''Chronicles of a Dive Bomber'' () is a 1967 Soviet

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about navy, naval, air force, air, or army, land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle s ...

directed by Naum Birman based on the novel of the same name by

Vladimir Kunin Vladimir Vladimirovich Kunin (Владимир Владимирович Кунин) (actually Vladimir Feinberg, 19 June 1927, Leningrad - 4 February 2011, Munich) was a Russian writer, playwright and screenwriter. Kunin was a member of the Union o ...

about the everyday life of frontline aviation during the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...

Plot

The

is taking place but it is quiet at the front airfield of the

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

s — there is fog, therefore the planes are stationary. The command poses the task of finding and photographing an enemy airfield on which Focke-Wulf fighters are based. The crew of a young but experienced junior lieutenant Chervonenko flies to the task. Before flying out he learns from the report of the

Soviet Information Bureau Soviet Information Bureau (), commonly known as Sovinformburo () was a leading Soviet news agency, operating under that name from 1941 to 1961 when its name changed to RIA Novosti. Operation The Axis invasion of the Soviet Union started on ...

that his native town of

Pinsk Pinsk (; , ; ; ; ) is a city in Brest Region, Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Pinsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. It is located in the historical region of Polesia, at the confluence of t ...

has been liberated. Enterprising and inventive shooter-radio operator Zhenya Sobolevsky (

Oleg Dahl Oleg Ivanovich Dal (; 25 May 1941 – 3 March 1981) was a Soviet Russian stage and film actor. He acted in films, from classics of drama to fairy tales and adventures. His most popular works included ''Zhenya, Zhenechka and Katyusha'' (1967), ...

) from the crew of Arkhiptsev (Gennady Saifulin) from the military trade shop brings

raspberry The raspberry is the edible fruit of several plant species in the genus ''Rubus'' of the Rosaceae, rose family, most of which are in the subgenus ''Rubus#Modern classification, Idaeobatus''. The name also applies to these plants themselves. Ras ...

syrup and antifreeze from the hydraulic system of the aircraft and prepares the "Chassis liqueur". Crews of aircraft celebrate the liberation of Pinsk with the prepared "liqueur", but then comes the news that Chervonenko is coming to the landing across the start. Chervonenko is killed, his navigator lands the plane (Leonid Reutov). Chervonenko manages to photograph the enemy airfield, but it turns out to be false. In the evening, in the dining room, the captain of the medical service (Heliy Sysoev) is verbally abusive to the girlfriend of the navigator (Lev Weinstein) which leads to the commander and the navigator throwing him out of the dining room, and he in turn threatens to write a report. The whole crew of Arkhiptsev is put in the guardhouse, commander and navigator for punching the head of the medical unit, and the shooter for producing the "liqueur". The command once again decides to conduct reconnaissance of the airfield, for this the experienced crew of Arhiptsev is most suitable, and they are prematurely released from the guardhouse. During the first departure, Arkhiptsev also discovers a false airfield, and again several bombers attack the bomber. Sobolevsky knocks down one fighter. The crew hardly leaves the pursuit of enemy fighters, imitating when diving, that they were shot down. To complete the task, they need to fly again. Arkhiptsev wants to test his assumption that the airfield is near the railway station. The entire air regiment is waiting for messages from Arkhiptsev about the coordinates of the airfield, in order to fly out of it to bomb. Arkhiptsev is looking for an airfield, but again five enemy fighters attack him from ambushes. Arkhiptsev uses up all his ammunition, Sobolevsky is killed. The fighters surround the plane and want to force him to board their airfield. Having understood the enemy's plan, Arhiptsev together with the navigator make the decision to ram the fighter planes standing on the ground....И лично Отечеству нужен
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Cast

*Lev Vainshtein as Veniamin Gurevich, navigator of the crew of Arhiptsev *

Aleksandr Grave Aleksandr Konstantinovich Grave (; September 8, 1920 – March 5, 2010)Aleksandr Grave
at the

as Yevgeny Sobolevsky, the shooter—radio operator of the crew of Arhiptsev *Igor Efimov as regiment deputy *

Viktor Ilichyov Viktor Grigorievich Ilichyov (; 5 February 1946 — 8 October 2010) was a Soviet actor. He appeared in more than seventy films from 1967 to 2006. He lived in the United States of America beginning in 1992. Selected filmography Viktor Ilichyov en ...

as ordinary mechanic Osadchy (voiced by

Leonid Bykov Leonid Fedorovich Bykov (, ; 11 December 1928, in Znamenka village, Artemivsk Okruha of Ukrainian SSR – 11 April 1979, in Kyiv Oblast of Ukraine, USSR) was a Soviet actor, film director, and script writer. He received the " Honored Artist of t ...

) *German Kolushkin as Gribov; performs on the accordion "Song of the Four Ivanov" *George Korolchuk as Chervonenko *Leonid Reutov as Pastukhov *Gennady Saifulin as Sergei Arkhiptsev, commander of the crew * Elena Sanko as Katya *Konstantin Sorokin as seller of the military *Heliy Sysoev as chief medical officer of the regiment *

Yuri Tolubeyev Yuri Vladimirovich Tolubeyev (, May 1, 1906, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire - December 28, 1979, Leningrad, USSR) was a Soviet theatrical and cinema actor. People's Artist of the USSR (1956). Winner of the Lenin (1959) and Stalin Prize (1947). He ...

as mechanic Kuzmichev *

Nikolay Trofimov Nikolay Nikolaevich Trofimov (; 21 January 1920, Sevastopol — 7 November 2005, St. Petersburg) was a Soviet and Russian theater and film actor. People's Artist of the USSR (1990). Biography Nikolay Trofimov was born into a working-class family. ...

as major, commandant of the airfield *

Pyotr Shcherbakov Pyotr Ivanovich Shcherbakov (; 21 July 1929 – March 16, 1992) was a Soviet film and theater actor. People's Artist of the RSFSR (1980). Member of the CPSU since 1955. Biography Born July 21, 1929, in the village of Pozdnyakovo (now Kaluga O ...

as Chief of Staff of the Regiment *Boris Arakelov as gunsmith *Arkady Vovsi as grandfather of Gurevich, shoemaker

References

External links

* 1967 films 1967 war films Soviet war films 1960s Soviet films 1960s Russian-language films Russian aviation films Russian World War II films World War II aviation films Lenfilm films Soviet black-and-white films Soviet World War II films Films about aviators Russian-language war films {{WWII-film-stub