Batailles Aeriennes

A French magazine covering the defence of Moscow in 1941. It rather discounts a lot of the accepted wisdom about the war in the East: that Germany drove all before it, that the Russians were disorganised with poor equipment, and only General Winter saved Moscow. Rather, this magazine tells a story of the Russians concentrating their forces and organising ability where it was needed the most, the defence of Moscow; that Russia performed a strategic withdrawal, utilising the scorched earth policies that had served them well in the past (brutal though that was for the inhabitants of the region); and their equipment, though not as technically advanced as the Germans', was available in quantity.

As for quality: we get some potted histories of aircraft types, including the Lavochkin LaGG-3, the general opinion of which is that it was deficient in so many ways that its designers (Lavochkin, Gorbunov and Gudkin) fell foul of Stalin's wrath and the aircraft fell out of use. Well, this picture is only partially true - the LaGG-3 was rushed into production, and as its poor record mounted, it designers did fall out of favour. Lavochkin redeemed himself through a lot of hardship and by applying his expertise to creating a superior development of the LaGG-3 design, the La-5 with a superior radial engine. Meanwhile, front-line engineers and maintenance battalions not only kept the LaGG-3 flying, but made a series of progressive improvements over time, increasing the type's effectiveness until newer, better aircraft became available. Nonetheless, it remained in production until 1944 with a total of more than 10,100 built - hardly the "total failure" we are led to believe it was!

Meanwhile, the Germans were hampered by their unpreparedness for the shock of a Russian winter, the extended nature of their supply chain, and their sheer lack of numbers, both of personnel and machines, when compared with the Russians.

French aviation magazines often offer a different perspective on the historical record, and this issue is no exception.… (mehr)

A detailed account of the air campaigns of the 'Phoney War', September 1939 - May 1940, with Orders of Battle and a day-by-day account of operations, combat losses and other events. It is well illustrated with photographs not usually seen and is as complete a record as you could wish for in a convenient package (as long as it's no problem it being all in French).

There is an amusing translation failure. The French for 'Phoney War' is 'La Drole de Guerre' - "Joke War". The Germans called it "Sitzkrieg", which is pretty self-explanatory. But this magazine translates "Phoney War" as though it was "Phone-y War", and so gets "Guerre du téléphone"!… (mehr)