Air War on the Eastern Front

Although the largest air war in history was fought on the Eastern Front during World War II, this is one of the least known chapters of aviation history. The reason for this is clear: The prolonged Cold War succeeding the World War II created enormous barriers and frustrated all efforts by historians to develop a multisided picture of the true events during this war. The conflict between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union was as marked by ideological overtones as any civil war. Most participants were colored by the extreme propaganda of their own side. This has seriously affected the historical record. In the Soviet Union and in today’s Russia, the wartime tones from the Kremlin still prevail. In the Western world, the misconceptions and prejudices of the former Wehrmacht participants have created a correspondingly distorted pic­ture. When comparing Soviet/Russian literature with corresponding Western accounts, one wonders if they at all describe the same war.

The aim of this work is to present a balanced and objective description of the actual events during the course of this immense air w’ar. It is obvious that this is a diffi­cult task, and even if a large amount of research work- enhancing firsthand accounts and archiveal material from both sides—has been laid down by the authors, it is inevi­table that much still remains to be clarified.

Since the main topic of this work is confined to the field of aviation, relatively little attention is paid to the by far larger war on the ground. The authors only wish that the reader should keep in mind that the war between Germany and the USSR mainly was decided on the ground. This, however, should not obscure the fact, as we have mentioned, that the air war on the Eastern Front was larger than anything ever seen in aviation history.

To discuss the political reasons for the German inva­sion of the Soviet Union in 1941 would stretch beyond the aim of this work. To know the nature of the fierce