Ivan Kozhedub - Allied Ace of Aces and His First Victories 

Like several future aces Kozhedub had a shaky start in combat. Lucky to make it down alive after being hit early on and not scoring a kill until Kursk months later. Also making risky head-to-head attacks on ME109s and emerging victorious more than once. To survive as a Red Air Force frontline fighter pilot from 1942 until the war's end was quite an achievement - as was his 62 kills.

An interesting thing I read in one of his interviews was that he would often sit in his former La-7 white 27 (preserved in a museum) decades after the war - just to get that boyhood thrill and exhilaration of flying again.

Great video about person who was born to fly! I am proud we share common motherland.

Yet another masterpiece of a story brought to us by showtime. Well done, i really liked this one

as a german..... i really neverver heard of him, which is quite sad. Thx for telling this story, and R.I.P. sir

I've heard of Kozhedub's name, but I never knew any details of him, particularly his early career. Thanks for yet another excellent episode. It's also very nice to see Il-2 game footage again. Used to play it almost 20 years ago, but sadly not anymore.

A video of Alexander Pokryshkin would be awesome since that guy was a beast!!

Thank you again for one more excellent video. These men and women who fought against the evil must not be forgotten. Again, excellent video.

Thanks once again for an interesting video about a little known facet of aviation history. Much enjoyed.

Excellent content and production applied to an overlooked subject. The black and white newsreel effect at the start, along with the patriotic accordion music, are masterful.

10:20 this is a head on dogfight... where only the bravest will survive..

Great video and I really like the intro! Not the fan of ads, but congratulations on sponsorship! 👍🏻👏🏻💪🏻🍻🍻🙋🏼‍♂️

Nice video 👍

Great job! Now we need video about Pokryshkin

2nd.....was at work😢

❤ Another awesome video! Loved it

Great storytelling. And good to see that ST112 is finally getting found by sponsors. Hope this will enable to channel to stay "in the air" (pun intened)

Excellent idea for speaking about a russian ace during world war II. They have been forgotten by Western military story which have forgotten Pat Paddle, the Commonwealth ace, or the first western allied pilot with 51 aerial victories. In the Eastern front, there were a lot of planes, and the battles were huge, gigantic, so you were more able to score more easily. There's Alexandre Pokrychkine, an other ace russian pilot who has 65 victories but not all was confirmed and some was gained by cooperation. So officially Kozhedub is the ace of the aces of the allied camp.

The ambient of the video is superb!

USSR aces are the rarely mention in the Western historian.

Love the historical videos. All of these pilots and crews bear remembering.

An interesting story. Thanks for share it

I was not familiar with him. Thanks !

I'm continuing to watch Showtime 112

Wonderful! Lots of stuff I didn't know.

Excellent job 👏

Not someone I know much about, always interesting to see.

He earned his stripes through the rise of soviet union as a super power, and he died with it as well... such a poetic fate... as the Romans had a saying... there is no greater glory for a man, than to die defending the ashes of his forefathers, and the temples of his gods.

Excellent work by Showtime 112! We can always expect the unexpected in these presentation. Aviational history kept alive as a blast from the past. ♠️🎩🎯🎱🇺🇸🏁🇮🇱🇺🇦🔱🌻🏵️💮🌸🌼🏴‍☠️🏹

One thing very rarely explained is that one should be careful to compare apples and pears ! 🤔 Russia, like France, Italy, Romania ... kept the same scoring system from the First World War where one shared victory was counted as a full victory ! Kozhedub score, though undoubtedly great... includes full as well as shared victories all mixed in one bag with no distinction.

Hola. Muchas gracias. Extraordinario video. Muy bueno. Gracias

Alright I just got off of double secret probation and can post on RU-vid once again. This Bolshevik pilot was actually lucky to have survived the war flying La5 and the previous Lag3, although by late in the war the Soviets had far more aircraft in the air then the Jerry's

Hey Showtime, I just got word the Panther hit DCS. You know what time it is. :)

Amazing content as usaul, happy u got that sponsor 🎉 id like to recomand an interesting incounter when p2v neptune downed a russian mig15 during the korean war

Nice work very interesting

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Another wonderful song for the soundtrack. And he didn't pick one of the top 10 so to speak songs. Nice.

Thank you for a not well know russian top ace. His friend was Alexandre Pokryshin, 59 kills. Best plane was La7 with powerful engine and 3x20mm Guns or 23mm

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I assume this video was made with the War Thunder combat sim - or is it some other combat sim?

Did you have an idea to visualize the events of May 13, 2023 over the Bryansk region of Russia? Let me remind you that 2 planes and 2 helicopters (Ukraine claims 3 helicopters) were shot down almost in one moment. At that time, many versions were put forward, but even to me, a person far from aviation, it was obvious that it was a long-range SAM. The USA just handed over the Patriot air defense system to Ukraine, and it became clear what exactly they did. Moreover, a few weeks later they published a video where 2 airplanes and 3 helicopters with the date May 13 were painted on the Patriot. You can Google it, you saw the video, or a scan from the video of this moment. One Ukrainian aviation expert explained almost immediately after that what could have happened. The Russians once again flew to bomb the border regions of northern Ukraine. The Russians had the following tactics: Su-34 armed with Glide bomb, Su-35 covering it from Ukrainian fighters, two Mi-8MTPR-1 with the Rychag-AV electronic warfare system and one Mi-8 to evacuate possible downed pilots. From a high altitude, before reaching the border with Ukraine, the Su-34 launches a Glide bomb. A few days before that, the Patriot air defense system had shot down Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles over Kyiv. The Ukrainians probably secretly moved the Patriot air defense system to the border with Russia (somewhere in the Chernihiv region) and intercepted Russian planes and helicopters that regularly bombed Ukraine before that. The only thing that is unclear is the third helicopter. There are videos of 2 planes and 2 helicopters falling. There is even a video of the moment when a large missile hits a helicopter (why I immediately understood that it was a long-range anti-aircraft missile). And, of course, all the crash sites are clearly known (except for the third helicopter). Therefore, all information can be submitted with distances relative to the border and to each other. Of course, we do not know the exact location of the Patriot air defense system, and I think we will never know. Maybe you can, like a detective, recreate the whole picture of this day. I think the video could be very interesting. And no one in the world has done this before. Sorry for my bad English. I hope you understood what I wrote.

I love your videos , i think we need a Jalil Zandi video , the most successful pilot of the F-14 achieved 11 kills , being the most successful pilot in the Iran-Iraq war, greetings from Argentina 🇦🇷❤

The aircraft is called "Lavochkin five"

Kick ass pilot 🤘🤘.

I am sure he was a skilled and brave pilot. Given the difficulties with information gathering due in my war time, given occasional lapses in diligence in scorekeeping even among democracies with a free press, and the difference in scoring methodology, there’s little chance he was the top allied ace. Still, hardcore, lucky, brave and skilled. Undoubtedly one of the best allied pilots of the 2 WW.

What is super cooling if an engine? I can’t seem to find any info on it. Plenty on overheating but not on the opposite.

Often, you have the feeling that Soviet pilots, as Soviet tankers, were hastily trained and quickly shot down. It's obviously wrong.

War Thunder? I thought it might have been made using IL-2 Great Battles but it’s not.

The USAF has revised its kill counts occasionally over time, there was just a revision published last year of one pilot if memory serves. I don’t know if I’m actually in favor of it unless some indisputable evidence comes mea forward as witnesses and other evidence is long gone. I completely understand the reasons a country might deliberately inflate a kill count, or like in the case I think of great Britain during the blitz, not rigorously investigate every shoot down claim. But I think we need to take the Soviet unions WW2 kill claims with a grain of salt. How large a grain of salt can be debated. I think mine might be a little bit larger than yours, but you’re probably better informed. Watch the 1950s edition of the movie Stalingrad to see the lengths the Soviets were willing to go to to manage “history.” But to be very clear, I am taking nothing away from the dedication to bravery, the hard work, and the skill of the individual in question.

he died with his country

I distrust the claims of a Soviet pilot in the same way that I the Soviet claims about who committed the Katyn Forest Massacre.

62 actual or 62 claimed but not verified?

Ukrainian and Allied? Lol Quite laughable how the author avoids words "soviet" or "red army" in the title. :) Afraid to be ashamed? Kozhdub was Ukrainian by ethicity, soviet citizen, flew for Red Army Air Force and yes, he was a pilot of antihitler coalition till the end of the war. As a Soviet pilot he then was on the other side of course.

There are no books about Kozhedub because it's still impossible to realistically verify russian combat reports. It's not that that they're not coherent with german reports. It would be understandable. The problem is, that russian squadron reports don't match russian regiments reports. Russian regiments reports don't match russian division and corps reports, and so on... Add german reports to it, and you become a mess that no serious historian can decipher. Most literature is either pure propaganda and are written without any reality consideration, or totally opposite: Written to discredit famous ace. Neither of them are good.

How ironic that the leading Soviet Ace was Ukrainian.

Just a reminder. The Soviets were co-belligerent not allies of the west

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