Stepan Kretov


Stepan Ivanovich Kretov was a Soviet World War II bomber pilot who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Biography

Kretov was born into a peasant family in Malaya Nichka in the Russian SFSR. After completing middle school in Minusinsk, he trained at an agricultural college in Kansk. From 1939-1940, Kretov completed primary airforce training at Balashov Air School.
During World War II, Kretov served in long-range bomber units, flying his first combat mission in June 1941. By the beginning of 1944, captain Kretov's citation for the title of Hero of Soviet Union listed 336 combat missions, 60 enemy airplanes destroyed on the ground and 10 in the air. On eight occasions, Kretov bailed out from damaged airplanes, including ditching into Azov Sea after a raid on Kerch in December 1943. He flew his last mission of that war over Berlin on May 2, 1945.
After postgraduate military education from 1950-1958 Kretov transferred to emerging Strategic Rocket Forces; he trained cadets in Rostov and Moscow military colleges until his retirement in 1974. He was buried at Vvedenskoye Cemetery in Moscow.

Awards and honors