Air war at the eastern front 5of 5

It looked like a new easy Blitz Krieg. The sovjets - and particularly Stalin - was taken by completely surprise. In the first few hours of war, the russians lost 1600 airplanes - most of them nicely parked side by side in long rows at the airfields.
But little by little luck should run out for the germans.
In an enormous effort the russians moved all aircraft factories to the other side of the Urals where they rebuild them, and then an enormous amount of newly designed highly compettitive fighters began to leave the factories . . . . and although the russians did not have many battle hardened pilots, the quantity won over quality in the end.

Carl Vendler

Category:

Education

Tags:

• air
• war
• eastern
• front
• ww2

[slig665]

Since there's not English subs I have to make up what the old German dudes are saying. "I was on the airfield. I had to go poop. There was nowhere to poop because the Soviets had blown up the bathroom. So I pooped in a shell hole. It was very cold. But in the end I had pooped. That was my victory in that damned war."

[cwjian90]

It was both quality and quantity. By 1944, the Yak-3, Yak-9, La-5FN and La-7 were better than most of the German fighters then available, with the possible exception of the Me-262 and Fw-190D-9. And there were far, far more of them too.

[Zythius]

@slig665 He is talking about how the wrecked airfields and soviet fighters made supply runs difficult, and how he once escaped a soviet plane because it ran out of fuel. And also, he had to maneuver so violently to escape fighters that the wounded men he was carrying was thrown around the plane.

[sheemsheem]

So many mistakes in the east :(

[jaymoe67]

To clarify... The U.S. was the only country that bothered to make long range escort fighters ie. P38, P47, P51. Even the P40 had more range than the typical european equivalent. Plus these planes caried quite a bit of extra weight in armor and self sealing fuel tanks. The U.S. spent more time and money training its pilots than any other country during the WWII conflict, Uncle Sam wanted his investment to be able to come home.

[Blasphemisaurusaoe3]

@bv141a True dat

[bv141a]

@Blasphemisaurusaoe3 Red airforce supported the red army,that's what their mission was.They did some strategic bombing of German cities,and resources,nothing on the scale of the west,

[Blasphemisaurusaoe3]

@bv141a The reds did produce a few fine fighters like the later Lachovkins and Yaks, but you're right about the Stavka focusing primarily on ground attack.

[bv141a]

@Blasphemisaurusaoe3 P39/P400 was a very good airplane,built in the states primarily for the Reds,who sent engineers to Buffalo NY to assist Bell in making the airplane fit Russian needs.Reds have higher scoring aces than US[for lots of reasons]they were good pilots.Dogfights over Korea would go the USAF way,most of the time,hard to beat the best

[Blasphemisaurusaoe3]

@staydput Yes, most of the Yaks had decent range, particularly the -9D and -9DD variants. They however did not have the same performance as the P-51 and P-47. No long-range strike force? ever heard of the Pe-8 and IL-4? Both aircraft had very long range but had no fighters to accompany them the whole route to east Germany and back, so you are somewhat right. They had little impact on the war despite constant raids due to lack of good defensive armament and poor bomb load.

[Blasphemisaurusaoe3]

@staydput How about YOU go to hell! YOU are the delusional one. 'Get medical help' ARE YOU 13?! Visit the library to jog your memory! Why the hwell must I run into such sticklers whenever I post on this subject?The russian designs were very simple so that they could withstand the harsh conditions on the front. However good some soviet pilots got, they would still not be a match for a good P-51 pilot, except maybe, MAYBE at low or medium altitude. You're right about the engineering skill though.

[staydput]

NEVER did the USSR ever produce a deep strike air force, nor did Germany.

ONLY Britain and America make the attempt.

So stop with the rant.

Staggering range for a combat fighter that need only hop over the front? Are you THAT deluded?

I guess so....