Drabkin Artem - The Red Air Force at War : Barbarossa and the Retreat to Moscow : Recollections of Soviet Fighter Pilots on the Eastern Front

THE RED AIR FORCE AT WAR

BARBAROSSA AND THE
RETREAT TO MOSCOW

Recollections of Fighter Pilots on the Eastern Front

THE RED AIR FORCE AT WAR

BARBAROSSA AND THE
RETREAT TO MOSCOW

Recollections of Fighter Pilots on the Eastern Front

ARTEM DRABKIN

With contributions by
Mikhail Bykov (research and aircraft profiles)
Alexei Pekarsh (introduction)
Andrei Sukhrukov (appended interview with N.G. Golodnikov)

Translator
Bair Irincheev

English text
Christopher Summerville

First published in Great Britain in 2007 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
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Copyright Artem Drabkin 2007

ISBN 978-1-84415-563-7

The right of Artem Drabkin to be identified as Author of this Work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.

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A time will come, a fearsome time, when the enemy will walk over this land, and all the land will be entangled with barbed wire and iron birds will be flying in the sky hurting people with their iron beaks. That will be already before the end of this world

A. Kuznetsov, Babi Yar

(Plates appear between pages 112 and 113)

As soon as a human being invents something he will apply it to the destruction of fellow human beings. The most outstanding invention of the early twentieth century the airplane was no exception. Soon after the birth of flying machines came the prestigious trade of Air Force pilot. And within that privileged caste inhabitants of heaven fighter pilots formed an elite: for they were the only ones tasked with aerial combat, and as such, became gladiators of the skies.

The fierce dogfights of the First World War and the record-breaking long-distance flights and races of the 1920s and 1930s captured the imagination, causing boys across the world to become obsessed with flying. As youngsters they built models of planes, and as teenagers attended glider schools and flying clubs. Upon graduation the best students became Air Force pilots. In the Soviet Union the popularity of pilots like Gromov, Chkalov, Kokkinaki, and those airmen who took part in the 1934 mission to rescue the crew of the ship Chelyuskin, crushed by ice in the Bering Strait, can only be compared to that of film stars. In a country where many people had never seen a steam engine, any profession related to machines was prestigious, and a person who could handle an airplane was especially respected. A smart uniform only increased this sense of awe. For at a time when boys walked barefoot during summer in order to save their only pair of shoes for winter and adults wore simple clothes of linen and shoes of canvas, pilots sported long leather boots and a dark-blue uniform of fine woollen fabric. Emblazoned with their distinctive insignia, they certainly stood out from the crowd. And like tankmen, pilots often wore medals and decorations awarded by the State a rarity at that time. Finally, pilots were well paid and had all their needs met by the State. That said, the training of pilots was initially the preserve of flying clubs, which in the early to mid-1930s only existed thanks to membership fees paid by individuals or voluntary Osoaviakhim societies. Club members underwent training in their spare time, while holding down regular jobs.

But in the late 1930s came the slogan: Our country needs 150,000 pilots! It was only then that flying clubs received State grants, instructors obtaining wages comparable to those of Red Army commanders. Club members were now required to study full time, moving into dormitories where uniforms and food were provided. Many younger students were obliged to quit school in order to complete pilot training. As well as volunteers for whom flying was a lifelong dream, many random people entered the flying clubs for pilot training. This was the result of a deliberate campaign to enrol as many Komsomol and Communist Party members in the Air Force as possible. Some of these recruits simply did not have a talent for flying; others, however, became excellent pilots. In this respect, the Soviet Air Force was unique: no other country recruited pilots on a draft basis.

After sitting exams at a flying club, superintended by Air Force instructors, graduates were sent to their next training stage: an Air Force academy. If in the early 1930s this training stage lasted about 2 years, by spring 1941 it had been reduced to a minimum, due to the sharp increase in pilot numbers. Flying schools with four-month training courses were formed (implying that cadets had completed basic flight training in flying clubs), while Air Force academy courses lasted ten months. But aerobatics were forbidden and this had an immediate impact on the graduates level of professionalism. Training was confined to simple take off and landing procedures, other elements being considered secondary. As a consequence, fighter regiments received young replacements with only eight to ten hours of flying and often in a different type of plane to that used by the regiment. Such pilots could merely hold the control stick, having no understanding of aerobatics, dogfighting or foul weather flying. And these would-be fighters had a limited amount of fire range training, for most graduates of the flying schools and academies only received two or three sessions of fire practice at a canvas cone towed behind a plane. As a result, they did not know how to use gun sights correctly.

But it would be wrong to state that all Soviet fighter pilots had this background. By the summer of 1941 the Soviet Air Force included pilots with a high level of training from the mid-1930s, their skills honed by battle experience gained in Spain (193639), Khalkhin Gol (1939) and the Winter War with Finland (193940). But their numbers were insignificant compared to the burgeoning crop of new flyers.

But a bitter blow befell cadets graduating between 1940 and 1943: this was Order No. 0362, announced by the pilots best friend, Peoples Commissar of Defence Timoshenko. The order declared that graduates were no longer to enter the Air Force as lieutenants but as sergeants. Furthermore, graduates were consigned to live in barracks supplied, paid and equipped as NCOs until they notched up four years service. Barred from sporting the pilot officers badge theyd dreamt of since childhood (worn on the left sleeve, it depicted a propeller, wings and crossed sabres in gold, on a blue background, surmounted by a red star, and known colloquially as a Chicken), many took offence, expressing their displeasure by refusing to wear NCO rank insignia. Timoshenkos Order No. 0362 not only caused bitterness among graduates, it also broke the military principle of subordination, as technicians and ground crew often lieutenants were obliged to make their maintenance reports to pilots classed as sergeants.