A fascinating book has come out recently in Russia called SOVIET AND GERMAN AIR COMBAT OPERATIONS IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR [BOEVAYA RABOTA SOVETSKOI I NEMETSKOI AVIATSII V VOV], an analysis of of Soviet and German fighter, attack, and bomber aviation 1941-1945, by Andrei Smirnov, Tranzitkniga, Moscow, 2006. It goes into detail about the effectiveness and reasons for high losses in Soviet aviation. It has extensive footnotes (over a thousand in its 500+ pages (very unusual for a Russian book), mostly recent secondary literature and German and Soviet memoirs. Of relevance to this forum are some examples from Kursk, such as this:p. 282 - "Only in 1943 did the technical services begin to satisfactorily support the IL-2 fleet. By the start of the Battle of Kursk, in the shturmovik units of the 2nd, 15th, 16th, and 17th air armies (for the Voronezh, Bryansk, Central, and South-West Fronts, respectively) only 9.7%, 115 out of 1,184 machines, were out of service."
p. 288 - "In the first six days of the Battle of Kursk (5-10 July) shturmovik units of the 2nd Air Army, Voronezh Front lost one plane on average... after 16-17 sorties; the above mentioned 874th Shturmovik Regiment (part of the 299th Shturmovik Division, 16th Air Army, Central Front) after 11 sorties, and the 305th Shturmovik Division, 17th Air Army, South-West Front, after 2.2 sorties!"
p. 289 [comparing to IL-2 loss rates to Ju-87 losses] "Even in the middle of 1943 this level was several times (sometimes an order of magnitute) less than that of the IL-2! If in the shturmovik air units of the 2nd Air Army in the first week of the Battle of Kursk one plane was lost for every 16-17 combat sorties, in the 2nd and 77th Stuka Wings fighting on the same part of the front it was only after 100-132 sorties!"
p. 291 - "By the 11th of July the 2nd Air Army, Voronezh Front lost, mainly from fighter attacks, 39% of its shturmoviks (107 out of 276) and the 16th Air Army, Central Front, by July 10th had lost 50% (148 out of 295)."
p. 300 - Total IL-2 unrecoverable combat losses:
1943 - 3,515
1944 - 3,344 or 3,722
Jan-April 1945 - 1,691
p. 320 - fighter strength of fronts at Kursk:
2nd Air Army, Voronezh Front, 1 July 1943:
597 Yak-1, Yak-7B, La-5 (around 400 combat ready)
17th Air Army, South-West Front:
255 Yak-1, Yak-7B, La-5 (180 combat ready)
"Nevertheless, on the first day of Citadel, 5th July, the 2nd and 77th Stuka Wings executed 1,071 combat sorties without losing a single Stuka! (For comparison the shturmovik units of the 2nd Air Army with 220 aircraft lost, according to Soviet information, 27 IL-2s). On July 7th the 2nd and 77th Stuka Wings carried out (together with Fw-190s and Hs-123s from the 1st Attack Wing) 946 combat sorties - and again lost not a single Ju-87! July 8th, 9th, and 11th respectively saw 836, 882, and 604 combat sorties by the three Wings, and losses of 2, 2, and 4 Stukas. On July 6th the 2nd and 77th Stuka Wings lost, out of 793 combat sorties, 6 Ju-87s."
p. 321 - "The 305th Shturmovik Division, 17th Air Army had 2.2 sorties for each combat loss (in three days the division lost in 137 combat sorties two-thirds of its machines - 67 IL-2s. and on July 8th was withdrawn to the rear for reformation.)"
I wonder if this agrees with Chris's or anyone else's data?
The Dupuy Institute Forum
UBBFriend: Email This Page to Someone! 
posted 06-11-2006 02:56 PM
