"The air war in Spain. Chronicle air battles of 1936 - 1939's." By Abrosov S.V.

[Evgeny Velichko]

Hi all!

New book was published:

"Above all over Spain cloudlessness sky ..." This innocuous phrase, delivered radio in the summer of 1936, was the signal to the beginning of the civil war in Spain, which will soon have drawn both Germany and Italy, and the Soviet Union. It is in Spanish skies brought many future baptism of fire Al Second World, there have been testing new types of aircraft, here was first tested a new air battle tactics. However, until recently, information on the operational use of Soviet aviation in Spain remained scarce, fragmented and incomplete. The book S. Abrosova became the first domestic work, which was collected, compiled and analyzed enormous factual material, archival information and literature on the memoirs of history's air war 1936-1939. This - detailed and accurate, literally for days and hours, a chronicle of air battles in the sky pylayuschem Spain.

"The air war in Spain. Chronicle air battles of 1936 - 1939's." By Abrosov S.V.
(Воздушная война в Испании. Хроника воздушных сражений 1936 - 1939 гг. Абросов С.В.)
Published by Yauza, M. (Яуза, Москва)
A series of "Battles in the air" ("Война в воздухе")
Circulation 5000
Year 2008
608 Pages
Format 84 h108/32
Cover Hardcover
At the base of ISBN: 978-5-699-25288-6 Code: 380180

Author used archives very widely. All claims and losses are presented, also analisys of Legion Condor claims, confirming/unconfirming almost all of them.

Very large appendix, showing tons of very interesting information concerning Respublican Air Forces actions. List of aces (Soviet pilots who flew in SCW), many, many great stuff. B/W images, colour profiles included.

Must have, highly recommended to all who interested.

[Adam]

Is it only in Russian or is there plans to release this in English also?

[Evgeny Velichko]

Yes, now it is in Russian only.

Actually, I dont know. But I will ask the author. May be it will be aviable in English. But I am not sure.

[Evgeny Velichko]

Some interesting moments from book:

1. Shooting the bailed pailots. Behaviour of many Luftwaffe fighter pilots, shown later in 1941-43 on Ostfront seems appear first time in SCW:

When Gunther Lutzow became StaKa 2.J/88, usual practice of him and pilots of his staffel was shoot all bailed Republican pilots on parashute. In book listed many occasions, when crews of SB's and I-15's and I-16's, who were shot down in aircombat against Lutzow's Staffel, were shot in parashute. It could be only german pilots, because in most of accasions there were no spanish and italian pilots involved in those particular aircombats.

2. "Piss off" the mission objective and "Kill hunt". Becaviour of MOST of Luftwaffe fighter pilots during 1943-45 on Ostfront:

Harro Harder, in fact the most effective Legion Condor fighter pilot (11 claims, "confirmed by Luftwaffe HQ" and in fact 7 PERSONNAL victoryes confirmed and 4 NOT confirmed by Republican reports), got 6 (of 7) confirmed victoryes by following way:

In combat missions (every of them - Escort missions or Patrool) he didnt care about his mission task, but just hunt for victoryes.

Escort missions: task was to protect formation of Ju52's or He111 from enemy fighters, and LET THEM ATTACK THE TARGET AND DROP THE BOMBS IN IT. In this kind of missions, he stood very high over bombers, and did not react on I-15/I-16 attack. Ju52 usually dropped bombs and turn back. after it opponents start "dogfight", mostly FiatCR32/He51's vs I-15/I-16's.
Patrool missions: insted of attcking SB's or I-15/I-16's, he followed them, waiting a "right" moment, and dont care that SB will hit theyr target.

Harder stood over them all. Then, after he saw damaged "red" aircrafts whis visible smoke trail (or waited untill "reds" will run out of fuel and managed to turn home) he followed his spotted victim to base airfield. When pilot of "red" aircraft started landing - Harder attacked defenseless aircraft. In that case, aircrafts crashed for sure, and he was the only pilot who was shooting on it. Thats why he have so high "confirm" rate. No "shared" victoryes for him (as it was usual for many onther "Legion Condor" pilots), only personal.

3. Overclaim rate of some aces. Following table will show some light on it.
There were facts with aircombats with no losses from Republic side (or several - 3-4 bullets his in wing/tail) and the same time 5-9 Legion Condor claims during that Luftkampf. "Hartmannism" began not in 1943, but in 1938

Name (Legion Condor Data - CLAIMED) = (Republican Data - in FACT)
W. Molders - (14 conf + 1 unconf) = (5 pers + 9 shared + 3 uncon)
W. Schellmann - (12 conf) = (4 pers + 7 shared + 1 uncon)
H. Harder - (11 conf) = (7 pers + 4 unconfirmed)
P. Boddem - (9 conf + 1 unconf) = (1 pers + 2 shared + 7 unconf)
W. Ensslen - (9 conf) = (1 pers + 3 shared + 4 unconf)
W. Oesau - (7 conf + 2 unconf) = (2 pers + 5 shared + 2 unconf)
R. Seiler - (9 conf) = (1 pers + 2 shared + 6 unconf)
O. Bertram - (6 conf + 3 unconf) = (3 shared + 6 unconf)
H. Ihlefeld - (7 conf + 2 unconf) = (1 pers + 3 shared + 5 unconf)
W. Grabmann - (6 conf + 1 unconf) = (1 pers + 4 shared + 2 unconf)
K. Rochel (6 conf) = (2 pers + 4 shared)
H. Tietzen - (5 conf + 2 unconf) = (2 shared + 5 unconf)
G. Lutzow - (5 conf) - 2 pers + 2 shared + 1 unconf)
G. Braunshirn (4 conf + 1 unconf) = (5 unconfirmed)
-------------------
Legion Condor Data Claims:
(conf - confirmed by Legion Condor HQ)
(unconf - not confirmed by Legion Condor HQ)

Republican confirmation:
(pers - confirmed by Republican losses as personal victory of pilot)
(shared - confirmed by Republican losses as shared victory of pilot)
(uncon - not confirmed by Republican losses )

[marsyao]

"- Patrool missions: insted of attcking SB's or I-15/I-16's, he followed them, waiting a "right" moment, and dont care that SB will hit theyr target."
Interesting, this was the typical tactics of JG 27 in the North Africa

[Evgeny Velichko]

Very interesting thing in that book:

13.9.1938 Oblt. Werner Mölders 3.J/88 I-16 #7

This was amazing day, really.

Mölders flew a LONELY combat mission (without wingman).

Over Flix area, he spotted 7th Squadron (Spanish - it meant consisnt only from Spanish pilots, no Rissians).

Following his attacks, 7th Squadron lost 4 !!! I-16:

CM-125
CM-154
CM-178
CM-192

1 pilot - Jaime Sau Colom - was killed, aircraft crashed beyound frontline;
1 bailed out wounded, over Republican territory;
1 bailed out, over Republican territory;
1 pilot - Aresti (it was his 1st combat mission and he was very very novice pilot) - lost orientation under attacks of Bf109, and landed on Lerida airfield (in Frankists airfield) !!!

Amazing, but Molders was credited with only 1 I-16 during this massacre!!!

No other claims of Legion Condor on that day, exept Molders. It is 100% sure, that he was that "lonely Bf109".

[Jukka Juutinen]

I wish this gets translated into English asap!

[Evgeny Velichko]

Jukka:

1. Buy this book. It cost to me 290 Russian Rubles (1$ = ~23 RUR).

2. Scan the book, and "read" it using FineReader, converting "paper" into "digital image" and then into "word text" format.

3. Use online translators, to translate it from russian to any language You want. Words are commonly equal:

"pilot ... was shot down by ...", "combat mission", "fighters", e.t.c. All the same.

Of course, there could be problems with translation.

If You have any russian speaking friends, they could help You in direct words or frases.

And then You may even publish YOUR translated variant, of course with some additions e.t.c.

[Pilot]

Most welcome book! Info about this war but writen from Soviet side is great!!!

Thank you for info!

[Gizmo]

Evgeny,
I have other book with similar cover style. It's superb "Red Devils over Korean Sky' by Igor Siedow. Are there any other books in this series beside "Air war in Spain" ?