Helion & Company Red Assault - Soviet Airborne Forces 1930-1941 - Helion & Company via Casemate UK

[Julien]

Red Assault

Soviet Airborne Forces 1930-1941

ISBN : 9781912390793

Helion & Company via Casemate UK

 

 

When you think of Airborne forces thoughts might go to The Parachute Regiment, The US Screaming Eagles or even the Fallschirmjager; but not generally to Soviet forces. This may seem strange as the Soviet Army was using Airborne forces before any of the western powers, and even the German Army. In fact Herman Goring proposed the use of Paratroops after seeing Soviet exercises.  The Soviets started as far back as 1930 with experiments which grew into an attack doctrine where following bombers airborne forces would drop onto the enemy on their own ground and subdue them.

 

 

The book looks at early Soviet operations, types of equipment and weapons, as well as many weird and wonderful ideas that the 1930s could come up with regarding airborne operations. Of use to the modeller is a great deal of information about the aircraft used for these operations. In the end despite have the advantage in time over other countries the Soviets used these troops mainly as normal foot soldiers during WWII. A few drops were carried out in the desperate defence during operation Barbarossa, and later in the war (not covered by this book) operations did take place in 1942 and 1943, however for the most the Soviets lost their early advantage in this are by using these troops as little more than ground infantry. 

 

 

The book is slightly smaller than A4 (248 x 180mm) and 343 pages long. There are over 400 B&W photos. The author has gone to great lengths to obtain original memoirs from museum and private archives, many of which have never been published before.

 

 

Conclusion

This book gives a great insight into early Airborne operations in the Soviet Union, the equipment and thinking of the time (even if some of it was a bit bizarre). Highly recommended.

 

 

 

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