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.

15 combat-worthy Hurricanes that 195th IAP had commenced operations with just two weeks earlier, only six remained serviceable. The regimental combat report for this period describes how bad conditions at Andreapol were in March 1942. The unit lacked any form of vehicular transport, let alone specialist trucks to heat water and engine oil and clear runways o f snow. Personnel lived in dugouts, which hardly represented suitable accommodation, and supplies o f food, fuel and ammunition were often disrupted. Communications with headquarters were unreliable, and the generation o f sorties following requests by ground forces coming under aerial attack were so badly delayed that by the time 195th IAP Hurricanes were aloft, enemy aircraft had long since returned to the safety o f their own lines. On 1April 195th IAP was withdrawn to be reformed, having handed its remaining Hurricanes to another regiment. In this brief period of operations the unit’s pilots had flown 311 sorties and engaged in 24 aerial combats, resulting in claims for five enemy aircraft destroyed. The first ofthese had fallen on 21 March when two Ju 88s were shot down, one of which was attributed to Snr Lt Shcherban. The other was shared between Shcherban and Snr Lt Drozdov. The following day it was announced that two more bombers had been destroyed, one of which was credited to Shcherban while the other was shared between Shcherban, Afansyev and Burya. The fifth, and final, aircraft downed, in late March, was recorded as an ‘Me 115’, but it was in all likelihood a Bf 110. Its demise was credited to Zlodeev, Naydenov and Klimenko. Considering 195th IAP’s brief time at the front, and the lack of an early warning system to alert the unit of approaching enemy aircraft, it is unlikely that any of the regiment’s pilots would have become aces even if they had been equipped with the most up-to-date fighters then in Soviet service. Yet 195th IAP’s experience was typical of Red Army Air Force units fighting on the Soviet-German front in the first half of 1942. It is true that there were exceptions, however. One was the protracted use of Hurricanes in the skies over the Arctic by the air forces of the Northern Fleet and on the Karelian Front (with the 7th Air Army after 10 November 1942), which saw a number of pilots score five or more kills while flying the Hawker fighter. But before recounting the combat exploits o fthese aviators, it is necessary to describe the way the Hurricane was characterised by the combat units in this northern sector o f the Soviet-German front. Hurricanes arrived in the Soviet Union from late 1941 as a key part o f the first batch o f lend-lease aircraft supplied by the Western Allies, together with Curtiss Tomahawk IIs and Kittyhawk Is and Bell P-39 Airacobras. They joined the latest generation of Soviet fighters —the LaGG-3 and Yak-1 —at a time when production of the MiG-3 had been discontinued with only a few examples surviving in combat units. All ofthese fighters had been designed in the mid to late 1930s and put into large-scale production shortly thereafter. Each type had advantages and disadvantages. Although the LaGG-3 and Bell P-39 were both quite difficult to fly, the Soviet fighter’s main drawback was its weight thanks to its all-wooden construction, with load bearing elements made from laminated plywood. Not only was the aircraft seriously overweight (takeoff weight was 2680 kg), its 1100 hp 9 © Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com HURRICANES IN SOV I E T SERVICE