Date:	Monday 17 January 1944
Time:
Type:	Yakovlev Yak-1
Owner/operator:	427 IAP Soviet Air Force
Registration:
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	near the village of Obertasovo -   Ukraine
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:
Destination airport:

Narrative:
On 5 January 1944 General Ivan Konev’s 2nd Ukrainian Front launched an attack from his bridgehead west of the Dniepr against the lines of the German 8. Armee north and south of the city of Kirovograd, an important logistical center for the German armies in the area. Despite heavy losses in tanks, the attack managed to break through and Kirovograd was liberated on 8 January, but the Germans managed to reform a frontline west of it and to stop the Soviet offensive, whose ultimate objective was to join General Nikolai Vatutin’s 1st Ukrainian Front, so surrounding a large part of the German forces in Ukrain. From the 9th no more significant progress was done by Konev’s forces, and he stopped the offensive on the 11th, but relaunched it the next day on order of Stalin to try to link with Vatutin. The battle lasted until the 17th without significant progress.

On the 17th, the Soviet air force flew in force, hoping to help the ground forces to break through the new German lines. On the morning of this day, eight Yak-1 of 427 IAP were on a patrol over Alekseevka area where they met a Ju 87 formation. In the following battle they claimed seven shot down against one loss. Leytenant Pavel Nikolayevich Subbotin was shot down and force landed his burning fighter in a field near the village of Obertasovo, southwest of Kirovograd. Residents rushed to the plane to help the pilot to get out of the burning aircraft but German soldiers drove them away, surrounded the plane and let the pilot burn alive in the flames, according to one source. According to another, probably a Soviet-era propaganda story, Subbotin refused to go out of the aircraft to surrender to the Germans. Whatever the reason, he died in his burning fighter. The villages managed to recover his remains at night and secretly buried them.

http://fmc.my1.ru/publ/istorija/2-1-0-24
http://forum.patriotcenter.ru/index.php?topic=15518.0;wap2
"The Road To Berlin", by John Erickson. ISBN 9781474602808
"Le chaudron de Tcherkassy-Korsun, et la bataille pour le Dniepr (septembre 1943-février 1944)", by Jean Lopez. ISBN 978-2-7178-6029-0
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9E%D0%B1%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%82%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=48.294444&lon=31.978333&z=13&m=w

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
21-Nov-2018 15:49	Laurent Rizzotti	Added
02-Jul-2021 07:30	JF	Updated [Operator]