Was there ever any "official" Soviet history written covering Air Force operations during the brief Polish Campaign of Sept., 1939?

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

For the Polish Campaign part of the "Eagles Over Europe" project I'm trying to locate sources for Soviet Air Force operations against eastern Poland during Sept., 1939. Was there any "official" history of this campaign ever published in the Soviet Union that covered their air Order of Battle, or their brief operations during that campaign?

Surely some records exist somewhere in Russia on that subject. Does anyone have any information or sources that would help us cover the Soviet part of the story of the PC?

Who can help?

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator

[Mirek Wawrzynski]

Rather, I do not think. It is just boring for Russian historians. Virtually nothing has happened, a few dozen air combat and bombing and all that.
In each log Soviet Army and the fronts are notes on the use of Soviet aviation. Without more details. Actually topic is not very interesting for the Russians. "Almost" without fire, and a great loss. Larger losses were in training than during the battles over Poland.
Just boredom.

Regards,
mw

[Larry Hickey]

Hello Mirek,

Our main PC researcher has used your small, but valuable book, "Czerwone Gwiazdy – sojusznik czarnych krzyzy nad Polska” ("Red Stars-An Ally of Black Crosses over Poland"), Warszaw, 2008, as a reference, and we've already matched everything that we can against Polish and German records. From this and our own exhaustive research (1250 single-spaced typewritten pages just on the Polish side), we know that there was very little air-to-air combat, and very few a/c lost on either side in actions against the Soviets.

Obviously, with the entire surviving Polish Air Force evacuating to Romania on 17.09.39, that left almost no opportunity for combat with Polish air units. However, I'm thinking that there must have been some bombing and ground attack missions flown by the Soviets until the last resistance by Polish ground forces on the Eastern Front was overcome. Any Soviet losses during these missions would have been operational accidents or from flak. Do any records show what units dropped bombs against which targets and the dates? From your reply it appears that no significant Soviet records of these operations are known to have survived. You published the Soviet Air Order of Battle as of the beginning of this campaign, so that we at least know what Soviet air units were where when the campaign started. Since publication of your book, has any more information come to light on this subject?

Regarding photography, your book really had no really useful photos. Do you know of any surviving photos that would help us illustrate the Soviet side of the campaign, however brief and unexciting? Surely there were Soviet photographers operating with the air units at the time, although it's possible that very little or none of this photography has survived in the Russian archives. For our EoE project we are showing the daily mission tracks on our maps, plus a/c loss locations, for each day. Is there any hope of being able to add such information to the maps covering Soviet air operations?

Thanx for what you've already published, and I hope that you will share with us any additional information or photos that you might have acquired on this subject.

Does anyone else have anything to add to what Mirek has already done on this subject?

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator

[Mirek Wawrzynski]

From the time of the book (2008) there are three new articles I wrote in Poland, which are about air war over Poland (Polish-Soviet air war). They are a big development issues that touched upon in the book (new information, additional photos ect.).

Disruptive lack of information on the Polish-Soviet war. There are a few small, new materials. But for Russians the whole subject is, as I wrote previously, most commonly in the world of dull and uninteresting. The total lack of interest, boredom.

For photos are those that published would give new and interesting captions. I already know which units are facing planes and what the airports. This is important. On the subject of aerial photographs, airports knowledge actually very moved. Five years ago I did not know what I know now. New, different quality.

For photos it all depends on who they're looking for? Very subjective thing

Of course you're right, they were minor bombings and attack until the beginning of October 1939. Recent air attacks were against a group of Wilhelm Orlik-Rückemanna and soldiers of GO "Polesia" gen. Kleeberga), practically most of them were written by me.

To sum.
In general it matters little since then has changed since 2008. In matters of many different parts there are new interesting information, clarifying, correcting what I did not know at the time of writing the book. Progress is good but not as great as you think, :-)

[Dénes Bernád]

In issue No. 117 (Dec. 2002) of the French magazine Avions, there is one page related to the air activity over Poland on 17 Sept. 1939 and beyond.

[edwest]

Larry,


Regarding Polish troops on the ground, after the ammunition was gone, where were they going to get more? The British and the French mounted no military actions to aid Poland. The average Polish soldier was immediately outgunned, with many leaving the country and reforming under the command of General Anders as described in his book, An Army in Exile. The Poles would end up joining forces with the British primarily. My father was in the Polish Army and like all World War II veterans I knew, rarely spoke about the war. He did what he could but after being separated from his unit, out of food and ammunition, he was captured by German troops. Since his country no longer existed, he was sent to a Forced Labor camp in Germany. He referred to the SS as "crazy" and when word reached him they were in his area, he hid in a cave until they passed.

The German attack was expected, the Russian attack was a surprise.



Best,
Ed

[Larry Hickey]

ftrbmr,

Thanx for posting this, and the translation key. We will undoubtedly use this as one of the appendices on our EoE PC. Do you have any other resources on the Soviet role in the PC, including any photos of Soviet a/c relating to this subject?

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator

[Mirek Wawrzynski]

Interesting statement, not in the data independent squadrons, to the front flying liaison's zvieno attached to division (3xU-2/Po-2).


mw

PS.
Larry your e-box is full, you need to be emptied. E-mail address I sent you a few days ago.

[Larry Hickey]

Mirek,

I did get your email address; have just been swamped. Will get back to you later today. Before I responded I needed to know from our EoE Polish translator what was in your book on the subject, so I didn't ask you questions for which we already had the answers.

Thanx for contacting me direct; you'll hear from me shortly.

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator

[crolick]

Larry there is very good article by Aleksiej Stepanow Air Force of the Red Army in Polish-Soviet War 1939 from Przegląd Sił Powietrznych IX/2006. Please let me know if you need this source.