The 712th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment is a fighter aviation regiment of the Russian Aerospace Forces. Part of the 21st Mixed Aviation Division of the 14th Air and Air Defense Forces Army, the regiment is based at Kansk air base and flies the Mikoyan MiG-31BM.
The regiment was formed as the 40th Fighter Aviation Regiment in 1938 and saw combat in the Battle of Lake Khasan while stationed in the Soviet Far East before World War II. After Operation Barbarossa, the regiment was sent west. It became the 41st Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment in early 1943 in recognition of its actions in the Battle of the Caucasus. Postwar, it was renumbered as the 712th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment in 1949.
Prewar service In connection with increasing tensions between Japan and the Soviet Union in the Far East, the 117th Fighter Aviation Squadron of the VVS Moscow Military District was transferred from Lyubertsy near Moscow to the Pokrovka airfield in Primorsky Krai on 7 October 1937. Under the command of Captain Kirichenko, the squadron joined the 69th Fighter Aviation Brigade. Between 27 June and 1 July 1938, in accordance with a People's Commissariat of Defense directive of 5 June 1938, the squadron and graduates of Air Force schools were used to form the 40th Fighter Aviation Regiment (IAP), which became part of the 53rd Aviation Brigade of the Air Force (VVS) of the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army. Initially, two squadrons equipped with the I-16 and I-15bis were formed at Pokrovka, and soon afterwards they were joined by two squadrons of I-153 formed at the Baranovsky airfield near Ussuriysk. Captain D. K. Baranchuk was appointed commander of the regiment.
A month later, the regiment received its baptism of fire in the Battle of Lake Khasan against Japanese troops attempting to claim Soviet border regions. Between 6 and 12 August, two I-16 squadrons of the regiment, commanded by Captains A. B. Drozd and N. N. Dmitriyev, were committed to the battle, operating from the advanced airfield of Avgustovka. The remaining two squadrons were placed on alert at Pokrovka. Due to the lack of Japanese airpower in the battle, the combat missions of the regiment were changed and they instead patrolled the state border and escorted bombers attacking the Japanese forces at Lake Khasan. In the fighting, the regiment was credited with three Japanese aircraft destroyed and one damaged, while nineteen personnel of the 40th IAP were decorated.
The 40th IAP was transferred to the newly formed 72nd Fighter Aviation Brigade on 14 February 1939. In April, the 2nd squadron of the regiment under the command of Captain Kuzkin with I-15bis was transferred to the 41st Fighter Aviation Regiment on Kamchatka. The squadron was replaced in the 40th IAP by a new squadron under the command of Captain Kaftanov, formed from military school graduates who had arrived. In mid-1939, Japanese troops clashed with Soviet troops on the Mongolian border in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol. Between 15 July and 15 October, 40th IAP pilots Lieutenants S.A. Nazarenko, A.N. Degtyarenko, and N.M. Mentsyenzon provided air cover to Soviet troops without loss and were credited with one Japanese aircraft destroyed. An inspection carried out in late 1939 rated the combat readiness of the 40th IAP as satisfactory, but noted a high accident rate marked by the loss of two I-15 and two I-16. In one incident, 2nd squadron commander Captain Dmitriyev's I-16 crashed in bad weather.
In August 1940, the 72nd Fighter Aviation Brigade was disbanded and the regiment became part of the 33rd Mixed Aviation Division, which was itself disbanded by the end of the year. The regiment lost its two I-153 squadrons in December, the first being sent to the 34th Bomber Aviation Division while the second transferred to the 47th Fighter Aviation Regiment near Vladivostok at Zolotaya Dolina. To replace them, two I-16 squadrons were formed at Pokrovka. By the end of the year the 40th IAP with four squadrons shifted to the 70th Fighter Aviation Division (IAD).
World War II Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began on 22 June 1941. In response, the 40th was reinforced by ten pilots from the 5th and 305th IAPs on 5 July before being sent to the Soviet-German front in the west on the next day. The regiment fielded 63 I-16s under the command of Major Subbotin and chief of staff Major Bogachyov. At the time, the personnel of the regiment were considered highly experienced due to their participation in the border skirmishes against Japan. When it arrived in Ukraine, the regiment was reorganized by splitting it into two regiments between 7 and 15 August in accordance with an order of the Red Army Air Force on 3 August 1941 at Kupyansk: the 40th and 40th "A". The latter later became the 446th IAP, and the reorganized 40th IAP now included three squadrons. Relocated to the Stalino airfield near Donetsk, the regiment became part of the Donbass PVO Brigade Region of the Southern Front. From August to November, the regiment provided air defense against German bombing of Donetsk and factories in the Donbass. 3rd Squadron deputy commander Senior Lieutenant Dodonov became the first in the regiment to claim an aerial victory when he downed a Henschel Hs 126 in the vicinity of Tokmachka on 5 October. During this period, the 40th IAP flew 1,246 sorties in 1,226 total flying hours.
From 17 November to 6 December, two squadrons of the 40th under the command of Major S.P. Subbotin participated in the Battle of Rostov as part of the VVS 37th Army. In one air battle, future regimental commander Captain Aleksandr Pavlov distinguished himself in an action in which a flight of four I-16s covering ground troops were ambushed by nine German fighters. Captain Pavlov singlehandedly engaged four German aircraft, preventing them from finishing off a severely damaged I-16, allowing the latter to return to the airfield. For their actions, nineteen pilots of the regiment were decorated. The remaining squadron provided air defense for Kamensk-Shakhtinsky as part of the PVO Southern Front. The pilots of the 40th IAP conducted 464 combat sorties during this period and were credited with eleven aerial victories at the cost of one I-16. Intense fighting took place in the vicinity of Debaltsevo, Matveyev Kurgan, and Krasny Luch during mid-December, in which the 40th IAP played an active role, flying four to five sorties each day. Between 6 and 29 December, a total of 690 combat sorties were flown in which four aerial victories were claimed at the cost of two I-16s.
In the winter of 1941–1942, the 40th IAP provided air cover for Soviet troops in the Barvenkovo–Lozovaya offensive. Pilots of the regiment Pilipenko, Pavlov, Dodonov, Romanov, and Belikov distinguished themselves in these actions. From February to May 1942, the regiment flew 1,278 combat sorties, claimed 14 German aircraft downed, and lost three I-16s. In May, the regiment fought in the battles around Slavyansk and in the Second Battle of Kharkov. On 17 May, after German troops broke through the lines of the 9th Army, the regiment covered the Soviet withdrawal, attacking German positions in the Izyum–Barvenkovo operation and in battles on the Seversky Donets, at Lugansk, and Lysychansk. As the Soviet retreat continued through the summer, the regiment defended the crossings on the Don from German air attack. One such engagement over Rostov-on-Don on 22 July involved nine I-16s led by Captain Pilipenko engaging superior German numbers and claiming three downed without suffering losses. The regiment fought in the Battle of the Caucasus in the battles near Mozdok, Nalchik, and Prokhladny. On 2 October 1st Squadron commander Captain Pilipenko was shot down and killed during a mission with Dodonov to attack German aircraft on takeoff at the Soldatskaya airfield when both pilots were ambushed. Pilipenko was posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet Union in recognition of his thirteen aerial victories and 29 shared claims. From June to October, the 40th, as part of the 216th and 217th IADs of the Southern Front, made 2,714 combat sorties. They were credited with the destruction of 38 aircraft at the cost of five losses.
On 20 October, the 40th IAP flew to the Bozhigan airfield in the Kalmyk Steppe, where they were attached to the 4th Guards Cavalry Corps. The regiment supported the latter in raids against Axis communications, and with the corps between October 1942 and January 1943 advanced from the Caspian to Krasnodar, conducting 1,018 combat sorties and claiming two aerial victories without loss. In the winter of 1942–1943, the regiment, commanded by Major P.F. Chupikov, participated in the recapture of the Kuban as part of the North Caucasian Front. The regiment received replacement pilots and several I-153 fighters. An order of the NKO on 8 February 1943 gave the 40th IAP elite guards status as the 41st Guards IAP in recognition of its performance.
In late February, the regiment, handing its obsolete I-16s and I-153s over to the 84th IAP, was slated for conversion to the Lavochkin La-5. For this, on 25 February the personnel of the regiment were sent for retraining at Ivanovo. After two months of training, the regiment, with 32 new La-5s, was relocated to Buturlinovka and joined the Voronezh Front as part of the 8th Guards IAD. At the new base, the 41st GIAP immediately entered combat to repel air raids. As part of the 5th Fighter Aviation Corps of the 2nd Air Army, the regiment provided air defense for Kursk and Oboyan. They flew 335 sorties between May and July and were credited with 21 victories. In mid-1943, the regiment defended Voronezh and then participated in the Belgorod–Kharkov offensive. In this period the 41st GIAP flew 1,145 combat sorties, claiming 50 German aircraft downed at the cost of four La-5s lost. In the fall and winter of 1943 the regiment fought in the Battle of Kiev and the forcing of the Dnieper, the creation of a bridgehead on the right bank of the Dnieper and the recapture of Kiev. The 40th flew 500 combat sorties, claimed eighteen victories and lost one of its own aircraft.
In early 1944, the regiment received a large number of replacement pilots and several new Lavochkin La-7 fighters, and was out of combat instructing the new pilots until 10 March. In the spring and summer of 1944, the regiment supported the offensives of the 1st Ukrainian Front. During the battles for Proskurov and Ternopol and in the Lvov–Sandomierz offensive the 41st GIAP flew 1,314 combat sorties and was credited with destroying 32 German aircraft at the cost of five of its own. On 8 April, it was awarded the honorific Chernovitsy in recognition of its "courage and heroism" in the battles for the city. In January 1945, the regiment supported the 1st Ukrainian Front in the expansion of the Sandomierz bridgehead, flying 437 sorties. In late January, the regiment was moved forward to German territory and based at Groß Stein, operating as part of the 2nd Air Army of the front. On 19 February, the regiment was awarded the Order of Kutuzov, 3rd class, for its "exemplary performance of tasks at the front." Between January and May, the regiment supported Soviet operations in the Kraków and Częstochowa sectors and the Berlin Offensive. At the end of the war during the Prague offensive, twelve crews bombed fleeing German troops between 9 and 11 May. A total of 416 sorties were flown with the loss of three aircraft.