[Håkan]

Hello Mirek,

The only source I could find that claims that he made a claim in China on 29 April 1938 is Polak's "Stalin's Falcons", which is somewhat dated (published 1999).

In Soviet Fighters in the sky of China, Part II by Anatolii Demin, 2000 Aviatsiia Kosmonavtika 10 (translated by George M. Mellinger) his name isn't mentioned among the Soviet pilots making claims in this combat.

However later in this articles series he is mentioned together with Kravchenko in "Quickly a group was organized there of fighters with Chinese and Spanish experience, the best known of them being S. A. Gritsevets and G. P. Kravchenko, who again distinguished themselves in air combat and became the first Twice Heroes of the Soviet Union." It seems that I've always have misread this as a statement that Gritsevets also was in China (thus verifying Polak's claim) .

Thus I'm bound to agree with you that it seems that he in fact wasn't in China.

Thanks Mirek to bring up this interesting subject!

Hopefully there are more readers on this forum that can add more to the story about this interesting pilot.

Best wishes/Håkan