New answers tagged aircraft
2
I reached out to the Korean War Education Site, who were quite courteous and responsive. I will quote their answer below (I have removed personal information since they didn't grant permission to use names).
Can’t verify but seem to recall that the VO was the radar operator. RO would have been the Radio Operator, thus the V. The “I” would indicate ...
6
How was the Luftwaffe able to destroy nearly 4000 Soviet aircraft in 3 days of operation Barbarossa?
A vast majority of success of Blitzkrieg hinged on surprise factor which was available only in the earlier stages of war:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg, (German: “lightning war”) military tactic calculated to
create psychological shock and resultant disorganization in enemy
forces through the employment of surprise, speed, ...
14
How was the Luftwaffe able to destroy nearly 4000 Soviet aircraft in 3 days of operation Barbarossa?
Organizational deficiencies, technical obsolescence, inexperience of pilots, surprise caused by Stalin's blunder
First of all, claims that VSS lost 4000 planes in the first three days of war is somewhat dubious. This is mostly based on German sources, which is understandable since Soviets usually omitted exact data from this embarrassing period . Only ...
18
How was the Luftwaffe able to destroy nearly 4000 Soviet aircraft in 3 days of operation Barbarossa?
The Wikipedia article cited in another answer lists among reasons
...equipment, like that of the Red Army, was largely obsolescent and suffering from prolonged use.
The Great Purges had also hit aircraft manufacturers, and the loss of personnel ended the Soviet lead in aircraft design and aeronautics (...) The aviation industry was disrupted, ...
0
How was the Luftwaffe able to destroy nearly 4000 Soviet aircraft in 3 days of operation Barbarossa?
According to WW2 researcher Mark Solonin, one of the most important reasons of huge losses in the beginning was the unwillingness of soviet soldiers to die for the authoritarian regime and their mass desertion. There were a lot of live memories of the 193x repressions.
In his recent interview (in Russian) Solonin says something like "History proved again ...
46
How was the Luftwaffe able to destroy nearly 4000 Soviet aircraft in 3 days of operation Barbarossa?
The Soviets were caught by surprise and suffered massive casualties as a result. See this Wikipedia article. Lots of aircraft were destroyed on the ground, not the air.
The first attacks began at 03:00 on 22 June. The Soviets had been caught by surprise, their aircraft bunched together in neat rows which were vulnerable. The results were devastating ... ...
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