Рыбин, Ю. В. Советские асы на Харрикейнах в годы Второй Мировой Войны / Юрий Рыбин . – [Б. м. ] : Osprey Publishing, 2012. – 97 с. : ил., портр. – Англ. яз.

C H A PTE R TWO was redeployed to Letnyaya airfield, a pair of fighters scrambling to intercept enemy aircraft. No encounter took place, however. According to the Journal o fEnemy Aircraft Destroyed, it was Pavel Gavrilov who claimed the regiment’s first victory with the Hurricane. The journal gives the date of this initial success as 24 November, but no further information is provided. During this period the accuracy of operational reports from 103rd SAD headquarters was seriously deficient due to poor communication with subordinate regiments, but it is surprising that a description of such a significant event is missing from the official records of 152nd IAP. Finnish sources do not shed any light on this event either, other than to point out that the Finnish Air Force did not engage in air combat that day due to poor weather. Nevertheless, it is a fact that Gavrilov scored his first individual Hurricane kill that day, the Bf 109 he claimed representing his second victory. It should be noted that pilots from 152nd IAP converted to the new fighter with great enthusiasm since they had previously flown the low-powered, open-cockpit I-153 biplane. But as they had frontline experience, gained mainly on ground attack operations, they considered themselves fully-fledged fighter pilots, and were hungry to test themselves against enemy aircraft. At this stage of the war Soviet pilots rarely exhibited a desire to engage in active combat beyond the frontline and over enemy territory. The enthusiasm shown by 152nd’s pilots to actively seek out the enemy can possibly be explained by the fact that its main opponents were units of the Finnish Air Force equipped with the obsolete Fokker D.XXI. This licence-built aircraft was inferior to the Hurricane in both performance and firepower. During the winter of 1941-42, raids by 152nd IAP behind enemy lines were distinguished by their audacity and determination. In fact all of 103rd SAD’s regiments were active despite the harsh weather. For pilots of 152nd IAP, the peak period of action was December 1941. That month Hurricanes from the regiment opened fire on Finnish aircraft on at least nine occasions, and it was reported that eight enemy aircraft had been destroyed. Pilots claimed three Bf 109s, one Brewster B-239 (the export variant of the American F2A-1 Buffalo carrier fighter), two Fokker D.XXIs and two Bristol Blenheims. Soviet losses amounted to Finnish Fokker D.XXI fighters were inferior to the Hurricane II, and they were often easy prey for Soviet pilots (Kari Stenman collection) © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com