Mikhail Devyatayev

Mikhail Petrovich Devyataev (; Moksha: Михаил Петрович Девятаев/Mixail Petrovič Devätaev); 8 July 1917 – 24 November 2002) was a Soviet fighter pilot known for his incredible escape from a Nazi concentration camp on the island of Usedom, in the Baltic Sea. Early life and military career Born in 1917 at Torbeyevo, Mikhail was the thirteenth child born to the family of a Mokshan peasant. In 1938 he graduated from a School of River Navigation and worked as the captain of a small ship on the Volga. That same year he was conscripted into the Red Army and began education at a Chkalov Flying School, graduating in 1940. Devyataev was an early entrant of World War II, destroying his first Ju 87 on 24 June 1941, just two days after Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Soon he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. On 23 September he was seriously wounded (he was hit in his left leg). After a long stay in the hospital he was assigned to Po-2 unit and then to medical aviation. He resumed his duties as a fighter pilot after his meeting with the famous Soviet ace Aleksandr Pokryshkin in May 1944. Commander of an echelon with the 104th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, Senior Lieutenant Devyatayev destroyed nine enemy planes. Capture and imprisonment