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| Dmitry Glinka | |
|---|---|
| Name | Dmitry Glinka |
| Native name | Дмитрий Павлович Глинка |
| Birth date | 1917 |
| Birth place | Smolensk Oblast, Russian SFSR |
| Death date | 1979 |
| Death place | Moscow |
| Allegiance | Soviet Union |
| Branch | Soviet Air Forces |
| Serviceyears | 1937–1955 |
| Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
| Unit | 15th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment |
| Battles | World War II, Battle of Kursk, Battle of Stalingrad, Operation Bagration |
| Awards | Hero of the Soviet Union (twice) |
Dmitry Glinka was a Soviet flying ace and officer in the Soviet Air Forces noted for his combat record during World War II. Credited with numerous aerial victories, he served with elite fighter regiments and participated in major operations such as the Battle of Stalingrad and Operation Bagration. His career intersected with prominent figures and formations including the Red Army, Soviet Air Defence Forces, and contemporaries such as Ivan Kozhedub and Alexander Pokryshkin.
Born in Smolensk Oblast within the Russian SFSR, he grew up amid the upheavals following the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War. He completed basic schooling in a provincial town and later entered military preparatory institutions influenced by the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army recruitment programs. In the late 1930s he attended flight training at a Soviet Air Force flight school affiliated with the People's Commissariat for Defence, where instructors brought experience from conflicts like the Spanish Civil War and the Soviet–Finnish War (Winter War). His classmates and teachers included future aviators connected to units such as the 15th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment and schools named after figures like Yakov Sverdlov.
Mobilized into the Red Army in 1937, he progressed through junior officer ranks during the Great Purge aftermath and the prewar expansion of the Soviet Armed Forces. Assigned to fighter units equipped with types produced by factories like the Moscow Aviation Plant No. 1 and Kazan Aviation Plant, he flew early models influenced by designers such as Sergey Ilyushin and Semyon Lavochkin. By 1941 he served in combat-ready regiments that would later be redesignated as Guards units following distinguished action on fronts commanded by leaders including Georgy Zhukov and Konstantin Rokossovsky. His service record links him to air commanders like Vasili Stalin and staff structures of the Soviet Air Force that coordinated with fronts such as the Stalingrad Front and the Voronezh Front.
During World War II he flew sorties in aircraft types that evolved from the Polikarpov I-16 to the Lavochkin La-5 and Yakovlev Yak-9, engaging Luftwaffe formations from units like Jagdgeschwader 52 and Jagdgeschwader 3 over theatres including the Eastern Front and the skies above Belarus during Operation Bagration. He is credited with numerous individual and shared aerial victories, often in dogfights against fighters such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, and in support of ground operations during battles like the Battle of Kursk and the Battle of Stalingrad. His tactics reflected schools of thought advanced by aces such as Alexander Pokryshkin and Ivan Kozhedub, and he operated under commands that cooperated with formations led by Nikolai Vatutin and Rodion Malinovsky. Engagements often involved coordination with units from the Red Army Air Force and ground armies including the 1st Belorussian Front and the 2nd Belorussian Front during late-war offensives. His actions earned recognition from central authorities such as the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and military institutions including the People's Commissariat for Defence.
For his combat achievements he received high distinctions including being twice awarded Hero of the Soviet Union, a decoration also earned by contemporaries such as Ivan Kozhedub, Alexander Pokryshkin, and Lyudmila Pavlichenko. His decorations included Soviet orders and medals awarded by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the Ministry of Defence (Soviet Union), paralleling honors given to officers like Georgy Zhukov and Konstantin Rokossovsky. He also held campaign and jubilee medals associated with victories over Nazi Germany and participation in operations like Operation Bagration, similar to decorations granted to members of units including the 15th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment and regimental peers from formations such as 4th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment.
After 1945 he remained in the Soviet Air Forces during the early Cold War period, serving in roles that connected with institutions such as the Ministry of Defence (Soviet Union) and training establishments analogous to the Frunze Military Academy and the Gagarin Air Force Academy. He retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and settled in Moscow, where he participated in veterans' organizations linked to the Veterans' Committee of the USSR and commemorations involving monuments like the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad and memorials in Smolensk Oblast. His wartime record is cited in Russian military histories alongside figures such as Marina Raskova and Pavel Rychagov, and his legacy endures in biographical compilations about Soviet aces, aviation museums connected to the Central Air Force Museum (Monino) and publications produced by presses associated with the Moscow State University and the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Category:Soviet flying aces Category:Heroes of the Soviet Union