Viktor Talalikhin

Viktor Vasilevich Talalikhin (; 18 September 1918 – 27 October 1941) was a Soviet lieutenant and aviator during the Winter War and World War II and a Hero of the Soviet Union, among the first to perform aerial ramming at night.

Talalikhin became a fighter pilot in the Soviet Air Forces in the late 1930s, flying the Polikarpov I-153 during the Winter War. He served in the air defense of Moscow during World War II with an aviation regiment of the Soviet Air Defence Forces. He became one of the first Soviet aviation heroes of the war after ramming a German bomber at night with his Polikarpov I-16, but was shot down and killed in late October while flying a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3. Talalikhin claimed three victories during the Winter War and four in the air defense of Moscow.

Early life and military career Talalikhin was born on 18 September 1918 in the village of Teplovka in Saratov Governorate to a peasant family. In 1924, he and his family moved to Volsk, where he studied at its Secondary School No. 1. In the summer of 1933, Talalikhin and his family again moved to Moscow, where he graduated from the factory school of the Moscow Meat Processing Plant in 1934. Talalikhin worked at the plant from 1934 to 1937; he joined a factory gliding group in September 1935 and with a Komsomol direction took flying lessons at the Proletarsky District flying club. Talalikhin made his first solo flight in a Polikarpov U-2 in June 1937.

After joining the Red Army in December of that year, Talalikhin graduated from the 2nd Borisoglebsk Military Aviation School of Pilots in December 1938 as a Junior Lieutenant. He became a junior pilot in the 3rd Squadron of the 27th Fighter Aviation Regiment (IAP), part of the Air Forces of the Moscow Military District, flying the Polikarpov I-153 biplane. With the 27th IAP he fought in the Winter War of November 1939-March 1940, flying 47 sorties and claiming three individual victories in addition to one shared. For his actions, Talalikhin received the Order of the Red Star. He soon became a squadron commander in the 177th.