Biplane fighter aces

Soviet Union

Mladshiy Leitenant Konstantin Grigoryevich Andreyev

Konstantin Andreyev was born in 1916.

He received his pilot training on U-2s in the 4th "Aeroclub" in the spring and summer of 1938 at Leningrad and field camp at Ljuban.
After this he was sent to the Chugujev Military Air School where he trained from 1939 to 1940 and flew Polikarpov I-15s. He graduated on 16 June 1940.

He arrived to the 13 IAP-KBF in August of 1940.

In June 1941, he belonged to the 4./13 IAP-KBF. This unit was at the time equipped with Polikarpov I-153s and based at Hanko peninsula.

On 23 June he claimed a shared Ju 88.

On the morning on 26 July he took part in a sortie against Finnish ships, which tried to defend the Bengtskär Lighthouse. He flew together with his comesk Belousov and komissar Biskup in a group of three I-153s. The leading aircrafts fell their bombs on some Finnish ship and changed formation. Andreev had to change his position and the distance between his I-153 and the leaders increased, he became separated and the formation leader didn’t notice this.
Suddenly he saw a burst of bullets hitting his Chaika and an enemy fighter attacking him from above and head-on. Andreev turned towards the enemy aircraft but lost the opponent from view and released his bombs over the sea. He was alone.
After a while he saw an enemy fighter at long distance and decided to pursuit. He followed it for a rather long time presumably unnoticed him. Finally, he was able to fire several short bursts at the enemy fighter at long distance and it started to emit smoke, decreasing altitude and then finally crash in to the sea.
Andreev returned to Täcktom airfield and claimed the victory.
Although Andreev recalls it was a Bf 109, Soviet documents states that it was a Fokker D.XXI.

On 16 September he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

On 22 September Bf 109s shot him down over Ösel Island and he was taken POW.
It is possible that he was shot down by Leutnant Wolfgang Kretschmer of 1. (Erg)/JG 54, who made the only claim for the day when he claimed an I-153 at 14:15.
He was wounded (his hand was broken), suffered a very hard concussion and was treated on a local hospital on Ösel. He remained unconscious until 5 October and he suffered a full amnesia. He didn’t remember his parents until 1942, his brothers in 1943 and his wife he didn’t remember until they met in 1945.

He was transported from Ösel in December 1941 to Viljandi and then to Riga POW-camp.
He was later transported to Lodz in Poland and then finally to Germany.

He was released from the POW-camp by American troops 29 April 1945. At this time, he was interned at a POW-camp between the Alps and München.

Andreev ended the war with 1 biplane victory.

When he returned to Soviet Union, he went through the Investigation camp at Alkino, Ufa region, together with other former Navy pilots and soldiers of Vlasov's Army.

He was sent to his unit, 4 GIAP-KBF in August 1945.

He retired from the military service in 1946.

Due to his captivity he had big problems to get any job and he worked at automobile station as repair worker.

Today he lives with his wife, Zoja Nikolajevna, (born 1917) in a 1-room flat.

Claims:
Kill no. Date Time Number Type Result Plane type Serial no. Locality Unit
  1941                
  23/06/41   1 Ju 88 Shared destroyed I-153   Gulf of Finland 13 IAP-KBF
1 26/07/41 a.m. 1 Fokker D.XXI Destroyed I-153   Gulf of Finland 13 IAP-KBF

Biplane victories: 1 and 1 shared destroyed.
TOTAL: 1 and 1 shared destroyed.

Sources:
All aces of Stalin 1936-1953 – Mikhail Bykov, 2014
Luftwaffe Claims Lists - Tony Wood
Soviet Aces 1936-1953
Soviet Fighter Pilots 1936-1953 - Mikhail Bykov
Information kindly provided by Andrey Dikov and Yuri Shakhov.




Last modified 17 August 2020