In the Skies over Kerch & Feodosia, Crimean Air War 1943-44

[mars]

Helion will publish a 3 volume books of the air war over Crimean 1943-1944


Volume I
The battle for the Kerch Peninsula has been written about many times, but the air battle above it has not. For more than five months, the air forces of both sides flew almost without pause. Volume 1 of In the Skies over Kerch & Feodosia covers the situation facing the German 17th Army in late October 1943, cut off from the north and expecting a landing from the east, and details the opposing air forces: Vershinin's 4th Air Army and Yermachenkov’s Black Sea Fleet Air Force, 911 aircraft strong, against the small but formidable 1st Air Corps – the Stukas of III./SG 3, the Heinkels of I./KG 4, the Romanian 3rd Dive Bomber Group, and the Messerschmitts of II./JG 52, led by Gerhard Barkhorn, already credited with 177 victories. Soviet fighter pilots knew their LaGG-3s were outclassed and said so in their own reports, which are quoted at length in the book, along with many other contemporary documents.


https://www.helion.co.uk/military-hi...ember-1943.php


Volume II
The Kerch–Eltigen operation ended in failure, but the air war over eastern Crimea was only entering its most intense phase. Volume 2 of In the Skies over Kerch & Feodosia covers the evacuation from Mithridat, the costly Il-2 raids on Bagerovo, the winter landings at Cape Tarkhan, and the January offensive on Kerch.
This volume opens on 7 December 1943, with the breakout force storming Mount Mithridat above Kerch, triggering four days of fierce fighting, the winter battles around Bagerovo, and failed attempts to catch Barkhorn’s Messerschmitts on the ground. The narrative covers an amphibious landing at Cape Tarkhan amid a storm, the push towards Bulganak and Kerch, and the intense days when Luftwaffe fighters suffered heavy losses. The Soviet offensive stalled, shaping the fierce air and ground battles that defined this critical campaign. The book is richly illustrated, and events are reconstructed day by day from the archives of both sides, with competing accounts assessed against one another.


https://www.helion.co.uk/military-hi...nuary-1944.php


Volume III
By late January 1944, the fighting on the Kerch Peninsula had settled into a stalemate, but in the air above, it had not. This concluding volume of In the Skies over Kerch & Feodosia covers the last two and a half months of the campaign and is, in many ways, the most revealing. February belonged to the fighters: with the strike aircraft grounded by mud and weather, Soviet pilots claimed 120 enemy aircraft, while German records admit to 16 or 17.
Three further strands run through the volume. The Soviet naval Il-2 regiments maintained a punishing campaign against the German boat bases at Feodosia and Kiik-Atlama, culminating in the disastrous raid on 13 March and the massed strikes in April. Over the bridgehead at night, a handful of Kittyhawk and LaGG-3 pilots inflicted unexpected losses on the Luftwaffe, and on 2 March, four Stukas were lost to Soviet interceptors.
The book closes with the German retreat in April, when the 4th Air Army had the sky almost to itself. The whole campaign is assessed based on archival evidence, and the judgements are unsparing in both directions. This volume includes extensive supporting appendices, including complete loss listings for the Soviet fighter and ground-attack divisions and the German and Romanian units engaged.


https://www.helion.co.uk/military-hi...april-1944.php

[Edward]

The author of the series, Ivan Lavrinenko, has also written 30 articles including (in Russian)

"Hartmann over Iasi: Fantasies in pursuit of Swords"
https://www.helion.co.uk/people/ivan-lavrinenko.php

"Ivan Lavrinenko was born in 1980 in the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine (then part of the USSR). He received a degree in foreign languages and translation. Since his youth, he has been fascinated by the history of the air battles in the Second World War and has spent more than 15 years conducting in-depth research on the conflict between the Luftwaffe and the Red Army Air Force over Ukrainian territory in 1943–1944. His research is based primarily on archival documents from both opposing sides. Ivan is the author of three books and more than 30 articles on Second World War air battles, published in periodicals and on specialized websites."

https://www.helion.co.uk/people/ivan-lavrinenko.php