War Over The Steppes

[Broncazonk]

I've been reading, War Over the Steppes - The Air Campaign on the Eastern Front 1941-45, by E. R. Hooten. It's just as dry as, Eagle in Flames, just as good, and full of fun facts.

Hooten writes about:

(1) The 1941 NKVD Purge of the Red Army - About 300 commanders, including Lieutenant General Klich, Lieutenant General Klyavinsh, and Major General Chernykh, who were executed on October 16, 1941, during the Battle of Moscow. On October 28, twenty more were summarily shot near Kuybyshev, including Colonel Generals Loktionov and Shtern, Lieutenant Generals Arzhenukhin, Proskurov, Smushkevich, and Rychagov (with his wife.) 46 more, including 17 generals, notably: Lieutenant Generals Pumpur, Alekseyev, Gusev, Trubetskoy, Klyonov, Selivanov, Major General Schacht, and People's Commissar of Ammunition Sergeyev, were executed on February 23, 1942.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purge_...d_Army_in_1941

Most of the top leadership of the VVS had been arrested and were awaiting execution by A-Tag +10.

(2) The suicide of VVS Gen-major Ivan Kopets on 23 June, 1941 (the day after A-Tag) because reporting bad news was going to result in joining group 1.

(3) The arrest of VVS Gen-major Aleksei Ionov, and most of the Northwest Front VVS staff on 25 June, 1941 (A-Tag +3,) for having (and reporting) bad news. (All were executed on 23 February, 1942.)

(4) The arrest of VVS Gen Dimitrii Pavlov, on 30 June, 1941 for having (and reporting) bad news. (Executed on 22 July, 1941.)

(5) The arrest in late June, 1941 (and later executions on 23 February, 1942) of VVS Gen-major Nikolai Laskin and VVS Gen-lt Yevgenii Ptukhin for having (and reporting) bad news.

And then there is this: "On 31 July, 1941 (*about 40-days after the start of Operation Barbarossa) the VVS staff calculated that 5,240 aircraft were 'unaccounted losses.'" (Meaning: the Germans had destroyed them, but the Russians were afraid to report it because of 1-5 above.) *Emphasis mine.

Given all of the above, does anyone actually trust Russian reports when it comes to calculating...anything?

Bronc