Branch of troops: Aviation. _x000D_ _x000D_ Vasily Efimovich Petrushchenko was born in Ukraine in the village of Girino, Sumy region, Yampolsky district. He was drafted into the army in 1941 and sent to the Kazakhstan Flight School, from where he was urgently transferred to Stalingrad in the thick of war. In the combat for Stalingrad, he was wounded in the leg and sent to the hospital. By an incredible and terrible coincidence, as it turned out later, his father was killed in the same combat. _x000D_ After the hospital, Vasily Yefimovich was sent to the Normandie-Niemen Regiment as an aircraft mechanic. The Normandie Squadron, then the Normandie-Niemen Regiment, was a French national formation that fought on the side of the USSR. Until August 1943, the aircraft of 1st air squadron were serviced by Soviet technicians, including Vasily Efimovich. The French pilots fought honestly, displaying heroism with enthusiasm. Upon returning to the airfield, they enthusiastically showed the technicians the settlements on the map liberated by the Soviet troops, as if their cities and villages were being liberated. The result of the Regiment's combat activities for the first company in 1943 was as follows: 77 enemy aircraft were shot down, 18 aircraft were damaged. _x000D_ The engineering service of the unit was able to fully ensure the combat work of the Regiment in full combat readiness. For this, technicians had to constantly work without sleep and rest, repairing and restoring aircraft damaged incombat, eliminating defects that appeared, carrying out routine maintenance and preparing aircraft for air combat. _x000D_ On May 26, 1944, the Regiment was relocated to 3rd Belorussian Front, where it actively participated in the hostilities to liberate the cities of Vitebsk, Borisov, Minsk, Vilnius and many other settlements. In August 1944, the Regiment was re-equipped with the latest high-speed fighters Yak-3. This circumstance helped the French pilots to distinguish themselves in the first East Prussian operation. On just one day on 10/15/1944, the pilots shot down 29 enemy aircraft without suffering their own losses. _x000D_ The result of the Regiment's combat work in 1944 was 122 shot down enemy aircraft. Such high results were achieved thanks to the acquisition of combat experience by the pilots, their transition to group combat tactics, the high quality of Soviet weapons, Yak 3, and the selfless labor of the Regiment's technical personnel. The constant readiness for combat of aircraft is a matter of honor for Soviet technicians, each aircraft was worth its weight in gold! During the 4 years of the war, the technical personnel of the Regiment served 11,942 flights, of which 5,240 were combat ones. _x000D_ The technicians, seeing off the pilots into combat, tried to ensure the best for them in maitenance. They tried to maintain a fighting spirit and good mood, which was a guarantee of future victories. Vasily Efimovich went through the entire war and returned home. _x000D_ Petrushchenko V.E. was awarded: the Order of the Military Cross, French awards, 2 medals "For Military Merit", Medal "For Capture of Konigsberg", Medal "For Victory over Germany"._x000D_ In May 1980, Vasily Efimovich traveled to Moscow to meet the veterans of the Normandie-Niemen air Regiment. Vasily Efimovich was a participant and hero of the Great Patriotic War and the memory of his feat will forever be in the hearts of his descendants.