Biplane fighter aces

Soviet Union

Kapitan Viktor Grigoryevich Karpukhin

1919 – 12 August 1942 (?)

Decorations
Date Decoration Note
??/??/?? Order of Lenin  
??/??/?? Order of the Red Banner  

Viktor Karpukhin was born in 1919.

Karpukhin served in 3./7 IAP during the Finnish-Soviet Winter War. This unit was equipped with Polikarpov I-153s.

Soviet troops pressed closer to the city of Vyborg on 9 March and the fronts bent but didn’t break. LeR 1 kept a close watch of the enemy ground movements while LeR 2 and LeR 3 kept on the strafing and bombing of the troops in the invasion area and attacked the supply columns.
At 12:20, vänrikki Jouko Myllymäki (Morane MS-330) of LLv 28 claimed an I-16 over Uusikirkko.
At 16:30, two I-153 were claimed shot down over Viipurinlahti. These were claimed by vänrikki Kauko Linnamaa (Fiat G.50bis FA-20) of LLv 26 and Danish luutnantti Mogens Fensboe (Morane MS-320) of LLv 28.
Morane MS-322 of LLv 28 was shot down over Vilalahti at 17:00 and luutnantti Erkki Lupari was wounded.
7 IAP was heavy involved in the combat during the day and was the only VVS units claiming victories during the day when they claimed eight fighters and one bomber.
Starshiy leitenant Vladimir Kurochkin and Franchuck of 1./7 IAP (I-16) claimed two shared enemy fighters.
Kapitan N. M. Kidalinskii of 4./7 IAP claimed an enemy bomber.
Starshiy leitenant Georgii Zhuikov of 3./7 IAP (I-153) claimed two enemy fighters.
Nikita Doletskiy of 3./7 IAP (I-153) claimed one enemy fighter.
Karpukhin of 3./7 IAP (I-153) claimed one enemy fighter.
Georgiy Glotov and mladshiy leitenant Nikolay Ivanov of 3./7 IAP (I-153) claimed a shared fighter.
Mladshiy leitenant Aleksey Nikitin of 3./7 IAP (I-153) claimed one unconfirmed enemy fighter.
No VVS fighters were lost during the day.

Karpukhin ended the Winter War with 1 biplane victory.

When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, Karpukhin still served in 7 IAP, which at this time was equipped with MiG-3s.

In August 1941, he was posted to 19 IAP (also equipped with MiG-3s) but was posted back to 7 IAP already in September.

He left 7 IAP again in October to be posted to 153 IAP, which was equipped with MiG-3s and Airacobras.

On 2 July 1942, the Airacobras from 153 IAP claimed two Bf 109s when Adam Amkoladze claimed one north of Sukovkino Station and Karpukhin claimed a second north over Sukovkino.
On the same day, Karpukhin claimed a shared Do 217 together with another pilot south-west of Krasnaya Dolina.

On 3 July 1942, the Airacobras of 153 IAP were in combat west of Turovo and Karpukhin and Aleksey Nikitin claimed a Bf 109 each.

Starshiy leitenant Mikhail Ivanov and Karpukhin claimed a shared Bf 109 south of Otrozhka on 28 July.

After claiming a Bf 110 on 12 August 1942, he disappeared without a trace after an air combat to become MIA.

At the time of his disappearance, Karpukhin was credited with 1 biplane victory and a total of 7. These had been claimed in 229 combat missions.

Claims:
Kill no. Date Time Number Type Result Plane type Serial no. Locality Unit
  1940                
1 09/03/40   1 Enemy fighter (a) Destroyed I-153   Koivisto peninsula 3./7 IAP
  1941                
  12/07/41   1/2 He 111 Shared destroyed MiG-3   Nevskaya Dubrovka 7 IAP
  18/07/41   1/2 Bf 110 Shared destroyed MiG-3   S Lake Samro 7 IAP
  23/07/41   1/2 Ju 88 Shared destroyed MiG-3   Lake Krasnogorsk 7 IAP
  13/08/41   1/2 Bf 110 Shared destroyed MiG-3   Kingisepp 7 IAP, 19 IAP
2 13/08/41   1 Bf 109 Destroyed MiG-3   W Sumsk 7 IAP, 19 IAP
3 05/10/41   1 He 115 Destroyed MiG-3   Leningrad 153 IAP
  1942                
4 02/07/42   1 Bf 109 Destroyed Airacobra   N Sukovkino 153 IAP
  02/07/42   1/2 Do 217 Shared destroyed Airacobra   SW Krasnaya Dolina 153 IAP
5 03/07/42   1 Bf 109 Destroyed Airacobra   W Turovo 153 IAP
6 04/07/42   1 Bf 110 Destroyed Airacobra   N Ust'ye 153 IAP
  28/07/42   1/2 Bf 109 Shared destroyed Airacobra   S Otrozhka 153 IAP
7 12/08/42   1 Bf 110 Destroyed Airacobra   Devitsa 153 IAP

Biplane victories: 1 destroyed.
TOTAL: 7 and 6 shared destroyed.
(a) 7 IAP claimed 8 fighters and 1 bomber during the day without losses. Finnish fighters claimed 3 Soviet fighters during the day while losing 1 Morane.

Sources:
All aces of Stalin 1936–1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Red Stars 7 - Talvisota Ilmassa - The Winter War In the Air - Carl-Fredrik Geust, 2011 Apali Oy, Tampere, ISBN 978-952-5877-04-5
Soviet Aces 1936-1953
Soviet Fighter Pilots 1936-1953 - Mikhail Bykov
Suomen Ilmavoimat part II – 1928-40 – Kalevi Keskinen and Kari Stenman, 2006, ISBN 952-99743-0-2




Last modified 04 December 2021