Wikia

The Soviet Air Force, officially known in Russian as

Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily (literally, "Military Air Forces") was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces.

Soviet Air Force in "Joe Steele"Edit

Pilots of the Soviet Air Force were flying the MiG-9 jet fighters for the North Japanese Air Force during the Japanese War.

Soviet Air Force in The Phantom TolbukhinEdit

The Soviet Air Force had been annihilated during Operation Barbarossa in 1941. In 1947, General Tolbukhin of the Fourth Ukrainian Front often lamented the fate of the Soviet Air Force and held hope for the day that aircraft would once again bare the red star.

Soviet Air Force in The War That Came EarlyEdit

The Soviet Air Force had sent volunteers to Spain to fight in the Civil War. While there, they had limited success as they quickly discovered that the fighters of the Luftwaffe were far superior to their own.

A good portion of the Soviet Air Force then found itself pulled out of Spain and thrust into Czechoslovakia after Russia declared war on Germany after the Germans invaded the country in 1938. Unfortunately, just like in Spain, the German fighters were too powerful for the Soviets to be of much help and they were withdrawn after Czechoslovakia collapsed. Despite this, they fought on, bombing East Prussia until the Soviet Union declared war on Poland on December 31st 1938. This then brought the Luftwaffe into the fight and the Soviet Air Force found it's bombing missions more hazardous as their own biplane and monoplane fighter aircraft were no match for the 109.

In the spring of 1939, Japan declared war on the Soviet Union, invading Siberia. Because most of the Air Force had been shipped west to fight the Germans, what was left in the Far East was quickly overwhelmed by the combined air forces of the Japanese army and navy. Although the Soviets were able to ship more bombers, losing chunks of the Tran-Siberian Railroad prevented them from getting fighters close enough to help. Throughout the war, the Soviet main air field in Khabarovsk saw the most action, as their bombers were engaged in attacking Japanese positions around Vladivostok, patrolling the Tartar Strait and the Sea of Japan, hunting supply ships.

After the Big Switch in 1940, England and France sided with Germany in a military alliance against the Soviet Union, and pushed them back into Russia itself. After this, the USSR signed a peace treaty with Japan and withdrew all forces west to fight the combined threat. Now the Red Air Force found itself engaged against elements of the French and British Air Forces. However, only the RAF proved to be as dangerous an opponent as the Germans. A major coup for the Red Air Force came when heavy bombers flying out from Murmansk, bombed the British Naval port of Scapa Flow. Although out gunned, they did keep both the RN and the Kriegsmarine from getting at their major naval bases in the West.

As 1940 became 1941, the Red Air Force began to gain better equipment, like the Pe-2 bomber, and the MiG-3 fighter.

Soviet Air Force in WorldwarEdit

The Soviet Air Forces or Red Air Force was the aerial arm of the Soviet armed forces. During World War II most of its modern planes were destroyed in the German and subsequent Lizard invasions. As a result, the Soviet's made use of small, hard-to-detect biplanes for reconnaissance and raids.

The Red Air Force developed a modern arsenal of jets and bombers after the war and may have expanded its functions to include orbital operations as well.