HISTORY:_x000D_ Vadim Miler was born on October 24, 1923 in Chita._x000D_ In July 1941, he received two certificates at the same time: one of a High School graduation, the other of the Chita Air Club. He got the rank of a reserve pilot. He went to work as a worker in a tannery._x000D_ In March 1942, he became a cadet at the school of aircraft mechanics in Irkutsk. But he did not manage to finish school: in September of the same year, as the commander of the submachine gun squad in the 43rd Mechanized Brigade, he already fought with the Nazis on the Kalinin Front, in the Velikie Luki Region, and then in the same military unit - on the Voronezh and Central Fronts._x000D_ In the summer of 1943, the mechanized brigade participated in the battles on the Orel-Kursk bulge. Together with other military units, it knocked out the enemy from the most important railway station Zmiyevka and the surrounding villages. In one of the battles in the Oryol Region, Milier was wounded in the neck. He was treated in the city of Yelets for a month ._x000D_ After recovery, he was assigned to the 79th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment as an Air gun operator on IL-2. A dream came true. He was finally in aviation! An air assault regiment of the 16th Air Army bombed railway stations occupied by the enemy, river crossings, and enemy strongholds._x000D_ Planes were also sent for investigation. For example, in December 1943, two IL-2s, one of which had a Milier, had to confirm the presence of German trains at the railway station. The assault planes were covered by three of our fighters. As Vadim recalls, both IL-2s reached the target safely. They photographed the station and found that it was packed with military personnel and military equipment. The station was protected by anti-aircraft installations and fighters. Anti-aircraft guns opened feverish fire. The leading IL-2 was hit. It went to the ground in a corkscrew and crashed. The entire crew was killed. Two German fighters appeared in the air. They had the second assault plane in a vise on both sides. Milier was there. The battle began - two Hitler's Focke-Wulf-190 fighters against one IL-2. The Russian plane fiercely fired back and shot down one enemy fighter approaching from the right side. The latter, leaving a black plume behind, fell like a stone. Soviet plane was also hit: Milier's machine gun turret was smashed by a shell. The shooter himself was shot through the left shoulder. The aircraft commander Nemtinov's dashboard was smashed to smithereens. It was not known what would have ended this duel, if the commander of the IL-2 did not sharply throw the plane down and low-level flight did not bring it out of the fire._x000D_ In the late summer of 1944, the 79th Assault Regiment was based near the Warsaw suburb of Prague. Petty Officer Milier was now flying with captain S. Drozdov._x000D_ The squadron helped units of the 8th Army of General V. Chuikov to gain a foothold on this patch of land. On September 30, there was another flight. An enemy anti-aircraft shell penetrated the gas tank. Captain Drozdov managed to pull the plane to the Eastern Bank of the river and landed near the town of Zatsizhe, in the location of the Polish army. The poles who run up to the burning attack aircraft barely managed to pull the wounded pilot and shooter out of the machine, as it exploded and burned down. Drozdov died of multiple burns on the operating table in the Polish infirmary. Vadim was in danger of losing both legs. The Polish surgeon had to amputate his broken left leg, but managed to save the right one. Later Milier was treated in Moscow. He was able to walk only after eight months._x000D_ Vadim Milier participated in 55 combat missions in the assault aviation regiment. And each sortie is a possible encounter with enemy fighters, anti-aircraft guns, the probability of an emergency landing on enemy territory, his nerves at the limit, constant concentration, endurance and the desire to come out victorious in a fight with the enemy._x000D_ All that was now behind him. Vadim had to overcome his sores, learn to walk on a single injured leg and not only adapt to life, but also become useful to people. Former air gunner overcame all of this._x000D_ In the squadron, and in the hospital, he was called "Communard" because his great-grandfather, the Frenchman Jules (Julius) Georg Milier and his brother Jean-Baptiste Milier took part in the resistance to the Bonapartist coup in December 1851. Jules Milier immigrated to Russia, reached Irkutsk. He met the Decembrist Sergei Volkonskiy and his wife Maria. He married a Russian girl Tatyana. Maria Volkonskaya became the godmother of their son Viktor._x000D_ The fate of Milier Jean Baptiste was tragic. He was elected to the National Assembly in 1871. During the Paris Commune, he collaborated in the newspaper "Commune". He was captured by the Versailles troops and shot without trial._x000D_ During the Great Patriotic War, a descendant of French revolutionaries Vadim Milier bravely fought the Nazis. There are four military orders on his chest - two of the Patriotic War and two of the Red Star, the medal For Bravery, For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and numerous commemorative, in peacetime - Veteran of labor._x000D_ Vadim Miler died in 2015.