1. Nelson's father Gevorg Stepanyan was originally from Yerevan, and lived in a house on what is Yekmalyan street in Yerevan.
16 Facts About Nelson Stepanyan
1. 2.
Nelson Stepanyan continued his studies at the Bataysk Military Aviation School, where he graduated in 1935 and became a flight instructor at the school from then until 1938.
3.
Nelson Stepanyan was teaching at another military flight academy when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941.
4.
Nelson Stepanyan volunteered for combat and participated in a number of battles as a pilot of an Ilyushin Il-2 fighter bomber.
5.
Nelson Stepanyan took part in defensive battles at Poltava, Zaporozhye, Odessa, Kakhovka, and Mykolaiv.
6.
Nelson Stepanyan defended the skies over Leningrad while he as a pilot in the 2nd Aviation Squadron, part of the 57th Regiment in the Baltic Fleet's 8th Aviation Brigade.
7.
Nelson Stepanyan was shot down over enemy lines, although friendly partisans aided him to reach back Soviet lines.
8.
Nelson Stepanyan had personally sunk three landing barges in one of his first combat missions.
9.
Nelson Stepanyan's plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire and though wounded, he dove his plane into a fleet of German ships.
10.
Nelson Stepanyan died along with navigator of the 47th Regiment, Captain Aleksandr Rumiantsev.
11.
Nelson Stepanyan's loss devastated the rest of the men in the squadron.
12.
We all wept when Nelson Stepanyan Gevorgovich failed to return on that fateful day.
13.
Nelson Stepanyan was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title a second time posthumously for his sacrifice.
14.
Soviet sources assert that Nelson Stepanyan undertook no less than 239 combat sorties, sunk 53 ships thirteen of which he did alone, destroyed 80 tanks, 600 armored vehicles, and 27 aircraft.
15.
On 8 May 2011, the eve of the 66th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, Nelson Stepanyan was included on a monument in Ulyanovsk dedicated to pilots who were Heroes of the Soviet Union.
16.
Nelson Stepanyan has streets named after him in Sevastopol and Feodosiya and schools named after him in Yerevan and Kirovabad.