Ismailbek Taranchiev

Ismailbek Taranchiev (; 6 April 1923 – 18 March 1944) was a Kyrgyz Soviet aviator and posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union. He is one of the Soviet war heroes to conduct a "fire taran" – a suicide attack by an aircraft on a ground target. After his Ilyushin Il-2 was hit by antiaircraft fire, Taranchiev crashed his plane into a concentration of German tanks in Estonia in March 1944.

Early life Ismailbek Taranchiev was born on 6 April 1923 in the village of Besh-Kungey in what is now part of the Chuy Region in Kyrgyzstan. Taranchiev graduated from eighth grade.

On 26 February, along with other aircraft, he conducted a raid on the Axis-held airfield at Tartu. Taranchiev personally destroyed three German aircraft on the ground during the attack. By 18 March, Taranchiev had made 35 successful sorties attacking defense structures, railways, airfields and other targets flying an Il-2 ground attack aircraft.

On 18 March, Taranchiev flew a sortie with four other Il-2s, attacking enemy troops and equipment in the area described in Soviet sources with illiterate village names Jaama-kyule, Kyarikuyula and Lastikolony, which may be Jaama village, Käriküla (no such village in Estonia) and Lastekodumägi. During the attack, Taranchiev's plane was hit by antiaircraft fire and he deliberately crashed his plane into a concentration of enemy tanks, in a maneuver called a "fire taran" – a suicide attack by an aircraft on a ground target. On 29 April 1944, he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War 1st class. A Sukhoi Su-25 of the Russian Air Force based at Kant air base in Kyrgyzstan was named after Taranchiev in 2015.