Research Survey No. 4 : The Soviet Airborne Experience

This astonishing book, which contains large and detailed maps, is a study of the Soviet Airborne Experience from the 1920's to the early 1980's.

Aviation book
FOREWORD
Deep battle, a major element in both U.S. and Soviet doctrine, is a tenet that emphasizes destroying, suppressing or disorganizing enemy forces not only at the line of contact, but throughout the depth of the battlefield. Airborne forces are a primary instrument to accomplish this type of operation. While the exploits of German, British and American paratroops since 1940 are well known to most professional soldiers, the equivalent experience of the Soviet Union has been largely ignored - except in the Soviet Union. There, the Red Army's airborne operations have become the focus of many recent studies by military theorists.
The author has done much to remedy this gap in our historical literature. The Soviet Airborne Experience examines the experiences of the Red Army in World War II and traces Soviet airborne theory and practice both before and since the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 45. Airborne warfare emerges as an essential part of the high - speed offenive operations planned by Soviet commanders.
Because the author examines airborne operations within the larger context of Soviet unconventional warfare, the implications of this study reach beyond one specialized form of maneuver. This study, in demonstrating the ability of Russian airborne and partisan forces to survive and fight behind German lines for months at a time, provides us with an instructive example of how Soviet special operations troops probably plan to operate in future wars. The Soviet Airborne Experience is an important reference for anyone concerned with planning and conducting operations.
DAVE R. PALMER
Major General, USA
Deputy Commandant

Colonel David M. Glantz ( January 11th, 1942 ) was born in Port Chester ( New York, United States ).
He received degrees in History from the Virginia Military Institute ( Lexington, Virginia, United States ) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Defense Language Institute, Institute for Russian and Eastern European Studies, and U.S. Army War College ( Carlisle, Pennsylvania, United States ).
David M. Glantz had a 30 - plus year career in the United States Army, and served in the Vietnam War.
Teaching career
David M. Glantz was a Mark W. Clark visiting professor of History at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina ( Charleston, South Carolina, United States ).
Activity after retirement
David M. Glantz is known as a military historian of the Soviet role in the Second World War. He has also, however, met with some criticism for his stylistic choices, such as inventing specific thoughts and feelings of historical figures without reference to documented sources.
David M. Glantz has published a few studies and many books over Soviet armed forces during the Second World War. Here are some of his publications : Soviet Offensive Ground Doctrine Since 1945 ( Air University Review, March - April 1983 ), Art of War symposium : From the Dnepr to the Vistula : Soviet Offensive Operations - November 1943 - August 1944 ( A transcript of Proceedings, Center for Land Warfare, US Army War College, May 29th - 30th, 1985 ), August Storm : The Soviet strategic offensive in Manchuria, Soviet Defensive Tactics at Kursk, July 1943, Soviet Military Deception in the Second World War ( 1989 ), The History of Soviet Airborne Forces ( 1994 ), Zhukov's Greatest Defeat : The Red Army's Epic Disaster in Operation Mars, 1942 ( 1999 ), The Siege of Leningrad, 1941 - 1944 : 900 Days of Terror ( 2001 ), Red Storm Over the Balkans : The Failed Soviet Invasion of Romania, Spring 1944 ( 2006 ), The Battle for Belorussia : The Red Army's Forgotten Campaign of October 1943 - April 1944 ( with Mary E. Glantz, 2016 ).
( source : Wikipedia )