Pokryshkin started the war flying the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 fighter, in which he scored almost twenty victories. The unit was given the honor "16th Guards Fighter Regiment" in March 1942. At this time or soon after, the unit received some Yak-1s, in which Pokryshkin also scored victories, but which are neither identified, nor illustrated, in any known way. In January 1943, his regiment converted to Lend-Lease Bell P-39 Airacobras. Soviet pilots liked this aircraft, and found it quite competitive with the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and superior to the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 at the low air combat altitudes common on the Eastern Front. Pokryshkin enjoyed the 37 mm cannon's destructive firepower, as well as the two upper nose-mounted .50 caliber machine guns, synchronized to fire through the propeller (airscrew), in addition to the pair of .30 caliber machine guns mounted in each wing. He claimed that the cannon's trigger, positioned at the top of the joystick, was impossible to push without moving the pilot's hand, which made the aircraft deviate from the gunsight, so finally he had his regiment's aircraft rigged so that a single button simultaneously fired cannon and machine guns. In his memoirs he describes many enemy aircraft immediately disintegrating upon being hit by a salvo. Pokryshkin and his regiment were repeatedly asked to convert to new Soviet fighters such as the La-5 and Yak-3. However, Pokryshkin found the Yak-3's firepower insufficient, and personally disliked Yakovlev, so the squadron remained with the P-39.