Hero of the Soviet Union Talgat Yakubekovich Begeldinov
Talgat Yakubekovich Begeldinov was born in 1922 in the city of Frunze, Kyrgyz SSR, into a working-class family. He was Kazakh. A member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After graduating from high school and an aeroclub in Frunze, he entered the Chkalov Military Aviation School. He was a Guards senior lieutenant, an attack pilot, and a squadron commander.
He participated in the Great Patriotic War from the autumn of 1942 until its end. Talgat Begeldinov made over 300 combat sorties during the war.
On October 25, 1944, for exceptional bravery, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He received his second "Gold Star" medal on June 27, 1945.
For his military feats, he was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner, Glory III class, the Patriotic War I and II class, and Alexander Nevsky.
After the war, he graduated from the Red Banner Military Air Academy. In 1956, he was discharged to the reserve. He lived in Almaty and worked as the chairman of the Voluntary Society of Motorists of the Kazakh SSR.
A bronze bust of the twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel Talgat Yakubekovich Begeldinov, has been erected in his homeland in the city of Frunze.
IN COMBAT
The plane was hit by two shells at once. The engine burst into flames, and the control system failed. The entire cockpit was filled with thick, acrid smoke. It became unbearably hot. The aircraft sharply went down.
— Jump! — shouted pilot Talgat Begeldinov to the gunner-radio operator Yakovenko.
After waiting a few seconds for the gunner to eject from the aircraft, Begeldinov rolled over the side of the falling plane. The wind violently pulled him aside. A parachute swayed above his head. And at that moment, a machine gun started firing nearby. Begeldinov raised his head and froze: a "Messerschmitt" was circling above him. The fascist was shooting short bursts, trying to hit the parachutist.
The wounded pilot regained consciousness on the ground. There was an astonishing silence around him. And Talgat suddenly thought that he was no longer at the front, but at home, that the front-line, restless life was over.
— Are you alive, comrade commander? — suddenly asked a worried voice from Yakovenko.
The wound turned out to be not serious. The pilot got up and looked around. Then he took out a map and measured the distance. Yes, they were far behind the front line, in the suburban forest of Kharkov, captured by the fascists.
— We need to run, comrade lieutenant!
— It’s too late. They are surely already looking for us. It’s better to hide here. The fascists will think the least that we will stay in one place...
They buried themselves in dry branches. Soon voices were heard. They were coming closer and then moving away. Someone’s footsteps rustled nearby. Begeldinov tightly gripped his pistol, holding his breath... But the footsteps slowly faded away. Silence returned to the forest. Without leaving their hiding place, they decided to wait for nightfall.
Talgat Begeldinov thought a lot during those torturous hours spent in the forest near Kharkov.
He remembered the late autumn of 1942. He had just graduated from the school. He was being sent to the front. Finally, his cherished dream would come true: he would fly a military aircraft, fight the enemy in open skies.
The command of the assault aviation regiment, where Talgat Begeldinov arrived, welcomed him with joy: they were expecting reinforcements. But no matter how much Sergeant Begeldinov longed for battle, he was not allowed to make combat sorties for a long time.
The command was cautious in sending young pilots into battle, giving them the opportunity to get accustomed to the combat situation on the ground first.
— Wait, falcon, your turn will come — they said to him every time he asked for permission for a combat sortie.
He spent many days at the front airfield near Kalinin. He eagerly observed the actions of experienced pilots, listened to their advice, and studied their experience. He watched with envy as our planes flew beyond the front line and always waited impatiently for their return, eager to learn all the details of the battle, the enemy's behavior, and their tactical maneuvers.
Soon, all the pilots in the regiment knew the curious newcomer. They willingly shared their experience. The future attack pilot extracted a lot of valuable information from these stories.
And then came the first combat sortie. Who among military pilots does not remember it? For the pilots of the regiment, it was one of many combat sorties. And the task was simple. But to Begeldinov, it seemed especially important and responsible at that time.
Everything in this flight was new and extraordinary for him: the winding outlines of trenches on the front line, the clouds of explosions from anti-aircraft shells, and the war-torn earth shrouded in gray smoke.
Throughout the flight, Talgat carefully followed the lead, exactly repeating his maneuvers. But then the planes went in for the bombing. Begeldinov dove at the target. The bombs dropped by Talgat hit the fuel storage exactly. On the second pass, he set fire to an ammunition depot.
When the planes returned to the airfield, the commander of the regiment, Major Mitrofanov, praised the young pilot. This praise further inspired Begeldinov.
As soon as the armament technicians reloaded the machine guns and hung bombs, Begeldinov flew out again with the squadron of attack aircraft to bomb the fascist airfield.
Talgat Begeldinov flew three times that day into the enemy's rear. He successfully completed all assignments. The last flight was especially successful. Begeldinov managed to destroy six wagons with military cargo and one locomotive.
Talgat would never forget his first downed fascist aircraft. Such luck rarely befalls an attack pilot, whose task is not aerial combat, but bombing ground military targets.
— You were born in a shirt — joked his comrades, sincerely congratulating the young pilot on his first downed aircraft.
Just three months after arriving at the front, Begeldinov was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, given an officer rank, and appointed commander of a group of attack aircraft. At the same time, another very important event occurred in the warrior's life: he was accepted as a candidate member of the Communist Party.
Once, on an urgent call, Talgat appeared before the commander of the regiment.
— Intelligence has reported that a large enemy airfield has been established in the Kharkov area — said Major Mitrofanov. — Your group is tasked with destroying this airfield. Keep in mind that the fascists have strong security there. Think it over and report how you intend to carry out the operation.
That same day, the operation plan proposed by Begeldinov was approved by the regiment command.
...At first, everything went well, as planned. The attack aircraft swooped in from the rear and unleashed a powerful bombing strike on the airfield. The "Junkers" and "Heinkels" ready for takeoff could not get airborne. The airfield was covered with fires from burning planes.
The operation was nearing its end when a large group of German fighters attacked the Soviet attack aircraft.
Begeldinov's plane was attacked by four "Messerschmitts" at once. Talgat tried to turn aside, but at that moment shells hit the plane. Thus, the pilot and gunner found themselves on the ground, deep in the enemy's rear...
For several nights, Begeldinov and Yakovenko made their way to the front line. And what nights they were! They twice stumbled upon fascist posts. In one of the skirmishes, they took down two Germans. They spent about three hours up to their necks in a swamp, hiding from pursuit. Just before reaching the front line, they stumbled upon a minefield. A bright flash illuminated the night for a moment. A deafening explosion sounded. When Talgat found Yakovenko in the dark, he was already dead. Begeldinov grieved heavily over this death. Right there, in the minefield, in a bomb crater, he buried his faithful comrade-in-arms...
When the pilot was discovered by our reconnaissance, he was so weakened by hunger and fatigue that he could not utter a word. He lay in the evacuation hospital for almost a day. The next day, he reported back to his unit.
In the regiment, Begeldinov was considered dead, and his unexpected appearance "from the other world" caused a storm of enthusiasm.
However, upon learning that he was wounded in the arm and leg, the command decided to immediately return him to the hospital.
Begeldinov objected:
— If I could fight in the fascist rear while wounded, then I can certainly do so here, on my own land, alongside my comrades. And my wounds will heal faster in my native regiment — Talgat argued with the regiment commander.
And Begeldinov was allowed to stay in the regiment, placed in the medical unit.
When the Oryol-Kursk battle began, Begeldinov, along with his combat friends Nikolai Shishkin and Sergey Chepelin, made two to three combat sorties daily. They bombed the enemy's fortifications, destroying his manpower and equipment.
During these historic battles, Talgat Begeldinov formed a strong friendship with the famous fighter pilot, later twice Hero of the Soviet Union S. D. Lugansky. Their first meeting occurred in battle.
Here’s how Lugansky recounts it.
— During an aerial battle, two fascist fighters attacked one of our attack aircraft. At that moment, I was fighting a "Messerschmitt." But I saw that the "Il-2" was in trouble. I rushed to his rescue. As it turned out later, the gunner on the attack aircraft was seriously wounded, and the pilot was fighting the enemy fighter alone. I swooped in on one of the fascist planes and set it on fire. The second one did not engage and veered off to the side.
That same evening, when the pilots gathered in the airfield dining hall for dinner, Begeldinov walked from table to table, persistently asking:
— Tell me, who flew today on fighter number 47?
Lugansky got up from the table and approached the pilot.
— I flew. What’s the matter?
Begeldinov hugged Lugansky tightly and kissed him.
— You saved my life. According to our Kazakh custom, from now on you are my blood brother and best friend — he said excitedly. They talked for a long time that evening. And in subsequent battles, they repeatedly helped each other in difficult moments. This mutual assistance was especially important in the conditions of combat life.
Talgat Begeldinov made over 300 combat sorties during the years of the war. He fought on the Kalinin, Steppe, Voronezh, 1st and 2nd Ukrainian fronts, participated in the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky operation, in the destruction of the fascist grouping in the Breslau area, and smashed the fascists on the Sandomierz bridgehead. The attack aircraft under Begeldinov's command assisted ground troops in crossing the Dnieper and Vistula rivers, in liberating Oryol, Belgorod, Kharkov, Poltava, Lviv, and in capturing Krakow, Opole, and Legnica. The attack aircraft of Talgat appeared over Berlin and Prague more than once.
The command sent the group of attack aircraft led by Begeldinov to carry out the most difficult and responsible missions. And there was never a case when they returned without results. Begeldinov and his combat friends invariably engaged in deadly combat with the enemy when the situation required it. But they found enough strength to exit the battle or avoid it when it was necessary to urgently deliver important reconnaissance data about the enemy to the command.
Quiet and inconspicuous on the ground, Begeldinov transformed in the air. Everyone who knew him admired his skill, bravery, and persistence.
As one of the best pilots, Talgat Begeldinov was often assigned reconnaissance missions. And he always willingly carried out such tasks. With the agility of a born hunter, he tracked down concentrations of fascist troops, combat equipment, marked discovered enemy airfields, crossings, and railway trains with military cargo on the map, and photographed the terrain.
Here’s an excerpt from the reports transmitted by radio to the regiment's headquarters during one of Begeldinov's reconnaissance flights:
“11:07 AM. In the vicinity of point ‘117’, a group of enemy infantry numbering 300 men. They are retreating southwest across the field. I am attacking the infantry at low altitude. Continuing the flight.”
“11:10 AM. At the railway station ‘249’, two trains under steam. The locomotives are headed south. Bombs have been dropped with delayed fuses. Heavy anti-aircraft fire. Continuing the flight.”
“11:14 AM. On the road from ‘601’ and ‘409’, two-way traffic. 40 trucks, 12 armored personnel carriers, 7 tanks. Anti-tank bombs have been dropped. The column was attacked in two passes. Continuing the flight.”
“11:15 AM. Attacked by four ‘FW-190s’. Evaded the fight and continuing the flight.”
“11:21 AM. On the eastern outskirts of ‘312’, two green and one white rockets. Our tankers have marked themselves. At the waterline ‘805’, heavy artillery fire. Returning.”
And all this in just 14 minutes of flight! But how much courage and bravery it took the pilot to accomplish it!
According to intelligence, Talgat Begeldinov repeatedly operated with groups of pilots from the 1st Air Corps. He delivered many valuable reconnaissance reports for our ground tank and motorized mechanized units and formations.
The squadron of attack aircraft under Talgat Begeldinov's command repeatedly operated at a great distance from the regiment, in hilly terrain, often in the most difficult meteorological conditions, but always successfully completed their missions. Throughout the last period of the war, the squadron had no losses and never strayed from its course. It was rightly considered one of the best on the 1st Ukrainian front.
But once, pilot Begeldinov had to fight on foot. This happened already on the territory of fascist Germany. It was ordered to urgently locate the tank corps that had broken through and help it establish contact with the army headquarters. The landing was found several dozen kilometers from the front, in the area of a fascist airfield located in the forest.
Taking advantage of the appearance of our attack aircraft, the automatic riflemen of the tank landing rushed to the airfield and quickly seized it. Begeldinov immediately turned his aircraft around and went in for a landing. The other pilots of the squadron landed after him. But at that moment, the recovering SS troops launched a counterattack. The attack aircraft had to turn towards them and open fire with heavy machine guns.
Having completed the mission, the squadron returned to its airfield without losses.
It is difficult to calculate how much enemy equipment Talgat Begeldinov destroyed during the years of the war. But if it were possible to gather all of it in one place, there would be planes, tanks, trucks, artillery of various calibers, and mortars. And how many enemy depots with fuel and ammunition, wagons with military cargo were destroyed!
On the last day of the war, Talgat Begeldinov made his 305th combat sortie. At that time, the regiment's headquarters reported by radio that fascist Germany had capitulated. Thus, while on a combat mission, he met the end of the war in the cockpit of his aircraft.
Two feelings overwhelmed him with extraordinary strength: the joy of Victory and pride for his Motherland, for his people, before whom he also fulfilled his son’s duty with honor.
Soon after the end of the Great Patriotic War, Talgat Begeldinov was awarded his second "Gold Star" of the Hero of the Soviet Union. At that time, Talgat was only 23 years old.
A. Sinitsyn