by journalists and historians ever since. The regiment's official logs, locked away in Soviet archives, indeed record Gastello's flight as only including two aircraft, his and Lt. Vorobiev's. Few reasons exist to doubt Lt. Vorobiev's actual report: he could gain nothing from it personally, and indeed perished in battle just a few days later. The official log, however, does list a single unidentified crew member as bailing out from Gastello's plane. Supporters of the official version of events also doubt the accuracy of the 1951 reburial story, as an aircraft that dives into the ground and explodes in a fireball is unlikely to include entire bodies with intact parachutes they can be wrapped in. If such bodies were indeed located and buried, it is not surprising they would be from a crew other than Gastello's. Both sides however agree that, whoever it was that exploded amidst German tanks on June 26, 1941, the pilot's motivation will never be truly known. No radio transmissions were received from the aircraft, as it was most unlikely that it had a radio, and it is impossible to know if the ramming of the German column was deliberate or accidental. The publicity led to President Boris Yeltsin awarding Captain Maslov the Hero of Russia in 1996. On the other hand, First Lieutenant Isaac Presaizen was never awarded a Hero for the confirmed hit to this day. See also Aerial ramming References External links Biography – in Russian Sources Bio at airwar.ru (in Russian) Nikolai Gastello from the Legends and Facts series (in Russian) Legends of World War II (in Russian) Presaizen Isaac Zilovich at airwar.ru (in Russian) Word of the disabled veteran – Слово инвалида войны. №9, 1994, page 36. (Israel) 1908 births 1941 deaths Russian aviators Soviet World War II bomber pilots Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents Heroes of the Soviet Union Soviet military personnel killed in World War II Soviet Air Force officers Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the Soviet Union Russian people of Belarusian descent Pilots who performed an aerial ramming Soviet aviators