Her rear gunner, Nikolay Pavlik, damaged two Me 109s with his upper turret machine gun, while one Me 109 happened to fly across Zelenko s nose and she gave it a long burst with her machine guns into its belly - the Me 109 flamed and went down. During the ensuing fight both Zelenko and Pavlik were wounded, their aircraft became riddled with bullet holes, and eventually they ran out of ammunition. With her Su-2 smoking badly, Zelenko ordered Pavlik to jump. Reluctantly, he bailed out. After which Zelenko deliberately performed Taran - ramming another Me chopping its tail off with her propeller. The German pilot bailed out, but Zelenko's wounds prevented her from getting out of her crippled bomber in time. Both aircraft crashed outside the village of Glinskoye. Pavlik, the wounded rear gunner, helped villagers pull Zelenko s body from the wreckage, wrapped it in her parachute, and hurriedly buried her. German troops took the village that day, and occupied it for the next three years. In spite of this the local schoolteacher, Anastasiya Marchenko, hid Zelenko s burial site and her identification papers. Due to the chaos of the war, and the Soviet Government s bureaucracy, it took many years to compile eyewitness reports regarding Zelenko s demise in combat, and the actual recovery of her documents. Finally, in 1990, she was at last posthumously awarded the GSS.
{"Image DocumentName": "Her rear gunner, Nikolay Pavlik, damaged two Me 109s with his upper turret machine gun, while one Me 109 happened to fly across Zelenko s nose and she gave it a long burst with her machine guns into its belly - the Me 109 flamed and went down. During the ensuing fight both Zelenko and Pavlik were wounded, their aircraft became riddled with bullet holes, and eventually they ran out of ammunition. With her Su-2 smoking badly, Zelenko ordered Pavlik to jump. Reluctantly, he bailed out. After which Zelenko deliberately performed Taran - ramming another Me chopping its tail off with her propeller. The German pilot bailed out, but Zelenko\u2019s wounds prevented her from getting out of her crippled bomber in time. Both aircraft crashed outside the village of Glinskoye. Pavlik, the wounded rear gunner, helped villagers pull Zelenko s body from the wreckage, wrapped it in her parachute, and hurriedly buried her. German troops took the village that day, and occupied it for the next three years. In spite of this the local schoolteacher, Anastasiya Marchenko, hid Zelenko s burial site and her identification papers. Due to the chaos of the war, and the Soviet Government s bureaucracy, it took many years to compile eyewitness reports regarding Zelenko s demise in combat, and the actual recovery of her documents. Finally, in 1990, she was at last posthumously awarded the GSS.", "Image ImageDescription": "Me 109 hammering. on Zelenko\u2019s Su-2.", "Image XResolution": "37", "Image YResolution": "37", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Centimeter", "Image Software": "SlidePlayer", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered"}