The Unknown War is an American 20-part series that documents the World War II conflict between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
Today, SouthFront shares the 9th part of the series titled “War in the Air”. The Soviet Air Forces showed great resilience in the face of the Luftwaffe during World War II.
Soviet airfields were among the first targets hit by the Nazis with the start of Operation Barbarossa on June 22 of 1941. 800 Soviet airplanes were lost on the ground and 40 in the air. Still, the Soviet Air Forces put on a fierce fight, with several pilots like Pokryshkin shooting down multiple German airplanes.
German newspapers announced the triumph, but failed to take into account the determination of Soviet pilots and the capabilities of Soviet industry.
On August 8 of the same year, Soviet bombers raided Berlin. Goebbels attributed the raid to British bombers in a desperate attempt to hide the embarrassing failure of the Luftwaffe.
Soviet industry boosted the production of airplanes, while engineers kept improving them. Meanwhile, the recruitment of pilots expanded to include even women.
After the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, the Soviet Air Forces became dominant in the air. The Germans experienced endless aerial bombardment.
By the end of 1944, the Russians had beaten more than 20,000 German pilots. On the other side, 200,000 Soviet pilots were awarded for bravery, 2420 of them became heroes of the Soviet Union.
The Russians had shot down 77,000 Nazi airplanes by the end of the war. The Soviet Air Forces emerged victorious over the Luftwaffe, which was wiped out.
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never forget that russia shamefully allied with the nazis to invade poland.
russia was ready to surrender to hitler until the usa came to its rescue.
never trust the orcs!!!
heheheh
i don’t know that the russians allied with the nazis to to invade poland, nor that doing such a thing was shameful. the usa was busy being defeated by and surrendering to an inferior japanese force in the phillipines at the time that the russians broke the german invasion of the soviet union.
it’s a shame that after playing such important role in the great patriotic war against natzie germany the ukrainian people were fooled and forced by us/uk/nato to become the very same evil they once so valiantly fought. and just like germany the will become an occupied vassal statelet to be plundered of their natural resources.
they have been and it was the fact that they chose to join the catholic nazi party in the first place
esa guerra fue solo otra cruzada veneciana contra rusia venecia es el poder britanco ni el diablo es tan malo como bretaña venecia y los nordicos
los paises le tienen verdadero pavor a los britanicos por que son solo venecianos malvados lo peor de lo peor en salsa vikinga normanda
la propaganda b ritanica es muy buena escondiendo esa enorme maldad que tienen
with all respect for urss pilots, but a- the 1st day barbarossa 1,500 planes were destroyed at the grond and 300 in the air (soviet admitted 1,200) and no way urss could have shot down 77,000 german planes. simply there weren’t as many in eastern front. overclaiming was big in those days.