Soviet Aces 1936-1953
Soviet Fighter Pilots 1936-1953 - Mikhail Bykov




Last modified 23 April 2021