Aircraft
The Soviet Union: Glider Pioneer?
G-11s, along with the Antonov A-7 constituted a majority of Soviet transport gliders. They were mainly used from mid-1942 for supplying Soviet partisans with provisions, weapons, equipment and trained men, towed mainly by SB or DB-3 bombers. Most intensive use was from March to November 1943 in Belarus, in the Polotsk-Begoml-Lepel area, on the Kalinin Front. Several hundred Soviet gliders…
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Volksjäger
Jet fighters He 162 Volksjäger at Leck May 1945 As the war turned irretrievably against the Third Reich, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring proposed a Volksjäger, or “People’s Fighter”—a cheap, simple jet made of nonstrategic materials and capable of being flown even by hastily trained Hitler Youth. “Projekt Salamander,” issued on September…
AIRPOWER 1918 Part I
1918 Gotha G.Va – Taras Shtyk 1918 Fokker DVII Hermann Göring – Taras Shtyk 1918 Siemens Schuckert D.III Ernst Udet – Taras Shtyk 1918 Caproni Ca-42 Integral to the balance of intelligence advantage was air superiority, which had never been more fiercely contested than in 1918. During the war aircraft…
AIRPOWER 1918 Part II
1918 Aviatik Berg D.I at War – R. Zanello 1918 Gotha GL VII -Taras Shtyk 1918 Sopwith 2F1 Camel N6603 HMS Pegasus – Taras Shtyk 1918 SE5a 40 Squadron Gwilym Hugh Lewis – Taras Shtyk Since 1914 reconnaissance had been a vital function of airpower, in the rudimentary period of…
Czechoslovak Air Force 1918-1970 Part I
World War I In the First World War, the Czechs served in the Austro-Hungarian army, but mass desertions were widespread. Czechoslovak legions were formed in France, Italy and Russia to fight for Czechoslovak independence from Austria-Hungary. This is why Czech pilots could be found on both sides of the conflict.…
Czechoslovak Air Force 1918-1970 Part II
Clearly, the French defeat had saved some high-ranking members of the RAF from a potentially embarrassing decision, but events had overtaken them. Edvard Beneš had already written to the new Secretary of State for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair, requesting help with the evacuations, adding that the first group of thirty…
Czechoslovak Air Force 1918-1970 Part III
By the middle of April 1945, Marshal Koniev’s First Ukrainian Front had penetrated deep into the eastern half of Czechoslovakia, while Patton’s Third Army had advanced into the western areas. This prompted calls from the Czechoslovak government for the immediate transfer of the army units to the western sectors in…