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 HA PTER ONE was due to inadequate flying training and a lack of replacement pilots and aircraft in reserve to make good losses suffered after just two or three weeks of combat. Units had to be pulled back to the rear to be re-equipped, as a rule, with another aircraft type. It was factors such as these that left bitter memories of the Hurricane with many Soviet pilots, who flew the fighter for such a short period of time that there was no possibility of them becoming aces. The combat history of 195th IAP is typical of regiments equipped with the Hawker fighter in 1941-42. Established at Gorelovo, near Leningrad, literally on the eve of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, 195th IAP became part of the city’s 7th IAK and went operational with the Polikarpov I-16 while it was still in the process of being formed. The regiment flew 1269 combat sorties —primarily patrols over Leningrad —between 6 July and 15 September, resulting in 147 ‘operational encounters’ that saw air defence pilots claim 60 enemy aircraft (35 fighters, 22 bombers and three reconnaissance aircraft) destroyed for the loss of 12 I-16s. Several pilots distinguished themselves in these aerial battles, three of whom destroyed five aircraft and became aces. Snr Lt I P Neustroev, who was awarded the title of HSU on 28 September 1943, had six individual and nine shared victories to his name —he finished the war with a total of15 individual and 10 shared kills. Capt Vladimir Abramov had claimed five individual and ten shared victories by the time he was killed in combat on 11 September 1941. Jnr Lt V N Kharitonov was also credited with five individual and ten shared victories during this period, became a HSU on 10 February 1943 and ended the conflict with a tally of 18 individual and 16 shared victories. In the second half of July 1941 195th IAP was pulled back from the front and sent to the city of Cherepovets. Prior to this move taking place most of the unit’s technical personnel were posted to another regiment still at the front, while pilots requiring treatment for wounds sustained in battle were sent to the rear. 195th IAP was then brought back up to frontline strength with recent graduates from flying schools and groundcrews posted in from other units. It had essentially been reformed. While based at Sokol, in the Vologodsk region, in early January 1942, 195th IAP received its first Hurricanes. After ten days’conversion training the regiment was sent with its aircraft to the Kalinin Front to join the 3rd Strike Army in a two-squadron regiment based at Andreapol airfield. 195th IAP began military operations on 13 March when it undertook defensive patrols overhead Soviet troops and local rail transport, as well as in the vicinity of its own airfield. In ten days of action 195th IAP flew 229 operational sorties, engaged enemy aircraft on 11 occasions and claimed four Ju 88s destroyed for the loss of three pilots and six Hurricanes. By 27 March, of the Hurricanes w ere delivered to the Soviet Union disassembled and packed in crates. Most of those destined for service on the Kola Peninsula arrived at Kola railway station, several kilometres south of Murmansk 8 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com