Barbarossa – The Air Battle: July – December 1941

When hundreds of bomb-laden German aircraft crossed the air above the border shortly before 0300 hours on 22 June 1941, they found the Soviet territories sleeping innocently, totally unprepared. Leutnant Max-Hellmuth Ostermann of Luftflotte 1’s 7./JG 54 later wrote: "As we flew above the enemy’s country, everything below seemed to be asleep. No anti-aircraft fire, no movement, and confront us… above all no enemy aircraft were present to"

The German invasion of Russia in June 1941 – Operation Barbarossa – is widely seen and recorded as a great land offensive. Yet equally important to German war aims during the early phases of the attack was the quick establishment of air supremacy over a vast eight hundred kilometre front.

Without the elimination of the threat posed by the Soviet Air Force, it would have been impossible for the Wehrmacht to have made of 1941. its rapid advances in the summer and autumn.

Contrary to popular belief, the Luftwaffe was far from alone in the skies over the Eastern Front on 22 June. In fact, soon after the initial onslaught there were at least as many Soviet aircraft operating as German machines, although they were dispersed into many small groups.

It is estimated that 6,000 Russian sorties were made on the opening day of the offensive. 

In the central sector, the strongest German air fleet – Luftflotte 2 conducted 2,272 sorties throughout the day, while its battered Russian opponent launched 1,900 aircraft into the air.

Quite ironically, however, the process of rapid modernization of the Soviet Air Force’s equipment was a major factor to the Luftwaffe’s enormous success during the opening attack. 

The Germans struck precisely at the moment when a large number of modern aircraft had arrived at airfields in western Russia, but before there had been time to sufficiently train their pilots.

This book provides an in-depth and highly balanced account of the massive aerial campaign fought in the skies over the Soviet Union in the months following the German invasion.

Unlike many recent histories, this account features newly discovered information from both Russian and German sources.

The strength of the author’s writing lies in its detail, his ability to tell the story from the viewpoints of both sides and from both strategic and tactical contexts.

His research includes unique eyewitness material accompanied by rare photographs, biographies of key pilots, plus data tables, technical assessments and appendices.

Christer Bergström is regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on the air war over the Eastern Front and has written several acclaimed books on the subject.

Author: 

Christer Bergström works professionally as an upper secondary school teacher in history and is the author of several highly acclaimed books on Second World War aviation, including Black Cross/Red Star Volumes 1, 2 and 3 (with Andrey Mikhailov, Andrey Dikov and Vlad Antipov), Graf and Grislawski – A Pair of Aces (with Vlad Antipov and Claes Sundin) and Luftwaffe Fighter Aircraft in Profile Volumes 1 and 2 (with Claes Sundin) as well as the Eastern Front titles in the Classic Publications Jagdwaffe series, and also two volumes in Swedish in the Battle of Britain.