WWII Soviet fighter pilot book suggestions?

[IonicRipper]

I'm looking for a book to give me an idea of what it was like being a fighter pilot during the great patriotic war. I'm not usualy the type to read books but I think i would enjoy this kind of book. Any suggestions?

[Guest deleted@16979]

No shortage of German war accounts. On the Soviet side your choices are limited.

 

Swastika in the Gunsight: Memoirs of a Russian Fighter Pilot 1941-45  by Igor Kaberov is a good read.

 

Doesn't get much better if you're looking for the fighter pilot perspective. 

[FlatSpinMan]

I just read an account of a female Sturmovik pilot. It's called "Over fields of fire".

While the woman led an extraordinary life and faced some awful things, even after the war's end, the writing style and lack of geeky war details make it hard for me to recommend.

I think it suffers in translation, but another thing I found quite odd initially, was the way it seemed to read like a "Famous Five" book,as written by Enid Stalin, or something. I'd never read anything from the Soviet point of view, so it was at first strange to read someone who was so strongly into the Communist system. That's just my own bias coming in of course. I've read a number of German pilot accounts and found them more readily accessible, partly through familiarity,partly due to downplaying of Nazism in them. Once I got used to the new frame,it was actually an interesting exercise in reading.

That said, it never caught me the way some of the best pilot accounts have - Clostermann, Richie, Hartman, etc.

 

I must check out the link above. I need to know more about the Soviet side.

 

http://www.amazon.com/OVER-FIELDS-OF-FIRE-Sturmovik/dp/1906033277

[Sternjaeger]

Yep, there are at least a couple I got from the kindle shop for free

 

Red star airacobra

Over fields of fire

 

Not sure if they're still for free though.

 

I only read the latter so far, which is alright, and if anything spurred my interest for the making of the Moscow underground train system.

[FlatSpinMan]

Just checked the reviews of the fighter pilot book in the first reply and they match my thoughts about Over Fields of Fire very closely. The perspective and then focus are very different from what a Western reader expects.

[Sternjaeger]

yeah, bit of propaganda drivel really.. the other two I flagged are a bit better apparently, but they all have in common far from perfect translations. Still, an interesting read.

Edited January 11, 2014 by Sternjaeger

[Brano]

No wonder,all of soviet memoire literature has been written after war in the mist of censorship and shade of Stalin,Chruscev,Breznev....If you wanted to publish,it was mandatory to include parts celebrating comunist party,comrade Stalin and all that crap.You have to read ''inbetween lines'' in such literature.

I strongly reccomend memoire book of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pokryshkin "Poznat' sebya v boyu" but I have no idea if it was translated to english and how to get it.I have 2 books (2 different editions) at my place,translated in my mother tongue Slovak.And I read thru this books again and again.Because Sasha was kind of rebel and an exception in soviet system.Never glorified comunist party in his book and as such it is IMO very readable also for you ''western'' guys

[=38=Tatarenko]

For Sturmoviks I recommend Red Star Against the Swastika by Vassili Emelyanenko.

[Blooddawn1942]

I own a TimeLife book about the history of the soviet air force covering mainly WWII. Its from a whole series of aviation related books from TimeLife released in 1980 in germany. I guess there must be an english version released prior to the german.

Edit: just googled it. The original title is "The Soviet Air Force"

[FlatSpinMan]

Red Star Against the Swastika - I think that was the book I was actually intending to buy but forgot the title.

[Picchio]

I'm currently reading it as well! The english translation is kind of meh, unfortunately...

 

But! It's funny that some months ago I was looking for it and somehow I stumbled upon a website, http://iremember.ru/ (check it out guys, there's some interesting stuff in there).

I don't recall if I actually found the publisher's details I was looking for in that website, but a page in the book says "Publication made possible by the 'I Remember' website (www.iremember.ru) and its director, Mr Artem Drabkin"... small world, isn't it?

Edited January 23, 2014 by Picchio

[sallee]

Air Combat Over the Eastern Front & Korea is a first hand account by Sergei Kramarenko and is a very interesting read. He flew LaGG 3s (fortunately not in combat as his unit was re-equipped with La 5s before he had that misfortune). The first two thirds of the book deal with his WWII experiences.

[andyw248]

I see there's a translation of a Russian book: "Fighters over Stalingrad Vol1" by Nikita Egorov and Boris Nechkin coming in April (e.g. at: http://www.amazon.com/Fighters-over-Stalingrad-Volume-Operations/dp/1781550468/ref=lh_ni_t?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER). Does anyone know how the original Russian edition was received?

[Bladderburst]

Black cross red star, or any aircraft of the aces from osprey. The one about the polikarpov aces is pretty interesting. 

[SvAF/F19_Klunk]

For Sturmoviks I recommend Red Star Against the Swastika by Vassili Emelyanenko.

+1

[andyw248]

I'm currently reading "Attack of the Airacobras - Soviet Aces, American P-39s, and the Air War against Germany" by Dmitriy Loza, translated and edited by James F. Gebhardt (available e.g. from: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0700616543/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). It originated from a collaboration between the (Russian) author and the (American) translator/editor in the late 90's, and does not have the ideological issues that were observed in some older Soviet publications.

 

The Book is based on interviews with surviving pilots of some of the Guards wings that flew Airacobras, including Pokryshnin; the content from the interviews, together with results from archive research, has been compiled into narratives. It focuses on accounts of individual missions, starting with missions flown during the Kuban operation, and then following the wing through the battlefields of Ukraine into southeast Germany. It provides lots of details of how those missions were planned and carried out, including goals, formations, altitudes, spacing, etc. A few chapters describe the logistical aspects, e.g. how wings were relocated to new airfields, as well as how an airfield worked.

 

Very readable, highly recommended!

[LLv34_Flanker]

S!

 

 There was a book written by a Russian Army's politruk/commissar when he was besieged in Winter War on Raate road. I think the translation would be "Icy Hell". He had to hide the memoirs and they were not published until very recently. Gives quite a different view on things than the "official" books filled with propagandanistic drivel. Have to dig up the book and author. Not related to flying but WW2 nevertheless and the rare Russian side of books.

 

EDIT: Gordijenko, Anatoli: Kuoleman divisioona "Division of Death" or "Gibel divisii"

Edited August 1, 2014 by LLv34_Flanker

[sallee]

I'm currently reading "Attack of the Airacobras - Soviet Aces, American P-39s, and the Air War against Germany" by Dmitriy Loza, translated and edited by James F. Gebhardt (available e.g. from: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0700616543/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). It originated from a collaboration between the (Russian) author and the (American) translator/editor in the late 90's, and does not have the ideological issues that were observed in some older Soviet publications.

 

The Book is based on interviews with surviving pilots of some of the Guards wings that flew Airacobras, including Pokryshnin; the content from the interviews, together with results from archive research, has been compiled into narratives. It focuses on accounts of individual missions, starting with missions flown during the Kuban operation, and then following the wing through the battlefields of Ukraine into southeast Germany. It provides lots of details of how those missions were planned and carried out, including goals, formations, altitudes, spacing, etc. A few chapters describe the logistical aspects, e.g. how wings were relocated to new airfields, as well as how an airfield worked.

 

Very readable, highly recommended!

Thanks for this. Shame Pokryshkin's book doesn't seem to have been translated into English.

[bivalov]

I see there's a translation of a Russian book: "Fighters over Stalingrad Vol1" by Nikita Egorov and Boris Nechkin coming in April (e.g. at: http://www.amazon.com/Fighters-over-Stalingrad-Volume-Operations/dp/1781550468/ref=lh_ni_t?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER). Does anyone know how the original Russian edition was received?

book are STRICTLY on english language, and it's very very sad. but even on english book still not out, author said me that MAYBE book will be released somewhere in end of year (or something like this, well, not in near future), because he had personal problems. but, really, any man who want to know more about BOS, must buy this book, because, if i not mistaken, it's last detailed version of history of BOS, from russian archives...

 

and, maybe, not-russian people can a bit teach here russian people, well, meanwhile in performances of soviet planes they showed mainly, excuse me, "цирк с конями"...

[Brano]

I'm currently reading "Attack of the Airacobras - Soviet Aces, American P-39s, and the Air War against Germany" by Dmitriy Loza, translated and edited by James F. Gebhardt (available e.g. from: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0700616543/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). It originated from a collaboration between the (Russian) author and the (American) translator/editor in the late 90's, and does not have the ideological issues that were observed in some older Soviet publications.

 

The Book is based on interviews with surviving pilots of some of the Guards wings that flew Airacobras, including Pokryshnin; the content from the interviews, together with results from archive research, has been compiled into narratives. It focuses on accounts of individual missions, starting with missions flown during the Kuban operation, and then following the wing through the battlefields of Ukraine into southeast Germany. It provides lots of details of how those missions were planned and carried out, including goals, formations, altitudes, spacing, etc. A few chapters describe the logistical aspects, e.g. how wings were relocated to new airfields, as well as how an airfield worked.

 

Very readable, highly recommended!

It looks like this book is based on Sasha Pokryshkin memoires quite a bit (minus compulsory postwar commies balast).Some chapters even have simmilar if not same names as in his original book.I have to get it