Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 015 - Soviet Aces of World War 2

Although initially equiped with very poor aircraft and robbed of effective leadership, due as much to Stalins purges in the late 1930s as to the efforts of the Luftwaffe, Soviet fighter pilots soon turned the tables through the use of lend-lease aircraft like the Hurricane, Spitfire, P-39 and P-40, and home-grown machines like the MIG-3, LaGG-3/5, Lavochkin La-5/7/9 and Yak-1/3. The later Yaks and Lavochkins were easily superior to the Bf 109 and Fw 190 at low-level, the favoured «killing field» of pilots like Khozedub and Poryshkin, both of whom finished with higher scores than the leading pilots of the West. This volume aims to dispel many of the myths about combat on the Eastern Front.

No single volume in English has ever appeared in the West dealing with this intriguing subject area, but now that restrictions have relaxed in the former Soviet Union, records of the deeds of the elite pilots of the various Soviet Air Forces are coming to light. Although initially equipped with very poor aircraft, and robbed of effective leadership thanks as much to Stalin's purges in the late 1930s as to the efforts of the Luftwaffe, Soviet fighter pilots soon turned the tables through the use of both lend-lease aircraft like the Hurricane, Spitfire, P-39 and P-40, and home-grown machines like the MiG-3, LaGG-3/5, Lavochkin La-5/7/9 and the Yak-1/3.

Aiming to dispel many myths about air combat on the Eastern Front, this volume describes the aircraft of the Soviet Air Force during World War II and the aces who flew them. During the 1930s, the exploits of Chkalov with his record breaking flights.