Rank: Major Type of troops: Aviation Subdivision: 5th Guards Bomber Aviation Orsha Red Banner Order of Kutuzov Division Baytursun Eserkepov was born on November 6, 1917, in the village of Taldarykh, Taldy-Kurgan region, Alma-Ata region. He was drafted into the Red Army in 1935. Granddaughter: "... About my grandfather Zhakipbek Serbaev wrote here:" ... Someone, and Baytursun Eserkepov had the undoubted right to be called the same age as the revolution. Like many weather girls, there was a difficult, half-starved childhood, early orphanhood. He would die if would not have ended up in one of the orphanages created by the Soviet government. Here in Almaty he grew up, studied, graduated from the tenth year. Komsomol maturity led Baitursun, like many of our peers, including me, to the Alma-Ata Osoaviakhim flying club. branches ...... It was done like this: a steel corkscrew was screwed into the ground, to which the glider clung to a ledge that retract from the cockpit. A long rubber shock absorber cable was thrown over this ledge. The cadet sat in the cockpit, and the rest, waiting for their turn, were taken by the ends of the shock absorber and pulled it, counting out a couple of steps in chorus: twenty ... thirty ... sixty ... "The flight was short-lived, but it was a flight ... Then there was a study at the Orenburg Flight School, in the 4th training aviation air squadron of Major Pyotr Maslov. In the same place, since 1936, Sergei Lugansky studied. Granddaughter: “... Eserkepova (at that time Demidina) Tatyana Ageevna went to war. I asked her why I went? He says everyone walked then, so I went. She was a student at that time, she studied meteorology. And in the war, she predicted the weather for combat missions. She fought at Stalingrad, in Leningrad. Grandpa also participated. Was a military pilot ... ... Grandfather Baytursun was a pilot. So, they met in the war. I read his memories in the book "Heroes of the Flying Guard", written by war veterans about veterans. In the photo, Baytursun Eserkepov is the first from the right, in the second row, surrounded by comrades in arms. In his book “On the sharp turns of fate. About friends and comrades "veteran of the Great Patriotic War Baizulla Akizhanov talks about how on a smoky and hot day of the Battle of Stalingrad over the airfield, where the 38th Bomber Regiment was based, an enemy plane dropped leaflets and swiftly, with a decrease, left for the West. Goebbels's leaflets turned out to be in the Kazakh language and called on soldiers of non-Russian nationality to go over to the side of the enemy. In response, the former pupil of the Alma-Ata orphanage, the best pilot of the regiment, Baitursyn Eserkepov, appealed to the command to allow the formation of a combat Kazakh crew. The sensible and patriotic idea was immediately approved. This is how the Pe-2 dive bomber appeared with a large inscription on the fuselage "For Soviet Kazakhstan". B. Yesserkepov became the commander of the crew, Kades Imashev became the navigator, Tulebai Tadjiev became the gunner-radio operator. The Kazakh crew fought energetically and effectively. He destroyed only enemy aircraft of all kinds and structures in the air and on the ground - 29! ... In April 1945, Tulebay Tadzhiev was mortally wounded in the sky near Keningsberg and did not reach his airfield alive. The entire air regiment was buried by Tadzhiev. Baytursun Eserkepov flew 206 sorties during the war years. Granddaughter: “I flew for another twenty years, being in civilian life, and then on a medical examination, they discovered that he had problems with the“ motor ”. He was greatly offended by the doctors, because of whom he was forced to part with aviation. But my heart periodically hurt. So he stayed to live in Alma-Ata, together with his grandmother, a friend of the front-line years. They met in 1942, near Stalingrad. They served together in the 5th Guards Bomber Aviation Division. Tatyana was a technician-engineer, and served as a meteorologist. ”Baytursun Eserkepov died of a heart attack in March 1982. Awards: Orders - the Red Banner (twice), Red Star (twice), the Patriotic War of the 1st, 2nd degrees, medals: including "For the Defense of Stalingrad", "For the Defense of the Caucasus".