Air war at the eastern front 5of 5
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- Опубликовано: 16 июн 2008
- 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
Staggering the magnitude of the Stalingrad battle;then Kursk...grief the Ostfront must've been a dreadful war theatre
Don't forget Op . Bagration
@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.
You do not see much on the eastren front. Thank - you for the upload
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.
It's very interesting though that even some 3 or 4 P-51B Mustangs were used in the Eastern front by the Soviets, but, however, without any significant success, because they were used, as all of the Eastrern front fighters, in the altitudes lower than 5000m, where the Mustang could no more easily outperform the German planes.
What is the song in the end
@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.
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.
Quantity won the battle in the east for the Soviets, both on the ground and in the air. At the end of the war soviet numerical superiority in the skies went as high as an extreme 30:1 in some cases, a point where the German technological superiority could no longer even the grounds between the two forces.
Besides the P-39 the P-40 was also sent in great numbers to the Soviets and was well liked by its pilots, though both types were not exactly top of the line fighters.
Well then those planes must have been better than their contemporary late-model spitfires, as the 109g and 109k were fairly close to those in performance.
what is the name of the song at the end of the video?
All the rest - mostly Hurricanes and P-40s were rapidly written off due to their poor performance against the German fighters such as Bf-109F/G and Fw-190,also because of the poor technical maintenance and lack of spareparts, differences in the benzine octane number between the Soviet and the Allied fighters. So in the large scale, the Luftwaffe was beaten by the Soviet production fighters like La-5, Yak-9, Yak-3, La-7. And the P-39 that faught all the way to the end of the war in several units.
Ah ok. Do you really think the La-5 was better than the 190A at typical combat altitudes?
Early models, no. La-5FN was more or less equal.
@staydput That's hardly true. The stavka were somewhat obsessing over close support, but the performance of many of their planes were indeed comparable to those of the west. The Lachovkins could outrun, out-turn, outclimb and outlast any variant of 109, and proved to be the death of many a Focke-Wulf as well. Who says the Soviets had no long-range fighters?! The Yak-9DD had an impressive range better than that of a P47 with droptanks, and the Yak-3 and -9U had absolutely beautiful performance.
Long range means a lot of fuel needed. During WW2 the oil reserves of the USA were on a whole other level say compared to what the Germans could get in Romania.
As for the time and money in training. Again that was a luxury the USA did have. For the Germans and Soviets (and also the British during the Battle of Britain) it was short training and straight into battle, where they would get their real lessons. It was total war.
The top aces were Germans, the top Allied ace was Russian.
@bv141a True dat
@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
quantity won...yeah, from the Allies. 18K? 19K?
Spitfires and Bf 109s were better at high-altitude, but at the lower altitudes and conditions of the Eastern Front, the Soviet fighters generally did better.
The same could be said of German aircraft late in the war, no? :) Besides, by 1943-44, most Russian aircraft were already comparable to that of the West.
I have never heard of such problems with the La-7, btw.
Allied fighters were not as effective in the hands of Soviet pilots. And Soviet production VASTLY exceeded the quantities that the Allies provided them through Lend-Lease.
On paper those aircraft appear very performant but the Soviet production quality was lacking throughout the whole war.
Early in the war it was so horrible that many an aircraft was sent to units only to be found either unflyable or lagging behind promised topspeeds up to 60-80km/h. This was improved upon but production quality never was anything like in the Western European countries.
Your fancy La-7 might be worth 680km/h on paper but the average aircraft was struggling to get past 640km/h.
The LA-7 most definitely was better. LA-5 Comparable.
@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,
Seems like another nazi military machine appraisal. The film makes the false impression of the Soviet VVS' composition. For reference: of all the allied fighter aircrafts delivered to the USSR, only the P-39 Airacobras were used effectively againsdt the Luftwaffe.