P-39N-0 Bilyukin is a Soviet Air unit in Steel Division II.
Background[ | ]
Born on September 11, 1920, in Zhukovo near Smolensk, Bilyukin came from a peasant family and graduated school in Zharovonki, after his family moved closer to Moscow. At 16 he became a machine operator specializing in metal processing and earned a pilot's license from the local aviation club.
He was drafted into the Red Army in 1939 and sent to flight school due to his training. After graduating the Borisoglebsk Red Banner Military Aviation School, he was assigned as junior lieutenant to the 196th fighter aviation regiment in Leningrad.
He spent most of his career defending the supply lane across the frozen Lake Ladoga, which kept Leningrad alive and fighting against the Nazi siege. His first victory was in July 1941, on an I-16. Two years later, he was appointed squadron commander. After lifting the siege of Leningrad, he was transferred to the Karelian front, and eventually Norway, where he won his last victory, shooting down a Me 109.
In the course of his service he flew on the Tomahawks, Kittyhawks, and eventually the Bell P-39 Airacobra. It was the P-39 that gave him his greatest achievements: Bilyukin scored four Focke-Wulf Fw 190 kills in a P-39 on August 1, 1943, three of them in a single sortie. He received the Hero of the Soviet Union award in November 1944, and ended the war with 430 sorties and 22 individual and 1 shared aerial victory to his name.
After the war, he continued to serve in the Soviet Air Force, in the Moscow Military District, graduating the Air Force Academy in Monino in 1957, and eventually reaching the rank of deputy commander of the 131st Fighter Aviation Division of the 57th Air Army.
He dies on October 24, 1966, aged just 46.
Strategy[ | ]
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