A detailed, illustrated account of the air campaign that accompanied the Red Army's final push towards Berlin, in which massed Soviet air power defeated the Luftwaffe's high-tech Me 262 jets and Mistel exploding drones.
A detailed, illustrated account of the air campaign that accompanied the Red Army's final push towards Berlin, in which massed Soviet air power defeated the Luftwaffe's high-tech Me 262 jets and Mistel exploding drones.
The last months of World War II on the Eastern Front saw a ferocious fight between two very different air forces. Soviet Air Force (VVS) Commander-in-Chief Alexander Novikov assembled 7,500 aircraft in three powerful air armies to support the final assault on Berlin. The Luftwaffe employed some of its most advanced weapons including the Me 262 jet and Mistel remotely-guided bomb aircraft.
Using photos, 3D diagrams, maps and battlescene artwork, William E. Hiestand, a military analyst with a longstanding interest in Soviet military history, explains how Germany's use of high-tech weaponry and massed Soviet air assaults was not just the culmination of World War II air combat, but also pointed to how the future rivalry with NATO would play out. The VVS used powerful and flexible air armies to control and employ its huge force of aircraft organizational and employment concepts that would shape Soviet plans and preparations for combat during the Cold War.
For the first time, this volume explains how air power helped win the war on the Eastern Front, and how victory shaped Soviet air power doctrine for the decades to come.
Recenzijos
A detailed, illustrated account of the air campaign that accompanied the Red Army's final push towards Berlin * Aeroscale *
Daugiau informacijos
A detailed, illustrated account of the air campaign that accompanied the Red Army's final push towards Berlin, in which massed Soviet air power defeated the Luftwaffe's high-tech Me 262 jets and Mistel exploding drones.
INTRODUCTION
CHRONOLOGY
ATTACKER'S CAPABILITIES
The VVS on the brink of victory
Overall Soviet organization
Aircraft roles and capabilities
VVS Order of Battle, January 1945
VVS Order of Battle, April 1945
DEFENDER'S CAPABILITIES
The last of the Luftwaffe
Aircraft, roles, and capabilities
Luftwaffe Order of Battle, January 1945
Luftwaffe Order of Battle, April 1945
CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES
The road to Berlin
THE CAMPAIGN
Air war over Poland and Germany
January 1945: The VistulaOder Offensive
January 1945: The East Prussia Offensive
The exploitation
The halt on the Oder
The fight for the Oder: MarchApril 1945
Konigsberg: the fall of the fortress
Berlin: The final offensive
The end in the East
The turn to the flanks FebruaryMarch 1945
AFTERMATH AND ANALYSIS
FURTHER READING
INDEX
William E. Hiestand was born in 1957, and has worked for over 30 years as a US Department of Defense analyst focusing on military issues. He has served in a wide variety of analytic, leadership, and representational roles. He holds an MA in History from Cornell University, and has a lifelong interest in military history, with a particular focus on 20th-century armored and mechanized operations and Soviet military history. He lives in Virginia near Washington DC.
Daugiau apie elektronines knygas