[kirche]

Hi Brian,
Lieutenant Colonel Popov Vladimir Mikhailovich - navigator of VVS of the Karelian Front (former navigator of VVS of the 7th Army).

As suggested by comrades:
On the night of 31.05.1942 / 01.06.1942 at 00.45 5 Pe-2 608 BAP, accompanied by 10 "Tomahawk" 20 GvIAP from a height of 4000 m, bombed the airfield Hebukten...

... the Pe-2 (from 608 BAP) with the damaged engines made an emergency landing (according to other sources, it crashed) 15 km to the north-west of Salmiyarvi:
- Pilot - Captain Yakunin Mikhail Semenovich was rescued by parachute, was picked up on post on the seventh day and returned to the unit;
- Lieutenant Colonel Popov Vladimir Mikhailovich, the flag-navigator of VVS of the front, died - threw himself on a parachute from a burning aircraft, stayed for several days in the enemy territory (according to Eric Mombeek, hiding on a farm in Svanvik), when group of Soviet recon approached, took them for an enemy and shot himself;
- gunner-radiooperator St. Sergeant Gulyutin Ivan Grigorevich probably returned (although he is listed as missing on June 1, 1942, but was awarded for the anniversary of Victory in 1985)

Best regards,
Kirill