Customs officers laid flowers at a monument to pilot heroes who died during the Great Patriotic War near the village of Kosmachi, Kaluga Region, where a Pe-2 crew perished. Source: Central Excise Customs (CAT).
In October 1941 a German column was advancing on Kaluga along the Vyazma–Kaluga highway. Two Soviet aircraft were flying from the direction of Muramtsevo. One was hit by enemy artillery and caught fire. Witnesses said that as the burning plane levelled with the road, the crew steered it at enemy vehicles on the highway. The explosion destroyed the column. The crash site became the pilots’ grave; a memorial was later erected there.
The ramming attack was carried out by Junior Lieutenants Vladimir Denisov and Iosif Kravtsov and Sergeant Nikolai Grishin.