The 159th Tallinn Red Banner Fighter Aviation Regiment () was a fighter regiment of the Soviet Air Force during World War II and the Cold War.
Formation and World War II
The 159th Fighter Aviation Regiment was formed between 24 September and 20 November 1940 at the Grivochki airfield in Dnovsky District, part of the Air Forces of the Leningrad Military District. Under the command of Major Ivan Voronin, the regiment included four squadrons, organized according to shtat (table of organization and equipment) 15/21. The regiment was formed from pilots of the 44th and 49th Fighter Aviation Regiments and the 161st Reserve Aviation Regiment, equipped with the Polikarpov I-16, in accordance with a directive dated 25 June 1940 expanding the air force. The pilots of the regiment began retraining on the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 in December, handing over their I-16s to the 158th Fighter Aviation Regiment (IAP) in January 1941. The regiment received 60 MiG-3s between 5 February and 25 May, and was assigned to the 5th Mixed Aviation Division of the district air forces on 31 May.
When Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941, the regiment entered combat with the division, as the district air forces became the Air Forces of the Northern Front. Three days later, Lieutenant A. G. Shevtsov claimed the regiment's first victory, a Heinkel He 111 bomber downed in air battle in the Novgorod area. With the 5th Mixed Aviation Division, the regiment flew 450 combat sorties with the loss of thirteen aircraft and three pilots. On 14 July the regiment was transferred to the 39th Fighter Aviation Division (IAD) of the Air Forces of the Northern Front. It was reorganized according to shtat 015/134 in August, and during that month Major Konstantin Sokol took command. When the Northern Front was split on 24 August the regiment, with the 39th IAD, became part of the Air Forces of the Leningrad Front. With the 39th IAD, the regiment flew 2,653 combat sorties with the loss of 42 aircraft and fifteen pilots.
Having lost 47 MiG-3s, the regiment handed over its remaining aircraft to other regiments and was sent to the rear for rebuilding with 27th Reserve IAP at Kadnikov on 20 September. The regiment was selected to be retrained on the American P-40 Tomahawk fighter and reorganized according to shtat 015/174 between 1 and 13 December. The pilots of the regiment departed for the Leningrad Front on 13 December and on 31 December the regiment fielded twenty Tomahawks, of which two were non-operational. The regiment reentered combat as part of the Air Forces of the front's 8th Army on 28 February 1942.
During 1942, the regiment received Kittyhawk fighters as replacements, losing nineteen Tomahawks and fifteen Kittyhawks while it operated the American aircraft. In November 1942 Major Ilya Kirpichnikov became regimental commander. With the Air Forces of the 8th Army, the regiment flew 1,323 combat sorties with the loss of 26 aircraft and seven pilots. On 2 December the regiment was transferred to the 275th IAD of the front's 13th Air Army. The pilots of the regiment were sent to the 2nd Reserve IAP at Seyma to retrain on the Lavochkin La-5 on 14 December. The regiment was reorganized according to shtat 015/284 between 1 and 20 February. Sokol returned to command the regiment in March. The 159th IAP resumed combat operations with the 275th IAD on 18 March. On 29 June Sokol was replaced by flying ace and Hero of the Soviet Union Major Pyotr Pokryshev. Pokryshev received a rare second Hero of the Soviet Union award but on 24 August suffered serious injuries that took him out of flying combat missions in the crash of a UTI-4 trainer.