Antoshkin, Ivan Diomidovich

Ivan Diomidovich Antoshkin was born on May 12 (25), 1900 in the city of Vyazniki, now in the Vladimir Region, into a family of an illiterate janitor and laundress.

In 1911 he graduated from the 4th grade of an elementary school, and then from the 2nd grade of the Vyaznikovsky lower technical school , after which he worked for five years at a weaving spinning mill.

Civil War

June 10, 1919 voluntarily entered the ranks of the Red Army , after which he fought on the Northern Front as a Red Army soldier, artillery fitter of the 1st separate heavy artillery battalion "B" of heavy artillery for special purposes , and since 1920 - an artillery fitter of the 2nd separate heavy division "B" "Heavy artillery for special purposes, and then in the area of Kremenchug gun master as part of the heavy artillery group of the Southern Front .

Interwar

After the war ended in 1921, Antoshkin was sent to study at the Military Automobile and Tractor School in Perm , after which he was appointed to the post of automotive tractor mechanic in the 14th combined light artillery park, located in Moscow .

In 1924 he joined the ranks of the CPSU (b) .

Since 1923 he studied at the Military Theoretical Schools of the Red Army Air Force in Yegoryevsk , Kiev and Leningrad , since 1925 - at the 1st military school of pilots named after A.F. Myasnikov , and since 1926 - at the Military Aviation Air Combat School in Serpukhov .

After graduating from June 1927, he served in the Moscow and Transbaikal military districts as pilot instructor, flight commander, aviation detachment, separate aviation detachment and squadron at the Moscow Air Force Special Services School .

In 1932 he graduated from advanced training courses for commanding officers at the Air Force Academy named after Professor N. E. Zhukovsky .

In 1934 he was appointed commander of the 4th separate aviation detachment of high-speed bombers OH, stationed in Chita . Since July 1935, he was on a business trip in Mongolia, after returning in November, he was appointed commander of a cruising air squadron as part of the Trans-Baikal Military District.

After graduating from the Lipetsk flight tactical courses of the Red Army Air Force in November 1938, Antoshkin was appointed assistant commander of the 31st High-Speed ​​Bomber Aviation Regiment as part of the Belarusian Military District , and soon - as assistant commander of the Bomber Aviation Regiment of the 1st Army Group , after which took part in the hostilities on Khalkhin-Gol .

In September 1939, he was appointed commander of the 18th High-Speed ​​Bomber Aviation Regiment , stationed in Bobruisk . Soon, the regiment under the command of Antoshkin took part in the Soviet-Finnish war , for which he received personal gratitude from the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR commander of the 1st rank G.I. Kulik and for the successes he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner . The regiment under his command made 2936 sorties to bomb the Finnish troops and to deliver food and ammunition to the surrounded Soviet troops. Personally, I.D. Ashtoshkin performed 32 sorties, the first to regiment mastered night combat flights. In one of the departures, his plane received 112 holes from an anti-aircraft shell rupture, after which he brought the aircraft on one working engine to his airfield and landed “on the belly” (the landing gear system was out of order), saved the life of his crew ^[1] .

By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 20, 1940, Major Ivan Diomidovich Antoshkin was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Golden Star medal (No. 337) for exemplary execution of combat missions of command.

After the end of hostilities, the regiment was redeployed to Kutaisi and included in the Air Force of the Transcaucasian Military District .

In February 1941, Antoshkin was appointed deputy commander of the 26th Aviation Division , stationed in Tbilisi , in June - the post of commander of the 23rd , and then formed 77th Mixed Aviation Divisions in the Air Force of the Moscow Military District.

World War II

With the outbreak of the war, Ivan Diomidovich Antoshkin was in his former position.

In October, the division under the command of Antoshkin, not having completed its formation completely, due to the enemy breaking through in the direction of Yukhnov - Medyn - Maloyaroslavets, began military operations as part of the Air Force of the Moscow Military District, and then the Western Front and took part in the liberation of the cities of Naro-Fominsk , Kaluga , Maloyaroslavets and Borovsk .

In January 1942, Colonel Antoshkin was appointed to the post of commander of the 2nd Reserve Aviation Brigade , in April to the post of commander of an air base for receiving and distilling Lend-Lease aircraft from the United States , and in June to the post of commander of the 221st bomber aviation the division , which took part in the Battle of Stalingrad and supported the ground forces during the breakthrough of the enemy’s defense and the encirclement of his group. From January to February 1943, the division supported the troops of the Southwestern Front during the offensive in the Donbass , as well as in the oncoming battles between the Dnieper and the Seversky Donets .

In March 1943, Antoshkin was appointed commander of the 6th mixed air corps , which participated in the Battle of Kursk , during which he provided a counterattack from the 13th , 48th , 70th and 2nd tank armies , and also entering the battle of the 3rd Guards Tank Army .

During the Chernihiv-Pripyat offensive operation, the corps supported the advance of the troops, which immediately crossed the Dnieper , after which they captured bridgeheads on the right bank of the Pripyat and Sozh rivers. The corps assisted the troops during the liberation of the cities of Sevsk , Glukhov , Putivl , Konotop , Bakhmach , Nizhyn , Novgorod-Seversky and Chernigov .

Soon, the corps under the command of Antoshkin took part in the Gomel-Rechitsa , Kalinkovichi-Mozyr and Rogachev-Zhlobin offensive operations , during which the cities of Rechitsa , Gomel , Kalinkovichi , Mozyr and Rogachev were liberated.

On May 2, 1944, Major General Aviation Ivan Diomidovich Antoshkin died along with his deputy for political affairs, Colonel G. A. Ivanov, in a plane crash of the UT-2 plane ^[2] . He was buried in Gomel Labor Square.

• Gold Star Medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union (05/20/1940)
• Order of Lenin (05/20/1940);
• Order of the Red Banner (1942);
• Order of Suvorov 2 degrees (04/28/1944);
• Order of Kutuzov 2 degrees (1943);
• Anniversary medal “XX years of the Workers and Peasants Red Army” (1938);
• Foreign awards:
  • Order of the Red Banner ( MPR ) (1939);
  • Cross “For Outstanding Merits” ( USA ) (1943).

One of the streets of Gomel is named in honor of Major General Aviation Ivan Diomidovich Antoshnik.

• Heroes of the Soviet Union: A Brief Biographical Dictionary / Prev. ed. collegium I. N. Shkadov . - M .: Military Publishing , 1987.- T. 1 / Abaev - Lyubichev /. - 911 p. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN comp., Reg. RCP No. 87-95382.
• Team of authors . World War II: Divisional Commanders. Military Biographical Dictionary / V.P. Goremykin. - M .: Kuchkovo field, 2014 .-- T. 2. - S. 398 - 399. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9950-0341-0 .
• Team of authors . World War II: Comcor. Military Biographical Dictionary / Edited by M. G. Vozhakin . - M .; Zhukovsky: Kuchkovo Field, 2006. - T. 1. - S. 357-358. - ISBN 5-901679-08-3 .
• Battle of Stalingrad. July 1942 - February 1943: Encyclopedia / Ed. M.M. Zagorulko . - 5th ed., Rev. and add. - Volgograd: Publisher, 2012. - S. 42-43. - 800 p.

Antoshkin, Ivan Diomidovich (Russian) . Site " Heroes of the country ".