ABSTRACT
From the perspective of a later observer, the various small wars of 1936-1940 look like dress rehearsals for the main event, whose curtain rose in spectacular fashion on 22 June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Code-named Operation Barbarossa, the invasion initiated the largest land war in history. Caught by surprise, Soviet forces found themselves under attack while almost completely unprepared for war. The Soviet Air Force’s aircraft, parked in dense formations, devoid of camouflage or defence, were caught completely by surprise by the Luftwaffe’s initial strike. The Luftwaffe swiftly gained near-total air superiority, using it to assist the Wehrmacht in driving deep into the Soviet Union. Yet the Soviet Air Force recovered from this disastrous beginning and, eventually, reversed it. Von Hardesty aptly compares this course of events to the legendary Phoenix, which dies in flames only to rise renewed from the ashes. The scope of the disaster that overtook the Soviet Air Force in the summer of 1941 is staggering: 1,339 aircraft lost on the first day of the war, 2,046 in the first week, 5,098 in the first month, and 8,166 by the end of October. As the aircraft in the western Soviet Union totalled 8,472 on 21 June 1941 (Table 4.1) the Soviet Air Force thus suffered nearly 100 per cent losses from its deployed forces in four months. The explanation for this disaster lies, first and foremost, in the Soviet Air Force’s poor state of readiness.1
