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Air Battles over the Baltic 1941: The Air War on 22 June 1941 - The Battle for Stalin's Baltic Region

par Mikhail Timin

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This unique work is the first in a series of publications dedicated to the condition of the air forces of the Red Army prior to the Nazi invasion of 22 June 1941. The author describes in detail the composition and the capabilities of the Soviet aviation alignment in the Baltic Special Military District, as well as the training of flight crews and technical personnel; the number and quality of the materiel; the condition of the logistics structures, as well as the operational and tactical plans of both Soviet and German Command; and their reconnaissance operations. By using data from Soviet and German archive documents, a chronology is recreated (along with the details) of the air battles in the skies over the Baltic region on the first day of the Great Patriotic War. The photographs, as well as biographies, are presented of all the commanders of the divisions, regiments and of the command headquarters of the Baltic Special Military District. More than 300 unique photographs of Soviet and German aircraft are presented (together with those of their pilots) from the Soviet and German Archives, as well as from private collections. The camouflage, markings and insignia of aircraft that participated in the air battle are recreated, and maps illustrating the bases belonging to the two warring sides (both original and those recreated from archive documents) are presented. In Soviet historiography, these events have been afforded insufficient attention and, in fact, right up until 1991, not one serious work on this topic had been published. Actually, the first large-scale research undertaken following the collapse of the USSR in the 1990s was conducted by D.B. Khazanov. In his monographs, the events of the first few days of the war are finally researched using an enormous amount of nonfiction literature (including foreign literature), as well as the relatively small amount of archive documents that had been published up until that time; however, owing to the fact that access to archive documents in that period was still very restricted, there were a great number of incidents that went undisclosed in these works and, as a whole, the course of events was examined in general terms (although overall, it was very objective). Unfortunately, the lack of historiography has enabled some opportunistic authors in recent years to publish several works of pseudo-research, in which disreputable attempts have been made to misrepresent the achievements of the pilots and commanders of the air forces of the Red Army - thus the publication of objective research (based on archive documents) is long overdue; however, it is only in the last few years - with the large-scale declassification of the archives and the new opportunities in document processing - that conducting work of this scale has proved possible. Naturally, this publication does not lay claim to a 100 percent disclosure of this topic, but despite the shortcomings inherent in similar works, it does enable history enthusiasts to follow stage by stage the condition of the Red Army Air Force; their preparations to counter aggression on the part of fascist Germany; and the battle in the air on the first day of the Great Patriotic War.… (plus d'informations)

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Distributed by Casemate the first in a new book series devoted to the Eastern Front air war is just published by Helion. "Air Battles over the Baltic 1941: The Air War on 22 June 1941 - The Battle for Stalin's Baltic Region" by Mikhail Timin in fact deals with only one day of the air battles in the East and then covers only a small sector of this huge front - but what a book! Mikhail Timin is one of the most notable Russian authors on the Eastern Front air war and his deep research is based on Soviet archival data. The author's comments in his Introduction are somewhat critical of Western authors attempts at covering the Eastern Front air war accusing " some opportunistic authors in recent years (..of publishing..) works of pseudo-research, in which disreputable attempts have been made to misrepresent the achievements of the pilots and commanders of the air forces of the Red Army... .....". Just about every book written by Western authors dealing with the opening rounds of Barbarossa ('the Great Patriotic War') has of course relied heavily on German sources and Mikhail Timin disputes some of this body of literature in his writings. While this reviewer readily admits his own shortcomings in knowledge on Russia/Red Army historiography I have to say that Timin appears to set the record straight in this impressive work. The first half of the book comprises a long introduction assessing the preparedness or otherwise of the opposing forces detailing the composition and the capabilities of both German and Soviet aviation and including biographies of commanders and formations of the Baltic special military district and Luftwaffe Air Corps as well as describing the principal opposing aircraft types. It is evident that Soviet re-equipment with modern types was proceeding apace months before the invasion. Timin moves on to cover the massive German infringements of Soviet territorial borders in the months leading up to the launch of Barbarossa. The events of 22 Jun 1941 kick off on page 209 with an account from the CO of JG 54 Trautloft and comprise a detailed reconstruction of the three major waves of air raids on Baltic airfields. Amazingly there were few significant 'air battles' on this first day of the war - the author details those Soviet bomber regiments airborne to attack German units being recalled since retaliatory actions were not initially authorised. In addition there was to be no battle for air superiority - Soviet air force strength was deliberately 'husbanded' to be concentrated against German ground and Panzer forces. Note that no German or Soviet terminology is used, aside from rank - the English 'squadrons' 'wings' 'headquarters officer' appears throughout, which may or may not be helpful. Some of the authenticity and flavour of a work like this is lost in my opinion, especially when it would be a simple matter to compile and add a glossary to the book. It is probably true too that the average reader can more easily reverse the English terms back into German than can do this back into Russian. I did find the translation just a tad clunky and long-winded in places; "headquarters section " tactical number yellow 11", "insignia denoting his victories" etc. Elsewhere the photo and artwork sections are good, the profile artworks and maps particularly so. While the photo pages (300 photos) are integrated into the main pagination, the 48-page profile artwork/maps section is paginated separately. Even so there are 'only' 448 pages in the book - not the 528 advertised in various places. There are additionally a few pages -situation and airfield maps - in the original Russian and the page reproductions from Signal magazine are from the French edition! I have to comment on the lovely thick glossy paper stock too. All in all, an outstanding addition to your WW II air war library. (

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FalkeEins | Jul 29, 2018 |

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This unique work is the first in a series of publications dedicated to the condition of the air forces of the Red Army prior to the Nazi invasion of 22 June 1941. The author describes in detail the composition and the capabilities of the Soviet aviation alignment in the Baltic Special Military District, as well as the training of flight crews and technical personnel; the number and quality of the materiel; the condition of the logistics structures, as well as the operational and tactical plans of both Soviet and German Command; and their reconnaissance operations. By using data from Soviet and German archive documents, a chronology is recreated (along with the details) of the air battles in the skies over the Baltic region on the first day of the Great Patriotic War. The photographs, as well as biographies, are presented of all the commanders of the divisions, regiments and of the command headquarters of the Baltic Special Military District. More than 300 unique photographs of Soviet and German aircraft are presented (together with those of their pilots) from the Soviet and German Archives, as well as from private collections. The camouflage, markings and insignia of aircraft that participated in the air battle are recreated, and maps illustrating the bases belonging to the two warring sides (both original and those recreated from archive documents) are presented. In Soviet historiography, these events have been afforded insufficient attention and, in fact, right up until 1991, not one serious work on this topic had been published. Actually, the first large-scale research undertaken following the collapse of the USSR in the 1990s was conducted by D.B. Khazanov. In his monographs, the events of the first few days of the war are finally researched using an enormous amount of nonfiction literature (including foreign literature), as well as the relatively small amount of archive documents that had been published up until that time; however, owing to the fact that access to archive documents in that period was still very restricted, there were a great number of incidents that went undisclosed in these works and, as a whole, the course of events was examined in general terms (although overall, it was very objective). Unfortunately, the lack of historiography has enabled some opportunistic authors in recent years to publish several works of pseudo-research, in which disreputable attempts have been made to misrepresent the achievements of the pilots and commanders of the air forces of the Red Army - thus the publication of objective research (based on archive documents) is long overdue; however, it is only in the last few years - with the large-scale declassification of the archives and the new opportunities in document processing - that conducting work of this scale has proved possible. Naturally, this publication does not lay claim to a 100 percent disclosure of this topic, but despite the shortcomings inherent in similar works, it does enable history enthusiasts to follow stage by stage the condition of the Red Army Air Force; their preparations to counter aggression on the part of fascist Germany; and the battle in the air on the first day of the Great Patriotic War.

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