Rank: Junior Lieutenant Type of Troops: Aviation Subdivision: 42nd Long-Range Bomber Aviation Division Since 1941, our family has been trying to find out the fate of a son, brother ... Then it moved on to more distant relatives, I am the third generation and Vadim is my uncle, older father’s brother. There were many versions, many rumors, how many did not write and where: either unsubscribe, or simply there were no answers ... But every year it is more and more difficult to search ... Living witnesses of that stormy era are leaving and every year there are fewer and fewer of them. I was haunted by obscurity, my grandmother, his mother, bequeathed to know his fate. For more than 30 years I have been searching and now, finally, through the efforts of many strangers to me (thanks to the Internet!), Some of them under nicknames, I managed to put together, like a puzzle, that now distant thunderstorm July of 1941. True, the date of death differs: June 24, June 30, July 3, July 24 (in the death notice) "black" letter I am leaning closer to the recollections of the direct participant in that battle, Bogdanov N.G. - the commander of the crew, where Vadim flew .... On June 28, the commander of the 212 DABP 42 BAD, Colonel Golovanov, received an urgent radiogram, after reading it he said: "-Guderian's tank formations broke through to Bobruisk, captured it and began to cross the Berezina. “An hour later, ten links — thirty vehicles — took to the air and headed west, to the area of the city of Bobruisk, to bombard enemy tank and mechanized troops and across the Berezina. Several single aircraft flew off for reconnaissance. At Bobruisk and on the crossings, the enemy put up strong resistance. In the evening, following the last planes that returned to the airfield, a powerful thunderstorm swept from the west, and a downpour continued throughout the night. The airfield became limp and completely unusable. Therefore, on June 29, they did not fly on the mission. The day of June 30 was again a day of heavy losses for us - 11 aircraft, a big loss for one regiment. The planes of the squadron commander-1, Major Pochinok, did not return, Senior Lieutenant Yanitsky, Lieutenants Ishchenko, Chumachenko, Antonov, Klebanov, Osipov, Kovalchuk. Under anti-aircraft fire, the crews of I. Belokobylsky and the squadron commander-4 V. Vdovin were killed. By July 3, two out of 10 crews remained in our squadron. On that day, Yakov Mikheev and I were ordered to strike at the columns of an enemy tank formation that had broken through from Bobruisk to Rogachev. Beginning Headquarters Major Bogdanov told us directly that it depends only on us whether or not German tanks will break through to the Dnieper today. If they break through, they will seize a bridgehead on its right bank, and our troops have not yet managed to organize a defense there. And he promised that the fighters would cover us. My crew included navigator Junior Lieutenant Boris Khomchanovsky, radio operator Jr. Sergeant Alexander Zhuravsky and technician Junior Military technician (junior lieutenant) Vadim Grigoriev, who flew as a shooter at his own tail machine gun. Young, black-eyed, with a shock of black hair, of medium height, Grigoriev was mobile and energetic. He knew the aircraft and engines very well and prepared them for flight with exceptional conscientiousness. For all the time of our service with him, we did not have a single refusal of materiel in flight. When we were allowed to install a machine gun in the tail section, he was the first in the regiment to do so and did not yield to anyone the honor of flying as a shooter in his car. He has already made three sorties ... We, long-range bombers, had to strike targets thousands of kilometers away from each other in one day. All the events of the outbreak of war in our minds united into one whole - a monstrous fiery tornado rolling from west to east of our country and leaving behind burnt, smoking cities, huge black spots of burnt fields ... We were ready to spare no life to complete any task - just to stop the hated enemy .... Since our forces were small - only two planes, Mikheev and I decided that we needed to stay above the target as long as possible and hit it more accurately, and for this, each time we approached the target, we should drop only one bomb ... It was decided to start bombing from the head of the column in order to create traffic jams on the highway and beat the enemy for sure. After takeoff Mikheyev joined me on the right. In a dense formation of the pair, we unexpectedly appeared above a tank column, which was 10 km from Rogachev. At a slight angle to the highway from a height of 1200 meters, we dropped the first two bombs on the head of the convoy. Well done Khomchanovsky! The bombs hit the target accurately. And when we make another call, we can clearly see the burning tanks, which we use as reference points. So 30 minutes of the battle passes. We already believed that we had won this battle and the combat task was solved: burning tanks and vehicles blocked the highway tightly, when two pairs of Me-109 rushed at us from above. You cannot turn off the combat course, I continue to withstand the car strictly in a straight line ... The plane is shaking from long bursts of machine-gun ... The first attack of the Messers is repulsed. The last bombs have been dropped, we must leave.As if understanding my thoughts, Mikheev literally pressed his car to mine. The Messers, divided into two groups, attack us from different directions. We maneuver, covering each other with fire. One of the "messers" ran into the fiery tracks of Grigoriev and Zhuravsky, flared up and began to fall. But in the next attack, the Messerschmitts lit the plane of Yakov Mikheev, he went down in a gentle dive. We were left alone against three Me-109s. I constantly maneuvered, trying to put the car in a position convenient for the shooters ... Our machine guns fell silent. Zhuravsky and Grigoriev were killed. Realizing that they would not be rebuffed, the Germans, coming up close, began to shoot us point-blank. A lead shower hit our car. Khomchanovsky was killed, the entire dashboard was smashed, the canopy of my cockpit was riddled, and the pungent smell of sulfur from incendiary bullets and shells was choking. But the plane lives on ... One of the Germans is closely attached to my car on the right and threatens me with his fist, I see his gloating laughing face. From anger and powerlessness, my eyes darkened, I abruptly banked the plane and threw it at the enemy. But he dived under me, went into the tail and, from a minimum distance, unloaded the cannon into a completely defenseless plane in a long burst. The plane burst into flames, tongues of flame flowed into the cockpit in streams, and a moment later, disobedient and already uncontrollable, it rolled over and began to fall .... After a sharp jolt when opening the parachute, I felt a burning pain in my right leg and then realized that I was wounded. alternately swept over me, firing machine guns. Fortunately for me, a couple of formidable Il-2s appeared over the tank column, the "messers" threw me and rushed to attack them ... That was the last battle in Vadim's life ... In August 1941 he would have turned 21 ... So , Grigoriev Vadim Vasilievich, born August 1920, after graduating from a flight school in Volsk, Saratov region in 1940, served in the 212nd long-range bomber aviation regiment of the 42nd Bomber Aviation Division, during 10 days of the war he had 3 combat sorties and one shot down Me -109. Killed in aerial combat on 03 July 1941, buried in the village. Lenino, Sychkovsky village, Bobruisk district, Mogilev region, burial No. 3191. Unfortunately, only 68 years later, his fate finally became known. And in this I was helped by distant, unfamiliar people who took my pain, my memory to heart ... A deep bow to them. Eternal memory to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War.