Valentin Romanovich Buchavy

Valentin Romanovich Buchavy was born on 20 July 1919 in the village of Levaya Rossosh in Voronezh governorate, now in Kashirsky district of Voronezh region, into a peasant family. He finished seven classes and a factory apprenticeship school in Kramatorsk and worked as a fitter at a machine-building plant. He entered the Red Army on 14 January 1939 and in October 1940 graduated from the Voroshilovgrad military aviation school for pilots. He served as a junior pilot in the 209th and then the 128th High-Speed Bomber Aviation Regiments of the Western Special Military District. He flew from the first days of the war: over Daugavpils and Polotsk, in the battle of Smolensk, in the defence of Bryansk and Mtsensk in 1941; over Kastornoye and Voronezh in 1942; at Kursk and in the Gomel and Kalinkovichi operations in 1943. On 11 September 1942 his Pe-2 was set on fire by anti-aircraft fire; he ordered his crew to bail out and left the aircraft last, badly burned. From January to June 1944 he studied at the higher officers' aviation school in Lipetsk, then became deputy squadron commander in the 34th Bomber Aviation Regiment of the 301st Bomber Aviation Division, 16th Air Army, and fought in the Belorussian, Vistula–Oder, East Pomeranian and Berlin operations. He was wounded twice. By the end of the war he had flown 222 combat sorties, 87 of them reconnaissance and 135 bombing railway junctions, trains and concentrations of troops and equipment. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of 15 May 1946 Senior Lieutenant Buchavy was made a Hero of the Soviet Union, with the Order of Lenin and Gold Star medal no. 7041. In 1945 he completed the higher officers' flight-tactical courses, served until 1951 at the DOSAV training centre in Buzuluk and in 1951–55 as a flight commander and deputy squadron commander in bomber regiments of the 29th Air Army on Sakhalin. He left the service as a captain in 1955 and worked at the DOSAAF airfield in Lipetsk. He died in an accident on 14 February 1958 and is buried in Lipetsk. He also held the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st class and two Orders of the Red Star. A bust stands in the village of Kashirskoye.