Chaim Mamistvalov was born in 1922 to a family of Georgian Jews. In the 1930s he lived in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. There he was drafted into the Red Army in 1940 and sent to a school for pilots, from which he graduated with the rank of second lieutenant.
In December 1943 Mamistvalov was assigned to the 59th Guards Regiment of Attack Aircraft. In January-June 1944 his regiment took part in the Red Army offensive in Belorussia. In August of that year, the regiment was transferred to Poland, and in February 1945 – to northeastern Germany (Pomerania and the Küstrin bridgehead).
Low flying attacks against ground targets are the most dangerous kind of aircraft operation, and the pilots of such planes usually do not live long. Mamistvalov carried out no fewer than 68 successful sorties in an Iliushin-2. He was wounded only once – in August 1944 over Poland.
The pilot Mamistvalov was awarded three military orders. He earned his first order, that of Glory, 3rd Class, in June 1944, for his missions in the area south of Minsk. His second order, that of the Red Banner, was awarded in recognition of his destruction of a considerable amount of enemy military equipment (tanks, trucks, etc.) at Radzymin – north of Warsaw. His last order, again that of the Red Banner, was awarded for his part in the Küstrin operation, in April 1945.
