Nikolay Semeiko
 25. 3. 1923 - 20. 4. 1945Nikolay Semeiko was Squadron navigator of the 75th Guards Ground Attack Aviation Regiment and the navigator of the same regiment of the 1st Guards assault aviation division of the 1st Air Army of the 3rd Belorussian Front, Guards Captain. He was born on March 25, 1923 in Slavyansk (Donetsk region of the Ukraine) in a servant’s family. Ukrainian. A member of the CPSU (B) since 1943. He graduated from junior high school. Joined the Red Army in 1940. In 1942 he graduated from Voroshilovgrad military aviation school for pilots and in the same year – advanced courses for commanders. Entered the Great Patriotic War in March 1943. He was commander of the crew, flight, deputy commander, squadron commander and navigator of the 75th Guards Regiment of Air Assault Division by launching military operations at Stalingrad and participating in battles on the Mius, for liberation of the Donbass, the Crimea, the Ukraine, Belarus, as part of the Southern, the 4th Ukrainian and the 3rd Belorussian Fronts. By October 1944, squadron navigator of the 75th Guards Ground Attack Air Regiment (the 1st Guards Assault Air Division, the 1st Air Army, the 3rd Belorussian Front), N. Semeiko made 144 sorties and inflicted considerable damage to the enemy’s manpower and equipment. By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on April 19, 1945 for his courage and heroism in the battles against the Nazi invaders, Guards Captain Nikolay Semeiko was awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. However, it was not destined to receive the highest awards of the Motherland ... The next day, after the signing of the Decree he was killed in aerial combat in East Prussia. By the time of his last flight, navigator of the 75th Guards Ground Attack Air Regiment Guards Captain N. Semeiko made 83 successful sorties more to attack enemy troops. During the war he carried 227 combat missions as a result of which he personally destroyed and damaged 7 tanks, 10 artillery shells, 5 enemy planes on the ground, 19 trucks carrying troops and cargo, steam engine, blew up 2 warehouses with ammunition, put down 17 firing points anti-aircraft artillery, destroyed a lot of other military equipment and manpower. By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on June 29, 1945 Nicholay Semeiko was posthumously awarded the second Gold Star medal. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin, four Orders of the Red Banner, the 3rd Class Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, the 1st Class Order of the Patriotic War, and medals. A bronze bust of twice Hero of the Soviet Union, N. Semeiko was set in his homeland. |