Osprey - Aircraft of the Aces 107 - Soviet Hurricane Aces of World War 2.pdf

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OSPREY AIRCRAF T OF THE ACES

• 107

Soviet Hurricane Aces

of World War 2

Yuriy Rybin

SERIES EDITOR: TONY HOLMES

OSPREY AIRCRAF T OF THE ACES • 107

Soviet Hurricane Aces

of World War 2

Yuriy Rybin

SPREY

PUBLISHING

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

HURRICANES IN SOVIET SERVICE 6

CHAPTER TWO

ON THE KARELIAN FRONT 14

CHAPTER THREE

NORTHERN FLEET ACES 34

CHAPTER FOUR

ARCTIC WAR HOTS UP 54

CHAPTER FIVE

BATTLES OVER THE OCEAN 70

APPENDICES 87

C O L O U R P L AT E S C O M M E N TA R Y 9 3

INDEX 95

HURRICANES IN

SOVIET SERVICE

CHAPTER ONE

any books and articles have been written about the pilots who

fought in the legendary Hawker Hurricane. Inevitably much

of this attention has been devoted to those who distinguished

themselves in the skies over Britain in 1940, and it was hardly surprising

that the annual Battle of Britain flypasts over London in the immediate

post-war years were led by a Hurricane.

Similarly, many words have been written about the Allied pilots who

fought against Axis forces in other theatres during World War 2 while

flying Hurricanes. But little research has been conducted into the exploits

of the many Soviet pilots who flew the legendary fighter. What has

appeared in print in the past has been fragmentary in nature and often,

to put it mildly, full of inaccuracies.

Yet in 1942 the Hurricane was the most numerous Western Allied

fighter in the inventory of the Soviet Union’s Red Army and Naval Air

Force units serving on the enormous Soviet-German front. A major

expansion of Red Army Air Force fighter regiments had been made

possible by the monthly shipments of equipment from the Allies under

lend-lease, which had been arriving since December 1941.

In the winter of 1941-42 these shipments were needed more than

ever. The halting of the German advance on Moscow in January 1942

encouraged the Soviet command to build on this achievement with

a series of offensive operations along the western, northwestern and

Kalinin fronts. Many of the fighter regiments equipped with the

Hurricane were the first to be mobilised along these fronts. Specifically,

the units involved were 1st Guards and 157th, 191st, 195th, 488th and

736th Fighter Air Regiments (Istrebitelniy

Aviapolks,

IAPs). The latter

two units were air defence regiments

subordinated to Moscow’s 6th Air

Defence Fighter Corps (Istrebitelniy

Aviakorpus,

IAK), which also

boasted three more air regiments –

67th, 428th and 438th IAPs – that

were equipped with Hurricanes.

During this period these

regiments were typically comprised

of two squadrons, each of which

was equipped with 20-22 aircraft.

The latter figure also included

training and liaison aircraft.

This, however, was just the start

of the re-equipment of Soviet

fighter regiments with aircraft

Soviet Hurricane units typically

operated from primitive unpaved

airfields as seen here. This machine

has RS-82 rocket rails fitted beneath

its wings. The RS-82 was used by

most Soviet fighter types during the

first year of the war in the east

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