SERIES EDITOR: TONY HOLMES
OSPREY AIRCRAFT OF THE ACES ® • 76 |
More Bf 109 Aces of the Russian Front
John Weal |
CONTENTS
BARBAROSSA
The most commonly accepted definition of an ace, and the one used throughout by Osprey’s Aircraft of the Aces series, is any pilot with five or more aerial kills to his credit. By this yardstick, or indeed any other, the greatest assemblage of aces ever involved in a single campaign came from the ranks of the Luftwaffe Jagdgruppen engaged against the Soviet Red Air Force between June 1941 and May 1945.
In the first volume of this two-part work (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 37 – Bf 109 Aces of the Russian Front), an attempt was made briefly to describe the background, and explain the unique set of circumstances, that led up to the air war in the east. This conflict gave many German fighter pilots, both veteran and tyro alike, the chance to amass huge scores against their numerically superior communist opponents. In its early stages at least, the conflict was very much a one-sided contest fought against an ill-prepared, inadequately trained, poorly equipped and badly led enemy. Many months would pass before the Soviets rectified these shortcomings, and before their sheer weight of numbers finally, and irrevocably, tipped the balance in favour of the Red Air Force.
The increasingly bitter four-year struggle against the USSR’s land and naval air forces would result in the emergence of literally hundreds of Luftwaffe five-victory aces. But limitations of space meant that the emphasis in the first of these two volumes had to be focussed primarily on the top 75 Experten of the Russian front – those illustrious individuals who racked up totals of 100 or more Soviet aircraft destroyed.
Almost exactly twice that number of German fighter pilots (some 154 in all), however, are known to have achieved scores ranging from 50 to 99 against the Russians. These ‘semi-centurions’, as one Luftwaffe historian has labelled them, should in no way be regarded as second stringers. They were all highly proficient and successful pilots. To put matters into perspective, each and every one of them surpassed – many, in fact, more than doubled – the numbers of victories claimed by the leading British and American aces of World War 2. Apart from Germany, only four other nations produced fighter pilots with scores of 50+, namely the Soviet Union, Japan, Finland and Rumania.
There were two types of Russian front 50+ Experten. First, there were the well-known names whose victories against the Soviets were just a chapter in their long and often illustrious wartime careers. One such was Hauptmann Heinz Bär, who claimed 96 of his 220 kills in the east …
The Luftwaffe’s Russian front semi-centurions fall into two distinct ...
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About More Bf 109 Aces of the Russian FrontThe four-year long Eastern Front campaign fought between Germany and the Soviet Union produced not only the greatest number of aces, but also the highest individual and unit scores ever recorded in the history of aerial warfare. An ideal complement to its bestselling predecessor, this fully illustrated volume covers the Luftwaffe fighter pilots credited with scores of between 50 and 100; every single one of them amassing a greater number of victories than the highest and most celebrated of any British or American World War II ace. Despite these huge personal totals, the names of these pilots who fought against the Red Air Force remain almost unknown to many English speaking readers. More Bf 109 Aces of the Russian Front rectifies that omission, providing first-hand accounts from the combat veterans themselves, as well as never-before published photographs, vividly conveying the terrible experiences of the protagonists in this difficult theatre of war. |
| Support Info | 9781782005346 |