Biplane fighter aces

Soviet Union

Kapitan Mikhail Ivanovich Mudrov

15 December 1919 – 29 January 1944

Mikhail Mudrov was born on 15 December 1919.

He graduated from the Army Flying School in Chita in 1938.

In December 1940, Leitenant Mudrov was posted to 155 IAP, initially flying I-16s with this unit.

On 6 December 1941, 155 IAP became a guard’s unit when it was renamed to 3 GIAP.

On 12 December, Andrey Raspertov and Mudrov claimed a shared He 111 north of Pitomnik airfield together with a third pilot.

On 18 December 1942, he was decorated with the Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class.

In July 1943, he became CO of an eskadrilia.

In August 1943, he had a great period of claiming and between the 4th and 13th of this month he claimed 8 victories. Of these two were Ju 87s and one were a Bf 109 claimed on the 12th.

On 27 August 1943, he was decorated with the Order of the Red Banner.

He received the Order of Alexander Nevskii on 31 December 1943.

Kapitan Mudrov (at the time CO 3./3 GIAP) became missing in action on 27 January 1944 after 420 sorties.
It seems that he crashed his La-5 on the ice of a lake and lost consciousness. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he died on 29 January without regaining consciousness. Since he didn’t carry any papers on him, he was buried as an unknown and thus remained missing.
The remains of his body weren’t found until 50 years later near the village Pogrebishche (which means something like cemetery!).

At the time of his death, Mudrov was credited with 26 victories.

On 10 April 1995 Mudrov was posthumously awarded with the Hero of the Russian Federation.

Claims:
Kill no. Date Time Number Type Result Plane type Serial no. Locality Unit
  1942                
  30/03/42   1/4 Bf 109 Shared destroyed LaGG-3     3 GIAP
1 09/05/42   1 Bf 109 Destroyed LaGG-3     3 GIAP
  09/05/42   1/4 Bf 109 Shared destroyed LaGG-3     3 GIAP
  09/05/42   1/4 Bf 109 Shared destroyed LaGG-3     3 GIAP
2 28/11/42   1 Ju 87 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
3 28/11/42   1 Ju 88 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
  12/12/42   1/3 He 111 Shared destroyed La-5   N Pitomnik airfield 3 GIAP
4 13/12/42   1 Bf 109 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
  1943                
5 19/02/43   1 Bf 110 Destroyed La-5   Stalingrad area 3 GIAP
6 01/06/43   1 Bf 109 Destroyed La-5   Kiev 3 GIAP
7 02/06/43   1 Bf 109 Destroyed La-5   Kiev 3 GIAP
  03/06/43   1/2 Bf 109 Shared destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
8 04/06/43   1 Ju 88 Destroyed La-5   NW Crimea 3 GIAP
9 05/06/43   1 Bf 109 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
10 04/08/43   1 Bf 109 Destroyed La-5   Tomorovka 3 GIAP
11 05/08/43   1 He 111 Destroyed La-5   Tomorovka 3 GIAP
12 05/08/43   1 Bf 109 Destroyed La-5   N Tomorovka 3 GIAP
13 07/08/43   1 Bf 109 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
  10/08/43   1/3 Hs 126 Shared destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
  10/08/43   1/4 He 111 Shared destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
  10/08/43   1/4 He 111 Shared destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
14 12/08/43   1 Ju 87 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
15 12/08/43   1 Ju 87 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
16 12/08/43   1 Bf 109 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
17 13/08/43   1 Ju 87 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
18 06/10/43   1 Bf 109 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
19 08/10/43   1 Ju 87 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
20 13/10/43   1 Bf 109 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
21 21/10/43   1 Fw 190 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
22 22/10/43   1 Fw 190 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
23 05/11/43   1 Fw 190 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
24 12/12/43   1 Fw 190 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
25 15/12/43   1 Fw 190 Destroyed La-5     3 GIAP
  1944                
26 10/01/44   1 Bf 109 Destroyed La-5   SW Vahnovka 3 GIAP

TOTAL: 26 and 8 shared destroyed.

Sources:
All aces of Stalin 1936–1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Sovetskiye asy - Nikolay Bodrikhin, 1998, kindly provided by Ondrej Repka.
Soviet Aces 1936-1953
Additional information kindly provided by Ondrej Repka.




Last modified 17 December 2021