Название: Black Cross/Red Star: Vol.1. Operation Barbarossa 1941
Авторы: Christer Bergstrom, Andrey Mikhailov
Издательство: Pacifica Military History with Classic Publications
Год: 2000
ISBN: 0935553487
Страниц: 241
Язык: English
Формат: PDF
Размер: 88 MB
Millions of pages have been written about the aerial conflict over Western Europe over the decades since the war. Given the number of units and aircraft involved over the Eastern Front, this part of aviation lore has been sadly neglected. Part of the reason has to due with the availability of the records. Only with the recent fall of the Iron Curtain have researchers been allowed more than limited access to Soviet records. Christer Bergstrom and Andrey Mikhailov are two such men who spent years interviewing the pilots who fought and suffered in the skies of Eastern Europe. The book begins with a comparison of the two air forces involved which includes their relative experience prior to June 22, 1941, training standards, tactical doctrine and aircraft. The effect of Stalin's purges on leading airmen and aircraft engineers and its effect on the Russian Air Force is also detailed. Of interest is the German fighter pilot's 'hunting' philosophy that stressed individual achievement through aerial victories.