Operation Barbarosa-The Air War

8/17/2019 Operation Barbarosa-The Air War

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Operation Barbarossa The War in the East

In his 1925 manifesto Mein

Kampf , Adolf Hitler outlined

his desire to conquer Soviet

territory. The idea was to create

‘lebensraum’, living room for future

generations of Germans.

Operation Barbarossa, the

codename for Nazi Germany’s

invasion of Russia, began on June

Operation

22, 1941. Despite the fact that the

two nations had earlier signed

a pact of non-aggression for

strategic reasons, Hitler authorised

war on Russia in December 1940,

partly redirecting his forces from

other areas of the global conflict.

German attacks were initially

very successful, quickly defeating

Below

Yakovlev Yak-3M ZK-VVS has been flying in New Zealand for around four years. Previously

registered in the US as N74FT it was damaged in a take-off accident at Reno in 1999, and was

extensively rebuilt for its new owner in New Zealand. It flew again on March 26, 2012.

GAVIN CONROY


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June 2016 FLYPAST 43

GERMANY INVADES

opposition and occupying large

areas of economic importance –

though at great cost to life for both

sides. The invaders were pushed

back on the outskirts of Moscow

and then entered a war of attrition

for which they were not prepared.

Realising that supplies were

becoming depleted, Hitler aimed

to capture Soviet-held oil fields in

1942 and although they once again

achieved significant gains, the

subsequent siege of Stalingrad was

a military disaster for Germany.

Axis superiority on the Eastern

Front went into sharp decline,

ending in the final defeat and

occupation of Germany in May 1945.

It would take more than an entire

magazine to address all aspects of

this vast campaign, but over the

following 20 pages we highlight

various aspects of the air war

over Russia. We examine German

attempts to strike at its enemy

from above, the determined

Russian response

and reflect on the RAF’s decision

to hand its Bell P-39 Airacobras to

the Soviets – who embraced the

previously maligned

fighter.

THE START OF A CAMPAIGN THAT CHANGED THE

COURSE OF WORLD WAR TWO

“WE STOP THE ENDLESS GERMAN MOVEMENT TO THE SOUTH AND WEST, AND TURN OUR

GAZE TOWARD THE LAND IN THE EAST...”

ADOLF HITLER


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“All we have to do is kick in

the door and the whole

rotten structure will

come crashing down.” That was

Adolf Hitler’s rationale for Operation

Barbarossa, the codeword given to

the invasion of Germany’s former

ally, the Soviet Union.

At dawn on Sunday June 22, 1941

the Nazi campaign opened with a

massive onslaught against Soviet air

bases amid total surprise. The first

priority was to gain air superiority,

which was a vital precondition for a

successful ‘Blitzkrieg’.

Max-Hellmuth Ostermann, a

Leutnant (Lt) of 7/JG 54 – the

seventh staffel of Jagdgeshwader

(fighter wing) 54 – wrote: “As we

flew above the enemy’s country,

everything below seemed to be

asleep. No anti-aircraft fire, no

movement, and no enemy aircraft

were present to confront us.”

The attack caught the Soviet

air force when it was most

vulnerable, in the midst of a gigantic

modernisation programme. Older

types – the Polikarpov I-16 fighter

and I-153 assault biplane and the

Tupolev SB bomber – were being

replaced. As the Germans struck,

the airfields

in the western border areas were

littered with thousands of aircraft,

outgoing older types and large

numbers of newly arrived modern

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3s, Lavochkin

LaGG-3s and Yakovlev Yak-1s,

Ilyushin Il-2 ‘Shturmovik’ ground-

attackers and Petlyakov Pe-2

bombers.

Terrible devastation was inflicted.

Rows of aircraft went up in flames.

Fyodor Arkhipenko, a Soviet junior

lieutenant in a fighter regiment

at Lyublynets near Kovel in the

northwestern Ukraine recalled:

“That day I will remember to the end

of my life. Beginning at 03:25 in the

morning, around 50 German planes

bombed our field, coming back four

times. Only myself

and

the duty pilot, my squadron leader,

Ibragimov, and the guards, the

security forces, were there. Because

it was Sunday, the rest had been

allowed to go home on leave.

“You can imagine the kinds of

horrors that took place at the

airfield. Then, by afternoon, the

pilots and ground crews started

arriving [back]. Many of them, their

hair had turned white. And some of

them had even begun to stutter from

fear after experiencing that kind of

bombing.”

DOUBLE CHECKEDWhen the Germans attacked,

the Soviets had nearly

6,000 aircraft in the

military districts

of the western


Kicking in

HITLER WAS CONFIDENT OF VICTORY AS HE UNLEASHED OPERATION BARBAROSSA.

CHRISTER BERGSTRÖM DESCRIBES HOW THE SOVIET UNION PROVED HIM WRONG


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territories, a convincing numerical

supremacy over the Axis forces

which had mustered 4,500 aircraft.

On the initial day of Barbarossa,

the Germans reported 1,489 Soviet

aircraft destroyed on the ground.

The German claims appear

incredible and were even doubted

by the Luftwaffe’s commander-in-

chief, Reichsmarschall Hermann

Göring, who had them secretly

checked: German war

correspondent Karl

Schmidt (also known as

Paul Carell, wrote: “For

days on end officers

from [Göring’s]

command staff picked their way

about the airfields overrun by

the German advance, counting

the burnt-out wrecks of Russian

planes. The result was even more

astonishing: their tally exceeded

2,000.”

As the German panzer (tank)

columns rumbled eastwards, the

air above them was dominated by

the Luftwaffe. Total chaos reigned

on the Soviet side.

The Luftwaffe kept up

the assault on the Soviet

airfields.

Burning

fuel stores

deprived the air

units of the

possibility

of intervening against the German

armour. During the first three

days, 3,922 Soviet aircraft were

destroyed – according to the

USSR’s own assessment. The vast

majority of these were lost on the

ground.

Whenever the Soviets managed

to get into the air, they offered

a frantic resistance. Throughout

June 22, 1941 bitter air combat

raged all across the front. This

cost the invaders almost 90

aircraft – nearly twice the number

of Luftwaffe aircraft that were

shot down on the famous

‘Battle of Britain Day’ on

September 15, 1940.

The Germans were

utterly shocked at the

never-ceasing opposition

they faced from Day One. A typical

account read: “What has become

of the Russian of 1914-1917 who ran

away or approached us with his

hands in the air when the firestorm

reached its peak? Now he remains

in his bunker and forces us to burn

him out, he prefers to be scorched

in his tank, and his airmen continue

firing at us even when their own

aircraft is set ablaze. What has

become of the Russian? Ideology

has changed him.”

QUALITATIVESUPERIORITYFor all the dogged opposition of

the Soviets, the Germans enjoyed

a qualitative superiority.

GERMANY INVADES


German ‘ace’, Max-Helmuth Ostermann leans out of his Messerschmitt Bf 109F, coded ‘White 2’.Ostermann, who was finally credited with 102 victories from 300 combats, was killed in 1942 after

a combat with Soviet fighters. VIA AUTHOR

Russian opposition in the opening stages of Barbarossa was typified by the Polikarpov I-152

which, though manoeuvrable, was little match for the more modern aircraft of the Luftwaffe. KEY

Small, agile and highly robust, the Polikarpov I-16 – commonly nicknamed ‘Rata’ – proved its

worth in the skies during the air war, and later on in the conflict. KEY


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The Luftwaffe had been founded

six years earlier on a basis of

innovation by a new generation

of air force officers, free from the

bonds of tradition that held many

other air forces down. A large fleet

of dive-bombers, modern fighter

tactics and an emphasis on tactical

co-operation with the armoured

units on the ground placed

Göring’s Luftwaffe in a position ofexcellence.

In 1941, no air arm had more

modern equipment than the

Luftwaffe. Its latest bomber type,

the Junkers Ju 88, had a top speed

of 310mph (500km/h) and was

capable of out-running the main

Soviet fighter of the time, the I-16.

At 10,000ft (3,000m) – where

most air combats took place on

the Eastern Front – the I-16 had a

top speed of 304mph, while the

Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4 could

reach 346mph. The heavy losses

during the first days meant that

Soviet airmen had to fly mainly

obsolete types for the remainder

of 1941.

In most cases Luftwaffe airmen

were seasoned veterans with muchcombat experience, while Soviet

flight schools had cut down on the

training scheme in order to meet

Stalin’s requirement to expand the

air force massively in a short space

of time.

German tactics were more

advanced. Luftwaffe fighter

pilots flew in two-aircraft ‘Rotte’

(‘hunting pack’) formations; far

superior to the three-ship ‘vees’

which the Soviets stuck to.

In consequence, most aerial

combats on the Eastern Front

were uneven. Although the

Soviets managed to inflict heavy

losses on their opponents, it cost

them dearly. According to Soviet

records, the fighting on June

22 resulted in no less than 336

Russian aircraft being shot down.

STEEL MONSTERSWhen the Axis forces struck on

Day One they enjoyed a two-fold

numerical superiority in troops: 4.5

million against 2.3 million on the

Soviet side. But the Red Army had

a higher degree of mechanization:

against 7,184 artillery pieces and

3,648 tanks and assault guns,

the Soviets had 12,800 tanks and

46,630 artillery pieces and heavy

mortars.

Half the Soviet tanks were

T-26s, a version of the British-

designed Vickers light infantry

tank – considerably inferior to most

German panzers and vulnerable to

even 20mm cannons.

But the Soviets had two nasty

surprises for the Germans – the

brand new T-34 medium tank,

far surpassing anything the

Wehrmacht had, and the world’s

best heavy tank, the KV (Kliment

The MiG-3 was the first of the newgeneration of modern Soviet aircraft to reach combat units in large numbers.YURIY RYBIN

Soviet losses were heavy during the campaign. A damaged Poilkarpov I-16 sits on an airfield.VIA AUTHOR

The Messerschmitt Bf 109F-4 was theLuftwaffe’s best fighter at the time of the invasion of the Soviet Union. VIA GÜNTHERROSIPAL


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GERMANY INVADES

Voroshilov). Both of these were

practically invulnerable to most

German anti-tank guns.

Over 800 T-34s and nearly 500

KVs were in service with the Red

Army frontal units in late June

1941. This force constituted adeadly threat to Barbarossa.

A German account describes one

of the first encounters with these

steel monsters: “In a fantastic

exchange of fire, the Russian tanks

continued their advance while our

anti-tank shells simply bounced off

them.”

Had it not been for the Luftwaffe,

the Wehrmacht would have been

in deep trouble. Luftwaffe 88mm

‘flak’ guns proved to be the most

effective weapon against Soviet

tanks. With scores of Germanaircraft attacking the Soviet

rear areas, T-34 and KV units

became stranded without fuel or

ammunition.

HOWLINGHAILSTORMHaving wiped out the threat from

the Red Air Force, the Luftwaffeconcentrated on supplying tactical

air support to the advancing

ground forces. A Soviet eye witness

described the effect: “These

massive air attacks were absolutely

terrible. People went mad out

of fear. One had the feeling that

every bomb was directed against

yourself.

“We saw this whole armada float

in the sky, high above, and then

it came down against us, with all

of them howling, and dropped a

hailstorm of bombs. I rememberNekrasov, how he had almost gone

crazy. When the attack was over,

he was gone. Finally, we found

him crouched in a trench which he

refused to leave. There was wild

horror in his eyes.”

With the Luftwaffe roaming the

skies with impunity, Red Army

forces were cut off by the fastadvances of German armour. As

encircled Soviet troops attempted

to break out, they were beaten

back by massive air attacks.

Bewildered, scattered and with

no orders reaching them because

lines of communication had been

severed, tens of thousands of

Soviet soldiers ended up in German

captivity.

Battles at Biyalystok and Minsk

in Belarus, at Smolensk, at Kiev

and Uman in the Ukraine, and

at Vyazma and Bryansk west ofMoscow resulted in over 3 million

Soviets becoming prisoners of war.

In these huge encirclements over

9,000 tanks and 15,000 artillery

pieces were captured.

BITTER STRUGGLEStalin was probably right when

he said that any other countrywould have collapsed as a result

of such devastating blows. Not so

the USSR. In the face of terrible

setbacks, the men and women of

the Red forces put up a determined

resistance. Added to this moral

stamina was the ability of a

planned economy to dismantle

and transport a large part of the

military industry to the east – out

of reach of both ground troops and

bombers.

Radically reduced training

schemes and a reduction inproduction quality enabled new

airmen and replacement

“As we flew above the enemy’s country, everything below seemed to be asleep.No anti-aircraft fire, no movement, and above all no enemy aircraft were

present to confront us”

Carnage at Minsk after the Luftwaffe’s surprise

attack on June 22, 1941. Among the wrecks are

I-153 fighters, U-2 trainers and an SB bomber.


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SHIFTING TARGETSAnother victory for the Soviet air

force was achieved at Yelnya, on

the road to Moscow. The German

advance was halted, not least

as a result of local Soviet air

superiority. This was not because

Soviet airmen had defeated the

Luftwaffe; Hitler had ordered the

VIII Air Corps to move away to the

Leningrad sector. With effective air

support, the Soviet army managed

not only to halt the Germans at

Yelnya in August 1941, but also

recapture the city.

This sums up the situation for

the Luftwaffe on the Eastern

Front during the remainder of the

war. Air support was so vital to

the German ground forces that

Luftwaffe units had to be rushed

back and forth between differentsectors, depending on where the

needs were deemed greatest.

As already mentioned, VIII Air

Corps had been moved to attack

Leningrad. Here the mighty guns

of Soviet warships in Kronstadt

harbour on the Gulf of Finland took

a heavy toll of the German ground

forces.

Junkers Ju 87 ‘Stukas’ of

Sturzkampfgeschwader 2

‘Immelmann’ (StG 2 – dive-bomber

wing 2) were assigned the task

of neutralising these vesselsand fitted with 1,000kg bombs.

Several attacks were made, the

most successful taking place on

September 23 when Oberleutnant

(Oblt) Lothar Lau, StG 2’s technical

officer, dived on the battleship

Marat and managed to place his

bomb on the deck, causing a huge

fire. Another bomb hit the forward

turret’s ammunition and the entire

forecastle was blown off the great

ship. Oblt Hans-Ulrich Rudel also

scored a hit; the battleship was put

out of action for several months.

The rest of the flotilla was

not immune; Lt Egbert Jaekel

achieved a direct hit on the

Minsk and sank it. Among others

damaged was the battleship

Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya

(October Revolution).

PANIC MONGEROnly a week later, VIII Air Corps

and StG 2 were on the move again.This time they went south for the

final offensive against Moscow –

Operation ‘Typhoon’.

Throughout Barbarossa, Soviet

airmen and ground troops were

beset not only by the enemy but by

the incompetence of their own high

command. To a large degree, this

was the result of Stalin’s massive

purge of the Soviet officer corps in

the late 1930s and early 1940s.

An incident serves to highlight the

lack of experience and unwillingness

to initiate that was prevalent in theSoviet high command. On October

5, a Pe-2 reconnaissance crew

aircraft to reach the front lines at

a steady pace. Each day, German

fighter pilots shot down scores of

Soviet aircraft, but the next day new

ones had arrived to take up the fight.

While the Germans kept

advancing deep into the Soviet

Union, all the time they had to

wage a bitter struggle for each

step forward. By August 31,

accumulated losses from all causes

sustained by the Luftwaffe on the

Eastern Front had reached 1,320combat types destroyed and 820

damaged; 170 reconnaissance

aircraft destroyed and 124 severely

damaged, also 97 transport,

liaison, and other non-combatant

types were lost. The overwhelming

majority of these losses were due

to hostile action.

DEFEAT OVERMOSCOWThe first Soviet air victory was

achieved when the Luftwaffe

began an offensive to eradicateMoscow. This began on the evening

on July 21, when 195 bombers

were dispatched. They met a

very strong defence, described

by participating airmen as equal

to that encountered over London

during the last night-raids in the

spring of 1941. As a result, the

bombs were scattered over a wide

area, causing little damage.

After the first raids, the Luftwaffe’s

failure was obvious to US reporter

Erskine Caldwell, who scornfully

reported: “In five nights of raidingthey have accomplished little

more than the entire Swiss navy

accomplished in the Great War.”

Demoralised Luftwaffe crews

saw the strike force being scaled

down. More and more bombers had

to be used against a rising wave of

Soviet counter-attacks at the front

instead. When it became clear that

the Luftwaffe had suffered its first

defeat on the Eastern Front during

its offensive against Moscow, the

Soviet air force began to strike back.

Berlin had not experienced any

major RAF raids for several weeks.

Between August 1940 and mid-June

1941 there had been 46 Bomber

Command attacks against the city.

Since, only two weak raids had been

made by the British – with 11 aircraft

on June 3 and 9 on July 26.

The calm was to be broken not

by the British, but by the Soviets.

At 21:00 on August 7, a force

of 15 Ilyushin DB-3s of the Red

Banner Baltic Fleet’s mine-torpedo

regiment took off from the island

of Ösel in the Baltic Sea and flew

all the way to Berlin. The bombsthey dropped caused little material

damage, but the psychological

effect was considerable. It was

utterly humiliating to Hitler and

Göring that while the Luftwaffe

failed against Moscow, Soviet

bombers were attacking Berlin.

Small-scale air raids against

Berlin continued for several

weeks. Luftwaffe night-fighters

and Berlin’s anti-aircraft defences

proved unable to stop them. It

was only when the Wehrmacht

captured the air bases from whichthese raids were flown that they

finally ceased.

Aleksandr Pokryshkin was credited with 59

aerial victories during World War Two, making

him the second most successful Soviet ace.VIA AUTHOR

The Soviet air force was the first to employ

women as combat pilots. Known as ‘Tonya’,

Antonina Vasilyevna Lebedeva was shot down

and killed on July 17, 1943.

Three of the most successful Luftwaffe fighter pilots on the Eastern Front in1941, from the left: Oberst Werner Mölders, Major Günther Lützow, HauptmannKarl-Gottfried Nordmann. In July 1941, Mölders became the first pilot to reach100 victories in World War Two. Lützow, commanding JG 3, shot down his 100thaircraft on October 24. Nordmann, who commanded IV/JG 51, had achieved 70‘kills’ by the end of 1941. JOHANNES BROSCHWITZ VIA WÄGENBAUR

LUFTWAFFE ELITE


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GERMANY INVADES

discovered a 9-mile-long German

tank column far behind Soviet

lines. This was 10 Panzer Division

apparently aiming to join up with 3

Panzer Group east of Vyazma.

Marshal Boris Shaposhnikov, the

new Chief of the Soviet General

Staff, doubted the report. Although

two further recce missions by

fighters, which swept low over thecolumn, confirmed the situation,

it was dismissed as “false” by

high command. The man who had

forwarded the intelligence, Colonel

Nikolay Sbytov, commander of the

Moscow Military District air force

was interrogated by the NKVD

(People’s Commissariat for Internal

Affairs, forerunner of the KGB) and

accused of being a “panic monger”.

Within hours Sbytov was saved

from a court martial and probablythe firing squad, when 10 Panzer

Division seized Yukhnov. By then it

was too late – an entire Soviet army

group was encircled at Vyazma.

TURNING POINTIn a matter of days during October

1941, nearly all Soviet ground

forces west of Moscow had been

annihilated. The road to the Soviet

capital seemed to lay wide open.

It was the turn of Germany’s high

command to make a grave mistake.

Assuming that the final victory

against the USSR was only weeks

away, many air units on the Moscow

front were dispatched to the

Mediterranean theatre to launch anew air offensive against Malta in

order to relieve Rommel’s Afrika

Corps. Air superiority had been

handed on a plate to the Soviets.

The Soviet counter-attack,

which started on December 6,

1941, not only saved Moscow,

but dealt the German army its

first big defeat of the war, and

is one of military history’s great

turning points. Less well known

is that the Soviet ground forces

involved were numerically inferior

to their German counterparts:the Wehrmacht had a two-fold

superiority in troops and a three-

fold advantage in tanks. But in

the air, the Soviets had twice asmany aircraft as the Germans – this

proved decisive.

An intangible weapon also played

a major part in the Red Army

repulsing the enemy. German

troops had suffered a crushing

blow to their morale; convinced

of victory they had been defeated

by people they considered to be

peasants. The myth that Arctic

temperatures caused the German

defeat is refuted by a simple check

with meteorological data – a low

pressure trough bringing in a thawand rain coincided with the Soviet

breakthrough.

General Georgiy Zhukov, who

planned and led the counter-

attack, wrote: “Our air units gave

an important contribution... For the

first time since the outbreak of the

war, our fliers deprived the enemy

of his superiority in the air. Our

air force maintained a systematic

pressure against artillery positions,

tank units and command posts.

And as the Nazi armies started

retreating, our aircraft attackedand bombed the withdrawing

troops without

In a view dated October 1941, a downed Messerschmitt Bf109G-2 is being examined by Soviet

soldiers. Note the opened cowling and the two-colour spinner. KEY

“It was utterly humiliating to Hitler

and Göring that while the Luftwaffefailed against Moscow, Soviet bomberswere attacking Berlin”

The Tupolev SB-2 had already been blooded in the Spanish Civil War, but by 1941 was

obsolete. A SB-2M-103, with inline engines, is pictured after being shot down. VIA AUTHOR


9/22


One of the leading Soviet aircraft at the time was the versatile Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3, which proved its worth during the conflict. A rocket-equipped example is being run up in this view. VIA AUTHOR

Side by side, an I-16 fighter and SB-2 bomber sit on a captured airfield after being downed by the

Luftwaffe. The Messerschmitt Bf 109F and G-2 fighters proved superior to most opposition.

VIA AUTHOR

interruption. This resulted in all

roads to the west becoming littered

with equipment and vehicles

abandoned by the Germans.”

Once again, the Germans needed

to move air power great distances

and with urgency. Bombers,

Stukas and 150 Ju 52 transports

were hurriedly brought in from

December 16 onward. By the

time the German lines had beenstabilised in the final days of 1941,

the Wehrmacht had sustained high

losses and morale was rock bottom

– it would never again be able to

threaten Moscow.

STAYING POWERThe air war on the Eastern Front in

1941 was one of the most extensive

in modern military history. Over

20,000 aircraft were involved and

between June and December the

Luftwaffe lost over 1,700 in combat

– half the number that Germany

started Barbarossa with.

The great stamina exhibited by

Soviet airmen and the capacityof its industry to match and then

exceed the terrible losses sustained

by the Red Air Force were crucial.

Approximately 17,000 Soviet

aircraft – an astounding figure –

were lost in 1941.

The Luftwaffe employed around

1,000 Bf 109s in the attack against

the USSR on June 22, 1941. Six

months later, these fighter units

had amassed over 7,000 combat

victories. Luftwaffe losses

amounted to 390 aircraft – 358 in

the air and 32 on the ground.

This intense fighting gave rise

to a core of Luftwaffe ‘aces’ withtremendous experience. Later,

the Soviets improved the quality

of their airmen and aircraft and

successfully copied the Luftwaffe’s

modern tactics.

This evolution was apparent to

German pilots posted east in early

1945 who were of the opinion that

the Soviet air force was even better

than those of Britain or the US.

British and American airmen were

lucky to be spared a clash with the

Luftwaffe of the Eastern Front.

Christer Bergström is the author

of Operation Barbarossa, theLargest Military Campaign in

History – Hitler against Stalin , to

be published in July in hardback at

£35.00. More details:

www.casematepublishing.co.uk


10/22


B

y the start of World War

Two the USSR’s ground-

attack force was searching

for an aircraft that could meet

the challenges of new forms

of warfare, and in particular,

capitalize on the lessons of the

Spanish Civil War. Unfortunately,

this process was only just making

headway when Germany invaded

the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.

Following the Spanish Civil War,

it became clear to Red Army Air

Force commanders that biplanes,

such as the Polikarpov R-5SSS and

Kochyerigin Di-6 were obsolete.

What was needed was a modern,

specialised ‘battlefield’ type, and

work to create such a machine

began in 1937 under the leadership

of Sergei Vladimirovich Ilyushin.

The Russian word Shturmovik –

assaulter – was used for

this specific requirement

and became synonymous

with the Ilyushin Il-2 family

so this article will also refer

to it as this.

While the Ilyushin design

bureau grappled with devising

what came to be called a ‘flying

tank’ amid the changing policies

of the Soviet high command, it

was planned to equip assaulter

units with Kochyerigin BSh-1s.

These were American Vultee V-11s

manufactured under licence,

but the industry could not cope

with such relatively advanced

monoplanes and only about

Baptism

DESTINED TO BE ONE OF THE MOST EFFECTIVE WARPLANES OF ALL TIME,

THE ILYUSHIN SHTURMOVIK HAD ITS COMBAT DEBUT DURING OPERATION

BARBAROSSA. MIKHAIL TIMIN DESCRIBES ITS FALTERING INITIATION


11/22

GERMANY INVADES


30 were completed.

As a temporary measure, a

hotchpotch of types was gathered

(many entirely unsuitable) from

existing aviation brigades and

independent squadrons. In August

1940 the assaulter regiments

were given a new title, Shturmoviy

Aviapolk (ShAP), and a decision

was taken to standardise on ageing

Polikarpov I-15bis and I-153 biplane

fighters, acting as dive-bombers,

but this was a long, drawn-out

process.

In a plan affirmed on January 24,

1941, the Red Army Air Force began

large-scale expansion. Included in

this was the creation of 24 ShAP

units, all to be fully equipped with

Il-2s by the end of the year. Initially

designated BSh-2, the first Il-2s

appeared in 1939. Deliveries to

regiments only began on May 31,

1941 when five Shturmoviks were

handed over to 4th ShAP which

was tasked with service testing

the new type from June 16 – six

days before Operation Barbarossa

changed everything.

HASTYINTRODUCTIONAs the German war machine rolled

into the USSR on June 22, 1941,

the disposition of Il-2s was: 4th

ShAP with 61 operational and the

following undergoing aircrew

conversion, 74th ShAP with eight

examples, the 66th, 62nd and 65th

with six each, five with the 61st

‘White 2’, an Il-2 of the 74th S hAP in June 1941.

© 2016 IGOR ZLOBIN

Il-2s of the 61st ShAP at Vilnius in present-day

Lithuania.


12/22


and a single Il-2 with the 190th.

A further three had been sent

for testing in May – two to the Air

Force Scientific Research Institute

and one to the Flight Research

Institute.

Crews underwent initial

conversion at GAZ-18 (18th state

aviation factory) in Voronezh,

south of Moscow, with five or

six representatives attending

from each regiment. After this

introduction they would receive

their aircraft, ferry them to their

base and instruct the rest of the

regiment independently. Officers

from the 4th, 74th, 66th and 190th

ShAPs made the first transition

between May 29 and June 8 and

the second group of 20 completed

their conversion by June 15.The only regiment that received

its full complement of Il-2s by June

22 was the 4th ShAP. Unit strength

as of June 25 was 62 Il-2s, a Sukhoi

Su-2 light bomber, two Tupolev

SB twin-engined bombers, three

Polikarpov U-2 biplanes and three

Polikarpov R-Zet biplanes. Two

days later another ten Il-2s had

joined the inventory.

Regimental documents note that

personnel assimilated the Il-2 in

just five days, but there was no

time to train gunners, and up to

June 26 only piloting techniques

were taught. No combat training,

including formation flying, strafing

and bombing, was possible.

The men of the 4th ShAP were

introducing a brand new type

with only the most basic training

against the greatest threat thatRussia had ever faced.

1st Squadron: 1860902 flown by deputy squadron commander Sr Lt V T

Filippov, 1861701 flown by Jr Lt G P Chukhno, 1864903 flown by

Lt N D Konov, 1861501 flown by Lt M Shakirdzhanov

2nd squadron: 1861504 flown by Sr Lt I A Pyatyshkin, 1863104 flown by Jr Lt N

A Gritsevich

3rd Squadron: 1864604 flown by deputy squadron commander Sr Lt A D

Kuzmin and Sr Lt S Ya Gottel

4th Squadron: 1862502 flown by Lt M S Varfolomeyev

5th Squadron: 862803 flown by Lt A M Pushin, 1860402 flown by Jr Lt E P

Sosnik, 1861304 flown by Lt V D Baranov

FAILED TO RETURN:

SHTURMOVIK LOSSES OF THE4TH SHAP, JUNE 29, 1941

An abandoned Il-2 at Vilnius after the

airfield had been captured by German

forces.

A 66th ShAP Shturmovik after a Luftwaffe

raid on Kurovitsy on June 22, 1941.

Polikarpov I-15s in the background.

Above

Abandoned Il-2s of the 66th ShAP at

Kurovitsy after the attack of June 22, 1941.

Right

A victim of the Luftwaffe raid on Kurovitsy

on June 22, 1941.


13/22

GERMANY INVADES


COMBAT DEBUTThe 4th ShAP was not the first to

encounter the Luftwaffe; it was

the 66th and 74th ShAPs, both

of which were in the throes of

conversion. The units were caught

in the relentless strikes against

Soviet airfields of June 22. Two

Il-2s of the 66th were destroyed

at Kurovitsy, and at Malye Vzvody

four Shturmoviks from the 74th

were wrecked or damaged.

For the Soviet Union this

cataclysmic struggle was known

as the Great Patriotic War and

on June 25 the nation’s latest

air weapon embarked on its first

combat sorties. According to

a report drawn up by the 13th

Bomber Air Division, a pair ofIl-2s from the 74th attacked a

mechanised column of German

troops on the road between

Grudopol and Kosov.

The duo returned holed by bullets

and by shrapnel. The names of

the pilots engaged in the first

combat mission of a type that

was to become one of the most

formidable warplanes in history

were not recorded. A total of 15

‘ops’ had been flown by the evening

of the 27th, but 72 hours later the

74th was evacuated to Voronezh to

re-form.

Shturmoviks of the 66th ShAP

took off on a reconnaissance

mission on the 25th, with another

completed on the 29th. The

following day an Il-2 was destroyed

by German aircraft at Zubovo and

the remaining assaulters were

ferried to Uman where they were

handed over to the 44th Fighter

Air Division.

It was June 26 when the 62

Il-2s of the 4th ShAP began to be

deployed to the front, while nine –

three of which were unserviceable

– remained at Bogodukhovo.

Only 57 aircraft reached the

intermediate stop at Karachev, the

rest made emergency landings

as they were short of fuel. Of

these, Il-2 1860504 piloted by 1st

Lt V N Shakhovy was written off.

At Karachev on the 27th, a pair

of Il-2s had to be left behind as

unserviceable, but the remaining

55 set off for Stariy Bykhov to

engage the enemy.

Captain P V Spitsyn led his

wingmen deputy squadron

commander K N Kholobayev

and senior political instructor S

Ya Gottel of the 4th ShAP’s 1st

Squadron on a reconnaissance on

the 27th. Kholobayev brought Il-2

2004 back to Stariy Bykhov with

flak damage but it was destroyed

on landing. The following day,

the 4th retaliated, dropping 32

bombs on the enemy; all its aircraft

returned to base.

WITHOUT TRACEOn June 29, 1941, the Air Forces of

the Western Front were tasked with

destroying tanks and a mechanised

infantry column in the Bobruysk

area. Reconnaissance sorties were

conducted early in the morning

and the 4th ShAP attacked targets

between 18:00 and 21:00 hours.

Technical personnel made feverish

adjustments to the weaponry as

the ShVAK cannon had exhibited

serious failures during the first

sorties.

In total, the 4th flew 64 combat

sorties during the course of a

day, 35 to attack river crossings

and bridges: 970 bombs, 424

rockets, 5,200 cannon shells and

40,000 machine gun rounds were

expended. Twelve Shturmoviksout of 62 failed to return, four had

been

shot

down in air

combat and eight were

missing without trace. Four

Il-2s made emergency landings on

the airfield; two victims of battle

damage and two due to technical

failures. (See the panel for more.)

Luftwaffe fighter crews reported

the destruction of only five aircraft

that matched the description of

an Il-2. At 19:30 Oberleutnant H

Grasser from Jagdgeschwader

51 (JG 51 fighter group 51)

claimed a Vultee V-11, as well as a

Kharkov R-10 at 19:55 and three

aircraft described as ‘Skuas’ (the

Blackburn-built carrier-borne

dive-bomber!) between 20:48 and

20:52. The remainder were downed

by anti-aircraft fire or were lost to

technical failures, or pilot error.

The ratio of combat to non-

combat losses for Il-2s at the time

was a terrible 1:1. Thus it would be

no exaggeration to suggest that

approximately half of those that

failed to return had nothing to do

with the enemy.

At 22:00 the Luftwaffe raided

Stariy Bykhov and the 2ndSquadron commander Captain


14/22


A N Krysin, flight commander Sr

Lt I V Zakharkin and pilot Jr Lt AV Meshcheryakov were killed in

the bombardment. Four Il-2s took

off in order to prevent them from

being destroyed on the ground.

On returning, in the dark, Captain

Spitsyn of the 1st Squadron

crashed Il-2 1860205 on landing.

June 29 was the first day that

Shturmoviks had been used en

masse. The heavy losses sustained

by the 1st and 2nd Squadrons had

significantly reduced the combat

readiness of these units. By the

evening, the regimental line-upconsisted of 37 serviceable Il-2s

and 38 pilots.

As well as troop concentrations

and river crossings, some of the36 combat sorties of June 30,

1941 included a raid on Bobruysk

airfield. Fifteen Il-2s carried out

the attack on the newly adopted

Luftwaffe base. Six Shturmoviks

failed to return from sorties and

the 4th Squadron of the 4th ShAP

was the worst hit, losing three

crews.

Luftwaffe pilots recorded six

victories while countering the raid

on Bobruysk. These were reported

as single-engined aircraft, very

probably Il-2s. At 12:50 a single V-11was downed by the commander of

III/JG 51, Hauptmann R Leppla, and

between 14:10 and 14:30 pilots from

IV/JG 51, including the commanderof the 12th Staffel, Oberleutnant

K-G Nordmann, claimed five R-10

‘kills’. By evening on June 30,

there were 36 Il-2s left with the

4th ShAP, some of which were

unserviceable.

SELF-INFLICTEDCARNAGEThere was no time to take stock

on the first day of July 1941.

During the morning crews flew

two reconnaissance sorties and 12

missions to attack troops aroundBobruysk. In the afternoon, the

Il-2s of the 4th ShAP operated in

sections from 15:00. The Germans

put up resistance and JG 51 claimedvictory over a single V-11 at 17:36.

Soviet documents confirm the loss

of 1863704, a 3rd Squadron aircraft

flown by Lt A S Valkovich in the

Babryusk region. During the course

of these sorties a further two Il-2s

from the 1st Squadron were shot

down.

During an emergency landing

Il-2 4103 was destroyed with Jr Lt

N A Lobanov at the controls. Jr

Lt I G Ivanov crashed 1861502 at

Bobruysk. Both men escaped injury.

As the Wehrmacht’s mechanisedforces advanced towards the I l-2

forward base at Stariy Bykhov,

Profiles of Il-2s of the 61st ShAP captured by

German forces at Vilnius. © 2016 IGOR ZLOBIN


15/22


GERMANY INVADES

A Polikarpov I-16 and a 74th ShAP Il-2 at

Bobruysk.

A specially adapted tractor unit was used to move Il-2s Shturmoviks of the 74th ShAP around

the field at Bobruysk.

Abandoned Il-2s at Bobruysk with the hulk of a

Tupolev SB in the foreground.

An Il-2 with the tactical number ‘Red 2’ on the

rudder and a Polikarpov I-16 abandoned at

Bobruysk.

systematic raids by the Luftwaffe

forced a decision to re-deploy the

4th ShAP to Klimovichi. In total 25

Shturmoviks were able to take-

off at 20:10. Nine more had been

handed over to repair workshops at

Stariy Bykhov but these had to be

abandoned during the retreat.

Only seven of the 25 Il-2s

managed to reach their new

airfield. As a storm front swept

in the pilots of the remaining 18

became disoriented and made

emergency landings due to the

worsening weather. Six of these

aircraft were serviceable and by

July 3 their crews found Klimovichi.

A further six were repaired and

flown out, but ten days later Sr

Lt A I Bulavin was killed when

one of these crashed. Five were

dismantled for spares.

This tragic incident robbed the 4th

ShAP of its combat effectiveness

and it was excluded from the battle.

Instead, the regiment flew three to

five sorties a day and was engaged

in repairs and training.

HERCULEANEFFORTSAs Hitler’s forces stormed into

the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941

the brand new assaulter, the Il-2,

was in its first days of service with

the Red Army Air Force. The only

regiment solely equipped with


16/22


the fighting and there is every

chance that the Luftwaffe did

not notice the advent of the new

type. This is evident in reports by

German pilots who consistently

mistook the Ilyushins for radically

dissimilar types, including R-10s,

Vultees and even Skuas.

In the great scheme of things,

the losses sustained were

not excessive. When the high

command launched the 4th ShAP

into battle it was accepted that the

regiment had not attained combat

capability.

It would take a great deal of

time, as well as heavy losses

among pilots and gunner/

radio-operators, before the Il-2

became a fully-fledged assaulter

– a ‘flying tank’. This required

Herculean efforts from the

designers and the factories to

upgrade the aircraft and their

weaponry, and the dedication of

aircrew and technical personnel

in refining tactics, maintenance

and combat training. After a

faltering start, the Shturmovik

would make an indelible mark on

aerial warfare.

Shturmoviks, the 4th ShAP, had

received no operational trainingin its new role as it had been a

bomber unit.

Pilots had not flown in formation

or over a given route, or carried

out strafing or low-level bombing.

Previously flying the R-Zet two-

seater, the would-be Il-2 pilots had

been used to having a navigator to

guide sorties.

The aircraft suffered from

a number of design andmanufacturing defects. These

challenged the ground crews and

reduced serviceability to worrying

levels.

All of the above predicated the

minimal combat effectiveness

of the new assaulter. In its debut

under fire, the Il-2 had very

little impact on the course of

Il-2s of the 4th ShAP. It is believed that the tactical number of each aircraft was prefixed with

the number of the squadron to which it belonged, eg ‘White 6’ served with the 3rd Squadron.

© 2016 IGOR ZLOBIN

A badly damaged Il-2 abandoned at Bobruysk.

German troops examining an ammunition belt from 4th ShAP Il-2 1861102 at Stariy

Bykhov.


17/22

Operation Barbarossa P-39 Airacobra

Being the first RAF unit to put

the Bell P-39 Airacobra into

operational service was an

exciting prospect for the pilots of

601 (County of London) Squadron.

The unconventional, mid-engined,

tricycle undercarriage fighter held

great promise with a 20mm cannon

mounted in the nose, firing through

the propeller hub.

As service acceptance trials

were being carried out, it was

decided to rush the new type to

an operational squadron. It turned

out that 601 was the first and only

squadron to put the Airacobra into

RAF service.

A total of 675

were ordered,

but when

the type

was foundto be

desperately lacking in performance

above 20,000ft (6,096m) it

was clear the new fighter was

inadequate and another use had to

be found for it.

With seven victories to his

name, 30-year-old Sqn Ldr E J

‘Jumbo’ Gracie DFC was tasked

with overseeing the Airacobra’s

introduction. In readiness, the

Hurricane-equipped 601 Squadron

moved from Manston, Kent, to

Matlaske in Norfolk on July 1, 1941

and its first two Airacobras, AH576

and AH577, arrived on August

6. Ten days later 601 moved to

Duxford, near Cambridge.

The pilots of 601 were not the only

ones who were keen: the Air Ministry

saw the importance of the occasion

and arranged a press day at Duxford.

The sleek-looking Airacobras werearranged in an impressive line-up

while AH577 showed off its paces in

the air. Against regulations,

601 had pronounced its

ownership by

painting its red

winged sword

badge on the

fin flash.

From

the very beginning, 601’s pilots

were disappointed with their new

mount and soon came to regard

being the pioneer squadron as

a dubious honour. (They were

not alone: Boscombe Down and

the Duxford-based Air Fighting

Development Unit also had a low

regard for the type – see the panel

on page 62.)

Pilots were particularly suspicious

about the engine mounting and its

effects on longitudinal stability.

They also feared the Allison V-1710

mounted within the fuselage might

break off and crush the pilot in a

crash landing, but their concerns

were unfounded. Ground crew also

believed the Airacobra’s many novel

features would lead to trouble.

DEBUTTechnical worries were borne out

on August 29, 1941 when Sgt Briggs

blacked out during a tight turn

in AH576 and made for

Mildenhall,

Suffolk, for a

precautionary landing. On approach

an electrical fault jammed the

undercarriage, necessitating a

wheels-up landing. The same day

the aptly named Sgt Bell force-

landed AH577 at Oakington, near

Cambridge, his Airacobra having

suffered a glycol leak.

Conversion to the new type

continued throughout September

amid a spate of forced landings.

Czech flight commander Flt Lt

Jaroslav Himr put one down at

Marham, Norfolk, after a drive

shaft failure; Sgt Land took

another into Langham because

of a fuel feed snag and, on the

29th, AH596 was written off near

Colchester, Essex.

In spite of many teething

problems, Gracie considered it

Rejected

THE RAF SHUNNED ITS AIRACOBRAS AND HANDED THEM OVER TO THE SOVIETS – WHO EMBRACED THE RA

Snr Lt Ivan Bochov, one of the most

successful early Kobra pilots with 19th GIAP.

VIA GEORGE MELLINGER


18/22


GERMANY INVADES

essential for morale that 601 put

the Bells into action and he was

granted a week to conduct trial

operations. With its 20mm cannon,

it was felt the Airacobra might

be well suited to anti-shipping

and ground strafing duties,

so a deployment to 601’s

old haunt at Manston was

arranged.

On October 6, Flt Lt Himr

led Plt Off Jiri Manak and

Sgts Briggs, Scott and

Reynolds for the 25-minute

flight to Manston where they

joined a fellow Auxiliary unit,

the Hurricane-equipped 615

(County of Surrey) Squadron.

Fog prevented ‘ops’ until the

afternoon of the 9th.

At 17:45 hours Himr and

Briggs departed Manston on a

CAL FIGHTER. ANDREW THOMAS EXPLAINS

Flt Lt Jaroslav Himr at the

nose of a 601 Squadron

Airacobra. ZDENEK H URT

Fg Off Chivers took off to escort

eight of 615’s Hurricanes on

a shipping reconnaissance

off Boulogne. The RAF’s only

Airacobra escort sortie was

recorded as follows: “Proceedings

commenced with a before

breakfast sweep up the ‘single

man’s side’ of the coast to Ostend...

Nothing of interest was seen

except flak.”

The report stands as a requiemfor the Airacobra’s RAF operational

service. At 14:35 Gracie led Manak,

Briggs and Himr back to Duxford

where they landed 40 minutes

later. So ended the first and final

detachment for 601’s American

fighters, after just eight sorties.

FINALEAn Airacobra with the appropriate

serial number AH601 was delivered

to Duxford on October 10, 1941.

The coincidence of the number

decreed that it become Gracie’s‘own’ aircraft and it was given

the winged sword on the nose in

place of an individual code latter. It

turned out that Gracie seldom flew

it, preferring AH577.

After the return of the Manston

detachment, 601 tried to iron out

the Airacobra’s bugs but continued

to suffer technical incidents. Plt

Off Peter Hewitt was practising

aerobatics in AH582 on October 19

and spun, crashing near Bedford.

There was no obvious cause; the

squadron had suffered its firstfatality on an Airacobra.

In spite of its non-effective

status, 601 continued to be

the focus of attention and on

November 8, Lord Sherwood,

the Under-Secretary of State

for Air, accompanied by the US

Ambassador, John G Winant, came

to Duxford where they inspected

the Airacobras. But the American

fighter had been tainted as far as

the RAF was concerned.

That same afternoon a delegation

of Soviet officers also visitedDuxford. Their purpose was to

assess the Airacobra for

‘Rhubarb’, the Fighter Command

codename for small-scale fighter

operations against ground targets

of opportunity. Flying low over

the Channel to Dunkirk they shot

up a number of enemy personnel

on the pier and, as 601’s records

stated, “severely hurt the feelings

of a trawler!”. They arrived back

at 18:20. The CO, ‘Jumbo’ Gracie,

noted: “It was not much, but it was

a start.”

The next morning, Manak lifted

off in AH595 and attacked several

barges in the canals behind

Dunkirk in a 45-minute sortie.

Having flown down from Duxford in

AH583, the CO also flew a Rhubarb

but found nothing of interest.

Weather then precluded any

further ‘ops’.

Early on the 11th, Himr carried

out a weather check over the

Channel, returning with

news that things looked

suitable

for

operations.

Accordingly, at

08:00, Himr,

Manak

and


19/22


use in the USSR as the British had

offered to divert the bulk of the

RAF order to the hard-pressed Red

Air Force. As most combat over

the Eastern Front tended to be at

low level, the Airacobra might be

well suited to such tactics, and theSoviets were clearly confident that

it would.

Incidents still abounded for 601.

On November 21, Sgt Land had an

accident when AH603’s engine

cut on take-off and he ploughed

through the airfield boundary

hedge. Twenty-one days later the

same happened to AH601 as Plt

Off Sewell took off from Duxford

– it too ended up on its belly.

Worse followed the next day when

AH581’s engine cut near Debden,

Essex, and Sgt Roy Sawyer died inthe crash.

On Christmas Eve, ‘Jumbo’

Gracie left for Malta, his place at

601’s helm being taken by Sqn Ldr

E J Jones. Morale was low and

not improved by a move north

to Acaster Malbis near York on

January 6, 1942.

It is ironic that the sole RAFAiracobra unit was also the only

operational squadron ever based

at the grass airfield. Records

described 601’s new home as

“a frozen meadow – which was

covered in snow and slush when

the Airacobras arrived, making

flying virtually impossible”.

There was no flying at all

between January 20 and 25 and

by the end of the month only two

weather checks were possible.

Nothing daunted, the faithful

ground crew got 13 aircraftserviceable for a visit by the Air

Officer Commanding, but thick

The British Purchasing Commission eventually placed contracts for 675 Bell

Model 14 fighters. The type had entered American service as the P-39 in

early 1941 and the British version was generally similar to the P-39D. The RAF

specified a 20mm cannon firing through the propeller hub and six 0.303in

machine guns, two above the nose firing through the airscrew and two more in

each wing. Initially given the name Caribou by the RAF, it had changed to the

US name Airacobra by the time deliveries commenced.

On July 3, 1941 the first Airacobra arrived at the Aeroplane and Armament

Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, for trials. This was

DS173, one of three P-39Cs that retained the US armament of a 37mm cannon

and four 0.30in machine guns grouped in the nose.

Trials by the Air Fighting Development Unit at Duxford used an RAF Airacobra

I from July 30. They were conducted against a Spitfire V and a captured Bf 109E

and showed that the US aircraft matched both for speed and manoeuvrability

at levels below 15,000ft. However, because of the lack of a supercharger, the

performance fell off rapidly above 20,000ft, an ominous portent for the RAF’s

latest fighter.

Former USAAF P-39C DS173 served with the Duxford-based Air Fighting Development Unit

before transferring to 601 Squadron.

Airacobras of 601 Squadron lined up for the

press at Duxford in August 1941. All carry

601’s winged sword badge on the tail flash.

VIA J D OUGHTON

Sqn Ldr ‘Jumbo’ Gracie, 601 Squadron’s CO,

climbing into his Airacobra ‘Skylark XIII’ –

probably AH601 – using the car-type door.

AUTHO R’S COL LECT ION

Rare colour shot of Sqn Ldr Gracie’s AH601

being rearmed. P J HULTON

snow prevented any flying. On

February 12, getting a four-shipsection airborne became a cause

for celebration!

The elation was short-lived.

The following day, Plt Off Angus

McDonnell entered a roll at 6,000ft

in AH602 over Acaster Malbis.

While inverted, the tail was seen

to drop and the simultaneous

increase in exhaust smoke

indicated a dramatic increase

in power, as if trying to correct

longitudinal trim. The Airacobra

entered an inverted spin and

crashed on the banks of the RiverOuse, killing its 19-year-old pilot.

A change of base to Digby in

Lincolnshire on March 25, 1942 was

welcomed by all on 601 Squadron.Acaster Malbis was not popular

but, more importantly, the new

airfield heralded the arrival of

Spitfire Vs. The RAF’s unfortunate

association with the Airacobra had

come to an end.

RED STARSIn the wake of huge losses inflicted

on the Red Air Force during

the early weeks of Operation

‘Barbarossa’, the German invasion

of the USSR in June and July 1941,

British Prime Minister WinstonChurchill promised to send Stalin

fighters; and with Spitfires in short

“From the very beginning, 601’s pilotswere disappointed with their new

mount and soon came to regard beingthe pioneer squadron as a dubious

honour”


20/22


GERMANY INVADES

One of a handful of pilots to fly a combat

sortie in an RAF Airacobra – Plt Off Jiri

Manak. JIRI RAJLICH

Airacobra I AH595 at Manston soon after arriving on October 6, 1941 having been flown in by

Plt Off Jiri Manak. RAF MANSTON

Serial Fate

AH576 Crashed at Mildenhall, Suffolk, Aug 29, 1941

AH577 Transferred to USSR, Sep 9, 1942AH578 Struck off charge (SOC) Dec 4, 1941

AH580 Transferred to USAAF, Oct 21, 1942

AH581 Crashed at Debden, Essex, Dec 13, 1941

AH582 Crashed near Bedford, Oct 19, 1941

AH583 SOC Jul 20, 1942

AH584 Transferred to USSR, Jul 4, 1942

AH585 Crashed at Acaster Malbis, Yorks, Feb 7, 1942

AH586 Transferred to USSR, Sep 9, 1942

AH587 Transferred to USAAF, Jan 27, 1943

AH588 SOC Jul 20, 1942

AH589 To A&AEE Boscombe Down then to USAAF, Jan 27, 1943

AH591 SOC Jul 20, 1942

AH592 SOC Jul 20, 1942

AH593 SOC Jul 20, 1942

AH595 SOC Jul 20, 1942

AH596 Crashed near Colchester, Essex, Sep 30, 1941

AH597 Transferred to USAAF, Oct 22, 1942

AH601 Crashed at Duxford, Cambs, Dec 12, 1941

AH602 Crashed at Acaster Malbis, Yorks, Feb 13, 1942

AH603 Crashed at Duxford, Cambs, Nov 21, 1941

DS173 Former USAAF P-39C, A&AEE trials. No details

DS174 Former USAAF P-39C, AFDU trials. SOC Oct 28, 1942

Other British use: Six Airacobras served with test establishments and three

more were used by ferry units. Of the test aircraft the most famous was

AH574 which served with the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough

and was ‘adopted’ by Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown CBE DSC AFC. On April 4,

1945 he landed AH574 on HMS Pretoria Castle – the first time a tricycle

undercarriage aircraft had landed on a carrier.

Airacobra AH651 was on charge with 225 Squadron, presumably for trials in

the army co-operation role (no other details are known), and AP309 flew with

218 Maintenance Unit at Colerne, Wilts, until it was written off on May 7, 1942.

supply, initially Hurricanes were

sent. American aircraft allocated

to Britain under Lend-Lease were

also diverted, among them the

unwanted Airacobras.

For the Soviets the 266 Airacobras

transferred from the RAF – 44 of

which were sunk en route – were the

first of many thousands of P-39s

delivered direct from US production.

The first P-39Ds arrived in theautumn of 1942.

Christened ‘Kobra’ by the Soviets,

the first of the RAF stock delivered

was AH628, which was despatched

with the first batch to Archangel in

November 1941. It was evaluated

at Kol’tsovo and 20 more aircraft

were taken on charge by 22 ZAP

(Reserve Aviation Regiment) at

Ivanovo, northeast of Moscow, for

training.

Kobras entered operational

service in May 1942 with 19 GIAP(Guards Aviation Fighter Regiment)

at Afrikanda, near

With a USAAF instructor looking on, pilots

of 601 Squadron smile for the press

cameras at Duxford. JIRI RA JLIC H


21/22

One of the first Airacobra Is issued to the 19th GIAP, AN619 was lost in action when flown by

Jr Lt Gabrinets in 1942. VIA GEORGE MELLINGER

Murmansk. They retained their

RAF serials and camouflage but

with Soviet red stars in place of the

roundels.

Captain Pavel Stepanovich

Kutakhov, who commanded 19

GIAP’s 1st Eskadrilya (squadron),

conducted the first test flight

of an Airacobra I on April 19.

Soon afterwards Major Georgii

Aleksandrovich Kalugin,

who had changed his name

from the Germanic-sounding

Reifschneider, led the 19th with

16 Airacobra Is and ten Curtiss

Kittyhawks to its operational base

at Shongui.

SOVIET HEROESCombat began on May 15, when a

patrol of four Kobras encountered a

mixed formation of Messerschmitt

Bf 109s and ’110s over Lake Tulp’yavr,

west of Murmansk. Kutakhov and

Snr Lt Ivan Bochov, both future

‘aces’, each claimed a victory but

misidentified their victims as Heinkel

He 113s. The Kobra had been blooded

and the Soviet pilots were soon to be

won over by the US fighter.

Bochov was successful again

the next day, which also saw the

first Kobra loss. Having suffered

damage from a Bf 109, Snr Lt Ivan

Gaidaenko had no option but to

bring his Airacobra down in a forest.

Despite AH660 being shredded by

the trees, he was uninjured. Bochov

force-landed AH692 near Shongui

on May 22 and six days later the

newly promoted Major Kutakhov was

shot down during a fierce battle, but

survived unscathed.

Six Kobras intercepted a similar

number of Junkers Ju 88s, escorted

by 16 Bf 110s, on June 15. In a whirling

dogfight the Soviet pilots claimed

nine shot down for no loss, with

Bochov credited with bringing down

one of each type while Captain

Konstantin Fomchenkov claimed two.

In November the 19th GIAP came

under command of Major Aleksei

Efimovidn Novozhilov. One of the

regiment’s last actions of 1942 came

on December 10 when six Airacobras,

with Bochov at their head, waded

into a large formation of Ju 87

‘Stukas’ and a Bf 109 escort. In the

first pass, two of the dive-bombers

fell, followed by three more without

loss to the Soviets.

One of the Ju 87s was credited to

Bochov who in early 1943 became a

Hero of the Soviet Union (HSU). The

28-year-old died in a battle with five

Bf 109Gs on April 4, 1943.

Other successful Kobra pilots of

the 19th GIAP were Captain Ivan

The barrel of the nose-mounted 20mm cannon is prominent on 601 Squadron Airacobra I at

Duxford in the autumn of 1941. VIA M W PAYNE


“Krivosheev saw Kutakhov, his CO, under attack byanother German fighter. Having used all his ammunition,

he deliberately rammed the enemy, at the cost of hisown life”


22/22

Airacobra I BX237 of the 19th GIAP wearing an impressive victory tally on its rear fuselage. Left to

right: Regt CO, Major Georgii Aleksandrovich Kalugin; Captain Pavel Stepanovich Kutakhov, CO of

the 1st Eskadrilya; and the unknown commanders of the 2nd and 3rd Eskadrilyas.

VIA GEORGE MELLINGER

Soon after 19th GIAP began operations, on May 22, 1942, Snr Lt Ivan Bochov had to force-land

Airacobra I AH692 near its Shongui base. VIA GEORGE MELLINGER

Airacobra I AH589 was flown on a cross-Channel operation by Flt Lt Jaroslav Himr on October 6,1941. VIA J D OUGHTON

Gaidaenko, who had 29 personal

and shared victories, and Snr Lt Efim

Krivosheev, who eventually gained

a total of 20 victories in Airacobras,

regularly flying BX320.

On September 9, 1942 having

shot down a Bf 109, Krivosheev saw

Kutakhov, his CO, under attack by

another German fighter. Having used

all his ammunition, he deliberately

rammed the enemy, at the cost of his

own life. Pavel Stepanovich Kutakhov

posthumously became an HSU.

Kutakhov, a veteran of 367 sorties

and 79 air battles who scored

14 personal and 28 shared kills,

survived the war. In 1969 he became

a Marshal of Aviation and later

Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet

Air Force. He died in 1984.

Also flying former RAF Airacobras

on the northern front was the 30th

GIAP, fighting the Germans and Finns

in Karelia; the 153rd IAP at Ivanovo;

and the 28th GIAP.

Over the frozen wastes of the

Russian front, the Airacobras the

RAF rejected found their niche. It

remains a strange dichotomy that

the P-39 series deemed so mediocre

in the West should find such success

and become the weapon of choice

for some of the leading Allied aces of

the war.

Former RAF contract Airacobra I BW114 was one of many transferred to the USAAF under the

designation P-400. It was shipped to Australia and lent to the RAAF for training duties at Lowood,

Queensland. RAAF

GERMANY INVADES

Documents

Operation Barbarosa-The Air War