Radar, despite having been invented in 1935, was not yet sufficiently developed during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
So locating and shooting down a plane in the dark seemed an impossible task.
However, on the night of July 25 to 26, 1937, the stars combined: a full moon and two Soviet planes waiting for a Junkers Ju-52 of the Condor legion to pass, as every day, at the same time and by the same point.
As soon as they made out the moonlit silhouette in the tail, the Russian fighters directly machine-gunned its fuel tank, the most vulnerable area of the twin-engine as it was not armored.
It fell engulfed in flames.
It is the first documented demolition of a Nazi plane at night in the world and the second known in history, since another one was recorded in 1918 during World War I.
But where did the Junkers collapse?
Now, 85 years later, the archaeologists Jorge Morín and Luis Antonio Ruiz Casero make it public in their report
Archaeological intervention in the set of forts from the Civil War, Laderón de los Peñatos.
Navalaespino (Santa Maria de la Alameda, Madrid)
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Specialists have also found remains of the fuselage, coins and bullets.
"A milestone in the history of aviation," they explain.
More information
The loot of art lost in the Civil War
The General Directorate of Heritage of the Community of Madrid commissioned the consultant Audema to investigate the so-called Zorrerón-Cerro Pelado Position (Santa María de La Alameda), a prominent point north of the front of the battle of Brunete.
At the end of July 1937, this bloody confrontation was taking place, which had entered its final phase, unfavorable to the Republicans.
The Francoists had displaced their German allies from the Condor legion to the theater of operations, which tipped the balance of air superiority on their part.
The bombardments of the rebellious aviation were incessant, extending during the nights, for which reason, at the initiative of the head of the Air Forces of the Republic, Ignacio Hidalgo de Cisneros,
a night protection system was put in place to try to hinder the action of enemy bombers.
"In a time prior to the implementation of radar, shooting down a device in night combat was virtually impossible," the specialists say.
The Russian aviator Mikhail Yakushin, on the left, together with his mechanic José Alares, in the looted monolith in memory of the Junkers crew, in an undated image.
However, the Republicans had an ace up their sleeve.
They had noticed that, during consecutive nights, a German Junkers 22/76 (19 meters long) always flew over the sky of Santa María de la Alameda and at the same time.
He went every day to Alcalá de Henares and Colmenar Viejo, causing authentic massacres among the civilian population.
So, they decided to wait for the right moment.
Two Polikarpov I-15s, stationed at a makeshift airfield, would wait for him in the air.
The pilots Mijaíl Yakushin and Anatoli Serov were the authors of the demolition.
To achieve this, Serov remained at an altitude of 2,000 meters, while his companion ascended to 3,000, a level that allowed him to identify the arrival of the enemy aircraft in the distance by the flash of the engines.
Yakushin then positioned himself in front of the Junkers' right side and fired at his depot.
Immediately, the bomber was engulfed in flames.
The Nazi aircraft responded with a machine gun burst, but it was too late.
It went into a spin, crashed into a hill and exploded due to the large bomb load it was carrying.
One of the occupants of the aircraft bailed out, but the fabric caught fire during descent, and he died in the fall.
Of the other four crew members, only one survived.
Disoriented, he walked through the sierra until he was stopped by Republic troops.
Recreation of the Junkers 22.76 device shot down in Santa María de la Alameda. Audema
Upon returning to their base, the two Soviets were acclaimed by their unit mates and congratulated by telephone by the head of the Air Force, Hidalgo de Cisneros.
The press of the time gave great importance to the demolition and praised the combat.
The Prime Minister, Juan Negrín, presented them with gold watches and automobiles and promoted them to the rank of captain.
In 1977, former Republican commissioner Eugenio Rubio Zori, present at the time of the demolition, recalled that the commander of the Santa María post, Francisco Sebastián, and he himself were the ones who decided to illuminate the runway with "truck and car reflectors". to facilitate the takeoff and return of fighters
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At 10:32 p.m. they heard a gust in the sky, then the Junkers caught fire and collapsed after "a tremendous explosion."
"The large flares allowed us to see the pieces of the plane and three parachutes that fell to the ground engulfed in flames."
The pilot could not save his life, but a fourth crew member who was trapped when he fell to the ground did leave a letter.
Archaeological excavation of one of the surveillance posts of Santa María de la Alameda from which the downed Nazi plane was sighted. Audema
“He was a hungry German.
The Transmissions Section had to be contained, because some of them had lost relatives in Colmenar Viejo.
He didn't know anything, he kept asking about Salamanca, Salamanca [Franco zone].
I reply: 'Not Salamanca, you prisoner, prisoner of the Republic, look at emblems.
I, Commissioner of War;
this, Commander of the Republic [in reference to Francisco Sebastián].
The poor man began to cry.
From the first moment we had only compassion towards him.
The operation was mounted," Rubio concludes, "at the headquarters of the first Army Corps."
Piece of the Junkers fuselage shot down in Madrid. Audema
After the Civil War, the Nazi regime placed a tombstone in memory of its dead airmen.
However, its location did not correspond to the demolition site, but was raised on the side of the road that crosses the area so that it could be seen by motorists.
A few years ago, it was robbed.
However, with the data provided by Zori in his letter, plus the consultation of a report on what happened that is kept in the Military Archive of Ávila, and where the coordinates of the demolition were indicated by means of the so-called Lambert System (more imprecise than the current), the remains of the plane were located, according to Ruiz Casero.
During the research work on this part of the war front, orthophotos, four photogrammetric flights with drones were also carried out, a graphic and numerical support of the planimetry, altimetry and 3D models was designed.
And on the hill of La Cancha, just where the path of the Junker intersected with Yakushin's Polikaporv I-15, were the remains of the Nazi aircraft that had survived 85 years after its demolition.
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