World never used it in public. he uudlly or one of his sons during ace german-occupied fighter over soviet supported on one side by an aide maresuev 2001) was a war ii. his airplane was shot down in russia in april 1942. he was badly wounded and could not but managed to return to soviet-controlled territory on his own. it took him 18 days of creeping through forests to reach safety. both of his legs were amputated below the knee, but he wanted to return to his fighter pilot career. for a whole year he exercised hard to walk on prosthetic legs and was able to return to combat in june 1943. in total, he completed 86 combat flights and shot down 11 german warplanes. when interviewed marevuev always stressed there was nothing extraordinary in what he did. i'm a man, not a hero, 'he said. he was a very modest man