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Just after 2am on the 22nd of June 1941 the German Luftwaffe opened the war against Soviet Russia when flights of Heinkel He-111s raced low over the Baltic and Black Seas to drop mines in Soviet waters.
An hour later, at 3:15am, as the Soviet border erupted under the opening German artillery barrage, further groups of bombers simultaneously struck at Russian military airfields. Here, they found the Soviets completely unprepared for the attack – aircraft were parked in neat, compact rows, making easy targets for the raining bombs. In these, and following attacks throughout the first day alone, it is estimated that the Russians lost around 2000 aircraft, most on the ground. And those that did manage to get airborne were knocked easily out of the sky – the obsolescent or just plain inferior Soviet fighters being little challenge to the seasoned veterans of the Luftwaffe. To the Soviet losses, the Germans counted just 10 aircraft lost on the first day.
And as the main ground assault rolled forward, the Luftwaffe continued their familiar role, as seen in Poland and the West. They flew ahead of the fast moving tanks, blasting enemy lines of communication, supply areas and demolishing points of resistance when called.
On the Russian side, the response in these first vital hours was amazing. The standing orders to avoid provoking the Germans were not cast aside, but rather reiterated. Even as the panzers streamed over the border, commanders were told not to fire back and aircraft were officially only allowed to fly limited recon.
By the time the Russians were finally authorised to fight back it was too late and many of the units ordered to attack had already ceased to exist. Yet as the offensive went on, those Soviets that survived did continue to fight with a bravery that astounded the Germans. The Soviet air force – VVS (Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily) – sent up their fighters, mainly I-15 biplanes and their mono wing successor the I-16 (although underperforming Mig-3s and Yak fighters appeared as well) and despatched bombers to support the army, but the sky well and truly belonged to the Luftwaffe. So much so, in fact, that many German units assigned for air defence were re-allocated for ground support.
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But the Russian bear wasn’t as easily conquered as the Nazis hoped, while the Germans rolled on throughout the rest of 1941, first toward Moscow, and then switching to the southern concentration, the Russians uprooted their industries and people and moved them to the unreachable Ural Mountains. Here they were safe from German bombing and the rebuilding of the Soviet war machine could begin.
Then, with German forces just short of Moscow and stretched across communication lines hundreds of miles long, came Russia’s greatest ally – Winter.
Stumble It!