Pavel Agafonov
Pavel Agafonov aka (Ahmed Amba)
was born in 1907. His skin was dark so he took war name that sounded Turkish. He was an expert military pilot (ACE) fighting in Spain during Republican war 20.10.1936 - 07.04.1937. He shot 8 airplanes. He was under command of Pavel Rychagov flying Russian I-15 airplane. The name of the military unit was Escuadrilla "PALANCAR". That was the war of republicans against fascists.
In one of the fights in 1936 he was wounded. After recovery he was fighting again. He was rewarded with two orders of the red banner for operation in Spain. Orders of the Red Banner were the highest award one could get at the time in the Soviet Uniton.
They were given to Pavel Agafonov for heroism in combat or otherwise extraordinary accomplishments of military valour during combat operations. He was promoted to a commander of 97 aviation division during WW2