Tag #146706 - Interview #78109 (Naum Kravets)

My cockpit crew was transferred to dive bomber remodeled into bomber- reconnaissance. The plane didn't have a radar-set so I had to take the place of radio-operator gunner. At school we were taught how to use onboard guns. One thing at school, but in the battle it is quite different. My first battle flight was very sad for me and for our plane. We were in the air for 15 minutes when a German plane showed up above the sea. It made a run-in immediately. I was supposed to repel the attack. I was supposed to take out the gun from the well of the left board and carry on the top edge to fire on the top. I started to fire from the well and crashed with bullets the right board of my plane with the control cables: steers of depth, turn, altitude. Having fears that the plane might crash, I decided to fasten those cables somehow. I unzipped the parachute, took my fur overall off and covered those steel cables with my overall. In a jiff, I was freezing. It was frosty and windy winter-time. The cockpit was open. I could hear over my headphones that the commander talked to the air navigator saying that is was such a pity the gunner had been killed in his first battle flight. They didn't understand that it was me who was shooting; they thought it was the Germans. He made only one run-in, and it was me who crashed our plane.