IL-2 Combat tactics 1943

[Dakpilot]

Great period Manual for IL-2 by Col. Podpolkovnik

 

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.co.za&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://rkka.es/Manuales/003_manuales_tacticas/001_manual_tacticas_pstygo_il2/00_Manual_Pstygo.htm&usg=ALkJrhjY_itQp5XpesGFSeBlMIEEb31PXQ

 

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Il-2 at Stalingrad

 

https://translate.google.co.za/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Frkka.es%2FOtros_articulos%2F35_IL-2_Stalingrado%2FIL-2_Stalingrado.htm&edit-text=&act=url

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Original spanish site

 

http://rkka.es/Otros_articulos/otros_articulos_index.htm

 

Cheers Dakpilot​

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Edited November 9, 2015 by Dakpilot

[Bando]

Interesting. Thanks.

[andyw248]

Excellent finds... Thanks for sharing!

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

Fantastic findings, Dakpilot, these are really amazing! Now I really have enough on my plate to read

 

For anyone who's willing to brave Google Translate, you can also find great original books in Russian at http://militera.lib.ru/Here's Pokryshkin memoir for example: http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/pokryshkin2/index.html To search what you need, type the author's name in English in Google Translate into Russian then copy it on the search.

 

A side-note though: the authors of the first book are Guards Colonel I. Pstygo and Lieutenant Colonel Osipov. 'Podpolkovnik' is the Russian/Soviet equivalent to Lieutenant Colonel, and translates literally to Sub-Colonel (Pod-Polkovnik).

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

Not Il-2 related, but from the same (amazing) source. Been reading it non-stop ever since it was shared, thanks Dakpilot! A drawing depicting the Kubanskaya Etazhorka (Kuban Staircase) formation devised by Pokryshkin.

 

Each pair covers a certain height. If at any time a lower 'step' is attacked there are fighters higher up to catch the offenders. Conversely, if anyone tries to attack a higher step the lower fighters attack anyone who goes any lower.

[andyw248]

Thanks for finding this, I just don't have enough time to skim through it... So it seems that in '43 the VVS finally came to grips with their fighter tactics, and as early as '42 they developed reasonable ground attack tactics.

 

Having lived in Germany for the first few decades of my life I'm always stunned about the differences in how air combat tactics were developed in Germany and the Soviet Union. Here's my current view (I may revise it at any time):

• Germans were not as stubborn as I thought in applying new tactics. The insights Werner Moelders brought back from Spain were well received, and they actually implemented the Schwarm / Rotte pattern.
• The Soviet leadership was much slower in accepting feedback from the pilots that fought in Spain. They had to go through the failures of '41 to accept the fact that they had to reform fighter tactics.
• Fighter pilots of both countries followed directives as they were supposed to do - with the results we all know about.

What's surprising to me is that German fighter pilots (ie. Moelders) were able to promote their thoughts up through the ranks. I would have though he was just a lieutenant at the time, how could Goering ever have listened to him? But apparently the Luftwaffe took a more practical approach at that time than the VVS was able to take.

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

I'd say your observations are correct, except perhaps on the fighter pilots following directives at all times - the Soviet ones, specifically.

 

Starting in 1941 and becoming increasingly common in 1942, Soviet pilots started taking matters in their own hands, and you would find different tactics being fielded in each regiment. Of course, the majority of them still worked by the book, and a mix of old fashioned commanders who stayed past their time and had a flair for bureaucracy and formality over flexibility held a lot of innovators back.

 

However, observant regiment and squadron leaders started noticing what worked and what didn't, and were quick to pass down orders at unit level to introduce better tactics immediately. Examples here include famously Aleksandr Pokryshkin, and less known names such as Ivan Kleschev (pronounced Kleschyóv), who were both Squadron commanders within their regiments (55 and 521 IAP respectively, later 16 and 32 GIAP) and were quick to introduce four-plane formations and extensively drilled their subordinates in the virtues of vertical combat and the importance of having altitude to make a bounce.

 

Kleschev first worked this out with a zveno composed by Babkov, Alkidov and Karnachenok in the first months of 1942, and then the tactics spread to his squadron and, once Kleschev was promoted to regiment commander of 434 IAP in May (by now a specially formed regiment of experienced pilots, taking with him the best pilots of 521 IAP), he quickly introduced this doctrine as standard there.

 

If you look at most lists of Soviet aces (not taking number of kills in account but importance to the war effort), you will find that two types of pilots prevail: 'old dogs' like A. Pokryshkin, G. Rechkalov and B. Safonov who had been flying fighters before the outbreak of the war and were quick to adapt to new techniques to match the Luftwaffe, and pilots who hit the front (or started achieving success) around 1943 and beyond like I. Kozhedub, K. Yevstigneyev and A. Klubov.

 

The first kind were successful by adapting new techniques on the go and slowly building their tactical repertoire from the lessons learned in the air. The second group, however, arrived at a time when tactical conventions were up to modern standards, so they had no problem following it.