Boris Vladimirovich Buchin

Boris Vladimirovich Buchin was born on 28 March 1923 in the village of Sinkovo in Bronnitsy uyezd of Moscow governorate, now in Ramensky district of Moscow region, into a working-class family. From 1933 he lived in Perovo, now part of Moscow, where he finished seven classes in 1938; he then studied at the Moscow construction technical school and in 1940 completed the flying club of Moscow's Kirovsky district. He joined the army in July 1940 and in February 1943 graduated from the Voroshilovgrad military aviation school for pilots, then evacuated to Uralsk. From March 1943 he flew the Il-2 ground-attack aircraft, first with the 75th Guards Ground-Attack Aviation Regiment and from January 1944 with the 136th, on the Southern, 4th Ukrainian and 3rd Belorussian Fronts: on the Mius, in the Donbas and Melitopol operations, in the Crimea, in Belorussia and Lithuania, and in East Prussia. On 18 July 1943 he was wounded in the back by enemy fighters but brought his aircraft back across the front line. On 15 April 1944 he was shot down by anti-aircraft fire near Balaklava; his gunner was killed, and Buchin, badly burned, came down behind enemy lines and reached his regiment three days later with a group of Soviet scouts. In the winter of 1945 he was shot down again and made a forced landing near the forward trenches. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of 19 April 1945 Guards Senior Lieutenant Buchin, a flight commander in the 136th Guards Ground-Attack Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Army, was made a Hero of the Soviet Union, with the Order of Lenin and Gold Star medal no. 6212. The nomination cited 128 combat sorties as of 9 March 1945. He served on in the air force and air defence, in Belarus, in Germany and at Khabarovsk, and left the service in December 1960. Until 1992 he worked as a technician of the military acceptance office at a Moscow plant. He died on 14 January 2016 in Moscow and is buried at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery. He also held three Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, two Orders of the Patriotic War 1st class and one of the 2nd class, and two Orders of the Red Star.