The Chronicle of a Diving Bomber Will Be Completed: The Names of Pilots Killed Near Dubrovno Will Be Established

February 3, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The chronicle of the dive bomber continues. Parts of the Soviet Pe-2 aircraft have been found in the swamps near Dubrovno, which will make it possible to establish the names of the deceased Soviet pilots, Igor Matyuk, head of the search and restoration group of the "Memory of Afghanistan" charity fund, told a BELTA correspondent. The story with the Soviet aircraft began in the summer of 2009. Then, human remains and parts of the crashed machine were recovered from the swamp, which were mistakenly classified as belonging to an Il-2. The searchers dated the crew's death to 1944. Among the personal belongings of the pilots, they found a letter carefully sewn into the lining of a tunic. It was written by a young wife, who told about how their little son was growing up. "There was so much love and hope in the letter that I couldn't forget these lines and decided to establish the names of the deceased and find this son at all costs," admitted Igor Matyuk. Due to the error in the aircraft classification, it was not possible to immediately establish the names of the pilots (according to expert examination, there were at least two of them). The remains were solemnly buried in the village of Zarubye, Dubrovensky district. Search operations resumed in the winter of 2011. Searchers recovered over 100 cubic meters of clay. And today, the gearbox and other parts were found, which gave grounds to assert that the aircraft discovered in 2009 is a Pe-2 dive bomber. By the way, it was this aircraft that was the main character of Naum Birman's film "Chronicle of a Dive Bomber," which told about the daily life of front-line aviation. The film is set in 1944 – the very time when the still unknown crew of the bomber near Dubrovno perished. Igor Matyuk has no doubt that the names of the pilots will be established. Data about the aircraft have already been transferred to the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of Russia in Podolsk. The searchers hope that on May 9, 2011, names will appear on the grave of the unknown pilots in Zarubye, and perhaps one of the sons will come to his father's grave. -0-