Ivan Babak, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Ivan Babak

Date of Birth: 26-Jul-1919

Place of Birth: Oleksiivka, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine

Date of Death: 24-Jun-2001

Profession: military personnel

Zodiac Sign: Leo

Ivan Ilyich Babak (Ukrainian: ???? ????? ?????, Russian: ???´? ????´? ????´?; 26 July 1919–24 June 2001) was a Ukrainian Soviet Air Forces captain, flying ace, and a Hero of the Soviet Union.
A schoolteacher, Babak joined the Red Army before Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, began, and completed pilot training in 1942, after which he flew the Yakovlev Yak-1 and later the Bell P-39 Airacobra.
He distinguished himself in the air battles over the Kuban bridgehead in April 1943 and was credited with eighteen aerial victories when he received the title Hero of the Soviet Union on 1 November, after spending the northern hemisphere summer in the hospital due to malaria.
Babak briefly returned to combat but was again sidelined by a recurrence of malaria, going back into combat in mid-1944.
In mid-March 1945 Babak took command of the 16th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment but was downed by anti-aircraft fire and captured days later.
He survived captivity and was released at the end of the war, but as a result of being captured, he was not awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title a second time.
Credited with 37 aerial victories in official Soviet accounts, Babak commanded a regiment postwar and retired in 1949, after which he returned to teaching.