Sergey Ivanovich Gritsevets
19 July 1909 – 16 September 1939
Sergey Gritsevets
Place of birth	Baranavichy Raion, Russian Empire, now Belarus
Place of death	Vitebsk, Byelorussian SSR
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Service/branch	Soviet Air Forces
Years of service	1931 – 1939
Rank	Major
Battles/wars	Spanish Civil War,Battle of Khalkhin Gol,invasion of Poland
Awards	Hero of the Soviet Union, Order of Lenin, Order of the Red Banner

Sergey Ivanovich Gritsevets (Russian: Сергей Иванович Грицевец) (19 July 1909, Baranavichy Raion – 16 September 1939, Vitebsk) was a Soviet major, pilot and twice recipient of the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In 1931, Gritsevets joined the army, where he completed pilot training at a Orenburg military school in 1932 and further air combat training in 1936 at a pilot school in Odessa. In spring of 1938 Gritsevets volunteered to go to China, where he was involved in combat against Japanese forces attacking Wuhan and credited with two or three kills in a fierce 30 minutes air battle in which a total of 21 Japanese airplanes were downed. Gritsevets flew a Polikarpov I-15 biplane or I-16 monoplane.

Later the same year, Gritsevets volunteered to serve in the Spanish Civil War; he stayed there until the end of 1938, when all Soviet pilots were recalled. Flying an I-16, he claimed 30 victories in Spain, for which he received his first Hero of Soviet Union together with a Gold Star on 22 February 1939.

On 29 May 1939 a group of 48 experienced pilots, including Gritsevets, were sent to Mongolia to function as the backbone of a newly established air force to replace the former, which earlier had suffered a crippling defeat at the hands of Japanese forces and been decimated by NKVD arrests. Here Gritsevets was involved in several counts of actions with Japanese planes. On 26 June, during the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, Gritsevets landed his I-16 alongside his commanding officer, Major V. Zabaluyev, whom an engine failure had forced down deep in hostile territory, 60 kilometers behind enemy Japanese lines. Zabaluyev climbed into Gritsevets airplane and together they escaped. For this, and other heroic action during the conflict, he was awarded a second Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union 29 August 1939. All in all Gritsevets claimed 11 downed Japanese airplanes during this time.

On 12 September 1939 Gritsevets and 20 other pilots were sent back to Ukraine in preparation of the invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939. Gritsevets was killed on the 16 September 1939 in an accident in Bolbasovo near Vitebsk, wherein his airplane was rammed by another while taxiing in preparation for take off^[1].

Gritsevets is credited with downing 42 enemy planes before he died in an aviation accident in 1939, two of them while flying biplanes. He was awarded the Hero of Soviet Union (twice), the Order of Lenin (twice), the Order of the Red Banner (twice) as well as a Mongolian order he received in Ulan Bator before returning.

A monument in his honour was later erected in his birth town of Baranovichi.

[edit] References

1. ^ Interview with World War II Russian Pilot Evgeny Stepanov

[edit] External links

• (Russian) Sergey Gritsevets - at the website dedicated to Heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia
• (Russian) Biography