Case Studies in the Achievement of Air Superiority - Air Force ...

SOVIET AIR FORCE
Organizational Changes
Although Lt. Gen. Pave1 F. Zhigarev was named Commander of the
Red Army Air Forces [Kornanduyushchi VVS-RKKA] almost immediately
after the initiation of BARBAROSSA, his new designation gave him little authority
to coordinate the various air forces into a cohoerent whole. The
disastrous defeats of the first six months of the war, however, made it mandatory
that something be done to get some unity into the application of air
power. Because the VVS was shredded into a number of semi-autonomous
forces under diverse commands, it was impossible during the early months
of the war to organize massive air strikes in critical situations. According
to the official Soviet account, the unified control of Army, Frontal, Long-
Range, and PVO Aviation in the battle for Moscow paved the way for a
more centralized Red air force.45
In April 1942, Gen. Aleksandr Novikov, the air commander on the
Leningrad Front, was brought in to replace Zhigarev as head of the Red
Army Air Force, a job he was to hold for the rest of the war. It was obvious
to Novikov, as well as to his bosses in Stavka, that with Army Aviation
under ground command, Frontal Aviation under the Front commander,
Long-Range Aviation under Stavka, naval aviation under fleet admirals,
and, in extreme cases, air squadrons under separate army corps, operational
unity was not just difficult to achieve-it was impossible. On May 5,
1942, therefore, an order from the Commissariat of Defense instituted some
changes. It was pointed out that in order to augment the striking power of
the air force so that it could be used in massive attacks, the air forces of the
Western Front were to be united in the First Air Army.46 Army Aviation
was completely abolished as a separate entity, ADD* was left under the
direct control of Stavka, and PVO Aviation remained somewhat autonomous.
Most of the air assets, however, began to be grouped into air armies.
The new organization proved to be so effective that by 1945 there were 17
air armies with a total of 175 air divisions under their contr01.47 An 18th Air
Army was formed in December 1944, but it was merely a new designation
for ADD.
Another problem was the scarcity of air reserves available to Stavka
for bolstering air support on tottering fronts. The main reserve in 1941 was
Long-Range Aviation (then called DBA) along with air units in the interior
of the country. Such a paucity of air units handicapped Stavka in attempts
to show some flexibility in shifting units about. Finally, in August 1942,
Stavka reserves were greatly enlarged by the creation of ten air corps,
*The designation DBA for Long-Range Aviation was changed to ADD [aviatsiia dal’nego
deisrviaa] in March 1942, at which time it was under the command of Gen. A. E. Golovanov.
193