In Reply to: RE: Soviet Army was much bigger than the Allied Army... posted by Tom Brennan on June 25, 2007 at 17:56:56:
From Wikipedia:
World War Two
At the outbreak of World War II, the Russian military was not yet at a level of readiness suitable for winning a war: Stalin had said in 1931 that Russian industry was "50 to 100 years behind" [1] the Western powers. By the end of the war, Russian aircraft production outstripped that of Germany- Soviet aircraft production is estimated to have risen to an impressive 4,700 aircraft at this time.
In 1939, the VVS used its bombers to attack Finland in the Winter War, but the losses inflicted on them by the relatively small Finnish army showed the shortcomings of these forces, mainly due to the Great Purge in the 1930s.
The main reason of the great number of aircraft lost was not the lack of modern tactics, but time to improve them was short, because the German offensive of 1941 (Operation Barbarossa) pushed the air force into a defensive position, while being confronted with more modern German aircraft. In the early days of Operation Barbarossa the Luftwaffe destroyed some 2000 Soviet aircraft, at a loss of only 35 planes (of which 15 were non-combat-related).[2]
As with many allied countries in the Second World War the Soviet Union received western aircraft by lend-lease.
There was Soviet Volunteer Group in China before 1941.
Having failed to achieve victory in the Soviet Union in 1941 or 1942, the Luftwaffe was drawn into a war of attrition which would extend to North Africa and the Channel Front. The entry of the United States into the war and the resurgence of the Royal Air Force's (RAF) offensive power created the Home Front, known as Defense of the Reich operations. The Luftwaffe's strength was slowly erroded and by 1944 had virtually disappeared from the skies of Western Europe leaving the German Army to fight without air support. It continued to fight into the last days of the war with revolutionary new jet fighters in small numbers, such as the Messerschmitt Me 262, Messerschmitt Me 163 and the Heinkel He 162, even though the war was already hopelessly lost.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Follow Ups
- Perhaps you should check your facts... - jamesgarvin 08:02:35 06/26/07 (13)
- You quoted the state of the Soviet Union in 1941. - oscar 08:31:50 06/27/07 (3)
- RE: You quoted the state of the Soviet Union in 1941. - jamesgarvin 10:08:51 06/27/07 (2)
- You need better sources than Wikipedia.... - oscar 10:47:03 06/27/07 (1)
- RE: You need better sources than Wikipedia.... - jamesgarvin 09:07:29 06/28/07 (0)
- RE: Perhaps you should check your facts... - Tom Brennan 11:37:16 06/26/07 (0)
- That would seem to answer the question... unless one challenges Wikipedia... nt - clarkjohnsen 08:19:12 06/26/07 (7)
- so Wikipedia is the unchallenged source of all historical knowledge? - groovenoter 22:49:57 06/26/07 (5)
- You are discussing a different issue.. - jamesgarvin 10:22:40 06/27/07 (4)
- Have you analyzed the available combat air power available to the Soviet Union vs. - oscar 15:50:09 06/27/07 (3)
- RE: Have you analyzed the available combat air power available to the Soviet Union vs. - jamesgarvin 08:58:05 06/28/07 (2)
- Beautiful post. Fact. Firmly establishes the original assertion. Reasoning. nt - clarkjohnsen 11:02:57 06/28/07 (0)
- There's that 1941 state of affairs compared to 1944 State of affairs. - oscar 09:55:22 06/28/07 (0)
- How dare anyone challenge he wisdom of the underpants of Wiki? - dave c 15:20:55 06/26/07 (0)