Russian Fighter Tactics

[PatrickAWlson]

One bit of information that I am looking for is what kind of formation did the VVS use when conducting fighter missions?   I believe that three man formations were common early.  is this accurate?  When did Russia move to a four man formation?  Any other interesting things about Russian fighter formations?

 

Did a google search and came up empty.  

 

Edit: Wiki has a little blurb on use of finger four by the VVS:

The Soviet air force units in the Spanish Civil War soon adopted the formation flying against the Germans, and in 1938 recommended its use when they returned home. However most of the Spanish veterans were swept away during Stalin's purge of the armed forces,^[3] and the more conservative "Vic" remained the standard Soviet formation. The pary and zveno were not re-introduced until the post-Barbarossa reforms by Alexander Novikov in 1942–43.^[4]

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by PatrickAWlson

[Eisenfaustus]

From the osprey duel series I read that vvs flew in tight vic formations in 41 and early 42 and had already adopted finger four by late 43. So I guess single units started experimenting with finger four in 42/43 until it became the new standard. 

[PatrickAWlson]

13 minutes ago, Eisenfaustus said:

From the osprey duel series I read that vvs flew in tight vic formations in 41 and early 42 and had already adopted finger four by late 43. So I guess single units started experimenting with finger four in 42/43 until it became the new standard. 

 

So the reason behind this is that I am trying to refine formations in PWCG.  I already take this into account to a some degree but I wanted to do it better.  The Russians, for instance, I had them flying 3 man formations for the whole war.  At the moment, I changed that with a cutoff of April 1 1943 for all units.

 

It looks like the transition was pretty long and ragged.  I do have a concept of unit quality.  I think that I will use that to make the transition to 2 man elements earlier for better units and later for worse ones, with an eventual complete cutover later in 43.

[BlackSix]

3 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

One bit of information that I am looking for is what kind of formation did the VVS use when conducting fighter missions?   I believe that three man formations were common early.  is this accurate?  When did Russia move to a four man formation?  Any other interesting things about Russian fighter formations?

A formation of three fighters was used from the beginning of the war until the end of 1942. In October-November 1942, the transition began to a flight of 4 fighters in some fighter divisions near Stalingrad, but this process was finally completed only in the spring of 1943.

Thus, I feel free to use the flight of three planes in the spring of 1943 and the flight of 4 planes in December 1942.

[Jaws2002]

Here's a quote from Luftwaffe aces of the Eastern front, Page 110.

   This action happened in early May1943.

 

"We crossed the Neva at about 5000 metres. No sign of Flak. Below us
was the railway bridge with the single track disappearing into the woods
to the east. We could also clearly see the two airstrips.
"From Anton 1 to all cyclists: fighters at Schlüsselburg have been
ordered to scramble, fighters at Schlüsselburg have been ordered to
scramble." Anton 1 was the code-name of our wireless intercept station.
"From Edelweiss 1 to Anton 1, Viktor, Viktor" Xaver calmly replied.
Everything was going as expected.
'By now the first artillery shells were throwing up huge fountains of
earth south of the bridge. Too short. Suddenly we spotted clouds of dust
on one of the fields below - always two at a time, side by side. They were
taking off in pairs, just like us. We counted up to 16. Four Schwärme, or
16 against 2...."

 

 

 

 

So by that time they were flying pairs, just like the Germans.

 

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by Jaws2002

[Sgt_Joch]

Like everything else, there were official formations and what happened in practice. The pre-war 3 ship formation was used for a long time...

 

...but you had better pilots, like Prokryshkin, experimenting with copying LW 2/4 ship fighter formations as early as late 41 over Leningrad. The VVS was also experimenting with special fighter units copying LW tactics over Stalingrad in Fall 42.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Sgt_Joch

[Ram399]

As Black Six said, the finger four was more or less fully adopted by the VVS by the Spring of 1943.
Also around this time the Soviets also began to adapt their tactics to allow for more initiative and aggression in their fighter units, allowing for free hunt flights to be flown and developing the Kuban Stairs formation of interlocking top cover flights, which was done using pairs and flights of four.

From the book Soviet Lend-Lease Fighter Aces of World War 2:
"Porkyrshkin had been busy developing and perfecting his new tactics during the spring and summer of 1943.  The old pre-war tactic of flying formations of threes and sixes, either in line abreaest or in a 'V', and then rigidly maintaining formation throughout any aerial battle which ensued had proven obsolete.  Seeing the effectiveness of the enemy's open formations, Pokryshkin reduced the size of his flights to four fighters, which he split into elements of two.... During the summer Pokyrshkin introduced the 'Kuban Stairs' tactic, in which the strike flight flying at a lower altitude would be covered by another flight behind it, and at a higher altitude, ready to surprise any enemy fighters that might try to bounce it.  And this second flight would in turn be covered by its own flight higher still...  Pokryshkin also developed the practice of 'free hunting', in which 16 GIAP pilots were allowed to execute fighter sweeps... in late 1943 Pokryshkin attended an 8th Air Army-sponsored conference concerned with the wider development and use of free hunting, and this tactic gradually became popular throughout much of the Soviet Air Force."

[Avimimus]

On 7/11/2020 at 8:46 PM, Sgt_Joch said:

Like everything else, there were official formations and what happened in practice. The pre-war 3 ship formation was used for a long time...

 

...but you had better pilots, like Prokryshkin, experimenting with copying LW 2/4 ship fighter formations as early as late 41 over Leningrad. The VVS was also experimenting with special fighter units copying LW tactics over Stalingrad in Fall 42.

 

That is quite interesting... if included in missions it might be a way for the player to guess at the skill level ('eliteness') of a unit!

[Sgt_Joch]

Another reason why the Russians delayed updating their formations was due to a lack of radios.

 

Many Russian fighters in 41-42 had no radios or radio receivers only (and the quality of Russian built radios left a lot to be desired) which is one of the reason why they stuck with simple formations where everyone was within sight.

 

Sophisticated formations like the "Kuban Stairs" required effective radios so the flight leader would know what was going on and could react accordingly. That was one of the reason why Russian pilots loved the P-39, it had a powerful and reliable american built radio.

Edited July 15, 2020 by Sgt_Joch