After a year of studying the Russian and French archives and collecting the evidences of witnesses, Pierre Malinowski has found the first plane of the "Escadron de Chasse Normandie-Niemen" (model YAK-1).

This is a symbol of the friendship between Russia and France against Nazi invaders. The plane was located on the bottom of the pond at a depth of 10 meters not far from Elnya. Probably it belonged to a French pilot Jean de Sibours, who had disappeared in 1943.