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

AIR SUPERIORITY
craft in January 1945, giving Rudenko a more than 20-to-1 superiority over
his opponent, while Krasovsky’s 2d Air Army was increased to 2,588 aircraft.%
In January 1945 the Red Army smashed into Poland and began its
march on Berlin at the rate of 12 to 14 miles a day. Finally, in the attack on
Berlin in April 1945, the VVS was able to concentrate 7,500 of its 15,540
combat aircraft against the pitiful remnants of the once proud Luftwaffe.
The Soviet claim of 1,132 German planes shot down in the battle for Berlin
may be dubious, but there can be no doubt about who controlled the air
over that city.IW
Soviet- Japanese War in the Far East
Once Germany had surrendered, the Soviets were free to enter the
conflict against Japan. Until the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Stalin
wanted no part of a two-front war since the Russo-Japanese Neutrality Pact
of April 13, 1941, allowed him to concentrate his forces in the west and
draw down on forces in the east. With Germany on the ropes, however,
Stalin at Yalta agreed “that in two or three months after Germany has surrendered
and the war in Europe has terminated the Soviet Union shall enter
the war against Japan. . . .”Io1 The buildup of the Soviet forces in the Far
East began soon after the Yalta meeting. According to Japanese intelligence,
by June, a daily average of 10 troop trains and 5 munition trains
arrived in the Far East. The Japanese estimated that between April and the
end of July, the Soviets increased their strength in the Far East from
850,000 to 1,600,000 troops, 1,300 to 4,500 tanks, and 3,500 to 6,500 aircraft.Io2
Gen. John R. Deane gives slightly different figures: 1,500,000 men,
3,000 tanks, and 5,000 aircraft,Io3 while the Soviet figures for their forces in
that area on August 5, 1945, were 1,577,725 troops, 3,704 tanks, and 5,368
aircraft, of which 4,807 were combat planes.104 These forces faced a total
Japanese opposition in Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Korea, and the Kurile
Islands of about 1,000,000 men, 1,215 tanks, 1,800 aircraft, and 6,700 guns
and mortars. IoS The Japanese and their Mongolian and Manchukuoan allies
were the residue left behind when the Japanese high command finished
pulling out the best cadres to send to other fronts.
Marshal A. M. Vasilevsky directed the operations against the Japanese,
and he had 3 Fronts under his command: the 1st Far Eastern Front
under Marshal K. A. Meretskov was deployed from Vladivostok to Bikin
and included the 9th Air Army; the 2d Far Eastern Front under General M.
A. Purkayev stretched from Bikin to where the Amur turns south toward
Mongolia, and he was in charge of the 10th Air Army; and, finally, the
Trans-Baikal Front, with the 12th Air Army, commanded by Marshal R.
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