Lyric1 kindly found me the info for this colourful Yak-3. It is the aircraft of Lt. Col. Anton Dmitryevich Yakimenko, who was from mid 1944 CO of 150 GIAP. Yakimenko first saw action in 1939 against the Japanese during the battle of Khalkin Gol, scoring 3 individual and 4 shared victories which earned him HSU status. 15 more individual victories were scored against the Axis forces in 244 combat sorties. Post-war he continued to serve in the VVS, rising to the rank of Lt. General. He retired in 1972 having flown a career 5680 hours on 36 different types of aircraft from biplane trainers to the Mig-21 supersonic fighter.
The red nose was used by 150 GIAP's "Metch" (Sword) hunting group of 13 hand picked pilots. It adorned their Yaks from just after Kursk until the end of the war.
There's a thread with a photo of the aircraft
here at the Soviet Warplanes Forum.
