The front-line fate of the author of this book is amazing and unique. During the war years, pilot Konstantin Mikhalenko made 997 confirmed combat missions and still survived! Moreover, in flight it was not protected by the armor of the Il-2, nor by the Yakov and Lavochkin air cannons - only by the wood and percale of the open cockpit of the Po-2, that same “heavenly slow-moving vehicle,” an unpretentious peacetime worker, who became a night warrior during the menacing years of the war. bomber. Think about it! Almost 1000 times the young graduate of the Kharkov Military Aviation School had to fly through the deadly tracks of anti-aircraft machine guns and shell explosions, under the blinding rays of searchlights, at a minimum altitude and without the ability to open a parachute if a terrible blow split his “flying whatnot.” Po-2 pilots flew day and night for reconnaissance and bombing of the enemy, transporting ammunition to their troops and evacuating the wounded. Our soldiers jokingly called the Po-2 plane a “corn mill,” the Germans called it a “coffee mill” and “Russfaner.” But the contribution made to our Victory by this small plane and its fearless pilots is enormous. It is not for nothing that the Motherland appreciated the merits of many of them, including the author of these memoirs, with the highest award - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.