30.3.1920 - 29.10.1990

Alexey Alelyukhin is a squadron commander of the 9^th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment of the 6^th Guards Fighter Air Division of the 8^th Air Force of the Southern Front, Guard Captain.

He was born on March 30, 1920 in Kesova Gora village of the Tver region, in a working class family. Russian. A member of the CPSU (B) / Communist Party since 1941. Graduated from elementary school. He worked at the Moscow factory of office supplies, also studied at the Aerial School.

In the Red Army since 1938, drafted by Mytishchi military commissariat of the Moscow region. In 1939 he graduated from the Military Aviation School named after V.P. Chkalov. Participated in the Great Patriotic War from the very first day. He started fighting in the skies of Odessa on I-16. Here first shot down the enemy plane and received the first award – the Order of the Red Banner.

During one battle he was wounded, but bleeding profusely, his flight lasted up to the airfield. In autumn 1941 the 69^th Fighter Wing, where he served, was rearmed with the new fighters LaGG-3. On this machine, he again won several battles.

He distinguished himself over Stalingrad, at Kalach shot down four enemy bombers, and at Kotelnikovo — two “Junkers” and a “Messerschmitt”. For those victories he was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Red Banner.

The Soviet ace distinguished himself during the fighting near Melitopol, the Molochnaya River. In one battle, Alelyukhin’s “nine” boldly attacked 50 Nazi bombers on their way under cover of fighter planes. The Soviet pilots shot down the leading planes, thwarted the military order of the enemy, and sow panic among the Nazi pilots. Flying away, the Germans dropped bombs on the positions of their troops.

The title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the squadron commander of the 9^th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (the 6^th Guards Fighter Division, the 8^th Air Force, the Southern Front), Guards Captain Alelyukhin was awarded on August 24, 1943 for 265 military missions and participation in 65 air battles in which he personally shot down 11 enemy planes and 6 ones in the group.

The second Gold Star Medal he was awarded on November 1, 1943 for 410 combat missions and participation in 114 air battles, in which he personally shot down 26 enemy aircraft; and for the exemplary performance of command assignments in the liberation of Donets Basin.

Then there were many fights and victories ... In the end of the war Alexey flew on the signed plane - La-7 fighter - with an inscription on the board, “To Alexey Alelyukhin from the collective trust № 41 of the Aviation People’s Commissariat”. The last fight he held in the skies of Germany, shot down Fw-190.

During the war Alexey Alelyukhin made 601 sorties, conducted 258 air battles; personally destroyed 40 enemy aircraft and 17 - as a group.

After the war, a brave fighter pilot continued to serve in the Armed Forces of the USSR. He was in command positions. In 1948 he graduated from the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze; in 1954 — the General Staff Military Academy. Since 1985, Aviation Major General Alelyukhin — retired.

He lived in Moscow. Died on October 29, 1990. He is buried at Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

He was awarded two Orders of Lenin (1942, 1943), three Orders of the Red Banner (1941, 1943, 1945), the 3^rd Class Orders of Suvorov (1943), the Order of Alexander Nevsky (1943), the 1^st Class Order of the Great Patriotic War (1985), the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1968), two Orders of the Red Star (1942, 1950), the 3^rd Class Order “For the Service to Motherland in the Armed Forces of the USSR” (1975); medals.

A bronze bust of the Hero is set in his homeland. A street in Lvov (the Ukraine) was named after him.