Pyotr Gnido

Pyotr Andreyevich Gnido (, ; 22 December 1919 – 17 March 2006) was a Soviet fighter pilot during World War II who was credited with 34 solo and 6 shared aerial victories, and recipient of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Early life Gnido was born on 22 December 1919 in the village of Starodonskaya Balka in Odesa region of Ukraine, into a peasant family of Ukrainian ethnicity. After graduating from 7th grade of school, he worked at a mechanical plant in Odesa. In 1937, he graduated from the Odesa Medical College, after which he worked in the NKVD as a sanitary instructor and later as head of the sanitary service in Astrakhan Oblast of the Russian SFSR. In 1939, he graduated from the Astrakhan Aeroclub.

Military career In 1940, he was drafted into the Red Army. On the same year, he successfully graduated from the Stalingrad Military Aviation School of Pilots and joined the Soviet Air Forces. He continued to serve as an instructor pilot.

In March 1942, Gnido was discharged from a hospital in Grozny and enrolled in a reserve regiment, where he mastered in flying the Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3 and Lavochkin La-5 fighters. In July 1942, he returned to the front. He took part in Stalingrad, Southeast, South and North Caucasian fronts. Gnido took part in the Battle of Stalingrad and the Rostov offensive operation in 1943.

During the battle of Stalingrad, while flying La-5, Gnido shot down ten enemy aircraft, which includes seven He 111 bombers and three Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighter-bombers in heavy air battles against Luftwaffe, which tried to establish an air bridge to the besieged 6th Army of German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus. He flew combat sorties over Donbas during the Izyum–Barvenkovo offensive of 1943.

Gnido flew missions while assigned to the North Caucasian, Voronezh, 1st and 4th Ukrainian Fronts. He took part in the Kursk, Dnieper, Korsun–Cherkassy, Proskurov-Chernivtsi, Carpathian-Uzhhorod, East Carpathian and Moravian-Ostrava operations.

His final tally accumulated through the course of approximately 412 sorties and 82 dogfights officially stands at 34 solo and six shared shootdowns. He was wounded three times and was shot down four times.

On 24 June 1945, he took part in the Victory Parade on Red Square in Moscow.

In January 1957, Gnido was appointed as the commander of the 26th Fighter Aviation Division. He graduated from Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union on 1960. From July 1960, he was assigned to the Strategic Missile Forces of the USSR and served as the deputy commander of a missile division.

Awards and decorations USSR

jubilee medals

Czechoslovakia

Ukraine Jubilee Medal "60 Years of Liberation of Ukraine from Fascist Invaders"