 Complete the following phrase:  Growing up, his son Pavel nearly drowned three times, the first time when he was six, in the river , and a second time while travelling to school in by boat across a semi-frozen river. He declined to talk about the third time, but concluded that he was not destined to die by water, later carrying a handkerchief embroidered by his mother in his pocket as a talisman when he flew in action. He attended the pedagogical college in the nearby settlement of Sapozhok, graduating in 1940 with the specialty of a teacher in Russian language and literature. He joined the Soviet Navy in September that year, and was initially posted to Leningrad as an anti-aircraft battery gunner with the coastal defence forces. He served during the first years of the 