История: факты и символы (Sep 2021)
AVIATION OF THE 5TH AIR ARMY IN THE BRATISLAVA-BRNO OFFENSIVE OPERATION OF THE 2ND UKRAINIAN FRONT (MARCH - APRIL 1945)
Abstract
In the socio-political context of current time, scientific documented and reasoned coverage of the contribution of the Soviet Union to the liberation of Europe from Nazism during the Great Patriotic War is of current importance. Part of this process was the liberation of Czechoslovakia, an important role for which was played by the Bratislava-Brno offensive operation carried out by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in late March - early May 1945. A significant contribution to the success of the offensive was made by the aviation of the 5th Air Army, which effectively supported the ground forces, destroying the enemy's living force and combat equipment. On the basis of materials from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for the first time introduced into scientific circulation and the use of problem-chronological, comparative and statistical methods, the article proves the thesis that in the last months of the war Soviet military aircraft had both quantitative and qualitative superiority over the Luftwaffe. In March 1945 before the 2nd Ukrainian Front, 1,272 enemy sorties were recorded, while units of the 5th Air Army produced 10,131 combat sorties during the same period; in April 1945 the corresponding figures were 1927 and 16,568. In two months the pilots of the 5th Air Army conducted 261 air battles and shot down 213 German aircraft (36 more were destroyed at the aerodromes), while their combat losses totaled 119 aircraft, and only 33 of them were shot down by enemy fighters. The fact that from September 1944 to March 1945 the number of combat losses relative to the number of combat sorties decreased by 2.5 times speaks of the increased skill of Soviet pilots: in September 1944 one loss was for 87 sorties, and in March 1945 - at 221. The article also gives concrete examples of courage and combat skill demonstrated by the pilots of the 5th Air Army during the Bratislava-Brno offensive operation.
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