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.

Sustained attacks on enemy shipping began at the end of May when several successful raids on individual vessels were made by groups of six to eight aircraft. On 1 June Hurricanes of 78th IAP began joint operations with Il-2s of 46th ShAP, which had become part of the Northern Fleet Air Force in March. For the next three months the regiment had been undergoing combat training prior to it being declared operationally capable. W ith its relatively low cruising speed, the Hurricane was well suited to the job of escorting the ground attack aircraft. And the Northern Fleet Air Force command considered that these mixed groups would have enough combined firepower to protect themselves against enemy fighters. The first joint operation, conducted on 1 June, followed shortly after a Soviet reconnaissance aircraft had detected a German convoy nearing port. At 0100 hrs four Il-2s led by Capt Aleksey Mazurenko took off to attack the vessels, escorted by eight Hurricanes. Mazurenko was the senior flying instructor of Soviet ground attack aviation at this time, and he had been posted to the Northern Fleet to train Il-2 pilots in how to target ships at sea. He ended the war a twice HSU with a score o feight ships sunk and 22 shared destroyed. Although Mazurenko attacked the vessels, for pilots of 46th ShAP this was just a familiarisation sortie. A few days later the mixed group of Il-2s and Hurricanes was redeployed northeast to the frontline airfield at Pummanki, on the Sredniy peninsula, for more shipping attacks. There, they were just 15-17 km (9-11 miles) from the Red Army’s main line of defence, and only 25 km (16 miles) from the German naval base at Liinakhamari, in Petsamo bay. But this move also brought the Soviet aircraft closer to the enemy airfield at Luostari, home of JG 5 Eismeer. This mixed group soon became a thorn in the side of the Germans, with the exploits of Hurricane ace and 78th IAP squadron commander Capt Vasiliy Adonkin being particularly noteworthy during this period. A respected and popular pilot who had fought as a member of the Northern Fleet Air Force since the start of the war, Adonkin had been one of the first Soviet aviators presented with the Order ofthe Red Banner, on 14 July 1941, for an action in which he engaged German bombers while flying an I-153. Three Ju 88s were reported to have been shot down, but their loss remains unconfirmed. Adonkin received his second Order of the Red Banner on 2 June 1942 after Il-2 ground attack aircraft of 46th ShAP, Northern Fleet Air Force, fly over the polar tundra. 78th IAP Hurricanes w ere the first fighters to escort these aircraft on offensive missions It was believed that the UB 12.7 mm defensive machine guns of the Il-2, combined w ith the weapons of the escorting Hurricanes, would provide a strong enough defence against opposing Bf 109s. In practice, however, this concept quickly proved to be fatally flawed 71 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com B A T T L E SOVER THE OCEAN