Soviet
Tupolev Tu-4 Soviet Superfortress
The USA persistently turned down Soviet requests for the delivery of B-29 bombers. Yet, despite this discrimination on the part of its ally, by the beginning of 1945 the USSR had obtained three flyable Superfortresses. Where had they come from? The origin of this miracle, very timely for the USSR, is as follows. From 1944 onwards the USAAF units equipped…
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The Liberation of Prague and Czechoslovakia
Soviet and Czech Armour 1945 The Nazi puppet state in Slovakia sent small ground and air units to fight against the Soviet Union. Formerly a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, after World War I Slovakia shared the twists and turns of the history of the Czech state. But during World…
The Kuban Air Battles I
I. Pokryshkin and his squadron mate Dmitry B. Glinka (brother of Boris Glinka, also ace and Hero of the Soviet Union) “Achtung! Achtung! Pokryshkin is in the air!” these words made German pilots feel panic. Nobody wanted to meet him in one-to-one fighting. I. Pokryshkin became famous during the battles…
The Kuban Air Battles II
P-39D-2 “White 37” of Guards Snr.Lt. V.I. Fadeev, CO of the 3-rd Squadron, 16 GIAP. Kuban’, April-May, 1943 Major air campaign that marked the shift from German to Soviet air superiority on the Eastern Front during World War II. During April and May 1943, as the Germans struggled for their…
Kuznetsov class
Early in the 1970s the Soviet Navy formulated a requirement for a conventional carrier, and a design bureau was assigned to the project in 1973. The initial sketch suggested a nuclear powered vessel of 75,000 to 80,000 tons equipped with four steam catapults and embarking an air group of seventy…
Barbarossa – Panzer Divisions
The first weeks of Barbarossa saw the Panzers make rapid advances and Soviet forces taking heavy losses, outshining the German achievements of 1940. However, problems soon surfaced. The lack of a suitable road network slowed down the German follow-up infantry and supplies, with the result that the Panzers failed to…
The Battle of Narva, 1944 Part I
Narva: Castles/Crossing/Town Background to a Battle The German army of 1944 was no longer the seemingly invincible military force that had conquered most of Europe in the first years of World War II. In the previous year, the Red Army had pushed the German Army Group Center back over 400…