7 April 1912 – 13 February 1979

Semyonov was born on 7 April 1912 in Zabolotnoe in the Kalinin region.
He entered the army in 1933 and graduated from the Kharkov Military Air School.

In 1937, he volunteered for combat duty in Spain. He served as a Leitenant in an escuadrilla commanded by A. I. Gusev, flying on the Teruel Front.
While in Spain, he flew 30 sorties in I-16s and claimed 1 and 3 shared victories here.
In 1938, he was seriously wounded after a crash but returned to duty after two months.
For his service in Spain he was awarded an Order of the Red Banner in 1938.

In December 1939, he saw action during the Finnish-Soviet Winter War. During this conflict he served as a Kapitan and commanding an eskadrilya of I-152s of the 7 IAP. He flew 75 sorties and claimed 4 victories during five combats (the claimed aircraft were reportedly of British origin).
There is some mismatch between various sources regarding the aircraft used by 7 IAP during the Winter War. Some sources states I-152s, others I-153s while others states I-16s. It is therefore not 100% certain that Semyonov did claim victories in biplane fighters.

For his service in Finland, he was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin on 21 March 1940.
He was also decorated with the Order of the Red Banner for a second time during 1940.

His initial sorties against the Germans from June 1941 were flown in a MiG-3 of an Otedelnaya Istrebitelnaya Aviaeskadrilya (OAE – Independent Fighter Squadron).

In the end of July, he claimed a He111.

In August, he claimed two Bf109s.

In September, he claimed two Bf110s (or Bf109s depending on source).

In September 1941, he became commanding officer of the 180 IAP on the West Front and with this unit saw considerable combat at Rzhev, Kholm-Zharkovskij, and Zubtsov being occupied with furnishing ground force cover and beating up enemy columns.
He was also decorated with the Order of the Red Banner for a third time during September.

In October, he was decorated with the Order of Lenin for a second time.

During his time with the 180 IAP he also claimed a shared He111 at an unknown date.

In the end of 1941 until May 1942, he undertook an officer’s advanced training course. After the course, he posted as a Major and fighter inspector to Stalingrad.

In the summer of 1942, he served with the 434 IAP near Stalingrad, becoming commanding officer on 19 September.

Between 16 June and 4 July, he claimed an enemy aircraft.

On 18 September 1942, a lonely Fw189, probably the aircraft the aircraft piloted by Oberfeldwebel Manfred Klöhe of NAGr 12’s 6.(H)/41, was unfortunate to become intercepted by a large formation of 434 IAP Yak-7Bs. The reconnaissance aircraft was claimed shot down over Kotluban by Mayor Semyonov, the fighter inspector in Stalingrad, and 18-year-old Starshiy Leytenant Vladimir Mikoyan, the son of the premier of the USSR, Anastas Mikoyan.

On 22 November, the regiment became the 32 GIAP.

He was removed from operations for a time and in January 1943 served in the Headquarter of Front Aviation.

In February 1943, he was assigned to the badly battered 286 IAD to get this into operational trim once more. He found this in a demoralised state but soon got it into shape.

In February 1944, he applied for transfer to combat duty and returned to the 32 GIAP, which was now flying La-5FNs.

After taking off at 17:40 on 8 March 1944, he claimed a Junkers.

In May 1944, he was posted as commander of the 3 GIAD as a Podpolkovnik, leading this unit on the 1st Baltic Front over East Prussia.
He participated in the huge Soviet offensive against Army Group Center in Byelorussia in June 1944 and subsequently fought in Kurland.

In October 1944, he moved to the 1st Ukrainian Front to command the 322 IAD, remaining with this unit during the advance into Germany in the spring of 1945, and for the capture of Berlin.
He displayed outstanding leadership in the final aerial campaigns over the Reich with the pilot of the unit claiming 152 victories over Silesia, Berlin and Prague during 4369 sorties.

On 2 May 1945, he undertook his 240th and last sortie of the Great Patriotic War with a mission in a La-7 over Berlin.

Semyonov ended the war with 4 biplane victories (see remark above) and a total of 20. These were claimed in 345 sorties (30 in Spain, 75 in Finland and 240 in the GPW) and at least 70 encounters.

During the war he was also decorated with the Order of Kutuzov 2nd Class, the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitski 2nd Class, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class and the Order of the Red Star.

Semyonov remained in the VVS after the war and graduated from the General Staff.
He retired in 1970 as a General Leitenant.
He wrote of his experiences in Na Vzlete (Take Off) and co-authered Eskadrilya “Mongolskii Arat” (The Mongolian Shepherd Squadron).

Semyonov died on 13 February 1979.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
1	??/??/3?		1	Enemy aircraft	Destroyed	I-16		Spain
	??/??/3?		1	Enemy aircraft	Shared destroyed	I-16		Spain
	??/??/3?		1	Enemy aircraft	Shared destroyed	I-16		Spain
	??/??/3?		1	Enemy aircraft	Shared destroyed	I-16		Spain
	1939-40
2	?/?/??		1	Enemy aircraft (a)	Destroyed	I-152		Finland	7 IAP
3	?/?/??		1	Enemy aircraft (a)	Destroyed	I-152		Finland	7 IAP
4	?/?/??		1	Enemy aircraft (a)	Destroyed	I-152		Finland	7 IAP
5	?/?/??		1	Enemy aircraft (a)	Destroyed	I-152		Finland	7 IAP
	1941
?	??/07/41		1	He111	Destroyed	MiG-3			180 IAP
?	??/08/41		1	Bf109	Destroyed	MiG-3			180 IAP
?	??/08/41		1	Bf109	Destroyed	MiG-3			180 IAP
?	??/09/41		1	Bf110	Destroyed	MiG-3			180 IAP
?	??/09/41		1	Bf110	Destroyed	MiG-3			180 IAP
	??/??/4?		1	He111	Shared destroyed	MiG-3			180 IAP
	1942
?	??/??/42		1	Enemy aircraft (b)	Destroyed				434 IAP
	18/09/42		½	Fw189 (c)	Shared destroyed	Yak-7b		Kotluban	434 IAP
	1944
?	08/03/44	17:40-	1	Junkers	Destroyed	La-5			32 GIAP

Biplane victories: 4 destroyed.
TOTAL: 20 and 15 shared destroyed.
(a) Enemy aircraft of reportedly British orgin.
(b) Claimed between 16 June and 4 July 1942.
(c) Probably a Fw189 piloted by Oberfeldwebel Manfred Klöhe of NAGr 12’s 6.(H)/41.

Sources:
Black Cross/Red Star Volume III - Christer Bergström, Andrey Dikov and Vlad Antipov, 2006 Eagle Editions Ltd, Hamilton, ISBN 0-9761034-4-3
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.