Operation Barbarosa-The Air War
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Transcript of 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
Operation Barbarossa The War in the East
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
June 2016 FLYPAST 45
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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Operation Barbarossa The War in the East
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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June 2016 FLYPAST 47
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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Operation Barbarossa The War in the East
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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June 2016 FLYPAST 49
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
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Operation Barbarossa The War in the East
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
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Operation Barbarossa The War in the East
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
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GERMANY INVADES
June 2016 FLYPAST 53
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.
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Operation Barbarossa The War in the East
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.
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June 2016 FLYPAST 55
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
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Operation Barbarossa The War in the East
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
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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
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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.
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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
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June 2016 FLYPAST 61
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
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Operation Barbarossa P-39 Airacobra
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”
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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
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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
Operation Barbarossa P-39 Airacobra
“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”
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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