Red Banner,118486,Jak-9 Pilot,787th Interceptor Aviation Regiment,Downing A Ju-88

[Shocktrooper]

Also a great one - given for night combat over Vilnius, while shooting down one Junkers Ju-88 bomber. The Citation reads as follows:

"Senior lieutenant TOLSTONOG`s YAK-9 took off into the night to repel enemy air raids under heavy machine gun- and artillery fire from anti-aircraft artillery in the direction of take-off, as well as in the combat zone itself; without searchlights and in the absence of a light field, comrade TOLSTONOG, because of his persistence and high skills in the engineering and piloting of air combat at night, managed to find an enemy aircraft and in bold attacks from close range, he destroyed the enemy with its crew."

And the witness report:

"Compiled by a commission consisting of the chairman in 36685 Lieutenant Nikolai Vasilevich TELESHEVA, members: Sergeant Vladimir Petrovich SERGIENKO, a representative of the 124 BAO Northern Front Red Army Fedor Ivanovich NAZDRINA and the citizens of Vilnius, Casimir Ivanovich BOLINSKY (str. Krebs, d. №7 square. 3), Czeslaw Broneslavich ALENOVICHA (st. Beer, d. №6 sq. 7) for the fact that on July 28, 1944 at 00:40 a.m. at the city of Vilnius in in the area of cemetery Ross crashed an aircraft of type JU-88, shot down by the commander of the AE / 36685 senior Lieutenant I.M. TOLSTONOGOV.

Aircraft № 211-591, engine numbers 503 and 593, the crew in the number 2 man burned, the rest could not be found, destroying houses inundated.

Comrade Bolinsky heard a dogfight from the direction of the station at an altitude of 1500-2000 meters – there were visible bullet traces from fire of both aircraft (which fired on each other); then the Ju-88 aircraft caught fire and crashed near the cemetery Rossa, the second passed over him and left in a northeasterly direction."