Tiraspol, December 24. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. The Hero of the Soviet Union, the pilot of the Yak-7 fighter jet, Stepan Kolesnichenko made more than 400 successful flights and conducted over 40 air battles, as a result of which he personally shot down more than a dozen enemy aircrafts. The website of the PMR Ministry of Defense reported that he had been awarded the Order of the Red Banner and put on for the Hero of the Soviet Union title.
Stepan Kolesnichenko was born in a peasant family on December 24, 1913 in the village of Girtop in the Grigoriopol district. In 1935 he was drafted into the Red Army. During the war with Finland in 1939, he participated in hostilities in the Baltic, then was sent to the Odessa Military Aviation Pilot School. After graduation, in the spring of 1942, he was sent to the Western Front, where he fought as part of the 519th Fighter Aviation Regiment. By mid-July 1943, Stepan Kolesnichenko had already made 114 successful flights, conducted 24 air battles.
On August 30, 1943, the pilot died in an air battle over the farm Krivenkovo Sumy region of Ukraine. Returning from a reconnaissance flight, Kolesnichenko’s plane was attacked by four Messerschmitts planes and shot down in an unequal aerial battle.
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 2, 1943, for the courage and heroism shown in air battles with Nazi invaders, Lieutenant Kolesnichenko was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
Our compatriot was buried in a mass grave in the village of Bereza, Sumy region of Ukraine.
The name of Stepan Kalinovich Kolesnichenko is carved on the monument to the natives of the village of Girtop who died in the Great Patriotic War. The school, which he studied in, and the street, which he lived on, are named after him. There was a commemorative monument installed at the place of Hero’s death.
