"Ramming Aircraft" Topic

Other than a few examples of Japanese, Russian and German pilots intentionally ramming a target, are there any other WW2 examples of this?

-Binhan

Here you go

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramming

wasnt there an english fighter pilot who rammed a german bomber near buckingham palace ?

And while not ramming per se, there's all the pilots who flipped the V1s out of control.

"wasnt there an english fighter pilot who rammed a german bomber near buckingham palace ?"

Yes, going after three Dorniers Sgt. Ray Holmes shot one down but was then out of ammo, so he flew his Hurricane into one of the remaining ones. He sliced the bomber's tail off with his wing, rather than just out-and-out head-on ramming it. He then bailed out, as his own kite was in a bit of a state itself by that point, as you might expect.

At least two Greek pilots brought down Italian bombers by ramming/cutting tails of with props. One of them even landed his plane, a PZL 24 safely.

Fatman

I've read of a U.S. P-40 pilot over New Guinea in 1942 who, out of ammo, stuck his wing tip into the cockpit of a Zero. Don't know if it's true though.

Hi

Ya, it is true.

There are also instance of accidental ramming.

Rocky

I think there was an incident of a Corsair chopping the tail off a Ki-45.

I listed quite a few here in this thread which was moved to the Scenarios Board.
TMP link

And I had created a whole thread on the subject here,

Flying Rams and Air to Air Ramming
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Robert

There's that one British pilot that rammed a bomber I think. He got messed up as a result, lost his legs, but managed to regain flight status and went on to fight some more after he healed.

"I think there was an incident of a Corsair chopping the tail off a Ki-45."

What I posted on the other thread,

"One particularly interesting kill was scored by a Marine Lieutenant R. R. Klingman of VMF-312 Checkerboards, over Okinawa. Klingman was in pursuit of a Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu ("Nick") twin engine fighter at extremely high altitude when his guns jammed due to the gun lubrication thickening from the extreme cold. He simply flew up and chopped off the Ki-45's tail with the big propeller of the Corsair. Despite missing five inches (127 mm) off the end of his propeller blades, he managed to land safely after this ramming attack. He was awarded the Navy Cross."
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United Kingdom
"On 15 September 1940, Flight Sergeant Ray Holmes of No. 504 Squadron RAF used his Hawker Hurricane to destroy a Dornier Do-17 bomber over London by ramming but at the loss of his own aircraft (and almost his own life) in one of the defining moments of the Battle of Britain. Holmes, making a head-on attack, found his guns inoperative. He flew his plane into the top-side of the German bomber, cutting off the rear tail section with his wing and causing the bomber to dive out of control. The German crew were killed in the crash, while the injured Holmes bailed out of his plane and survived. As the R.A.F. did not practice ramming as an air combat tactic, this was considered an impromptu manoeuvre, and an act of selfless courage."

And for the Japanese,
"While on a mission to intercept a force of US B-24s attacking Rangoon MSgt Anabuki Satoru became separated due to technical problems and arrived over the target area alone. He found 11 B-24s and 2 P-38s. He immediately attacked and shot down 3 B-24s and the 2 P-38s. One of the B-24s he brought down by ramming when he ran out of ammunition."

"At least two C-47s were rammed by zeros in WW2 and lived to tell the tale. Tough birds. In both cases the fighters went down, and in one case the C-47 got credited with a kill. In almost any case ramming another aircraft is pretty much a last ditch maneuver, and you'll be going down too.
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Warrant Officer Kiyomi Katsuki

"On 4 October 1942, while flying combat air patrol over the fleet in his ‘Pete', he spotted four enemy fighters and five B-17s. In order to prevent the bombers from hitting the seaplane carrier Nisshin, Katsuki dove on the leading B-17 (B-17E of the 72nd BS, flown by Lieutenant David C. Everitt Jr.) and commenced his attack. After completing his pass, he rammed the aircraft from below, tearing the right main wing and the vertical stabiliser off the bomber and damaging his own right wing. Together with his observer he baled out of his stricken aircraft and both were rescued by the destroyer Akisuki. The crew of the B-17 all perished"

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Greece

Mitralexis is famous in Greece for protecting his country with the nerve of Theseus. Mitralexis flew his P-24 (PZL)to defend northern Greece from aerial attacks in the early stages of World War II. On 2 November 1940, twenty-seven Italian Cant Z.1007 bombers with Fiat CR42 fighter escorts crossed into Greece intending to ravage Thessaloniki. The P-24s of the 32 Mira, Mitralexis' squadron, responded quickly and destroyed three of the bombers. The remaining bombers turned to flee after jettisoning their deadly payloads with no effect.

Mitralexis, who had already shot down one bomber, gave chase. Out of ammunition, he used his plane's propeller as a weapon and severed the tail of a retreating bomber. The Cant Z.1007 went down, and so did Mitralexis. After a dead-stick landing near the crashed Italian plane, the Greek pilot grabbed his sidearm, jumped from his plane, and captured the entire crew of the Italian bomber.

The Italian commander in an interview after the war said that Mitralexis didn't present a pistol but he approached ,said his name and shook hands with the Italians. That's why the Italian commander gave him his id as a gift.

Marinos Mitralexis crushed down in 1948 in the Aegean Sea flying an Oxford.

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Kingdom of Yugoslavia

On April 6 1941, the first day of Invasion of Yugoslavia Invasion of Yugoslavia

The Invasion of Yugoslavia, or the so-called April War, was the Axis Powers' attack on Yugoslavia on April 6 1941 …
36th group of the 5th fighter regiment of the Yugoslav Royal Air Force

The Yugoslav Royal Air Force or Jugoslovensko Kraljevsko Ratno Vazduhoplovstvo in Serbian & Croatian: Jugoslovensko K…
, equipped with obsolete Hawker Fury

The Hawker Fury was a biplane fighter design used by the RAF in the 1930s….
biplanes scrambled to defend their airfield, Režanovacka Kosa, from a strafing attack by aprox. 30 Bf-109 and Bf-110s. In the ensuing uneven dogfight at least three Yugoslav pilots: Captain Konstantin Jermakov, Captain Vojislav Popovic and Lieutenant Milorad Tanasic rammed a German fighter each with fatal results on both sides. (*)

"Bulgaria
Several rammings (Bulgarian: Таран taran) were performed by Bulgarian fighter pilots defending Sofia against Allied bombers in 1943 and 1944. The first one to do so was Senior Lieutenant (posthumously elevated to Captain) Dimitar Spisarevsky on December 20, 1943.[6]"

Poland
The first taran attack in World War II was carried out by the Polish pilot, Lt. Col. Leopold Pamuła with his damaged PZL P.11c on September 1, 1939, over Łomianki near Warsaw. (Taran is also a Polish word.)

"Ramming was used in the Spanish Civil War. On the night of November 27-28, 1937 Soviet pilot Evgeny Stepanov flying a Polikarpov I-15 shot down one SM.81 bomber near Barcelona and emptied the rest of his bullets into another. The second SM.81 continued to fly, so Stepanov resorted to using the left leg of his Chaika's undercarriage to ram the bomber, downing the plane."

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I also remember reading some where were a Soviet SB-3 was rammed by a Finnish Fiat G.50 during the Winter War. Robert

WING COMMANDER HOWARD PETER "COWBOY" BLATCHFORD, D.F.C., of Edmonton, Alberta, enlisted in the RAF as a pupil pilot on 3 February 1936. When the war broke out he was a Flying Officer with No. 41 Squadron and subsequently served with Nos. 212 and 257 Squadrons. He commanded No. 257 Squadron from 6 July 1941 until he was promoted to Wing Commander (Flying) for Station Digby on 8 September 1941. W/C Blatchford was killed in action on 3 May 1943 while on flying duties with Station Coltishall.
Known as "Cowboy" Blatchford, he accounted for 6 enemy aircraft destroyed 3 probables and two others damaged.
The citation for his D.F.C. reads, in part: "In November 1940, this officer was the leader of a squadron which destroyed eight and damaged a further five enemy aircraft in one day. In the course of the combat he rammed and damaged a hostile fighter when his ammunition was expended, and then made two determined head-on feint attacks on enemy fighters which drove them off."

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Yeah, Kaos did loads of examples on the other post. I reccomend taking a look :)

Well, the Germans did form a whole unit for this type of assault, and then carried out mass attacks on American bombers late in the war, with some success.

It was the JG3 Rammjaeger group, which flew specially modified FW-190A's.

Losses of bombers were pretty horrific, due to that, but were downplayed at the time by the AAC brass, who tried to say the collisions were accidental, or due to dead German pilots who were obviously unable to control their aircraft once deceased. They didn't want to concede that the Germans would purposefully ram their bombers with their aircraft, in order to help maintain morale in the bomber units.

In the grand scheme of things, the attacks didn't amount to much in terms of loss percentages, since there were 1,000+ bomber raids by then, opposed by less than 100 Rammjaegers.

They are an interesting unit of volunteers though, and they differentiated themselves from the Japanese Kamikaze tactics, since they all believe they had at least a slim chance of surviving the collisions with American bombers.

If I recall correctly, they were working on a purpose-built rocket, or jet-power rammer prototype too, which was to have reinforced wing leading edges to slice through enemy planes.

The Americans eventually came up with a similar rammer-type aircraft design, but I think that was after the end of the war.

"As well as special aircraft and special tactics, the elite Sturmgruppe units were manned by volunteer pilots. A Sturmbock pilot needed a special courage and his career was likely to be spectacular but short. One of the most controversial aspects of the new Sturmgruppen, at least post-war, was the requirement to sign the Verphlictungserklärung or affidavit which a pilot had to do before he was accepted into a Sturmgruppe. Each pilot had to sign an affidavit as followsI, -, do solemnly undertake that on each occasion on which I make contact with an enemy four-engined bomber I shall press home my attack to the shortest range and will, if my firing pass is not successful, destroy the enemy aircraft by ramming
The symbol of the unit became the 'whites of their eyes insignia' which represented the close quarter nature of their combat. But the notion that pilots were expected to sacrifice themselves was to a large extent sensationalised in Walther Dahl's historically exaggerated account entitled 'Rammjäger'. It was not until the end was in sight that calls for kamikaze style or Selbstopfer missions went out.

Dahl has described how he lead the Sturmgruppe into the attack.
An allen kleinen Brüder : noch dichter aufschliessen zum Sturmangriff!! Wer keinen abschiesst , rammt !! Ra-ba-za-nel-la !!!
( Although in a recent interview Hans Weik confirmed that the term 'Rammjäger' was never part of Luftwaffe jargon and that Dahl never led the Sturmgruppe in for a Sturm attack )
There is some evidence to suggest that the Japanese were influenced by this concept and took it to it's logical conclusion. In the event Hauptman Willi Moritz was to value his pilots lives rather more than certain of the more zealous advocates of Sturm tactics and quietly dropped the matter of the signed declaration to ram after taking over IV./JG3 in June 1944.

Walther Dahl, Wilhelm Moritz and Oskar Romm

Leutnant Walther Hagenah who flew with IV.(Sturm) Gruppe of Jagdgeschwader 3, explained the terms of the affidavit to author Dr Alfred Price:
" It was made clear to us that, having signed the affidavit, failure to carry out its conditions would render us liable to trial by court martial on a charge of cowardice in the face of the enemy. No man was forced to sign, however, and there were no recriminations against those who did not wish to do so; they simply did not join the ranks of the Sturmgruppe…"
Despite the fact that each of them had signed the affidavit indicating their readiness to ram the enemy bombers if all else failed, it was rare for Sturmgruppe pilots to take this course. Hagenah never rammed a bomber, nor did he ever see anyone else do so: "If we held our formation, ran the gauntlet of the bombers' defensive fire and reached a firing position l00yd behind a bomber, with our powerful cannon it was a relatively simple matter to get a kill." If few pilots resorted to actually ramming a bomber unless they had the chance of escaping safely, others were more aggressive. As Staffelkapitän of 14 Staffel Werner Gerth had new pilots sign the Sturmgruppe affidavit as recorded by Uffz Karl Kapteina who joined 14 Staffel in October 1944. In his welcome speech to new arrivals Gerth made light of the commitment to ram given the efficacy of the Sturm tactic and weapons, although went on to describe how a pilot should carry out the Rammstoss and successfully bail out. Werner Gerth reputedly rammed on at least five occasions and was shot down at least 11 times . He was finally killed when his parachute failed to open after ramming a B-17 near Halle. There were a few occasions when pilots reached a firing position and found, for example, that their weapons had jammed. They then opened their throttle, pulled up a little, dived down and rammed. By and large, however, the cannon with its explosive shells were very reliable and ramming was rarely necessary. Indeed the Sturmgruppen never received instructions from the Jagdwaffeführung on how best to ram the enemy bombers though the matter was, of course, the subject of discussions in the Kasino (crews messroom). Of the pilots who made ramming attacks, about half escaped without serious injury.

All the pilots portrayed on these pages were brave men. They were not fanatics, certainly not Nazis. They were Germany's equivalent of 'The Few' and, just as the young fighter pilots of the RAF laid down their lives defending their country in 1940, so these young sometimes teenage, Jagdflieger fought to defend their families and their homeland. No doubt, like daring young men on all sides, they were looking for a little bit of glory. But as the Third Reich began to reap the whirlwind, advances in technology and the industrial might of the USA meant that the odds were stacked heavily against their survival. Even experience and courage was not enough when faced with impossible odds. By the 3rd August 1944 when Heinz Zimkeit was shot down and killed, the 12 th Staffel of IV./JG 3 was in Willi Unger's words " stark geschmolzen ", had literally melted away and was down to Schwarm strength. Only four Sturmbocks of 12 Staffel took off from Schongau on the 3rd August mission to combat the bombers. All of them were shot down. Only four men from Sturmstaffel 1's pilot roster of thirty six survived the war….."
__________________

That would be the XP-79B Top Gun Ace.

"Northrop XP-79During World War 2, large bombers and flying fortresses were considered critical for victory by both the Allied and Axis forces. In order to meet the threat of enemy bombers, both the Germans and the Americans were developing new interceptors intended to attack large enemy planes by deliberately colliding with them. Employing a technology which was ultimately abandoned, the solidly-built interceptors were meant to collide with their target at extremely high speeds. If all went according to plan, the bomber would be fatally wounded and the ramming plane and its pilot would survive the impact, ready to move on to the next victim.
The American plane designed for this role was the Northrop XP-79B. Started as a program to develop a rocket-powered gun-equipped fighter, the XP-79B emerged as a magnesium-reinforced jet designed to ram enemy aircraft. The jet's design was unique, placing the pilot in a prone position to allow him to endure much greater g-forces. The pilot controlled the ailerons with a tiller bar in front of him and rudders mounted at his feet, which is the reverse of normal flight controls. Intakes at the wingtips supplied air for the unusual bellows-boosted ailerons.
Naturally the plane was nicknamed the "Flying Ram." The plan was simple: fly above enemy aircraft, then enter a high-speed dive and collide with an enemy's wing or vertical stabilizer. The XP-79B was designed to survive because of the heavily reinforced leading edges on the wings.
The XP-79B had a range of 993 miles, a ceiling of 40,000 feet and a top speed of just under five hundred and fifty miles per hour. A developmental version of the plane, the MX-324, became America's first rocket-powered aircraft.
Fortunately for potential pilots, the balance of power in the war turned against the Axis before the plane ever flew. The only XP-79B to take to the air did so after the war's end, and ended tragically. Test pilot Harry Crosby had flown the plane well for several minutes before it entered an uncontrollable spin from 8,000 feet, and Crosby was unable to bail out. The XP-79B project died with him."
damninteresting.com/?p=553

Although its not really Ramming. The Use of LAM long aerial mines by the british using Harrows in 1940 is worth a look at.

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"Although Axis pilots– especially the Japanese– actually did try to collide with Allied bombers using volunteers using conventional aircraft, they also had efforts to develop ramming planes. The Zeppelin Company in Germany– named after Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin– was working on such a rocket plane when the war ended. It was called the Zeppelin Rammer.

The Rammer was proposed in the last six months of the war, but its progress never went beyond the design stage. Unlike the XP-79B, the Rammer was to be towed aloft by another fighter (probably a ME-109 or ME-110) and then released at the desired altitude. After being released it would ignite a solid-fuel rocket and accelerate to six hundred miles per hour. The small plane had fourteen small rockets housed in the nose, which could be fired at an enemy aircraft. The fighter could then take a second pass to ram the target if needed. Zeppelin RammerZeppelin RammerThe designers were convinced that the Rammer would be able to slice through a bomber's tail section with little or no damage due to the heavily reinforced leading edges on the wings. After an attack, the Rammer would glide to the ground its retractable skid.

The Japanese never got to the stage of designing a plane specifically for ramming. Still, some Allied B-29's were lost in ramming attacks by Japanese pilots using outdated aircraft. The Shinten Seiku-tai (The Heaven Shaking Air Superior Unit) were specially trained sections of fighter units with the mission of air-to-air ramming of Allied bomber aircraft. It was all an act of desperation which had no significant military value aside from downing a few bombers, much like the kamikazes' efforts to damage US carriers.

The idea of using an aircraft as a manned guided missile has a modern footnote as well. On September 11, 2001, F-16 pilots flying combat air patrol over Washington DC decided that they would ram hijacked airliners if necessary. The pilots had taken off in such a hurry to protect Washington that they left with no air-to-air missiles and the wrong ammunition. Some planes left with non-explosive practice rounds.

Although the Northrop XP-79B program was cancelled early, its legacy lives on in the 21st century. The Northrop Corporation ultimately used its basic design when building the revolutionary "Flying Wings" of the 1950s. Northrop gained considerable knowledge about wing-only aircraft with planes like the XP-79B, and that expertise eventually lead to the B-2 Stealth Bomber."

damninteresting.com/?p=553

Thank you gents. As always a treasure trove of information.

-Binhan

The idea of using an aircraft as a manned guided missile has a modern footnote as well. On September 11, 2001, F-16 pilots flying combat air patrol over Washington DC decided that they would ram hijacked airliners if necessary. The pilots had taken off in such a hurry to protect Washington that they left with no air-to-air missiles and the wrong ammunition. Some planes left with non-explosive practice rounds.

And I'm not sure you could down a Boeing with a sidewinder… Boeing Tough isn't a marketing slogan!

Hi

Boeing airliners are inordinately overdesigned and robust by airline standards. Not by warcraft standards.

The 747 of JAL that strayed about 30 years ago is a case in point.

Rocky

Aerial Ram. The Navy's Gorgon project initiated 19July43 was to develop a radio control jet missile to ram aircraft. The AAF toyed with the idea to reinforce the wings and body of a rocket airplane so that it could survive ten collisions to cut through the light aluminum tail of enemy bombers. Northrop XP-79 Flying Ram

"The AAF toyed with the idea to reinforce the wings and body of a rocket airplane so that it could survive ten collisions to cut through the light aluminum tail of enemy bombers."

I wonder why 10 was the magic number?

ww2pacific.com/ideas.html

"The capture of the Mariana Islands sealed the fate of the Japanese Empire. This positioned the B-29s just 1300 miles southeast of Tokyo, and within range of Japan's industrial districts. The B-29s could fly above the reach of most fighter planes and accurate anti-aircraft fire, yet the trip to Tokyo and back took over 15 hours. General Hap Arnold chose General Haywood S. Hansell Jr. to command the XXI Bomber Command. The B-29s kept coming, and soon Hansell had over 100 to bomb the Japanese aircraft industry, which was first on the list. Over Tokyo the bombers were subjected to inaccurate flak ineffective fighters due to the altitude. However the altitude was the very cause of the bombers not getting results. The jet stream was causing most of the problems. The B-29s faced the first of many suicide attacks when a Kawasaki pilot crashed his plane into the tail of one flown by Lt. Sam Wagner. Both planes went down in vertical dives and no parachutes were seen. It was obvious to the Japanese that the loss of one pilot and one fighter plane compared to a B-29 and eleven trained airmen was an excellent exchange."
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"It might be argued that ramming attacks were not true suicide activities and do not qualify for inclusion in the history of the Tokkohtai effort because death was not certain. The exploits of SHINOMIYA and several others demonstrate this fact. SHINOMIYA attacked a B-29 on December 3, 1944, and brought himself and his damaged plane home. Another 244th man, Masao ITAGAKI, performed a similar feat on the same occasion, but had to parachute from his damaged fighter. A third pilot, NAKANO, of the Hagakure-Tai of the 244th got another B-29 and crash landed his stripped-down Ki-61 in a field. "

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Russians had a category of victory by "Taran" which mean ramming. Frequency of this tactic was surprising. I was perusing the P-39 Russian aces lists recently. One P-39 pilot had four victories by "Taran." ramming. That was Nikolai D. Gulaev with 57 victories.
Other accomplished pilots recorded Taran ramming victories in P-39's with 22, 19, 18, 12, 7, and 5 victories. VP Michaelov had TWO Taran ramming victories in one sortie. How do you do that? I don't have Taran figures for the other plane types.

"Soviet pilots often used the taran attack, ramming a German aircraft, if all else failed. The taran was not a suicide maneuver except in the most extreme of circumstances. There were three types of taran attacks; the first was to use the prop of the Soviet aircraft to damage the tail of the opposing aircraft, with the idea that damage to the rudder or elevators would cause the enemy aircraft to lose control. The second was to ram a wing into the control surfaces of the enemy aircraft or to tip your wing into the enemy's wing so that he lost control. Both of these gave the attacking pilot at least a chance of surviving. The third was to deliberately fly into the enemy aircraft, which was, in essence, a suicide maneuver. Some Polikarpov I-16s were fitted with armored props to help them withstand the dangers of making a taran attack. There were 561 taran attacks carried out by the VVS during the Great Patriotic War. 6 Soviet pilots died in 11 taran attacks against the Finnish Air Force.Two of the attacks deserve special mention – one was in 1945 against the Japanese and one was by a woman, Yekaterina Zelenko, who on September 12, 1941, rammed a Bf 109 with her Sukhoi Su-2."

Leytenant Anatoliy Vasilevich Sitnikov 1920 – 25 May 1943
Sitnikov was born in Grozny in 1920.
In May 1943, Serzhant Sitnikov served in the 71 IAP-KBF. During this time, the unit was equipped with Polikarpov I-153s.
In the afternoon on 21 May 1943, a Finnish Messerschmitt section took off from Utti. The formation was led by luutnantti Evinen and the wingmen were kersantti Leino and kersantti Mauno Kirjonen (Kirjonen had previously been shot down by a I-153 flown by Vladimir Shavrov on 22 July 1941).
The Finnish aircraft met a formation of Russian I-153s over Lavansaaari and Kirjonen reported:

"We engaged 7-8 enemy I-153 fighters at the height of 1000m NW of Lavansaari. I attacked head -on against two of the Russians. When I looked down I saw a MT attack them from below. I made a turn and after this I saw three machines go down. The MT had lost 2/3 of its right wing and one of the I-153s had lost both wings on the other side. The planes crashed near each other 5-8 km west from the northern tip of Lavansaari. The other I-153 crashed south of these two. I saw one pilot to land with his parachute and Evinen told me that it was a Russian one because the parachute was a square one."

What he had seen was Serzhant Sitnikov making a "taran"-attack on the Finnish Messerschmitt Bf109G MT-228 (W.Nr 13890) over Lavansaari and safely parachuted after the ramming.
The Finnish pilot luutnantti Tauno Saalasti of 2/LeLv 34 was killed when his aircraft crashed at 15:28. Saalasti was 27 years old and was from Sippola.

Four days later, on 25 May, Sitnikov performed a second "taran" attacked when he rammed and destroyed another Bf109 over Lavansaari Island but this time he wasn't lucky and was killed when his fighter crashed.
Sitnikov was posthumously awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Sitnikov ended the war with 2 biplane victories.

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Siergiey Luganski – Master of 'Taran' Attack.

Written by Dariusz Tyminski .

Siergiey Luganski (1918-1977) was one of the best Soviet pilots. He achieved a total of 37 kills during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) – two of these kills were by "Taran" attacks (air-to-air ramming). He was highly awarded, twice appointed Hero of the Soviet Union.

Born in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, he was facinated by aviation since early ages. In 1936 he joined the Military Aviation school in Orienbursk. In 1938, Luganski completed the Pilot's School with the award of Best Student. Next, he went to a fighter regiment, first as an ordinary pilot, next – as leader of a section, and finally as deputy regimental commander. In 1939, he completed the Military Aviation Academy.

During the Soviet-Finnish War (1939-40) he flew 59 combat missions, downing one enemy aircraft. Luganski's Squadron (25 IAP), commanded by Ivan Ivanovich Popov, part of the 14th Soviet Fighter Corps, operated from the frozen lake Karchu-Lampi. The main task for this unit was ground-attack sorties against Finnish troops. During one of these sorties, on 28 February 1940, Luganski's plane was hit by artillery shell (probably Soviet!), and he was forced to bail out, despite the fact that he was flying at a very low altitude. His parachute developed only a few metres above the ground. During the jump he lost his flying boots – which was some quite serious business at 40 Centigrades below zero. But the front line was close. Luganski, running only in his socks, was lucky to reach the Soviet positions. Next day he was airborne again, scoring his first aerial victory against a less fortunate Finnish aircrew. Flying together with his commander, Sen.Lt. Vladimir Nikolayevich Pieshkov (who was appointed Hero of the Soviet Union on 20 September 1940, after 3 kills in Winter War), he managed to down a Finnish reconnaissance biplane.

Luganski's next kill almost finished his career: By mistake he destroyed a Soviet R-5 reconn-bomber. But Luganski was lucky again, escaping with only a few days in confinement. Following the Finnish surrender in the Winter War, all pilots were awarded, and Luganski received the Red Star Order. The combat missions he had flown during the war with Finland provided him with experience which would prove very useful in the coming years.

In beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Luganski flew a LaGG-3 fighter, and downed a few enemies. The squadron, commanded by Ivan Gluhih, was re-equipped with old I-16s. In air combat over Bataysk on 9 September 1941, two sections (6 planes) of Soviet fighters encountered 18 Germans. A German (whom Luganski assumed must have been an ace) shot down Vladimir Pieshkov. Luganski followed German in a long persuit, to revenge himself for his friend's death, but instead he got himself shot down. But once again, luck had not completely deserted him, as he managed to bail out and survive.

While covering Soviet Army's river crossings, he downed enemy aircraft through ramming attacks twice. The first occasion was on September 14th, 1942. Having run out of ammunition, Luganski decided to perform a "Taran" attack against an enemy formation, which was approaching River Volga in the air above General Rodimtsev's division. He knocked down a Romanian He 112 with a damaged wing. Next time, the "Taran" attack was accomplished while flying cover over the Dnepr River – this time the victim was an He 111. And luck stayed with Luganski, who in both cases came out of the ramming attacks alive (unlike most Soviet pilots, who performed this type of attack). On the same day as he scored his second "Taran" kill, he was awarded with the Alexander Nevski Medal.

In June 1943, Luganski's squadron (12 aircraft) was engaged in a famous battle. Over the front lines, they spotted about 80 German bombers, from which they bagged 12. Several pilots scored multiple victories in this melee). One month later, Luganski's squadron came across 30 Bf 109's. During a prolonged and stiff battle, the Soviets managed to shoot down 8 enemies. On 12 September 1943, acting as squadron commander in the 270th Guards Regiment, Sergeiy Luganski was appointed Hero of the Soviet Union. At this moment he had 18 kills to his credit.

In another aerial combat, Luganski was seriously injured. Still not completely recovered, he returned to Alma Ata in the end of December 1943. The people of the city welcomed him with great enthusiasm, and raised funds which bought him a new Yak-1M. In May 1944, Luganski was put in charge of a Guards Fighter aviation Regiment in the 1st Guards Ground-attack Aviation Corps (1 GvShAK, commanded by V. G. Ryazanov), supporting the 1st Ukrainian Front. At this moment he had 18 kills to his credit. Shortly after taking command of this crack unit, Luganski downed a German fighter ace. In his memoirs 'Glubokiye Wirazhi' (Deep Turns), Luganski describes this event with the following words:
In one of the days of May 1944 , Sergiey Luganski and his wingman took off on an important reconnaissance mission. While Viktor Usov accomplished his task of covering his commander, Luganski discovered some German tanks and armoured columns. They flew at low altitude in order to avoid enemy fighters. Having fulfilled their mission, the two Soviets entered their return flight. What they didn't notice was that a 'hidden' pair of Bf 109s followed them. Later, Luganski assumed they must have noticed the rich ace 'ornaments' on his Yakovlev, which made them decide to avoid an open confrontation, and instead seeking the chance in a surprise attack. They waited patiently, and when Luganski, having reduced the speed of his aircraft, started landing – they decided to hit.

The Ground control noticed the danger and warned both pilots by R/T. Viktor Usov turned sharply to defend his leader and soon he had shot the German wingman in flames. But just in that moment, the leader of the German section hit Usov's plane and he was forced to bail out. Now only the two leaders, the Russian and the German, remained in the air. The German pilot turned against Luganski. The Soviet ace was just come in to land. A small touch down with lowered landing gears probably saved his life. A stream of enemy rounds passed slightly above his plane. While closing his landing gears, Luganski entered combat. Following his first run, the German climbed to make his next attack. He had the advantage – Luganski was flying slowly at deck. The Bf 109 came after him again and opened fire. Several shells slammed into Luganski's Yak. The canopy and instruments panel were damaged, but the plane still was able to fight.

Luganski, noticing the top class of his adversary and aware that his own aircraft was almost out of fuel, realized that he had only one chance of surviving – to use the Yak's superior horizontal. The German pilot, obviously certain of his success, entered a turn fight. After few very sharp rounds, Luganski had the Bf 109 in his gun sight. A fire burst shattered the German's cockpit hood, injured the pilot and cut the engine power off. The German aircraft slid in the air for a moment, then it made a belly-landing 3 kms from the Soviet airfield. Soviet soldier rushed to capture him and suddenly the hunter had become the prey. Luganski saw this and a few minutes later he landed on nothing but fuel fumes. The duel had lasted no more than 7 minuts long, but it was enough to completely exhaust Luganski. The German pilot was captured: It turned out that his name was Otto. On his killboard were 70 victories, including 30 on Eastern Front. He had just been appointed for the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross. Next day the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal I.S. Koniev arrived at airfield. He inspected the wreck of the German ace's Bf 109, and decided to award Luganski a second Golden Star, so Luganski received his second Soviet Hero title on 1 July 1944. By that time, his victory score had rosen to 33, achieved during 335 combat sorties.

Comment: As yet, it has not been possible to completely verify the identity of the German fighter pilot "Otto" portraited by Luganski above. Any suggestion by the readers will be welcomed.
During the battle of Lvov, Luganski often flew on free hunting missions with the Soviet Hero Yewgeniy Mienshutin acting as wing man. Once, they encountered a pair of Bf 109, one of them with a bright red nose, over the front line Mienshutin soon downed the leader of the pair, while Luganski hit the 'red-nosed' wingman with a long burst from a very short distance. The enemy plane hit the ground, but did not explode. The Soviets 'investigated' the body of this Bf 109's pilot – it turned out to be an Italian pilot named Gibelli, credited with 50 (!? – after Luganski relation) kills.

In that period, the people of Alma Ata decided to raise funds to equip Luganski's whole squadron with twelve of the brand new Yak-3 fighters! The 'Komsomolec Kazakhstana' squadron was included to Luganski's 157th GvIAP. Shortly afterwards, the regimment recived the name-of-honour 'Sandomirskiy' after its great achievements in the air over the city of Sandomierz (Poland). Unit also was awarded with the Bohdan Chmielnickiy and Alexander Nevski Medals.

Luganski finished the war with the rank of Major. His final score was 37 personal and 6 shared victories, on a total of 390 combat missions. Luganski's Fighter Aviation Regiment was credited with the destruction of 245 enemy aircraft in the air. In 1957 Luganski was promoted to Major-General, and in 1964 he retired. He passed away in 1977, in Alma Ata.

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Soviet Union
In World War II, ramming became a legendary technique of VVS pilots against the Luftwaffe, especially in the early days of the hostilities in the war's Eastern Front. In the first year of the war, most available Soviet machines were considerably inferior to the German ones and the taran was sometimes perceived as the only way to guarantee the destruction of the enemy. Trading an outdated fighter for a technologically advanced bomber was considered economically sound. In some cases, pilots who were heavily wounded or in damaged aircraft decided to perform a suicidal taran attack against air, ground or naval targets. In this instance, taran becomes more like an unpremeditated kamikaze attack (see Nikolai Gastello).
Nine rammings took place on the very first day of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, one within the first hour. At 04:25 hours on June 22, 1941 Lt. I. I. Ivanov drove his Polikarpov I-16 into the tail of an invading Heinkel He 111. Ivanov didn't survive but was posthumously awarded the gold star, Hero of the Soviet Union.[3] Lieutenant Boris Kobzan survived a record four ramming attacks in the war. Alexander Khlobystov made three. Seventeen other Soviet pilots were credited with two successful ramming attacks. About 200 taran attacks were made by Soviets between the beginning of Operation Barbarossa and the middle of 1943, when enough modern aircraft had been produced to make the tactic obsolete (even if Russian fighter pilots were still trained to perform it). However, Evgeny Stepanov stated in an interview that more than 580 taran attacks were made by VVS pilots in WWII.[4]
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starshy laytnant Katarina Ivanovna Zelenko bomber pilot and assistant commander of 5. flight of 135. BAP ( bombers Su-2) (part of 16.SAD):
On the battlefield since 22.06.1941 she made 40 combat missions and fought german fighters on 12 ocasions.
On 12. of september 1941 during return from her third recce mission of the day pair of bombers wes attacked by Me-109 fighters. Soon the other airplane (kapitan Lebedyev) was hit and has left the fight. Zelenko and her gunner were alone against 7 Me-109's. She managed to shoot down one but her airplane was hit. Both she and her gunner aviator-observer laytnant N.Pavlik were wounded. She ordered Pavlik to bail out and continued dogfight. Soon she ran out of ammunition. Then she preformed Taran ( ramming attack). She destroyed another Me-109, her airplane exploded on impact. She was killed. All this happened over vilige of Anastasevka in Sumy area.
She was posthumously decorated with order of Lenin ( December 1941) and golden star of Hero of Soviet Union (5. May 1990) .
aeroram.narod.ru/win/taran.htm – site is in Russian ( a very good site dealing with ramming attacks by soviet aircrews)

The first Soviet night ramming attack was made by Erimeev on 29-Jul-1941 when he rammed a Ju-88 with his Mig-3.

Gomolko Boris Mifodievich, Senior sergant, 520 IAP (fighter squadron). Born 1922 in town Bogoduhov of Harkov region, Member of VLKSM. 08-Sept-1942 near Stalingrad in his first combat mission downed 2 bombers, one of which with battering attack. Landed with [parachute]. Awarded an order of Lenin.

" Altogether in 1,237 combat sorties the regiment destroyed 77 enemy aircraft, of which one was by ramming. Captain A. F. Avdeev conducted a frontal attack on a Messerschmitt and neither pilot gave way. This was the first ramming incident in an Airacobra."
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Found a listing for Soviet Taran Victories. Looks like the most that was acheived was 4 .

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There is a Polish pilot buried down here at Pembroke Dock in west Wales, who was decorated for ramming a German bomber over RAF Northolt. Unfortunately I can't remember the details or his name, but the medal citation was read out at during a memorial ceremony at his grave-side that I attended in 2003. He was quite a character; a 'flying circus' pilot before WW2, he scored several victories in 1939 before flying with the French Air Force in 1940 and then the Free Polish Air Force in the UK. He refused all offers of commission and remained an NCO pilot. At the end of the war he transferred to the RAF and was eventually killed while flying a target-tug. His grave had been 'mislaid' by the CWGC for 55 years before being tracked down by his neice.

My favorite Roald Dahl short story, "Death of an Old, Old Man", has the two fighter planes accidentally colliding. But being fiction that doesn't count I suppose….

"Cowboy Antics
When you're on the tail of an enemy aircraft in the heat of battle, and you find the guns are out of ammunition, what do you do? That is the dilemma that faced Flight Lieutenant Howard Peter 'Cowboy' Blatchford of Edmonton Alberta as he lined up in his sights on an Italian Fiat CR.42 bi-plane of the Corpo Aero Italiano. The blundering and pompous buffoon Benito Mussolini, had convinced his friend the Reichsfuhrer (Herr Adolf Hitler) that the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Air Force) could help with the final victory for Fascism in Europe, despite the express misgivings of Hermann Goering.

On the 11th of November, 1940, as a retaliatory measure for the British Fleet Air Arm's attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto, the Regia Aeronautica set out to bomb the English port of Harwich. A small number of Luftwaffe Bf-109s accompanied the formation. They were intercepted by Hurricanes of No.s 17, 46 'Uganda' and 257 'China-British' Fighter Squadrons. While 'Cowboy' Blatchford of No.257 'Burma' Fighter Squadron was flying Hurricane #V6962 and upon discovering much to his shock that he was out of ammo, rammed the CR.42 with his propeller. It subsequently chewed up the enemy's top wing, sending the fabric bi-plane to mother earth.

For his daring escapades, he was presented the Distinguished Flying Cross on the 6th of December 1940. Sadly, as with so many fine young men, Wing Commander H.P. 'Cowboy' Blatchford DFC MiD and only 31, was killed in action. On the 3rd of May 1943 he was flying a Supermarine Spitfire of No.247 'Burma' Fighter Squadron on a bomber escort mission to Amsterdam, when he went missing over the English Channel. His record was six destroyed, three probable and two damaged. "

itsar.ca/av8r/battle.htm